[Hokage] Thank you for loving me

Seeing Naruto's surprised look, Sakura thought he didn't know about Sasuke's return, so she answered frankly, "Senior Shizune said it."

It turned out to be Miss Jingyin!

Naruto slapped his head suddenly, they actually forgot, even if Miss Shizune didn't know the exact time of Sasuke's return, she must have heard about Sasuke's recall in Hokage's office!

Seeing Naruto's dumbfounded expression, Sakura continued, "So you don't know? I thought Mr. Kakashi would tell you about such an important matter as Sasuke's return to the village."

"I know...I know..."

Since Sakura has been told about this, she can only admit it frankly.Fortunately, she didn't know exactly when Sasuke would come back, and Naruto felt that he could still keep it a secret.

So, he quickly added another sentence: "But at present, no one knows the exact time when Sasuke will return."

"Really?" Xiao Ying blinked her round eyes lightly, and said with a smile, "I really hope he can come back quickly, so that our seventh class can get together again."

Even if he comes back, he won't come to you... Naruto gave Sakura a distressed look, and planned to give her some psychological training first.

He laughed dryly, did not answer Sakura's words, but hinted to her tactfully: "I heard from Mr. Kakashi that Sasuke seems to have an important mission when he comes back this time. Maybe we won't even have the chance to see each other." to him."

Xiao Ying was taken aback, the corners of her mouth turned down in disappointment, and then she nodded in agreement, "That's right, he always has his own pace in doing things. If he's busy, it's okay if he can't meet."

...! ?How could I be persuaded so simply?I only said one sentence!

Naruto looked at the person in front of him in disbelief and muttered.Shouldn't you look forward to Sasuke's return and want to see him more?Such a calm and accepting tone is almost like a class reunion, a classmate you don't know well can't come, so pretend to be polite and regret it.Or are you just pretending to be strong to cover up your inner loss?

In order to clarify Sakura's true emotions, Naruto asked again tentatively: "Sasuke has returned to the village, do you have... no matter what, you must meet him... plan?"

Sakura suddenly smiled mysteriously, leaned close to Naruto's ear, and whispered to him in a low voice: "Actually, I have seen him in missions three months ago."

"……Oh, is it so?"

Just now I heard him talk about this matter from the person concerned, but now I have to pretend not to know in front of Sakura.Naruto lowered his head and showed a wry smile.

Sakura didn't realize it at all, and excitedly described the scene for Naruto.

"Thanks to Sasuke's help, we were able to successfully complete the mission of the Rainbow Country. I am very satisfied to be able to perform another mission together with him like that. So, if he returns to the village this time, if he has other missions If you are busy and don't have time to meet, then I won't bother him."

etc……! ?Sakura, didn't you get rejected in the Rainbow Country?How can you talk about that mission so frankly?This is somewhat inconsistent with what Sasuke just described.

Naruto looked at Sakura tangled, guessing how much of what she said was true or false.

But Sakura looked back into Naruto's eyes frankly, mistaking his distressed expression because he was looking forward to seeing Sasuke too much, so she patted him on the back heavily and comforted: "It's okay, don't be depressed, you If you really want to see him, there will always be a chance when he comes back."

Then, she looked at the time, muttered "It's so late", and hurriedly waved Naruto goodbye: "Then, I'll take a step first. When Sasuke comes back, let's get together when we have time."

Naruto stared blankly at the back of Sakura going away, feeling that his mind was in a mess—it was obvious that not long ago, Sakura was always excitedly asking about the content of the correspondence between himself and Sasuke, talking about hoping that Sasuke would come back soon.But when it really came to this day, she didn't seem to want to see him anymore.Sasuke repeatedly told her to hide the matter of returning to Konoha from her, but it seemed that she didn't care as much about Sasuke's return as she imagined...

After seeing off the master and senior sister to leave the village, and chatting with Naruto on the road for a while, it was already noon when Sakura returned to the hospital.

Most of the colleagues in the hospital went out to eat, and the patients who saw the doctor also finished their diagnosis in the morning and went home to rest one after another.The sound of the air conditioner running and occasional weak coughing echoed in the empty hospital, and only the nurse on duty and two or three hospitalized patients walked back and forth in the long corridor.

Sakura walked into her office and took out the bento box from the package.It was her mother, Haruno Mebuki who got up early in the morning and made it for her. There were tempura, tamagoyaki, fried meatballs, seaweed rice balls and other delicious main dishes neatly arranged inside, and a serving of mixed crab roe vegetable salad.Considering that her daughter, who has just been discharged from the hospital for a few days, needs to recover, Haruno Mebuki deliberately made more dishes than usual, so that the weight of the bento was more than twice as much as usual. When packing the box, there are three full layers.

