Steam Princess Hinata

Receiving two layers of Mother's Protection at once delighted Naruto. It was practically like gaining two extra lives. If he ran into danger in the future, he could be a little bolder.

He also had twenty Mom Coins, enough for two draws.

In his previous life, Naruto had never been the type to hold back when drawing in games. If there was a box, he opened it. Now he was already rubbing his hands impatiently.

Meanwhile, Hinata looked at Naruto, lowering her eyes as she carefully studied his face. After realizing that he truly bore her no ill will, she gradually relaxed.

She thought...

Naruto calling me Mom was probably just a joke, right?

Maybe I should tell him that we should just be normal friends.

Being someone's mom was really too embarrassing.

"Um... Naruto... may I ask why you helped me?"

"And why you wanted me to be your..."

"Mom."

Oh no, this was a crisis!

Hearing Hinata's words, Naruto, who had been planning to go home and draw prizes, stopped. To keep this relationship from ending and ensure he could receive two Mom Coins every day, he needed to answer this question properly.

Threats and bribes would not work forever. Hinata would grow into a very strong female ninja in the future.

Before he became truly strong, he absolutely could not lose an A-rank Mom like Hinata, who provided two Mom Coins a day.

After thinking for a moment.

Naruto decided to tease her first and ease the atmosphere. "Of course, because I'm a lolicon."

[Wrong!]

[Naruto Uzumaki likes mature women. He wants to lift the fragrant, soft little feet of mature women to his mouth and give them an exhilarating, top-tier deep inhale.]

[Huff huff~!]

Because he had spent so much time with it, Naruto could ignore the system's voice most of the time. But occasionally, its outrageous remarks still made him lose his composure.

You disgusting pervert, shut the hell up!

Taking a deep breath and barely suppressing his emotions, he looked at Hinata.

The ninja world was different from other places. People here learned about all kinds of things from a very young age.

So Hinata immediately understood what Naruto meant. She lowered her head in embarrassment and tightly gripped her sleeve. Her fair little face turned bright red, and white steam rose from her head.

Like a steam princess.

Oh no!

It seemed like his joke had gone a little too far.

Seeing the girl's shy appearance, Naruto immediately felt terribly guilty, like he deserved to be dragged away and electrocuted on the spot.

It was all the Valorant System's fault. He had been corrupted by it.

So he quickly became serious and asked instead:

"What do you think? Why is that?"

Because you're a lolicon?

Hinata was not bold enough to say something like that. After shaking the thought from her head, she answered, "I... I don't know."

She was not talking nonsense. If she excluded the possibility that he was a lolicon, Hinata truly could not understand.

At home, her father always looked at her with disappointment.

At school, she was always unremarkable. Hardly anyone paid attention to her.

Even just now, several unfamiliar boys had bullied her for no reason because of her eyes. Why would someone like her receive Naruto Uzumaki's help?

Back when they had been in class together, Naruto Uzumaki had never paid attention to her either.

"Grrr...!"

Her stomach growled at the worst possible time. Hinata's already flushed face became even redder, and she lowered her head further.

Naruto could not help smiling when he saw that. He extended his hand toward Hinata again.

"I'll take you to get something to eat first, then I'll answer that question."

Although she was a little embarrassed, refusing him was even harder. After a brief moment of thought, Hinata timidly placed her little hand in Naruto's palm.

Then, feeling completely dazed, she let Naruto lead her away.

[Hehehe, a Mom who's bad at refusing... this plot is pretty good.]

[Go for it, boy!]

You're an animal. I'm not!

Naruto did not have so many filthy thoughts in his head. He brought Hinata to Ichiraku Ramen. At the moment, Ichiraku Ramen was the only shop in Konoha willing to sell Naruto anything to eat.

And they treated Naruto quite well.

In a Konoha steeped in the Will of Domination, it was practically an anomaly.

Naruto thought that perhaps Ōtsutsuki blood could effectively resist the Will of Domination's control over the brain.

Just kidding.

Still, in his previous life, there really had been rumors about an Ōtsutsuki Ichiraku.

"Yo, Naruto, you're here again!"

