In Konoha, Naruto lies down

"I'm hungry," Naruto said, "If I say that, you'll definitely deliberately not let me eat. Maybe even though I've already eaten, you'll still force yourself to finish it."

"Hehe, you think too bad of me." Ino turned her head and said smugly, "Sorry, I have no appetite at all right now."

"it is good."

Naruto sat directly across from Ino, slowly opened the lunch box, and began to place a dish, a soup, and a fruit plate on the counter.

"The food is too simple." Ino picked up the book again, sat back in her seat, and said nonchalantly, "It looks like a dish made in a hurry."

"This is already the limit of cooking." Naruto didn't eat it directly, but looked at Ino and asked, "But... I suddenly want to know what Ino thinks of this dish."

"Is this a hint for me to have a bite?"

"Not really. If you can taste it just by sniffing it, then there's no need to go through so much trouble."

"Your reason is too far-fetched. If that's the case, I won't eat a single bite." Ino scanned the page many times without reading a single word.

"Actually, I don't care about your opinion, Ino. I just want you to have a bite so that I can find an excuse to take advantage of you."

"Pervert!" Ino only showed a pair of eyes from above the book, revealing a look of contempt, "What are you thinking about in your head?"

"Maid outfit."

"Go to hell!" Ino threw the book over with a loud noise, her face flushed. "My mother is still upstairs, you'd better not say anything weird."

"Okay." Naruto looked like he wanted to say something but hesitated.

Seeing Naruto's slightly threatening yet fake sincerity, she was immediately furious. She took a few steps forward and grabbed his waist.

Naruto seemed to have lost his sense of pain. He picked up a piece of bacon and handed it over, saying with a smile.

"I was planning to go home and sleep straight away, but I suddenly wanted to see you, so I came straight here."

"Well....."

Ino nervously turned her head towards the staircase to the second floor, frowning as she approached. She hesitated for a moment before taking a bite of the bacon. Her cheeks puffed slightly before she swallowed.

She lowered her voice and loosened her grip on the soft flesh of Naruto's waist.

"I don't want to see you at all! Pervert!"

"That's a pity, we were almost in love." Naruto lowered his head and started eating by himself, looking like he hadn't eaten for hundreds of years.

"Who would want to be with you... your statement is disgusting." Ino twisted her hands behind her back, "That day... what happened that day."

"Which day?" Naruto didn't even raise his head.

"...On that day at the ninja school's summer camp." Ino stammered, "What happened that day...I...I said a lot of strange things."

"Really?" Naruto stopped eating with his chopsticks, looked up at Ino with a lazy look in his eyes, "What did you say? I thought you and Hinata teamed up to play a trick on me."

"It's not a prank. Maybe he was not feeling well after getting caught in the rain, so he said some nonsense." Ino said in a low voice, a little embarrassed, and then looked at Naruto and changed the subject.

"lets change a topic."

Chapter 162: Only this matter, I hope you can explain it clearly

"After Sasuke left," Ino asked, "you're currently forming teams and doing missions everywhere, right?"

"I guess so, but those missions were forced upon me by Lady Tsunade." Naruto sighed and said, "I'd rather just lie at home and do nothing."

"That kind of thing is impossible!"

"Hey, you, show some motivation!" Ino held her forehead and glanced at Naruto, "Shikamaru is already a Chunin, don't you want to become a Chunin?"

For these teenage boys and girls, the title of ninja held a powerful allure, like a test. While gaining recognition from a Chunin wouldn't necessarily make one stronger, it was a necessary step toward becoming a Jonin.

Well…but he didn’t care.

"Why are you suddenly talking about this?" Naruto was a little surprised. "Shouldn't the Chunin Exams be next summer?"

"How should I put it?" Ino turned her head away. "Tsunade-sama is training you as one of her own. You should at least cheer up."

"Her? Forget it," Naruto said without mercy, "I have almost seven days off now, so I don't want to go near that woman."

Tsunade has been giving out missions to everyone she meets lately, and Naruto has nicknamed her "Mission Princess" privately. Unless it's necessary, he will never appear in Tsunade's sight.

