Shorter Is Better!

"Aincrad? Sounds good."

The Sky Ninja Village had once gifted Konoha a Floating City, personally escorted by their previous leader, Shinno, along with several hundred ninja.

Although a small misunderstanding and some friction had occurred during the gifting process, after a cordial and friendly exchange of fist-to-fist combat, Shinno entrusted everything to Konoha.

According to informed sources, Shinno had left behind these final words: "My treasure? If you want it, go find it. I left everything there!"

Thus, the Konoha Ninja rushed to the Floating City, Ankel Bandian, and received everything he had left behind.

Because the original Floating City's architectural style had been far too bizarre, and it had suffered some damage during battle, Minato sent people to repair and renovate it.

When the brand-new Floating City was completed, Minato suggested giving it a new name. Naruto proposed Aincrad, and after Tsunade, Jiraiya, Shikaku, and the others discussed it, it was unanimously approved. The dear Fourth Hokage was not even given a chance to nominate one.

For no other reason than that it was short. Shorter was better!

The new Floating City naturally no longer used so-called Dark Chakra to create Zero Tails as its energy source. Instead, it used the same principles to create a Chakra storage device. In practice, it served a function similar to Zero Tails, acting as the Floating City's Energy Core.

As for the source of Chakra, a small portion came from sending ninja to contribute a little each day. Most of it came from trading snacks to Nine Tails whenever he was in a good mood.

From half a year ago until now, the stored Chakra was probably enough to keep Aincrad floating in the sky for half a month—provided they did not use the Chakra Cannon.

Do not underestimate that amount of time. It was already enough to fight the Fourth Shinobi War several times over.

And now, with the limited-output Dragon Vein in Naruto's body providing a stable source of Chakra, it could supply an amount equivalent to draining more than a hundred Kakashi dry every day. Over the long term, that was quite considerable.

Just like that, Naruto signed a long-term Chakra supply contract with the village. In Minato's usual style, he offered a price that neither harmed the village's interests nor shortchanged Naruto.

Naruto suddenly had a sizable new source of income. Did this count as getting into the new energy business?

In a good mood, Naruto planned to treat his friends to a meal. After all, they had worked hard waiting in Lou Lan for so long, and judging by Old Dad's attitude, they had apparently gone willingly without even asking for mission pay.

"Cheers!" *12

The Konoha Twelve raised their cups together and drained the juice in their hands.

Naruto had originally planned to invite Team 7 and Team 8, but he happened to run into the others, so he simply invited everyone. Besides, even combined, they probably could not eat as much as his own wife.

While the various ingredients continued grilling, everyone began chatting.

Perhaps because they had not seen each other in so long, Sakura unusually did not start bickering with Ino. "It's rare for all of us from the same class to get together. The last time everyone was present was during the Chunin Exams, right?"

"Yeah. After that, everyone was busy with their own missions and training. We rarely had free time at the same time." Tenten propped her cheek up with one hand while turning the meat with the other.

Shikamaru still looked listless. "Especially lately. There have been more missions. What a pain."

"Isn't your mission just going shopping with Temari?" Ino teased. "What's so hard about that?"

Since the Chunin Exams hosted by Sunagakure Village, Temari had gradually become responsible for communications between Konoha and Sunagakure, much like a diplomat. She often traveled to Konoha on business.

Originally, Konoha's representative had been Shikamaru's father, Shikaku. But because of Jiraiya's irresponsible behavior, many affairs had fallen onto people like Shikaku and Inoichi.

Big fish ate little fish, and little fish ate shrimp. Unable to be everywhere at once, Shikaku gradually handed certain matters over to Shikamaru, including receiving Sunagakure Village's envoys.

Temari and Shikamaru had gotten acquainted through a fight, and after that, they had interacted more and more often...

Once Ino said that, most of the friends present understood what was going on.

Seeing Shikamaru's lazy demeanor, Naruto ribbed him. "Temari became a jonin ages ago. Shikamaru, you need to work harder."

Seeing everyone else's expressions—especially the girls' keen interest—Shikamaru wisely chose not to respond and instead reasonably changed the subject.

"Hey, Choji, isn't that meat still raw?"

"Nom~" Choji stuffed a stack of half-cooked grilled meat into his mouth and said unclearly, "Some meat tastes best when it's not fully cooked."

"That's because you're such a glutton that you're so... well-rounded!" Ino avoided Choji's forbidden word. They had been teammates for so long that they understood each other well.

"No one can stop an Akimichi Clan member from putting food into his mouth." Choji selectively forgot Sakura's dark cooking, as well as that big fat guy from Kusagakure Village who reeked of sweat.

"Sigh." Ino sighed and began complaining to the other girls about her two lazy, gluttonous teammates and her chain-smoking teacher. "You girls are so lucky."

Hinata listened quietly without saying much. She thought her teammates were all quite nice, and so was her teacher. The image of her teacher in ninja attire, with her long red hair tied into a ponytail, was valiant and dashing. She was someone Hinata admired.

Sakura smiled reservedly. She could not have been more satisfied with her two teammates, while her teacher's biggest flaw was his love of reading improper books. She had to be careful not to let him lead Sasuke astray...

Wait, if he led Sasuke astray, would that actually be a good thing? Sakura looked at Sasuke's handsome profile and fell into deep thought.

Only Tenten and Ino truly sympathized with each other, both resting their cheeks in their hands. "I actually wish my teammates and teacher were a little lazier. From before dawn until midnight, they keep training taijutsu nonstop. I'm starting to forget that I'm a girl..."

Tenten looked miserable. "If Neji were not at least a little normal, I'd go crazy."

"Is it really that exaggerated?" Sakura asked. When she had been cramming medical knowledge before, she had often stayed up from before dawn until midnight as well.

Tenten said nothing and pointed in one direction.

The girls turned to look, only to see that Rock Lee had somehow strapped weights to his arms. His hands trembled every time he picked up food, and he struggled greatly to bring it to his mouth while muttering things like, "Even while eating, I can't relax. I have to catch up to Seniors Gan, Wen, and Cui."

Ever since the battle against the Sky Ninja Village, Rock Lee had fought side by side with all the other Melon Heads for the first time and personally experienced the gap between himself and Gan, Wen, and Cui.

Thus, in order to uphold his Ninja Way, Rock Lee began training in a manner that normal people would consider self-torture. He trained almost constantly, whether walking, sitting, or lying down.

If her teacher and teammates were all like that... Sakura and Ino gave Tenten sympathetic looks.

Sakura recalled a piece of information. "Speaking of teachers, Tenten, didn't you become Hokage-sama's disciple?"