Chapter 233: Hinata's True Feelings
The moment Kurotsuchi's words landed, the entire conference room fell silent — but Ōnoki immediately rushed to smooth things over for his daughter.
Kurotsuchi showed not the slightest appreciation for his effort.
"You. Challenging me?"
Sakura pointed at Kurotsuchi, then at herself, making sure she'd heard correctly.
"Absurd. Lord Ōnoki, control your subordinate."
Displeasure flickered across Koharu's face. That something like this would happen in a setting like this—
If Pinky actually agreed, it would amount to a genuine self-demotion.
"That's right!"
Kurotsuchi seemed to have missed Koharu's words entirely, nodding with total seriousness.
"Not interested."
Sure, Sakura still wanted to complete her collection of Annihilate the Four Kage, but Kurotsuchi wasn't yet the Fourth Tsuchikage — and given the current situation, she was a long way from becoming one.
In fact, judging by present circumstances, as long as Deidara didn't cause any more trouble, the Fourth Tsuchikage's seat probably wasn't destined for Kurotsuchi at all.
Exactly as Koharu had already reasoned — Kurotsuchi currently had neither the ability nor the standing to challenge Sakura.
If she genuinely wanted to fight her, there was really only one scenario in which that could happen.
War.
War between Iwagakure and Konoha.
"You—!"
Kurotsuchi flared with anger at this, but Ōnoki cut in sharply:
"ENOUGH! No more of this nonsense!"
Kurotsuchi bit down hard on her lip, clearly resentful, and finally spoke:
"...Understood."
"My apologies, Lady Hokage. My daughter doesn't know her place. Please allow me to apologize on her behalf."
With that, Ōnoki bent his sturdy, powerful frame forward in a deep bow before Sakura.
Watching her father, tears welled in Kurotsuchi's eyes.
Why? Why should it be like this?
Why do they have to grovel before Konoha like this — they capture one of ours, and we have to pay THEM, hand over OUR secret techniques, just to get him back?
Why does Dad, normally so formidable, have to bow his head like this before a Hokage younger than herself...
It's not FAIR!
"It's fine."
Watching the powerfully built man, the Hokage spoke evenly.
By the time Ōnoki straightened up again, the Hokage had already left the room, leaving nothing behind but the memory of her retreating back.
"My apologies for the disturbance, Elder Koharu."
Ōnoki looked at Koharu's clearly displeased expression, his own face apologetic.
"Rather than apologizing, perhaps you should focus on properly educating your junior."
Watching this whole spectacle had left Koharu genuinely irritated.
"Yes, yes. We'll deliver the Light and Heavy Weight Rock techniques within the next two days. As for the remaining two hundred million, that will likely have to wait until we return home."
"Mm."
Koharu answered with mild indifference, then rose to leave.
Behind her, Kurama Asuka remained in place, extending a hand with an expressionless face.
"This way, please. I'll show you to your accommodations."
"Thank you, Miss Asuka. Much appreciated."
By the time Sakura left the Hokage Building, night had fully settled over Konoha.
She glanced back once at the brightly lit building before heading off.
Normally, she'd have finished work hours ago — but today, thanks to Iwagakure's delegation, she'd effectively worked overtime.
By this hour, Mom and Dad have probably already had dinner...
At the thought, Sakura's feet carried her naturally toward the food district.
She'd told her mother long ago — if she wasn't home by six, there was no need to save her dinner.
Walking through the bustling, brightly lit food street, surrounded by villagers coming and going, plenty of them greeting her warmly along the way, Sakura returned each greeting in turn.
Before she quite realized it, she found herself standing before a familiar storefront.
Ichiraku Ramen.
Looking at the iconic shop, she considered it for a moment, then walked in.
"Welcome!"
"Oh — it's Lady Hokage!"
Ayame, as cheerful as ever, greeted her enthusiastically.
Sakura glanced at the menu on the wall. "It's been a while. I'll have a bowl of char siu ramen, please."
"Coming right up, Lady Hokage!"
The warm-faced cook immediately set to work on her order.
"Speaking of which, we haven't seen you in ages, Lady Hokage. Is it because our food isn't to your taste?"
Ayame set the utensils in front of Sakura, teasing.
"Huh?"
"That's not it at all. The ramen's genuinely excellent."
Sakura was mildly surprised Ayame would even ask.
"Then why does Lady Hokage visit so rarely?"
"Is it because you're just too busy?"
Ayame asked out of genuine curiosity — no hidden agenda, just wondering how a customer felt about the shop's food.
Meanwhile, on the other side, the cook's ears perked up unconsciously.
Considering Ayame's question, Sakura gave it some genuine thought before answering earnestly:
"If you eat the same delicious food every single day, eventually you get sick of it."
