"… I understand." Ino was completely flustered, her face flushed as she stiffly walked towards the pile of fireworks.
Naruto stood aside and watched, with Kyubi crouching at his feet. The two of them. The man and the fox squinted their eyes on the dark hillside, waiting to see the fireworks.
Suddenly, Ino, who was holding the candle, stopped in her tracks and turned back towards Naruto.
"What's wrong?" Naruto asked with a bit of amusement, "You indeed look great in that yukata, but it can't be so difficult to light a firework, right?"
He figured it was just because the yukata made things a bit inconvenient for her, though it was true that she looked very nice in it, so he casually complimented her.
Surprisingly, Ino didn't respond as she usually would. She blinked a few times, her face reddened even more under the candlelight. She pursed her lips slightly, turned her head in another direction, and then stretched out her hand.
"… Here."
There was nothing in her palm. If anything was being offered, it was simply her hand.
Naruto was slightly stunned, then quickly grabbed Ino's hand.
"Ah! Don't rub it!"
"You're the one who offered."
"… Fine, but just this once." Ino reluctantly conceded.
The fireworks were lit, and the brilliant explosions awakened the usually quiet hillside. As soon as the fireworks were set off, Naruto and Ino bolted. Naruto held Ino's hand in one hand and Kyubi in the other.
The two of them, along with the dog, ran while glancing back at the fireworks. Before long, they were laughing as they ran.
Finally, out of breath, they hid in a small alley near the fork in Konoha Street, exchanging glances with their hearts pounding.
…
The next day.
The fireworks festival incident passed without much trouble. Naruto had a day to rest before he had to go on a mission with Team 8 the following day.
He hadn't checked on Sakura again, deciding he'd visit her after the mission. If she had recovered, there was no problem. But if she hadn't, it wasn't necessarily a bad thing either.
Sasuke was on the verge of being driven crazy by Itachi. It was impossible for him to fall in love, get married and have children like an ordinary person. Sasuke was too pure, seeing only black and white, with no shades of gray.
Such people are stubborn and live a very tiring life. They will neither retreat nor make peace, and will not be trapped by love and emotions.
Naruto understood that Sasuke's fate was beyond resolution, and there was no need for him to get involved in his affairs.
"There are too many psychopaths in this world." Naruto said lazily as he lay on the couch. He glanced at Kyubi, who was in the same posture, gnawing on a piece of meat while lounging on a smaller couch Naruto had bought specifically for him.
"Hmm?" Kyubi responded, still chewing on the meat. "Are you talking about the Uchiha?"
"Who else could it be except them? They're ruthless, even to their own kin."
"Where's my sake?"
"Get it yourself from the fridge."
"You are a real dog, right? Even if I jump in my current state, I can't reach it!"
"Well, can you do a backflip?"
"Little brat! Don't push your luck. Once I regain my full strength, I'll tear you apart!"
"Alright, alright." Naruto yawned as he got up, slowly making his way to the fridge, "I'm looking forward to that day. After all, you'll outlive me anyway, but when will you recover from this state?"
"If I did recover, would you still be able to stand there talking?" Kyubi's lazy voice came from the couch on the other side.
"Opening a fridge isn't something you need practice for." Naruto casually opened the fridge and was about to grab the special sake he had prepared for Kyubi when a mechanical synthesized voice suddenly echoed in his mind.
[Ding! Hinata's affection, Kyubi's approval: 45%]
Seeing this line pop up on the screen, Naruto's body froze, 'Hadn't the mission stalled?'
Before unsealing Kyubi, Naruto had already prepared for the mission line to be stalled. If the power of Kyubi he obtained stagnated at 37%, it wouldn't be a bad thing. At least, he wouldn't feel guilty every time he faced Hinata.
More importantly, he needs to separate Kyubi from himself as soon as possible. On one hand, Jashin's Dog can suppress Kyubi's ability, and on the other hand, it can also prevent Akatsuki from obtaining the Biju.
Kyubi is now a dog, and covered in the cloak of the Jashin's Dog is equivalent to being protected by the Jashin Hidan worshipped. In other words, it is impossible to remove this cloak with human power.
Simply put, Kyubi in Chakra State no longer exists, and even if the Sage of Six Paths were to come, he would not be able to take back Kyubi from him.
Unless, of course, the Jashin vanished.
But that kind of ethereal thing was almost as unsolvable as the Shinigami of the Pure Land. No one could do anything about it.
With Kyubi being untouchable, Naruto didn't want to use Hinata as a target for increasing his strength. It was precisely because of these dual considerations that Naruto decided to seize the moment and unseal Kyubi during the fireworks festival.
But now, it seems that whether Kyubi is in his body or not didn't affect the mission line.
Kyubi wasn't useless, he was just being suppressed. When the Kyubi's approval mission is completed, one person and one dog will have at least two Kyubi's combat power. Besides, the system is very powerful, so there would surely be more options later.
'Last time there was a delay, and this time there's a delay too.'
'Forget it, no point thinking about it.'
After a few seconds of hesitation, Naruto gave up on overthinking it. Why worry so much? The world isn't that easy to destroy, and he isn't a savior.
"Brat, why are you so slow? Did your brain get caught in the fridge door?"
"Shut up, or we'll practice backflips this afternoon!" Naruto grabbed a bottle of sake and slammed the fridge door shut.
He then went to the kitchen to pour himself a glass of water before walking over to the couch and placing the chilled sake in front of Kyubi. Kyubi opened the sake skillfully and drank from the bottle in a very humane way.
A summer breeze blew through the balcony, making the wind chimes jingle softly. Man and fox tilted their heads back and drank water (sake) in unison.
The next day.
Naruto and Kyubi meet up with the three members of Team 8 at the entrance of the village. They hear that the mission is to find the Bikochu, a rare insect capable of tracking scents.
It seemed like a chain reaction; Naruto didn't care about Sasuke's whereabouts, but the higher-ups were taking it seriously. Not only had they assigned Team 8, known for their tracking skills, to find the Bikochu, but they had also dispatched a large number of Anbu to the Land of Rice Fields.
The two advisors and Danzo had made such a compelling case that even Tsunade couldn't oppose them and had to let them proceed.
"Yo! Naruto, you've got a dog too?" Kiba, with his hands in his pockets and Akamaru on his head, walked leisurely from a distance.
Team 8 has already arrived. Hinata walked quietly on one side with her head down, while Shino, the insect master, maintained his usual calm and collected demeanor, standing like an unmovable mountain.
"Shut up, you glorified Akamaru taxi!" Naruto snapped back at Kiba, as the two of them always butting heads.
"You calling me a taxi?" Kiba rolled up his sleeves, " You want to fight, huh?"
Akamaru, who was lying on top of Kiba's head, stared at Kyubi for a long time. The more he looked, the more he felt that Kyubi did not resemble any dog species he knew, so Akamaru tugged frantically at Kiba's hair, trying to stop him from approaching Naruto.
"Huh? What's that, Akamaru? Naruto's dog is dangerous?"