The Clever Young Girl

"I really didn't expect to run into you here, Yoshino."

Habara looked at the person in front of him and couldn't help laughing. Then he glanced at the sign for Ichiraku Ramen, thought for a moment, and simply walked in.

Ichiraku Ramen counted as a ramen shop with a very long history in Konoha. Habara had come here often when he was little too. After all, this place was one of Konoha's "famous check-in spots."

Naruto, Iruka, Kakashi, and the others from the original work had all eaten here. Since Habara had transmigrated to this world, he naturally wasn't going to miss this place either.

It was just that later, after he had more missions, he came less often.

As for Nara Yoshino, this young girl had been Habara's classmate back at the Ninja Academy.

Although Habara and Shisui had both graduated early, after she graduated, she still spent some time as Habara's teammate.

Habara's impression of Nara Yoshino was still fairly deep. After all, the name Yoshino really made it hard for Habara, who had watched a certain anime, to forget even if he wanted to.

Aside from that, this girl was also very pretty. Her hair, which could be tied up into a ponytail and let down as long straight black hair, could be said to be dancing wildly all over Habara's XP.

Moreover, she seemed to be that kid Nara Shikamaru's cousin, and she herself had inherited the Nara Clan's unique intelligence.

When they had carried out missions together, she had offered plenty of suggestions that even their Squad Leader Jonin had been willing to follow.

But later, their Ninja Ranks all went up, and each of them had their own new positions and missions. The squad they had belonged to naturally disbanded as well.

Habara had always been doing solo missions these past few years. Although there were things like team gatherings, he really rarely attended them.

It wasn't that he didn't want to go, but because, rather unfortunately, he had been away from Konoha for many of those gatherings, so naturally there had been no way for him to attend.

"Yeah. I thought I'd seen wrong." Nara Yoshino tilted her head and smiled. "You're such a busy person. I can barely remember when the last time I saw you was."

"About a year ago? Or two years ago?" Habara himself wasn't too sure, but he shook his head indifferently. "You know, I'm a Mission Ninja now, so naturally I have more things to deal with."

Being with an old teammate, Habara still felt relatively relaxed.

There had never been any major conflicts within their squad, and Habara himself didn't have the Uchiha Clan's bad habits.

Besides Nara Yoshino, their other teammate had been a Civilian Ninja. Overall, they had gotten along quite well.

"Boss, get him a large bowl of pork chashu ramen. Remember to add extra chili."

Nara Yoshino did not answer Habara right away after hearing his words. Instead, she turned around and ordered a bowl of noodles from Ichiraku, then lowered her head and spoke while eating.

"I know. But you really did make the right choice by not stupidly running off to hold office in the Military Police Force.

"And running into you today counts as something worth being happy about, so it's my treat. Go ahead and eat without worrying."

"That really is rare. You're actually treating?"

When Habara heard this, he couldn't help laughing even more happily. Nara Yoshino rarely chose to treat others. This woman's family clearly wasn't poor, but she seemed very stingy.

As for what she had said about holding office in the Military Police Force, she had actually brought it up to Habara in a very roundabout way several years ago.

At that time, the Nine-Tails Attack had not yet happened, but on the day the squad disbanded, she had reminded Habara that the Military Police Force was absolutely not a good place to go.

That had left Habara extremely astonished. As a transmigrator, he naturally knew that the Military Police Force was a huge pit, but Nara Yoshino was not a transmigrator, nor was she an Uchiha.

"Are you insulting me in a roundabout way, saying I'm stingy?"

When Nara Yoshino heard Habara's words, she couldn't help rolling her eyes. But she didn't care about that sort of thing now and kept lowering her head as she slowly ate.

"Not at all. You can trust me. But speaking of which, what work are you doing now?"

Naturally, Habara would not admit the true thoughts in his heart. However, he also did not want to get tangled up in this topic, so he quickly changed the subject and asked.

"It'd be strange if I believed you. Also, the way you change the subject is still so stiff, but whatever."

Nara Yoshino raised her head and glanced at Habara before slowly speaking.

"After the squad disbanded, I followed my father and learned how to handle clan affairs. Later, my cousin asked me to go with him to the Department of Government Affairs. He said it would be a waste if I didn't go there.

"But I told him I was still young and didn't have that many ideas for the time being. Actually, I don't want to go to the Department of Government Affairs at all. It's too boring, and it's troublesome to death.

"I'd rather go to the school, just find some position there and do that. It'd be easy, and there wouldn't be so much trouble."

Nara Yoshino's cousin was naturally that guy Nara Shikaku, and Habara was not surprised that Nara Yoshino could enter the Department of Government Affairs to work.

After all, Yoshino was so smart. And according to the Nara Clan's traditions, in the future they either went selling medicine or entered the Department of Government Affairs to work. This could also be considered one of their clan's major traditions.

It was just that this girl Nara Yoshino also seemed to have inherited the Nara Clan's lazy style. Clearly, from the looks of it, she was not especially yearning for work in the Department of Government Affairs.

While the two of them were chatting, Ichiraku also finished making the ramen and brought it over. It had to be said that Ichiraku Ramen counted as the most honest thing Habara had eaten over so many years.

Whether in portion or ingredients, one could see just how seriously Ichiraku treated ramen. This was ramen made with care.

For someone who made ramen with this kind of care, Habara would come no matter how many times he ate it.

But just as Habara was about to start eating, a little guy with a head full of blonde hair, looking somewhat short and thin, suddenly ran in.

After this little guy came in, Habara noticed a smile appear on Ichiraku's face. His smile was very warm, but the other ninjas eating noodles here frowned.

"Huh? It's that little guy." Nara Yoshino naturally noticed this scene too. She glanced over and then lost interest. "Didn't expect to run into that little guy again."

"Looks like you don't dislike him." Habara looked at Nara Yoshino in amusement. "That kid's name seems to be Naruto, right?"

That was right. The little guy who had run in this time was Naruto!

Actually, Habara naturally knew Naruto. Although, due to various reasons, the number of times he had seen Naruto really was few and far between.

But as the protagonist of the original story, how could Habara possibly forget him? Still, it was necessary to pretend a little. After all, in reality, he really was not familiar with Naruto.

"Whoa, that's rare." Nara Yoshino looked at Habara in some surprise. "You actually called him by name, and you don't hate him anymore."

"Please, it's not like I'm an idiot, okay?" Habara shook his head, then sighed. "I've heard about him. The kid's actually pretty pitiful."

"Yeah, the kid really is pitiful." Nara Yoshino also let out a soft sigh. "My little brother's his classmate, so I'm no stranger to him either, but—"

At this point, Nara Yoshino suddenly gave Habara a serious look, then lowered her voice and spoke gravely.

"You'd better not act like you sympathize with him. His identity is too special. You haven't forgotten what happened back then, have you?"