"Father."
Hinata's voice was barely a whisper. The moment she left the comforting space beside Naruto, she lowered her head deeply and hurried over to Hiashi.
She looked exactly like a child caught doing something wrong, even her shoulders unconsciously drawing inward.
The cold night wind brushed past, but it could not compare to the chill in her heart.
She had sneaked out of the house, after all.
Now, seeing her father standing here in person, waiting in the wind and snow, she was instantly overwhelmed by guilt.
Father must be very angry, right?
She thought anxiously, It's so late, and I've still made him come out himself to look for his useless daughter...
Her thoughts involuntarily drifted back to the sparring match not long ago.
Faced with her younger sister Hanabi's fierce attacks, she had ultimately been unable to bring herself to strike back. Her Byakugan revealed every opening with perfect clarity, but both her hands and her heart resisted actually landing a Gentle Fist strike on her sister's small body.
Hesitation and a soft heart were fatal weaknesses in a fight.
Even if it was because she could not bear to strike her sister hard.
But a loss was a loss. In her father's eyes, and those of every clan member, the result was all that mattered.
Once again... I've brought shame on the Hyuga Main Family's name.
She remembered her father's cold sigh after the match, and the undisguised disappointment in his pure white eyes.
It was only natural that her father had been angry then.
She silently accepted this "fact," blaming all her mistakes on her own weakness and incompetence.
Oh no!
The instant Naruto saw Hyuga Hiashi's distinctive Byakugan, his heart lurched.
He had been wandering around outside with the Hyuga Clan's eldest daughter until this late, only to be intercepted at the intersection by the clan head himself. This was practically a textbook case of being caught "abducting" someone!
I'm done for. Now he'll think I'm some blond punk luring an innocent little girl away.
Yet that instinctive panic lasted less than two seconds before Naruto regained his reason.
Wait, he quickly calmed down and told himself, what am I panicking for?
Did I do anything wrong?
I treated her to ramen and even offered to walk her home. I've been helping her and protecting her the whole time.
I've got nothing to feel guilty about!
At that thought, Naruto quietly straightened his slightly hunched back, and the awkwardness on his face quickly faded. Although he still felt intimidated by the imposing clan head, his gaze had grown much more open.
Meanwhile, watching his daughter approach him looking frightened and guilty, as though she wished she could hide herself away, Hiashi felt a flicker of complicated emotion: resignation, and a trace of heartache that was difficult to detect.
His gaze passed over Hinata and settled on the blond boy trying hard to look composed.
He saw Naruto's goofy smile.
After a brief silence, Hiashi did not question or scold them as Hinata had expected. Instead, he gave Naruto a nod, exceedingly slight yet unmistakable.
He spoke, his voice as steady and unreadable as ever, but his words stunned both the downcast Hinata and Naruto, who had braced himself to respond. "Thank you for looking after my daughter."
"You're welcome!"
Hearing Hiashi's thanks, Naruto puffed out his chest and raised his thumb, his voice loud and full of confidence:
"I'm going to become Hokage! Of course I should protect the people in the village!"
That gesture, that utterly matter-of-fact tone, as though he were stating a universal truth, and that almost overflowing, faintly goofy enthusiasm.
Hiashi's pure white eyes shifted slightly.
It seemed the rumors circulating through the village about Naruto often training with Might Guy lately were true.
Seeing Naruto's signature gesture and expression, identical to those of the elite jonin Might Guy, Hiashi understood.
That unrestrained youthful vitality, and that way of expressing himself so directly it bordered on recklessness, certainly had Guy's style.
He simply wondered whether, besides Taijutsu, the boy had also inherited Guy's whole theory of "youth."
Yet when his gaze swept over Naruto's blond hair, still dazzling in the night, and those bright blue eyes filled with unwavering resolve, he fell into a momentary daze.
And this boy looks so much like you, Minato...
A gentle yet powerful figure came clearly into focus in his memory.
The Yellow Flash, who had shaken the Shinobi World with his Flying Thunder God Technique and brought people together with a smile as warm as sunshine, had once stood here with that same high spirit, protecting every corner of the village.
The Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, and his wife, Kushina, had given their lives in that disaster to protect Konoha. They were heroes of the village.
Yet their child, an orphan who should have been sheltered as the son of heroes, struggled to survive amid the villagers' rejection and cold stares because of the "demon fox" sealed inside him. His life had been far from good.
An indescribably complex emotion surged through Hiashi's heart: wistfulness, regret, and perhaps a trace of sorrow at witnessing, as a father himself, the child of heroes being treated this way.
He spoke silently in his heart, as though he could cross the boundary between life and death and send this message to the Pure Land: Fourth, can you see this from the Pure Land?
Your son has inherited your will and Kushina's. Just like you, he loves this Konoha from the bottom of his heart and wants to protect it!
The corners of Hiashi's mouth moved almost imperceptibly. A gentle, fatherly smile nearly broke through his habitual sternness and appeared on his face.
In his mind, a simple, sincere invitation had already taken shape: If it's convenient, please come to my home tomorrow!
Yes, if he were acting only as a father, he would have offered that invitation without hesitation.
He would invite this boy named Naruto into his home, receive him properly, and express his gratitude in person.
He could even imagine how delighted Hinata, who had finally made a friend, would be to hear the news.
Yet the words that had almost left his lips were ultimately forced back down his throat.
Because he was not only Hinata Hyuga's father. He was also the head of the Hyuga Clan.
That position granted him glory and power, but it also bound him in heavy shackles.
He had to take responsibility for the entire clan's standing and safety.
He could not grow too close to a jinchūriki.
Especially now, when the young Nine-Tails Jinchuriki's position was so sensitive, and the village's higher-ups-particularly Shimura Danzō and Root under his command-were watching him closely.
Any clan that associated too closely with Naruto could be seen as harboring ulterior motives, attempting to control the jinchūriki's power, and thus draw unnecessary suspicion, vigilance, or even suppression.
For the stability of the Hyuga Clan, he could not take that risk.
In the end, the smile that had never fully formed vanished entirely, and the lines of his face became cold and hard once more.
He merely gave Naruto another slight nod, then turned and calmly said to Hinata beside him, "Let's go home."