When Kirito saw how frustrated Minato looked, he couldn't bear to continue with the words of having Nawaki come over in place of Kushina after all, so he silently followed the other man forward.
Soon, with Minato leading the way, he arrived at the very familiar Yakushi Gourmet Restaurant.
"This kid Minato has quite the vision."
Kirito secretly praised Minato when he saw that he chose to arrange the celebration banquet to be held in the Yakushi Gourmet Restaurant.
Not bad, this kid is a good person and knows the principle of not letting the fat water flow into others' fields.
This Yakushi Gourmet Restaurant has him as one of its shareholders.
"Welcome."
Kirito had just entered inside when he heard a familiar gentle voice.
He turned his head and saw Yakushi Nono himself.
Yakushi Nono was now ten years old, and due to the fast development of girls and the nutrition that kept up with it, she was now a head taller than Kirito, having grown to 1.4 meters, and her face and body had gradually grown out of her body, and with well-fitting and good-looking clothes, she was already a little beauty.
Because her body had grown, and because her strength was at the level of Chunin, she didn't need to use the Transformation Technique to play the role of an adult anymore.
"Yo, rare guest, why are you free to come here today."
Nono grunted lightly when she saw Kirito, then said with a hint of dissatisfaction.
Ever since Kirito graduated from ninja school and went to medical class, then moved into Nawaki's house, he rarely came to the Yakushi Gourmet Restaurant for dinner.
He didn't even see them a couple times a month.
Although it was true that the store's profits were a lot better without Kirito, the freeloading big eater, in her heart she was just a little bit angry, feeling that Kirito had become estranged from her lately.
"I happened to run into Minato on the way, he graduated as a ninja today, so I had the cheek to accept his invitation to come over and dine, there's no need to greet me in particular, and I'll see to it if there's not enough to go around."
Kirito didn't seem to hear Nono's bit of dissatisfaction and said playfully.
As he said that, he pointed a finger at Minato, who was off to the side.
When Nono heard that, she glanced at Minato, who was still a bit disoriented at the moment, and immediately realized that now was not the time to make small talk with Kirito, and said to Minato with a healing smile, "Minato, Aoki-sensei and the others have already arrived, and they're in the innermost private room."
"Okay, Nono-sama."
Seeing Nono's healing smile, Minato was instantly in a better mood and nodded his head obediently before greeting Kirito and heading to the private room where the celebratory feast was to take place.
Kirito followed in response, making a gesture to Nono as he passed her that only the two of them would understand.
The smile on Nono's face widened when she saw the gesture.
Minato was as popular as they come, and Kirito saw many girls as he entered the private room.
This time, 95% of the people who came to participate in Minato's celebration banquet were girls, except for him, a boy who accidentally messed up, there were only two men, one was Minato's homeroom teacher, Aoki, and the other one was Minato's good buddy, Akimichi Doto.
A fat guy whose food intake is comparable to his.
But what he didn't expect was to see Hyuga Hanare, who he hadn't seen in a while, here.
Hyuga Hanare, his classmate, the genius ninja who always holds the third place in his grade's theory class, a peer he focuses on pulling in his classmates, and also the daughter of his taijutsu sensei, Hyuga Hanare.
"Kirito-kun, what brings you here."
As soon as Kirito came in, Hanare, who was sitting in the corner, immediately noticed Kirito, and she instantly snapped to her feet, surprised.
"I just happened to run into Minato on the way, and Minato invited me to his celebration banquet, so I had the cheek to come, but I didn't expect you to be here too, Hanare."
Kirito smiled at Hanare's words and explained.
"I-I also came because I was invited by Minato-san ..."
Hanare hurriedly explained.
"Kirito, it's been a long time, in fact, Hanare successfully completed her graduation exams today as well, and she'll be forming a ninja squad with Minato and Dōto next, so I'm holding this celebration feast especially for the three of them."
At that moment, the very eagle-eyed special jōnin Aoki stood up and explained.
"Did Hanare graduate today as well, so that's how it is."
Kirito sniffed and unexpectedly looked at Hyuga Hanare.
Hanare immediately lowered her head as if she had done something wrong, not daring to look at Kirito.
This was because Kirito had advised her before to graduate normally and not to graduate in advance, but she still couldn't stand it and chose to graduate in advance.
However, the reason why she did that was because she saw an opportunity that would allow her to get stronger quickly as well as continue to learn the sealing arts, and that was why she couldn't hold back for a moment and completed her graduation early.
"I didn't expect to actually meet you here, Kirito."
