Ino had her back to them and had yet to notice their arrival.
Shino... was the same as ever. No one could tell what he was thinking.
Kiba stared wide-eyed at the girl Naruto had brought in, his mind already racing as he tried to figure out how to get her attention.
Hinata looked as though she was on the verge of falling apart. Naruto was puzzled; he had thought she was gradually overcoming her inferiority complex. But Yugito, beside him, understood the instant she glanced at the young lady of the Hyuga Main Family. She likes Naruto. Judging by how timid she is, she's probably never confessed to him. She might never even have had a proper conversation with him. Maybe I should talk to her. Seeing her like this hurts me, too. Her feelings for Naruto-kun are clearly genuine. But I'm absolutely not giving him up. He's mine, and I don't like sharing.
"Oh? Not even with me?" the Two-Tails teased inside her mind.
"Two-Tails, how would you even be with Naruto-kun? First, you're trapped inside the seal in my belly and can't get out. Second, you're a Cat Demon over twenty meters tall. You don't even have a sex-you're just a mass of concentrated chakra," Yugito replied helplessly in her mind.
"There's always a way around a problem," the Two-Tails huffed defiantly.
Naruto had just pulled his attention away from Hinata's dejected expression when he spotted Neji. Neji was staring straight at Yugito, his eyes filled with pure hatred. Naruto understood why Neji hated Kumogakure. After all, his father had died because of its scheming. But Yugito had nothing to do with that. He made a mental note to have a proper talk with Neji as soon as possible.
Looking farther around, he found Rock Lee as unchanged as ever. Even though he had been on crutches since the Chunin Ninja Exams preliminaries, it had done nothing to dampen his boundless energy. Naruto made another mental note to ask Tsunade to examine his injured leg, though he could guess that, even if she had only been in the village for a few hours, Guy must already have spent ages camped outside her office, pleading with her.
Tenten regarded the kunoichi from Kumogakure with curiosity and a trace of barely perceptible envy-envy of Yugito's shapely figure.
At last, Ino turned around to see what everyone was staring at. The moment she saw the newcomer, her jaw nearly dropped. This kunoichi had exactly the air Ino had always wanted for herself, and she carried it off even more perfectly than Ino had imagined. Even if the girl was a year or two older than her, Ino could not help feeling intensely jealous of her figure, as well as those slit-pupiled eyes, which gave her a wild edge Ino could never imitate.
"Hey, Naruto, who's this beauty?" Kiba asked with a wicked grin, practically drooling.
"Keep your eyes to yourself. Nothing decent ever comes out of that mouth of yours," Naruto snapped, his whole bearing radiating possessiveness toward the girl beside him. Far from minding, Yugito felt a sweet warmth in her heart. She loved how he wanted her all to himself.
"Everyone, this is Yugito Nii. She's from Kumogakure and came back with Pervy Sage, Granny Tsunade, and Shizune. She's here to coordinate cooperation between our villages. She's also a good friend of mine," Naruto introduced her. When he finished, a faint blush rose on both his and Yugito's faces. Only Hinata and Shikamaru were sharp enough to notice.
"Hah. Konoha will never cooperate with Kumogakure. You're wasting your time. Go back where you belong," Neji sneered coldly.
"Neji, that's enough! She hasn't done anything wrong!" Tenten immediately spoke up. "I'm sorry, Miss Yugito. My teammate has some lingering issues with shinobi from Kumogakure."
"It's all right. I completely understand. You're Neji of the Hyuga Clan, correct? It's perfectly understandable that you don't trust me or like me. And there's no need to be so formal. Just call me Yugito," the female jinchūriki replied gently.
"You don't understand anything! Scum like you could never understand! Konoha would never stoop to any means necessary to get what it wants, the way Kumogakure does!" Neji spat viciously again.
In an instant, the temperature around the table plummeted. Naruto stared hard at Neji, his formerly blue eyes turning scarlet with slit pupils. The killing intent pouring from him left every genin present rigid.
"You're the one who doesn't understand, Neji. I thought when I beat you in the Chunin Ninja Exams, you'd learned not to judge someone based on prejudice. Apparently, I was too naive. Has Konoha never done anything filthy? The old man told me that his former rival, Danzo, who ran the Anbu's Root organization, sent Root shinobi into civilian neighborhoods during the Second Shinobi World War to kidnap children and train them into weapons. When the old man found out, he ordered Root disbanded, but he's always suspected Danzo was still running it in secret. So don't tell me Konoha is innocent. We're shinobi. Whether I like it or not, this kind of dirty business has happened in every village. Just because Yugi-chan comes from that village, should she have to bear all its sins? That's exactly the kind of thinking that starts wars!"
Naruto shouted furiously, speaking up for the girl he wanted to protect in the future, his anger almost spilling over. "Let's go, Yugi-chan. I'm suddenly not hungry." With that, he took Yugito's hand and turned to leave.
Before you continue