Naruto watched the two children his age disappear down the street, surrounded by several Hyuga guards.
He couldn’t help feeling envious.
They had people protecting them.
People walking beside them.
People who cared where they went.
Tenriki had already taken a few steps when he paused.
After a moment’s thought, he beckoned one of the guards over and pointed toward Naruto.
“Buy him a bowl of ramen at Ichiraku. It’s on me.”
The guard blinked in surprise.
“But… Young Master, he’s the—”
Tenriki’s expression cooled.
“Do as I said.”
The change in his demeanor was immediate.
Despite his small stature, there was enough authority in his voice to make the guard straighten instinctively.
A bead of sweat slid down the man’s temple.
“Yes, Young Master!”
He turned back, walked into Ichiraku Ramen, and handed the owner enough money for Naruto’s meal while briefly explaining the situation.
A moment later, an excited shout rang out from inside the shop.
“Really?! I can eat ramen?”
Naruto’s face lit up.
“Thank you! I knew you were the best!”
The owner laughed.
“Don’t thank me. A young master from the Hyuga Clan paid for you.”
Naruto paused.
“The Hyuga? Who?”
“He just left.”
Naruto quickly leaned out and looked down the street.
“Oh! Him…”
He remembered the boy immediately.
The pale-eyed kid who had just left with the girl and all those guards.
Tenriki.
Naruto had grown up without friends and with almost no one showing him genuine kindness.
Something as simple as being treated to a meal therefore carried far more weight than Tenriki could have imagined.
In Naruto’s young mind, Tenriki Hyuga had already become someone important.
Someone he would remember.
Then the ramen arrived.
Naruto’s eyes widened.
Most of his meals consisted of whatever cheap food he could find at home, and expired milk was hardly unusual.
He had never tasted anything quite like this.
The first bite changed everything.
Slurp!
Slurp!
Slurp!
One bowl disappeared.
Then another.
And another.
Before long, five large bowls were stacked in front of him.
“So good!”
Naruto raised his chopsticks triumphantly.
“This is amazing!”
While Naruto was happily devouring ramen at Ichiraku, news of Tenriki’s actions had already reached the Hokage Tower.
Hiruzen Sarutobi frowned at the report in front of him.
“The Hyuga heir approached Naruto… and bought him ramen?”
His fingers tapped lightly against the desk.
“Was this simply a child’s whim, or is the Hyuga Clan testing something?”
After decades as Hokage, Hiruzen had long since learned that seemingly insignificant actions could carry political meaning.
Tenriki wasn’t just any Hyuga child.
He was Hiashi’s son and the likely future head of the clan.
That made even a casual interaction with Naruto worth noting.
Hiruzen considered the possibilities—the Hyuga, the village, foreign powers, Naruto’s identity, and the political consequences if any faction attempted to influence the boy.
Eventually, he issued a quiet order.
“Increase surveillance around Naruto.”
Several more ANBU were assigned to watch him.
Whatever Tenriki’s intentions were, Hiruzen had no desire to see the Fourth Hokage’s son manipulated for someone else’s purposes.
And Hiruzen wasn’t the only one who received the report.
Hidden deeper within Konoha, Danzo Shimura learned of the same encounter.
He said nothing.
But he remembered it.
Unaware of the attention their brief encounter had attracted, Tenriki and Hinata arrived at the Hyuga Clan’s training grounds.
It was Tenriki’s first time training here.
His goal for the day was simple.
Kunai and shuriken.
Several young Hyuga were already practicing when he entered.
The moment they noticed him, their training slowed.
Then stopped.
“Young Master Tenriki is here!”
“Isn’t this his first time training here?”
“I heard he’s a genius.”
“More than that. They say he’s already read almost everything in the clan library.”
“Seriously?”
“Maybe we’ll finally get to see what he can actually do.”
Hinata entered beside him.
Unfortunately for her, almost everyone’s attention remained fixed on her brother.
Neji also stopped practicing.
Curiosity got the better of him, and before long he had joined the small crowd forming nearby.
Tenriki approached the instructor and bowed politely.
“Good morning. I’d like to learn how to use shuriken today.”
