"Take your Summoned Beast back to the Side Courtyard!" Hiashi clutched his aching lower back and scolded him with a dark look.
A beautiful mood, ruined the moment he met Fuyuki and his Summoned Beast, never to return.
"Okay, Father." Fuyuki shrugged, spreading his hands to show how helpless he was.
He knew Moryo had awakened, but he hadn't known it was so vicious that it would attack the moment it came to.
But then again, if Hiashi hadn't been bored and told Fuyuki to let it loose, how would he have gotten kicked?
"Here, here. Come on."
Fuyuki beckoned, and Moryo scampered after the Summoner like a loyal dog. Its lovely face beamed with a flattering smile; it had none of the bearing of an Otherworld Demon King. It was even worse off than a simp.
Back in the Side Courtyard, Fuyuki sat on the wooden floor and waved the housemaid away. Smiling, he said, "Moryo, didn't you want to know what I really look like? Well, this kid who's barely seven is the real me. Any thoughts you'd like to share?"
"I'll kill you! I swear I'll kill you!" Moryo was wildly agitated, its heart full of hatred.
It couldn't stand being humiliated by Fuyuki like this!
"Then come and try."
Fuyuki waved a hand, unbothered. "We can talk about killing me when I have time. For now, you're just my pet. Behave and you'll get a reward. Defy me and you'll be punished. I hope you haven't forgotten the two lashes I gave you."
Moryo knelt obediently on the floor, its mouth full of threats to kill Fuyuki. Its pupils shrank, and it immediately fell silent, not daring to keep mouthing off to the Summoner. Clearly, it remembered what Fuyuki had done to it in the cave.
"Starting tomorrow, you'll study etiquette in the morning and arithmetic in the afternoon. My Hot Spring Resort should be ready to open in about half a month. Until then, you'll work at the Hot Spring Hotel to pay off your debt."
"You owe me about six billion ryo, right?"
"Pay off your debt before you bring up anything else. You can go rest now."
Fuyuki got up and left, heading toward the Main Branch Courtyard to see if Hanabi was asleep.
In just a few short months, Hanabi had gone from being bundled up in swaddling clothes to crawling. It probably wouldn't be long before she crawled into her beloved big brother's arms and sweetly called, "Nii-chan, hold me~"
The more Fuyuki thought about it, the happier he got. The corners of his mouth kept rising.
"Hanabi, did you miss your big brother?"
Fuyuki slid open the door and entered a room with an incongruously modern, minimalist style. He asked Hanabi, who was crawling slowly and unsteadily across the carpet.
"Yeah!"
Hanabi switched from a slow crawl to a quick one. She soon reached Fuyuki's feet, beaming as she held out her arms for him to pick her up.
"What a good girl!" Fuyuki lifted Hanabi and nuzzled her. She giggled happily, clearly delighted to be with her big brother.
"Fuyuki, why did you skip class again today?" His mother looked troubled. "If you fail your final exams, the Ninja Academy won't let you advance. Do you want to be the first heir of the Hyuga Clan to repeat a year?"
"Why would I fail the exams? Can't the Hyuga Clan's Byakugan see through things?" Fuyuki asked, looking astonished.
His mother was at a loss for words. What was she supposed to do? It was her first time raising a child. She had no experience!
"A-anyway, skipping class is bad!"
Hinata had inherited her mother's personality. She was gentle, kind, and considerate, and absolutely perfect as a child's mother.
If Fuyuki had talked back to a different mother like this, she probably would have—
A loving mother's sword in hand, striking down her wandering child!
His mother in this life treated Fuyuki wonderfully. When he was little, his father would often try to discipline him, only for his mother to step in and stop him.
"Okay, I'll go to class tomorrow. Mother, how have Hinata's grades been lately? Have they improved at all?" Fuyuki asked, bringing up the matter he cared about most.
Fuyuki didn't take part in the clan's training. He would wander around with a cup of iced milk tea, doing nothing in particular, which made the Hyuga Great Elder furious. The elder had forbidden Fuyuki from going anywhere near the Training Ground unless he wanted to join the intensive training too.
"Hinata..." His mother's smile froze, and she sighed. "She's having a hard time. Lord Hiashi has her receiving elite training from the elders."
The Hyuga Clan's elite training was freakishly harsh. Four Jonin-level elders trained her full-time, teaching her everything from combat experience to the clan's secret techniques. The training was far more intense than what the other clan members went through. On top of that, Hinata still had to attend the Ninja Academy every morning.
Hinata's skills were improving rapidly, but her life was miserable.
"Poor thing."
As he chatted with his mother about everyday matters, Fuyuki held Hanabi and let her rest her head on his shoulder. "Father is pushing Hinata so hard to get stronger. Isn't he afraid she'll snap?"
Lu Xun once said: "If you don't break out under oppression, you'll break bad under oppression." (Note 1)
Fuyuki worried that Hiashi was pushing Hinata too hard, and that he would turn her into the volatile big sister from the Infinite Tsukuyomi.
After all, there were no volatile big brothers in the world to begin with. They only became volatile after their patience was worn down by idiots!
"Snap? Do you mean get injured? Don't worry, the Hyuga Clan's ointments and medical ninja are the real deal." His mother reassured Fuyuki that the training wouldn't hurt Hinata.
"Uh, I hope so." Fuyuki was rarely at a loss for words.
After laying the sleeping Hanabi on the bed, Fuyuki didn't stay in his mother's room for long. He planned to speak with his father about inviting the Lord of the Land of Fire to visit. The Hot Spring Resort would be staffed mostly by ninja, who were naturally much more efficient than ordinary people.
A task that could be handled with a single Earth Release technique might take ordinary people half a day.
However, ninja rarely worked in production, and their services were expensive. Few people hired ninja to work as craftsmen. Powerful ninja held a status behind the scenes no lower than that of the nobles; in public, they merely gave those nobles face.
If the noble lords ever tried withholding their funding, they'd have their ashes scattered!
"Hmm?"
Fuyuki's body stiffened. It felt as though a giant boulder had landed on him, pinning him in place.
"I finally found you, despicable thief who stole the power of God."
A layer of black, oil-like slime spread out from a crack in the ground. It crept up from Fuyuki's feet, as though preparing to wrap around his entire body.
"Black Zetsu? What are you doing here?" Only Fuyuki's body was immobile. He could still think and speak freely. "Chenxiang, shouldn't you be looking for your mother to share in the pleasures of family life? Why come after me?"
"Tell me how you used Summoning Jutsu to steal the Rabbit Goddess's power." Black Zetsu controlled Fuyuki's arm, raising it and aiming at his chest. Gentle Fist Technique chakra glowed in his palm. "If I sense that you're lying, I'll have no choice but to send you to the Underworld."
Fuyuki stared in speechless disbelief. What was the point of Otsutsuki Chenxiang coming after him?
How had he found out that Fuyuki could summon the Ancestor, Kaguya?
He hadn't shown him, or gone around showing off Kaguya-hime's power. He had only used it once when he fought Orochimaru, and when he spoke with his father, he had only summoned a faint image of Kaguya-hime.
"Black Zetsu, I'm afraid you're about to become an orphan."
"What do you mean?" Black Zetsu said in a sinister voice. "It seems you didn't just steal Mother's power—you also learned a great deal of information from her."
The second update. Please vote.
Note 1: Lu Xun really did say this!
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