The Third

"Bastard! Who was it that kicked me into the river just now? Come out and take your beating!"

Naruto came running back from downstream, furiously clutching a wooden stick. He glared at Fuyuki and Hinata, baring his teeth and shouting as he prepared to take revenge.

But the attack had come so suddenly that all he remembered was someone with black hair and white eyes kicking him into the river. Now there were two black-haired, white-eyed people who looked exactly alike, and Naruto couldn't quite figure out which one to retaliate against.

As he approached them, Naruto grew suspicious and started wondering which one he ought to hit.

The moment he got distracted thinking about it, Fuyuki threw him over his shoulder and sent him flying into the river again, then watched as the rushing current carried him away.

"Gaaaaah! You bastard! It was you—the black-haired, white-eyed one with the blank face! I'll be back!"

After suffering a serious loss, Naruto finally figured out how to tell Fuyuki and Hinata apart.

Although the two looked exactly alike, their personalities were completely different. Fuyuki would never make a shy face or poke his fingers together like Hinata. He was much more direct, and preferred to make his point with a club.

"One milk tea, extra sugar, less ice, please."

As if nothing had happened, Fuyuki asked the maid to take the milk tea out of the lunch box for him.

Milk tea was made by mixing black tea with milk and adding lots of sugar. The pearls could be made with the same ingredients used for Three-color Dango, so even in the Naruto world, Fuyuki could still enjoy one of Xia's favorite cold drinks.

"Hinata, here you go!"

Natsumi and Fei had already finished setting up. Fuyuki picked up a skewer of Three-color Dango and handed it to Hinata.

"Fuyuki, isn't this a little too much?" Hinata stared at the mountain of Three-color Dango and couldn't help swallowing. A blush rose to her cheeks.

"It's fine. I understand. I won't tell anyone." Fuyuki had long known about Hinata's bottomless appetite, so when he told the chef to prepare the food, he'd ordered enough to feed a Jonin from the Akimichi Clan.

How could Hinata have the strength to practice Gentle Fist Taijutsu if she couldn't get enough to eat?

It wasn't that Hiashi was cruel to Hinata. It was just that no one would have guessed that delicate, frail Hinata could eat even more than the Akimichi Clan. If Fuyuki hadn't brought memories of his previous life with him—and hadn't cried when he was hungry—he probably would have starved to death in his swaddling clothes.

Hinata had gone hungry more than a few times trying to act like a proper young lady.

The dumplings were all for Hinata. Fuyuki's appetite was nowhere near as outrageous as hers. He just sipped his milk tea and waited for that little EZ to come back.

Sure enough, only a few minutes passed before Naruto came charging back, still furious. This time he didn't mistake the two of them. He raised his stick and lunged at Fuyuki. "You black-haired, white-eyed bastard! Die!"

"All right, all right, Naruto. Stop messing around."

The blond boy charging in was caught by the Third, who had appeared out of nowhere. The old man held him up with a helpless look. "You can't beat Fuyuki right now. Otherwise, you'll end up getting swept away by the river again."

Going by his experience, Fuyuki was sitting not far from the riverbank. It was obvious what the brat was planning: the moment Naruto charged at him, he'd simply dodge by dropping down or sidestepping, and then that blockhead Naruto would get swept downstream again.

"Old man, let go of me! If I don't beat that black-haired, white-eyed bastard until his face is black and blue, how am I supposed to show my face in Konoha today?"

Even while being held up, Naruto wouldn't settle down. He had the furious look of a cat ready to fight Fuyuki to the death.

"Ah..."

The Third, dressed in casual clothes, let go. The next moment, just as he'd expected, Fuyuki merely sidestepped the flying Naruto, and the boy, charging too fast, tumbled into the river and was swept away once more.

"Gaaaaah!"

As the cries faded into the distance, Fuyuki and Hinata got up from the picnic blanket and greeted him respectfully. "Lord Third."

"Heh heh," the Third chuckled. "You don't have to be so formal. If you don't mind, just call me Grandpa Third."

The Third was a kindly old man who treated everyone in Konoha like his own children.