Sakura looked worriedly at the oversized love bento in front of her. It's summer now, and she didn't want to grow excess fat on her body and be exposed to the sun; but if she didn't finish eating, her mother would be very disappointed when she went back Yes, and then, my ears will face another torture of broken thoughts.

At this time, there was a regular knock on the door outside her office.

"Please come in." Sakura put back the lid of the bento, and said politely to the people outside the door.

The door was slowly pushed open in response to the sound, unexpectedly the person who walked in was Yumen.

"... Excuse me for your meal?" Yumen asked a little awkwardly after glancing at the luxurious bento box on Sakura's desk.

"No, no." Sakura quickly stood up, brought a chair for him and placed it beside the desk, and asked him to sit down. "Yumen, what do you want me to do?"

"..." Yumen sat on the chair, did not answer Sakura's question, but looked at her face first, then showed concern, and asked, "Is your body... better?"

"Thank you for your concern, I have completely recovered." Sakura's green eyes shone with gratitude.

Yumen's Adam's apple twitched, trying to search for more words of condolence in his mind, and finally managed to squeeze out a sentence, "Work, don't be too miserable."

Sakura groaned, and denied, "I fainted this time, not because of work pressure..." What specifically caused the onset?After the high fever, she felt that her memory was a little confused and she couldn't remember it.

Forget it, she has already recovered anyway, she shook her head slightly, remembering the condolences sent by Yumen before, so she changed the subject and thanked him. "By the way, the dessert you sent a few days ago is delicious. It's such a hot day, and the sun is so bright, you even ran to buy it to express condolences to me. Thank you for your hard work."

Yumen straightened his body, the sunlight outside the window shone on his angular profile, adding a bit of heroism.He nodded slightly, with a hint of tenderness in his tone, and replied: "It's as long as you are happy."

A faint smile floated on Sakura's lips, "Then, what do you want from me?" On such a hot day, I came here at noon when the sun was at its fiercest, and I wouldn't just come to check on my health yes.

"Actually... I'm going to leave the village with Kyosuke and the others in the afternoon to carry out the mission. It will take about half a month before I come back. If you are free, I hope you can visit Xiaoxing more often. He is alone. Staying here will be more or less lonely."

Seeing that Sakura was listening intently, Yumen paused for a moment, and explained: "That child...he trusts you very much. When he is lonely, he must be very happy to be encouraged by you."

"So you came here on purpose to talk about this!" Sakura smiled relievedly, and said, "When the guardian is away, it is natural to visit Xiaoxing more often? Don't worry, between you and Until Kyonosuke comes back, I will spend time with him every day."

"...Thank you very much then."

"You don't have to make a special trip to talk to me about such a small matter. Wouldn't it be good to just let Xiaoxing tell me? Knowing that you are not here, I will naturally take care of him more."

Yumen's face changed slightly, and he replied awkwardly, "This...it's more solemn", and glanced at the ground to hide his guilty look.

He didn't intend to visit Sakura before leaving the village, but Xiaoxing reminded him that he should care about Sakura's recovery after being discharged from the hospital.However, I don't know Sakura very well, and I always feel a little awkward to go to her office to greet her about her health for no reason.As a result, Xiaoxing immediately put on a generous and awe-inspiring look, and said, "You can use the excuse of asking sister Sakura to take care of me, so I can stop by to see her." Brought himself to Konoha Hospital.He is obviously in his 20s, not only is he not as assertive as a child when it comes to love, but he also asks a child to help him out, which is embarrassing enough to think about it.

However, Sakura didn't know Yumen's concern at all, let alone that he actually came to visit her specially.

She turned her head to look at the blazing sun outside the window, thinking that the members of the Yumen team would have to go out on missions under such a scorching sun in the afternoon, and Kyonosuke's body was relatively thin, so she asked worriedly: "Yumen, pack your luggage." Alright, do you have some medicine to relieve the heat? If not, I will help you get some."

Yumen raised his eyes, looked at Xiaoying's gentle face, felt warm in his heart, nodded heavily, and replied: "Thank you for your hard work..."

Sakura got up immediately, and went to the medicine cabinet to find a small bottle of newly prepared anti-heat medicine.She held the medicine bottle in front of her eyes and estimated that Yumen, as an experienced jounin, was in good physical condition, so there should be no possibility of heatstroke, so the amount in the bottle should be enough for the children in his team to eat.

