In Konoha, Naruto lies down

When we returned to the village, the surroundings began to become lively.

Children wearing thick cotton hats and cotton gloves were running and fighting in the streets, shouting lines from ninja games and using the snow they picked up as shurikens.

Jiraiya and Naruto stood by the street and watched for a while, watching the children throw white snowballs against the red wall. The tiles on the old wall were knocked off and landed on the thick layer of snow, but no one paid any attention to them.

Naruto looked at everything in front of him, and thought of the red walls and white snow-capped Moshan Mountain in his mind. He just felt it was interesting and smiled.

Jiraiya, who was standing beside him, suddenly patted Naruto on the shoulder. Naruto turned around and saw an awkward smile on his face, looking a little embarrassed and uneasy.

Seeing this, Naruto was slightly stunned and asked, "What's wrong with you, lecherous sage?"

"That..." He pointed at the group of fighting kids with a flattering smile on his face.

He blinked, that smile he had seen in his past life. It was a winter night, and his grandfather, who had been missing for five years, was brought back by the police.

Heavy snow fell on the shoulders of the greasy military coat, and his hands were chapped and swollen red from the cold, but he tightly grasped the toy of a seven-year-old child and handed it to the sixteen-year-old boy.

With this kind of flattering yet awkward smile on his face, he spoke while breathing hard.

"Take it and play with it."

......

"What?" He came back to his senses, his voice a little hoarse, and asked with a cough.

Jiraiya chuckled dryly, his finger still pointed at the group of children throwing snowballs, and asked somewhat awkwardly.

“Did you play this with your friends as a kid?”

"Ah."

"That's good, that's good." Jiraiya retracted his hand, smiled awkwardly, then walked towards the izakaya and shouted loudly.

"Really? I should have a few drinks in this weather!"

Naruto stood there without watching Jiraiya leave, without saying a word and with no expression on his face, until the heavy snow fell on his shoulders, then he slowly left.

We’ll talk about the future later, but Akatsuki really has no meaning in existence.

I might as well kill them all when I have time.

He didn't care about the grievances or deep hatreds of others, he just wanted to kill them all at once. Standing in front of the enemy's tombstone and repenting was always the most pious moment.

I returned home walking on the rustling snow. The moment I turned the key, the door suddenly opened from the inside.

Ino, wearing a green apron, opened the door. Her hair was a little messy and she was wearing a thick pink sweater under the apron. She was a little confused when she saw Naruto.

Naruto was also stunned for a moment. He had been training with Jiraiya for the past few months. Basically, except for eating and sleeping, he was training day and night.

He practiced everything from physical techniques to illusions and genjutsu, and the results were remarkable.

A veteran like Jiraiya, with quick reflexes and ample experience, had a myriad of new tricks to employ in battle. It took Naruto a month of beatings before he slowly adapted.

The last training session was just to vent my anger, so I just called out "old thing" out of cleverness, but I didn't expect to get beaten again.

"Why are you here?" Naruto smiled.

"You came just as you wanted." Ino pulled him in. At the entrance, she tugged at his sleeve with one hand and brushed the snow off his shoulders with the other. "Training again?"

"How did you know?"

"How could you not know about him after not seeing him for two or three months? You really underestimate Jiraiya-sama's fame." Ino put the shoes in front of him and said, "Change your shoes quickly."

With that, Ino hurried to the kitchen.

Naruto was still a little confused, not knowing what was wrong with Ino today. He walked into the living room and stood there for a while. Kyuubi was lying on his own small sofa, already asleep with his eyes closed, his stomach heaving slightly.

Water was boiling in the kitchen, and the soup in the pot began to boil, emitting wisps of white steam.

In the living room, under the bright yellow light, Naruto looked towards the kitchen for a long time. Ino walked up to him, stared at him with a frown, and reached out to touch his forehead.

"What's wrong? Are you stupid? Are you obsessed with my beauty?"

"What day is it today?"

"It's the New Year's Festival." Ino sighed and looked at Naruto, "I knew you would forget, so I came here specially. How is it?"

"Without me, someone would have missed the New Year's Festival completely."

