With that, Hanabi released the chakra anchoring her to the branch and dropped.
"Watch out!" "Hanabi!"
Sasuke's hands shot out on instinct; Naruto cried out at the same moment.
Both of them thought she was falling, and both moved to catch her.
The result: they missed her entirely, and their heads cracked together with a resounding thud.
"Ow—ugh—ah—"
Their lips met again, a perfect accidental kiss.
Hanabi landed neatly to the side.
[Here we go again]
[Oh come on, once wasn't enough?]
[I'm dying, my stomach hurts]
[Hanabi definitely did that on purpose]
[Say what you want, these two have incredible synchronicity]
Naruto and Sasuke grabbed their own necks in unison, then wiped their mouths.
"Anyway—that's the idea," Hanabi said. "Once you succeed, I'll ask Kakashi-sensei to teach you a new jutsu or two."
For Sasuke, the promise of jutsu clearly outweighed the prospect of a hot spring trip.
"Really?" he pressed.
"Of course. And if Kakashi-sensei won't, I can teach you something myself. How does Fire Style sound?"
The Shiranui Style techniques adapted perfectly to the Naruto world—primarily taijutsu and fire-style ninjutsu. Filling in gaps in Sasuke's fire and lightning repertoire made complete sense.
"Fine by me," Sasuke said. He only wished the condition had been stricter.
"Don't worry—I'll also ask Kakashi-sensei to accept some less time-consuming, less demanding missions for a while. The rewards won't be much, but it'll leave you enough time to train."
"But, but," Naruto raised his hand, "does that mean we'll keep taking boring missions? Because what I want is something—y'know—super awesome!"
"Don't get ahead of yourself."
She said it to herself as much as to him—but Naruto clearly hadn't let go of his dream of doing something big.
He hadn't yet experienced real danger. Even Mizuki's betrayal had been handled with ease. Under Hanabi's direction, the two of them had even taken Kakashi's bells. All of it had given Naruto a quiet, mistaken confidence in his own strength.
"Here's an idea, then."
Hanabi took two steps back.
She produced a small bell and attached it to her own sash.
Then she folded her hands in front of her—gentle, composed, like a proper young lady—and stood perfectly still.
Compared to a moment ago, she seemed somehow more fragile. A willow-slender girl, standing quietly where she was.
"My kimono isn't just a garment. It's also a training restraint."
"Right now, my feet are completely immobilized. My hands can barely separate. It's like being bound in heavy shackles—hands and feet both. All I can manage is small ankle movements and upper-body shifts. My strength is suppressed as well. The force I can currently exert is roughly equivalent to an untrained ordinary girl."
"Five minutes on the clock. If you can take that bell from me, Naruto—I'll ask Kakashi-sensei to assign us a C-rank mission."
"But if you fail, you accept a penalty: you train exactly as I say. No arguments. Deal?"
[Here it comes—Lady Hanabi's out-of-pocket line]
[I knew something was off about her footwork. Of course it was this]
[As expected of my wife]
[Wait, Hanabi said before that she likes being bound... does that mean—]
[It's probably a compensatory psychological response from years of impaired vision. I'll do a video on it sometime]
[Oh, you're an actual uploader—where's that psychology video you promised ages ago? You're not digging another hole, are you?]
[Science commentary creators watch anime too, you know]
[Bilibili was literally built on anime culture. Nobody said you couldn't]
The moment Hanabi finished speaking, a wave of comments swept through.
"Ha! Okay, Hanabi—don't come crying to me later!"
Naruto's eyes lit up.
Sasuke, standing to the side, was quietly stunned.
The load on Hanabi's body—it had to be far heavier than anything she'd given him or Naruto to wear.
Naruto didn't bother thinking through any of that. The moment he heard "C-rank mission," he was already excited. The moment she said she'd bound her own hands and feet, he was brimming with confidence.
[Top-tier self-delusion right here]
[I can already see how this ends]
[Uzumaki Naruto, your death omen star shines bright in the sky]
Naruto charged.
The déjà vu was almost overwhelming—it was so similar to the time he'd come barreling at Hanabi when she had the Scroll of Sealing.
She shifted her weight onto one toe, drifting a half-step to the side. Naruto lunged through empty air.
Then Hanabi gave him the gentlest nudge as he passed—and he went tumbling face-first into the grass, still not entirely sure what had happened.
"Huh—?"
Undeterred, Naruto tried again. And again, Hanabi stepped aside.
[That pure, dumb look, lol]
[My buddy from the university near my house has that exact same expression]
[Alright, alright, relax]
Her feet were bound—but she had the Byakugan.
Against Naruto hurtling toward her at full speed, all she needed was a precise application of force to break his balance. One small push at the right moment and he went down every time.
No one could see it, so it wasn't cheating.
"Damn it!"
Several failed attempts later, Naruto hit his limit.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
He threw the hand seal—but it didn't help.
Hanabi simply shifted into the crowd of clones and vanished into the press of bodies.
Too many Narutos, and he had no room to maneuver against himself.
Bound legs or not, jumping wasn't off the table. And as a member of the Hyuga clan, close-quarters combat held no fear for her. The Byakugan's full three hundred and sixty degrees left Naruto with no angle to sneak in from. She didn't even need the Byakugan—her own natural spatial awareness handled it with room to spare.
Against Sasuke right now, she wouldn't be so relaxed. But against Naruto—Naruto with those clear eyes—this was easy.
"Damn it!"
When Naruto finally noticed that the flood of clones was working against him rather than for him, he dismissed them all.
"Time's up."
Sasuke's voice cut in at exactly the wrong moment.
"Ugh—" Naruto froze.
Hanabi's expression settled into a quiet, satisfied smile.
Exactly as planned.
"Alright, I'll train however you say." Naruto was unhappy about it, but he'd reached the only reasonable conclusion: he genuinely couldn't get that bell off Hanabi. And she'd been running on nothing but "ordinary girl" strength, hands and feet both locked down.
"It won't be just tree-climbing, either." Hanabi added another layer before he could settle. "Naruto—use the Sexy Jutsu. Keep your clothes on, though. Just change the body."
"Oh, that's easy."
Naruto formed the hand seal and shifted into a twin-tailed girl.
[Honestly? I've always thought the Transformation Jutsu version is the real female lead]
[Now that you mention it...]
[This is the jutsu that took down the Third Hokage, people. Respect the craft]
[I think I know what my wife is planning]
[Refined and ladylike on the surface—jet black underneath. As expected]
[Shame it's not pink hair, lol]
[You got a problem with black long straight hair?!]
[Has anyone else noticed—if the two "kisses" from earlier had been Naruto in this form, they would've looked completely natural?]
[You just found the hidden variable!]
[Typo. You found the key insight]
[Lmao]
The audience was at it again.
The chaotic commenters had caught up to Hanabi's line of thinking and were already guessing her plan.
"Naruto—during tree-climbing practice, you need to maintain the Transformation. Your chakra control is rough, so reinforcing it is the goal."