Naruto: The Chosen Undead-Chapter no.217 Naruto

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Chapter 217 The Hyuga Miracle?!

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The chamber sealed with a low, resonant hum as the ANBU barrier snapped into place. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

The Third Hokage entered first, staff tapping lightly against the stone floor. Jiraiya and Kakashi followed behind.

The assembled council rose as one.

Clan heads of the major clans of Konoha stood in quiet respect while the barrier settled fully, chakra threading through the walls like an unseen lattice.

"Thank you for gathering on such short notice," the Third Hokage said evenly. "What we discuss today does not leave this room."

That alone sobered the atmosphere.

Tsume Inuzuka flashed a sharp grin. "Hokage sama, before we get into the doom and gloom, I've gotta say, Hatake brat," she glanced over Kakashi's shoulder, "your kid's been causing a hell of a stir lately."

A few chuckles rippled through the room.

Kakashi's visible eye curved into a lazy smile. "If only you knew, Lady Tsume."

Jiraiya snorted. "Oh, trust me. They don't know the half of it."

The humor died quickly as Shikaku Nara stood. The jōnin Commander's presence alone shifted the room. "I'll get straight to the point. This meeting is about Danzo Shimura."

Every spine straightened.

"The Hokage has authorized a joint investigation between my office and the ANBU command. We've spent weeks chasing shadows. Unfortunately, Danzo is exactly as paranoid and meticulous as we feared."

Inoichi Yamanaka frowned. "No paper trail?"

"None that leads anywhere useful," Shikaku replied. "Root doesn't exist on paper anymore."

"Then how is he still operating?" Hiashi Hyuga asked coldly.

"We don't know."

"How do you plan against an unknown enemy?" Choza Akamichi asked.

Shikaku smirked. "Because Root never survived on secrecy alone. It survived on infrastructure."

That clue was enough for the elite shinobi to understand the plan.

It was commonly said that it took a dozen civilians to support a single shinobi who specialized in fighting.

The ninja villages existed because that was true.

Shinobi liked to think of themselves as fighters. It gave shape to their training and meaning to the risks they took. In practice, shinobi were weapons, and weapons were never meant to exist in a vacuum.

Even the sharpest blade needed a forge, a hand to keep it honed, and a place to be set down when the fighting was done.

Chakra made extraordinary things possible. A single ninja could breach a fortress, cross borders unseen, or survive battles that would erase ordinary soldiers. Jutsu could clear a battlefield. Shadow clones could compress days of labor into minutes.

Returning to the Hyūga compound, Hiashi was informed almost immediately where his daughter had gone.

"She is in the guest room, Hiashi sama," a servant said quietly. "With Uzumaki Naruto… and Lady Hanabi."

The doors to the guest room slid open at his approach. What greeted him was… unexpected.

Hanabi was in the middle of the room, in a textbook Gentle Fist stance. Her expression was focused, yet it had a childlike innocence to it. The ground suddenly split as a small lizard creature burst upward, the giant crystal embedded in its body glinting faintly. Hanabi redirected the creature's momentum, sending it skidding harmlessly to the side.

"Well done," Naruto said from nearby, relaxed and approving.

Hanabi straightened with a bright smile on her face, then froze as she noticed the figure standing in the doorway. The childlike ease vanished, replaced by composure drilled into her from birth.

"…Father."

The two older kids turned at the same time.

Hinata stood and bowed deeply. "Father."

The walk through the Hyūga compound was awkward, though no one knew why. Hinata and Hanabi trailed just behind, unsure if it was the tension between them or the weight of what was about to happen.

Oscar, unconcerned, hopped from Hanabi's arms and trotted off to munch on a dandelion by the path.

From time to time, Hiashi's eyes flicked toward the boy at his side. He was well aware that Hinata's newfound confidence, strength and even that strange ring she wore all traced back to Naruto's. And yet…

Could this child truly succeed where elite medical nin had failed? More than once, he had been told that anything short of Tsunade Senju herself would never be enough to rouse his wife from her vegetative state.

"How, precisely, do you intend to heal my wife?"

"I'm just going to perform a healing miracle."

Hiashi did not take it as evasion, but as something else entirely. A quiet acknowledgment that the explanation would cross boundaries Naruto had no obligation to breach.

Very well, then.

"…Thank you!"

"I haven't healed her yet."

"That is not what I was referring to. I meant… thank you for what you have done for my daughter."

Hiashi dismissed the medical nin who had tended to his wife's body for years with a quiet gesture.

Tsubaki Hyūga lay unmoving upon the bed.

Her eyes were open, unfocused, staring at nothing in particular, reflecting light without recognition. Her skin was pale, almost waxen beneath the soft glow of the lights. Long, dark hair was fanned neatly across the pillow, carefully brushed each morning by servants who had never once seen her react to their touch or their voices. Her face was calm in the way a statue's was calm and utterly absent of awareness.

A slow rise and fall of her chest marked the passage of breath, kept steady by unseen aids.

Hiashi turned away from the sight before it could hollow him out again.

Author's Note

Sorry for the late upload, everyone. I know the gaps between chapters can be frustrating, so I want to be clear. I didn't drop the story or lose interest in it. Life just hit all at once. Work, personal stuff, and a bunch of other commitments piled up, and writing unfortunately had to take a temporary backseat. That said, this fic is still very much alive, and I'm still invested in telling the story the way I want to tell it. I really appreciate everyone who stuck around and waited patiently.

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Q: How is the Hyūga incident seven years ago?

Good question, and this one comes down to timeline changes.

Unless you're really deep into Naruto's already inconsistent timeline, this might feel confusing. Canon wise, the Hyūga incident happens when Hinata is around three years old. Hinata and Hanabi have roughly a five year age gap, which means Hanabi wouldn't even have been born yet. Canon never really explains what happened to Hinata's mother afterward, whether she died, was injured, or something else entirely. There's just… nothing.

For my story, I changed the timeline slightly.

Because Tsubaki being left in a vegetative state is an important plot point, I moved the Hyūga incident to when Hinata was around five instead of three. That way, Hanabi is already born when it happens.

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Q: When will the Chūnin Exams happen?

Thanks again for your patience and continued support. It genuinely means a lot. I'll see you all in the next chapter.

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[ Personal Note: First off, thanks a ton to all of you for sticking with this story. Seriously, you guys are awesome. Now, if you're interested in supporting me on P@treon, let me just say that over there, I post these massive 15k-word chapters. But heads up, if you're jumping to P@treon, you'll need to start from Chapter 98, since that's where this chapter lines up with the content there.

To everyone here just reading along, please don't forget to leave a comment! Honestly, your comments make my day, and they let me know you're as invested in this story as I am. So yeah, thanks again, and I hope you have an amazing rest of your day!