A female voice called out first.

It was the Ichiraku owner's daughter, Ayame. She had a good personality and treated Naruto as gently as any ordinary customer. At first, Naruto had wanted to make her his Mom first.

Unfortunately, the Valorant System had rated Ayame C-rank for reasons such as her average appearance, average figure, ordinary status, and lack of strength. She was the lowest-ranked kind of Mom.

Moms were divided into S, A, B, and C ranks. The lowest C-rank produced nothing at all. Establishing a relationship with that kind of Mom was purely for talking big and satisfying some bizarre personal fetish.

It was completely useless to Naruto, so he gave up.

That was also the biggest reason Naruto had only formed a Mom relationship with Hinata despite having transmigrated some time ago: there simply were not many people who met the requirements.

"Ayame, two bowls of ramen."

"Coming right up!"

Ayame smiled gently, then looked at Hinata, whose hand Naruto was holding. "How unusual. Naruto actually brought a friend along today."

Being noticed by someone else's gaze made Hinata terribly embarrassed.

She wanted to pull her hand out of Naruto's palm, but she found that she could not muster much strength. She also did not dare say anything to Naruto, so she could only accept it helplessly.

She only hoped Naruto would not say anything strange and cause a misunderstanding.

That thought had barely crossed her mind before Naruto spoke.

"She's not my friend..."

???

Was he really going to say it in front of someone else too?

"Naruto, stop it~!"

Before he could finish, Hinata, whose face had been red the entire way here, seemed to suddenly realize something and wanted to stop Naruto from continuing.

But her voice was far too soft. Naruto did not hear her at all and simply said it.

"She's my Mom."

As soon as he finished speaking, Hinata let out a startled cry. She could not take it anymore and swayed as if she were about to faint.

Fortunately, Naruto immediately caught her and kept her from falling.

"Pfft!" Ayame covered her mouth and laughed. "Friendship between children really is quite interesting."

This was where the advantage of children being forgiven for anything showed itself.

If adults even thought about something like this, they would be perverts. But when the same thing happened between children, it just seemed like they were playing house.

Before long, Ayame placed two bowls of ramen in front of Naruto and Hinata.

Naruto did not bother with any formalities. He picked up his chopsticks and started eating. He had spent an entire day waiting outside the Hyuga compound so he could successfully follow Hinata, and he was hungry too.

"Thank you for the meal." Hinata, as a proper young lady, was different. She politely spoke the customary phrase in a soft voice before she began to eat.

However...

Her speed...

Did not look much like that of a proper young lady.

Naruto had only taken a few bites when she had already drained the entire bowl, soup included.

Only then did she seem to realize what she had done. Her complexion, which had only just recovered, turned bright red again.

"I'm so sorry, that was terribly rude of me!"

Naruto remembered Hinata's big-eater trait from the original story and immediately shouted:

"Another bowl!"

"N-No... no need... I'm already full."

Hinata shyly tugged on Naruto's sleeve.

"If I tell you to eat, then eat. You're my Mom, so you have to listen to me."

That was not right, was it?!

What kind of Mom was the obedient one?

But facing Naruto's fierce glare, Hinata could only hesitate before obediently continuing with another bowl of ramen.

In her heart, she quietly muttered two words.

Ungrateful child!

Hinata did not notice that, without realizing it, she had gradually begun accepting this immensely embarrassing arrangement.

Under Naruto's coercion, she ate bowl after bowl of ramen, feeling both shy and incomparably satisfied.

At home, she always had to pay attention to etiquette, so she had never eaten so freely before.

In the end, after finishing her sixth bowl, she let out a blissful little hum.

"Happy?"

Naruto grinned as he looked at Hinata's profile. The adorably dazed girl turned and met his gaze, her cheeks instantly reddening again.

"Mhm~!"

She really was a girl who blushed easily.

If this trait of blushing at every little thing appeared in certain romance novels, readers would probably curse the author for deliberately padding the word count.

"Oh, right. Didn't you ask earlier why I helped you and wanted to establish such a special relationship with you?"

Hinata quickly raised her head. She truly wanted to know why.

