Flower Shop Collision, Sasuke's Heartless Rejection

With money in hand, a man's back stood straight!

Naruto tucked that thick wad of "startup capital," still carrying the body heat of several thugs, into his pocket, feeling absolutely fantastic.

Even the weakness brought on by that Blood-Reflux State seemed to have been greatly washed away by the power of money.

Robbing the robbers was the one and only path to wealth and prosperity!

Walking with the swagger of someone who feared neither heaven nor earth, hands in his pockets like a lion king inspecting his territory, he plunged straight into the Yamanaka Flower Shop at the end of the alley.

"Jingle~"

The wind chime over the door gave a crisp ring, and an overwhelmingly rich floral fragrance mixed with the fresh scent of soil rushed over him.

It had to be said, the Yamanaka family's taste was still on point.

The shop was filled with all kinds of blooming flowers competing in beauty, from common roses and lilies to rare varieties Naruto could not even name. It was like a miniature spring garden.

Yet the atmosphere, which should have been soothing and delightful, was ruined by a suppressed girl's voice tinged with tears.

"Sasuke... Th-this is the Queen of the Night I specially cultivated for you. It only blooms at night, just like you... I..."

Naruto followed the voice and grinned.

Well, wasn't this a coincidence?

Before the flower shop counter, an unbearably classic scene straight out of teenage heartbreak fiction was playing out.

One of the leads was Ino Yamanaka, a gorgeous blonde with a high ponytail and a smoking figure.

At that moment, the young lady who always acted like a queen at school was bright red, holding a carefully wrapped bouquet of white flowers glowing with pure radiance under the lights. She was so nervous she could barely get her words out.

And the male lead being confessed to was Konoha's resident cool guy, a walking refrigerator—Sasuke Uchiha.

Sasuke was still wearing his ever-present dark-blue short-sleeved shirt, hands in his pockets, his outrageously handsome face covered in frost that looked a thousand years old.

He could not even be bothered to spare the flowers in Ino's hands a glance. Three words were practically written across his eyes: Stay away from me.

The other two members of the Ino–Shika–Cho Trio were also there.

Shikamaru Nara leaned against the wall, wearing the expression of a salted fish thinking, What a drag. I never should have left the house, as he yawned listlessly.

Meanwhile, Choji Akimichi hugged a bag of chips, happily crunching away. Yet his eyes kept darting around, clearly enjoying the show.

Naruto ranted wildly in his heart: Seriously? The Ino–Shika–Cho Trio was having a get-together, then they ran into lone-wolf Sasuke? This girl Ino charges the moment she sees an opening, huh?

Her courage was commendable, but she had picked the wrong target.

"Sasuke..."

When Sasuke still did not take them, the sob in Ino's voice grew heavier. Her eyes reddened at a visible speed, as though she were about to put on a flood-show performance any second.

But Sasuke's response was even colder and more merciless than a Siberian cold front.

At last, he lifted his eyelids. His black eyes swept indifferently over Ino, as though she were a stone by the roadside.

Then he squeezed out two icy words through his teeth.

"Boring."

Just two words, yet they were like two poisoned ice picks stabbing viciously into Ino's heart.

The girl's body trembled sharply, and her face instantly turned deathly pale.

But that was not the end.

As if that were not enough, Sasuke followed up with a killing blow.

"Stop bothering me."

He spoke in an utterly impatient tone, his eyes filled with disgust. "Women only slow down the speed at which I draw my sword."

Pfft—!

Naruto nearly burst out laughing on the spot.

Holy shit!

The classic of classics!

That line is way too damn classic!

Sasuke, where did you steal that line from? Some protagonist in an isekai light novel?

The speed at which you draw your sword?

Why not say women affect how smoothly you form hand seals?

You've got terminal eighth-grader syndrome!

Having said that, Sasuke completely ignored the Ino who had frozen in place and strode directly toward the door.

He did not even intend to go around her. His shoulder slammed mercilessly and heavily into hers!

A dull thud rang out.

Ino staggered from the impact. She could no longer hold onto the bouquet of Queen of the Night flowers, and it fell to the floor with a slap, its delicate petals scattering everywhere.

Yet Sasuke did not even turn his head, as though he had merely bumped into a lifeless utility pole.

Cold, ruthless, domineering.

A complete scumbag, yet cool as hell.

Ino stood there blankly, staring at the ruined flowers on the floor, then at Sasuke's resolute retreating back. Her eyes finally turned completely red.

Crystal tears clung to her long lashes, trembling as though they might fall at any moment.

The beauty she had always taken pride in, the charm that had never failed her among girls her age, was trampled into worthlessness before Sasuke Uchiha!

The massive hammer called "reality" had utterly stunned the Yamanaka family's young lady, smashing her to pieces.

The entire flower shop fell into dead silence.

Shikamaru stopped yawning, and Choji forgot to stuff chips into his mouth.

Watching the devastated Ino, neither of them knew how to comfort her.

After all, Sasuke's coldness was acknowledged throughout the entire village.

Just as the awkward atmosphere reached its peak, Sasuke—Mr. No-Feelings himself—walked to the entrance.

Then he saw Naruto Uzumaki leaning against the doorframe, watching everything with an amused expression.

Sasuke abruptly stopped!

All the coldness, impatience, and arrogance on his eternally frozen face rapidly melted away the instant he saw Naruto, like spring snow under a blazing sun!

In their place was an expression mixed with awe, conviction, and even... a hint of awkward deference.

Under the ghost-stricken stares of everyone in the flower shop.

Sasuke Uchiha, arrogant to his bones—the last Uchiha, who even dared to show displeasure when summoned by the Third Hokage—actually...

Actually stopped of his own accord before Naruto, the village-famous "eternal dead-last," the blond boy he had looked down on countless times, and slightly lowered his noble head!

Then, a sentence powerful enough to cause a magnitude-twelve earthquake throughout Konoha came clearly from his mouth.

"Hmph. You're here to buy flowers too?"

His voice was not loud, but it exploded through the little flower shop like a heavy bomb!

"Crunch... plop..."

Two crisp, strange sounds rang out almost at the same time.

They were the sound of Choji Akimichi's bag of chips and the half-chewed chip in his mouth falling to the floor together.

Beside him, Shikamaru Nara's perpetually sleepy, dead-fish eyes were wider than bells. His mouth hung open in an O large enough to fit a whole egg.

He felt as if his brain's CPU had completely burned out at that moment!

Hallucination!

This had to be a hallucination!

What a drag!

He must not have checked the almanac before leaving home today!

And Ino Yamanaka, the female lead at the center of the storm, was completely dumbfounded.

She had even forgotten to cry, forgotten her broken heart.

Two tears that had not yet fallen hung in her beautiful wide eyes as she stared blankly at the incomprehensible scene at the entrance.

Sasuke...

Was bowing his head to that dead-last?

Ino felt her worldview, along with the broken heart she had just suffered, being gripped by an invisible hand—then with a crunch, crushed into billions upon billions of fragments!

Th-this was the freaking end of the world, wasn't it?!