Seeing this, Kirito was about to ask Hanare about the reason for her early graduation, but a raspy voice that sounded very familiar caused his attention to shift temporarily.
He turned to see that Orochimaru had stood in the doorway at some point and was looking at him with a smile on his face.
As soon as Orochimaru appeared, Minato Namikaze, Hyuga Hanare, and Akimichi Dōto immediately saluted Orochimaru in unison, and in unison they respectfully said, "Orochimaru-sensei."
"Orochimaru-sensei?"
As Kirito listened to the words of the trio and watched the attitude of the trio's movements displayed towards Orochimaru, he instantly realized what was going on and was very surprised in his heart.
It looked like the guiding jōnin of Minato Namikaze, Hyuga Hanare and Akimichi Doto was Orochimaru.
Otherwise, it was impossible for the three to treat Orochimaru with such respect.
He now finally understood why the usually obedient Hanare had suddenly chosen to graduate early.
Obviously, she should have known the news that Orochimaru was going to be the guiding jōnin, so she went to take her chances and see if she could be chosen by Orochimaru.
From what I can see now, she took the right gamble, she gained Orochimaru's favor with her outstanding academic performance and became selected by Orochimaru to enter Orochimaru's squad.
Although Kirito didn't like Orochimaru very much, he also had to admit that Orochimaru was a very good teacher, personally not only was he very knowledgeable and knew very many powerful jutsu, but he also knew how to teach according to his ability.
Most importantly, Orochimaru has not gone astray yet and will still be a good and dedicated teacher.
It was undoubtedly a very fortunate thing for Hanare to be chosen by him, and it would be very helpful to Hanare's future strength enhancement.
"Now that I think about it, so it's this time, that's right, according to the original plot, Mito has now passed away, there is no one left who can restrain Nawaki, this is the time period when Nawaki graduated early and then was chosen by Orochimaru, right, no, it should have been an internal decision, but now that Mito hasn't passed away yet, and Nawaki can't graduate early, the people that Orochimaru chose have changed to Minato and Hanare, and the people that Orochimaru chose are changed to Minato and Hanare. If I hadn't rejected him in the first place, maybe Orochimaru would still have me in his team instead of that fat Akito guy."
Kirito turned his head as he immediately thought of many more things.
He then said politely to Orochimaru-sama, "Hello Orochimaru-sama, I didn't expect to meet you here either, it's really a pleasure, isn't it?"
"Well~, This meeting was fate, today is the day that Orochimaru's squad is officially formed, why don't you stay and celebrate with us as well."
Orochimaru nodded to Kirito.
He then nodded to Minato, Hanare and Dōto one by one.
Orochimaru, as a Sannin, and personally a disciple of Sandaime, who had made great achievements on the battlefield, he was undoubtedly in the highest position here.
As soon as he arrived, everyone in the private room subconsciously stood up.
It was only when he came to sit down in the main seating position that the others resumed their seats one by one.
Orochimaru had the aura of Konoha's hero on him, and personally now he was still a brooding beauty, as long as he didn't do anything as horrible as spitting out his long tongue, he was still very popular with the girls, and the king of popularity in the scene shifted from Minato to Orochimaru all of a sudden.
What Kirito didn't expect was that Orochimaru, the brooding beauty, was actually quite good at talking and telling jokes, just slightly cold.
But when he talked about some interesting stories from the battlefield, he easily grasped the rhythm of the atmosphere in the booth, causing everyone to look at him.
Kirito had never been to the battlefield, and now that he heard Orochimaru's live talk about the winds of war, in which he also said quite a lot of useful knowledge about survival on the battlefield, he also listened with interest.
Of course, his mouth, like Akimichi Dōto, never stopped.
Suddenly, Kirito's chopsticks and Akimichi Dōto's chopsticks simultaneously caught a piece of grilled meat from the barbecue grill, and the two of them instantly connected.
An invisible spark appeared in the air.
This was the last piece of grilled meat on the grill right now, with a special delicious flavor attached to it, and neither of the two eaters were going to humble themselves.
Just as the two were about to force each other back with menacing looks, a pair of chopsticks easily took that last piece of grilled meat away from both of their chopsticks.
Kirito and Akimichi Dōto were immediately dumbfounded as they watched that last piece of grilled meat fall into Hanare's mouth.
"Sorry, I'm really too hungry ..."
Hanare looked at the two of them looking over, lowered her head with a red face, and whispered pitifully.
The flavor of the last piece of roasted meat, she hadn't eaten it for a long time, and just now she really couldn't help it.
