The more delighted Hinata was, the more guilt Hiashi felt.
Hiashi was starting to think they really had no idea how to raise a child.
A perfectly good genius, ruined by their own hand.
And this was a genius Tiange had personally acknowledged.
What had Hiashi been doing all these years?
What a failure.
Hiashi’s gaze drifted quietly toward Hizashi.
How could two people born from the same mother turn out so different?
This guy’s two sons, each one more of a genius than the last, and yet Hiashi had gone and squandered a genius of their own.
Hiashi quietly resolved to stay out of Hinata’s and Hanabi’s growth from now on.
Just let the two of them come over to Hizashi’s place often, let this guy handle their guidance.
They were his nieces, after all.
Soon the food was ready and brought to the table, a full spread, every dish one of Hinata’s everyday favorites.
“Little one, eat as much as you want!”
“Let’s see how much you can put away, so we know what to tell the kitchen from now on.”
“Mm, thank you, Father!”
Hinata looked at the table full of fragrant dishes, and her stomach let out a long, rumbling growl.
What followed left all three of them standing with their mouths open.
Hinata began her first late-night meal at home.
Her manner was perfectly graceful, every courtesy exactly right, yet the dishes vanished from the table at a pace that was anything but slow.
An entire spread, cleared in barely ten minutes.
Hiashi waved for the empty plates to be taken away.
“Little one, had enough?”
Hinata looked a little embarrassed and shook her head.
“Bring more!”
With a sweep of Hiashi’s hand, another full table arrived.
Same as before, roughly ten minutes, and Hinata wiped it clean again.
“Little one, what about now?”
Hinata rubbed her stomach.
She wasn’t nearly as afraid anymore.
She could feel it, Father had truly changed.
“I think…
just a little more.”
She wasn’t afraid, but she was still shy.
She was a girl, and she could eat this much, if this were anywhere but her own home, Hinata never would have said that out loud.
“Bring more!”
By now, all three of them believed every word Tiange had said.
Completely, utterly, without question.
They stared at Hinata’s stomach, looking exactly the same as when she’d sat down, and none of them could figure out where two full tables of food had gone.
The third table arrived.
This time Hinata’s pace slowed a little, taking roughly twenty minutes or so, but she still cleared it all.
Before Hiashi could say a word, Hinata spoke first.
“Father, I’m full!”
“Little one, really?”
“Don’t hide it — if you’re not full yet, we’ll keep bringing more.”
Hiashi looked at her stomach, still completely unchanged from the start, and genuinely wondered if she wasn’t full again.
“Really, I’m full!”
Hinata was a little flushed.
Three full tables, if she still wasn’t full after that, what would that make her?
“Alright, good!”
“Then we’ll use this as the regular portion from now on.
If it’s ever not enough, Hinata, you make sure to say so.
Don’t hide it from me, understood?”
“Mm, understood!”
“Good!”
“Now go get some rest.”
“Mm.
Father, Uncle, Brother Neji — goodnight!”
Watching Hinata leave with an expression just slightly different from usual, Hiashi felt like slapping themselves a few times.
“Fa…
Father, Uncle!”
“Where do you think all that food went?”
Neji was a little shaken.
That one meal was enough to feed him for several days.
No wonder his brother said Hinata had real talent.
Just in terms of eating alone, no one in Konohagakure could match her.
“How would we know?” × 2
“But — Father, Uncle.”
“We need to find a way to help Hinata build her confidence.
The way she was just now, that was good.”
“Uncle, if you show her more care and encouragement from now on, it should make a real difference.”
“The root of her problem is probably with you, Uncle.
Once things are right between the two of you, Hinata will be fine out in the world too.”
It had to be said, Neji was sharp.
He’d caught the same shift in Hinata that the others had.
Hiashi and Hizashi had seen it because of years of experience.
Nobody had expected Neji to see it too.
“Mm, I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Oh no, I almost forgot about Tiange’s matter.”
“You two go rest.
I’ll head over now.”
Having settled his daughter’s issue, Hiashi only now remembered they had originally planned to go speak with the Hokage about Tiange.
They hadn’t expected Neji’s arrival, and the news he brought, to hold things up this long.
“Brother, leave it for tonight.”
“Things are probably pretty busy over there anyway.
Going tomorrow is the same.”
Hizashi spoke up and talked Hiashi out of going right then.
Hinata’s problem had been resolved.
He was genuinely happy about it as her uncle.
“Neji, you’ll need to work even harder from now on.”
“Otherwise, who knows, one day your little sister might just overtake you.”
“Father, if Hinata overtakes me, that’s her ability.
Am I not working hard enough already?”
“And her talent was acknowledged by Brother himself, isn’t it only natural she’d surpass me?”
“As for me,”
“I’ll protect her until the day she surpasses me.
After that, she can protect me.”
Neji didn’t care in the slightest whether Hinata would overtake him.
If Hinata could grow stronger, he’d only be glad, because the way she used to be had been truly worrying.
“Only you could say that with a straight face, a brother expecting his little sister to protect him.”
Hizashi said it with some exasperation, though it was just words.
Neji still made him quite proud.
“Alright, alright.”
“Hizashi, who doesn’t know how hard Neji works?”
“Let’s talk about the Byakugan instead.”
“Based on what Tiange said, I suspect that whether the Byakugan can evolve into the Tenseigan may very well depend on that purity.”
Hiashi cut off Hizashi’s scolding and brought up the Tenseigan.
“Brother, what are you getting at?”
“Isn’t it obvious?”
“Tiange’s point was that within the Hyūga clan, the only three with any chance of awakening the Tenseigan are those three.”
“What is there even to discuss?
Don’t tell me you’re still hoping to awaken it yourself?”
Hizashi was easygoing about it, envious of the Tenseigan on the inside, sure, but not the type to chase after what wasn’t his.
“What I mean is, let’s do some research and see if there’s any way to raise the Byakugan’s purity.”
“That way, we can find out whether purity is something innate or something that can actually be changed.”
Hiashi felt a little exasperated.
Hizashi was clearly intelligent, just unwilling to use that head of his.
Though that was actually Hiashi’s mistake.
The reason Hizashi never bothered to think things through was because Hiashi was always there.
Hiashi always had everything worked out already.
Over time, whenever Hizashi was with Hiashi, Hizashi simply stopped bothering to think.
“Why go to all this trouble?”
“It’s not like we can do anything about it anyway.
I’d rather just go home and ask Tiange directly.”
“Half a day of research versus one question, isn’t all that effort just making work for yourself with nothing to show for it?”
Hizashi also got the feeling something was off, had their big brother gotten a little slow lately?
Such a simple thing and they couldn’t work it out.
“Alright, alright.”
“Get out of here and go rest.”
Hiashi couldn’t stand the look Hizashi was giving them.
This little brother was getting more and more cheeky, what was to be done about that?
Simple.
Find a chance to give him a good thrashing.
Right, Neji was still here, so it was a bit inconvenient.
Some other day, when no one was around, Hiashi would make absolutely sure Hizashi understood who the older sibling was.
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