Catching an Affair

Konoha was still too small. There were not many Villagers, and there were few facilities of any kind. After enough time had passed, the people you saw every day were all familiar faces.

It was not unusual to run into anyone anywhere in the village. Everyone had limited privacy, and nothing could stay hidden.

For example, at Ichiraku Ramen, Sasuke and Neji were slurping noodles after a spar when Naruto, who had deliberately passed by to feast his eyes, spotted them.

Out of a killer's instinct, Sasuke felt a chill down his back.

When he turned around, a great Konoha demon with a murderous glare and tears hanging at the corners of his mouth was staring straight at him.

For some reason, Sasuke felt the guilty sensation of being caught cheating.

Sasuke forced himself to remain calm and greeted him. "Yo, Naruto. Have you eaten dinner? If not, want to join us? My treat."

Had he eaten? Good question.

If Cup Noodles counted as dinner, then Ichiraku Ramen as a late-night snack would be perfect!

The next instant, Naruto appeared in the seat beside Sasuke with a beaming smile.

"Uncle, ramen with all the toppings, please!"

Neji turned to look over. Blondie? Who was that? He did not know him.

Naruto was eagerly awaiting his ramen, so Sasuke introduced him to Neji first.

"This is Naruto, my classmate. This is Neji."

Only when Sasuke said his name did Naruto notice that there was someone else beside him, apparently someone who had come with Sasuke.

"Neji? Oh, the white-eyed guy who lives in the big house. We have a white-eyed classmate too! Her name is... what was it again?"

Sasuke reminded him, "Hinata."

Naruto immediately picked it up. "Ah, right, Hinata!"

Neji looked at Sasuke. "Is he not very smart?"

"He ranks last in the class."

"Then he's like Rock Lee."

Hearing Sasuke introduce him that way, Neji instantly formed a rough impression of Naruto.

Naruto said indignantly, "Sasuke, you're talking bad about me again! And who's Rock Lee? You actually made friends outside and never come play with us!"

Neji was surprised and overturned his initial stereotype of Naruto as "Rock Lee Number Two."

"I thought he was about the same as Rock Lee." The unspoken implication was that Rock Lee at least trained diligently.

Sasuke still intended to salvage Naruto's image a little. "He can use ninjutsu. I usually have him help me test moves, and his stamina is pretty good too. His surname is Uzumaki."

Uzumaki? Neji showed a look of realization. He had not heard much about it, but he remembered the surname. It seemed to have once been one of the village's great clans. Perhaps Naruto had some secret technique or bloodline limit of his own?

"Naruto, your ramen's here!"

Watching Naruto wolf down his food at incredible speed, Neji, who was nearly finished himself, found it awkward to leave right away. It would be embarrassing not to make some small talk.

"Is Sasuke usually this generous? Does he treat everyone he meets to ramen?"

"Don't worry about that. Sasuke sold Dudu One before the New Year, and lately he said he was planning to sell Dudu Two as well. He's loaded! You don't need to worry about him."

"It's only one bowl of ramen... The little Dudus eat so, so many bowls of ramen every day."

As he spoke, Naruto grew a little melancholy. Only after finishing did he realize that was probably not what Neji had been asking, so he hurriedly added, "Sasuke usually doesn't come here alone. He only comes for ramen after asking someone to help him, saying it's to thank them or something."

So that was it. Neji understood. Sasuke had indeed been the one to challenge him to spar every time. "Sasuke, you're too polite. There's really no need. My clan arranges meals for me when I get home."

To avoid having Neji truly attribute the ramen treat to mere politeness and affect things in the future, Sasuke continued explaining from where Naruto had left off.

"There are other reasons. Fried food is too troublesome to make myself. Ever since Uncle Teuchi added Tempura to the menu, he's also added fried chicken legs recently. Eating out alone feels stupid, so I wanted someone to come with me."

"Then... what are Dudus?"

"They're piglets. A lot of little pigs were born a few weeks ago. Sasuke even built them a new house. We wash them every day, so they don't stink as much as before."

Since Neji had the Byakugan, was still a child, and did not have a phone in hand, he could not vividly recreate the expression of an old man staring at a phone on the subway.

He knew Sasuke was fairly approachable, but putting the proud Uchiha together with raising pigs was still extremely difficult to imagine.

The Uchiha were a prestigious clan on par with the Hyuga! Or at least, they had been.

But when he imagined himself raising pigs in his mind... it was truly a complete loss of dignity!

Seeing Neji's complicated expression, Naruto figured he was clearly interested.

"Sasuke, what do you say? Let Neji come take a look this weekend too~"

Look, look, look. All you know is invite people to my house to gawk at something unusual. Every so often, a bunch of bratty kids come over for a gathering. The Uchiha Clan Grounds are practically becoming the secret base for you little rookies.

And Sasuke could not easily refuse. Konoha High Command already wanted him, the Uchiha's sole remaining seedling, to integrate into Konoha. Taking the initiative to bring some kids around was easier than listening to those old geezers preach.

An XXX plan began to take shape in Sasuke's mind. He had to get some revenge on Naruto for acting so familiar with him.

"Then how about Saturday or Sunday morning? Neji, which day are you free?"

Neji was surprised. Had the topic already skipped ahead to him definitely going? Did he have anything else to do?... It seemed that aside from training, he really did not.

"Then Saturday morning? I'll come over after morning training."

"Great! Neji, do you know the way to Sasuke's house? Want me to pick you up? I know where your big house is."

"...Then thank you."

Having successfully roped in someone he had just met, Naruto continued expanding the scope of the mission.

"Hey, Sasuke, since there are already three of us, why not invite Shikamaru and the others too? They definitely haven't seen the newborn little Dudus! If there are lots of people, we can even have a barbecue by the lake at noon!"

Sasuke smiled on the outside, but inside, fucking hell.

My fish! Choji alone can eat five, and that doesn't even include the other food.

But Shikamaru had already been brought up, so Sasuke really could not bring himself to refuse. Owing favors was such a pain...

In the end, all the burden fell onto the Shadow Clones—his own Shadow Clones, at that!

Since things had already reached this point, Sasuke simply gave up.

"Neji, do you want to invite Rock Lee? Otherwise, everyone there will be strangers to you, and I'm worried you might feel awkward. I'll definitely be busy preparing the food."

"I'm not that familiar with that hot-blooded Dead Last!"

"Sasuke's right. Neji, why don't you invite your other friends too? The more people, the more fun."

Sasuke kept apologizing to himself. I was wrong. I never should have brought up Rock Lee. Naruto, please put away your divine powers. You absolutely deserve the title of Party Master!

Neji was equally conflicted. He could not exactly say that he was a proud lone wolf with no friends, could he? The two people in front of him seemed to have lots of friends... If he could not name even a few people, would that not disgrace both his status as a senior student and the Hyuga?

Neji put on a profound expression. "Then Rock Lee it is. The others do not even have the courage to challenge me."

It had to be said that Naruto had plenty of authority when it came to the creature known as "friends." Seeing Neji's current expression, he put on the look of someone who had been there before.

"Neji, you don't have any companions in class, do you~?"

Neji thought a few mocking remarks were coming.

"Then once you meet everyone, you'll definitely become our companion. Everyone's super nice!"

"Oh, right, I'll leave inviting the legendary Rock Lee to you! Uncle Teuchi, one more bowl of ramen!"