"Didn’t I tell you yesterday? Today’s exam won’t take long, so you didn’t have to bring any food."
Izayoi deactivated his Byakugan and walked out of the room. At a glance, he spotted Hinata seated at the table with a few bento boxes in front of her. Despite what he’d just said, he sat down without hesitation and began digging into the breakfast she’d carefully prepared.
"Well, I actually hadn’t planned to cook anything," Hinata explained with a light laugh, hands folded on the table. "But I forgot to remind Hanabi yesterday. She woke up even earlier than I did today, especially to make a lunch for your exam."
"Ah, I see. That’s thoughtful of Hanabi," Izayoi remarked, eyes lighting up at the seaweed-and-radish creation spelling out "exam success" inside one of the bento boxes. Clearly his little sister-in-law’s care was paying off.
"You should eat so, too. I can’t finish all this by myself," Izayoi added between bites.
"I already ate at ho," Hinata replied with a small shake of her head. Then she stood up to open the fridge, taking out a carton of milk and pouring a glass each for Izayoi and herself.
From the mont she woke him up to the mont she poured milk, Hinata’s actions felt perfectly natural, as if this were her own ho. And really, for quite a few years now, that was the truth. Izayoi and Hinata no longer t at their old spot. Although Izayoi had never visited the Hyuga compound himself, Hinata and Hanabi had co to treat his house like a second ho. They both had their own keys, and whenever they were free, they’d head over to hang out. They even took care of the grocery shopping and housekeeping, sotis with Izayoi’s help. Both he and Hinata had gotten used to this arrangent.
After breakfast, they washed the dishes and headed toward the Ninja Academy. They cut quite a striking figure together—a handso young man and a beautiful girl. Six years had passed since they started school. Izayoi, no longer a chubby-cheeked boy but a handso teen of about 163 cm (5’4") tall, stood out. In Kumo, where people tend to be big, it wouldn’t an much, but in Konoha—where the average kid’s height at this age was around 150 cm (4’11")—Izayoi towered over most of his classmates and year-mates.
Hinata, too, had changed drastically from her original tiline. She now stood at 155 cm (5’1"), easily 6–7 cm taller than most girls her age. Her growth was fueled by her healthy appetite—she had a big-eater’s tabolism and trained intensively every day. She was already reaching the height she had in the Shippuden era of the original story. As a result, let’s just say "her figure" had also developed more significantly than the canon version, and her usual loose white coat couldn’t fully disguise her shape. If she were to unzip it to reveal the snug black sh inside and lean forward, well, that would be quite the view—no wonder Izayoi couldn’t help staring a bit when she woke him up. This was the charm of a shōnen ani world, where so kids matured unusually fast.
"Morning, Izayoi-kun, Hinata. Good morning!"
"Morning, Minako."
"Still sticking together all the ti, I see. You two sure you’re not dating?"
It was March 21. The students from Grades 1–5 had taken their final exams the previous day. The sixth-years had theirs a day later—today. As they arrived at the Academy, it felt quieter than usual.
The only ones around were the sixth-years taking the graduation test. So parents—mostly from civilian backgrounds—were waiting outside, anxiously hoping their kids could pass. After all, six years of hard work led up to this mont. If their child passed, they’d walk the path of a ninja; if not, they’d stay ordinary.
By contrast, the heir-apparent kids of major ninja clans had no parents there. Graduation was a re formality for them—if they sohow failed, they could still use clan privileges to join so departnt as a "special" ninja.
On their way to the classroom, Izayoi and Hinata greeted several classmates, both boys and girls, who enthusiastically called out to them. So joked about the couple’s closeness, but Izayoi just smiled back without answering, and Hinata, face slightly flushed, would look down shyly.
Despite also being a "star" student, Izayoi wasn’t as popular with the girls as Sasuke Uchiha—chiefly because Hinata was always by his side.
Back in the first year, many girls tried flocking around Izayoi, but they were consistently turned down, eventually realizing that Izayoi clearly treated Hinata differently.
If Hinata had been just so average girl, the other girls might have gotten jealous or even tried bullying her. But Hinata was the heiress of a powerful clan, and she consistently ranked near the top academically—and she was an absolute monster in taijutsu.
Nobody wanted to get their tenketsu poked and endure that searing, numbing pain. Practically everyone in class, boy or girl, had experienced her Gentle Fist at least once. They definitely didn’t want a repeat. Add that to the presence of Sasuke as a second "crush option," and Izayoi ended up with fewer admirers pestering him.
Entering the classroom, they found many of their classmates already there. So were whispering to each other about who-knew-what, while others sat rigidly at their desks, fists clenched and faces tense, clearly on edge.
Even Naruto Uzumaki—who the day before had vandalized the Hokage faces (leading the whole class to get a pop quiz on the Transformation Technique)—was sitting quietly for once.
Taking their seats, Izayoi and Hinata started chatting in low tones. Watching the top student and the runner-up whisper so casually, a girl beside Hinata couldn’t help feeling envious. Those two are so confident—how nice it must be not to worry about the test. She, on the other hand, had been a bundle of nerves since yesterday and hadn’t slept well at all.
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