Hinata, Stop Pretending

The system spoke quietly: "Congratulations, Host, for grasping the true essence of playing the pig to eat the tiger. You have been awarded one hundred Reward Points as encouragement."

"Congratulations, Host, you have completed the task. The task reward has been issued. Please check it yourself."

At that moment, Hinata felt as though she understood something. She knew she could now use the Eight Trigrams Palms. The feeling was mysterious and profound.

But it felt really good. Hinata thought, System, bring me another crate.

After eating, Hinata planned to return to the Ninja Academy. However, she seemed to have gotten a little too carried away while wandering around and ended up slightly far away. But it was fine—the Ninja Academy's lunch break was quite long.

As Hinata passed an alley, she seemed to sense something. It felt like someone was following her, and she did not think her senses were mistaken.

This was the ninja world, after all. She could not afford to be careless. Under normal circumstances, there was no way this would turn out to be a misunderstanding.

Hinata secretly pondered the incidents involving herself. Aside from when Hinata had still been a baby and Cloud Village of the Land of Lightning had once coveted her—

Which had led to Hyuga Hiashi's younger brother, Hizashi Hyuga, sacrificing himself to atone—there did not seem to have been any other major events. Or perhaps the incidents had simply been too minor.

Kishimoto, the author of Naruto, had not listed them all one by one. Still, she vaguely remembered an episode where Hinata was surrounded by three little brats, and then Protagonist came to save her, only to endure a thorough beating of fists and feet on Hinata's behalf.

But that scene seemed to have taken place on a snowy day. Looking around, though, where was the snow? Could the plot have glitched?

Just as Hinata decided not to bother with that sneaky, cowardly perverted uncle following her for now—

"Perverted uncle" was simply Hinata's general term. Anyone who acted like this, regardless of whether they were tall, short, fat, thin, male, female, young, or old, could be called that.

Naturally, she was not worried that some powerful expert was secretly watching her. With the other party's level of stalking, even the current Hinata could notice them. As for their actual abilities, Hinata merely smiled sweetly and said nothing.

In a patch of grass not far from Hinata, Naruto, a little brat with orange-yellow hair and goggles, let out a deep breath.

After following Shikamaru Nara's arrangements, he had immediately left the school to look for Hinata. When he found her, he happened to see her coming out of the dumpling shop.

In order to follow Shikamaru Nara's instruction that he absolutely could not expose himself, he had suffered greatly along the way. Hiding in the grass was child's play; once, in order to avoid Hinata's gaze, he had even hidden inside a trash can.

Fortunately, he was lucky. Hinata had not investigated who exactly was following her. Otherwise, if Hinata activated her Byakugan, Naruto would have had nowhere to hide beneath its gaze. The sight of him would definitely have given Hinata enough material to laugh about in private for an entire year.

Naruto narrowed his eyes and rubbed his stomach, which had begun to growl. He had been in such a rush that he had not even eaten the lunch he had prepared before running out of school. Coupled with all the exertion, it would have been strange if he were not hungry.

Then, before he could continue spacing out, he discovered that Hinata had already gradually walked away. He immediately crawled out of the grass, startling a stray cat wandering nearby.

When Hinata was less than two hundred meters from the Ninja Academy, she realized that the person following her still had not left. This forced her into deep thought.

After thinking it over a little, she felt that perhaps she should figure out who exactly was following her again. But who could it be?

The Ninja Academy was practically a forbidden zone to the Third Hokage. He would never allow anyone to interfere with the Ninja Academy.

Yet judging by the other party's relentless attitude, even the Ninja Academy's taboo status did not seem to intimidate them. Hinata instantly formed a guess: Anbu? But with such clumsy stalking methods...

Hinata was speechless inside. She decided not to think about it anymore—her head was about to explode. She should just obediently be a weak, food-loving, slightly adorable little girl.

When Hinata entered the school and returned to the classroom, she found Shikamaru Nara and several others sitting together mysteriously, looking as though they had a secret between them that they simply would not tell her.

Hinata did not think much of it and returned directly to her seat. Before long, Naruto pushed open the classroom door and walked in as well. The other little brats immediately turned their gazes toward him.

Naruto did not avoid anything either. He openly gathered with the other little brats in a small circle and began whispering about something.

Their gazes also occasionally drifted toward Hinata. No matter how slow Hinata was, she understood something now. She made a judgment in her heart: Could that guy following me earlier have been Naruto? But what are these little brats trying to do, and why are they doing this?

Hinata felt that, even with the mind of an adult, she simply could not understand this move by the little brats.