After her bath, Natsu came in to help dry Hanabi off and change her into her sleep clothes.
"Haaah."
Before bed, Hanabi always drank a glass of warm milk, then spent twenty minutes doing stretches—a complete wind-down before she let herself sleep. She never carried fatigue or tension into the next day.
Appearances were important to an idol, after all. Even if she was only a supporting character right now—who said she couldn't become the lead later?
Hanabi was very confident in her looks.
Her face wasn't identical to Hyuga Hanabi's original appearance, but if she opened her eyes and styled herself to match canon, the resemblance was close enough. Dress her in a short kimono, give her red eyes, pull her hair into twin tails—and she'd pass for Sparkle from Honkai: Star Rail too.
Dye her hair white, add the black gauze blindfold, hand her a sword—a Jingliu cosplay was entirely doable, age gap aside.
Her looks drew from all of those at once. Whatever she styled herself as, she could sell it. For an idol, that kind of versatility was a rare gift.
"Mm—oh. This much popularity overnight?"
Waking up the next morning, Hanabi found her popularity had climbed over a thousand points while she slept.
Even though the show had already ended.
"...The comments section."
When she'd checked it last night, there hadn't been much. With the time difference between the two worlds, she wasn't sure how their hours lined up. But when she opened it this morning, the discussion threads had multiplied.
She couldn't post anything herself—only read threads related to Ninja's Path that appeared on that side's biggest video platform.
The show was still live-only for now, but the comment section and rating page were already open.
"So the audience is really this enthusiastic already."
Skimming through, Hanabi noticed that a lot of the discussion was actually about her.
The top post in the trending section: [An investigation into how rich Lady Hanabi is, based purely on her shoes].
The title was absurd enough that Hanabi had to click it.
[While the rest of you were analyzing Lady Hanabi's genjutsu, I noticed something else entirely: she's loaded.]
[In the ninja academy, it's generally hard to gauge anyone's background from their appearance. With one exception: our Lady Hanabi.]
[Hinata and most of the other students wear standard casual clothes and what appears to be the same mass-produced ninja sandals. Hanabi is an entirely different story. For those who missed it: among every shinobi shown in episode one, she was the only one wearing geta. Everyone else had the same standard sandals. She was also the only student in a proper kimono.]
They actually noticed?
Since the show was live-only, with no replay, Hanabi had assumed most of these details would slip by until the VOD dropped. Apparently not.
Her wardrobe choices weren't just aesthetic. They were deliberate branding—building a specific image.
An idol's persona was a craft. Constructing one was something every idol had to master.
[The kimono is one thing—it's a furisode, which is common enough in a Japanese-style setting. Let's focus on the shoes, which are actually more revealing. I should mention: Hanabi changed shoes between scenes. No screenshots since I'm not a premium member, but I'm borrowing from other users in the thread. Figure 1:]
[In the first half, she's wearing geta—but after graduation, she switches to zōri. Figure 2:]
[Quick note: "zōri" here doesn't mean straw sandals. Think of it as replacing the wooden platform of a geta with layered leather.]
[The geta she wore initially are called "ai-komachi." Traditional footwear for unmarried young women. The platform is split—a triangular wedge in front, a rounded heel in back, sometimes called "ushiro-maru." Figure 3:]
[The toe height and overall shape have some overlap with the modern "ai-ukon" style—which is closer to a high wedge. That slight hybrid quality is probably an original design for the show. These shoes are heavy, but extremely durable. Figure 4:]
[Now—did anyone notice that Hanabi's ai-komachi are black, lacquered to a high gloss, exquisitely made? That particular style—glossy black lacquer with a red sole—is called "kuro-ōen." It was traditionally done with black lacquer; today, plant-based substitute coatings are used instead.]
[There's also hand-painted decorative work on them—cherry blossoms and other motifs. That's not standard. And looking at the grain of the lacquerwork, you can see it mimics the natural pattern of the wood. That grain pattern means the material is "masame" wood.]
[In Chinese, the character "柾" is treated as a variant of "柩" (coffin), but in Japanese, it refers specifically to wood cut radially, toward the center of the tree, producing a straight, parallel grain—as opposed to "itame," the irregular grain of flat-cut wood.]
[In short: this is an expensive material. The Japanese reading of 柾 is "masa"—the same sound as characters meaning "grace," "correct," and "wise." It's a quiet signal: the Hyuga clan is a prominent clan.]
