"Bootleg figures? Hmm, I suppose no market is ever free of bottom-feeders looking for a quick profit."
Hinata examined the shoddy figure in her hand, shrugged, and gave it a squeeze. The cheap knockoff promptly dissolved into an unidentifiable pile of residue.
"But is it really okay to just ignore them? I heard they're selling a ton."
Naruto folded his arms with a disgruntled pout. Normally, this stance involved feet planted wide apart and arms crossed—the dead-last's signature tough-guy pose. But since he was still in women's clothing with a short skirt, the dead-last kept his legs pressed tightly together by instinct. The effect traded his usual air of punchability for a touch of bratty defiance.
"Relax. The manufacturer has connections, and I trust them to handle it on their own. So—"
Her tone shifted, taking on a darker edge. "Naruto. I didn't press you in front of the others, but now it's time to come clean. How the hell do you know the Sonic Boom?"
She hadn't forgotten. The Sonic Boom Naruto had unleashed during his tailed-beast transformation, combined with his earlier behavior, painted a clear picture: this idiot had used Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu to train the Sonic Boom all night, burning through so much chakra that the Four Symbols Seal couldn't keep up with converting the Nine-Tails' energy—and triggered the transformation.
Which raised the obvious question: where had this idiot learned the technique?
If it were someone like Kakashi or Sasuke—actual prodigies—she might believe they'd invented it themselves. But Naruto? Claiming this guy developed an original technique was about as credible as claiming pigs had learned to fly.
"I'm quite sure I never gave you that manual. Am I wrong?"
Hinata fixed him with a cold stare, then pointedly glanced at the cliff edge nearby. This was the very spot where, in the original story, Jiraiya had thrown Naruto off to force him into learning the Summoning Technique. Her choice of venue for this conversation needed no explanation.
"Well... the thing is..."
Naruto hemmed and hawed, sweat pouring down his face. He was usually pretty thick-skinned, but his instincts were sharp—and they were screaming that a wrong answer here could make today his last.
"Yami Barai!"
The hair at the back of Hinata's neck whipped up as if caught by a phantom wind. She spun, lashing out with one arm, and a blazing arc of crimson sparks roared along the ground toward Naruto.
"Eek!"
Naruto threw himself into a frantic roll to dodge the incoming Yami Barai, but Hinata had no intention of stopping. She drew a sharp breath and sent three more strikes hurtling along different trajectories toward her flailing target—clearly deciding that another round of the Russian repair method would be more productive than talking.
"Wait—Hinata—I just—"
Forced into consecutive rolls by the first two blasts, Naruto found his feet dangerously close to the cliff edge. With the third Yami Barai bearing down on him, the blonde had no choice but to cross his arms desperately. A pale-blue wind blade erupted from between them—the Sonic Boom, the same kind of externalized-chakra attack as Yami Barai. The two techniques collided in midair and exploded in a shower of sparks.
"Talk."
Hinata slowly raised one hand. Backlit by the sun, her face was hidden beneath the shadow of her bangs, making her pale eyes look all the more piercing. "Tell me—who gave you that manual?"
"I'm sorry... it was my fault..."
Naruto dropped to his knees, palms pressed together in desperate supplication, his voice small and sheepish. "It's because... I snuck into your room once, and I found a few scraps of the manual in your trash can... so I just... wanted to try training it..."
Hinata paused. For once, she was genuinely uncertain.
Naruto was, after all, a pubescent boy. Curiosity about a girl's room was perfectly natural. Factor in his mischievous streak, and the idea that he'd gone rummaging through her quarters wasn't exactly far-fetched. And she really hadn't burned the manual completely that day—if a stray page had survived, it wasn't impossible that he'd found it.
Was she overthinking this again?
Her clenched fists slowly relaxed. Another thought surfaced: the day her soul had returned, she'd been startled to find her body floating in water. Whether it was sleepwalking or something else entirely, if Naruto had been involved... he surely wouldn't have stood by and watched "Hinata" jump into the water right in front of him.
Which meant... maybe this idiot was telling the truth?
She turned it over several times, then shook her head hard, banishing the unsettling possibilities to the back of her mind. Some lines of thinking were best left unexplored. If there was another consciousness sharing her body, then the question of whether her own actions belonged to her or to someone else became a terrifying spiral—and that kind of doubt could shatter the self-assurance that any strong fighter needed.
"Hmph. Count yourself lucky!"
