In Konoha, This Naruto Has Decided To Take It Easy

Chapter 309 What is That Thing You’re Raising?

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"Why are you here?"

Naruto kicked Kurama, who had yowled like a cat in surprise, into the room and calmly walked in with his stuff.

"Hmph, why can't I be here? Or do you have another appointment?" Ino casually took the things from his hands and walked toward the living room.

Naruto, still at the entryway, bent down to change his shoes, while Kurama, playing the loyal dog, followed Ino into the living room.

"What kind of appointment can I have? I'm all alone and was planning to go straight to bed." Having said this, he paused and looked at Ino who was standing in the living room.

"You snuck out alone? What about your parents?"

Although Konoha didn’t place much importance on the New Year Festival, it was still a holiday to spend with family.

Even though Naruto's friends were all accomplished Chunin by now, capable of handling themselves, but this is only the recognition given to them by the village at the Shinobi business level, and it does not mean that they can freely decide not to attend the New Year Festival with their families. That privilege was reserved for adults.

For example, they were busy with work, special missions, etc. Another example was Kakashi and Jiraiya, who didn’t have family ties like him. It wasn’t unusual for them to be on a mission during this time.

"My dad’s busy with work."

"Working overtime during the New Year Festival? How inhumane!" Naruto exclaimed indignantly.

"It's a task Tsunade-sama assigned at the last minute."

"Oh, Tsunade-sama? Then that's fine." His sense of justice immediately shrank back, recognizing that some fights, especially against powerful figures like Tsunade, weren’t worth picking.

"What about Auntie?"

"My mom…" Ino sighed, then glanced at him and said, "She's in Tanzaku Town, busy with some business, and hasn’t come back yet."

"Oh, so that’s why you came to my place." Naruto leaned back into the sofa and looked up at her.

Under the clear lighting, Ino's face looked smooth and flawless, without a single blemish. Her casually tied high ponytail only added to her innocent charm.

"I'm not here for you! I was just bored being at home alone." Ino took a glass of water and was about to drink it when she suddenly remembered that this was his glass, so she put it down again.

"Do you have another glass?" She asked, turning around.

"Nope." He shifted positions on the sofa and replied decisively, "If you don’t mind, you can drink from mine."

"What do you mean by 'from yours’?" Ino was confused for a moment and instinctively asked.

Naruto didn't say anything. He lazily stared at Ino's lips, which were shining with moisture under the light, and leaned back in the sofa with a mischievous smile on his face.

As he was approaching adulthood, Naruto was no longer as restrained. After all, certain boundaries shouldn’t be crossed at a younger age, but at sixteen, playful teasing was no longer out of bounds.

"You!!" Ino, realizing what he meant from his gaze, immediately reacted, "Say another word, and I’ll leave!"

Naruto didn't continue. He knew that pushing the joke too far would be disrespectful, and even though Ino wouldn’t truly get angry with him, he decided to stop.

Seeing his cautious expression, Ino still couldn't bear it and said as if she had given up struggling, "I’m not leaving."

As soon as she said it, she regretted it. What she meant to say was that she wouldn’t leave early because she was bored at home, but the words slipped out before she realized it.

However, Naruto didn’t seem to react much, and just smiled at her.

"If you leave, I’ll follow."

‘What kind of line was that? How was I supposed to respond to that?’ Ino looked at him unhappily, and said, ‘Whatever you want’, then went straight into the kitchen.

After a while, there was a clinking sound coming from the kitchen. She was probably looking for a glass.

"Where are the glasses? I remember there being plenty last time." Ino’s voice called out from the kitchen, while the heater in the living room hummed away.

"It was smashed by the foxhound, and only one is left." Naruto replied lazily, yawning as he lay back and closed his eyes on the sofa.

"How could there be none?" Ino muttered and walked out of the kitchen.

"They were broken a while ago. I just haven’t had the chance to buy new ones." He explained casually, his eyes slightly opened.

Ino had already picked up the glass of water and drank half of it as if nothing had happened.

"You drank it?" Naruto opened his eyes fully.

Hearing this, Ino's face instantly flushedand she glared at him.

"You did that on purpose!"

"Yeah."

"I'm going to strangle you to death!" Ino was going mad at Naruto's teasing, and she didn't care about anything else. She pounced on him and twisted his waist with force.

Naruto hadn’t planned on resisting. He had already braced himself for the pain. He knew Ino wouldn't pinch too hard, so it wouldn’t leave any marks and wouldn’t hurt too much.

Yet after waiting for a while, the expected pain never came.

He glanced over at Ino, who seemed to have changed her mind. Under the ceiling light, she gave him a smile, her eyes twinkling with a playful expression.

"It’s the New Year, so I won’t get mad at you."

The curtains on the balcony weren’t drawn, and they could see the snow falling again outside, with the distant view fading into darkness.

On the sofa in the living room, the two were pressed together in a rather suggestive position, only a few inches apart.

At first, Ino was feeling a bit smug, but when she noticed Naruto’s gaze change, she quickly tried to get up, only to be pulled back down.

"What's wrong?" Ino asked, her voice trembling slightly as his hand wandered over her waist, not exactly behaving itself.

"Nothing."

Naruto quickly let go of Ino, and his voice sounded groggy, as if he had just woken up. The living room was suddenly silent, with only the whirring sound of the heater, while the door creaked open.

Kurama poked his head out cautiously, and when he saw the two people almost piled on top of each other in the living room, he let out a soft meow, and then retreated back inside.

"What the hell did you raise?" Ino was a little surprised. She stood up and patted her clothes, trying to maintain her composure.

"I don't know, it’s some sort of weird creature." Naruto also stood up from the sofa, trying to cover up the earlier awkwardness.

"Just now…" Ino blushed and looked away, then asked in a low voice, "Did you… did you almost… Why did you suddenly act like that?"

"Well, with you so close, anyone would feel something." Naruto didn’t try to come up with an excuse and just told the truth.

Ino's ears immediately turned red, and though his words pleased her, she didn’t want Naruto to know how she felt. After all, she was a reserved girl.

It made her happy that he was interested in her, but that happiness wasn’t something she wanted to show, especially in front of Naruto. She always felt that if he knew, he’d definitely take advantage of it.

"Is that so? Well… I’m not going to care about it."

After this little episode, the atmosphere between them became much more relaxed. They sat on opposite ends of the sofa, snacking on the treats Naruto had brought, talking about their plans for the new year.

"You want to become a Jonin? So that’s why you’ve been working so hard on missions?" Naruto looked at Ino in surprise.

"Don't look at me like that." Ino was a little embarrassed, "Isn't it normal to want to become a Jonin? After all, we are Shinobi, and we all want to become stronger."n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"But there’s no need to rush it, right?" Naruto wondered whether he should tell Ino about the danger of rushing growth.

Hearing this, Ino suddenly felt like a poor student being lectured by a straight-A student, and glared at him in annoyance.

"Of course you’re not in a hurry! If I had your strength, I wouldn’t be anxious either. You laze around all day ay, and yet you improve the fastest."

Naruto had no response to that.