The two men sniffed, they both subconsciously looked at the pile of plates in front of Hanare, and both of their faces showed a shocked expression.
But they didn't expect the tiny Hanare to actually be so capable of eating, although she didn't eat as much as the two of them, she had already exceeded the other girls around her by many times.
"So Hanare can eat that much, no wonder when I used to pretend to give Hanare food to be grateful to Mr. Shan, she had a strange expression on her face, so it's because I didn't give enough."
Kirito looked at the mountain of plates in front of Hanare and thought thoughtfully.
Probably because Kushina didn't come, Minato wasn't very excited during the celebration feast, and with his popularity being completely crushed by Orochimaru, he kept eating sullenly, only occasionally talking to the two girls around him who were very enamored with him.
Overall, though, the celebratory feast was quite good, and everyone left with a smile on their face.
It was during the checkout that Orochimaru smiled a little stiffly.
Once Kirito had finished dawdling and said his goodbyes to Minato and the others, he took off at a leisurely pace, but just as he walked a short distance out he noticed a small tail following behind him.
"What's the matter, Hanare, do you have something else to tell me?"
When Kirito saw that the little tail had been following, almost following him to the Senju Clan territory but hesitating to come out of his own accord, he suddenly turned to Hyuga Hanare, who was sneaking behind a utility pole at that moment.
Hanare saw Kirito discovering her, so she had to timidly come out from behind the pole and stammered, "Kirito-kun, I'm sorry, I didn't listen to you and graduated early without authorization."
" What do you mean by this, you don't have to mind, I'm just advising you not to graduate early, it's not necessary that you must not graduate early, as a matter of fact, with your current strength you could have graduated early a long time ago, and you made a very good choice this time, being able to let Orochimaru become your guiding jōnin will be very helpful to your future strength growth, it's a wise choice. "
Kirito saw that Hanare was still blaming himself, he immediately had a serious expression and comforted Hanare.
Hanare did not listen to his advice to graduate early, he did not have any unhappy emotions in his heart, he just felt a little pity.
It was a pity that the other party had lost a period of time to develop peacefully.
However, when he learned that Hanare graduated early because she wanted to obtain Orochimaru's guidance, he had nothing but appreciation.
Fighting for your own destiny and not bowing down to it.
This was one of the things Kirito admired most about Hanare, and now that she had chosen to graduate early to earn a chance to gain Orochimaru's guidance, she was certainly fighting against her own unwanted destiny once again.
Still unwilling to be imprisoned by a caged bird, she decisively sought out Orochimaru, a Sannin skilled in sealing techniques, to become her mentor jōnin.
And she succeeded in seizing this opportunity through her own strength.
Although the guidance jōnin is not strictly speaking a true sensei of the genin, there is still a relationship of master and disciple, without the name of master and disciple but with the reality of master and disciple.
Orochimaru now became Hanare's mentor jōnin, the benefits to Hanare were visible to the naked eye.
Hanare can not only obtain excellent teaching resources, but also can obtain Orochimaru's shelter, in the future, when the Hyuga clan wants to target Hanare, they must consider Orochimaru, the Sandaime disciple's feelings.
Judging from the way the Hyuga Clan usually behaves like an ostrich, they will definitely be very wary of Orochimaru, a disciple of the Third Hokage. Hanare's free space will definitely increase greatly in the future, and she doesn't have to worry about being restrained by the Clan all day long after his strength increases. Become a tool for the Hyuga Clan to work hard and bear no complaints.
Of course, Orochimaru's shelter for Hanare only ended when he was still a Konoha ninja.
I hope Orochimaru will not become more and more evil in order to explore the art of immortality in the future, and eventually have to defect to Konoha.
Once Orochimaru defected, Hanare's situation would surely deteriorate rapidly.
But from the current point of view, allowing Orochimaru to become Hanare's guiding jōnin would benefit Hanare far more than it would harm her.
"Really, you're not angry?"
Hanare heard Kirito say that and looked at Kirito with wide eyes and an expectant face.
"Of course I'm not, I think your choice is great and wise, go for it Hanare, destiny should be firmly in your own hands, but you've become a member of Orochimaru's squad, so I guess you'll have to go to war soon, so make sure you're careful."
Kirito nodded his head in praise before giving Hanare a few words of caution.
"Orochimaru-sensei is very strong, and I have Byakugan, so as long as I can spot the enemy ahead of time, I'm sure there won't be any problems, thank you for your concern, Kirito-kun."
Hanare said happily, a happy smile on her face.
As expected, Kirito-kun understands me.
That's really great.