"Isn't the New Year Festival in a few days?" Naruto asked after a moment's pause.

"You're confused, aren't you?" Ino said, hands on her hips, snorting softly, "You've ruined your brain through training. I'm afraid no one will want you anymore."

"Thank you, Ino."

"That kind of thing... there's no need to thank me specifically. Now that you mention it..." Ino blushed a little, "I think the atmosphere is weird."

“It’s as if…it’s as if…”

Ino said so quietly that Naruto didn't hear her, as he had already rolled up his sleeves and headed to the kitchen. As expected, Ino's cooking skills were very limited, and she cooked a lot of soup in one pot.

He sighed silently, took out the ingredients from the refrigerator, and started cooking. Ino saw Naruto cooking, so she sat nervously on the sofa.

She finally mustered up the courage and pretended to be calm at the door, but...

"Ino." Naruto suddenly popped his head out of the kitchen and called out.

"Ah? What's wrong?"

"Come with me to meet someone later."

"Huh? Who?"

Chapter 168: Meeting Jiraiya Together

"The lustful fairy."

"Oh... huh?"

Ino sat on the sofa and pondered who the lecherous sage was, then suddenly remembered that there was only one person in Konoha who could call himself a sage, and her pupils suddenly dilated.

"Eh?"

"Don't you think it could be Jiraiya-sama?"

"Yeah." Naruto leaned against the kitchen door, staring at the pot in the kitchen from time to time, and said nonchalantly, "Besides him, there is no other lustful sage in Konoha."

"That's Master Jiraiya!" Ino straightened up, her eyes wide open, her fingers digging into the sofa, "One of the legendary Sannin."

"What's so strange about this? Haven't you seen the other Sannin? He stays in the Hokage Building every day, and he doesn't seem that rare or precious."

Ino was frowning, and when she turned around, she saw that Naruto had already gone back to the kitchen to continue working.

"Of course it seems normal to you, but he is Hokage after all." She sat on the sofa, staring at the drunken Kyuubi in a daze, muttering.

"It's rare to see her once in a while before a mission. Counting it all, I haven't seen her many times since Tsunade-sama became Hokage."

"Maybe you're the only one who thinks Tsunade-sama is insignificant, but you can't just meet the Hokage whenever you want. You're thinking too simply."

"I don't know, maybe, he's closer." Naruto's voice came from the kitchen, "Anyway, you'll know when you see him. The lecherous sage is not that great, he's just like an ordinary person."

"Even though you said that, you must still be nervous." Ino clenched her hands, put them on her thighs, shook them uneasily, turned her head and looked towards the kitchen and asked.

"Do you want to prepare some gifts? Isn't today the New Year's Festival?"

"I actually forgot about this, and I haven't prepared anything yet, so forget it." Naruto said as he stirred the soup, "Just bring some food with you, he won't mind."

"Hmm... I suddenly don't dare to go." Ino fell on the sofa, and her face buried in the pillow began to feel hot.

There was a gurgling, bubbling sound coming from the kitchen. Naruto seemed to be chopping vegetables, the knife clacking against the chopping board with a rapid thud. The cleaned slices of meat, coated in flour, slid into the hot oil, their golden coating gradually swelling like cotton.

His voice, mixed with the sound of hot oil, could be heard clearly across half the living room.

"I wouldn't force you to do something like this, but the lecherous sage is about to go on a mission. It's definitely too late for us to celebrate the New Year's Festival together, and I misremembered the time."

"I don't have anything good to give him, so I might as well make some food and bring it over. If I go alone, you'll probably be bored staying here too, so why don't we go together?"

"......Okay." Ino said sullenly.

After a while, Ino got up from the sofa again and hurried into the bathroom. She turned on the light and stood in front of the large mirror in the bathroom, looking at herself again and again. Suddenly, her face fell again.

"Why didn't you tell me earlier?" she complained.

"What?" Naruto didn't hear Ino's words clearly because of the loud clacking noises in the kitchen and the living room. "What pink straps?"

"Go to hell, pervert!" Ino's frantic voice came from the bathroom.

