Sasuke watched the flickering flames, big eyes occasionally drifting into a trance.
Lifting his gaze to look at Naruto's smiling face, he couldn't help asking, "What's so funny?"
Hearing the female Sasuke's voice, Naruto spoke naturally, "Every time I eat, I feel really happy. Of course, someone like you from a prominent clan has no idea what a decent meal means to me."
"Hmph, isn't it just a meal? I used to..."
Stopping halfway, Sasuke choked on his words, as if those days were already just things of the past.
Naruto was not the type to rub salt into someone else's wounds, so he handed the largest grilled fish in his hand to Sasuke and said, "Try it. Without seasonings, it might not taste very great."
Seeing Naruto hand over the biggest grilled fish, Sasuke froze, looking at Naruto's sunny, beaming smile, and couldn't help but experience a slight shift in perspective regarding Naruto.
"Thanks. I'll pay you back for this meal later."
Hearing this, Naruto gave a wry, silent smile, then tore away the burnt parts of the grilled fish.
"I'll dug in."
Customs must be followed when in Rome, so to speak.
Of course, before digging in, Naruto didn't know whether he was saying that to himself or to the food; he didn't know, and he didn't dare ask, because asking would blow his cover.
"I'll dig in," Sasuke also said softly with hands pressed together.
Then the two of them each ate their charred and fragrant grilled fish.
Although the grilled fish had no seasonings added, the two of them were starving at the moment, so even without flavor, they ate with great relish.
After finishing the grilled fish, Naruto extinguished the campfire, then stood up and looked at Sasuke, asking, "Do you want me to walk you back, or are you going back by yourself?"
Through a series of interactions, Sasuke no longer regarded Naruto as an annoying tail-ender at this point.
Yet upon hearing these words, he raised his head, "Didn't you want 20,000 ryo?"
Hearing this, Naruto gave a wry smile.
"All your assets from the Uchiha Clan are gone, where on earth would there be 20,000 ryo?"
Sasuke might not know which members belonged to Root, but the Hyuga Clan certainly did.
With the Byakugan activated, not to mention a little treasury buried underground, even money hidden in a mouse's nest could be found out.
Therefore, he held zero hope for the promised 20,000 ryo.
"Hmph, the promise of my Uchiha Clan must be honored. Come with me."
As he spoke, Sasuke got up, grabbed Naruto's hand, and walked straight toward the location of the Uchiha compound.
"Hey, don't hold out any illusions. There's no way they left anything behind for you."
Naruto didn't want to make a wasted trip; with that kind of time, wandering around the main street to scrape together some negative emotion points-wasn't that wonderful?
Even if he didn't go wandering around the streets, going back to refine chakra would work too.
"Hmph, that place-they definitely didn't go there," Sasuke said to himself.
"That place... what place is that?"
Naruto pressed on, though still without holding out much hope.
After all, that bunch from Root obeyed Danzo's orders absolutely; it was impossible for them to humanely leave anything behind for Sasuke.
"That's a throwing training ground belonging exclusively to me and that woman. Although there's no ready cash, there are still over a dozen kunai and dozens of shuriken stored there. If they're still around, selling them should be enough to scrape together 20,000 ryo."
Hearing this, Naruto instantly snapped out of his listless state, as if he had been jabbed with an adrenaline shot.
"That's right, the throwing training ground of Itachi and Sasuke! It definitely wouldn't be inside the Uchiha clan grounds, but rather somewhere inside the Uchiha compound."
As a ninja's basic consumable items for throwing, shuriken sold for around 1,000 ryo or so.
Kunai, on the other hand, were close-combat short weapons, positioned similarly to short swords or daggers, and emphasized versatility and quality, selling for roughly three times the price of shuriken-meaning around 3,000 ryo.
If he could get his hands on a dozen kunai and sell them at a 50% discount, wouldn't making 20,000 ryo be an absolute breeze?
At this thought, Naruto couldn't help but marvel at the deep pockets of the families behind Tenten and Shikamaru.
