"Yes. What else would it be?"
Toneri turned toward Naruto with his eyes closed, looking puzzled. "It must have been pure coincidence that you came to deal with those monsters, right? Your original purpose wasn't just to get Hinata the training she needed for her Tenseigan. Neji should also need our clan's secret teachings to improve his strength. Isn't that why you came?"
"Me?"
Neji, who had been checking on Boruto, turned at the sound of his name. He hadn't expected this to involve him, too.
His expression turned rather odd at Toneri's words.
In truth, he knew that coming as a representative of the Hyuga Clan to meet Toneri's branch had only ever been an excuse.
Initially, Hiashi had hoped to use a visit to "reconnect with their ancestral roots" to establish where the branch on the moon stood—after all, the Hyuga Clan had certainly chosen to follow Konoha. So he had indeed thought it would be good to bring back the lunar branch's secret techniques.
But Neji had actually joined this mission to protect Hinata and Boruto.
He hadn't been all that interested in the stronger, more powerful secret teachings Lord Hiashi had mentioned.
Of course, once he learned that Toneri was the only person left in this branch, he had no intention of going through elaborate formal greetings or scheming to extract information. Especially after seeing Naruto casually dismantle the puppets Lord Hiashi had described as "the pinnacle of technological achievement."
He felt that Lord Hiashi might have put too much of a rosy glow on the secret teachings supposedly left by Hamura Otsutsuki.
Besides, Toneri's circumstances reminded him of Sasuke...
In fact, thinking it over, Toneri was even more alone now than Sasuke had been back then.
That also stirred the urge to look after others