Hyuga Hizashi

"Kid, if you can't finish all that, I'll make you pay for it." The grilled meat here was delicious, but expensive. One plate cost a thousand ryo, so ten plates would set him back ten thousand.

"Sure! Once I'm done, I'll pay for it." Grinning, Hyuga Shin began flipping the meat on the grill.

Tsunade and the others also ordered ten plates of grilled meat, along with two flasks of sake.

Chapter 9: Hyuga Hizashi

"Burp!"

"That was pretty good. Thanks for the meal, Uncle Jiraiya."

Hyuga Shin let out a satisfied burp.

Looking at the towering stack of plates, Jiraiya's mouth twitched. His heart was bleeding.

"Shin, how can you eat so much without bursting?" Tsunade asked in disbelief.

She couldn't imagine how a four-year-old like Hyuga Shin could eat so much, especially when his stomach didn't look bloated at all.

Orochimaru sat quietly beside them, looking handsome. Since he wasn't paying, he didn't care how much they ate.

Come to think of it, Orochimaru was quite handsome at this age—his skin was just too pale.

"Don't worry, Big Sister Tsunade!" Hyuga Shin waved his hand. It was a method recorded among the Six Powers, allowing him to quickly burn through the energy in food and strengthen himself.

"You little monster," Jiraiya muttered, then paid the bill with tears in his eyes. Half the reward from this mission had gone toward it.

The owner of the grilled-meat shop was also heartbroken. He hadn't lost money, but he hadn't made much either.

"Since we've finished eating, I won't keep you any longer, Big Sister Tsunade. I'll be off." The sky had begun to darken, and evening had come in the blink of an eye.

Watching Hyuga Shin walk away, Orochimaru narrowed his eyes slightly and said, "That Hyuga kid is definitely no ordinary child."

"He just eats a lot! What's so special about that?" Jiraiya was still fretting over his wallet.

"Idiot," Orochimaru said coldly, then turned and left.

"Damn you, Orochimaru! Who are you calling an idiot? Get back here!" Jiraiya chased after him in anger.

Tsunade ignored the two of them. She watched Hyuga Shin's retreating figure, lost in thought. Earlier, she had sensed a familiar presence from him.

Now she finally remembered. That presence was very similar to her grandfather, Hashirama Senju.

"Never mind. Anyway, that little guy is really cute—much better than that idiot Nawaki." As she mentioned Nawaki, a tender look flashed in Tsunade's eyes.

After taking one more look at Hyuga Shin's retreating figure, Tsunade turned and headed back to the Senju Clan compound.

"I didn't expect to run into the Sannin when they were young. That was pretty interesting," Hyuga Shin said with a smile.

He hadn't expected to run into the Sannin on the street, but getting a free meal and becoming familiar with them made it worthwhile.

As he returned to the Hyuga Clan compound, a sound suddenly reached him when he passed the training ground.

"The sun's almost set. Is someone still training? They're really diligent!"

"I'll go take a look!"

Hyuga Shin stopped, turned at the corner, and headed toward the Hyuga Clan training ground.

"So it's Hizashi! I didn't expect you to work so hard. It's already dark, and you're still training here." Seeing the familiar figure, Hyuga Shin said with a smile.

Hizashi Hyuga glanced at Hyuga Shin, then went back to training against the wooden post. Chakra coiled around his palm; he had clearly already learned to refine chakra.

"From the looks of it, you're more like taking out your frustration," Hyuga Shin said with a smile.

Hizashi Hyuga whipped around and glared at Hyuga Shin. "What's it to you? You're just a good-for-nothing. You don't even have the Byakugan, so you don't deserve to bear the Hyuga name."

Looking at Hyuga Shin's smooth forehead, a trace of concealed envy flashed in Hizashi Hyuga's eyes.

Hizashi quickly hid it, but Hyuga Shin's keen eyes still caught it.

"You act tough on the outside, but you're only covering up how fragile you are inside. 'All bark and no bite' suits you perfectly."

Hyuga Shin mocked him.

"Enough! You don't even have the Byakugan. What right do you have to talk about me? A worthless nobody like you could never understand me."

Hizashi Hyuga clenched his fists and roared.

He wasn't like that fool Hyuga Teppan. As the clan leader's son, he knew what the Caged Bird Seal was.

He envied Hyuga Shin greatly. Even though everyone in the Hyuga Clan considered Hyuga Shin an impure-blooded good-for-nothing without the Byakugan, if he could, Hizashi Hyuga truly wished they could trade places. From the moment the Caged Bird Seal was placed on him, he had known that he could no longer control his own fate.

He had been suffering for a year. A few days ago, he had finally obtained the Chakra Refinement Technique. He wanted to claw back control of his fate through relentless training.

"Tsk, I may not understand you, but I know you're feeling terribly inferior right now." After saying that, Hyuga Shin didn't bother arguing with him any further.

He had more important things to do. He didn't have time to stand around listening to Hizashi Hyuga complain about his lot in life.

The reason Hyuga Shin hadn't trained today, aside from celebrating his breakthrough in strength, was that it was his birthday.

Even though no one remembered his birthday, Hyuga Shin did.

In a few more hours, he would officially turn four. Then the system would give him another lottery draw and ten thousand exchange points.

After a year of research, he had discovered that there was no way to get exchange points except by waiting for the system to give them to him, because the system had no missions.

There was no other way to get exchange points.

This had its pros and cons. The upside was that he didn't have to become the system's slave and spend all day rushing around to complete missions.

The downside was that he had no way to get exchange points and could only wait for the system to give them to him each year.

Hyuga Shin had given up on exchanging them for anything. There weren't enough points to get anything worthwhile, so all he could do was rely on the lottery.

Hyuga Shin headed toward his residence. Behind him, Hizashi Hyuga flew into a rage. He felt that Hyuga Shin had come here just to mock him.

Furious, Hizashi Hyuga didn't think twice. He raised his fist and punched Hyuga Shin in the back.

Of course, Hizashi Hyuga hadn't let his anger cloud his judgment completely. He didn't use chakra.

Hyuga Shin was thinking about the lottery and hadn't noticed Hizashi Hyuga behind him, so the punch landed squarely in his back.

With a thud, Hyuga Shin came to his senses, then turned to look at Hizashi Hyuga.

"Did you just hit me?"