The time for slacking off is limited, but the tasks are unlimited.

Kakashi, the sixth-generation candidate, has become completely numb, running around in the Snow Kingdom and the Wind Kingdom to complete missions.

Occasionally, he would need to go between teams to save the day and clean up the mess left by his unreliable juniors. He was a veteran of Konoha's missions and could be considered a hardworking jonin during the early days of the Fifth Hokage's reign.

"Well...if you don't go on a mission, you should be taken away for training." Ino suddenly said this.

"Hmm?" Naruto looked confused. "What kind of training is this? How come I don't know about it?"

"Of course you don't know." Ino sighed, her cheeks puffed slightly as she looked at Naruto and said, "I heard from Father yesterday that Jiraiya-sama has returned to the village."

"What does that have to do with me?" Naruto said nonchalantly, "I can't possibly go there to train anyway. The lecherous sage should know that."

"Why? Lord Jiraiya should be one of the three ninjas, right?" Ino asked in confusion.

"That's what I said, but it's two completely different things." Naruto scratched his face and said, "Training with a lecherous sage is also very stressful."

"I don't want to be a big shot. Maintaining the status quo is good enough."

"It's really irritating to hear you say that!" Ino said depressedly, lying on the counter.

"why?"

"I've seen that your mission completion rate is almost 100%. Even missions with difficulty A can be completed successfully. Although your reputation isn't great, your strength is always improving rapidly."

"There's no need to talk about things like reputation." Naruto was a little embarrassed.

"So, hearing you say you just want to maintain the status quo suddenly makes me feel a little annoyed." Ino stared at Naruto's face and said, "I seem to have made almost no progress since the Chunin Exam."

After becoming Genin, everyone gradually saw their own shortcomings and deficiencies, as well as their own paths, during the six-month mission experience.

Sasuke defected and embarked on a path of revenge.

Hinata is determined to become a qualified ninja. She does not seek to surpass Neci, but only hopes not to be a drag on the team. She becomes a reliable companion in the team.

Ningci hopes to break free from his shackles and find the answer to freedom through his own strength, while Rock Lee, burning with youth, continues to advance towards becoming the supreme master of physical skills.

Tiantian has become a qualified tool man, and his performance in physical skills is remarkable, but with the blessing of Duocai Duoyi's quality, he has become a must-have companion for home and travel.

But there are many people who are lost among them. Sakura... can be considered lost.

Naruto has absolutely no goals, he works hard for three days and rests for two days, and he has no thoughts about becoming Hokage. As long as he doesn't have any missions, he can just lie down for days.

It’s not so much that Naruto was lost, it’s more like he had no intention of moving forward at all.

Like a dandelion seed, it lands wherever it wants. If it lands in the ocean, it'll just drift. Yet, this guy's strength keeps growing, leaving everyone baffled.

"Ino, I have a way to improve your strength."

"any solution?"

"Special training." Naruto no longer had the appetite to eat. He put away the plate and returned it to the lunch box. He stared at Ino seriously and said, "I'll help you with special training."

"You?" Ino's expression was a bit complicated. "Hearing you say that, although I am very grateful in my heart, but... I can't imagine that you can have any good special training methods."

"Don't underestimate people, damn it!"

"Will their bodies not be stacked on top of each other?" Ino glanced at him and asked.

"...Who do you take me for? I'm just making a suggestion." Naruto was completely speechless. "Remember the furniture store downstairs from my house?"

Hearing this, Ino raised her brows.

She had just said a lot of irrelevant things to Naruto, but in fact, she felt much better and her anxiety about the future was relieved a lot.

Naruto was well aware of this, and when Ino said those words, he began to talk nonsense seriously.

The most important thing to relieve Ino's anxiety is not what to do in the future, but how to do it now to make her happy.

As a Genin who was much stronger than her, Ino would benefit more from his subtle and outrageous suggestions rather than his long and sweeping speeches.

"That big furniture store?" Ino asked.

"Yeah, it went bankrupt. There's a lot of space there. I can buy it and use it as a training ground." Naruto thought, stroking his chin.

