The room was silent.
Seeing Gua sitting there like an idle NPC, Naruto ducked his head and dared not speak either. The smell of paint slowly began to spread through the room.
Hinata frowned slightly.
Gua frowned slightly too.
Of all the things you could do...
You put a paint bucket in your room? Aren't you worried about excessive formaldehyde?
Seeing both of them frown, Naruto narrowed his eyes.
"What's wrong?"
Gua mentally prepared a tactful little speech to persuade Naruto not to keep paint buckets indoors, or at least not in his bedroom.
But before he could speak, unhurried footsteps sounded outside the door.
Gua instinctively looked toward the doorway.
At that very moment, a figure appeared there.
It was someone all too familiar.
Naruto spoke almost instinctively.
"Grandpa Hokage?"
The Third Generation took a puff from his pipe, exhaled smoke into the room, and smiled warmly at Naruto.
Naruto got up and rushed over to him.
"So, so, did you bring me something tasty again, Grandpa Hokage?"
Naruto turned to look behind the Third Generation, only to discover there was nothing there.
That left him a little disappointed.
The corner of Gua's mouth twitched.
From the way they interacted, Gua could already tell that the Third Generation visited him often. When he had asked Naruto earlier whether the Third Generation came to see him regularly, Naruto had hemmed and hawed, making Gua think the Third Generation really had abandoned the kid.
Now it seemed he had misunderstood.
Then why is Naruto's room such a filthy mess?
If you're visiting, at least clean up a little!
But the Third Generation merely glanced around the room, seemingly oblivious to its filthy state.
Gua: ...
Just as I thought!
You can't leave childcare to men!
*When men look after kids, keeping