"Take it." Sakura handed the medicine bottle in his hand to Yumen, who held it gently in his hand, feeling the temperature of Sakura's fingertips on the bottle, and uncontrollably floating on his ears. There was a blush.

"Thank you." While putting the medicine bottle back into the pocket beside him, he heard Sakura ask himself: "If you are not in a hurry to leave the village, would you like to stay and eat bento with me?" ?”

I didn't expect to listen to the children and come to visit Sakura, and I would encounter so many good things at once! ?Yumen has never been a person who is good at polite excuses, but it seems inappropriate to agree.So, he suppressed the joyful smile on his lips, pointed at the huge luxurious bento box on the table, and asked calmly, "Is it this one?"

"Yes, I accidentally overcooked when I prepared the bento in the morning. Would you like to eat it together?" Thinking of Yumen's resistance to her own cooking during the mission, Sakura hurriedly continued: "This is my mother's cooking. Yes, I didn't cook it myself. Don't worry, her dishes are quite delicious, and you will definitely not regret it after eating it."

It turned out that the bento was not made by herself, but by her aunt.Yumen was a little disappointed in his heart, but was soon overwhelmed by the greater joy of being able to have lunch with Sakura.

He put on a "what a coincidence" look, and said, "just in time, I haven't eaten yet. Where do you want to eat?"

"There is a tree-lined avenue behind the hospital. It's very cool there. We can go there to find a shade and sit on a bench to eat."

Isn't this a date invitation for lunch! ?Yumen tried his best to make himself look calmer, but he couldn't wait to help Xiaoying pick up the lunch box on the table, and opened the door of the office.Sakura raised her head sideways, smiled at him, and walked out.

The sweet smile instantly turned into a sense of happiness, filling Mimon's heart.He turned around and pulled the door behind him, strode to Xiao Ying's side, walked side by side with her, and walked out.

The same is for lunch. For bachelors who don’t know how to cook and don’t have close friends to offer handmade bento, it may be the only choice to go to a fast food restaurant or a ramen restaurant in the shopping street to order food under the scorching sun.

Kakashi, Sasuke and Sai are now in this single option.

What made Kakashi even more annoyed was that Sasuke had just come back, so it was fine to invite him to a meal; but Sai, why did he deliberately step on the meal, appear at the door of Hokage's office building, and acted like he just met by chance? Look, use the excuse of eating with Sasuke as an excuse to take advantage of yourself! ?

"Being Hokage, you don't necessarily have a lot of money in your wallet..." Kakashi complained meaningfully, hoping that Sai could understand the subtext in the words.

"Really? That must be richer than me." Sai glanced at Kakashi, and said calmly: "Recently, I have a date with Ino, and the remaining salary is not enough for me to survive the rest of this month. .”

Kakashi sighed helplessly, and asked clearly: "So, all your money is used to please your girlfriend, but you plan to let me solve the problem of eating by yourself?"

"Yes, Sensei." Sai admitted bluntly, and specially emphasized Kakashi's honorific title.

"...Let's say it first, I can't support you every day for the rest of the day. You should think about tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, and the next ten days."

"Aren't there Captain Yamato, Naruto, Shikamaru and the others?" Sai, who answered like this, could not see a trace of confusion and embarrassment in his clear eyes.

Kakashi stroked his forehead, turned his head as if admitting defeat, and asked Sasuke, "Sasuke, what do you want to eat?"

"Anything is fine, as long as it's not ramen." In the first few days when he returned to the village, Naruto warmly invited him to eat Yile ramen every day.The weather was so hot, and he was still wearing Anbu's mask, and eating a bowl of steaming hot noodle soup made him wonder for a while whether Naruto was torturing him on purpose.

"Hmm... so..." Kakashi glanced back and forth at the dazzling array of restaurant signs hanging on the shopping street not far away, while calculating the price of each store, trying to remember the money in his pocket. How much is left.

"Look, it's Sakura!" Sai pointed at the avenue on the other side of the shopping street, raised his voice rarely, and yelled.

Kakashi was concentrating on looking at the signboards in front of him, struggling with the price of the three-person lunch later, when he heard Sai's voice, he quickly stepped forward and covered his mouth.

"Keep your voice down, don't let her find us, I really don't have enough money for lunch for four people."

"No, she was walking next to a man..." Sai took Kakashi's hand away, squinted his eyes, trying to see the man's face clearly.After a two-second pause, he said in surprise: "That's... the elite member of the former Anbu... Senior Yumen Shingo?"

It's this guy again!Sasuke paused, frowned slightly, and followed Sai's gaze with Kakashi.

