Hyuga Prodigy? Kicked Straight into a Trash Can!

"What did you see that you weren't supposed to see?"

Naruto's low voice echoed through the cramped infirmary.

Hinata clutched the corner of the blanket tightly, her little face flushed so red it seemed ready to bleed.

She did not dare lift her head to meet those aggressively piercing blue eyes.

"I... didn't..." Hinata's voice was barely a whisper, and her body still trembled faintly.

Naruto braced one hand beside her pillow and leaned another inch closer.

The Yang Release hormones unique to his perfect Sage Body formed an invisible net that tightly enveloped Hinata.

At such close range, that domineering masculine aura made it difficult for Hinata even to breathe, and a numb tingling rose from deep within her lower abdomen.

She felt as if all strength had been drained from her body. She could not even turn her face away.

Just as Hinata thought Naruto was about to do something even more excessive, the oppressive pressure abruptly withdrew.

Naruto straightened up, the wicked smirk at the corner of his lips transforming into a sincere, gentle smile.

He reached out with his large hand and gently placed it on Hinata's soft, dark-blue short hair, rubbing it twice as if soothing a frightened kitten.

"Don't be afraid."

Naruto gazed into those pure white eyes, his tone gentle. "Actually, I quite like gentle girls like you."

Hinata froze completely.

She suddenly raised her head and stared blankly at the blond boy so close to her.

Fourteen years.

Ever since that snowy afternoon when he had stepped forward to stand in front of her, her eyes had never been able to leave that lonely back.

She had worked desperately hard in training just to get a little closer to him, even if all she received was a casual glance from him.

Now, those simple, direct words were like a massive bomb, shattering all the inferiority, grievance, and bitterness buried deep within her heart, turning them into an uncontrollable flood of sweetness that swept through her entire body.

The overwhelming happiness struck her mind, and tears spilled from her eyes without warning.

[Ding! Hinata Hyuga's favorability has surpassed 80. An initial deep bond has been established!]

[Bond critical-hit reward obtained: Pure Byakugan bloodline!]

[Notice: The Pure Byakugan remains dormant by default, with a passive detection range of 10 meters. When actively activated, it possesses all abilities beyond those of an ordinary Byakugan. However, its eye color will turn silver-white upon activation. Host, please take care to conceal it.]

The crisp mechanical voice exploded in his mind.

Naruto felt an extreme coolness wash through his eyes.

The areas connecting his optic nerves and brain seemed to have been remade, as some ancient and pure ocular power took root and sprouted within him.

He did not even need hand seals to clearly sense the drip rate of the medicine bottles in the ward next door.

This meant that from this moment onward, he possessed the Shinobi World's most elite ability of perception and insight.

Naruto took a deep breath, gently wiped the tears from the corners of Hinata's eyes with his thumb, and leaned close to whisper in her ear, "Rest well. I'll come see you again. And what you saw just now can be our little secret."

With that, Naruto turned, unlocked the door, and strode away.

Hinata was left limp on the bed, covering her burning cheeks as she gasped for breath, her heartbeat so loud that even she found it deafening.

Not long after leaving the infirmary, someone emerged from the shadows around the corner of the corridor.

Half of Neji's face was wrapped in bandages and swollen badly, while his other uninjured eye was bloodshot.

Blood still seeped from the corner of his mouth, and his breathing was rapid and heavy. Clearly, his injuries had not healed.

But with his reason completely consumed by humiliation and jealousy, he no longer cared about the pain in his body. He forcibly gathered chakra and blocked the middle of the corridor.

"Hyuga prodigy? Is it really so hard for you to admit someone else is stronger? I'd say you're so jealous that you can't even use Gentle Fist anymore. Look carefully with those Byakugan of yours. This is a gap you'll never catch up to in your whole life. You think the branch family's fate is unfair? Fate hasn't treated you unfairly. It's your own narrow mind that has."

Naruto kept both hands in his pockets, his eyes full of mockery.

"You monster dead last, don't get too cocky!"

