The next day.
Naruto opened his eyes from the sofa. The light in the living room was dim. There would be a high-level meeting later in the day, so he couldn't fall back asleep.
It would be a lie to say he wasn't nervous, but luckily, he wasn't alone in the house.
Sitting up, he turned his head to look at the closed bedroom door, knowing that inside was a beautiful girl wrapped in a bath towel. By this time in the morning, the towel might have already been discarded.
His head felt a bit groggy, as he didn't get enough sleep.
Dragging his tired body to freshen up, he guessed it was just before dawn. He tossed his clothes from last night into the washing machine and noticed Ino's clothes were in the larger and smaller dryers.
After taking out Ino's fully dried clothes and neatly folding them on the sofa, he slowly shuffled in his indoor slippers to make breakfast, leaving a portion on warm hold.
After finishing his breakfast, the sun was almost up. He prepared everything and left a note for the still-sleeping Ino in the living room.
He originally planned to write something playful, but after recalling Ino's sleeping face from the night before, he changed his mind. He left a warm note instead and then headed out the door with a bang.
[Note: I put the bath water in the refrigerator, (*--*)]
…
Hokage's Office.
Tsunade was yawning as her little secretary urged her silently to hurry up. When she reached the entrance, she found Naruto slumped against the wall, already asleep.
"What's wrong with this guy?" Tsunade bent down and shook him awake, "Wake up."
Blinding light hit his eyes, and Naruto felt like his soul was being shaken out of him. Just as he was about to lose his temper, he looked up and saw a towering expanse of white, causing him to swallow back his words.
"Good morning, Tsunade-sama." Naruto said somewhat embarrassedly.
"How did things go with your little girlfriend yesterday?" Tsunade asked playfully, with a smirk on her lips.
"As expected of Tsunade-sama, but I'm afraid I'll have to disappoint you. I am a good person."
"Who knows? Maybe you should talk to the Yamanaka Clan about it." Tsunade grinned, showing none of the usual Hokage decorum, "How about working hard to become Hokage? I can help you convince the Hyuga Clan."
"They're pretty traditional, so they probably wouldn't mind you having two wives."
"Sorry, but becoming Hokage is absolutely impossible." Naruto refused again.
Hearing Naruto's refusal, Tsunade didn't show any change in expression, as it was just her usual teasing. She herself didn't really want to be the Hokage. She's a lazy Hokage who have started picking a successor as soon as she took office.
"Yeah." Tsunade pinched his cheek, then stood up and walked into her office, leaving a sentence, "Come on in."
"Okay." Naruto obediently followed her inside.
After sitting down, Tsunade didn't pay much attention to him, instead focusing on the stack of documents in front of her.
"These documents come in every day. If I don't review them for a few days, they will pile up."
"Is that so?" Naruto wasn't particularly interested but replied out of courtesy, "Is it because there aren't any capable people available right now? So the power can't be delegated?"
Tsunade took a sip of water and glanced at Naruto.
"You sure know a lot, kid."
"Just a little. Tsunade-sama, you might as well train Kakashi-sensei as your successor, and get it done in one step." Naruto suddenly said.
Tsunade coughed violently, and the cup fell into her chest. Fortunately, there was only a thin layer of water left, so it didn't spill onto her clothes.
"How did you know what I was thinking?"
In response to Tsunade's question, Naruto spread his hands.
"It might be a bit much to say this, but who else besides Kakashi-sensei could become Hokage? Pervy Sage has no intention of staying in one place and is always wandering around."
In fact, he was just talking nonsense. The more he knew, the more trouble he would have. While there was some truth to what he said, Kakashi still had a long way to go in terms of power and needed to accumulate more achievements to become the Hokage.
Both the Yondaime and Godaime Hokage had made significant contributions to Konoha.
In other words, unless Kakashi can unlock the Mangekyo Sharingan and achieve extraordinary feats in a large-scale war, contributing significantly to Konoha, it was too early to talk about him as a successor.
Even if Tsunade did have the intention of selecting Kakashi to be the Rokudaime Hokage, it was because Kakashi was, without a doubt, the most qualified candidate in terms of both intellect and overall ability among the adult Shinobi.
But things are not always that simple. If a better candidate appears in the future, Tsunade will naturally nominate them instead.
In other words, Naruto was only talking about the first layer, while Tsunade had already thought about the second. Yet, she still found his comments intriguing.
"Since you're not aiming to be Hokage, stay out of such matters," Tsunade said.
"Okay."
Tsunade picked up a document and put it down again, then turned to look at Naruto and gave him instructions with a serious expression.
"When we enter the high-level meeting room later, follow my lead. If someone asks you a question, don't answer it carelessly. You can only answer when I tell you to. Do you hear me?"
"I heard you. I'll follow Tsunade-sama's lead." Naruto replied obediently and had no other thoughts.
Anyway, Tsunade likely had a plan in place. As for the rest, he'll just deal with it if things didn't go smoothly. After all, Naruto has never participated in a high-level meeting, and he guessed that this was also Tsunade's first time to participate as the Hokage.
At 9:45 A.M, Tsunade put down her pen and tossed the documents on the table. She stood up, signaling Naruto to follow her as she walked out.
Tsunade led the way, the crisp sound of her high-heeled sandals echoing in the hallway. Shizune, the head of the medical department and the Hokage's secretary, walked side by side with Naruto, following closely behind.
At 10 A.M.
Golden sunlight pierced through the clouds, shining through the large corridor windows onto the massive, ancient wooden doors of the conference room.
"Tsunade-sama." The Chunin guarding the door greeted her respectfully and slowly pushed the doors open.
The door of the conference room creaked, and the unique smell of wooden doors hit Naruto in the face. Inside, the room was bathed in light, just like the hottest and most merciless sun at noon.
At 10 A.M.
Ino stared at the unfamiliar ceiling for a long time before suddenly realizing that she hadn't gone home last night.
Yesterday, Tsunade told her about the gift for no apparent reason, and then she felt aggrieved for some reason, so aggrieved that she felt very depressed and then she ended up wandering around aimlessly.
She doesn't know why, but by the time she realized what was happening, she had already arrived at that jerk's house.
Back then, seeing the faint light through the door, she assumed that Naruto had already brought the Sunagakure's Princess home, and the thought made her feel so wronged she wanted to cry. In a fit of frustration, she opened the door.
But for some reason, the moment she saw him, she just wanted to get angry. She kept saying things that were too suggestive, yet she couldn't help but care and listen to every word he said.
She didn't know what was happening to her. She took his key, stayed in the same house as him, almost as if she was clinging to him.
She knew such feelings were dangerous and desperately wanted to extricate herself from it.
After getting out of bed, she suddenly felt a chill on her body. The towel was still on the bed, and when she looked down, her pupils suddenly widened.
'Last night, wasn't I sleeping on the sofa?'