"Really?"
"Sasuke, you... no way?"
The others, hearing Naruto's words, all stood up, looking at Sasuke in surprise.
As Sasuke's teammate, Naruto surely understood him better than they did, so his words couldn't be baseless.
"Dead last, have you lost your mind? Have I committed any crime that would warrant me defecting?"
Sasuke felt strange, thinking, "Naruto shouldn't have this kind of intelligence," but his face remained calm.
Sasuke's words were logical, and the others immediately felt relieved and sat down.
"Yeah, Sasuke didn't steal the Forbidden Scroll, why would he defect for no reason?"
"Naruto, what are you thinking about?"
"..."
At this moment, Naruto didn't blurt out any more comments as usual. Instead, he looked at Sasuke with serious eyes, thumping his chest with one hand: "Sasuke, I... I can feel your feelings. When you're sad, my heart aches too."
Good heavens, did the heart-to-heart at the Valley of the End leak early?
Hearing Naruto say this, Sasuke smiled in relief, but as soon as the corner of his mouth turned up, he immediately pressed it back down: "Then you're mistaken, dead last. I have no reason to defect. I just want to go out and improve my strength, and help you out while I'm at it."
"Really? But if that's what you mean, why does it still sound like you're going to defect?"
Naruto was half-believing, half-doubting.
"Idiot."
Sasuke pointed at Hinata, "Does her sister count as a defector? And Jiraiya at the door, the current Hokage, they weren't in the Village before either, they've been traveling for a long time, right?"
"Hiss, that actually makes a lot of sense, hehe, then I really was overthinking it."
Naruto scratched his head and laughed.
"Idiot."
"Then I'll leave it to you, Sasuke. How about we act tonight?"
"Alright, but you have to follow my command."
"No problem!"
The two reached a consensus.
The others watched this scene, and except for Chōji, their chopsticks stopped mid-air.
Ino, who was eavesdropping above the BBQ restaurant, was taking notes in her small notebook. She was stunned when she heard the conversation between Sasuke and Naruto.
Were their conversation and tone a bit too outrageous?
It felt like this kind of scene would only appear in a romance novel?
"No."
Mentioning romance novels, Ino suddenly thought of something terrifying.
There are some classic tropes in romance novels, like the female lead accidentally falling and landing on the male lead, kissing him and such.
And Naruto and Sasuke, those two, had once, under the gaze of the entire class... Ino hugged her head, muttering, "No wonder Sakura wasn't invited, so that's why..."
Ino, whose worldview was shattered, returned to the Medical Department in a daze.
"Ino, you're back! How was it?"
Sakura rushed to greet Ino when she saw her return.
"Mm."
Ino nodded expressionlessly.
"What happened? Why do you have that expression?"
Sakura immediately became worried.
"There are two good news and one bad news."
Ino slowly walked to a side and sat down, "First, you don't need to worry about anything, nothing happened over there. Second, you won't have to agonize over Naruto liking you anymore."
"Huh? Why? And what's the bad news?"
Sakura was puzzled. If nothing happened over there, then why was there bad news?
"Naruto will be your love rival from now on."
"Oh."
"..."
"Huh???"
Sakura came to her senses, rubbing her ears, "Ino-pig, what are you talking about?"
"It's true, you have to accept this cruel reality."
Ino recounted everything she had seen and heard at the BBQ restaurant.
"What are you saying? And is that the point? We need to tell Lady Tsunade about this immediately!"
After listening, Sakura's attention was entirely on Sasuke leaving the Village.
"Wait! Do you want Sasuke to hate you?"
Ino grabbed Sakura's hand, "Sasuke wants to become stronger, Naruto supports him, but you're reporting him, making his plan to leave the Village fall through. Do you think you still have a chance to win against Naruto?"
"..."
Sakura was speechless.
Why did it sound like she was really competing with Naruto for Sasuke?
But what Ino said made some sense; she really couldn't report him.
On the other side, the BBQ party ended.
According to the plan Sasuke devised, he would leave the Village tonight. Tomorrow morning, Naruto would look for him in the Village for a bit, then leave the Village to chase him.
After Naruto left, Jiraiya would then leave the Village to chase Naruto.
However, before Sasuke left the Village, he first went to the Hokage Building, opened a window, and threw a letter onto the Hokage's desk.
He didn't want to actually be caught.
The best way was to expose Naruto.
After placing the letter, Sasuke leaped across the rooftops, left the Village, and disappeared into the night.
"Sasuke, that guy, definitely has a problem."
Not long after Sasuke left, Naruto's head poked out from the Hokage's office window. He skillfully climbed in and took the letter.
Walking on the deserted Konoha streets, Naruto opened the letter.
Seeing Sasuke's ruthless exposure of his plan to take the opportunity to leave the Village, Naruto gritted his teeth: "Sasuke, you're... you're... what was it called?"
"Luckily, Lord Uzumaki Naruto is smart. I need to hurry back and wake up the perverted sage, we must leave immediately..."
Naruto clutched the letter, turning to go find Jiraiya.
"Huh? What's that sound?"
Naruto looked left and right in confusion. He seemed to hear someone calling out?
"Ah — — — — — —"
The shouting grew closer.
"Huh?"
Naruto finally found the source of the sound and looked up, only to see a dark butt.
Thud.
Sat on the face by someone's butt, Naruto felt dizzy and even felt like he was hallucinating, how could there be Sasuke's scent: "Ugh, who attacked Lord Uzumaki Naruto?"
Thud.
Just as Naruto was about to make a move, another object fell on him.
This time, it seemed to be a head "landing," hitting his lower body.
"Ow — —"
Naruto let out a miserable scream and fainted.
"It's over, Mr. Sasuke, I'm done for!"
"It's okay, calm down, keep your voice down, be careful not to let the patrolling Ninja discover us..."
"I can't calm down, Mr. Sasuke, he's bleeding! Quickly use your invincible Sharingan to think of a solution ~"
"..."
Sizzle.
A flash of lightning streaked across.
The unconscious Naruto twitched twice, was electrocuted by Lightning Release, and successfully stopped the bleeding.
"... Mr. Sasuke, I feel like I'm completely done for this time."
"Don't worry, he has the Uzumaki Clan's physique and the Tailed Beast's power, he'll recover quickly. Now take him home, we'll make contact again tomorrow..."
....
The journey continues right now for our Jade Dragons! 🐉
For just $6/month, you can step into the advanced chapters and never face a cliffhanger again. Gain instant access to 50+ chapters immediately, support the story you love, and help decide its course.
🔗 Become a Jade Dragon:
patreon.com/J_Dragon