"Goodness, I got carried away and said too much." Uchiha Jie suddenly stopped his endless rambling.
The carriage no longer jolted, and the road beneath them had grown smooth. Now and then, they could hear other people nearby—some chatting about everyday things, others discussing all sorts of interesting tidbits.
Lishan Village sat beside a small hill covered in oak trees. It had hills and water, lush forests, and a stretch of hot springs running along the foot of the hill.
The village's main industry was lumber processing. Once processed, the wood was usually shipped to the Land of Water. Lumberjacks carrying axes were everywhere, as were carts hauling one log after another.
Thanks to its natural hot springs, however, the little village was also a great place to visit.
"Th-that's so expensive," Hinata murmured, looking at the price list displayed at the hot spring inn.
The rates here were much higher than those at the hot spring inns in Konoha. She silently calculated that a day's stay here cost as much as dozens of bowls of ramen, or even several meals of barbecue.
Yet Uchiha Jie put on a pained expression in front of the shopkeeper, then paid for several days' lodging without the slightest hesitation. Leading Hinata, who was dressed in red, he looked just like a father taking his child on vacation.
They took the room-number tag with its key and found their room. When Jie opened the door, Hinata suddenly felt that the price was worth it after all.
It was a suite, with two bedrooms furnished with soft beds and a living room laid with tatami mats. Beside the living room was a huge floor-to-ceiling window overlooking a small courtyard. White stones enclosed a hot spring that gave off wisps of steam—the spring belonged exclusively to this room.
There was a small room beside the hot spring where they could wash up, bathe, and use the toilet.
"We'll stay here for a while. I need to teach you some things so you can protect yourself. Then we'll be able to keep traveling."
As he spoke, Uchiha Jie pulled out scrolls of various sizes and began setting up the room.
Hinata stood carefully in the living room, her wooden sandals seeming to have nowhere to go. She watched Uchiha Jie bustle around the room, replacing the hotel's sheets and covers and putting different clothes into the wardrobes in both bedrooms.
"Teach me?" she asked quietly.
"That's right. I'm going to teach you."
Uchiha Jie placed their shoes on the shoe rack by the door, then pulled the dirty clothes Hinata had changed out of yesterday from a scroll and dumped them into the washing machine beside the bathroom.
Once the washing machine started running, he continued, "I'm not very good at Gentle Fist, but I spent so much time with Yue. Even if I haven't eaten pork, I've at least seen a pig run, right?"
As he spoke, he took out two more scrolls.
"These are!" Hyuga Hinata exclaimed.
The scrolls Uchiha Jie had just taken out were all standard storage scrolls sold at Konoha's ninja tool shops. But these two were different: they bore the Hyuga Clan's crest and were whiter than ordinary storage scrolls.
They were high-end scrolls made exclusively for the Hyuga Clan.
Hinata carefully caught the scrolls Uchiha Jie tossed her and eagerly opened them.
"This is Sister Yue's handwriting."
The scroll was filled with tiny writing, with exquisite little diagrams along the edges. The figures in the diagrams demonstrated various Gentle Fist movements. It was a training journal for Gentle Fist.
"Mm-hmm. She wrote these scrolls when she was thirteen," Uchiha Jie said with a smile.
Then his expression turned serious, and he instructed her, "Read the first page, then practice in the courtyard for an hour. After that, go wash up."
"I'll go buy you some breakfast."
Hinata gave a small "Mm." Suddenly, she felt that the person who had abducted her wasn't so bad after all.
He knew Sister Yue and a lot about the Hyuga Clan. He wasn't nearly as strict with her as Father was, and most importantly, he made sure she got enough to eat.
She looked again at the room he had prepared for her. It was the one closer to the courtyard, and its many decorations dazzled her.
A graceful orchid sat on the windowsill, along with two jasmine plants that were about to bloom. Their white buds had already swelled to the size of her little finger.
The sheets were white, but the pillow and quilt had been changed to pink. Leaning against the headboard beside the pillow was a huge white bear plushie, taller than she was.
She had seen this plushie on Konoha's commercial street before. It cost so much that even Ino, who was usually generous, had hesitated to buy it.
A flower-shaped night-light sat on the bedside table, matching the big light hanging from the ceiling. Beneath the table was a pair of fuzzy pink slippers, with a light brown carpet underneath.
Beside the bed was a small desk with several books on it. They were all textbooks from the Ninja Academy, though they were rather old, and none was the thick volume of the Will of Fire she was familiar with.
There was a small shelf beside the desk, holding a few storybooks. She had only ever heard Sakura and the other girls excitedly discussing those titles. There was no way she would ever see books like those at home.
She opened the wardrobe, too. Inside were the clothes Uchiha Jie had prepared for her, in all sorts of colors and styles. The only things missing were her old thick coat and baggy pants.
Hyuga Hinata picked out a brand-new outfit in pale purple, trimmed with white lace. She also took a pair of white socks with cute lace edging. She folded them neatly and set them on the bed, then took off her wooden sandals, picked up the scroll Uchiha Jie had given her, and sat cross-legged at the little desk.
Hyuga Yue's handwriting didn't look girlish at all. Every stroke was as sharp as a blade.
The first page of the scroll covered the basics of Eight Trigrams Palm. There wasn't much to read, and Hinata had already learned it before. But after reading the scroll, she felt that it was completely different from what her father had taught her.
Then she went out into the courtyard. Uchiha Jie had put a small wooden dummy there. She took up a stance and practiced, striking it with fist after palm.
But no matter how she practiced, it felt completely different from her usual training.
Uchiha Jie returned quickly, carrying several bags full of food. Some of it still gave off the faint aroma of cooking, and the piping-hot dishes filled the whole room with their fragrance.
But when he came through the door, he found Hinata standing in front of the wooden dummy, staring blankly at it.
"What's wrong? Why are you just standing there?" As he took the food out of the bags one by one, he asked curiously, "Did you run into a problem while training?"
"I-I'll make sure to train hard!" Hinata heard his voice, quickly looked up, and took up her stance again.
She threw a punch, only to find that she had hit something soft.
It was Uchiha Jie's hand.
He tilted his head and asked Hinata, "Did Hyuga Hiashi teach you to train like this?"