The next day, there happened to be no classes.
After finishing his morning physical training as usual, Naruto returned home, washed his face thoroughly, then picked up his cosmetics with practiced ease in front of the mirror and carefully concealed the six distinctive whisker-like marks on his cheeks.
This had become an essential step whenever he went out to take care of "serious business."
Then he changed into clean clothes and walked calmly out of his home, heading straight for the Yamanaka Flower Shop.
Tomorrow was February eighth, the Third Hokage's birthday.
Naruto already had a plan for how to celebrate it.
The same as always: prepare a bouquet of flowers with auspicious meanings, order a small birthday cake, and have a simple celebration to show he cared.
It wasn't that he was stingy or just going through the motions. His finances were simply limited.
He barely had any money on hand, and he had no idea where the inheritance his parents had left him was sealed away, or under what pretext the village was holding it. His only steady income at present was the little bit of spending money the Third Hokage gave him every month.
For all he knew, that spending money was just a tiny amount skimmed from the inheritance left by the Fourth Hokage and his wife, then handed back to him.
The thought gave Naruto a headache.
Even a hero could be brought low by an empty wallet!
Right, why not... try writing books for money sometime? Didn't Jiraiya make a fortune writing novels?
His first serious book, The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi, had attracted no readers, but Icha Icha Paradise had been an instant hit.
After all, in a world plagued by frequent wars like the shinobi world, books about enduring hardship and striving to improve weren't going to sell.
But books like Icha Icha Paradise could bring in some impressive sales.
All the ways to make quick money were written right there in the criminal code!
As the saying went: the faster the sentence, the faster the money; the more the charges, the greater the profits.
Jiraiya wrote books that even an old hand like Kakashi was too embarrassed to discuss. Naturally, he made plenty of money.
I could easily use the Transformation Technique to look like someone else, then write under a pen name. That way, I wouldn't expose my identity, and I'd have a steady source of income.
As he drew closer, he could see Ino Yamanaka sitting alone behind the counter, propping her little head on one hand and staring blankly at something outside the window. She looked distracted, lost in some private girlish thoughts.
The clear chime of the wind bell broke the shop's silence.
"Welcome~" Ino Yamanaka greeted him almost reflexively in a slightly languid customer-service voice before instinctively turning to look toward the entrance.
Naruto stood in the sunlight at the doorway, smiling gently and giving her a little wave.
"Hi, Ino."
"Oh... Naruto!"
A barely perceptible flicker of flustered delight crossed Ino's face, as though he had caught her harboring some secret thought.
She quickly lowered the hand supporting her head and sat up straight, trying to look more natural.
"Yeah, I'd like to buy a bouquet."
Naruto explained why he had come.
"Oh?"
Ino blinked and asked curiously, "Who are you giving it to this time?"
She remembered his last visit, when he had come to buy flowers for his teacher.
Seeing that there were no other customers in the shop, Naruto looked at Ino's curious, slightly expectant expression and suddenly felt like teasing her. He smiled. "You. How does that sound?"
"Huh?!"
His words caught Ino completely off guard, and a blush instantly bloomed across her cheeks.
"M-my family runs a flower shop, and you're giving me flowers?"
She protested shyly, pretending to look puzzled as she watched him, but the rapidly spreading flush had already betrayed her true feelings.
Naruto knew when to stop. He smiled and waved a hand. "All right, all right. I'll stop teasing you."
His tone became serious again.
"They're actually for Lord Third Hokage. It's his birthday tomorrow."
"Oh~ So they're for Lord Third Hokage?" Ino's voice unwittingly grew a little subdued, and she felt an inexplicable emptiness inside.
"Yeah, Grandpa Third has always taken good care of me." Naruto failed to notice the subtle change in her mood and continued, "I couldn't think of anything better, but I remembered how much Teacher Guy liked the flowers here last time, so I came back."
As he spoke, he sensed the people around them.
Naruto glanced toward the stairs. After confirming that no one would see, he quietly gathered a trace of vitality-filled Wood Release chakra in his right hand behind his back.
*Self-created ninjutsu-**Wood Release: Bellflower Technique!***
A bunch of fresh, pale purple bellflowers, glistening as though still covered in morning dew, suddenly appeared before the slightly downcast Ino's eyes like a magic trick.
Catching their distinctive, familiar fragrance, Ino froze for a moment before her eyes lit up.
She looked up in delighted surprise to find Naruto holding the bunch of pale purple bellflowers and smiling at her.
"I mainly came to buy flowers for Grandpa Third."
Watching her delighted expression, Naruto smiled and said, "But you seemed a little disappointed just now. So I prepared this bouquet especially for you. Do you like it?"
Ino carefully accepted the bouquet and examined it, utterly certain of one thing.
Naruto must have prepared these flowers beforehand.
Every single flower in the bouquet was the same kind of pale purple bellflower she had picked by the Naka River before.
They didn't have any in the shop.
Where had he conjured them from?
Meanwhile, inside the Sealing Space.
Watching the scene outside, the Nine-Tails raised a massive paw and helplessly covered his face.
"Using Wood Release to pick up girls? Who on earth taught this kid that?"
He swished his tails and grumbled in exasperation:
"He's barely got any strength, and he's already using Wood Release for tricks like this... Once you get stronger, kid, you'll be flying all the way to the moon!"
Naruto naturally paid no attention to the Nine-Tails' remarks.
"I do like them."
Holding the heartfelt bouquet of bellflowers, Ino said softly, her cheeks slightly pink, "But if you want a formal floral gift arranged for Lord Third Hokage, I'll have to ask my mom to help."
Although she loved flower arranging and had some talent for it, her experience and skill still fell far short of her mother, Rino Yamanaka's. She didn't dare take it upon herself to arrange a bouquet for Lord Hokage.
After a moment's thought, she suddenly looked up, her eyes earnest.
"Oh, right! Since you gave me a bouquet, I should give you one in return! I'll persuade my mom not to charge you."
As she spoke, she started to turn away to call her mother upstairs.
"I can't accept that."
Naruto smiled and shook his head, his voice gentle but firm.
"A gift from you is a gift to me. It represents our friendship, and of course I'll treasure it."
"But the bouquet I'm buying now is for the Third Hokage, to express my respect and gratitude toward him. That's a separate matter. I can't mix the two up, much less pass flowers you gave me on to someone else."