"Go for it, Neji!"
"That nine-tailed fox brat could never be a match for Neji. He's definitely going to lose."
"Hm?"
Hearing this, Furina looked toward the audience seats. Since the Chūnin Exams were meant to showcase the strength of Konoha's ninja to everyone, the stands were already packed with spectators.
Most of the people were cheering for Neji not necessarily because they liked him that much, but because the impression of Naruto as the demon fox incarnation was simply too deeply ingrained.
"Tch." Of course Furina didn't want Naruto to feel completely isolated and unsupported at a time like this, but actually opening her mouth to cheer for him herself was still too embarrassing. What should she do?
Furina's gaze wandered around, and finally her eyes lit up when she spotted someone. She quickly walked over, slung an arm around the other's shoulder, and smirked mischievously.
"Hinata, you don't want Naruto to have no one cheering him on, right? And his opponent this time is Neji the same Neji who bullied you so badly last time. Hurry up and cheer for Naruto so he can get revenge for you~ o(￣︶￣)o"
The moment Furina put an arm around her, Hinata's small face had already turned bright red. After hearing Furina's words, it felt like steam was about to rise from the top of her head no one knew how she managed it.
"Um, that, I..."
Just as Hinata was stammering, a middle-aged man standing in front of her turned his head to glance back. Seeing that the one who had hooked arms with his daughter was a very pretty girl, he didn't pay it any mind and turned back to watch the two people in the arena.
The person accompanying Hinata was naturally her father, Hyūga Hiashi, the head of the Hyūga clan. When Hinata realized her father had looked but didn't intervene, she felt even more helpless.
"What should I do..." With Furina's face almost pressed right up against hers, Hinata's face grew even redder. She could even feel the warm breath the other was exhaling...
"Father, save me..."
Unfortunately, her father was fully focused on the match in the arena and had no idea what she was thinking. In the end, it was Furina who took the initiative to step back. She had no choice the steam was literally starting to rise. She was worried something might actually happen to her.
"Hehe, have you thought it over? Naruto really needs your cheers right now~"
Once Hinata had calmed down a bit, Furina leaned close to her ear again and whispered with a grin, startling Hinata into quickly taking two steps to the side. Seeing Furina about to close in again, she could only surrender.
"O-okay, I'll cheer for Naruto-kun. But Furina, you have to come too. You're his teammate. If you're not there, he'll definitely be disappointed."
"Oh~" Furina hadn't expected to be countered by Hinata with such a logical and reasonable argument. If she refused now, her conscience would hurt.
"Fine, you've beaten me. Let's go cheer for your Naruto-kun together~"
Seeing Hinata's face turn red again, Furina promptly reached over and pinched her cheek. Since Hinata had managed to outplay her, she was definitely going to take the advantage back.
"Naruto-kun, do your best! I believe you'll definitely win!"
Even though she had already gathered some courage, when Hinata walked closer to the edge of the arena, she still felt a bit uncomfortable.
Except for the first few words which were spoken a little louder, her voice gradually grew smaller and smaller until even Furina standing right beside her could barely hear it.
"Uh..." Seeing Naruto look over with a puzzled expression, Furina suspected he had probably only caught the words "Naruto-kun" and hadn't heard a single thing after that. Ugh, even more awkward now.
"Hinata asked me to tell you: do your best. She believes you can definitely win."
Once she noticed more and more eyes turning their way, Furina quickly repeated what Hinata had just said. After realizing the two were just cheering, the onlookers lost interest and looked away again.
They had thought something interesting was going to happen. How boring.
"If you're going to cheer for me, just cheer for me directly. What's there to be shy about? You even had to borrow Hinata as an excuse. Geez, that Furina..."
Seeing Furina and Hinata waving at him, the gloomy mood Naruto had felt from having no support earlier completely vanished. Now someone believed in him too. Just watch he was definitely going to defeat Neji.
"Match begin!"
Just as Naruto silently steeled his resolve, Iruka Kamizuki also announced the start of the battle and promptly stepped back to the edge of the arena, leaving the field to the two combatants.
"Hey, you guys don't seriously think he can beat Neji, do you? Neji is a genius. He won't lose."
Just as the two on the field began to clash, a girl dressed in quite a Chinese-style outfit walked up beside Furina and Hinata. Hearing her words, Furina wasn't surprised.
Tenten, after all. She was Neji's teammate, so it was normal for her to speak up for him.
But girl, there's one thing you probably don't know: no matter how much of a genius someone is, they still can't beat someone with cheats. And Naruto just happens to be that someone.
"Then we'll just have to wait and see. As Naruto's teammate, I have zero doubt that he'll win."
"Tch, then keep watching. Neji will definitely win."
While the two girls exchanged words laced with a bit of gunpowder, on the field, Naruto's swarm of shadow clones had all been blown apart by Neji's Eight Trigrams Palms Revolving Heaven. Seeing this scene, although Tenten didn't say anything, the smile on her face had already betrayed her thoughts.
"Don't be like that, Hinata. Have a little more faith in Naruto." Seeing Hinata looking clearly worried, Furina quickly tried to comfort her though it seemed to have the opposite effect.
"I'm sorry, Furina. I shouldn't have doubted Naruto-kun. From now on, I'll always believe in him."
This wasn't just lip service Hinata truly meant it. After hearing Furina's righteous and stern words, she instantly felt that she still had a lot of room to grow.
"Furina-san truly is Naruto-kun's teammate. No matter the situation, she's willing to believe in him unconditionally. And yet I actually wavered just because of a few setbacks Naruto-kun experienced... It seems I still have so much to improve."
"Eh..." Seeing Hinata looking somewhat ashamed, Furina suddenly felt a bit embarrassed herself.
Although Furina didn't know exactly what Hinata was thinking, based on her understanding of the other girl, she could guess about eighty to ninety percent of it.
The key point was that she firmly believed Naruto would win because she knew the plot. So no matter how disadvantaged Naruto seemed, it didn't matter to her. But Hinata was different she didn't know any of that.
So Hinata could only analyze based on the situation on the field. Even though she still believed in Naruto after seeing him at a disadvantage, that belief was still somewhat different from Furina's "I've-read-the-script" belief.