Yugao

Sakura Haruno thought that once she got home, she could finally get a good night's sleep...

She was wrong.

She returned home, called out in a drawn-out tone, "I'm home!" and went straight into her room, collapsing onto the bed like a teenager who had just returned from an internet cafe after practicing cultivation to the point of near ascension.

Mebuki Haruno's mother couldn't stand her daughter's lazy, listless appearance.

"Sakura, why are you so lazy and sleeping all day, Da Bai!"

"Mom~ I have a day off today!" Sakura Haruno said weakly, lying on the bed with her head buried in the pillow.

"Holiday! So you think you can be so unruly just because you're on holiday? So you think you can run wild just because you're on holiday?" Sakura's mother raised an eyebrow, scolding, "What kind of girl lies on the bed so filthy? You've been out so much, not showering or changing clothes, and now you come back and lie on the bed! No changing clothes! No showering! And I have to wash the sheets for you! What kind of slovenly behavior is this!"

Sakura Haruno's face twitched; she felt like her head was about to explode.

"I'm perfectly clean! I've cleaned myself hundreds of times. Even when I'm out on a mission, I can Water Release to clean my body and clothes..." She rolled her eyes and explained helplessly.

As a master of Water Release techniques, washing and drying immediately are basic skills; no matter how intense the battle, maintaining cleanliness and dryness afterward using Water Release is a piece of cake.

"How can that be the same? Get up now, you lazy snake!" Mebuki Haruno as she entered her daughter's room, glanced out the window, and exclaimed, "Oh dear, it's so gloomy, the wind is picking up! It's going to rain! Come help me bring in the laundry!"

"Are you a demon?!"

"Get up!" Ignoring her daughter's protests, Mebuki slapped her bottom a few times and urged her on.

As a result, after collecting the laundry came a whole host of chores: mopping, cleaning, washing and disinfecting dishes, bathing, and so on. It was all about developing her housework skills, "Otherwise, when you grow up, you won't even know how to wash a dish! People will laugh at you!"

Sakura Haruno thought to herself, "Whoever dares to laugh at your daughter, I'll personally go and beat them up!"

Sakura was only allowed to rest after being busy until the afternoon.

By this time, she had completely lost the desire to lie in bed and take a nap.

"Housewife is terrifying. Even when there's nothing to do, half an afternoon just slips by unnoticed. She's always so busy, yet she doesn't get anything done." Sakura Haruno quickly made an excuse to leave the house, muttering to herself.

With her father away, she had to bear Mebuki's nagging all by herself, which was too much pressure.

"It's better for women to have their own careers. Being a housewife is too bland and boring." The girl shrugged and muttered to herself; but when she said this, she completely forgot that she was now a woman herself.

That makes sense, Sakura Haruno would never be a housewife—she never even considered it.

The sky outside was overcast, and it was raining heavily.

But this didn't bother Sakura Haruno at all.

She Earth Flow leisurely in the rain, the raindrops falling on the girl without wetting her clothes at all, as if Sakura Haruno had melted into the rain.

This incredibly precise operation was even an unconscious one for Sakura Haruno; the girl's eyes darted around as she stood on the street, pondering where she could go at this moment.

Hinata?

That's obviously unrealistic; she should still be in the Anbu at this point.

Ino, Shiro, and the three children from Sakura Haruno's Team were also working during working hours.

Looking for Sasuke?

Only a pair of philandering lovers would do something like this: they can't wait to get back together after only a short separation.

The other classmates, Shikamaru and his friends? They're not that close, so it feels a bit strange for them to suddenly visit.

She paused, a slight smile playing on her lips, as if an idea had suddenly formed in her mind.

A moment later.

The House of Hayate.

Uzuki Yugao —no, she should be called Yugao Hayate now—who hadn't appeared in many chapters, Gate of Opening and unexpectedly saw a familiar figure.

A slender girl with pink hair stood gracefully outside the door, a bright smile on her face.

"Oh, what a rare guest!" the young woman exclaimed with delight.

"Please come in!" She stepped aside and welcomed the girl into her home with a smile.

"Long time no see, Sister Yugao!"

It has been a long time since we last met. In fact, every few weeks, Sakura Haruno would come to visit her former teammates in the Anbu. There wasn't much to say about this kind of social interaction, so Yugao disappeared for quite a long time in this book.

Shino was the same; he had more opportunities to meet Sakura Haruno in the Anbu, but now the girl was almost no longer carrying out missions in the Anbu, so most of the time the two would just greet each other when they met, and occasionally have a meal together at Anbu gathering, but nothing noteworthy happened, so he had been in hiding for quite a long time.

--And it looks like they'll have to stay invisible for a while longer.

"It seems like Sister Yugao has lost a bit of weight again." As she entered the living room, Sakura Haruno looked at Yugao's slender figure and said.

Her deepest impression of Yugao was, of course, the long-haired beauty she first saw in the Anbu's bathroom. Sexy, mature, possessing both heroic spirit and stunning beauty, a deadly heartbreaker for young men.

However, all of this changed after Yugao changed her surname to Yueguang. After marriage—especially before and after giving birth— Yugao gained forty or fifty pounds. Her figure went from slender and shapely to that of a chubby middle-aged woman with an extra chin, which was almost unbearable to look at. However, this is the real and cruel world. Women who are going to become mothers generally eat better and exercise less during pregnancy because gaining weight can happen in no time.

Especially for professions like ninjas, which are accustomed to high intake and high expenditure, it is difficult to maintain their physique once they enter a period of rest and recuperation.

The only woman who could maintain her figure during pregnancy is probably someone Tsunade, who possesses the advanced Medical Ninjutsu to convert Chakra into fat and protein.

"I've started increasing my training intensity lately," Yugao said with a smile, "And I've lost all the fat."

The young woman swayed her hips as she walked ahead. Apart from her once youthful, long black hair now sporting a neat and tidy short hairstyle, she completely resembled Sakura's initial impression of her.

Sakura Haruno followed Yugao to the plush cushion in the middle of the living room and sat down. Yugao's daughter, who was almost a year old, was crawling all over the hall. She wasn't afraid of Sakura and crawled over to her, giggling.

While playing with the baby, Sakura Haruno laughed and asked, "How much of your skills have you recovered?"

"Half, I guess..." Yugao frowned, thought for a moment, "After all, I've neglected it for almost a year, and I can't quite find the feeling of my peak. Swordsmanship is all about feeling."

She thought for a moment, then added, "But it's strange, perhaps because of the replacement of my heart with a younger one, my Chakra quickly recovered to its peak level, and even surpassed it... My stamina also seems to have become more endurance."

Yugao glanced thoughtfully at Sakura Haruno.

Sakura prepared the heart for her; could there be... some kind of secret hidden inside?

[Second Update]

[I feel like my ability to write slice-of-life stories hasn't improved much over time... so I started reading the long-awaited "Literary Genius Girl" novel on my bookshelf to learn from it. But I ended up spending too much time researching, cough cough. I don't know if I can finish the third chapter tonight, so please don't wait up for me.]