Nara

Looking at Sasuke's expression, identical to before, Naruto understood what he meant this time without needing him to say it.

"Got it, got it. Go on, what are your conditions?"

"My family's eggs will spoil if we don't eat them soon, so I'll sell them to you cheap. Just 1 Ryo each. Old Man Ichiraku charges 5 Ryo to add an egg, so I'm not ripping you off~"

"It can't be that I only have to buy them for a week, right?"

"You've gotten smarter. At least a year—three a day. I'll charge you 1,000 Ryo total."

Sasuke had already dealt with more than half the eggs left behind as inheritance. The ones that were truly stale, with badly broken yolks, had been fed to the animals directly, so it wasn't really a waste.

As long as one or two more people helped eat the eggs, there would be somewhere for them to go, with more than a dozen chickens still laying continuously. Naruto spending his money on food was better than wasting it on paint, and compared to eggs, Sasuke wanted to eat meat more.

Naruto imagined eating eggs every day from now on.

"That's terrifying. I feel like I'll choke to death. Can I even finish them? No way I can."

To secure Naruto as an outlet, Sasuke thoughtfully threw in a menu.

"How could you not finish them? Marinated eggs for instant noodles, egg soup, tamagoyaki—one dish can easily use up three or four eggs."

Naruto pulled a miserable face. "But I don't want to cook..."

Hearing the call of money, Sasuke immediately offered another solution.

"When I cook, I can process them for you while I'm at it. An extra 1 Ryo for ingredients and 1 Ryo for labor per egg."

Naruto really didn't have much money. Though Sasuke's prices were indeed low, he still wanted to spend it on other things, like instant noodles...

"I don't need your help. I can fry eggs, at least. And if it comes down to it, I can just eat them raw!"

"I agree to the egg deal. Hurry up and teach me egg dishes—no, hurry up and teach me Tree Climbing and Water Walking!"

Naruto's head was filled with eggs he couldn't shake off.

In the end, Tree Climbing and Water Walking were only a matter of a few words and a demonstration. Naruto would practice by himself afterward, and Sasuke would only need to keep an eye on him at first. There was a pond beneath the trees in the yard, so falling wouldn't hurt him. Listening to all those splashes, Sasuke felt like he could have peace and quiet for a month or two.

More than two months had passed since the Uchiha massacre, and it had been about that long since the Third Hokage had spoken with him privately about the matter. His non-mandatory mission—the kind that didn't pay—was to see whether the Uchiha could be integrated into Konoha.

Put plainly, he was supposed to approach Uchiha Sasuke and win him over gently.

Put even more plainly, he was supposed to see whether Shikamaru could become friends with an Uchiha.

Figuring it was about time to make some sort of move, Shikaku brought up the Uchiha at the dinner table.

"Shikamaru, I remember there's an Uchiha in your class, right?"

Shikamaru looked like, Are you fucking kidding me? His dad worked right beside the Hokage—how could he not know whether an Uchiha was in his class? Full of impatience, Shikamaru still had to pretend to be a little innocent.

"Uchiha? Uchiha Sasuke? He's in my class. What about him?"

Shikaku's expression turned serious.

"What do you think of him?"

Shikamaru bluntly rattled off a string of labels. "He used to be pretty full of himself. He liked showing off and always looked like he wanted strangers to stay away. But after that incident..."

Shikaku nodded and gave a quiet hum, secretly praising his son's intelligence gathering. "And? What's he like now? Has he changed much?"

"He's mature and boring. He doesn't actively show off in class anymore, but he still attracts girls like before. It's always unbearably noisy around him."

But remembering Naruto's recent changes and his dad suddenly bringing up Sasuke, Shikamaru immediately added, "He might not be a bad person, but we definitely wouldn't have anything to talk about."

Seeing the hesitation on his dad's face, Shikamaru already understood why Sasuke had been brought up.

Still, since they were already talking about it, Shikamaru took the opportunity to ask, "Dad, why does everyone isolate Naruto?"

At the side, Shikamaru's mother, Yoshino Nara, instantly looked awful when she heard him ask about Naruto. It involved classified information, so she couldn't say anything. She truly didn't want her child getting too entangled with Naruto, and could only glare fiercely at Shikaku, telling him to hurry up and change the subject.

But Shikaku answered, "Shikamaru, what do you think of that boy?"

"Not that I especially want to be friends with him, but there's no reason to isolate him."

A trace of pride appeared on Shikaku's face. He was very satisfied with his son's independent opinion.

Smiling, he told Shikamaru, "Is that so? Then just do things the way you like."

Shikaku approved of Shikamaru's way of handling things. As long as one acted according to one's own heart, that was enough.

At that point, no matter how worried Shikamaru's mother was, she wouldn't interrupt. It barely counted as trust in her husband and son.

Still, his parents' attitudes toward Naruto and Sasuke were different.

What a pain, but...

"Dad, is the Sasuke matter work-related? Will it affect anything if I don't do something?"

Shikaku shook his head. "It's not a big problem. Your personalities really don't mesh very well. I can already imagine you two sitting at the same desk for a whole day without saying a single word."

Shikamaru forced himself to hold out one hand toward Shikaku. "Allowance. I can go talk to Sasuke a little, but only once. If we can't get along, there won't be a next time."

Now it was a topic Shikamaru's mother could interrupt. "Allowance? It's only been one week this month, and you've already spent all your money? I told you not to waste money!"

Shikamaru wasn't afraid in the slightest. He had a perfectly legitimate reason. "Choji paid back what he owed me from last month, then spent all his remaining money on snacks and came to borrow allowance from me again."

Yoshino Nara sighed. A plump figure surfaced in her mind, and thinking of the relationship between the three families, she said, "That child really is impossible."

"1,000 Ryo. Spend it carefully. If he asks to borrow from you again, tell him you lost it all to Dad in a game of shogi."

"How could that be..."

It was unclear which matter Shikamaru was talking about.

Start a conversation, get coldly rejected, or get ignored outright like he ignored girls. Mission complete, then rest.

The plan was perfect.

One day after school not long afterward, Shikamaru hurriedly stopped Sasuke, who had walked to an empty corner where no one was around and was preparing to dispel his Shadow Clone.

"Um, Uchiha Sasuke, do you want to practice shuriken with us after school?"

Shikamaru thought, Hurry up and reject me!

Looking at Shikamaru in front of him—flustered and scratching his head as though embarrassed—there was a slight... but the possibility of a confession could be ruled out for now. After all, he had very straightforwardly married Sunagakure's Princess, so...

"Did the three of them get into a fight with upperclassmen? Do you need me to help?"

Shikamaru quickly waved his hands.

"No, no. Um, I just wanted to have a normal, friendly conversation with you."

Though he was only a Shadow Clone, his thoughts and intelligence were no different from the original. He stared straight at Shikamaru.

"You've never taken the initiative to speak to me before. This is too sudden."

Shikamaru thought, That's right. Hurry up and suspect I have some ulterior motive, then reject me!

"Who sent you?"

Naturally, he couldn't say Dad had sent him.

"I came on my own. After all, we've been in the same class for over a year and never spoken. Your grades are so good, and girls like you too. I wanted to know how you do it!"