"Naruto-kun, did your heart skip a beat just now?"
"Not at all, I was actually a bit scared." Naruto took a step back and said, "Can you act normal? You're a little scary like this."
"If I act normal, would you like me more because I resemble her?"
"No."
Naruto was speechless, thinking to himself, 'What kind of absurd logic is that?'
"Are you going to abandon me?"
"We're not even in a relationship."
"Isn't just the body enough? Is the mind really that important?" Sakura said weakly.
"This has nothing to do with that, you don't need to do this." Naruto said.
"I can accept *****."
"…"
Talking with this Sakura was exhausting, so Naruto decided it was time to make an exit.
"I feel like you're toying with me, Sakura." Naruto said with a bit of helplessness, "I still have a mission to complete, so I need to go now."
"Take this." Sakura handed over the lunch box.
Naruto didn't take it, instead, he frowned and stared at the lunch box, "You definitely poisoned it last time, didn't you?"
"There's no poison this time." She said with a smile.
Naruto clicked his tongue and stared at Sakura with a dark gaze, "There's definitely something weird mixed in there, right?"
Sakura smiled but didn't say anything.
After finally shaking off the strange Sakura, Naruto went home, tidied up briefly, and as usual, did not take Kurama with him.
This mission wasn't suitable for bringing Kurama along, not because Kurama's appearance would cause trouble, but because the Land of Birds was too small. Kurama could cause a national-level disaster by just doing something minor.
Based on the principle of not causing trouble for himself, he left Kurama at home.
Before leaving, Naruto grabbed the doorknob and spoke seriously to Kurama, who was lounging lazily in the living room.
"Kurama, I'm off to work to pay off debts. Be sure to practice your backflips at home. If I don't make it back, they'll probably adopt you."
Upon hearing this, Kurama, who was sprawled out on the sofa, poked its head out and looked towards the door, asking, "Really? Then that means I'll have endless booze?"
"Of course it's true. Considering how much they miss me, they'll definitely treat you well."
Kurama smiled and said, "Brat, you'd better die outside. I might actually acknowledge your death."
"I'll do my best."
With that, the door closed with a bang, and the sound of footsteps gradually faded away. The living room returned to its quiet state.
Kurama smile slowly disappeared as he shrank back into the sofa. In the dim living room, with the curtains tightly drawn, he stared blankly at the ceiling.
Suddenly, he jumped off the sofa, stood up, and walked to the balcony to pull open the curtains.
The soft autumn sunlight flooded the living room, making Kurama squint his eyes. He then entered Naruto's room and began rummaging through his things.
From the pile of 'Icha Icha' books, Kurama carefully found and extracted a large photo that Naruto used when he registered as a Shinobi. Afterward, he cautiously brought it out of the room.
Kurama lit three sticks of incense, skillfully blew on them, and the tips burned bright red.
"Rest in peace, kid."
After muttering this, Kurama solemnly placed the three sticks of incense in front of a photo frame with Naruto's large photo. What he found lacking was that the photo wasn't in black and white.
Meanwhile, Naruto had already met up with Tenten and Neji.
Even though luck hadn't been on his side yesterday or today, Naruto still looked like his usual self, as if nothing could weigh on his mind.
If something can't be changed at the moment, don't dwell on it too much.
First, take care of the present matters, then return to handle the leftover issues when there's free time. Most of the time, many problems will be resolved smoothly this way.
Human thoughts are complex, let alone a young girl's feelings.
Expressing love shouldn't be done from a high position, nor from a lowly one, it should be done on equal footing. The deeper the love in one's heart, the calmer one should appear on the surface.
Otherwise, what often bursts out isn't love, but merely a momentary impulse.
Confessing love doesn't require fanfare, nor should it be hidden in a corner away from everyone. It should be laid out in the open, unafraid of being discovered by anyone.
On the way.
Naruto voiced his doubts, "This client doesn't seem very smart. Is this really reliable?"
"Ah!" The person's pupils widened slightly, and he was accidentally tripped by a stone on the road and fell heavily to the ground.
"Hiss~!"
"Chishima, are you okay?" Tenten stopped walking and turned back, looking at the fallen person with concern.
"I'm fine." The person named Chishima quickly lifted his head and forced a smile, even though blood was clearly flowing from his forehead.
"So weak."
Naruto, standing aside with his arms crossed, looked at the glasses-wearing Chishima, who looked a lot like Shinpachi, and mercilessly mocked him.
"Sorry."
Chishima apologized in fear. At this time, there was blood on his face.
Seeing this, Naruto thought to himself, 'He had the face of Shinpachi, but not Shinpachi's sarcastic soul.'
"I know the mission reward isn't enough, but I don't have any more money!"
"Uh… we didn't talk about the issue of remuneration." Tenten awkwardly tried to defuse the situation.
"This little money is going to make it hard for us." Naruto added fuel to the fire.
"I'm sorry!! I'm so sorry!" Chishima was almost ready to bow his head in apology.
"Naruto, stop scaring him!" Tenten glared at Naruto, who whistled and walked away toward Neji.
"I'm sorry!" Chishima knelt on the ground, too afraid to raise his head.
"It's okay, that's just how he is, he was only joking." Tenten, feeling a bit of a headache, handed Chishima a towel and forced a smile to comfort him
"Since Konoha has accepted the mission, we'll definitely do our best."
"Thank you, thank you so much!" Chishima looked extremely grateful.
Meanwhile…
"Neji!"
Naruto called out to Neji, who noticeably froze for a moment when he turned around. It seemed that he recalled some unpleasant memories, and his expression immediately turned sour.
He remembered that the last time Naruto called him like that, they ended up tying up the client like a dumpling.
As luck would have it, he teamed up with this lawless temporary worker again. Looking at the smiling face of the lawless maniac, Neji's heart suddenly trembled.
'This guy…'
"Something seems off." Naruto patted Neji's shoulder and said with a smacking mouth.
"What's off?" Neji asked patiently.
"Everything's off." Naruto glanced at the Shinpachi-lookalike, Chishima, and said, "That guy mentioned in the mission request that the Cursed Warrior assassinated the former Daimyo, and now we need to protect the new Daimyo."
"Yeah, so what's the issue?"
"If Cursed Warrior could really kill, the current Daimyo would be dead by now. How could he still be alive and kicking?"
Hearing this, Neji finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"Of course, Cursed Warrior doesn't exist. It's just a trick played by someone with ulterior motives."
"In that case…" Naruto rubbed his chin and looked at Neji, "Can we create a real one?"