Chapter 8: Senju Clan?
After walking for a while, Tanako Hon finally worked up the courage to speak to Yoruha.
"Yoruha, what do you think of Ino?"
Yoruha paused and looked at Tanako Hon, curious why she would ask that.
"What do you mean, what do I think of her?"
Tanako Hon's face was red as if she had a fever.
But she still asked the question that mattered so much to her.
"I mean, do you think she's really pretty?"
"And she's a girl from the Yamanaka Clan too. You boys must really like girls like that, right?"
Actually, Tanako Hon was even prettier than Ino, and her personality was very gentle and quiet. That kind of girl was usually more appealing to boys.
But Yoruha had no idea what Tanako Hon's purpose was in asking this.
He had honestly always assumed Yamada Juki and Tanako Hon had an unusual relationship.
The only reason he was walking her home today was because Yamada Juki had something urgent to do.
Yoruha thought for a moment, then said, "Well, Ino is definitely pretty."
Tanako Hon grew anxious at once.
Turning to him, she asked, "Th-then do you like her?"
Yoruha paused, then said, "We're friends, so of course I like her."
"I don't mean liking her as a friend. Do you like her like that? The kind of like between a boy and a girl."
Tanako Hon asked nervously.
"Definitely not. I only met her today."
"Why are you asking me that?"
Yoruha looked at Tanako Hon curiously.
After hearing his answer, Tanako Hon let out a breath of relief.
Smiling, she said, "Because I think she treated you differently from the other boys today."
"I could tell she seems to like you."
Yoruha smiled. "You're overthinking it. Ino acts like that toward all good-looking boys."
Tanako Hon froze for a moment.
She hadn't expected Yoruha to joke around.
Then she patted him on the shoulder and said, "So that means you think you're very handsome?"
Yoruha smiled. "Am I not?"
"You are."
Tanako Hon laughed.
The two looked at each other and laughed together.
Under the streetlights, the way they were acting now made misunderstanding them unavoidable.
At that moment, the distance between them really had grown smaller.
For Yoruha, Tanako Hon had become someone he could joke around with.
And for Tanako Hon, she had seen another side of Yoruha. So he wasn't actually as distant and hard to approach as he looked.
Amid their laughter and conversation, they soon arrived at Tanako Hon's home.
Looking at the grand estate before him, Yoruha teased, "This really is a wealthy household. Looks like Juki wasn't wrong—your family really is rich, Hon."
In the very center of Konohagakure, where every inch of land was worth a fortune, there stood a massive residence like a manor.
That was beyond merely rich.
In Konohagakure, aside from ninja, there were also many ordinary people.
After all, ninja weren't engaged in production.
The village needed ordinary people to keep many other things running.
At the same time, some wealthy merchants and nobles from the Land of Fire also lived in Konohagakure for the sake of safety.
That was one of the sources of so many low-rank mission commissions in Konohagakure.
Of course, Konohagakure's greatest source of income was still the military funding allocated by the Land of Fire.
Hearing Yoruha's words, Tanako Hon grew worried that he might distance himself from her because of her family background.
So nervous that she forgot her embarrassment, she grabbed Yoruha's hand and said, "Yoruha, you won't dislike me because of my family, will you?"
Yoruha looked at her hands. Their fair softness made him lose focus for an instant.
But very quickly, he said, "Why would you think that?"
"Having a wealthy teammate is a good thing. Why would I dislike you because of that?"
Hearing that, Tanako Hon finally relaxed.
She said to Yoruha, "A lot of people stopped wanting to play with me after they found out I'm from the Hon family."
"The older I got, the more it happened."
"They were all worried they might hurt me."
"Ever since entering the Ninja Academy, Juki was the only one willing to spend time with me."
As she spoke of this, Tanako Hon's mood became very low.
Yoruha patted her shoulder and said, "Then starting today, you have one more friend. We'll be fighting side by side from now on, after all. I want to be able to trust you both with my back."
Sensing Yoruha's sincerity, Tanako Hon nodded excitedly. "Yoruha, I definitely won't hold you back in the future."
Tanako Hon knew very well that her talent wasn't high.
But Yoruha seemed very strong, and all she wanted was to work harder from now on so she wouldn't become a burden to the team.
Yoruha smiled and said, "You won't. You and Juki are both great. I should head back now—it's late, so hurry inside."
Tanako Hon nodded. In her heart, Yoruha had already become someone important.
Children's feelings were like that. It was easy for them to like someone, and just as easy to hate someone.
Even now, Yoruha still saw Tanako Hon as only a child.
After Yoruha left, Tanako Hon remained standing at the gate until his back had completely disappeared from sight.
"So that's the teammate you got assigned to?"
Just as Tanako Hon was staring blankly in the direction Yoruha had gone, a voice suddenly sounded by her ear.
It startled her badly.
Turning around, she saw that it was her mother.
"Mom, why do you walk around without making any sound? You scared me to death."
Tanako Hon's mother was named Mina Senju. Tanako Hon resembled her somewhat.
She was about one meter seventy tall, with waist-length blonde hair tied into a ponytail. Though she was nearly forty, she looked to be only in her twenties.
Her bearing was graceful and dignified, and she was exceptionally beautiful, with strikingly high looks.
Most importantly, her surname was actually Senju.
If Yoruha had been here, he definitely would have been shocked.
In his memory, he had never seen anyone in Konohagakure with the surname Senju.
But he had never believed the Senju Clan had gone extinct. A clan that powerful, with such immense prestige in the village, could not possibly have died out within only a few short decades.
And if they really had gone extinct, people would certainly mention it often, just like the Uchiha Clan.
Yet Yoruha had never once heard anything about the Senju Clan in Konohagakure.
So Yoruha had guessed that the Senju Clan had simply merged into Konohagakure.
After all, even Tsunade didn't bear the surname Senju. Most likely, many members of the Senju Clan had abandoned the family name.
And in fact, Yoruha's guess was correct.
Many members of the Senju Clan in Konohagakure really had given up the Senju surname.
But that was only part of them.
It was also true, however, that after Hashirama and Tobirama, the Senju Clan had produced very few talents as dazzling as those two.
Aside from those who had given up the surname and chosen to merge fully into Konohagakure, many others had still retained it.
They could be found throughout the village's important departments.
It was just that Yoruha had rarely interacted with many other people in Konohagakure before, so he had never noticed.
That was normal. Yoruha had rarely encountered people with the surname Sarutobi either. Over all these years, he had only seen Asuma and the Third Hokage Hiruzen.
But by the Fourth Great Ninja War, a whole crowd of Sarutobi would appear.
In ordinary times, ninjas from these clans basically never went out of their way to show themselves.
And the people who appeared in the story were generally only those connected to the plot. Other ninja were busy with their own lives, so naturally they wouldn't show up in the plot.
After all, Konohagakure had tens of thousands of ninja, and with ordinary civilians included, the population reached several tens of thousands more.
The area of Konohagakure itself was so vast that it hardly resembled a village at all; it was truly a large city. If just one training ground had a twenty-kilometer diameter, one could imagine how enormous Konohagakure really was.
Tanako Hon's mother was a member of the Senju Clan. Though she had inherited the Senju surname, she was not a ninja.