"So, want to be my dog?"
Although phrased as a question, it had the tone of an imperative command.
Truthfully, Uchiha Naruto quite liked this little yellow stray's cleverness and courage, and had already decided to take it away with him.
"First, let's get you patched up."
From half a meter away, a phantom blue claw of light extended from Uchiha Naruto's palm and pressed down on the little yellow dog's head.
The bloody wound left by the stone earlier healed in an instant.
Feeling the pain suddenly disappear, the little yellow dog tilted its head in confusion and raised a short leg to scratch its head.
"Woof."
The little yellow dog looked at Uchiha Naruto with watery eyes, wagged its curled tail, and opened its mouth in a fawning smile.
The little yellow stray was probably somewhere between adolescence and adulthood. Its head was round, its forehead wrinkled, and its protruding muzzle black and wet. It looked like a pug, but its bloodline certainly wasn't very pure.
"With that fawning smile, it might have some shiba inu blood, too."
Uchiha Naruto had never kept a dog himself and didn't know much about dog breeds, but that didn't matter. He wasn't looking for a purebred dog to show off, but a working dog to hunt down the organization's remnants.
"Once you eat my dog food, you're my dog."
Uchiha Naruto decided to give the little yellow dog another treat. He pulled a small, individually wrapped bag of dog food from his trouser pocket.
He had bought it at a pet shop he passed on the way. It was the smallest and cheapest bag available, a thirty-gram packet half the size of his palm, yet it had cost him a hundred yen-enough to buy two packets of instant noodles.
"Woof!"
Seeing