She spat once and stalked away from the cliff without looking back. There was no point in beating Naruto up further—she only had herself to blame for not disposing of the manual properly. Classic protagonist luck, finding the one surviving scrap.
An aggravating blunder, but what was done was done. And in a way, Naruto's premature exposure to the tailed-beast transformation was both curse and blessing. The downside was obvious—far more eyes were watching now. But the upside was that as the organization capable of suppressing a partial transformation, the Hinata Group's strength would be tacitly acknowledged by the village leadership. Their covert authority had just risen considerably.
Hinata fished a corn kernel from her pocket and squeezed. It popped neatly into a perfect piece of popcorn. She studied it for a moment, nodded in satisfaction, and tossed it into her mouth. Her chakra control training was complete. That meant it was time for the finishing moves.
Only powerful, decisive ultimate techniques could end a fight quickly—and prevent a repeat of the helplessness she'd felt against Naruto's tailed-beast form.
A flicker of movement interrupted her thoughts. Sai, clad in a maid outfit, dropped to one knee before her.
"Lady Hinata. Lord Danzō requests your presence."
Root's headquarters always had a funereal quality to it. Danzō stood wreathed in shadow, looking more like a restless ghost than a living man. At the sound of footsteps behind him, the leader of Root turned, his single visible eye cold and appraising as it settled on Hinata behind Sai.
"I must say, I never expected a girl like you to make waves on this scale. It seems I underestimated you."
For all his scheming nature, Danzō's words were always blunt. A man whose real machinations took place entirely in the dark had little use for deceptive speech on the surface.
"You flatter me. I'm just trying to earn a bit of money for my future."
Hinata shrugged, unconcerned, and folded her arms. "So—what did you need?"
"Hmph. I'd very much like to tell you that the organization supplying your figures is the most dangerous missing-nin organization in the shinobi world. But judging by how eagerly you've been raking in the profits, I doubt that would make you stop."
Danzō's tone carried its usual cutting edge, but that kind of veiled threat wasn't enough to rattle Hinata. She simply closed her mouth and waited for him to continue.
Seeing her non-reaction, Danzō's fingers tightened on his cane. This girl unnerved him. Her ability to remain utterly composed in the face of his intimidation was a quality possessed by very few people in all of Konoha. Or rather, Hinata was simply the type who wouldn't budge until she saw tangible profit on the table.
"Follow me."
Having confirmed his read on her, Danzō turned and walked toward a side tunnel. Hinata followed at an unhurried pace. Experience had taught her that "profit" was always one of the strongest cards anyone could play. A person who could deliver enormous profit enjoyed special treatment everywhere. The more ambitious the person across the table, the more courteously they'd treat her.
And Danzō was, without question, one of the most ambitious people in the original story. Naturally, the greater Hinata's value, the less she had to worry about him moving against her.
After descending a spiral staircase behind Danzō, Hinata emerged into a vast underground chamber.
What stopped her in her tracks wasn't the space itself—it was the object at its center. It resembled a massive, gnarled tree root, but on its surface was a form unmistakably human. And the face on that body was identical to the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju.
"This is...?"
Hinata activated her Byakugan on instinct, and a cold sweat immediately broke out across her forehead. Through the Byakugan's vision, the root-like structure before her contained a meridian network almost identical to a human body's—and the chakra reserves within it dwarfed those of anyone she had ever seen. Even the Third Hokage couldn't compare.
"This is the body of the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju. As you can see, the First was a shinobi capable of Wood Release. After his death, the immense chakra within him spontaneously transformed into what you see now. Moreover, through careful research, we've confirmed that the First's cells can be transplanted into other individuals, dramatically enhancing their physical capabilities."
Danzō glanced at Hinata, a faint smirk tugging at one corner of his mouth. He knew he'd played the right card.
Money and status were trivial to Hinata at this point. Her organization already wielded significant influence, and between the Fox Tales franchise and the figure business with Akatsuki, revenue was pouring in.
But no amount of wealth or political power could substitute for personal strength.
Danzō had been observing Hinata's movements closely. He was confident that she was the type who pursued raw power with the same obsessive intensity she brought to everything else. And the First Hokage's cells were bait she could not refuse.
"Fine. Name your price, Lord Danzō."
Just as expected, Hinata dropped all pretense. If Danzō had already identified her hunger for power, there was no point in hiding it.
"What I want to know is: what will this power cost me?"