Chapter 29: The Third Hokage's Order
On a bright sunny day by a small river, three children gathered: two boys, one with black hair and handsome features, the other with blonde hair and whisker marks on his face, and a girl, though lacking pupils in her white eyes, was exceedingly cute and calm.
"I'm telling you now, don't expect me to share my fish with you later!"
"Not even a little bit?"
The blonde boy looked pitifully at the black-haired boy, hoping to change his mind, but to no avail. The black-haired boy, Katsuragi, remained indifferent, clearly unaffected by the plea.
"Here, Hinata! How does it taste?"
After tasting the nearly perfect grilled fish, Katsuragi handed it to the blushing Hinata beside him, looking forward to her reaction.
Despite lacking seasoning, his 'superior' cooking skills made it quite delicious, certainly much better than Naruto's which had almost turned to charcoal.
"Thank you!"
Hinata softly thanked Katsuragi as she took the grilled fish. Without showing any signs of distaste, she took a small bite and happily responded, "It's very tasty, Katsuragi!"
"Heh heh!"
Katsuragi chuckled contentedly, feeling quite pleased with himself. He hadn't forgotten the small request he had made to Hinata earlier, but with Naruto present and the old pervert Third Hokage spying on them, Katsuragi felt a bit irritated.
Naruto glanced at the succulent fish in Katsuragi's hand, then at the charred substance in his own, swallowed hard, but ultimately lacked the courage to try it. Instead, he came up to Katsuragi with a flattering smile and said:
"Katsuragi, let me taste it to see the difference between ours!"
"Sure!"
Katsuragi readily agreed, then gestured towards Naruto's 'grilled fish' and said, "You eat yours first, then you can taste mine."
"Eh!"
Naruto paused, looked at the smiling Katsuragi, then at the item in his hand, hesitated for a long time, then took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and brought the fish to his mouth, ready to bite.
"Okay, okay! I was just teasing!"
Seeing that Naruto was about to actually eat it, Katsuragi quickly intervened. It was just a joke. Although Naruto, being the Jinchuriki of the Nine-Tails, probably wouldn't suffer much, Katsuragi didn't want to end up on the Third Hokage's blacklist over this.
"Heh heh!"
Watching Katsuragi's exasperated face as he handed over his share of the grilled fish, Naruto giggled a couple of times, feeling a warm sensation he had never experienced before. And for some reason, he felt an inexplicable closeness to Katsuragi, though he couldn't understand why.
Unknown to him, this was due to the influence of the chakra of the Three-Tails that Katsuragi carried. As the Three-Tails had said, they were all foxes, just with a different number of tails.
Seeing Katsuragi giving his fish to Naruto, Hinata tugged at Katsuragi's sleeve and handed over her grilled fish, whispering, "Katsuragi, I can't finish this. You eat some too."
"My Hinata is the best!"
Katsuragi joyfully took a bite from the spot Hinata had eaten, not caring about any fish bones, and showed a blissfully happy expression.
As Naruto was about to taste his fish, he saw Katsuragi and Hinata's interaction, paused, and then thoughtfully divided his fish into two portions, choosing the larger portion and shyly saying to Katsuragi:
"Sorry, Katsuragi. This is enough for me. You can have the rest."
"No, thanks!" Katsuragi waved dismissively. He enjoyed the fish because it was from Hinata, not for its culinary merit.
"You can have it. Hinata and I are going to have barbecue later."
Katsuragi looked at Hinata, took the fish from her hands, removed the parts they had bitten off, and handed it to Naruto, saying, "If it's not enough, you can have this one too."
Naruto opened his mouth, feeling utterly defeated. Looking at the two grilled fish in his hands, they seemed tasteless even before he tried them.
The Third Hokage, observing Katsuragi's actions, suddenly smiled. Having watched for a while, he had realized Katsuragi's character: although he liked to joke and tease, he was fundamentally a kind-hearted child.
Perhaps this was more apparent in his interactions with girls, the Third thought as he watched Katsuragi talking to Hinata. He then turned off the crystal ball's image and suddenly spoke out:
"Remember the face of that boy, Katsuragi Kotori. If he interacts with Naruto again, leave him be."
"Understood!"
A voice came from the shadows, the masked figure presumably a member of the Anbu.
"Alright, you may leave."
After dismissing his subordinate, the Third muttered to himself, "Fourth, am I doing the right thing or not?"
Meanwhile, after the feeling of being watched by the Third faded, Katsuragi breathed a sigh of relief. Looking at Naruto, who was still deliberating whether to eat the two fish, he said seriously:
"Just to be clear, I can't bring you to the barbecue, but I know a ramen place that's really good. The owner is nice too; I recommend you try it!"
It was a rare date with Hinata,
and after having been interrupted by Naruto for so long, if he let him become a third wheel, Katsuragi didn't care how pitiful Naruto's earlier situation had been; he would just make it more pitiful. This was the price for disturbing a lolicon.
"Okay!"
Hearing Katsuragi's earnest tone, Naruto felt disappointed but nodded. He had considered asking if he could join them but was afraid of being chased out of the restaurant, causing trouble for Katsuragi.
"Forget the fish; go to that ramen place. Trust me, the owner won't dislike you."
Seeing Naruto's dejected look, Katsuragi reiterated his suggestion, knowing from the original story that 'Ichiraku Ramen' was one of the few places that didn't dislike Naruto in the early days.
"Really?"
Naruto perked up, asking, "Are they really like you, not disliking me?"
"Yes!" Katsuragi assured him, gave him directions to Ichiraku Ramen, then extinguished the fire and parted ways with Naruto, heading to a small private room at the barbecue restaurant with Hinata.
"Cough, Hinata!"
While they waited for their food at the barbecue, Katsuragi moved closer to the adorable Hinata and asked expectantly, "You remember our agreement, right?"
"Huh?"
Hinata paused, then remembered, her cheeks flushing red as she softly objected, "But... but... Naruto wasn't really dangerous, that doesn't count!"
"Ah!"
Katsuragi was momentarily stumped, then quickly urged, "But you promised, you can't go back on it! Hinata, trust is the most important thing between people, right? Keeping your word is a quality every girl must have!"
"Then... then..."
Hinata fiddled with her fingers, not knowing how to argue. She was so accustomed to following Katsuragi's instructions that she could only shyly agree, "Only... only on the cheek, and just... once!"
End of Chapter 29