After dinner, Naruto and Sasuke turned in early.
Hanabi made her way to the moonlit corridor and activated a Daily Camera Card.
She still had three Highlight Camera Cards and one Daily Camera Card remaining.
Tonight was a waning crescent. The night air carried a quiet, unhurried chill.
A stroll through a moonlit garden at midnight—its own kind of pleasure.
"Lady Hanabi."
A figure emerged from the darkness.
"Nii-sama." Hanabi smiled and offered a greeting.
[Another pro in the wings?!]
[Brother-in-law!!]
[Not necessarily—could be a cousin]
[Same clan, could be an intra-family marriage situation...]
[Ohh so that's why it kept going—the best part was saved for last]
"Ahem—please don't address me like that. It's been a while, Lady Hanabi." Neji stepped forward. "The information you asked Natsu to have me gather—I managed to collect it during my last outside mission."
Hanabi trotted over and took the scroll from his hands.
Hyuga Neji, a member of the Branch family and Hanabi and Hinata's older brother.
By rights, he should have had the Caged Bird Seal carved into him on Hanabi and Hinata's birthday—but because of Hanabi's intervention, things had unfolded differently.
"And I told you, drop the honorifics. If Nii-sama keeps using them, I'll keep using them right back~ Nii-sama~ Nii-sama~"
Hanabi smiled pleasantly.
[Genuinely envious right now]
[Brother-in-law!! You're the brother-in-law I always wanted!!]
[This brother-in-law. I've decided. He's mine.]
[Ugh, hearing her say that made my knees go weak]
"Hanabi..." Neji was the first to crack. He handed Hanabi a scroll and a small box—clearly a gift. "Congratulations. On becoming a ninja."
"Thank you~ Neji-niisan." With Hanabi finally dropping the "Nii-sama," Neji let out a quiet breath of relief.
Hanabi accepted the gift first, then picked up the scroll.
Neji stood beside her in silence.
When did my fate start to change?
Probably that night.
It was something that had happened when he was very young. On the day the Caged Bird Seal was to be carved, Hanabi had thrown a fit and delayed the ceremony by a day.
Hanabi was the younger sister, but her talent vastly outstripped Hinata's—so she had been raised as the presumptive heir, and the clan took her words seriously enough to give them pause.
Of course, adults don't necessarily listen to children, and without something more to change the picture, Hyuga Neji would almost certainly have received the seal within the next few days regardless.
But that same night, something happened.
Hanabi was abducted by a Hidden Cloud ninja.
Rather than allow her Byakugan to be taken, Hanabi drove her own fingers into both of her eyes.
Afterward, Hiashi requested the elders postpone the sealing.
"Hanabi is a genius of the Hyuga. Her eyes are gone—but why couldn't we transplant someone else's?"
Hinata was a disappointment; whether she'd even awaken the Byakugan at all had been uncertain at the time.
—The Hyuga Byakugan had to be awakened, after all. The pale pupils were only a physical trait, not proof that the user could actually wield the clan's secret techniques.
And as luck would have it, the Branch family held one other individual with exceptional aptitude: Hyuga Neji.
"Hinata's talent is poor—her eyes may not even be usable. But Neji shows real promise. Let him serve as Hanabi's spare. When the time is right... we'll proceed with the transplant."
That was what the elders had decided.
But Neji knew—that wasn't what Hanabi wanted.
Or rather, perhaps it was exactly what Hanabi had wanted.
Because the night the Caged Bird Seal was postponed—he had seen it. The smile on Hanabi's face.
As though every part of it was already in her hands.
"Big sister's Byakugan is the purest of all—and those fools called her talent weak. Isn't that just hilarious?" Hanabi had said it more than once, right in front of him, mocking the elders and their outdated thinking.
From the very beginning, Hyuga Hanabi had held the Main and Branch family system in contempt. From the very beginning, she had wanted to tear it down.
