That night, at Ichiraku Ramen.
"Here you go! Your ramen."
Three different bowls of ramen were placed before them. After calling out, Ichiraku returned to the kitchen, leaving the three regulars to enjoy their meal in peace.
"Finally! I'm starving to death!"
Looking at the steaming, fragrant ramen set before him, Uzumaki Naruto grabbed the spoon and chopsticks he had prepared long ago and immediately dug in impatiently.
"No! Something's not right about this!"
At that moment, Second Pillar, who was usually silent at times like this, narrowed his eyes slightly and stopped Uzumaki Naruto just as he was about to bring a spoonful of soup to his mouth.
"Which thing?"
Almost instinctively, Uzumaki Naruto and Haruno Sakura both turned to Second Pillar, their spoons hanging in midair as they looked at him in confusion.
"Sakura, did you notice? When we followed Hada Ichiba during the day, his behavior was strange. He didn't do anything particularly suspicious, but don't you think he acted a little too normally?"
Hearing this, Second Pillar looked at his two teammates and spoke with considerable seriousness.
He had been thinking about it all day. He kept feeling that something was off about Hada Ichiba.
"Huh? This again?"
At those words, Uzumaki Naruto's hand trembled for no apparent reason, and the soup in his spoon nearly spilled out.
His shoulders instantly slumped, and exhaustion was written all over his face, along with a bitter expression. Even the ramen he had obediently waited several minutes for no longer seemed quite so delicious or fragrant.
Today had truly been too hard.
They had followed Hada Ichiba in the morning, followed him at noon, and followed him again in the afternoon. They had only found time to eat now, and even while eating, they still had to discuss how