One of these two families was responsible for supplying Konoha's weapons, while the other was responsible for supplying Konoha's medicinal herbs-they could be described as rolling in wealth.
No wonder Tenten always used a large quantity of shuriken as if they were nothing.
And Shikamaru always maintained a half-dead state precisely because his family was rich; before becoming a ninja, his ambition was never to become an outstanding ninja, but rather to marry an ordinary, virtuous wife and enjoy a life a bit more ordinary than most.
"All right... If you can help me settle the matter of the ryo, I'll give you something later."
Naruto had originally been dragged along by Sasuke, but upon learning there was hope of getting 20,000 ryo, he immediately walked ahead of Sasuke.
"Give me something?"
Sasuke frowned.
"It wouldn't be a bunch of flowers, a bento box, or a love letter, would it? If it's like that, forget it. Dealing with those boys in class all day is already annoying enough."
Hearing this, Naruto paused, turned back to look at Sasuke, and asked, "Are Sakura, Ino, and the others among the ones sending love letters?"
At these words, Sasuke gave Naruto a weird look.
"Can you not be so disgusting? And... among the boys in class, only Hinata Hyuga treats you well. When did you get so familiar with the other boys, talking about Sakura and Ino? They're all guys-calling them that is super gross, okay?"
Boy Hinata... They? Sakura and Ino were guys instead of girls?
Hearing Sasuke's impatient words, Naruto instantly turned to stone and froze in place.
"What is it again?"
Seeing Naruto frozen in place, Sasuke walked back around to the front while holding Naruto's hand, and frowned upon finding Naruto motionless.
"Oh... no, nothing... Well, you see, it seems that even you... uh, are still adored by the boys in class, huh?"
┭┮﹏┭┮
Although he had transmigrated here and taken over Naruto's body, he hadn't inherited the memories from before the age of seven. To avoid letting Sasuke discover anything unusual, he immediately adjusted himself and brushed it off with a laugh.
"Hmph, how boring. Instead of spending time sending me flowers, making bentos, and writing love letters, why not improve themselves?"
Sure enough, even with gender-swapped, Sasuke was still the campus belle of the class, still pursued by a crowd of guys like Sakura and Ino.
Naruto just gave a token response and fell silent, a chaotic mess of thoughts surging within him.
Sasuke turned into a little sister, while Hinata, Sakura, Ino, and the rest of the crowd turned into boys?
Then... wouldn't guys like Shikamaru, Choji, Neji, Rock Lee, Kiba Inuzuka, and Shino have turned into girls as well?
Oh my god... What kind of Naruto world did I actually transmigrate into? Naruto wailed in his heart.
The thought of Hinata also turning into a boy left Naruto with mixed feelings of joy and sorrow.
Still, what's done was done; it wasn't like he could die and transmigrate back, right?
Naruto had no choice but to accept it.
Perhaps this wasn't necessarily a bad thing either; since he couldn't be husband and wife with Hinata, being classmates and friends wasn't bad either.
That way, that agonizing Boruto: Naruto Next Generations would be gone for good.
In his past life, he had heard that Naruto was getting a sequel, Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, and at the time he had watched it with full anticipation.
Yet after watching only over seventy episodes, his worldview shattered.
To highlight the new generation protagonists and supporting characters of Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, not only were characters like Naruto and the rest of the Konoha 12-who should have been only twenty-five or twenty-six years old-drawn super ugly, but they were also super greasy.
And that wasn't even the worst of it; the art style of the scenes, the art style of the outfits, and most intolerably, the collapse of the original work's combat power-it was simply unwatchable. What on earth was all of that?
Were they all suffering from kidney deficiency just because they got married or something, for their combat power to plummet like that?
Actually, none of the above were the direct reasons that caused him to abandon Boruto: Naruto Next Generations.
The crucial point was that not only was it completely unexciting, but it also forced ships down people's throats-something Lin Mingren could not accept.
Also...
Before you continue