Hinata ran too hastily, her steps too small and her little legs too short to keep her steady.
Splat!
Her foot caught, and her tiny body fell straight onto the road.
It would have been a lie to say it didn't hurt, but the little girl was stubborn. She neither cried nor fussed. Bracing her little hands against the ground, she quietly picked herself up, rubbed her knees, bit her lip, and kept trotting forward.
But she barely made it two steps.
Splat!
She took another hard fall!
Her tiny body bounced, her hair fell into disarray, and she looked utterly dazed-soft, clumsy, and adorable.
Twice in a row, she fell and got back up. She didn't whine or cry, only kept stubbornly running forward.
That sweet, adorably bewildered little face, so stubborn yet so pitiful, instantly soothed the foul mood all those embarrassing revelations had left across the Shinobi World.
"Oh, my heart is melting! She's too cute!"
"Little Hinata is such a good girl! She fell that hard and didn't even cry!"
"Help! She's so soft and squishy! Who could resist her? Just looking at her makes my heart ache!"
"Finally, something heartwarming! All that darkness earlier was driving me crazy!"
Little Hinata's cuteness instantly lifted the viewers' spirits, and they showered her with praise.
Only those in Konoha, especially the members of the Hyuga Clan, wore utterly grim expressions. They were so embarrassed they wanted to crawl into a hole, unable to relax in the slightest.
Everyone else merely thought the little girl was cute, but they recognized her at once. She was the eldest daughter of the Main Family and the future heir to the Hyuga Clan-Hinata Hyuga!
As the Main Family's eldest daughter in the foremost clan of the Shinobi World, she ought to have