But You're Different

The girl behind the tree trembled all over. Her fingers clenched the hem of her clothes so tightly that her knuckles turned white. Knowing she could not hide any longer, she slowly shuffled out from behind the trunk, head lowered, her two index fingers anxiously pressed together like a little rabbit caught in a hunter's sights.

"I... I wasn't... watching you..."

Her voice was barely louder than a mosquito's buzz, thick with tears.

"I just... just saw that Naruto... lately..."

Her words caught in her throat. She did not know how to continue.

Should she say that he had become terrifying? That the way he killed looked demonic? That the aura around him, so suffocating, made her afraid yet unable to stop herself from drawing closer?

She could not say a single word of it. She feared those words would be like knives, stabbing the heart that the world had already wounded beyond recognition.

Naruto looked at her quietly without urging her on. His mind was running at high speed, analyzing the target before him.

[Target: Hinata Hyuga.]

[Behavior analysis: Conducted non-hostile observation from a safe distance for three consecutive days.]

[Physiological indicators: Accelerated heartbeat, disrupted chakra flow, extreme tension. No killing intent or deceptive fluctuations detected.]

[Threat level: None.]

He had confirmed that she was harmless, but her motive remained unclear. This variable that could not be classified through logic made him mildly uncomfortable.

Just then, as if she had exhausted all her strength, Hinata suddenly raised her head. Her watery Byakugan stared straight at Naruto, her cheeks as red as ripe tomatoes. Gathering every shred of courage she had, she asked a question that nearly crashed Naruto's logical circuits.

"Naruto... do you... do you still like Sakura?"

The air seemed to freeze.

Naruto's thoughts stalled for an instant.

[Unexpected query received...]

[Keywords: Like, Sakura Haruno.]

[Database search... correlation analysis... emotional module... error.]

This question lay completely outside his tactical plans and behavioral logic database. Why would he like a unit with low combat efficiency, severe emotional fluctuations, and barely enough capability to serve as a battlefield medic? It violated every principle Shin believed in.

He looked at the girl trembling slightly from nerves, at those eyes so pure that they contained not a trace of impurity. A database he had long ignored was forcibly activated by this sudden question.

He remembered. In that childhood he had defined as "inefficient and full of flaws," this girl named Hinata Hyuga seemed to have always been there. When everyone else rejected and despised him, only she had looked at him with concern rather than disgust.

Her loyalty had been there from the beginning—pure, unwavering, and never once shaken.

Naruto slowly raised his hand.

Hinata squeezed her eyes shut in fright, thinking she had said something wrong and was about to be hit.

Yet the pain she expected never came. A warm, dry palm gently settled on top of her head, awkwardly but carefully stroking it once.

This was encouragement for loyalty.

Hinata's eyes flew open as she stared at Naruto in disbelief.

"She's only my medic."

Naruto's answer was as calm as ever, yet it was like a calming pill that instantly smoothed away all the panic in Hinata's heart.

Looking at her wide eyes, round with astonishment, he continued explaining in his commissar logic. "Personal emotions are inefficient catalysts. They affect battlefield judgment, interfere with command efficiency, and are operational variables that must be eliminated."

Those cold words made Hinata's heart, which had just settled, leap back into her throat. The light in her eyes dimmed. Yes, the current Naruto no longer needed such things.

Which meant he did not need her anymore.

Naruto keenly caught the subtle shift in her emotions. He fell silent for a moment, seemingly carrying out some complicated internal calculation, then added one more sentence.

That sentence was very soft, yet it weighed a thousand pounds.

"But you're different."

What he meant was that she was not suited to being a medic, but her Byakugan was suited to reconnaissance. Scouts were just as important on the battlefield, and her loyalty was immensely valuable.

These were the sort of words normally used on the battlefield to encourage veteran soldiers or insecure recruits.

Boom.

Hinata felt a dazzling firework explode inside her world.

She could no longer hold back her tears. They rolled in large drops from her beautiful Byakugan. But these were not tears of sorrow. For the first time in over a decade, she felt someone so clearly and so solemnly treat her differently.

He had not said he liked her, nor had he made any promise.

But that one sentence—"you're different"—pierced through her defenses more deeply than any sweet words ever could.

"Hm?"

As Naruto watched the girl before him weep uncontrollably, his mind's processing core issued a faint warning.

[Target's emotional fluctuations exceed the safety threshold.]

[Behavior analysis: Crying. Cause assessment: Positive emotional stimulation.]

