This Campfire, I Naruto Uzumaki Am Set on Lighting

I have to admit, that beast the Nine-Tails really knows its stuff when it comes to scouting.

Along the way, it marked the locations of residual chakra for me, and I would wander over to find tiny traces, open my mouth to explain, and leave the two girls dumbfounded.

Of course, I was not purely making things up; those explanations were genuinely chewed out from books.

Once it was pitch black, I hauled several fat, oily fish out of the river.

Izumi and Hana Inuzuka nearly dropped their eyeballs—I pulled out a sealing scroll, went poof to summon pots and pans, and even brought along cooking oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar.

"You're..."

Dark lines hung all over their foreheads as they watched me squat there to start a fire and cook fish.

Izumi Uchiha tilted her head to look over, her face full of question marks:

"Doesn't the textbook state that nighttime camping strictly forbids fire? Doing this, is there some hidden circumstance again?"

In their eyes, I was no longer that seven-year-old genius brat, having completely transformed into a shinobi impossibly seasoned.

Seeing the two of them with their humble, eager-to-learn expressions, I smiled and handed over two grilled fish: "Fill your stomachs first."

The two girls' faces flushed red, and they hurriedly took them.

I stared right at them, opening my mouth with a deeply affectionate expression:

"Naturally it's because the two of you are more than qualified enough, Izumi, Hana."

The two of them lowered their heads in a fluster, gnawing on the fish:

"No way, there's still so much we need to learn. Today too, if the skills we know were just a bit more..."

I burst out laughing with a snort.

Hana Inuzuka's face turned red enough to practically smoke, and she demanded hastily: "What the hell are you laughing at!"

I, however, waved my hand with plenty of poise:

"Sorry, sorry, I thought there wasn't anything left I could teach you."

The two girls quickly chimed in:

"You taught us way too much today!"

Izumi Uchiha still wore a puzzled look: "Then, this pile of fire is..."

I gazed at the glowing red campfire, softening my voice quite a bit:

"Sitting down to eat with someone you like is a really nice feeling, so I wanted to let you eat something hot and get your spirits a bit more comfortable."

As soon as the words landed, the two small faces opposite me instantly flushed to the roots of their ears, steam practically venting off their foreheads as if water were boiling.

They lowered their heads in unison, staring fixedly at the grilled fish in their hands to take fierce bites, mumbling as they spoke:

"Something hot really is delicious, huh?"

"Yeah! Yeah!"

Their defenses were essentially blasted away, and the corners of my mouth curled up slightly.

In the end, they were just two twelve-year-old lasses who had only just begun to understand romantic sentiments.

In my past life, I was at least a bottom-feeding fanfic author; I still needed to brush up on some romance anime.

Besides, in this Shinobi World, looks-obsessed people make up the majority, and this handsome face passed down from the Fourth and Kushina added a whole lot of points for me.

I figured that if I wore Rock Lee's face to do the exact same thing, I would have already been beaten black and blue by the two people across from me by now.

Striking while the iron was hot, I pushed my luck, picked up a ladle, and ladled a spoonful of fish soup for each of them to send right to their lips.

The two of them were in a daze, letting me feed them this dinner in such an ambiguous way.

By the time they snapped out of it, my tent had long since been set up, and I stood at the tent flap smiling at them:

"Sorry about that, the preparation wasn't thorough, so I only brought one tent. Everyone just squeeze in together tonight, and the drill will be over before we know it."

Looking at my inviting posture, the two of them were practically scared out of their wits from shyness.

They waved their hands in unison, their voices entirely synchronized:

"No, no, no! I'll take watch! You guys just sleep."

I openly patted my chest:

"Hey! How can I let you girls keep watch? I'll do it! If all else fails, there's always Haimaru, right?"

Haimaru: Woof! (You really don't treat me like a person, do you?)

Hearing that I would keep watch, the two of them let out long sighs of relief; this progress was truly terrifyingly fast.

The two exchanged a glance and swoosh, slipped into the tent, failing to notice the mischievous grin I was holding back.

I formed a cross seal with both hands: Shadow Clone Technique!

Amidst the dumbfounded expressions of Izumi and Hana Inuzuka, I directly lifted the flap and crawled in:

"Don't worry, my shadow clone will guarantee we get a sound and steady sleep tonight!"

Hana Inuzuka, Izumi Uchiha: "..."

Right as I prepared to edge my way between the two of them, the crisp sound of kunai colliding suddenly rang out from outside the tent.

I cursed mentally, damn it, where did some blind fools come from to run into the Forest of Death!

Casually splashing water to extinguish the nearby campfire, I slipped toward the direction where the sounds originated.

Izumi and Hana let out breaths and hurriedly followed.

The three of us squeezed behind a large boulder by the river and hid, Izumi Uchiha lowering her voice to ask me:

"Is this the final drill?"

I furrowed my brows, replying with a suppressed voice:

"I'm afraid something's gone wrong. Hide yourselves in a bit and don't come out."

As we spoke, an ANBU member wearing a mask stepped across the water, running over with a limp.

A silver flash broke out, and a shuriken attached to steel wire instantly flipped her over, the wire tightly entangling her ankle.

"That's an ANBU!"

Hana Inuzuka immediately whispered, "We have to go help her, or hurry and find Captain Yamato."

"Wait, look behind."

I jerked my chin toward the direction of the pursuers.

Three Root operatives, similarly dressed in ANBU attire, appeared behind that female ANBU.

Hana Inuzuka and Izumi were startled:

"How come the pursuers are ANBU too!?"

I stared at the head of purple hair on the fallen female ANBU, muttering while pinching my chin:

"It couldn't be such a coincidence, right?"

Seeing that the three Root operatives were about to silence her, I turned my head to whisper to the two girls: "Don't come out!"

With a Body Flicker, I flashed directly in front of the female ANBU and smiled at the three Root operatives:

"Humble as I am, I, Naruto Uzumaki, have come to butt in. Could you few please do me a favor and give some face?"