That content creator had quite a strong reputation.
The comments below, though, were full of complaints begging them to stop jinxing it.
"Stage," Hanabi asked, "can videos like this help me boost my popularity?"
[New-episode videos can temporarily boost audience attention toward a character and their series, which may indirectly affect popularity values.]
Understood. Basically the same as KOL referral traffic or paid promotion—except these viewers showed up on their own dime.
"Hard to pin down their exact tastes, but at least I can tell that side seems to be in a seasonal lull for anime."
Hanabi kept scrolling. There were plenty of new-season preview roundups, most expressing anticipation for Ninja's Path.
As she browsed the comments, she noticed certain posts with unusually high like counts.
[Rekindling the hot-blooded spirit is hype and all, but I wish they'd try something different]
[The homage stuff is fine for a throwback, but the "boy grows up" formula is so played out—I want something new]
[How about a girl's coming-of-age arc for once lol]
[If Ninja's Path started with Naruko as the lead from day one, that'd actually be way more interesting]
[Female lead and second male lead? That's a female-audience trope, isn't it?]
[You literally just said you wanted something new. Fine, ship Naruko × Hanabi then]
[Honestly I'd rather see Hanabi × her sister Hinata]
[Hanabi's outfit is way too covered up—those battle outfits from the Taimanin franchise next door? That's the vibe]
[The Taimanin counts as ninjas too, no cap 233]
"The culture really is different over there."
The online atmosphere on the viewers' side bore a passing resemblance to her own past life—yet wasn't quite the same. And as far as the concept of "ninjas" went, the genre that seemed to hold the higher profile was, apparently, some kind of adult-coded ninja franchise that good children definitely shouldn't watch.
"Oh?"
Just then, Hanabi noticed the livestream camera had lit up again—and cut to someone else.
"You started teaching both of them tree-climbing already?"
Hatake Kakashi's voice.
"Good evening, Sensei Kakashi."
Hanabi greeted him without any particular surprise. She'd already caught his brief screen time earlier in the broadcast.
The feed had shown Kakashi exchanging a few words with the Third Hokage about Naruto and Sasuke, after which Kakashi apparently decided to check on his students himself.
The series livestream system was frankly more useful than the Byakugan as a scouting tool.
"Because Sensei Kakashi has to spend so much time contemplating the road of life," Hanabi said, "I had no choice but to step in."
"Ahem." Kakashi averted his gaze awkwardly. "Well... your teaching approach is solid, actually. Those two really do need this kind of foundational training. Though having Naruto transform first and then practice tree-climbing—isn't that a bit..."
"I think it's perfectly appropriate. Naruto has an enormous chakra reserve; I even think he could use Shadow Clone Jutsu to accelerate the training. It's just that his control over Shadow Clones isn't refined yet—if he pushes it too hard right now, the accumulated fatigue will crush him. So I'll tell him once he's ready."
"And what about you?" Kakashi looked down at Hanabi's hands.
She was seated seiza on her picnic blanket, apparently motionless in meditation—yet Kakashi could see that her physical stamina was depleting at a steady clip. The outfit itself seemed to function as some kind of training apparatus. And her hands, open in her lap, carried a continuous pulse of chakra cycling through them.
"Ah, you mean this."
A sphere of chakra began to materialize in her palm.
"—?!!" Kakashi nearly lost his composure. "A Rasengan?"
"Sensei Kakashi was the student of the Fourth Hokage," Hanabi said, "and the Fourth's original hand-seal-less jutsu—the Rasengan—is extraordinary. I was teaching Naruto and found myself curious, so I thought I'd try replicating it. Seems to be working out."
This was a lie.
As the most thoroughly documented jutsu in all of Naruto, Hanabi had learned the Rasengan long ago.
"You just... replicated the Rasengan on a whim?" Kakashi's composure cracked entirely.
On a whim, and she could do that?
What kind of absurd genius was this?
"Not entirely. The Rasengan is nature-type neutral. I'm experimenting with infusing Fire Release's nature transformation into it—which would make it considerably more interesting."
A basic Rasengan she could learn by rote if someone showed her how. That was nothing.
But a Rasengan fused with nature transformation—that she'd have to figure out on her own.