"And you also miss out on other good food in the process. But if you space out your visits, you get to rediscover that same joy you felt the very first time you tried it."
Listening to Sakura's thoughtful answer, Ayame scratched her head with a slight chuckle.
"That actually makes a lot of sense. Lady Hokage and Naruto really do have completely opposite personalities~~~"
Naruto was the type who, once he decided something was delicious, would eat it every single day without ever tiring of it.
"Naruto keeps coming back to Ichiraku not just because the ramen's good..."
Sakura chuckled softly. At that moment, her char siu ramen arrived, set down in front of her.
"Thanks."
She nodded slightly and picked up her chopsticks.
At that moment, another customer walked in.
"Welcome!"
Ayame greeted them warmly.
"Hello. One pork bone ramen, please."
The voice was quiet, and struck Sakura as familiar.
Slurping up a mouthful of noodles, Sakura glanced over at the newcomer.
"Hinata?"
"S-Sakura?"
Hinata stared, surprised, at the ponytailed girl slurping noodles beside her.
"It's been a while, Hinata. Come sit here."
Sakura patted the seat beside her.
"Mm, o-okay."
Hinata sat down beside her, visibly nervous.
Sakura had long since gotten used to Hinata's reserved nature.
"I n-never expected to see Sakura here at Ichiraku."
Hinata glanced carefully at the ponytailed girl slurping her noodles, an unmistakable flicker of envy in her eyes.
"Nothing unusual about it. Get hungry, come eat."
Sakura took a sip of broth while diligently working through her meal, and continued:
"Come to think of it, I haven't seen you in a while, Hinata. What have you been up to lately?"
Three years ago, Hinata hadn't participated in the Great War due to her status as heir to the Hyūga main house. In the years since, Sakura had assigned her to Sasuke's squad, working alongside Kushina on missions.
But somehow, Hinata never seemed to click with either of them.
Her Byakugan's sensory range couldn't compare to Kushina's Blood Haze Mind's Eye. Her Gentle Fist was solid, certainly, but her close-combat lethality couldn't match Sasuke's Sharingan-enhanced dynamic vision.
And Hinata's temperament was simply too gentle — the kind of high-risk, close-quarters combat the Gentle Fist demanded didn't suit her well at all.
Even in medical ninjutsu, she couldn't compare to Kushina's natural gift for it.
As for genjutsu — the squad already had a Mangekyō Sharingan user...
Sealing techniques — Kushina's Adamantine Sealing Chains had that covered too...
Falling short of her teammates at every turn, Hinata seemed to have grown increasingly quiet and withdrawn.
Sakura felt a headache coming on at the thought.
She'd genuinely wanted to give Hinata opportunities to grow. Instead, it seemed she'd inadvertently made things worse.
But the only way to reach Naruto was through her connections to Sasuke and Kushina — her own Hokage Guard...
"I've, um, I've been training my Gentle Fist at the clan compound lately..."
Hinata glanced cautiously at the pink-haired girl beside her. At that moment, her pork bone ramen arrived.
"And what else?"
Sakura popped a piece of char siu into her mouth, chewing thoughtfully.
"There's also... flower arranging..."
The white-eyed girl answered Sakura's question.
"I see. Flower arranging sounds nice."
Sakura felt a wave of internal speechlessness.
Honestly, if things kept going at this pace, Hinata was never going to get anywhere near Naruto.
"Mm... mm..."
Hinata ate slowly, in small bites.
Sakura finished the last of her broth and made no move to leave, waiting patiently instead for Hinata to finish.
She wanted to try talking with her properly.
This can't keep going on like this. My precious future daughter-in-law, you need to rise up! Show some spirit!
Learn from your future daughter! Knocking out Naruto and the Nine-Tails with a single finger poke!
Time passed slowly, and Hinata finally finished the last noodle in her bowl.
Honestly, she didn't even particularly like ramen. She only came to Ichiraku so often because a certain golden-haired boy loved it.
"Hinata, want to take a walk?"
Sakura extended a hand toward her, smiling.
Faced with the invitation, Hinata flinched like a startled rabbit, then slowly, hesitantly placed her hand in Sakura's.
"M-mm... okay..."
After paying, Sakura and Hinata wandered together through Konoha for a while, eventually arriving at a quiet, secluded spot by a lake.
The moon hung bright, stars scattered across the sky. The calm surface of the lake reflected the moonlight above, while the surrounding trees rustled softly in the gentle night breeze.
Sakura's eyes lit with surprise at the sight of a rock near the water's edge.
"Huh?"
"I can't believe it's still here?"
Without further explanation, she pulled Hinata down to sit on the rock beside her.
"Sakura?"
Hinata felt puzzled — she couldn't understand what was so remarkable about a rock.
