Ino

The crystal ball, painstakingly stolen from the Hokage Office, turned out to be utterly useless.

Unable to play with the crystal ball, Uzumaki Menma and the others could only wander aimlessly through Konoha's streets.

Although the villagers on the street didn't like the look of Uzumaki Menma and Naruto, it didn't bother them at all.

Uzumaki Menma didn't care in the first place.

And Naruto, because he was no longer alone, was now able to ignore these malicious gazes.

Suddenly.

A rumbling sound came from someone's stomach.

Uzumaki Menma, Naruto, and Shikamaru all looked at Choji at the same time.

Choji innocently stuffed a handful of chips into his mouth: "What are you looking at me for? I'm not hungry."

Since it wasn't Choji, nor was it Uzumaki Menma, Naruto, or Shikamaru, then it could only be…

Hinata's face instantly turned red when she saw the four of them looking at her.

Hinata's mother usually prepared food for her after her daily training, but today, because Uzumaki Menma and the others suddenly asked her to play, she hadn't had her post-training meal.

So much time had passed, and Hinata's stomach had long been empty.

She had been enduring it, but she couldn't help it any longer, and her stomach rumbled.

Naruto asked, "Hinata, was that your stomach growling?"

Hinata was so embarrassed that tears were already welling up in her eyes.

It was just too humiliating.

Seeing that Hinata was about to cry, Uzumaki Menma and the others immediately panicked.

"Hinata, don't cry."

"It's okay to be hungry, we get hungry every day!"

"Choji, quick, give Hinata your snacks."

"Hinata, these are all my snacks, eat them quickly."

Uzumaki Menma and the others all comforted Hinata.

Watching Hinata start to nibble on the snacks, Uzumaki Menma and the others breathed a sigh of relief.

But although Hinata was eating the snacks in small bites, the speed at which she was eating made Uzumaki Menma and the others' eyes turn strange.

This speed was a little too fast, a bag of chips disappeared in the blink of an eye.

In a matter of minutes, Hinata had finished all of Choji's snacks, and there were a full eight large bags of them.

Naruto stammered in astonishment, "So… so amazing!"

Hinata lowered her head shyly, not expecting to be praised for being able to eat.

These snacks only barely filled her stomach, she wasn't full at all.

But her stomach shouldn't rumble again for a while.

Just as Uzumaki Menma and the others were about to set off again, a voice came from behind them.

"Oh, Shikamaru? Choji?"

The five turned around and saw a cute girl with short, light yellow hair.

Shikamaru greeted, "Ah, it's Ino."

Naruto asked curiously, "Shikamaru, is she your friend?"

Shikamaru nodded, "Yeah, my family and Choji's family, and Ino's family are old friends."

Naruto scratched his head in confusion: "What's 'old friends'?"

Uzumaki Menma explained to Naruto: "Old friends are people whose previous generations were friends with each other, for example, Shikamaru's parents and Choji's parents are friends."

Naruto suddenly understood: "So that's how it is, then we're old friends too, right?"

Uzumaki Menma pursed his lips.

Forget it, he didn't want to explain, Naruto might understand even less the more he explained.

Ino asked curiously, "Are you guys going to play?"

"Yeah, do you want to come?" Shikamaru asked.

Ino shook the flower basket in her hand: "Maybe next time, I still have a lot of flowers to deliver."

Hinata saw the flowers in Ino's flower basket: "Such pretty flowers."

Hearing Hinata praise the flowers in the flower basket, Ino's eyes narrowed with a smile.

Ino took a daisy from the flower basket and handed it to Hinata: "It's for you, my name is Ino Yamanaka, what's yours?"

"Hinata, Hinata Hyuga, thank you for the flower."

"No need to thank me, I think this daisy suits you very well. Sometimes flowers choose people, you know."

Uzumaki Menma and Naruto suddenly introduced themselves to Ino.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto!"

"I'm Uzumaki Menma!"

Ino tilted her head, wondering if she had even asked for their names.

But since they had already introduced themselves, Ino greeted them, "Hello."

Uzumaki Menma and Naruto stared at Ino, making her feel uneasy.

Ino took a step back. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

Uzumaki Menma and Naruto simultaneously pointed at the flowers in Ino's basket.

Ino had already given Hinata a daisy, so it must be their turn now.

Ino was speechless. So these two were eyeing the flowers in her basket.

"These are flowers I need to deliver, I can't give them to you."

Uzumaki Menma and Naruto pouted.

How disappointing, she thought they might get one too.

Ino's eyes suddenly darted around, and she changed her tone, saying, "But you could help me deliver the flowers, and afterwards you can each pick a flower from my shop."

Uzumaki Menma and Naruto nodded eagerly. "Okay, okay! We don't have anything to do anyway, we can just treat it as play."

Seeing Uzumaki Menma and Naruto agree, Ino began to distribute the flowers, even dragging Shikamaru and Choji along.

Shikamaru looked at the flowers in his hand and complained, "I never said I wanted to deliver flowers."

Ino pushed Shikamaru and Choji along. "Just consider it a favor, let's go!"

Ino was desperate to deliver the flowers as quickly as possible.

After Ino told Uzumaki Menma, Naruto, Shikamaru, and Choji the addresses, she and Hinata sat on the swing, waiting for them to complete the deliveries.

Ino asked curiously, "Hinata, how did you get to know Shikamaru and the others?"

Hinata thought about her experiences today, feeling like she was in a dream.

Even now, Hinata still felt like she was dreaming.

"Well... how should I put it? I met Menma and Naruto first, but because I couldn't go out easily, we didn't see each other again after that first meeting. It's been over a month before we met again today..."

Hinata had a big smile on her face. "I didn't expect Naruto and Menma to come looking for me today. I thought they had already forgotten about me. They came to my house, and along with Shikamaru and Choji, they took me out of the house to play... I'm really happy, it feels so good to have friends who care about me."

Ino couldn't help but smile. "It sounds pretty good."

However, Ino now had a bad feeling in her heart, a feeling that something was about to happen.

Although Shikamaru seemed unmotivated and Choji seemed a bit dull, Ino was still quite relieved, as they were both pretty reliable.

But Uzumaki Menma and Naruto were another story.

Now Ino's right eyelid was twitching like crazy, and the bad feeling in her heart grew stronger.