006 An Uain Future - Hinata’s POV

  Baside the abandoned building, Hinata worked quietly, stuffing their meager belongings into a worn-out bag. The night air seeped in through the broken windows, carrying the distant hum of the city. Their temporary shelter—an old office space long since fotten—had served its purpose. But now, after that strange enter, Hinata wasn’t sure what to do .

  Behind her, Naruto sat cross-legged on the dusty floor, turning a small, sleek business card between his fingers. He had been staring at it for a while now, flipping it bad forth as if expeg it to reveal some hidden message.

  "Should we call it?" Naruto finally asked, breaking the silenbsp;“How do you even call it? Do I… uuuh… whisper to it?”

  Hinata paused, her hands tightening around the strap of the bag. She turo look at him. "Call what?"

  Naruto held up the card, its smooth surface catg the dim light. Embossed in bold letters were the words Tokyo Prefectural Jujutsu High School.

  "This," he said, waving it slightly. "The Gojo guy gave it to us. Maybe it's important, ya know."

  "I don’t know," she murmured, unsure. “Maybe?”

  Naruto hummed in thought, tilting his head. "That Gojo guy… he was weird, but I don't think he was lying about everything. He kuff. And he was strong."

  Hinata sighed, resuming her pag. "I don’t know, Naruto-kun."

  Naruto fell silent for a moment, watg her carefully. "So… what's the pn?" he asked, his voice quieter now.

  Hinata’s fingers stilled. That was the real question, wasn’t it? What was the pn?

  On one hand, this Gojo Satoru had approached them like a recruiter. He had seen something in them—whether it was their abilities, their energy, or just their circumstances—and wao get them involved in this so-called Jujutsu World.

  Hinata didn’t like it. She didn’t trust people who moved too fast, who acted too easily, who were too impossible to read. As a kunoichi, it was embarrassing that she couldn’t get a proper read on him. His energy was too erratic, his preseoo overwhelming. Even when he had taken off his blindfold, revealing those striking blue eyes, she hadn’t sensed deceit. But that didn’t mearusted him.

  A… what other options did they have?

  She g Naruto, who was still waiting for an answer. His blue eyes, sht and clear even in the dim room, reminded her of their past—of a time when things had been so much simpler, so much easier. Well, the easier times at least. After all, the shinobi world was never easy. Naruto didn’t remember, but she did. And she had to be the oo figure out where to go from here.

  Hinata sighed. "I don’t know yet," she admitted, her voice softer than before.

  Naruto nodded slowly, as if he had expected that answer. He didn’t push her. Instead, he y ba the floor, holding the card above his fad squinting at it again.

  "...I kinda wanna see what this school is like," he mused.

  Hinata didn’t reply. She simply kept pag, her thoughts too tao sort through.

  For now, she’d let the night pass. Maybe by m, she’d have an answer.

  Hinata tightehe straps on the duffel bag, giving it o check before straightening up. Pag hadn’t taken long—there wasn’t much to pa the first pce. A few clothes, some food they had sged, and whatever essentials they had mao gather since arriving in this strange world. As for Naruto, his belongings were practically ent. What little he hey could procure along the way.

  As she adjusted the weight of the bag over her shoulder, Naruto’s voice broke the silence.

  “So… are we going to this Tokyo pce?” he asked, his legs stretched out zily in front of him. He twirled the business card between his fingers, watg it flip bad forth. “Or—” he hesitated, squinting at the text again, “—should we, uh… call this number? Whatever that means. I… I am sorry, Hinata-. I kinda feel restless, ya know.”

  Hinata exhaled slowly, shifting her weight.

  Naruto didn’t know what calli. He had no memories, and even if he did, it wouldn’t have helped. Phones did in their world.

  A slight frown tugged at her lips. The closest thing she could pare a phone call to was the long-distaelegraphs that had been introduced in some parts of the Land of Fire. Not many people used them, but she remembered hearing about them in passing. Some shinobi vilges had experimented with simir systems for unicatioween outposts. Then there were carrier pigeons, which had been more widely used by the shinobi forces. Messages carried reat distances, sometimes encoded, sometimes urgent.

  And then there was the ANBU.

  She recalled a versation she had once overheard between Kurenai-sensei and Asuma-sehere had been whispers—rumors, really—of an advanced uniethod used exclusively by the ANBU. Something that allowed them to send messages without the use of pigeons or scrolls. The details had been vague, but now, standing here in this unfamiliar world, she wondered if that rumor had been referring to something like this—phones.

