On Sunday, Shin'un stood at the entrance to his usual training ground, with Minato Namikaze beside him. Both stood at an angle, looking as though they were waiting for someone.
A few days earlier, Kushina had helped Shin'un find several Lightning Release scrolls. To thank her, Shin'un had promised to treat her to a barbecue feast.
Today was the day Shin'un would keep that promise.
Of course, if Shin'un and Kushina went out for barbecue alone, a boy and a girl together could easily give people the wrong idea.
So Shin'un had decided to bring Minato Namikaze along.
"She's still not here?"
Shin'un sat on a wooden post in the middle of the training ground, propping his chin on his hand as he waited in boredom.
Looking at all the training equipment around the grounds made his palms itch. He could hardly resist training to pass the time.
"She should be here by now. You arranged to meet at ten in the morning, and it's around ten twenty already."
Minato Namikaze lowered the book he had brought and looked up at the sky, working out the current time based on his recollection.
"Sigh... let's wait."
At Minato Namikaze's words, Shin'un sighed helplessly and could only stay where he was and wait.
"Hey! Shin'un! Minato Namikaze! I'm here!"
Fortunately, Kushina did not keep them waiting much longer. A few minutes later, she appeared on the street in the distance.
Shin'un quickly jumped off the wooden post and walked to the roadside to look. His expression froze.
Besides Kushina running toward them, two more people followed behind her.
Uchiha Mikoto and Shiina Kō.
"Shin'un, did you invite all of them?"
Minato Namikaze raised a hand to greet Kushina, then leaned toward Shin'un's ear and spoke quietly.
"You'd better have thought this through. None of us eat all that much, but barbecue is expensive."
Watching Kushina and the figures following her, Shin'un's lips twitched.
He slipped a hand into his trouser pocket and felt the allowance he had saved over the years, unable to help feeling a pang.
In the end, though, he smiled and waved a hand as if he did not care.
"Don't worry. It's fine."
While Shin'un and Minato Namikaze were talking, Kushina arrived in front of Shin'un with her two close friends.
"Sorry, finding Mikoto and Kō-chan took a while. I'm late."
With that, Kushina leaned toward Shin'un's ear and whispered.
"Shin'un, you said I could bring people. I only brought my two best friends. Pretty considerate of me, right?"
Only then did Shin'un remember his conversation with Kushina a few days earlier.
At the time, all his attention had been on the Ninjutsu scrolls he had just received, and he had agreed outright when Kushina asked to bring people.
Since he had agreed to it himself, Shin'un could only smile at Kushina now. He had no one else to blame.
Minato Namikaze stood beside Shin'un. Although Kushina had spoken quietly, his naturally keen senses still let him hear the entire conversation clearly.
Minato Namikaze was immediately at a loss for words and twitched his lips at Shin'un.
In response, Shin'un could only express his inner sorrow with a smile.
"Oh, right."
Kushina was just about to turn to her friends and say something when she seemed to remember something else and leaned toward Shin'un again.
"I went to all sorts of trouble to get Shiina Kō to come out today. Make the most of this chance!"
With that, Kushina put on a solemn expression and reached out to pat Shin'un's shoulder, the gesture full of an "I believe in you" sentiment.
Shin'un felt rather speechless.
He had told her so many times that they were not a good match, but Kushina still refused to give up playing matchmaker.
Honestly, if he had had a buddy like her in his previous life, his child might already have been old enough to walk.
At that thought, Shin'un could not help glancing at Shiina Kō, who stood beside Uchiha Mikoto.
Her long hair cascaded over her shoulders like a waterfall, setting off her slender neck. Her small, round face held a shy, bashful look, and her understated light-purple dress brought out the innocent cuteness unique to her age.
Shin'un shook his head. Shiina Kō had clearly dressed up before coming out, but the problem was that no matter how a nine-year-old dressed up, it would only make people find her cute and stir adults' protective instincts. Nothing else would come of it.
Looking up at the sky, Shin'un roughly estimated the time.
"Let's go. We can take our time walking to Yakiniku Q."
At the word of Hirakawa Shin'un, today's benefactor, everyone began strolling toward the barbecue restaurant.
As they ambled along Konoha's main street, Kushina chatted with her two close friends. Shin'un and Minato Namikaze occasionally joined in, and Kushina's infectious laughter rang out now and then.
Leisurely, relaxed, comfortable-the feeling brought an irrepressible smile to Shin'un's face.
It was almost as though he had arrived in an era of peace.
He could spend a day off having fun with friends, empty his mind completely without having to keep thinking at high speed, wander aimlessly through the streets with them, and discuss where to have lunch.
The grueling daily training, the complex Ninjutsu, the tangled theories, and the looming clouds of war... all his troubles seemed to drift far away.
If he had to nitpick, Shin'un wished some sucker would appear and cover today's barbecue bill...
"Hey! Chōza!"
Kushina's greeting rang out ahead.
At that name, Shin'un's eyes suddenly lit up. He hurried to the front of the group and opened his mouth to greet him.
"Chōza, what a coincidence!"
"Huh?"
Seeing Shin'un's excessive enthusiasm, Akimichi Chōza could not help shivering.
"Shin'un! Need something?"
"No, nothing. Just saying hello. Where are you headed?"
"To eat."
"Perfect, then."
At a table in the corner of Yakiniku Q.
The aroma of meat filled the air, and grilled meat flew.
There were four or five stacks of plates for the grilled meat, each stack half a person's height.
Shin'un, Minato Namikaze, Kushina, Mikoto, and Shiina Kō all stared dumbfounded at Akimichi Chōza as he went to work alone.
They knew members of the Akimichi Clan could eat, but they had never expected this much. His appetite alone matched all of theirs combined.
Rubbing his visibly bulging stomach, Shin'un had long since eaten his fill. Yet watching Akimichi Chōza eat with such wild abandon made him drool again.
"Huh? Don't just watch me. Eat!"
Noticing that everyone else at the table had stopped eating, Akimichi Chōza suddenly felt a little embarrassed and hurriedly mumbled through a mouthful of grilled meat.
"Shin'un, you're done eating, right?"
Turning his head, Akimichi Chōza suddenly noticed the large piece of grilled meat on Shin'un's plate.
"Oh, sorry. I really can't eat any more. Could you finish it for me?"
"Ah, I suppose I'll have to help you finish it!"
With a look of regret, Akimichi Chōza took Shin'un's plate of grilled meat and polished it off in one bite.
The sight made everyone watching raise their eyebrows and reach for their stomachs.
It felt as though the grilled meat in their stomachs could multiply, leaving them more and more stuffed.