"Duel?"
Sara froze for a moment, staring at Hanabi, who was a whole head shorter than her, her expression turning a little strange.
"What? Are you scared?"
Hanabi put her hands on her hips, "If you're scared, then from now on you'll call me 'senpai!'"
"Heh! Scared?"
Sara let out a cold laugh, "You think I'd be scared of you? I'll show you the strength of a senpai!"
Sara didn't think she could possibly lose to Hanabi, who was three or four years younger.
Hanabi refused to back down.
"Only the winner gets to be senpai!"
Hinata and Hyuga Ayako looked at each other and blinked in confusion.
'How did this suddenly turn into a duel?'
In no time at all, the two were standing in the courtyard, facing off.
As the head of the Hyuga clan, Hiashi's family courtyard was quite large. More than enough for two kids to use as a dueling ground.
Ayako sighed helplessly, "Hinata, Natsu, I'll leave their safety to you two."
"Mm."
Hinata and Hyuga Natsu both nodded seriously.
Hanabi and Sara had already taken their stances without any more preamble.
Hanabi was the first to attack.
Her speed wasn't that fast, but as she advanced, her figure suddenly split into two.
Hanabi had used the Body Flicker Technique to confuse her opponent.
"Hmph! Petty tricks!"
Sara scoffed. Purple chakra flared from her body, without even forming seals, it shaped itself into a purple chakra dragon that charged toward the two Hanabis.
Both figures vanished under Sara's attack, turning into afterimages.
"Hm?"
Sara was surprised. She hadn't expected both Hanabis to be clones.
The next second, several flashes of cold light shot straight toward her face. Sara brushed her hand, and her purple chakra swept outward, deflecting all the kunai that flew her way, embedding them into the dirt.
Before she could counterattack, Hanabi slid into Sara's blind spot and took up a Gentle Fist stance, appearing behind her.
Her right palm struck toward Sara's lower back.
If that hit landed, Sara would definitely lose the ability to fight.
The corner of Hanabi's mouth curled upward, she could already picture Sara calling her "senpai."
But the purple chakra around Sara's lower back condensed again, blocking Hanabi's Gentle Fist strike.
Hanabi was blown back, landing messily on the ground, covered in dust.
The next moment, under her stunned gaze, the chakra around Sara's body turned into chakra tendrils.
"Keheheh! Hanabi, you'd better just be a good girl and call me senpai!"
Sara laughed loudly, celebrating early, as the purple chakra tendrils whipped toward Hanabi.
"Damn it!"
Hanabi gritted her teeth and dodged. With her Byakugan activated, Sara's attacks were hard to land on her.
But activating the Byakugan and constantly dodging burned through chakra fast, especially for a seven-year-old. This battle was becoming a contest of who would run out of chakra first.
Sara's current form was somewhat similar to Naruto's Nine-Tails Chakra Mode, wrapping herself in chakra and shaping it into various forms. Naruto could even spin mini Rasengans on his fingertips.
This was also the standard combat method of the Roran royal line, manipulating the Dragon Vein's power into physical attacks. It was convenient and powerful, but the biggest drawback was its massive chakra drain.
If they were in Roran, Sara could keep fighting Hanabi like this all day.
But this wasn't Roran, it was Konoha.
Even though the Dragon Vein had enriched Sara's chakra far beyond a normal ninja's, it still couldn't sustain such expenditure for long.
So in the end, both Sara and Hanabi exhausted their chakra, collapsing to the ground, gasping for breath. Yet still glaring at each other stubbornly.
———
"So, who won in the end?"
After finishing his talk with Hiashi about the Tenseigan, Aoba came back to the living room.
He hadn't spoken with Hiashi for too long, just discussed the basic information about the Tenseigan.
He couldn't tell him everything, of course. Not things like how merging large numbers of Byakugan could evolve into a Tenseigan.
If that kind of intel got out, and someday a Hyuga thought their talent wasn't good enough, they might start targeting their own clan members.
So Aoba only mentioned that a pure Byakugan combined with immense chakra could evolve into the Tenseigan.
Hiashi wasn't upset at all, because even if Aoba said very little, he still knew more than the entire Hyuga clan.
For the Hyuga, simply confirming the Tenseigan's existence and knowing the path toward it was already plenty.
When Aoba came out, he saw two girls, one big, one small, lying on the sofa.
After Hinata explained the situation, he couldn't help but walk over with a smile and tease them.
Hanabi turned her face away, puffing her cheeks in annoyance, while Sara looked utterly lost. She hadn't expected to actually lose to someone so much younger than her.
Aoba didn't mind much and asked again, "So, which one of you is the senpai now?"
Sara immediately snapped back to attention and blurted out, "Of course it's me! I became teacher's disciple twenty years ago!"
Hanabi gave her a sidelong glance, "Hmph! Older than me but so weak."
Sara flushed bright red with anger, "I was just careless! If we were in Roran, you wouldn't stand a chance!"
"Only useless people make excuses," Hanabi mocked without mercy.
"What did you say?", Sara exploded, about to pounce on Hanabi for another three hundred rounds.
Seeing the argument about to start again, Aoba quickly stepped in, pulling Sara into his arms to calm her down.
"All right, all right…"
But before he could even finish, Sara stopped struggling and stayed nestled against his chest, shooting Hanabi a smug, triumphant look.
"…"
Aoba was speechless, and before Hanabi could explode, he pulled her in as well.
You have to balance the bowl of water evenly.
"Let go of me, you scumbag!"
Hanabi pouted and squirmed; she still wasn't done being mad.
"Well then, I really will let go."
Aoba said with a smile.
Hanabi froze, pouting but not moving anymore.
Aoba continued, "Since neither of you wants to call the other 'senpai,' then don't. Just call each other sisters instead."
"I'm fine with that."
Sara agreed immediately, she wouldn't lose anything being the "big sister."
"I'm not calling her sister."
Hanabi still pouted.
"Then just use each other's names and be friends."
Aoba said again.
"Okay."
This time, Hanabi didn't object.
After all, she'd already achieved her goal. There was no way she'd recognize the newcomer as her senpai.
If she dared to be "senpai" today, she might dare to be "teacher's wife" tomorrow.
No way she was letting that happen.