This Hinata was nothing like the original.
She was no longer that sweet, naive girl completely lost in romance.
Nor was she the type to suffer in silence when she was clearly starving.
And she was most certainly not going to turn into a quiet, submissive housewife down the road.
The raw talent of this body was nothing short of staggering.
Though she had griped about her situation before, she had to admit that Hinata’s underlying potential was genuinely absurd.
The Byakugan Princess.
That was the title Toneri Otsutsuki had given her in The Last.
And in that final movie, Hinata had proven that those four words carried real weight.
Up on the moon, she had used her Byakugan to sense a village over twenty kilometers away.
Twenty kilometers!
What did that even mean?
Even the current clan head, Hiashi Hyuga, only had a sensory range of about ten kilometers.
Yet Hinata’s perception at six years old was already reaching toward that endgame level.
It meant her bloodline purity eclipsed almost every single member of the Hyuga Clan, reaching a degree of ancestral regression so pure it was virtually unprecedented.
Only with that level of bloodline purity could her son, Boruto, meet the strict prerequisites needed to awaken the Jougan.
And that was in the original timeline, where Hinata had quietly endured starvation and malnutrition.
Now, however…
“Neji is no longer a match for Hinata,” Hiashi said calmly, sitting on the wooden veranda outside the training hall, a teacup held loosely in his hand.
Sitting beside him was a man who shared nearly eighty to ninety percent of Hiashi’s facial features—his younger twin brother, Hizashi Hyuga.
“It is not just now.
It has been this way for quite some time.” Hizashi took a sip of his tea, a slight hesitation flickering across his face as he looked out at the two children.
“What is it?” Hiashi caught his brother’s subtle change in expression.
“Brother, do you really intend to send Hinata to the Ninja Academy?” Hizashi frowned slightly.
To him, sending a prodigy like Hinata to the Academy was a complete waste of time.
That school was merely a institution created by the Leaf Village to train civilian ninjas.
If Hinata stayed within the clan and received direct instruction from their top masters, her development would operate on an entirely different level.
Hiashi had initially assumed his brother was feeling conflicted over Neji’s one-sided beatings at Hinata’s hands.
“Fugaku Uchiha sent his second son to the Ninja Academy,” Hiashi stated simply.
Those words silenced Hizashi immediately.
With the Senju Clan dissolved, the two grand clans representing the Leaf Village were the Hyuga and the Uchiha.
Years ago, Fugaku Uchiha had enrolled his eldest son, Itachi, into the Academy.
Itachi had graduated at age eight, second only to Kakashi in the school’s historical records.
Now, Fugaku had sent his younger son, Sasuke, to the Academy as well.
With the Uchiha patriarch setting such a precedent, Hiashi had no choice but to follow suit with Hinata.
Otherwise, it would go against the neutral, cooperative stance the Hyuga Clan had maintained for decades—especially when the high council of the Leaf secretly viewed the Uchiha as a thorn in their side.
Beyond that, the heirs of the other major noble families—Ino-Shika-Cho, Inuzuka, Aburame—were all attending the Academy.
If the Hyuga Clan kept their heiress isolated, it would inevitably draw unwanted criticism and political friction.
“I understand,” Hizashi nodded softly.
“Given Hinata’s talent, though, she should be able to graduate almost immediately, shouldn’t she?”
Hizashi offered a light chuckle to break the tension.
“One can only hope,” Hiashi smiled faintly, not dwelling on it.
In his mind, victory was an absolute certainty.
As the heiress he held in such high regard, how could Hinata possibly lose to the Uchiha?
Meanwhile, inside the training hall, Neji was on the verge of tears, his entire mind completely numb.
His body moved like a broken machine—getting knocked down, standing back up, getting knocked down again, and rising once more.
There had been a time when he refused to accept defeat.
Resentment had burned in his chest.
He had sought guidance from his father and consulted the clan’s greatest martial masters, pushing himself to the absolute limit just to surpass Hinata so he could gain the strength to protect her.
Yet, only after giving his all and growing stronger did he realize just how terrifying the gap between them truly was.
No matter how hard he tried, the distance separating him from Hinata never shrank by a single inch.
“Brother Neji, hang in there.”
“You are a genius.
You cannot fall here.”
His strength completely drained, Neji scrambled up from the floor, gazing helplessly at the little girl standing over him.
To him, those encouraging words spilling from Hinata’s lips were nothing more than her twisted, sadistic sense of humor.
I lose.
Neji had no choice but to throw in the towel.
Hinata’s true personality was the complete opposite of her outer appearance.
Beneath that soft, adorable, innocent, and lively facade lay an extraordinarily mischievous heart.
Aside from ignoring clan rules whenever it suited her, she thoroughly enjoyed throwing out sharp, sarcastic jabs at people whenever she was in a good mood—especially when she held the upper hand.
However, after spending three years dealing with her, Neji had figured out her pattern.
As long as he gave her cold, indifferent reactions and waited for her excitement to wear off, she would naturally get bored and wander away on her own.
“Brother Neji, you cannot give up so easily.”
“You are the child Uncle Hizashi places all his hopes upon.”
“You are one of the few true geniuses in our clan, and the person I trust most.”
“Please, for my sake, stand back up and keep fighting.”
The dark-haired girl leaned in close, her expression filled with profound worry, looking for all the world like a devoted sister deeply concerned for her cousin’s well-being.
“…”
The corner of Neji’s mouth twitched uncontrollably.
If he hadn’t known her so well, he might have actually bought into the act.
Had this been his first time meeting her, he probably would have been moved to tears and fought until he collapsed from blood loss.
“I understand,” Neji sighed, forcing himself back onto his feet once more.
Compared to his younger cousin, his so-called talent was like a mere civilian standing before a true ninja.
Or rather, no genius could ever be measured against Hinata in the first place.
That was the conclusion Neji had arrived at after three long years of reflection.
He was genuinely proud that the clan had produced someone like Hinata, and he loved having such a cute cousin.
But her mischievous personality made it almost impossible for him to enjoy it.
“What’s with that reluctant look on your face?” Hinata pouted, her lips curling into a disappointed scowl.
“How boring.”
Tch.
Spending too much time around this guy made him figure out my routine.
Next time, I need to find a new punching bag.
The worried expression on her face vanished in a fraction of a second.
The sudden shift was so abrupt that Neji was left utterly speechless.
Wait…
Wasn’t my original goal to train relentlessly, become stronger, and save the world from total destruction?
How did I accidentally turn my daily training into child’s play?
Only now did Hinata snap back to reality, realizing she had strayed far from her grand objective.
See?!
It’s all this guy’s fault!
“Brother Neji, couldn’t you be a little tougher?” Hinata grumbled, mumbling like a sleepwalker and startling Neji so badly that his knees nearly buckled again.
“At least give me a tiny sense of urgency…”
Seriously…
who on earth could ever give you a sense of urgency…