"That—that thing," Naruto said. The gear was clearly not what she was focused on. "If the rope is basically your clothes, doesn't it feel weird?"
"My constitution is a bit unusual. It's mostly a drawback, but in cases like this it works out perfectly." Hanabi smiled.
"But doesn't it feel—like being tied up?" Naruto looked unconvinced.
"I actually like the feeling of being tied up. There's a kind of grounding comfort to it~"
[Here she goes. Classic Hanabi-sama with the unfiltered commentary]
[Unfiltered commentary +1]
[That's three times. THREE. She has done this exact thing three times now]
"You just chakra-adhered the wire to the tree trunk when you pulled yourself up." Sasuke was more concerned with Hanabi's strength than anything else.
He'd watched it happen in real time—wire hitting bark, Hanabi pulling herself up without effort—and in that moment nothing else registered.
"Same principle as your tree-climbing exercise," Hanabi confirmed.
"The gap... is that wide already..."
Sasuke couldn't quite keep the edge out of his voice.
He'd been ready to feel good about himself. And meanwhile Hanabi had been using wire thin as thread to adhere herself to branches overhead.
Naruto hadn't been paying attention to that detail until Sasuke pointed it out—and now that she had, she went quiet too.
"So, that settles it. Phase two starts now." Hanabi said. "I already told you: water-walking. Take tomorrow to rest, then we begin."
The screen went dark again.
Naruto and Sasuke, stripped of their earlier triumph, sank into a focused, brewing silence—saving it for what came next.
"Get some good rest tonight, you two~"
Hanabi looked at them.
Whether it was the accumulated fatigue or something else, both of them had already fallen asleep where they lay.
"I was going to suggest that since big sister came today, we could all spend some time together."
But everyone had gone and passed out. Hinata from nerves. These two from sheer exhaustion.
The next morning, with the three of them still sleeping, Hanabi left them in Natsuki's care and set off to patrol with Kakashi.
It was early—but Kakashi, today, was not late.
The broadcast had started up again.
"Good morning, Kakashi-sensei."
"Morning, Hanabi. About the grave marker—thank you." First thing, the moment they met, he thanked her.
"White Fang was a hero. It should have looked the way a hero's grave looks." Hanabi didn't elaborate.
[White Fang? A grave?]
[Isn't that Kakashi's dad from the old backstory?]
[The one where Kakashi lifted his headband and his old teammate turned into his dad?]
[Still not completely clear on the details, but honestly—probably his dad]
[Something deeper is going on here]
[Kakashi wasn't late. I'm in shock]
A wave of danmaku—the detail-obsessive and lore-theory crowd in full celebration mode.
Hanabi didn't think much about it herself.
Sakumo Hatake had contributed to Konoha. Restoring his grave was the least anyone could do. She'd temporarily worn his son's face, and Rin's—this was a way of making partial amends.
She'd wanted to. So she had.
"Your movement method?" Kakashi had been about to ask about Naruto and Sasuke's progress, but he'd stopped short.
En route through the trees, Hanabi wasn't moving like a ninja.
She was pulling herself along with wire—and somehow maintaining perfect balance while doing it.
"I put together a rope-armored undergarment to anchor my center of gravity and maintain stability." Hanabi said. "The results are good. If I could find a suitable medium for storing chakra, I could make it even more efficient."
"Mm. That's not bad." Kakashi nodded.
He'd been going to offer some instruction as a gesture of reciprocity. But Hanabi seemed to be doing just fine without his guidance?
He could walk her through Rasengan, perhaps.
But that was the Sensei's technique.
And Hanabi looked perfectly capable of inventing her own version from scratch anyway.
"Oh—how are Naruto and Sasuke coming along?" Kakashi asked.
"Tree-climbing is finished. Next up is water-walking~"
Hanabi smiled.
She'd already picked out Naruto's new swimsuit.
[Oh no, it really IS a swimsuit episode]
[God help us it's a school swimsuit]
[They have these in the ninja world??]
[The chaos never stops]
[The one actual girl in the scene is in a full kimono, but sure]
[Excuse you, Naruko counts]
[And honestly? Naruko's school swimsuit is... not bad...]
The next day. Hanabi led Naruto and Sasuke to the hot spring.
She hadn't changed her own clothes. Sasuke had changed into swim shorts. For Naruto, Hanabi had procured a one-piece school swimsuit—a sukumizu.
In this world, it wasn't even remotely out of place. They'd seen far more interesting swimwear around here.
"The technique is simple. Concentrate chakra into the soles of your feet and create enough surface tension to stand on the water."
Hanabi stepped onto the surface of the spring in her wooden sandals.
"Heh heh—okay, this isn't so—"
Naruto didn't fall in right away. Then she was plunged in, hair soaked, clothes soaked, coming up spluttering.
The danmaku surged.
"The hot spring is still water. Once you're comfortable here, I'll bring you to one of the rapids outside—plenty of time to be smug after that." Hanabi stepped back off the surface. "Water-walking is a different technique from tree-climbing. Tree-climbing uses adhesion; water-walking requires you to generate tension with your chakra."
Compared to the tree-climbing arc, the Stage's editing this time around leaned heavily on documenting every single way Naruto could fall into the water.
The Stage clearly knew what made an episode work.
By the end, both Naruto and Sasuke had at least achieved a shaky, brief balance on the surface.
For a slice-of-life episode, Hanabi's returns were exceptional.
By the final cut, her popularity had pushed clean to the top—over twenty thousand points—and with the trailing heat from post-episode comments, her accumulated reward points had climbed to 25,000.
She could afford another purple-quality four-star card without blinking.
[Episode Seven Broadcast Complete]
[Negotiations with the production team concluded]
[Select two of the following as your episode compensation:]
[1. Skill Card Single Draw (Purple) — Guaranteed four-star purple quality or above; low probability of five-star gold quality, both random skills]
[2. Sacred Radiance Curtain (Road to Ninja Limited) — Four-star. During the active broadcast period of Road to Ninja, allows selective concealment of portions of the frame]
[3. Local Synthesis Bench (Road to Ninja Limited) — Four-star. Allows external abilities or items to be fused with native Road to Ninja abilities or items, localizing them. Selected skills and items must already be mastered or owned by the performer. This bench is limited to native materials from the Road to Ninja series only]
What kind of paladin designed this?
The moment Hanabi saw Sacred Radiance Curtain, she started laughing.
"Pity it's a series exclusive."
Otherwise, that particular skill had some legitimate uses.
And it wasn't as if Hanabi intended to show everything anyway—she'd always planned to leave a little to the imagination. Half-veiled, like a pipa player behind silk. That was the art of it.
Everything at once—no. That was graceless. That was how refinement curdled into vulgarity.
The line between the two was exactly this narrow.
"If it weren't series-exclusive, it might have been worth taking. If it worked on other people, it'd basically be the Bringer-of-Darkness Technique combined with Solar Flare."
But it couldn't. A shame.
"Three choices, pick two—so really, you're just deciding what to cut. Sorry, Sacred Radiance."
Hanabi chose the purple draw ticket. Gamble a little. Purple guaranteed, with a shot at gold.
And the third option—the Local Synthesis Bench. It ensured that whatever random skill she drew wouldn't be dead weight on arrival. It would convert into actual fighting power.
"Come on. Let this single pull work a miracle."