"If you're free, we can train together."

"Idiot! I'm not going!" Ino made a face and said slightly, "Do you think I'm a fool? You want to trick me into going to your place?"

"I won't be fooled so easily!"

"Eh? I'm going to be sad if you say that." Naruto frowned, "I just hope that you become stronger, Ino, so that your troubles will disappear, right?"

Ino: “….”

"For someone like you who secretly refrigerates bath water, such words are totally unconvincing! Hey!!"

"That was an accident. Listen to my explanation." He reached out and held Ino's hand that was hanging on the counter. "No, listen to my explanation!"

Ino's body froze when she realized her hand was being held. Her reaction was very cute, like a cat that was frozen in place, with a blush spreading from her cheeks to the base of her neck.

"Let me go first!" she stammered.

"Will you blush even after being caught several times? What a cute reaction." Naruto said this without hesitation.

"Go to hell! Pervert!" Ino suddenly pulled her hand out and used her other hand to turn it over. She frowned and stared at the yellow-haired man and said, "Don't grab my hand suddenly!"

"Then can I catch him openly next time?"

"Absolutely! No!" Ino refused without hesitation, her attitude firm, "We are not that close, please don't act like a pervert!"

Naruto was very satisfied with Ino's reaction. He supported his head with his hands and stared at Ino and smiled.

"Winter is coming soon, you..."

There were a few thuds, as if someone upstairs had accidentally fallen. With a scream, the elegantly dressed Yamanaka Rino staggered and steady herself at the corner of the stairs.

Mrs. Yamanaka happened to meet the eyes of the two people at the counter, and she felt a little embarrassed when she realized that she had been discovered.

"This staircase is a bit old. I need to find someone to replace it later."

"......Mother..." Ino frowned, "You weren't eavesdropping just now, were you?"

"Well, how could that be?" Yamanaka Rino covered her mouth with her hands and chuckled, walking down the stairs with elegant steps, "I just happened to go downstairs, who knew that these stairs were really..."

Looking at her mother who had lost all her usual elegance and grace, Ino felt helpless.

"Mother, eavesdropping is wrong."

"Little Ino, I didn't hear your conversation." Yamanaka Rino, wearing an elegant long dress, walked to the flower bed and started spraying water to take care of it.

Hearing this, Ino finally breathed a sigh of relief.

But the next second, Yamanaka Rino turned her back to the two of them and said something without turning her head.

"If you refrigerate your bath water, you'll still get stomach upset."

Ino turned her head stiffly and looked at Naruto, her pupils dilated. Naruto understood what she meant and quickly stood up with the food box and said to Yamanaka Rino.

"Aunt, it's getting late. I'm going back first."

"Won't you stay a little longer?" Yamanaka Rino turned around and asked with a smile, "Little Ino..."

"Mother!" Ino was anxious and interrupted Yamanaka Rino, "That...that!"

Ino's face flushed red. She pushed Naruto out of the store, turned around to close the door, and said to Yamanaka Rino inside.

"Mother, let me get that guy out first."

"Will you come back in the evening?" Yamanaka Rino asked with a smile.

"I'm right at the door! Mother, please don't say that." Ino had a headache and closed the shop door with a click.

When she turned around, she found Naruto watching her from a distance, with no intention of leaving.

"My mother... Anyway, don't think too much about it." Ino felt a little tired, having to deal with such a mother who looked serious but was unreliable at critical moments.

But the yellow-haired man in front of her was not an honest man. Seeing him standing there pretending to be innocent, Ino couldn't hold back anymore. She took a few steps forward, grabbed Naruto's clothes, and dragged him to the corner of a dim street.

"What's your expression?"

"I was just thinking...Ino-chan, hahaha!" Naruto laughed out loud.

"Don't laugh!" Ino grabbed Naruto's neck and threatened fiercely, "And... there's something. Since it's like this now, I'm just going to ask you directly!"

"what?"

"You can pretend to be stupid, although I don't care much about this kind of thing, but!" Ino lifted her hair in front of her forehead and stared at Naruto with her eyes.