In the original story, Naruto seemed terribly lonely. But why hadn't he turned into Menma Namikaze from the movie? The Third deserved some credit for that.

For two years after the Nine-Tails Incident, the Third had been so busy preserving the village's reputation and rebuilding Konoha after more than half of it was destroyed that he'd neglected Naruto. He'd also let Pot King spread the news that Naruto was the Jinchuriki host all over the village.

But the Third hadn't done nothing. He'd promptly issued a gag order, and even in the middle of his hectic schedule, he often found time to secretly keep Naruto company. Even when he was so busy his feet nearly tripped over each other, he'd send a Shadow Clone instead.

The Third's biggest stain was letting Danzo, whose original intentions had long since changed, do whatever he pleased instead of making him retire and go farm!

When the Third arrived, he didn't rush to teach Fuyuki and Hinata any ninja techniques. Instead, he sat down with them on the picnic blanket and made small talk, while Natsumi and Fei stood some distance away, keeping watch over their surroundings.

"Fuyuki, may I ask you something?"

"Hmm. Anything that doesn't involve romance or borrowing money is fine," Fuyuki replied casually.

The Third was taken aback. He set down his cup of milk tea and his Three-color Dango, then asked curiously, "Why don't you study the Gentle Fist Technique?"

The Gentle Fist Technique was a nearly perfect style of taijutsu, with both offense and defense, as well as long-range and control techniques. In fact, Gentle Fist was a secret fighting style that generations of the Hyuga had developed specifically for the Byakugan.

The Third couldn't quite understand why Fuyuki was so fixated on ninjutsu that he'd abandoned his clan's Gentle Fist.

Hyuga Fuyuki, the eldest son of the Hyuga Clan—a rebellious Hyuga who liked ninjutsu and hated the Gentle Fist Technique.

As the heir to one of the Ninja World's great clans, Fuyuki's reputation had spread far and wide. The Third knew who he was, of course, but there was tension between him and the Hyuga Clan, so he'd never had the nerve to visit them.

That morning was the first time the Third had ever seen Fuyuki.

"Abandoned the Gentle Fist?" Fuyuki was taken aback. "I haven't abandoned the Gentle Fist Technique! Who's been spreading rumors about me?"

To prove he wasn't lying, he gathered pure Gentle Fist chakra in his hand right in front of the Third.

"I'm just more interested in ninjutsu and the Summoning Technique than the Gentle Fist. I still know the basics."

In Fuyuki's mind, the Gentle Fist Technique only had a small place.

The style worked well against humans, but it was completely useless against those godlike beings who weren't even human.

The scene that left the deepest impression on Fuyuki was from the Fourth Shinobi World War. Hinata finished a whole set of Gentle Fist strikes, but the soldiers split off from the Ten-Tails were still full of energy. They'd nearly sent Hinata straight to the top of the manga website's trending page.

What Fuyuki wanted to learn was the original version of the Gentle Fist—the kind Kaguya used to strike once and shake the earth, destroying everything!

He was learning the Gentle Fist only so he could recreate his Ancestor's invincible Eighty Gods Vacuum Attack and Rabbit Hair Needle.

So Fuyuki's plan was to train hard in the Xuanmo Summoning Technique early on and master every technique in the Hyuga Clan; raise all kinds of summoned beasts in the middle stage; and, in the late stage, unleash the summoned beasts alongside a budget version of Kaguya's skills against the Akatsuki.

The Hyuga Clan's techniques were full of traces of Kaguya. Take things like the Gentle Fist Air Palm—perhaps their lazy descendants couldn't pull off the original techniques, so they'd simplified them to a level ordinary people could use.

"You really are greedy," the Third said, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly. "Even adults know that trying to have everything will wear you out. You want to learn ninjutsu, the Gentle Fist, and master the Summoning Technique too. Do you really have that kind of energy?"

"Only kids and virgins have to choose. A real man chooses all of them!" Fuyuki gave a cold smile.

Beside them, Hinata looked utterly bewildered. She had no idea that the two experienced men had already started making suggestive jokes.