"I meant how are you feeling now? Can you walk around normally? We need to get ready to head back to Konoha," the black-haired girl said with a smile. After spending so long wandering from place to place with Tsunade, she could finally go home. She was happy from the bottom of her heart.
"Oh, I feel great!" Only after Naruto said it did the important part of her words sink in. "Wait, you mean you're coming back with us? The old hag really is going back to become Hokage?" A broad smile slowly spread across his face.
"That's right, brat. From now on, I'm your new boss, so you'd better show me some respect," Tsunade threatened, putting on a fierce expression.
"Tch, old hag, even the old man never made me call him Lord Hokage, so you can forget it. You're nowhere near as good as he was. Now I don't even want you to be Hokage. I won't accept you!" Naruto deliberately shouted. He knew those words were sure to rile up the hot-tempered old hag.
"You little punk! You want to go outside and fight again?" Tsunade glared at him through gritted teeth.
"Bring it on, you old bat!" Naruto put on his jacket and headed outside, with a furious Tsunade following right behind him. Left in the room, Shizune and Jiraiya exchanged looks and shook their heads helplessly before hurrying after them, afraid the two equally hotheaded blondes might actually come to blows.
Once outside, Tsunade held out one finger, ready to teach the disrespectful brat a proper lesson. Naruto clenched his fists and charged first. Tsunade easily ducked under his attack, sweeping her hand upward to deftly pluck the Forehead Protector from his forehead. Naruto instantly froze.
Tsunade leaned down slightly and planted a gentle kiss on Naruto's exposed forehead. Then she straightened and looked at him with a mother's tender smile. "Seriously, I'm really happy you won my necklace," the Katsuyu Sage said, her smile never fading.
"Thanks, old hag. That means a lot to me," Naruto said earnestly, completely missing the flicker of resignation on Tsunade's face when he called her an old hag again. The boy with the sharp tongue and soft heart had slipped into her heart before she knew it. She thought of him as her little brother, or even her son.
Meanwhile, with Yugito
Yugito sat in a tree directly overlooking the training ground where Naruto had practiced the Rasengan, desperately trying to calm herself down.
"Aaaah, why did I climb into his bed?! I just saw him lying there so peacefully and wanted to be a little closer to him, but somehow I ended up resting my head on his chest and falling asleep to his heartbeat! He must think I'm some weird stalker!" Yugito screamed inwardly in despair.
"Tch, I'm just mad they interrupted the good part. When you two had just woken up, that was the perfect opportunity. Why not make him yours right then and make him forget his injuries?" the Two-Tails grumbled in her mind.
"Two-Tails, shut up! What if he's angry with me? While he was unconscious, I pressed practically my whole body against him just to be closer to him. He's definitely going to think I'm weird!" Yugito replied. At the thought that the best person she had ever met-the boy she had already fallen for-might hate her because of this, she could not stop her tears from falling.
So caught up in her conversation with the Two-Tails, she completely failed to notice Naruto walking into the training ground, clearly looking for something.
Before you continue