And to keep herself from being branded with the Caged Bird Seal—she had blinded herself on purpose.
It was in that moment that Neji made his decision. He would follow Hanabi.
Even if she truly needed his eyes—she could have them.
[Big loyal dog energy]
[Wait, does this make Hanabi the hidden mastermind too?]
[She's the heir of the Hyuga—having a few subordinates is perfectly normal]
[My man. That's MY MAN right there!]
[Is it just me or does "Neji" sound slightly off? Pretty sure it's another mistranslation]
The comments, as expected, refused to behave. But maybe because the questionable translation had been called out before, someone did notice the pronunciation issue this time.
And they weren't wrong.
Just as "Hatake" Kakashi contained a pun that the CN transliteration missed, "Neji" wasn't actually read as "níng cì" (宁次)—it was neji, as in the Japanese word for a screw or spiral. The name carried connotations of twisting, spiraling, the act of turning.
And for the record, Boruto's name was a direct nod to Neji's—it's a homophone of the English word "screw," the spiral reference echoing across generations.
Nearly every major character in Naruto had a name built on wordplay. If one seemed like a plain transliteration or showed no obvious pun, it almost certainly was a mistranslation, give or take.
But that was the audience's problem, not hers. Hanabi was more focused on what was in her hands.
She had been busy lately, so she'd asked Natsu to pass along a request—have Neji collect information on the Land of Waves during his next outside mission.
The Land of Waves lay to the east of the Land of Fire, separated by a relatively short strait.
A man named Gatō had seized control of the country's maritime trade—and through it, effectively the entire nation.
Maritime trade was not a small thing.
Control the seas, and you controlled the shipping lanes between the Land of Fire and the distant Land of Water across the water. The revenue would be staggering.
The Land of Waves sat adjacent to the Land of Fire—a natural bridgehead.
Gatō had probably recognized exactly that when he moved in to develop it, then bent the whole country to his will.
There was a bridge builder of some renown—a man named Tazuna—who had rallied the informed citizens of the Land of Waves and begun constructing a bridge connecting their nation to the Land of Fire.
"He really does have strategic vision." Hanabi was impressed.
Once the Land of Waves was physically connected to the Land of Fire, the Land of Water and Hidden Mist's grip on the country would dissolve—and the Land of Waves itself would gain the foundation to grow into something more.
"But Gatō doesn't seem like he's been passive about it, either."
Gatō wasn't simply allowing Tazuna's group to build unimpeded.
He just hadn't acted yet.
"Why would Gatō let them proceed? Is there something deeper here?" Neji asked.
"Of course there is."
Hanabi noticed the broadcast hadn't shown this portion—the information on the Land of Waves had been deliberately cut from the viewer feed.
She thought that was wise. No spoiling the audience before the arc.
No spoilers—absolutely not.
So she continued: "Letting the Land of Waves build a bridge is actually a way to drain every last resource from the civilian population. Strike right when the bridge is nearly finished, and all their work collapses to nothing. And because whatever wealth remained has already been spent, any resistance movement will be crippled before it can form."
"That's what this is?" Neji's expression shifted.
"By my estimate, in a few months those bridge workers will find their progress being sabotaged. At that point they'll look for outside help. Let's think—the Land of Water is too far, and the sea route is dangerous. And this bridge leads to the Land of Fire, so..." Hanabi considered. "I'd guess they'll come to Konoha and put in a request—probably for a team to protect the bridge construction. But by then their funds will be nearly gone, so what they can offer as payment will be mostly labor rather than coin. Hiring a bridge-protection team in Konoha under those conditions won't be easy. And even more critically—once the bridge is finished, Gatō can simply send people to destroy it. So how do they protect it after that?"
"What does this have to do with your plans?" Neji asked.
"The Land of Waves is a small country. Unassuming. No grand ambitions—but with real potential. And the closest thing it has to a ruler is a shortsighted merchant. Doesn't a place like that make the ideal base of operations?"