The Big-Spending, Overbearing CEO Makes His Entrance

Sasuke stopped in his tracks. All the coldness, impatience, and arrogance on his perpetually icy face melted away the instant he saw Naruto, like spring snow beneath a blazing sun!

What replaced it was a mixture of awe, conviction, and even... a trace of awkward deference that even he himself had not noticed.

"Hmph, you came to buy flowers too?"

The utterly ordinary question detonated like a massive bomb inside the tiny flower shop!

Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara, and Choji Akimichi seemed to have been hit by a paralysis jutsu, their expressions perfectly embodying the phrase "masterpiece of world art."

Naruto ranted inwardly, See that? That's the presence of a big brother!

Sasuke was really getting the hang of things now.

Leaning lazily against the doorframe, Naruto ignored Sasuke's proud, tsundere face that was practically screaming, "Praise me." He merely reached out and patted Sasuke's shoulder, neither too hard nor too lightly, like an old superior looking after a dim-witted subordinate.

"Mhm."

Naruto's voice was calm, yet carried an unquestionable commanding tone. "Go train. Don't slack off."

His tone was like he was dismissing an errand-running underling.

Yet then came a sight that nearly made Ino and the others' eyeballs pop out!

Sasuke Uchiha—the man whose pride was etched into his bones—actually... actually nodded with the utmost obedience, just like a dutiful little underling!

"Okay."

One word, crisp and decisive.

Then Sasuke turned and left, his steps steady and without the slightest hesitation. He did not even spare an extra glance for the former companions in the flower shop, who had already been turned to stone.

As though, to him, a single word from Naruto was an imperial decree.

The entire flower shop fell so silent that a pin dropping could be heard.

Only Choji, overwhelmed by shock, let out an uncontrollable "urp"—a potato-chip-flavored belch.

Naruto admired their collective expressions of CPU failure, and inwardly burst with delight.

The highest level of showing off was not bragging yourself, but making the person best at showing off willingly serve as your backdrop!

He stepped forward, ignoring Shikamaru and Choji's ghost-struck stares, and walked straight toward Ino Yamanaka, who was still standing there in a daze.

The girl remained frozen in her heartbroken posture, two tears still clinging to her beautiful wide eyes, making her look utterly pitiful.

Naruto looked down at her, a teasing curve appearing at the corner of his mouth.

"Crying over an unromantic, poker-faced guy like that—don't you think that's beneath you, Miss Ino?"

His voice was not loud, but it carried a lazy hint of mockery, like a feather lightly brushing the sensitive nerve in Ino called "pride."

"Huh?"

Ino suddenly snapped out of it. Like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, she instantly bristled!

The sorrow of heartbreak, the shock of Sasuke's submission, and the embarrassment of Naruto's teasing—all of it erupted at once!

"None of your business!"

Her eyes were red as she glared fiercely at Naruto, her voice even carrying a sob. "Y-you eternal dead last! What right do you have to talk about Sasuke!"

Heh, she was still calling him "dead last"?

Apparently, she had not been stimulated enough.

Naruto did not get angry. He simply grinned, baring a mouthful of stark white teeth that radiated wild aggression.

He could not even be bothered to look at Ino's tear-streaked face. He shoved a hand into his pocket and pulled out all the spoils he had "confiscated" from those street thugs—the thick stack of cash, as hefty as a brick!

Then, beneath everyone's stunned gazes, he swept out his arm with an incomparably dashing motion!

Smack!!!

An enormously dull, thunderous sound rang out!

Naruto slammed the stack of bills onto the flower shop's elegant wooden counter with such force that it sounded less like money and more like someone had thrown a brick onto it!

The whole counter shook three times!

This simple, crude attack of "cash power" was as devastating as an S-rank ninjutsu, forcibly smashing every insult Ino had been about to say back into her stomach!

"Y-you..." Ino's tongue got tangled.

Naruto extended a finger and tapped twice against the brick of cash. Raising his chin slightly, he grandly declared in a tone that looked down upon the world:

"I'm buying every flower in your shop—the most expensive and the prettiest ones."

"..."

"..."

For the first time, an expression that could only be called "horrified" appeared on Shikamaru's perpetually troublesome, dead-fish face.

He scratched his pineapple-shaped hair and muttered instinctively. His voice was not loud, yet it rang clearly through the entire flower shop.

"This guy... did he rob the Land of Fire daimyo's treasury or something? How did he suddenly get so rich?"

Choji had completely given up on eating chips. His little eyes darted back and forth between the stack of cash and Naruto, with only one thought in his mind: How many pounds of barbecue could that much money buy...?

As the person directly involved, Ino had gone completely dumb.

She stared blankly at that absurdly thick stack of bills. The smell of ink mixed with the sweat of several thugs, giving off a sinful yet enchanting scent of money.

Then, her gaze uncontrollably fell on Naruto's face again.

At some point, the boy before her had changed. The face she had once considered plain and even a little foolish had somehow become sharply defined, brimming with a masculine vigor she had never seen in him before.

Especially those azure eyes. They no longer held their former fawning eagerness, but instead overflowed with dominance, confidence, and a kind of... heart-pounding aggressiveness.

Dead last?

No...

At this moment, that term seemed utterly ridiculous.

"What are you staring off into space for?"

Just as Ino's thoughts drifted away, Naruto's almost excessively handsome face suddenly moved a step closer.

A scorching masculine presence, as virile as the sun itself, instantly rushed over and wrapped around her with brute force.

For no reason at all, Ino's heart skipped a beat!

"Hurry up and wrap the flowers."

Naruto's voice carried a trace of impatient urging. "Is that how you treat a major customer?"

"I..."

Ino felt nearly unable to breathe beneath that powerful aura. Her cheeks instantly flushed bright red, red as a ripe apple.

She even felt her legs going a little weak.

Sasuke's coldness was an iceberg that kept people a thousand miles away, leaving hearts shattered.

But the dominance of the man before her was lava with a scorching temperature—impossible to refuse, capable of melting someone completely!

She hurriedly looked away, not daring to meet Naruto's eyes, which seemed capable of seeing through people's hearts. Turning around, she went to take the most expensive bouquet from the flower stand, while still stubbornly muttering under her breath.

"F-fine, I'll wrap them! Why are you being so fierce? You think having money makes you so great?"

Yet her voice was soft as cotton candy, carrying none of the ferocious energy of that bristling little wildcat from earlier.

Watching the girl's flustered and bashful back, the amusement in Naruto's smile deepened.

Now that was more like it.

Sweet words and concern were no match for a huge pile of cash.

To deal with a tsundere young lady like this, he had to use the simplest, crudest method: first smash her cheap pride, then redefine her understanding of what a "man" was!