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Hinata made seven or eight trips in and out of the house and finally managed to bring all of Naruto’s gifts inside.
Holding the last plush bear, Hinata's mouth pursed, displaying a look as though she had been bullied. Naruto’s mouth twitched as he resisted the urge to laugh, and asked seriously, "What’s wrong?"
"It’s too much," she stammered, looking like she was about to cry, "There’s no room in my room."
"It's okay, just find a place to put it." He liked to bully Hinata, looking at her aggrieved expression of wanting to cry but unable to, and having to hide her tears.
For no reason, he suddenly wondered whether Hinata would also be the introverted type who would cover her mouth and try hard not to shout out in that ‘aspect’ in the future.
In mid-March, something happened in Sunagakure.
Naruto shot up from his bed the moment he received the news, staring at the messenger standing outside his window, Uzuki Yugao.
"Since when has Tsunade-sama's information ever been false?" Yugao replied helplessly, secretly cursing him as an idiot in her heart, "Head to the Hokage’s Office. You know the drill."
After saying this, she disappeared in an instant.
Standing on his bed, Naruto pondered for a moment, ‘Since the Akatsuki had really started extracting Biju, then there was no way I could take on the organization alone.’
‘The best teammates for this mission would be Jiraiya, Kakashi, or Might Guy, but they were critical figures in the village, holding down Konoha’s core strength.
‘To have them all participate in the operation is almost equivalent to directly hollowing out the Hokage’s faction. Such a large-scale operation would require solid intelligence and approval from the higher-ups.’
‘While Danzo's Root had some skilled individuals, but that old bastard was the type who would rather watch Konoha burn than sacrifice his forces. It’s his twisted nature that had turned Root into a ticking time bomb.’
‘As for the two old Advisors, they would not intervene under normal circumstances. For those old guys, if the village needed their direct involvement, it was already a matter of disgrace.’
Shaking his head, Naruto came back to his senses and frowned slightly. The biggest issue now was the lack of communication from Jiraiya, who had been vague and evasive.
‘Was this some Child of Prophecy’ nonsense, or had Asura’s chakra reincarnated into another fool?’
After a quick wash, Naruto lazily walked to the entrance to change his shoes. Kurama was still lying there, looking quite drunk.
Before heading out, Naruto glanced back at Kurama with a contemplative expression.
Jashin’s Dog had bound Kurama, preventing Akatsuki from extracting him by force, which is basically putting a layer of armor on this useless dog. If Pain attacked Konoha, he could just throw Kurama out to take the hits.
With a bang, the door slammed shut. Unaware of Naruto’s scheming, Kurama simply rolled over in his sleep, oblivious to it all.
Naruto barged into the room, sunlight casting shadows across the hallway. Inside, a group of people stood in a dense crowd. The Ino–Shika–Cho trio were in the innermost circle, followed by Neji's Team 3.
Sakura stood alone on one side, her pale arms hanging by her side.
Naruto was stunned for a moment, ‘Why is it necessary to dispatch so many people for this mission? I could understand dispatching Team 3, but what was Team 10 doing here?’
Ino glanced at Naruto and pursed her lips.
Naruto noticed it, but since he’s unsure how he had offended her, he decided to play dumb. He coughed and knocked on the door in a mock formal gesture.
"Uzumaki Naruto, I'm glad you can knock the door." Tsunade said, looking at him in mild exasperation, "But I don’t like it when you knock from inside the room."
‘Whether you like it or not, it wouldn’t stop me from knocking.’ Naruto silently retorted in his heart.
After a brief commotion, Tsunade got to the point.
"Sunagakure has sent a request for aid. The Akatsuki attacked and kidnapped the Kazekage, Gaara. The opponent we are facing this time is the Akatsuki, so we must not take them lightly."
"Where’s Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto couldn't help but interrupt Tsunade and asked.
‘Where’s Kakashi? The two Akatsuki’s members responsible for capturing Gaara were most likely Sasori and Deidara, and without Kakashi, this mission would be a lot harder.’
But in front of all his friends, he couldn’t just bluntly say, ‘The enemies are too strong, I’m afraid you guys can’t handle it’. Once such words were spoken, they couldn’t be taken back.
If he was younger, it wouldn’t matter, as children could get away with saying anything.
But now, the friends around him are all sixteen or seventeen years old, half a foot into the 18+ age group. Cough, they are almost an adult now.
They all had their pride, and the closer the friendship, the more carefully it had to be maintained. Otherwise, the saying ‘the older you get, the lonelier you become’ might just come true.
"Kakashi is on a mission and won't be back soon. We’ve already sent him a message, and he’ll head straight to Sunagakure to provide support." Tsunade said with her arms crossed.
"Oh, we probably won’t need Kakashi-sensei at all. There are so many of us already." Naruto said.
"Konoha doesn't know much about the members of the Akatsuki, but according to the information sent by Sunagakure, their strength far exceeds that of ordinary Jonin."
Tsunade furrowed her brow as she looked at the group gathered before her, and said, " This mission will be carried out by the eight of you. Shikamaru will be the captain, and Uzumaki Naruto, behave yourself. The mission is to assist Sunagakure. The mission is classified as an A-Rank mission for now."
"Yes." Shikamaru responded, straightening up and accepting the mission.
"What do you mean by ‘behave myself’?" Naruto asked, feeling somewhat speechless, ‘Wasn't Ialready well-behaved? I had been staying in the village for so long, and had never even bullied a single dog.’
Tsunade ignored him and turned her gaze toward Ino.
"Ino, keep an eye on him. Don't let that kid ruin the relationship with our allies."
"Wha…!" The sudden call from Tsunade caught Ino off guard. She subconsciously straightened up. And upon realizing what was being asked of her, her face flushed red.
Sakura, standing on the side, showed no reaction. She had long known about Naruto and Ino’s relationship and had never thought much about the future, living each day casually as it came.
To her, traditional moral values no longer stirred any excitement, let alone love.
Shikamaru didn't look at Ino, but glanced at Naruto with his dead fish eyes, thinking how boring Naruto is. The fact that he could get along well with several girls proved that Naruto had some brains, and was even very smart.
But every time Shikamaru invited him to play shogi, Naruto would always make excuses to refuse.
‘What's so fun about women? They would only slow down my thinking speed while playing shogi.’
A smile appeared on Choji's face. Last time they had a barbecue, he wanted to cause Naruto to bleed a little, but in the end, it was Ino who paid for it.
Whether or not he had enough barbecue, Choji wasn’t sure, but he had definitely been fed plenty of emotional drama.
Choji had even asked Shikamaru how he felt about his close friends getting so personal. He vividly remembered Shikamaru looking up at the sky, muttering, ‘Idiot’, after a long pause.
Tenten’s gaze remained fixed on her idol, Tsunade, completely missing the subtle undertones of the conversation. Lee, who didn’t care about romance, was also oblivious.
Neji understood the situation, but he remained indifferent.
Naruto looked nonchalant, showing impressive mental fortitude. Tsunade’s comments didn’t stir any emotions in him. In fact, he thought her words were too childish.