"This is where Naruto used to come fishing, back when he was a kid — because he'd overspent his allowance and didn't have enough left for food."
"This rock right here was Naruto's favorite fishing spot."
At Sakura's words, understanding dawned across Hinata's face.
So this is... a place Naruto-kun used to frequent as a child?
"Come to think of it, I wonder what that kid's up to right now?"
This was a small lie. Though Tobirama was currently buried in Research Bureau work, when it came to Naruto's training, he'd tossed him a method for developing Wind Release nature transformation — telling him to come find him once he'd managed to cut a leaf using pure chakra.
Right now, Naruto was probably somewhere, desperately using Shadow Clones to slice through leaves over and over.
And Tenzō — now going by Yamato — had, rather reluctantly, been pulled away from his comfortable Research Bureau post by Sakura to supervise Naruto's training and keep watch in case his insufficient chakra caused the Nine-Tails to rampage.
Sakura had a perfectly clear picture of Naruto's whereabouts at any given moment.
The reason she'd deliberately chosen this particular lakeside spot from Naruto's childhood was simply to create a natural opening to bring him up.
"Naruto..."
At the mention of his name, a shadow of melancholy crossed Hinata's face, her small, pale hands twisting together unconsciously.
"You like Naruto, don't you?"
Watching the girl beside her looking so soft and fragile, Sakura's mouth curved into a mischievous grin, studying Hinata closely.
It wasn't that Sakura had no interest in taking things slowly. It was that she genuinely couldn't afford to wait any longer.
If she waited for Hinata to confess her feelings during Pain's eventual attack on Konoha, that moment would probably never come at all.
These days, Konoha could let Pain walk in standing and carry him out horizontal. And there was absolutely no way Sakura would risk letting Pain unleash Chibaku Tensei on the village just to give Hinata her romantic confession moment.
"Wha—?!"
At Sakura's words, Hinata jolted violently, her face flushing deep red instantly, unable to form a single coherent word.
Watching Hinata's flustered state, Sakura reached out and gently pressed a hand to her forehead, under Hinata's alarmed gaze.
Nice and warm...
Would make a decent hand-warmer in winter.
Sakura's thoughts drifted, as usual, off on a tangent.
"S-Sakura... please stop..."
Hinata shrank back, watching the girl before her, who seemed to be enjoying this a little too much.
"Yeah, yeah~~~"
Sakura didn't push the teasing too far — if she accidentally knocked Hinata out cold, that would defeat the entire purpose of this conversation.
"Still, the way you are right now, winning Naruto over is going to be pretty difficult."
Sakura's bluntness left Hinata unable to respond normally.
"...But Naruto doesn't like me."
"Naruto-kun doesn't like me..."
"The person he likes is..."
At this, Hinata cast Sakura a lingering, faintly resentful glance.
"I already turned Naruto down a long time ago, but you know how he is."
At this, Sakura let out a small sigh.
"..."
"Don't you think that's unfair, Sakura?"
Hinata suddenly spoke up.
This caught Sakura genuinely off guard.
"Something other people are desperately trying so hard to get — you got it effortlessly, without lifting a finger."
"And you're still troubled by it, even so."
Under Sakura's surprised gaze, Hinata's words came out increasingly fluent.
"Isn't this a winner gloating over the loser?"
Hinata's voice carried a note of genuine agitation — clear evidence of the enormous internal struggle it had taken her to say all this.
Sakura felt no anger at Hinata's outburst at all. Instead, she tilted her head, expression genuinely puzzled.
"But where was Hinata when Naruto used to get bullied?"
"If you'd tried hard back then, given your family's standing, you could have easily helped him, couldn't you?"
"And back then, I hadn't even been taken on as the old man's student yet."
"I was just an ordinary student when I chased off the bullies who were picking on Naruto."
The courage Hinata had just mustered drained away entirely at Sakura's words. Her mind went blank as she stared at the pink-haired girl before her, overwhelmed with shame.
"I'm sorry, Sakura..."
Her voice trembled with panic.
She'd never understood, before, why Naruto adored the girl in front of her so much.
But now she understood. It was because, in the moment Naruto had needed light the most, this girl had carried that light and illuminated his entire world.
And what had she been doing, back then?
Standing off in some corner, silently watching Naruto get bullied — too afraid, too scared, to do anything but watch it happen.
She'd liked Naruto and still hadn't dared step forward to help him. Just watched, silently, from a distance.
Someone like that — how was she any different from the villagers who'd looked at Naruto with cold, dismissive eyes?
And she'd taken this admiration — this jealousy over Naruto's feelings for Sakura — and directed it squarely at the very girl who'd actually helped him...
What a failure I am...
☆☆☆
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