Chapter 315: The Namikaze Family
Various dramatic romance-novel scenarios flickered through her head—love at first sight, players stringing girls along, all sorts of nonsense.
Which only made her more flustered. Someone falling for a girl at first glance, taking a sudden interest like that—wasn't that basically the textbook definition of love at first sight?
Except she was only thirteen this year, barely just starting to develop—way too young to even be thinking about dating!
And the real kicker: she and this Ryū had literally just met. Wasn't this all moving... a little too fast?
Come to think of it, what on earth was going on in her own head right now? Why was she even entertaining thoughts this bizarre?
Anko found herself genuinely puzzled, casting a slightly suspicious eye on her own train of thought.
What she had no way of knowing, though, was that Ryū's Observation Haki let him read minds.
And now that its ceiling had been broken via a Breakthrough Card, it didn't just skim surface-level thoughts anymore—it could pick up on considerably deeper layers as well.
Which meant every bizarre, tangled thought bouncing around in Anko's head right now, Ryū could "see" with perfect clarity.
Having caught the full, unfiltered contents of Anko's imagination, Ryū's face twitched involuntarily. He genuinely wanted to pry open the top of this girl's skull and take a look at whatever was going on in there.
He'd just made a few offhand comments in passing, and somehow her brain had spiraled straight into some over-the-top "love at first sight" melodrama?
He had absolutely zero interest whatsoever in a thirteen-year-old girl like Anko. None. Full stop.
A girl this young—even if he were some kind of monster, he still wouldn't lay a finger on her.
And there was certainly no "love at first sight" nonsense brewing anywhere in his head, either.
The Dimensional Chat Group had no shortage of underage anime characters running around, and Ryū had never once let himself entertain anything remotely inappropriate toward any of them—that kind of thing simply wasn't acceptable, full stop, let alone toward some random girl he'd just met like Anko.
Sure, Anko was a cute girl too, in her own right—but she was just one person, while the chat group had plenty of others.
If he could keep himself in check around all of those underage characters without issue, he certainly wasn't about to lose that discipline over one random girl standing in front of him right now.
Completely unaware that a good chunk of her private thoughts had just been thoroughly exposed, Anko's fair, delicate face couldn't help but flush a faint shade of pink—no telling exactly what mental images were running through her head at that moment.
Ryū could pick up on some of her surface thoughts, sure, but the truly deep, private layers stayed out of his reach.
Still, one thing was clear enough: Anko was definitely imagining some kind of bizarre scenario in her head right now, or else why would her cheeks be turning red like that?
Ryū let out a silent, internal sigh. Guess he'd need to start wearing a mask or something whenever he went out from now on.
Otherwise, at this rate, he'd probably end up as the Land of Fire's unofficial national heartthrob one of these days, whether he liked it or not.
Being a little too good-looking really was its own kind of headache sometimes.
...Damn it. Since when had he started thinking such shameless nonsense himself?
Ryū quickly shook the odd thought out of his head—he wasn't about to let himself get away with that kind of shameless thinking. Guess spending too much time chatting with a certain youkai sage had started rubbing off on him, corrupting his own thought process a little.
Right as an awkward silence threatened to settle in, a burst of commotion suddenly rose up from somewhere nearby.
The already-lively street practically caught fire with noise all at once, the whole atmosphere lighting right up.
The commotion instantly grabbed both Ryū's and Anko's attention.
"It's—it's Hokage-sama and his wife! And that must be their child, isn't it? Looks like he's almost a year old already!"
"It really is Hokage-sama! Never expected him to come down to a street this ordinary!"
"Sure, this isn't the biggest street in Konoha, but calling it 'ordinary' feels like it's selling this crowd a little short, doesn't it?"
"Quick, quick, don't crowd Hokage-sama and his family, don't block the road, clear a path already!"
"Like you're not blocking it yourself right now. Still, if Hokage-sama's personally come through, obviously we shouldn't get in the way."
"My husband got caught in a dangerous spot on the battlefield once, you know—the Fourth Hokage himself saved his life."
"Wait, so your husband's a Konoha shinobi too?"
"Of course he is. They were even classmates once, way back when—used to talk all the time as kids. Pretty impressive, right?"
[...]
Listening to the excited chatter all around him, taking in the awestruck looks from every villager in sight, Minato let out a helpless, wry laugh.
If he'd known it'd turn into this much of a scene, he probably would've bothered with a disguise—wouldn't have gotten recognized by quite so many people that way.
Turning to his wife, who was cradling their child, Minato said gently, "The man who saved little Naruto lives right on this street. Figured we'd bring him by today so Naruto could meet the person he owes his life to—though I really didn't expect the villagers to get quite this excited about it."
Maybe it was because she'd only recently given birth, or maybe it was simply the holiday spirit—
Kushina, nicknamed "the Habanero," seemed to be in a genuinely great mood today, her temper noticeably softer than her canonical... let's say "spirited" self.
In response to Minato's words, she simply nodded, smiling warmly. "Bringing Naruto to meet the man who saved his life is absolutely the right call. And honestly, I want to meet him myself too—if he hadn't stepped in, Naruto and I might both have died at the Nine-Tails' hands."
"Ptooey, ptooey—don't be talking about dying on a holiday, that's just bad luck! Sounds just like when you were little, always so reckless with your words... ahem! Ahaha, anyway, no more jinxing us, ahahaha!"
Catching sight of his wife's expression shifting slightly, Minato instantly caught himself and hastily corrected course, radiating an unmistakably strong will to survive.
He knew Kushina's temper better than anyone, after all—the fact that she was staying this pleasant today was purely thanks to the holiday and the occasion of meeting their savior in person.
Any other day, Minato had a distinct feeling he'd have earned himself a solid punch for a comment like that. Being whipped by one's wife was, at this point, a well-established, terminal condition for him.
If the villagers of Konoha ever caught wind of just how thoroughly henpecked their beloved Hokage actually was, no telling what kind of reaction that would spark.
Clearing his throat lightly, Minato looked out at the villagers who'd automatically parted to make way for them.
Genuinely touched, he called out gratefully, "Thank you all, truly. But I'm not here today as Hokage—just as an ordinary person, visiting a friend. So please, there's no need to look at my family and me like that."
☆☆☆
-> 20 Advanced chapters Now Available on Patreon!!
-> https://www.pat-reon.co-m/c/Hollowborn
(Just remove the hyphen (-) to access patreon normally)
If you like this novel please consider leaving a review that's help the story a lot Thank you