Naruto's Home

Naruto's Home

The next day, after completing his plans for the day, Ayato headed to the place they had agreed to meet.

"Ayato, over here!"

By the time Ayato reached the meeting spot, Naruto was already running toward him, waving as he came.

Ayato looked at Naruto, then thought about when he himself had arrived. Because of habits from his previous life, he always showed up early for appointments, yet Naruto had arrived even earlier than him. And judging by the look of things, he had no idea how long Naruto had been waiting.

It was easy to imagine just how much Naruto had been looking forward to this.

"You came so early. There's still plenty of time before we were supposed to meet," Ayato said.

"Hehe, I was a little excited," Naruto said with a laugh, scratching his head.

As he spoke, Naruto took the lead and guided Ayato along. Honestly, without someone leading the way, Naruto's home really would have been hard to find.

Ayato looked at the house before him. It was not small at all; for Naruto to live there alone, it could even be considered quite large. This was probably the place the Third Hokage had arranged for Naruto.

As for the Fourth Hokage's residence, there was no way Naruto could be allowed to live there. After all, with the same brilliant blond hair as the Fourth Hokage, even those who did not want to connect Naruto to him would not be able to resist wondering about their relationship, would they?

In truth, the village was concealing the relationship between the Fourth Hokage and Naruto.

So this was basically impossible to be the Fourth Hokage's home before his death.

Soon, Naruto led Ayato inside. Before entering, Ayato noticed some marks by the door. They seemed to have been scrubbed away, but he could roughly guess what they had been.

After all, even though Naruto's home was remote, someone was bound to discover it eventually. It was hardly surprising that they might do something unreasonable, like carving graffiti into the walls or splashing paint around...

After entering, Ayato was somewhat surprised to find that while Naruto's home could not be called spotless, it was fairly tidy. Honestly, for a boy—and a child at that—to manage this much was already pretty impressive.

"By the way, do you have anything planned for what we do next?" Ayato suddenly asked Naruto.

"Hm?" Naruto blinked. Did they need to have a plan?

Ayato sighed. He should not have expected anything from Naruto. "Then what do you usually do?"

"Usually?" Naruto thought for a moment before answering, "Usually, there's nothing much. Sometimes I wander around by myself, and sometimes I go play in the village."

Ayato looked at Naruto but did not ask further. Play in the village? Play what? Would anyone play with him? He probably meant doing strange things to attract other people's attention.

"Then do you have anything to play with at home?" Ayato continued.

Naruto thought for a while, then shook his head and asked in return, "Does Ayato know of anything fun to do?"

Ayato fell silent. What was there to do? Well, he had long forgotten his childhood memories. As for what he did after growing up, this world did not even have phones. Ayato could not think of anything fun either, so he could only shake his head.

"So Ayato's just like me~"

"We're not the same. I don't play because I don't want to, while you don't play because you have nothing to play with." Ayato rolled his eyes.

Naruto narrowed his eyes. What was the difference? Didn't both mean they had nothing to play with?

"Then do you have any questions from class? I can explain them while I'm here." After thinking it over, Ayato decided that since there was nothing else to do, they might as well not play. He was not particularly interested anyway. The only annoying thing was that he had not brought any books. If he had known Naruto had no plans at all, he definitely would have brought books to read.

"Huh? We still have to study during vacation?" Naruto seemed reluctant.

"Quit complaining. Your theory grades are awful," Ayato said, glancing at him.

"Fine." Naruto nodded unwillingly, pulled out his textbook, and began scratching his head as he looked through it.

With nothing else to do, Ayato carefully examined Naruto's room. Well, it had all the necessary furniture: a refrigerator, washing machine, air conditioner, and so on... Every time he saw this sort of thing, Ayato felt a little speechless. The technological development in the Naruto world was truly a mess, and these were definitely not things Naruto could afford.

They were probably all arranged by the Third Hokage. Of course, if the Fourth Hokage's inheritance had been given to Naruto, then Naruto really would have been a wealthy kid.

In reality, what the Third Hokage gave Naruto was definitely not as much as the Fourth Hokage's inheritance, but it was already enough. There was no problem covering daily expenses. The issue was that Naruto probably could not spend his money even if he had it.

All this instant ramen and milk had probably been sent by the Third Hokage as well. The Third Hokage must have realized that giving Naruto money would not do much good if he could not spend it, so it was better to send food that kept easily. As for other things, even if he sent Naruto fresh meat, Naruto would still need to know how to cook it.

Still, while there was enough milk, the nutrition from instant ramen truly could not keep up. Naruto in the original story had indeed been short compared with the others in his generation. It was only after he began following Jiraiya that he experienced a rapid growth spurt. That probably had something to do with it.

And yet he still had so much chakra. It was really enviable.

There was a little too much milk, though. Ayato took some out and checked the production date. The cartons on the outside were still fairly new, but when he looked inside, he fell silent. There was even expired milk...

Would the Third Hokage really be stingy enough to give Naruto expired food?

The answer was no. If that were the case, even if Naruto was a Jinchuriki and would not die, he would probably spend every day in the bathroom. But that clearly was not the case, which meant Naruto had not drunk this expired milk yet.

The problem was probably Naruto himself. Ayato called out, "Naruto."

"Hm? What is it?" Naruto raised his head and saw Ayato standing in front of the refrigerator with milk in his hand. His eyes suddenly lit up. "If Ayato wants some, go ahead and drink it. I've got plenty."

"I don't want to drink it. I just want to tell you that from now on, when you drink milk, take the cartons from the inside first."

"Why? Wouldn't that be troublesome?" Naruto asked, puzzled.

"You always take the ones on the outside first, right?" Ayato asked.

"Isn't that obvious?"

"But if you don't drink the ones inside, they'll expire," Ayato said.

"Huh?!" Naruto also came over. He looked at the milk in Ayato's hand, then checked the date and scratched his head. "I never paid attention to that. But if I drink the ones inside first, what if the ones outside expire?"

"If you keep drinking the ones inside, then once they're gone, the ones outside become the ones inside. But if you drink the outside ones first, then whenever you restock often, the ones at the very back will probably never get drunk, so they expire." Ayato was somewhat helpless. Could Naruto really not figure that out?

"I see!" Naruto slapped his hands together in sudden realization. "Ayato really is smart!"

Ayato could not help sighing. Even with Naruto praising him, he could not feel proud. Smart? The one in front of him was simply too dumb. He had no idea which parent Naruto had inherited that from. Neither the Fourth Hokage nor the Fourth Hokage's wife had been like this, after all.

"As long as you know what to do. You looked through the book just now, right? Is there anything you don't understand?" Ayato asked.

"Uh..." Naruto scratched his head.

"Don't tell me you don't understand any of it?" Ayato could not help giving Naruto a deadpan stare.

"Hehe~" Naruto grinned foolishly.

Ayato had never been this speechless before. In his memories, Naruto's theoretical knowledge had seemed quite poor, but this was still beyond his expectations.

What did Ayato feel like right now? Well, he felt like a parent tutoring a child's homework—the kind who could be angered to death at any moment!

Why did I ever think of helping him with theory? Can someone turn back time? This time, I definitely won't go looking for trouble!