She was also, to be honest, attempting to incorporate the force of planetary rotation into it—something like a Rasengan Uzuhiko—but the version from the Boruto era was far too esoteric, and she'd hit a wall.
Kakashi fell silent.
If anyone else had said that, he'd have chalked it up to empty bravado. But if it was Hanabi saying it—he wasn't so sure anymore.
"At any rate," he managed at last, "you have a mission tomorrow. Don't drain yourself."
He took his leave with those words, clearly still wrestling with something internally.
[O·N·A·W·H·I·M]
[Kakashi's been acting weird]
[There's more to this!! There's definitely more going on!!]
[We still don't know how many techniques Lady Hyuga Hanabi is actually hiding]
[That technique looked like the Fourth Hokage's creation—supposed to be pretty complex—and she said she whipped it up "on a whim." Is this what elite talent looks like?]
[Hold on everyone, how is that the takeaway?? The real bombshell is that Hatake Kakashi was the Fourth Hokage's student!!]
The comment section erupted into a lively multi-threaded argument—and the episode's segment came to an end.
"Hff, hff, hff..." By evening, both Naruto and Sasuke were gasping for breath. Today's training had finally concluded.
"Naruto, you reverted."
Hanabi noticed the transformation had dropped.
"I'm running on empty, okay!" Naruto wailed weakly. "Holding a transformation for that long is exhausting!"
"True—in long-term infiltration scenarios, actual disguise techniques are more practical than transformation. But Naruto, you're not on a stealth mission right now. You're training. Understand?"
"Ugh..."
Naruto scratched the back of her head and transformed again, resuming the blonde twin-tailed "Naruko" appearance.
[Rave reviews]
[Transform for me]
[That's my wife—full marks as always]
[Come to think of it, Hanabi's attitude toward Naruto is definitely a bit different—but it also feels like she keeps her at arm's length. You don't think Hanabi's preferences are...]
[Wait now that you mention it, Hanabi and Hinata really do seem a little... suspicious]
[Honestly Naruko × Sasuke feels more natural]
[CP shippers back off—this slice of life is clearly just for laughs and chaos, nobody gave you permission to form a ship here]
The comments devolved into their usual beautiful chaos.
And Hanabi's popularity ticked steadily upward.
The danmaku was an absolute mess, but Hanabi had confirmed one thing.
Compared to a standard hot-blooded male protagonist, the audience was visibly and enthusiastically more invested in the current iteration of "Miss Naruko."
So Hanabi decided to push a little further.
"My lady. The annex is prepared." Maid Hyuga Natsu had appeared beside her.
"Understood. Let's go have dinner then." Hanabi said.
"Yes!! Food!!" Naruto's energy snapped back in an instant.
"...That idiot still has stamina left?"
Sasuke hauled himself up off the ground.
Because Naruto hadn't just been maintaining a simple transformation this whole time—she'd been doing it under weighted training gear. Same as Sasuke.
"Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. In your case, Sensei Kakashi can help you in ways I can't."
Sasuke's greatest gift was the Sharingan.
But with the Uchiha clan gone, Kakashi was the only one who could actually guide him.
"That lazy, unmotivated Jōnin..." Sasuke's brow furrowed.
"It's not like I can arrange for a Uchiha clan member to teach you... though, actually—wait, could I?"
Hanabi tilted her head.
"What are you saying—there are Uchiha still alive?!" Sasuke lurched upright, then collapsed back down.
"Don't get worked up. It's just a rumor I heard—don't get your hopes up. And even if there is Uchiha blood somewhere out there, those people probably don't even know what 'Uchiha' means, let alone the Sharingan."
"...Yes." The disappointment on Sasuke's face was plain.
True—there might be Uchiha bloodlines that survived outside the clan. But how many of them would ever awaken the Sharingan over a lifetime? And of those, how many could figure out how to fight with it on their own?
What Sasuke didn't know was that Hanabi meant something else entirely.
Because Hanabi did know one Uchiha.
If the Warring States Sealed Records existed, then the girl called "Hikari Uchiha" almost certainly existed within them.
Pull Hikari Uchiha out of there, then say—shall we burn the ninja world to ash together?
That sounded like it could be a lot of fun.