"Morning, Shikaku, Naruto!"
Early that morning, Daren Yi appeared at the Hokage Building, stretching lazily and yawning from time to time.
He carried a paper bag in one hand, filled with the breakfast Izumi Uchiha had prepared for him: more than a dozen skewers of Three-Color Dumplings.
Before dawn that morning, the girl had slipped into the kitchen to make his breakfast. No matter how lazy Daren Yi was, he was too embarrassed to keep sleeping.
So he went to the kitchen as well, intending to lend a hand. Then... because he only made things worse, the girl disdainfully kicked him out!
After working for a long time, the final result was a large platter of delicate, adorable Three-Color Dumplings. They were different from the Three-Color Dumplings sold at Konohagakure's most famous confectionery shop, Kan Kurikan.
When Izumi Uchiha made the dumplings, she had kept her Mangekyō Sharingan activated the entire time.
The size and shape of every dumpling, the proportions of each ingredient, the temperature control during the process—
Everything had been measured with a precision nearly on par with laboratory experiments. There were even exquisite carved patterns on the surface of the dumplings.
...Daren Yi simply could not understand it, especially the carved patterns.
Could that make the dumplings taste better?
Seeing the girl's starry-eyed, satisfied expression as she looked at the delicate little dumplings, he wisely kept his mouth shut.
He had a feeling that if he asked some stupid question, the girl might burst into tears on the spot!
"Wow, those Three-Color Dumplings are so pretty! I haven't eaten breakfast either!"
Naruto Uzumaki, who had pulled an all-nighter in the Hokage's Office and had not gone home at all, brightened at the sight of the dumplings in Daren Yi's hand and reached into the paper bag.