Flirting with Kaguya?

Hyuga Hiashi opened the bankbook behind him, his eyes nearly bulging into cataracts.

Wuye walked in with the scroll.

"Big Sister, these antiques are a gift for you."

He stuffed the scroll into Kaguya's hands, and for the first time, that "Big Sister" was utterly sincere.

How many people would mortgage their family property over a single request?

"Where did these thirty million ryo come from?"

Hyuga Hizashi had already rushed over, counting the zeros in the bankbook alongside Hyuga Hiashi.

Kaguya remained calm, kneeling before the tea table and leisurely sipping her tea.

Wisps of steam curled around her, making her jade-like face seem dreamlike and ethereal.

Wuye sat across from her, poured himself a cup of tea, and began recounting the financing process.

Time slowly passed. Even the Hyuga brothers were drawn in, quietly listening as Wuye laid out his grand business plan.

"And that's how I got thirty million ryo in cash, along with a shop in the busy district."

At last, he finished. Parched, Wuye raised his teacup and drained it in one gulp, feeling utterly refreshed.

Kaguya's pale eyes suddenly fixed on him without a word.

"What's wrong?"

Wuye still held the teacup, looking completely baffled.

"Nothing." Kaguya withdrew her gaze and said coolly, "You did well."

"Um..."

Hyuga Hizashi hesitated, but still reminded Wuye, "That's Big Sister's cup you're holding."

"Ah?"

Wuye let out a small cry.

Kaguya remained expressionless. Only the slender hand resting on her thigh trembled slightly.

The Hyuga brothers wore strangely sour expressions, making Wuye suspect they were sister-con nuts.

"So," Wuye thought for a moment and held out the cup, "do you want a sip too?"

Hyuga Hizashi's face flushed red as he hurriedly waved his hands. "Ah... no, no need..."

"Oh, that's quite a shame," Wuye smacked his lips. "It was sweet and really tasty."

Swish, swish, swish. Three pairs of Byakugan all turned toward him.

Hyuga Hizashi stared at the completely empty cup in Wuye's hand... What exactly had he meant by offering him a sip? Lick the cup?

Hyuga Hiashi, meanwhile, glared indignantly. "Did you deliberately flirt with Big Sister?!"

Wuye blinked his clear black-and-white eyes, looking utterly innocent.

So, had he done it deliberately? Or deliberately? Or deliberately?

"Come." Kaguya suddenly rose to her feet. "We're sparring in the training room."

Wuye and the Hyuga brothers shuddered at the same time.

"Big Sister, wasn't I supposed to spar with Hizashi today?" Hyuga Hiashi asked, clinging to a one-in-ten-thousand chance of hope.

Kaguya did not slow her steps. "First, each of you will fight me once. Let me see whether you've improved over the past half month."

The Hyuga brothers pulled identical bitter faces, while Hyuga Wuye silently found some bandages and wrapped his hands and feet like a mummy.

He finally understood why Neji, who would one day say, "You died such a miserable death," was always wrapped in bandages. He must have hurt terribly from training too much.

Upon entering the training room, Hyuga Hiashi stood before Kaguya with the expression of a man facing death, while Wuye and Hizashi sat off to the side, grieving for his fate.

Kaguya's Byakugan activated instantly, and then something remarkable happened without warning.

"This is... a view of Kaguya activating her Byakugan?"

Wuye "saw" in surprise as chakra rapidly gathered toward Kaguya's eyes, veins bulged, and the power of her bloodline was stimulated, activating the Byakugan.

"I can analyze her bloodline limit?!"

He nearly cried out.

It was simply too startling. Was it because Kaguya had developed some affection for him, allowing him to begin analyzing it?

Then where had that affection come from? Was it because he had returned antiques worth thirty million ryo to her, or because of the teasing from drinking from the same cup?

Forget it. No point dwelling on that. Let's see if I can activate the Byakugan first. He stopped searching for the reason and focused entirely on Kaguya's eyes. If I can activate it, my situation in the clan will improve greatly, and Kaguya's burden will be lighter too...

He began mentally tracing Kaguya's process of activating the Byakugan, analyzing it step by step.

He could understand everything up to that point. It was nothing more than chakra stimulating the bloodline and activating the Byakugan.

But at the moment of activation, he could not understand it at all.

"Why did her chakra turn into seven colors in an instant and fill her eyeballs? Wouldn't they explode?!"

"Seven chakra natures?!"

Wuye cried out inwardly. "So she really is the reincarnation of Kaguya Otsutsuki? She possesses all seven natures!"

"So that's why she can use Byakugan: Pressure on others?"

He frowned. "Then do I have that many natures?"

Chakra stirred within his body and rapidly gathered in his eyes, passing through the blood vessels Kaguya's chakra had traveled through and activating his bloodline.

Every previous step had gone smoothly, but Wuye could not feel the veins at his temples bulging.

The greater problem was that he did not know how to divide it into seven chakra natures.

"Is it because I don't have that many natures within me, or because I haven't analyzed it clearly enough?"

He recalled the time he had analyzed Kushina's Adamantine Sealing Chains. It had required Yin-nature chakra.

At the time, he had clearly understood how to transform chakra into Yin-nature chakra, but now he had no idea how these seven chakra natures were transformed.

"It seems there can only be one reason: Kaguya's affection for me isn't deep enough for her to be willing to share her greatest secret with me."

Wuye nodded to himself.

That was normal. If a little flirting could max out her affection, then he would have to wonder whether a lovestruck girl's heart was hidden beneath Big Sister Kaguya's appearance.

"Since I can't transform it into seven chakra natures and activate them at the same time, can I activate an ordinary Byakugan by directly sending in neutral chakra?"

Chakra moved with his will and surged into his eyeballs in an instant, a sensation completely different from activating the Sharingan.

His vision rapidly turned gray-white. In an instant, countless objects pierced through his field of view, and he even saw the Third Hokage inside the Hokage Building.

Hmm... why was he looking so lecherous? A crystal ball? The Telescope Technique?

Damn it! That dirty old man was peeping on the women's bathhouse again!

"Hm?"

Just then, the Third Hokage suddenly raised his head, his expression turning serious.

His gaze seemed to see through Wuye's spying. With a wave of his hands, the image in the crystal ball changed, and his sensory ability chased after Wuye's Byakugan visual power.

"Who's there?!"

At the very instant he traced it to the Hyuga estate, Kaguya suddenly widened her eyes.

An invisible pressure spread from around her, instantly knocking the Third Hokage's sensory ability away.

Crackle!

The crystal ball seemed to lose its signal, turning into a chaotic blur.

The Third Hokage shook his head with a smile. "Looks like Hyuga Kaguya is teaching her younger brothers. That visual power just now was probably Hyuga Hiashi or Hyuga Hizashi accidentally looking over. Forget it."

Generally speaking, Hyuga clan members would not casually investigate within the village. If they happened to see some private area, that could cause trouble.

Of course, truly important places were naturally protected by barriers. An organization like Root was sealed up even more tightly.

Only the Hokage Building, with the Hokage as its absolute fighting force, would occasionally shut down its barriers to relax a little—especially later, when they deliberately let Naruto steal the Forbidden Scroll...