"There isn't really any deeper meaning to it. I was simply looking for something I wanted."

Since the truth was far too perverted, Naruto decided to make up a reason.

"Just like you got food, I got you."

When those words came out, Hinata froze completely.

Seeing her incomparably shocked expression, Naruto secretly laughed. Girl, I think my words have touched your soul.

Orochimaru, the ninja world's master kidnapper, really had an awesome formula!

In the original story, Orochimaru had used those very words to lure away Kimimaro, a genius boy with a Kekkei Genkai.

After saying that, Naruto did not wait. He jumped down from his chair and headed home.

Ayame hurriedly chased after him. "Hey, Naruto! You haven't paid yet! Don't tell me you brat are trying to skip out on the bill?"

"What a joke. Would I owe you money?" Naruto replied. "Isn't my Mom right there? She's the Hyuga clan's eldest daughter. She has plenty of money!"

As for me...

I don't have any money at all!

Ichiraku Ramen was not cheap. Naruto's living expenses were limited, and other shops were unwilling to sell him anything. So after transmigrating, he had come to Ichiraku Ramen every day to spend money in order to eat a little better.

He had run out of money a long time ago.

But the results were obvious. In the month since he transmigrated, he had grown several centimeters taller.

System, bring up my status panel.

[Name: Naruto Uzumaki.]

[Gender: Male.]

[Mom: Hinata Hyuga (A-rank).]

[Mother's Protection: 2 layers.]

[Mom Coins: 20.]

I want to draw!

The next moment, a roulette wheel that only Naruto could see appeared before him.

With a thought, the wheel began spinning, then stopped a few seconds later.

[Congratulations, Host! You have received the B-rank reward "Chakra Refinement and Usage Techniques." From today onward, you no longer need to painstakingly learn how to refine and control chakra!]

As soon as the system finished speaking, Naruto suddenly felt many new memories appear in his mind, all related to chakra training.

Chakra refinement, tree-climbing practice, water-walking practice.

As well as the proper use and allocation of chakra.

The memories were incredibly real, so real that Naruto felt like he had been a veteran ninja leaping across rooftops and walls for decades.

This reward was pretty good.

In the original story, Naruto and Sasuke had practiced for a long time after becoming Genin before they learned water walking and tree climbing.

Keep drawing!

[Congratulations, Host! You have received the B-rank reward "Konoha E-Rank Ninjutsu Compendium," containing the Transformation Technique, Substitution Technique, Clone Technique, Seduction Technique, and more.]

Naruto could not help feeling a little disappointed by the second draw.

Other than the Seduction Technique, he was not particularly interested in the other E-rank ninjutsu.

Still, it proved one thing: Naruto did not need to study anything the system drew for him. They were all directly implanted into his memories, so he could use them as soon as he drew them.

For a lazy dog, this was simply the perfect benefit.

Especially since, in the original story, Naruto had eaten bugs in order to practice Senjutsu. The current Naruto absolutely did not want to experience that.

In that case...

Then he needed to find more mothers. Only by obtaining more Mom Coins could he use the lottery to perfectly skip every difficult stage of training.

Who should he look for next?

Judging from Ayame's situation, there was definitely no hope in looking among civilians.

He could only choose from those with status.

Winter break would end in a few days, and school would start again. Perhaps he could find quite a few suitable mothers there.

Hokage's Office.

The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, was watching Naruto's every move through a crystal ball.

At that moment, his face was filled with all kinds of emotions.

Relief, guilt, sorrow—layered together, they made him look like a pie chart.

"That child Naruto took the initiative to help the Hyuga child out of a difficult situation. That was very good."

"But..."

"Why did he have to call Hinata Mom?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi let out a long sigh. He interpreted what had happened today as...

Naruto was too lonely.

Too starved for affection.

Too repressed!

Perhaps Naruto should no longer be left to live alone. He needed to find someone to keep him company. Otherwise, if things continued like this, how would he face Minato and Kushina after he was gone?

Hiruzen Sarutobi thought of his student, Princess Tsunade.

Bringing together two people who had lost all their loved ones so they could comfort each other was probably a good choice.