[In today's market, a kuro-ōen ai-komachi starts around ¥5,000. Add masame wood and the price triples. That's factory-made. Custom hand-painted or fully handcrafted? Don't ask. In an historical context, you genuinely could not put a number on it.]
[Now—after the graduation exam, Hanabi switches to a different pair. The heel profile changes; these are clearly zōri. Same black base, similar hand-painted work. Based on the proportions, I'd estimate these are "gobu-sanmai" zōri—three layers of leather, each five-bu thick.]
[Like I said: "zōri" isn't straw sandals. Most zōri are leather—imagine stacking layer upon layer of hide to replace the wooden platform of a geta. As for price: multiply my earlier estimate by ten, minimum. Real leather or rarer materials? ¥100,000 to several hundred thousand is not impossible.]
[These, specifically, would be "hand-painted gobu-sanmai kuro-aka genuine-leather zōri." Starting price: ¥100,000.]
[The shoe swap also carries meaning. Geta historically paired with yukata, not furisode—wearing geta with a proper kimono is a modern casualness that would have been frowned upon. For formal kimono, zōri are correct. The switch marks Hanabi's transition: she is now a shinobi.]
[Technically, the correct footwear for a graduation would be yabane zōri—with an arrow-flight motif on the side. "The arrow, once loosed, does not return." Traditionally worn at coming-of-age ceremonies, graduations, weddings, or any occasion marking a new beginning. The arrow shape is constructed, not painted or dyed—which means very few craftspeople today can still make them properly. In a setting like Ninja's Path, presumably there are more.]
[You can tell from the shoes alone: Hanabi's background is exceptional. At least a rich girl, minimum.]
[One last thing: a lot of people are saying Hanabi isn't wearing tabi—that it's white silk instead. I'm confirming this. The texture doesn't match tabi at all. Compare with other characters wearing geta—check the graduation scene specifically. Based on my extensive career studying hosiery, I am confident in my assessment: those are white stockings. Long white stockings. I am calling it now.]
"...Absolute freaks," Hanabi murmured, staring at the screen.
Because she had considered wearing a different pair of shoes when she'd gone out.
These viewers were insane.
She kept reading. The replies were a spectacle of their own.
[Adding on: when Hanabi took the scroll from Naruto, the Third Hokage visibly relaxed—which means he trusts her background enough to let it go. That tells you something about her family's standing.]
[¥5,000 for a high platform sandal. What on earth.]
[Three layers of genuine leather. That just sounds expensive.]
[THREE LAYERS. The forging competition memes are BACK. I need to make a three-layer Damascus Bowie knife.]
[Why get this precise about 2D stuff? Real dramas had "struggling" female leads who claimed they couldn't make rent, then lived in villas, went to Starbucks, and hit high-end restaurants every other scene. Hilarious.]
[The one I watched was even wilder—leads in an unemployment crisis, then turned around and moved into a ¥12,000/month school-district apartment like it was nothing, drove two Fords, and somehow had two kids in their final year of high school on top of all that.]
[Real dramas should stay out of our anime discourse. 🐶]
[Fair point though—if a character shows up in a gorgeous furisode and moves like a noble, only a director with brain damage would design her to be poor. "She's actually broke" is not a valid reading here.]
[I want to see Hanabi in her broke era with no clothes.]
[Sir. Lack of ambition. Personally, I want a broke era for the entire village of Konoha. All of them. Zero clothes.]
[Thread is going off the rails—off the rails! Ninja's Path isn't like other shows, people. Their marketing said so themselves: "a real world."]
[You believe what they say? Have you forgotten the Bouncing Heaven incident?]
Ninja's Path had only one episode out, and somehow it had already caught fire.
After observing the situation a while longer, Hanabi figured out why.
It wasn't random. On that side of the screen, it had been a long time since any major serialized anime had aired. Hot money flooding into the industry had pushed everyone toward short-form isekai—fast, cheap, disposable—and the whole industry had become a mess.
Even major anime and ACG websites were being forced to restructure.
Into that atmosphere—with audiences starved, muttering enough already—a long-form action-adventure show had appeared out of nowhere. Even just one episode was enough to send them into a frenzy.
"Understood. They were bottled up."
Lady Hanabi rendered her verdict in four words.
"Now then—the rewards should be finished calculating."
The bonus for the first episode broadcast had finally come through.