The instructor was only a genin, and receiving such a formal greeting from the clan heir left him visibly flustered.
“Y-yes, Young Master.”
Once he recovered, he began explaining the fundamentals to both Tenriki and Hinata.
Grip.
Balance.
Release angle.
Wrist movement.
Distance.
Wind.
The difference between throwing a kunai and a shuriken.
The instructor also mixed in several practical lessons from his own experience.
Tenriki listened carefully.
Soon, theory gave way to practice.
By then, nearly every young Hyuga nearby had gathered to watch.
They wanted to see whether the rumors about their young master were actually true.
Tenriki picked up a shuriken.
He turned it over in his fingers a few times, testing the weight, then looked toward a target five meters away.
His arm moved.
Whoosh!
The shuriken flashed through the air.
Thud!
Dead center.
The watching children immediately began whispering.
“He hit the bullseye on his first try!”
“My first throw didn’t even hit the target.”
“Mine went into the ground.”
But Tenriki wasn’t finished.
He narrowed his eyes for a few seconds, apparently considering what he’d just learned.
Then three shuriken appeared between his fingers.
His hand flicked forward.
Thud!
Thud!
Thud!
Three targets.
Three bullseyes.
The whispers stopped.
Tenriki looked at the targets.
“This is easier than I expected.”
That earned him several incredulous stares.
He picked up three more shuriken.
This time, he stepped back to twenty meters.
Throw.
Thud!
Thud!
Thud!
Bullseyes.
Thirty meters.
Three more throws.
Three more bullseyes.
Forty meters.
The result didn’t change.
Every shuriken struck the center of its target.
Perfectly.
The training ground fell silent.
Then the younger Hyuga erupted.
“That’s incredible!”
“So this is what a genius looks like?”
“Young Master Tenriki is amazing!”
Their curiosity had transformed into open admiration.
Even Neji found himself watching Tenriki more intently.
Then Tenriki walked toward another section of the training ground.
The mood among the watching children immediately changed.
This area was used for advanced shuriken training.
Several targets had been positioned behind wooden obstacles, making a direct throw impossible.
A few of the older students grimaced when they realized where Tenriki was going.
“This one’s ridiculous.”
“I’ve been practicing here for two years and still can’t do it consistently.”
“Same. I barely hit one out of five.”
The instructor watched Tenriki with growing interest.
After what he’d just witnessed, he no longer doubted the boy’s talent.
But this exercise was different.
Raw accuracy wasn’t enough.
To strike the hidden targets, a shinobi had to manipulate the flight path indirectly—usually by making thrown weapons collide in midair and alter one another’s trajectories.
There was no way Tenriki could master that immediately.
Probably.
Tenriki picked up three shuriken.
He barely examined the targets.
Then he threw.
Three streaks of metal shot forward.
For a moment, all three appeared to be flying in the wrong direction.
Clink!
One shuriken struck another.
Clink!
The second collision came almost immediately.
Their trajectories changed.
All three weapons curved around the obstacles.
Thud!
Thud!
Thud!
Three hidden targets.
Three perfect bullseyes.
No one spoke.
Even the instructor stared.
The younger Hyuga simply stood there, looking from the targets to Tenriki and back again.
Less than an hour ago, he had been a complete beginner.
Now he had performed a technique some of them had failed to master after years of practice.
Finally, someone whispered:
“Is this… what a genius is?”
Another voice followed.
“Young Master Tenriki is incredible.”
That was all it took.
The silence broke into excited chatter.
There was no jealousy in their faces.
Only admiration.
To the clan’s younger generation, Tenriki’s performance had been overwhelming.
He hadn’t bribed them.
He hadn’t tried to win them over.
He hadn’t even spoken to most of them.
He had simply picked up a shuriken and shown them a level of talent they could barely comprehend.
And that was enough.
Even a few children from the branch family who had previously disliked the main family found themselves staring at him differently.
Respect was difficult to demand.
But strength and talent could earn it naturally.
Among everyone present, Neji was perhaps the most affected.
He looked at Tenriki, then at the three shuriken buried perfectly in the targets behind the obstacles.
His admiration for his cousin rose another level.
Tenriki really was extraordinary.