With money in his pocket, a man stood tall and proud!
Carrying that thick stack of "startup capital," which still retained the body heat of a few thugs, Naruto felt remarkably refreshed.
The faint feeling of weakness brought on by that recent "Blood-Reflux State" seemed to have been largely washed away by the sheer power of money.
Robbing the robbers really was the one true designated path to getting rich!
He walked with an unyielding swagger, hands buried deep in his pockets, and barged headfirst into the Yamanaka Flower Shop at the end of the alley, looking very much like a lion patrolling its territory.
"Jingle~"
The wind chime at the entrance let out a crisp ring, and a rich, practically unmelting fragrance of flowers mixed with the fresh scent of earth rushed right at him.
He had to admit, the Yamanaka family's taste was still top-notch.
The shop was filled with all sorts of competing flowers, ranging from common roses and lilies to rare varieties Naruto didn't even know the names of, dazzling the eye like a miniature spring garden.
Yet this atmosphere, which should have been soothing to the mind, was ruined by a suppressed, tear-choked girl's voice.
"Sasuke-kun... Th-This is the 'Queen of the Night' I specially cultivated for you. It only blooms at night, just like you... I..."
Following the voice, Naruto looked over and was amused.
Well, well, wasn't this a coincidence?
Right before the shop counter, a classic, textbook youth-melodrama scene was playing out.
One of the protagonists was the golden-haired beauty with a high ponytail and a scorching figure—Ino Yamanaka.
At this moment, this young miss, who had always fancied herself a queen at the academy, was flushed red, holding a bundle of carefully wrapped white flowers that gleamed brightly under the light, too nervous to even speak coherently.
And the male lead she was confessing to was Konoha's ultimate embodiment of cool, the walking air conditioner—Sasuke Uchiha.
Sasuke was still wearing his unchanging deep blue short-sleeved shirt, hands shoved into his pants pockets, his outrageously handsome face locked in a layer of thousand-year-old ice.
He couldn't even be bothered to spare the corner of his eye for the bouquet in Ino's hands, his gaze plainly spelling out three words: Don't touch me.
Right beside them, the other two members of the Ino–Shika–Cho Trio were also present.
Shikamaru Nara was leaning against the wall with a lazy, troublesome expression that screamed this is too much trouble, I shouldn't have left the house, yawning out of pure boredom.
Meanwhile, Choji Akimichi was clutching a bag of potato chips, crunching away with gusto while his two eyes darted around, clearly enjoying the drama with great relish.
Naruto went wild with inner commentary: Good grief, the Ino–Shika–Cho Trio is hanging out today, and they ran right into the lone wolf Sasuke? Is Ino this girl charging in the moment she sees an opening?
A for effort, too bad she picked the wrong target.
"Sasuke-kun..."
Seeing that Sasuke refused to take it, the tearful tremor in Ino's voice grew heavier. Her eye rims turned red at a visible speed, as if she could put on a waterworks show right on the spot any second now.
Yet Sasuke's response was colder and more ruthless than a Siberian cold wave.
He finally lifted his eyelids, and those pitch-black eyes swept over Ino with utter indifference, looking at her as if she were a rock by the side of the road.
Then, he squeezed two cold words out from between his teeth.
"Boring."
Just two words, but they were like two poison-laced ice picks, stabbing fiercely into Ino's heart.
The girl's body shuddered violently, and her complexion instantly turned deathly pale.
Yet that wasn't the end of it.
As if Sasuke felt that wasn't enough, he added a fatal finishing blow.
"Don't bother me."
He spoke in a tone of extreme annoyance, his gaze filled with disgust. "Women will only slow down the speed at which I draw my blade."
Pfft—!
Naruto almost laughed out loud on the spot.
What the hell!
The classic of classics!
These lines are way too damn cliché!
Sasuke, buddy, which isekai light-novel protagonist did you steal those lines from?
Draw your blade?
Why don't you say it ruins the fluidity of your hand seals instead?
You've reached the advanced stages of chūnibyō syndrome, haven't you!
With that, Sasuke completely ignored Ino, who had been petrified on the spot, picked up his pace, and walked straight toward the entrance.
He didn't even bother to step around her, slamming his shoulder mercilessly and heavily right into Ino's!
A dull thud echoed out.
Ino was sent stumbling from the impact, and she could no longer keep a steady grip on the bouquet of "Queen of the Night." With a snap, it dropped to the floor, its delicate petals scattering everywhere.
As for Sasuke, he didn't even turn his head back once, acting as though he had merely bumped into a lifeless utility pole.
Cold, ruthless, overbearing.
A complete jerk, yet brilliantly handsome all the same.
Ino stood there blankly, staring at the ruined bouquet on the ground and then at Sasuke's unyielding retreating back, her eye rims turning completely red.
Crystal-clear tears danced on her long eyelashes, trembling on the verge of falling.
The beauty she took so much pride in, the charm that made her practically invincible among her peers—in front of Sasuke Uchiha, it had all been trampled into utter worthlessness!
This heavy blow called "reality" completely stunned the young miss of the Yamanaka family, smashing her to pieces.
The entire flower shop plunged into dead silence.
Shikamaru stopped yawning, and Choji forgot to stuff chips into his mouth.
Looking at the heartbroken Ino, neither of them knew how to offer comfort.
After all, Sasuke's coldness was acknowledged village-wide.
Right in the middle of this intensely awkward atmosphere, the emotionless-Sasuke reached the doorway.
Then he saw Naruto Uzumaki, who was leaning against the doorframe and watching the whole thing with an amused look.
Sasuke's footsteps came to an abrupt halt!
On that perpetually ice-bound face of his, all the coldness, impatience, and arrogance vanished the moment he saw Naruto, melting away as fast as spring snow meeting a blazing sun.
In their place was a submissive attitude mixed with awe, obedience, and even... a trace of awkward respect.
Amidst the ghost-seeing gazes of everyone in the flower shop—
That unbelievably proud Sasuke Uchiha, the Uchiha scion who dared to give attitude even when summoned by the Third Hokage, actually...
Actually took the initiative to stop and slightly lower his noble head before the village's notorious "eternal last-place loser," the blonde boy he had once looked down upon countless times!
Following that, a sentence loud enough to cause a magnitude-twelve earthquake across Konoha clearly spilled from his lips.
"Hmph, you're here to buy flowers too?"
The voice wasn't loud, but it detonated inside the small flower shop like a heavy bomb!
Crack... Snap...
Two crisp, unusual sounds rang out almost simultaneously.
They were the sound of Choji Akimichi's potato chip bag hitting the floor, along with the half-chewed chip he hadn't had time to swallow.
Next to him, Shikamaru Nara's perpetually sleepy dead-fish eyes widened wider than copper bells, his mouth dropping into an "O" shape large enough to swallow a whole egg.
He felt like his brain's CPU had completely burned out at that exact moment!
An illusion!
This has got to be an illusion!
What a drag!
I definitely didn't check the fortune calendar before leaving the house today!
And as the female lead at the center of the storm, Ino Yamanaka was completely dumbfounded.
She even forgot to cry, forgot her heartbreak.
Her pair of pretty, large eyes held two unfallen teardrops as she simply stared blankly at the incomprehensible scene by the doorway.
Sasuke...-kun?
Bowing... to that loser?
Ino felt as though her worldview, along with her shattered young-girl's heart from just a moment ago, had been grabbed by an invisible giant hand and crushed into millions and millions of pieces with a loud crack!
Is... Is the damn end of the world coming?!
Before you continue