  “Hinata-?” Naruto’s voice pulled her from her thoughts. He was looking at her expetly, clearly waiting for an answer.

  Hinata shifted her grip on the bag, adjusting its weight before responding. “Calling… is a way to talk to someone from far away,” she expined, choosing her words carefully. “Kind of like how messages are sent through telegraphs eons.”

  Naruto blinked. “So, like a long-distasu?”

  “Yeah,” Hinata hesitated, then nodded. “Something like that.”

  She had given Naruto a crash course about chakra and jutsu, so it wasn’t strange he think of something like a long-distasu.

  “Huh…” muttered Naruto, “Weird,”

  Hinata couldn’t argue with that.

  She turoward the window, peering out into the city. The streets below were illuminated by the glow of neon signs and streetlights, a sight she still hadn’t quite gotteo. This pce was nothing like Konoha. No t trees, no dirt roads, no Hokage Mo watg over them. Everything here was metal, gss, aricity.

  Would this Tokyo Prefectural Jujutsu High School have any answers for them?

  Hinata wasn’t sure.

  “…So?” Naruto asked again, pullitention back. “Are we calling or what?”

  Hinata sighed. “Not yet,” she decided. “I am still thinking about it.”

  Naruto nodded, “Take your time, Hinata-.”

  Hinata’s fingers moved swiftly as she ted the bills in her wallet. The thin paper felt fragile between her fiips, so different from the currency she had grown up using. Yet, after weeks of w part-time jobs, she had grown aced to it—just as she had adapted to so mu this strange world.

  Her ability to adjust had surprised even herself.

  At first, the unfamiliarity had been overwhelming—the straeology, the odd s, the plete ck of chakra in people. But survival demanded adaptability, and if there was ohing she had learned from being a kunoichi, it was how to survive.

  She let out a quiet sigh as she closed her wallet. The money she had left wasn’t much, but it would have to do.

  “Tokyo Prefectural Jujutsu High School…” Naruto murmured, rolling the name around in his mouth. “Was it… like the Academy?”

  Hinata hesitated. “I ’t tell,” she answered pinly.

  She had no idea what a Jujutsu Sorcerer truly was, but if they were anything like this try’s equivalent of shinobi, then their existence could only mean trouble.

  A school for these so-called sorcerers… what did they teach? How mahere? And more importantly, were they part of the gover? If they were truly a military force, much like how Konoha’s shinobi served the Land of Fire, then it would be in their best io not get involved with them.

  Naruto’s presence alone would plicate things.

  The Kyūbi.

  Even without actively using its chakra, Naruto still had the beast sealed within him—didn’t he? Hinata had no idea what had bee of their abilities since waking up here, but she wasn’t willing to take ces. If these sorcerers found out what was inside Naruto, what would they do?

  She wasn’t going to wait around to find out.

  “I’d rather leave,” she said at st. “Be as far away from people like Gojo Satoru as possible.”

  Naruto looked up at her, blinking. “You really don’t trust that guy, huh?”

  Hinata frowightening her grip on her wallet. “I couldn’t read him,” she admitted. “As a kunoichi, that’s… embarrassing.”

  She had spent years training to read people, to pick up the smallest shifts in body nguage, the slightest hesitation in words. A, when it came to that man with the blindfold and that wide, easy-going grin…

  She had nothing.

  And that scared her more than she wao admit.

  Naruto stretched his arms behind his head, letting out a breath. “Well, if you say so,” he said, tone easy but accepting. “Hey, aren’t we pag too much?”

  Hinata didn’t answer right away. Instead, she moved toward the bed where she had id out their supplies. A rge camper’s backpack sat there, already filled with the essentials. She hefted it onto her back, testing the weight.

  Naruto frowned as he watched her. “You’re carrying that?”

  Hinata barely had time to nod before Naruto stood and grabbed the straps. “I’ll carry it.”

  She bli him. “I ha.”

  Naruto gave her an exasperated look. “Yeah, and so I. It’s fine, Hinata-. You don’t have to carry everything.”

  Hinata hesitated before relenting, allowing him to take the backpack. Thinking about it, she grabbed another spare bag and began stuffing it with supplies—cooking utensils, ed food, medical kits—anything she thought they might need. If they were going to flee, she wao be prepared.

