Konoha, the Hyuga Estate.
Dead silence hung in the air.
The branch-family ninja tasked with surveillance knelt on the ground, shaking like a leaf, his head nearly buried in the tatami mat.
Before him, the head of the Main House, Hyuga Hiashi, wore a face as stern and rigid as ever, but right now it was so dark ink could drip from it.
Just moments before, through the distant live broadcast of a clansman's Byakugan, he had witnessed the "Demon Fox" he considered a disgrace to the family swagger back from outside the village with an exquisite beauty whose looks could upend a nation.
And that was not even all!
That very beauty was actually cleaning Naruto Uzumaki's pigsty-like, filthy apartment just like a docile little wife!
Meanwhile, his own daughter Hinata, poisoned by a love potion, was frantically training so she could be worthy of that brat!
Absurd!
Simply absurd!
"L... Lord Patriarch..." the branch-family ninja stammered, cold sweat soaking the clothes on his back.
Hiashi ignored him as an invisible, icy fury radiated from his body, dropping the temperature of the entire room by several degrees.
That scene replayed over and over in his mind—Naruto leaning lazily against the doorframe while the stunning beauty toiled away cleaning the room.
This sight deeply stabbed at his nerves of "family dignity" and "noble bloodline"!
How could a son-in-law of the Hyuga clan, the future head of the Main House, ever harbor such a shady "vixen" at home?!
Besides, that position was reserved by his own tacit consent for his daughter Hinata!
A tremendous sense of humiliation at having his home raided by an outsider violently erupted!
"Where is Hinata?"
Hiashi squeezed a few words out from his throat without a shred of warmth.
"R... Reporting to the Patriarch, Lady Hinata... is currently training alone in Training Room Number Three."
Hiashi rose abruptly, the wide sleeves of his haori billowing without wind. Without a word, he strode toward the training room.
Inside Training Room Number Three.
Drenched in sweat, Hinata was practicing the Gentle Fist over and over again.
Unlike her usual timidity and hesitation, every single strike she made now was filled with unprecedented power and decisiveness!
"Hey!"
"Ha!"
The girl cried out softly, her fair palms tracing sharp trajectories through the air.
Her posture was light, her steps steady, and the activity of the chakra wrapping around her body far exceeded any time before.
Even more bizarrely, the moment every strike left her palm, a faint trace of golden halo shimmered within that soft chakra!
It was a... pure, scorching, overbearing Yang Release aura filled with endless vitality!
"Eight Trigrams: Thirty-Two Palms!"
Hinata gave a crisp shout, striking out with both palms as she slammed fiercely toward the wooden post in front of her with speed and force far exceeding her past self.
Yet her palms did not land on the wooden post.
A strong, powerful hand appeared out of nowhere, firmly blocking right in front of her palms.
"Bang!"
A muffled thud echoed.
Hinata felt as though her palm strike had hit an unshakeable mountain, the massive rebound forcing her to stagger back several steps.
She looked up in astonishment to find that her father, Hyuga Hiashi, had appeared before her at some point.
"Father!"
Hinata jumped in fright, her small face instantly turning pale as she hurriedly bowed in greeting.
Hiashi did not speak, only staring intently at Hinata's hands with his emotionless Byakugan before sweeping his gaze over her entire body.
For the first time, a trace of incredulous fluctuation appeared on his face, which usually resembled a millennial iceberg.
"This chakra of yours..." Hiashi spoke slowly, every word sounding as if it were squeezed out from between his teeth "...what is going on?"
His perception could not be wrong.
The pureness and overbearing nature of that fleeting golden aura in Hinata's palm just now had even caused him—a Main House head immersed in the Gentle Fist for decades—to feel a hint of palpitations!
That was fundamentally not chakra belonging to the Hyuga Clan!
"I..." Hinata's heart skipped a beat, her gaze beginning to dart away in panic. "I... I was just practicing hard..."
"Practicing?"
Hiashi's oppressive presence abruptly surged. "I only see the most noble bloodline of the Hyuga Main House contaminated by some unknown, savage power!"
He took a step forward and demanded sternly, "Speak! You've been running outside the village lately—who on earth have you been going to see?!"
"N... No one..."
Terrified by her father's man-eating expression, Hinata trembled all over, her mind a complete blank as she could only deny it instinctively.
Yet to Hiashi, this guilty appearance of hers was undoubtedly an admission.
Standing quietly at the entrance of the training room, Neji Hyuga walked in at that moment, a cold and mocking sneer resting on his handsome face.
"Lord Patriarch, why bother asking."
Neji glanced at Hinata's bloodless face, his tone filled with disdain for the Main House and bone-deep hatred toward Naruto.
"Aside from that 'Demon Fox' who trampled the Hyuga family's reputation underfoot and shoved my dignity into a trash can, who else could possibly have bewitched our noble Lady Hinata into such a state?"
Although the injuries on his face had healed, the humiliation of being defeated by Naruto in a single move that day had become an indelible nightmare in his heart!
"Uzumaki... Naruto!"
Hearing that name spoken by Neji, Hinata's body shuddered violently as if struck by her biggest secret, and she blurted out, "N... No! Naruto-kun was just... just teaching me some... new methods... for refining chakra..."
It was over.
The moment the words left her mouth, Hinata wanted to give herself a fierce slap.
The entire place instantly fell into a dead silence.
Hyuga Hiashi's pure white eyes instantly filled with terrifying bloodshot veins.
"Ha... Haha..."
He suddenly laughed in a low voice, his laughter dry and cold enough to make both Neji and Hinata shudder.
"Good! A fine Uzumaki Naruto!"
"A fine new method for refining chakra!"
Hiashi raised his head abruptly, his face devoid of any authority, leaving only the blazing fury of a volcanic eruption!
"Simply preposterous!"
"Absurd!!"
A thunderous roar made the entire training room ring!
"My own daughter, the esteemed young miss of the Hyuga Main House, the most noble bloodline of the Hyuga clan's millennium-long heritage, actually went and mingled with the village's most humble Demon Fox, learning those shoddy, unorthodox tricks of his?!"
"What kind of decency is this?!"
Trembling with rage, Hiashi pointed at Hinata, too furious to scold her further. In the end, all his wrath locked precisely onto the ultimate culprit—Uzumaki Naruto!
Corrupting his daughter's pure mind!
Polluting his family's pure bloodline!
And now, even harboring a shady vixen right in his own home!
Unforgivable!
"Men!"
Hiashi abruptly spun around and roared toward the outside!
"Swish! Swish! Swish!"
Several branch-family elites, who had long been waiting outside the door, dropped to one knee in an instant.
"Gather all upper-ninja guards of the clan!"
Hiashi's voice was bone-chilling, every word carrying intense murderous intent.
"Accompany me to Uzumaki Naruto's home!"
With his hands clasped behind his back, he turned and strode outward, leaving behind an intensely icy back and a declaration filled with endless fury for those behind him.
"I want to see for myself just what kind of love potion he fed Hinata!"
"If I don't cripple him today, I'll spell my name backward, Hyuga Hiashi!"
At this single command, the entire Hyuga Estate instantly transformed into a precise war machine.
Over a dozen branch-family upper-ninja clad in standard combat gear and activating their Byakugan assembled silently from every corner. With murderous intent etched on every face, they followed behind Hiashi, forming a suffocating torrent as they surged aggressively toward the village's dilapidated civilian apartment district!
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