Shikamaru and Choji

Uzumaki Menma dragged his body, which was already too unsteady to walk properly, out of Root.

Today! No one could stop his determination to go out and have fun!

Since Root had been built in a corner of Konoha, it was an extremely remote area. It took quite a long walk to reach Konoha's main streets.

When Uzumaki Menma had snuck out of Root before, he had not thought it was that far.

But now...

Uzumaki Menma felt that this road was really, really long.

Uzumaki Menma took three steps, then stopped for two, making his way toward Konoha's main streets.

When he reached the woods where he had previously encountered Naruto and Hinata, Uzumaki Menma luckily ran into Naruto, who was playing there alone.

When Naruto saw Uzumaki Menma, he happily shouted, "Menma!" and ran straight over to him.

Uzumaki Menma rolled his eyes at Naruto. "Don't run in front of me right now, I feel sick! And hurry up and give me a hand. I really can't walk anymore!"

Naruto reached out to support Uzumaki Menma and asked in confusion, "What happened to you? You look completely wiped out."

Uzumaki Menma complained, "I started training today, and now I don't have a shred of strength left. This is way too much! Who starts training at such a high intensity? They're trying to kill me!"

Naruto looked deeply envious. "Menma, you've already started training? You must have learned lots of awesome ninjutsu, right?"

"Bullshit! Ow..."

His emotions had gotten too worked up, tugging at his sore muscles and causing a sharp pain.

"I haven't learned any ninjutsu at all. I was forced to do physical training. I'm this weak because of that damned physical training."

Naruto scratched his head in puzzlement. "Then why did you come out to play when you're like this? Shouldn't you be resting at home?"

Uzumaki Menma declared passionately, "I trained so I could come out and play! I finally finished training, so how could I possibly be willing to go rest? Naruto! Carry me so we can go have fun!"

Hearing how spirited Uzumaki Menma sounded, Naruto answered just as energetically, "Okay! Then let's go have fun!"

Naruto carried Uzumaki Menma on his back and headed for Konoha's main streets.

On Konoha's main streets.

All the pedestrians avoided Naruto and Uzumaki Menma as though they were the plague.

But it could also be said that Naruto and Uzumaki Menma swaggered through Konoha without a care.

"Menma, is there anything you want to play?"

Uzumaki Menma did not know what he wanted to do either, so he asked, "Naruto, what do you usually play?"

"Me? It's not really playing. It should count as pranks."

Uzumaki Menma's eyes immediately lit up. "What kind of pranks?"

"Like painting graffiti on Hokage Rock. Do you want to do that? If you do, we can go to my house and get some paint first."

Naruto was getting excited too. Graffitiing Hokage Rock with Uzumaki Menma would definitely be much more fun than doing it alone.

Uzumaki Menma nodded his little head furiously. "I want to, I want to!"

After Naruto carried Uzumaki Menma back to his home to get a few buckets of paint, they rushed to Hokage Rock.

In front of Hokage Rock.

Uzumaki Menma and Naruto stood atop the First Hokage's stone face.

Because he was about to pull a prank, Uzumaki Menma's back no longer ached, his legs no longer hurt, and he was overflowing with energy!

Holding a paint bucket in his left hand and a brush in his right, Uzumaki Menma shouted energetically at Naruto beside him, "Let's go all out!"

Uzumaki Menma painted a circle over the First Hokage's left eye, while Naruto painted an X over the right eye.

Looking at each other's masterpieces, the two burst into laughter.

Hokage Building.

Inside the Hokage Office, Hiruzen Sarutobi watched Uzumaki Menma and Naruto prankishly graffiti Hokage Rock through the Crystal Ball, and felt his temples begin to throb.

Hiruzen Sarutobi took a puff from his pipe, rubbed his temples, and sighed.

"Haah... There used to be only one, and now there's another. Those two little brats really are restless. Who am I supposed to get to clean Hokage Rock later?"

Two hours had already passed.

By then, the stone faces of the First Hokage and Second Hokage had become completely unrecognizable.

Uzumaki Menma and Naruto were now graffitiing the Third Hokage's stone face.

All of a sudden.

A childish voice rang out from above the stone face's head.

"What are you doing?"

Uzumaki Menma and Naruto looked up in unison and saw two children about their age.

One had his hair tied into a pineapple-like ponytail and drooping eyelids, making him seem utterly unmotivated.

The other was a rather cute little chubby boy, holding a bag of chips in his hands as he ate and watched them curiously.

Naruto whispered to Uzumaki Menma, "Oh no, Menma, we've been found out. Should we retreat?"

Uzumaki Menma had already recognized the two.

Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Choji.

Uzumaki Menma's eyes darted around before he said to Shikamaru and Choji, "There are some flaws on Hokage Rock. As people of Konoha, how can we just turn a blind eye? So we wanted to repair it. Do you want to join us?"

Shikamaru gave Uzumaki Menma a deadpan look.

He was not blind. If they were really repairing Hokage Rock, would they use this kind of colorful paint?

They were obviously drawing graffiti!

Still, it did look pretty fun.

Shikamaru asked Choji, who was beside him munching away at his chips, "What do you think? Want to join, Choji?"

After dumping the rest of his chips directly into his mouth, Choji said, "It looks pretty fun. Shikamaru, let's join them!"

The graffiti team, originally made up of only Uzumaki Menma and Naruto, had now expanded to four people.

With four people painting graffiti, it did not take long for all four Hokage stone faces to become completely unrecognizable.

At that moment.

Several adults beneath Hokage Rock noticed the handiwork of Uzumaki Menma and the others, shouting, "You brats, stop! Don't run!"

Uzumaki Menma, Naruto, Shikamaru, and Choji exchanged looks, then said in perfect unison, "Run!"

The four of them sprinted through Konoha's streets.

Several adults chased after them.

After running for a long time, the four left Konoha's main streets and entered the woods.

Those adults also gave up chasing them.

Uzumaki Menma and the others sat on the ground, gasping for breath. Then, one after another, they all began laughing happily.

Shikamaru stood and walked over to Uzumaki Menma and Naruto.

"Nara Shikamaru."

Choji introduced himself as well. "I'm Akimichi Choji."

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki! I'm going to be the future Hokage!" Naruto introduced himself with boundless energy.

"My name is Uzumaki Menma. Please take care of me from now on!"

Choji opened a new bag of chips and asked curiously as he ate, "Menma, Naruto, why are your hair colors so different?"

Uzumaki Menma explained with a smile, "It's normal for our hair colors to be different. We already have the same face, and even the same surname. It would be too much if we had the same hair color too."

Shikamaru and Choji stared at Uzumaki Menma and Naruto in astonishment.

When Shikamaru and Choji had first seen Naruto and Uzumaki Menma, they had thought the two were brothers.

After all, aside from their hair color, they looked as if they had been cast from the same mold.

But they had never expected that the two were not brothers.

The world was truly full of strange wonders.