"Strange." Naruto stood in the kitchen, taking the fried tempura out of the pan, turned his head and looked out the window, seeing the gray snow scene outside.

It was still light outside, and the kitchen was warm and cozy when footsteps were heard from the other end of the living room. Naruto turned his head slightly to glance over. Ino stopped at the kitchen door, nervously preparing to speak.

The ultimate romanticism on a winter night, a living room that's not too warm or bright, a girl in a sweater who can't hide her worries. At that station, all her worries are written on her face.

"Wouldn't it be... too casual for me to dress like this? It wouldn't be nice to go see Master Jiraiya like this. It would be so ugly!"

"How about I go home and change my clothes?"

"What do you think looks good? ...But I don't think I have anything too formal, it's all like this."

"Huh? Why are you so lost in thought?... Seriously, are you even listening to me?"

Naruto came back to his senses and calmly lowered his head to turn off the fire. He reached for the plate and said as if nothing had happened.

"I look good in anything I wear, and I don't have to dress up too hard."

"How can this be!" Ino blushed, "How can you dress like this when meeting your elders? It's... too rude."

"Elder?" Naruto narrowed his eyes as he was about to pick up the soup. "You mean the lecherous sage? He should be considered an elder, but there's no need to be so formal."

.......

After meal.

"Hurry up!" Ino urged at the door, carrying a lunch box, her ears slightly red. "Get out now, or the snow will get heavier if you're any later."

"It's okay, he can't run away. The lecherous sage is hiding in that tavern drinking." Naruto slowly came out of the kitchen after washing dishes, wiped his hands and said.

"The tavern isn't very busy right now, he won't leave the tavern so early."

Ino: ".......There's no need to explain things like that in such detail. And how come you know so much about things like love shops?"

"What are you thinking about?" Naruto put on a thick coat, lowered his head to pick up the scarf on the sofa, glanced at Ino and said, "I just know, I can't go to that kind of place."

"Who knows!" Ino turned her head away.

Naruto didn't say anything, but handed the scarf to Ino, and then the two of them slowly walked out.

Ino was still dressed the same way. Despite Naruto's insistence, she didn't waste time going home to change. She was wearing a light-colored coat on the outside and a pink sweater underneath.

Her usual agile temperament has gone, and now she has the air of a cool girl.

Going downstairs, the two walked on the snow-covered street. With a bang, Naruto opened a large black umbrella. It was like a black lotus suddenly growing in the snow, extremely conspicuous.

At this moment, her body was trembling slightly, but it was not entirely due to the cold weather. Thinking about what the man had said at the kitchen door, her face couldn't help but feel hot again.

Now, it feels like I'm meeting the parents...

Shaking her head, Ino desperately tried to dismiss the thought. This was just a chance to meet the legendary Sannin. Master Jiraiya had always been very mysterious, so she just thought of it as a chance to see the world.

There aren't many opportunities like this, so stop daydreaming.

"It's so cold." Ino exhaled a breath of white air.

The fine snow fell on the black umbrella without any sound. Naruto turned to look at Ino, tilted the umbrella towards her, and then reached out to take the lunch box she was holding naturally.

"It's a long way, let me carry it."

"Oh."

Outside the tavern, Ino paused outside the curtains. Naruto was about to go in when he noticed Ino's movements and immediately turned around to look at her, asking in confusion.

"Why did you stop?"

"I..." Ino lowered her eyes, intertwined her fingers, and spoke awkwardly, "I'm a little nervous."

"What's there to be nervous about? He's just a lecherous sage." Naruto glanced Ino up and down, reached out and grabbed her hand, and led her directly inside.

"Eh?" Ino was caught off guard and her body was taken into the tavern. Her vision suddenly became bright.

"You lecherous sage, how could you drink so much after just a few dishes?" Naruto put the food box on the table.

"Why are you here?" Jiraiya raised his head from the table, with a white wine cup placed beside him, and he reeked of alcohol.

"I got the date wrong. It's the New Year's Festival. I'm bringing you some dishes." Naruto said calmly, opening the food box. "Are you planning on drinking here all night?"

"How is that possible? I'll be back later..." Jiraiya showed a lewd smile on his drunken face.