Bamboo Forest

"Little bunny, little bunny, open the door. I won't open it, I won't open it, I won't open the door."

Naruto strolled through the woods with his hands behind his back, humming a nursery rhyme as his eyes searched everywhere for the missing cat.

A cat had run away from Mrs. Yamanaka's flower shop, so she registered a D-rank Mission at the Hokage Building and paid five thousand Senryo.

Since the other teams had all gone out on missions with their Leading Jonin recently, only Team Seven was free. Naturally, the job fell to poor unlucky Naruto.

Who told him to act on his own and risk leading Team Seven to hunt down Zabuza and Haku? Though they had succeeded, it had also enraged Kakashi.

As punishment, Naruto had to complete twenty D-rank Missions by himself.

"Kitty, come out and let your uncle take you home."

"Ino? Mrs. Yamanaka?"

After calling out all sorts of things that might catch the cat's attention without hearing any response, Naruto could only flop dejectedly onto a bench by the roadside.

"Naruto? What are you doing sleeping here?"

A familiar voice rang out. Naruto lifted his head and saw a head of blonde hair. Ino stood with her hands on her hips, leaning forward slightly as she looked down at him.

"Ino?" Naruto showed no intention of getting up. By now, it was already late. "When did you get back to the village?"

"This afternoon. After the mission ended, Teacher Asuma gave us two days off." Ino sat down beside Naruto.

"My mother's cat is missing."

"Oh, I know. I'm the genin who took the mission." Naruto leaned back against the bench, pointing at himself.

Under the streetlamp, the two sat quite close together, casually sizing each other up.

Naruto wore a black T-shirt and loose brown knee-length shorts, his face carrying an utterly carefree, roguish air.

"I swear, you!" Ino grabbed Naruto's clothes and said angrily, "If you accepted someone's mission, show some enthusiasm!"

"Dumbass!"

With that, Ino shoved Naruto hard toward the other end of the bench. Naruto simply lay flat without a care and said dismissively.

"Yeah, yeah, Lady Ino, you're the best. So go find the cat for me. I'll treat you to barbecue."

"That's your mission! What kind of nonsense is this, lying around here?!" Ino was close to losing it.

"It's my mission, but I can hire you." Naruto spoke as if it were no big deal. "The village never said ninja can't hire other ninja to do missions, right?"

"That may be true, but I have no obligation to help you find a cat!" Ino shot Naruto a glance.

"Ino, you don't want Mrs. Yamanaka to be sad, do you?"

"You!"

"Stop saying useless stuff, Ino. Find it, and I'll treat you to barbecue. Besides, you came out this late to look for the cat too, didn't you?"

Hearing that, no matter how unhappy she was, Ino still had no choice but to compromise.

Suppressing her anger, she got up and walked in front of Naruto, bending down to glare at his face impatiently.

"Get up and look with me! Hurry!"

"Yeah, yeah." Naruto yawned as Ino forcibly dragged him to his feet and pulled him forward by the hand.

"Honestly! What is wrong with you?!" Ino kept tugging Naruto onward, complaining without pause.

"Dumbass! If you accepted a mission, then do it properly! Who are you putting on this lazy act for? At this rate, don't you want to get home sooner?"

"It makes no difference whether I go home or not," Naruto suddenly said. "I was planning to sleep on the bench for the night anyway."

"Don't say things like that. Hurry up and look properly!" Ino paused for a moment, then continued dragging Naruto forward.

"Ino, I think I heard something over there." After listening carefully in the woods for a while, Naruto pointed toward a distant direction.

"Yeah, yeah, I got it!" Ino said impatiently.

By the moonlight, Ino brushed past Naruto and walked ahead, but she accidentally tripped and lurched forward.

Just as she was about to regain her balance, Naruto grabbed her.

"What are you doing?" Naruto tilted his head, looking at her in confusion.

"What am I doing? Can't you see I tripped?" Ino snapped.

"Oh, then I'll let go." Naruto made as if to release her hand. Before Ino could react, her pupils suddenly shrank.

"Naruto!!"

After a scream, Ino desperately grabbed whatever she could. Naruto had been about to let go, but Ino's flailing hands caught hold of his clothes.

"Damn it." Caught completely off guard, Naruto blurted out a curse.

But it was already too late. Naruto fell in the same direction as Ino, and with a ripping sound, his clothes were torn apart.

"Mm!" Ino opened her eyes to find Naruto sprawled on top of her.

Their lips had not landed together with such absurd precision, but she had torn Naruto's clothes, and his head was resting at her neck.

"That spot... something will happen!" Feeling the warmth at her neck, Ino's face instantly turned bright red.

"Naruto! Get up, now!" Ino shouted, blushing furiously.

"Stop pulling my clothes!" Naruto shouted. Then came another cry of pain. "Don't pull randomly! Your hand!"

After a long bout of chaos, Ino climbed up from the ground and wiped the moisture from the corner of her lips.

"What did you do, you jerk?!"

"I didn't do anything, don't make things up, Ino!" Naruto sprang to his feet, clutching his tattered clothes.

"How am I supposed to go home like this?"

The anger above Ino's head was nearly visible to the naked eye, her fists clenched tight. Just as she was about to teach Naruto a lesson, a meow sounded.

In the Bamboo Forest, a pure white cat strolled gracefully past the bickering pair and gave them a glance.

Beneath a Great Green Tree outside Yamanaka Flower Shop, Ino pulled out a white shirt from behind her back and handed it to Naruto reluctantly.

"Here. You are not allowed to do anything weird with my clothes!"

"Huh?" Naruto curled his lip. "Why would I ever do that? Besides, you were the one who tore my clothes first. Give me a sincere apology, damn it!"

"How do I know whether you would or not?!" Ino argued. As the night deepened, her voice suddenly softened. "Anyway, I'm sorry."

Hearing the usually overbearing Ino apologize, even Naruto was taken aback and did not know what to do.

"Well, since you apologized, I'll forgive you." Naruto scratched his head. "I was partly at fault too. Um, how about I treat you to barbecue?"

Ino raised her head and stared at Naruto with a complicated look for a long while before asking.

"Do you really want to treat me to barbecue?"

"Yeah." Naruto nodded.

"Barbecue is expensive."

"I've saved up quite a bit from doing missions these past few days, so..." Naruto said, "You don't need to worry about that."

"All right, then." Ino nodded. "Since you invited me so sincerely, I'll graciously accept."

"Still, I'm quite rich myself. I'll treat you, dumbass."