The veins around Neji's eyes bulged sharply as his Byakugan locked onto the flow of chakra within Naruto's body. "I underestimated you in the classroom earlier. Now I'll cripple every chakra pathway in your body and crush the foundation you're so proud of!"

The air in the corridor abruptly turned cold.

High-density chakra gathered between Neji's palms, forming sharp whirlwinds.

He assumed the most orthodox Gentle Fist stance of the Hyuga Clan. The killing intent born from extreme humiliation and jealousy became a tangible pressure that crashed toward Naruto.

He intended to use this move to seal Naruto's future for the rest of his life and completely wash away the unprecedented humiliation of being utterly crushed as a man.

Naruto did not even take his hands out of his pockets. He merely looked at him coldly. "A Hyuga prodigy has only this much tolerance? Is admitting that someone else is stronger than you, bigger than you, really that difficult? A pathetic branch-family weakling like you, who can only rage helplessly because you can't compare to someone else in size, is an utter disgrace to men."

"You're courting death!"

Those words precisely pierced Neji's final psychological defense.

He went completely mad, all reason gone.

"Eight Trigrams: Sixty-Four Palms!"

His palm strikes were clearly less fierce than at his peak, and the Sixty-Four Palms he forcibly unleashed through his injuries even contained flaws.

Neji stomped hard, his body turning into an afterimage as palm strikes filled the air like a raging storm and engulfed the vital points around Naruto's chest.

This strike held nothing back. It could absolutely cripple a genin for life.

Facing this certain-kill situation, Naruto advanced instead of retreating.

The violent power he had just acquired instantly awakened within him.

In his mind, the first shackle of the Eight Gates shattered with a thunderous crash.

"Opening Gate, open!"

A ring of blue aura visible to the naked eye erupted around Naruto's body.

The terrifying physique of his perfect Sage Body, combined with the enhancement of the Eight Gates, sent his speed soaring to a horrifying level in that instant.

Before Neji's palm wind could even brush Naruto's clothes, the orange figure vanished from his sight.

Then, a crushing pain exploded in his chest.

Naruto struck after him yet arrived first, lifting his leg in a plain, straightforward front kick.

The sole of his shoe slammed viciously into Neji's chest, accompanied by a dull crack of breaking bones.

Neji flew backward like a cannonball, scraping across the corridor floor in a long trail of glaring sparks. Finally, with a deafening clang, he crashed headfirst into the huge metal trash can at the end of the corridor, body and stance included.

Waste paper and bloodstained medical cotton scattered all over him.

The dignified Hyuga prodigy's legs twitched twice over the rim of the trash can before he completely passed out.

"H-How is that possible?"

A clear cry of shock shattered the corridor's dead silence.

Naruto turned his head to look.

A girl wearing a short pink Chinese-style top, with two playful buns tied atop her head, stood blankly at the other end of the corridor.

The metal medical tray in her hands had fallen to the floor, scattering bandages and scissors everywhere.

It was Tenten.

She had originally come to visit her teammate Neji, only to witness the horrifying sight of him being instantly defeated by a single kick.

Tenten's heart pounded wildly, and her breathing quickened.

The residual violent aura around that blond boy was ten times more terrifying than any physical training she had ever seen.

This was definitely not the troublesome dead last from the rumors!

What made her heart tremble even more was that when Naruto's dark-blue eyes turned toward her, she suddenly felt the dangerous illusion that her clothes had been stripped away in an instant and even her soul had been seen through completely.

At the same time, the long-awaited notification sounded in Naruto's mind.

[Ding! A high-potential bond target has been discovered: Tenten.]

[A new-stage conquest mission has been generated. Would the host like to accept it?]

Naruto glanced at Neji in the trash can, then turned toward the tense Tenten. The smile at the corner of his mouth gradually widened.

The system's prompt to accept the mission continued flashing in his mind.

Naruto chuckled inwardly. Did it even need asking?

Of course he accepted.

He pulled his hands from his pockets and stepped over the medical instruments scattered across the floor, advancing toward Tenten one step at a time.