  Naruto watched as she packed, his expression unreadable. After a moment, he sighed, rubbing the back of his head.

  “You’re really serious about this, huh?”

  Hinata paused, gng at him.

  “Yes,” she said simply.

  Naruto looked at her for a moment longer before he grinned, shifting the weight of the backpa his shoulders. “Alright the’s get going.”

  The night air was crisp and cool, ing around Hinata like a sed skin as she moved. The city lights behind them faded into the distance, swallowed by the dereetops. Shadows stretched loh the moonlight, but to her, they posed no obstacle—her vision worked perfectly in the dark.

  Naruto, oher hand, struggled.

  She could hear him behind her, his breath uneven as he tried to keep up. The way he moved cked his usual grace—he was hesitant, unsteady. When she leapt from oree branch to another, he followed, but with far less fidence. His ndings were rough, his footing unsure. Yet, despite that, he didn’t fall. Somehow, he managed.

  Hinata gnced back at him as she adjusted her pace.

  He’s learning.

  Slowly but surely, Naruto was finding his rhythm, and once he did, she pushed forward. She wasn’t running full speed—she didn’t want to risk exhausting him—but they o keep moving.

  By the time they reached their destination, nearly an hour and a half had passed.

  An abandoned stru site loomed ahead, skeletal structures of unfinished buildings standing tall against the night sky. Rusted scaffolding lihe perimeter, and rge crete pipes y scattered around, half-buried in dirt and weeds.

  Hinata slowed, her senses sharp.

  The air felt heavy.

  She reized this sensation all too well by now—the unnatural weight, the crawling u the back of her mind. Curses were here.

  Naruto felt it too. He stiffened beside her, sing their surroundings even though he couldn’t see what she could. “Hinata?” he asked cautiously.

  She nodded, stepping forward. “Stay close.”

  Without hesitation, she activated her Byakugan.

  Her world shifted. Veins bulged at the ers of her eyes as her vision expanded, pierg through the darkness. Figures twisted in the shadows—grotesque shapes with too many limbs, hollow sockets where eyes should be, gaping mouths frozen in silent screams.

  Curses.

  It was the term Gojo Satoru used and it fitted.

  Hinata moved.

  The lesser ones fell easily. A single precise strike to their cores was enough to dissipate them into wisps of cursed energy. She weaved through them effortlessly, dug under cwed limbs, striking vital points with the practiced ease of a kunoichi.

  Naruto watched, fists ched at his sides.

  Thero one emerged.

  It was rger thahers, its body resembling somethiween a human and a beast. Its torso was long and stretched unnaturally, its limbs too thioo powerful. Jagged teeth protruded from its wide, lipless mouth, dripping with something bd foul-smelling.

  Its eyes—four of them—rolled wildly in their sockets before log onto Hinata.

  It lunged.

  Hinata barely had time to react as it swiped at her, its cws slig through the air where she had been moments before. She twisted away, nding oal framework of a half-built structure.

  The Curse let out a shriek.

  It moved fast. Faster thahers.

  Hinata’s mind worked quickly. The core. She had to find it—strike it before the Curse could overwhelm her.

  She adjusted her stance, bringing her palms up.

  Gentle Fist.

  The Curse rushed at her again. This time, she met it head-on.

  Her strikes rue. Owht to its limbs, disrupting the flow of energy within. It stumbled but didn’t fall. With a guttural snarl, it shed out again, and Hinata barely ducked in time, feeling the air shift as its early grazed her cheek.

  Faster.

  She moved in a blur. Her hands found their mark—its chest, where the energy pulsed stro. She thrust her palm forward, chakra-less but precise. The Curse let out a shriek, vulsing violently before crumbling into nothing.

  Silence fell.

  Hinata exhaled.

  She had been lucky. There were no bigger Curses here. If there had been, she wasn’t sure she could have fought them a Naruto safe. Those she tried to avoid.

  Naruto approached her cautiously. “You okay?”

  Hinata nodded, wiping her sleeve across her forehead. “I’m fine.”

  Naruto looked around at the y site, then back at her. His expression was unreadable, but his hands were ched into fists.

  “…I o get stronger,” he muttered.

  Hinata looked at him, but before she could say anything, he turned away.

  They still had a long way to go.