The next day.
Looking sleepy, Naruto forced himself to stay alert as he walked out of the Hyuga Clan estate. He looked up at the sky, still feeling a little as though none of this was real.
Just moments ago, he had asked Hinata's father for her hand in marriage. And her father hadn't made things difficult for him—or rather, he had agreed quite readily and without any fuss.
Hiashi had, however, said much the same thing as Naruto's parents: keep it quiet for now, and wait until they were at least old enough before holding the wedding.
Hinata's father seemed to have some new ideas about the Main Family and Branch Family, too. For now, he had simply told Naruto not to worry and that he would handle it.
The important thing was—from this day onward, Hinata Hyuga and Naruto Uzumaki were an engaged couple. They hadn't held their wedding yet, but both had already met each other's parents.
"You're even earlier than your mom and dad were..."
Kurama made a rare sarcastic remark.
"Hehe."
A little while later, Hinata came out of the house as well. Thanks to his mother's emotional intelligence crash course yesterday, Naruto immediately noticed the redness around her eyes.
"Father said so many things he'd never said before..."
Hinata wiped the corners of her eyes as she explained, looking sweet and shy.
"I get it, I get it. My mom made me cry so many times yesterday!"
Naruto nodded, then took Hinata's hand. "Let's go find the Toad Sage now. Once we've taken care of this, we'll start some seriously intense training!"
"Right!"
Hinata nodded firmly as well.
Naturally, finding Jiraiya went exceptionally smoothly. After all, Jiraiya had also accepted Naruto's Flying Thunder God Kunai.
And so...
Behind the rockery at Konoha's women's bathhouse.