[Logical paradox: Why do positive emotions produce negative physiological signs (tears)? Database lacks a relevant model.]

[Recommended solution: ...none.]

This was the first time since becoming a "commissar" that he had encountered a situation for which his logic could provide no solution. The hand that had just touched her head still hung in the air. Pulling it back felt wrong, but leaving it there felt wrong too, making him look especially stiff.

"I... I..." Hinata choked out, wanting to say something but managing only Dan-like, broken sobs. She wanted to thank him. She wanted to say how happy she was. But countless words clogged her throat and became a burning ache.

Naruto watched her in silence, his internal analysis module still whirring uselessly. Looking at her shoulders shaking with sobs, he finally reached a conclusion consistent with his current logic.

"Excessive dehydration affects bodily functions," he said calmly, as though stating a fact. "Crying is an unnecessary expenditure of water and salt. I recommend stopping immediately."

"Pfft—"

Hinata laughed at his utterly serious remark. Tears still clung to her eyelashes, but the corners of her mouth could not help curving upward. At such a tense and touching moment, only the current Naruto could say something that made her want to laugh and cry at the same time.

Naruto looked at her smiling face streaked with tears, his brow furrowing almost imperceptibly. He felt that he ought to do something.

He rummaged through the tactical pack he carried with him.

First-aid bandages? No, those were for external injuries.

Soldier Pills? No, she had not expended any energy.

Explosive Tags?... Even less appropriate.

In the end, he found a slightly crumpled pack of tissues. Teuchi had insisted on stuffing them into his hands during his last visit to Ichiraku Ramen, telling him that boys needed to stay clean too. Naruto had considered them unnecessary supplies at the time, but had kept them anyway.

He pulled one out and held it before Hinata.

The movement was a little stiff, as if he were handing over a mission report.

"Wipe your face," he said. "There's dirt on it."

In the bushes some distance away, a white-haired head was furtively poking out.

Jiraiya had a foxtail grass stem between his teeth and a little notebook in his hand. He had originally intended to keep observing and record a "Daily Behavior Report on Problem Child Naruto," preparing for future "rehabilitative education."

He saw Naruto's cold questioning and the way little Hinata looked as if she were about to cry from fright.

"Ah, hopeless. This kid's completely messed up. That old man Third Hokage is far too irresponsible..." he sighed as he scribbled in his notebook.

But what happened next made him chew the foxtail grass in his mouth to pieces.

That head pat!

That "She's only my medic"!

And finally, that earth-shattering line: "But you're different"!

Jiraiya's eyes widened like brass bells, and the pen in his hand fell to the ground with a smack.

Damn! he cursed inwardly. This brat... he doesn't not understand. He's clearly an expert!

He finally understood.

Naruto was not an emotionless machine. He had merely packaged away all his tenderness and humanity, then set up a whitelist. Not just anyone could see it. Want access? First see whether your loyalty was high enough, whether you were on his list.

Take the members of Naruto's Team 7 that Jiraiya had investigated. Sakura Haruno? An "asset" that needed managing. Sasuke Uchiha? A "weapon" that needed calibration.

And Hinata Hyuga... this girl who had always given silently without asking for anything in return had passed the "political review" that even he, one of the Legendary Sannin, had been helpless to solve, with her pure concern.

"So that's it... so that's it!" Jiraiya slapped his thigh, feeling as though he had grasped the key to the problem.

To deal with this kind of "commissar-type" personality, ordinary conciliatory methods would not work. That was called "ineffective infiltration." He had to show something Naruto could respect and acknowledge—real "value"!

Jiraiya put away his notebook, straightened his somewhat messy clothes, and revealed a profound smile. Clearing his throat, he stepped out from behind the tree, every stride carrying the bearing of a grandmaster.

Naruto had long noticed his presence. He had merely classified him as a "harmless pervert sage" and paid him no attention.

When Hinata saw Jiraiya appear, she hurriedly wiped away her tears and lowered her head in embarrassment.

Jiraiya walked up to them. He did not look at Hinata, instead fixing his gaze on Naruto.

"Kid," he said, his tone more serious than ever before, "you've hit a bottleneck in your training, haven't you?"

Naruto's ice-blue pupils turned toward him. He neither confirmed nor denied it.

Jiraiya grinned, flashing a row of White Fang.

"Can't figure out how to make a Shadow Clone of that chainsaw for the moment, can you? It's fine, I'll teach you. Want to learn?"