Though they occasionally argued and bickered, their feelings for each other would never change.
"Ino... thank you!"
Sakura threw her arms around Ino, leaving Ino a little at a loss.
"Oh, enough already. Why are you being so mushy?"
Then she pointed at the flower and said, "This is a new flower my family cultivated. It hasn't been named yet. Since I'm giving it to you, you can name it."
Sakura's eyes lit up. "What should I name it? Such a beautiful flower needs a name worthy of it."
Ino had absolutely no talent for this sort of thing. "How about calling it Little Sakura Flower?"
Sakura pouted and shook her head. "No! Absolutely not! It sounds awful!"
"Then what do you think it should be called?"
Sakura broke into a bright, radiant smile. "Let's call it Sister Flower, to symbolize our friendship."
Ino froze for a moment, then smiled as well. "Sister Flower it is!"
By the time Torikaze brought Naruto back to the Cloud Clan Grounds, it was nearly time for dinner.
Naruto was already starting to feel hungry, but fortunately, waves of delicious aromas drifted from the courtyard. It seemed someone was already cooking.
"Looks like we got back at just the right time. We come home and there's food waiting."
Naruto rubbed his stomach. "Hehe, perfect! Uncle, let's hurry home and eat!"
With that, Naruto broke away from Torikaze and ran into the courtyard by himself.
Just as Torikaze was about to enter, he saw Konan and Yahiko returning from outside as well.
"What were you two doing?"
Konan grinned. "We went to take a look at the Ninja Academy. Yahiko wants to take on a group of new students this year, so we went to see whether there were any suitable ones to assign to