I saw Sakura walking beside Yumen, the distance between the two was no more than two fists apart, judging from Sakura's behavior standard of never being alone with men outside Class [-], this distance is quite close; What was even more unexpected was that Yumen was holding a large and exquisite bento box in his hand, which at first glance belonged to Sakura.

"That bento...was Sakura making it?" Kakashi's mouth behind the mask opened into a large circular arc due to his surprise. "Are they going to eat lunch together?"

Sai groaned and shook his head puzzled.

Just when the onlookers were confused, they saw Sakura and Yumen walk to a comfortable shade and sat down on a bench.She took the bento box from Yumen, carefully opened the lid of the box, took off the layers of bento, put them in the space between the two of them, then took out two pairs of chopsticks, and handed Yumen a pair.Yumen seemed to be looking forward to taking the chopsticks, and after saying "I'm starting", he began to eat with a satisfied and happy face.

"It's... the first time I've seen Mimon-senpai's expression like that. He used to be in Anbe, but he was famously hated women... Not only did he never accept missions from female clients, he also didn't like to act with female companions very much. .”

Kakashi nodded and said, "I've also heard some rumors about him... It is said that he has a psychological shadow on women..."

"How did Sakura and Yumon-senpai know each other? Why did they suddenly develop into...'this'...relationship?" Sai turned to Kakashi and asked, pretending to casually glance at the person standing in the middle. Sasuke.

"The two of them carried out the mission together three months ago." Kakashi also swept his gaze over Sasuke, and landed in Sai's direction.

It's a pity that Sasuke is wearing a mask on his face at this moment, and no emotion can be read under the fox pattern on his red face.He stood like this, with the same ground facing the bench not far away, while listening to the conversation between the two people beside him, while quietly watching everything in front of him, without saying a word.

Unable to understand Sasuke's thoughts, and seeing that he did not lift his foot to leave, Sai continued to report: "Although Yumen-senpai is not good at dealing with women; but in the village's annual "Most Popular Male Ninja Ranking" , but occupies the third place all the year round, quite popular with women. Such a difficult senior, it seems that he can't match Sakura's charm..."

"There are still such votes every year in the village?" Kakashi asked in surprise.

"It was counted by the people in the intelligence class. It is said that it is to better assign the members of the mission team."

Kakashi suddenly realized: "No wonder! When I use the computer to assign every task, there will be a recommended four-person combination, and I will say why Naruto's name appears in each combination. I thought it was a computer failure... ...It turned out that the guys from the intelligence team did it!"

"Because, since the end of the Ninja World War, Naruto has been voted the most popular ninja every year." Sai said with a smile, "However, he got married this year, and many female ninjas will not vote for him again." It's him."

"Yeah... I didn't expect... Naruto was the first among us to get married." Kakashi couldn't help but began to reflect on himself.The disciple got married early, but he has not even found a love partner. In a sense, he can be regarded as a failure of being a teacher.

"I don't know, who will be next..." Sai stared at Sakura and Mimon in front of him, and asked pointedly.

Sakura, who was eating not far away, put down the chopsticks in her hand, turned around and took out a kettle, poured out two cups of tea from it, and handed one of them to Yumen.Yumen took the tea, with indescribable tenderness and satisfaction in his eyes.

It's that look again!

Behind the mask, deep displeasure appeared on Sasuke's face, and his eyebrows were furrowed tighter and tighter.

Three months ago, in the scene in the rain, Yumen also looked at Sakura with such eyes!

Indeed, it was he who rejected Sakura first, and he also took the initiative to hide from her the return to the village.

He also knew very well that he didn't like Sakura.

Whoever she likes again has nothing to do with him.

He understands all the truths!

But why did he feel uncontrollably irritable when he saw Yumen's face, that expression, and that look in his eyes.

Sasuke clenched his fists, trying to calm down the abnormal emotions in his heart and clarify the chaotic thoughts in his head.But I heard Sai next to me continue to chatter and say:

"I've been on the same team for so long, I haven't eaten a bento made by Sakura..."

Kakashi heard the words and tried to recall, but he could only recall the taste of the medicine that Sakura made.He expressed his feelings for Sasuke, "Indeed, since you left the village for the first time, I haven't eaten Sakura's bento for a long time." The last time I ate it was ten years ago when Sasuke was in the seventh class. Although the taste of the bento at that time was very ordinary, the heart contained in it was touching; later Sasuke left Konoha, and Sakura was busy with practice and tasks, so she had no intention of making bento for other people in the seventh class.

Sasuke was upset at this moment, when he heard Kakashi's words, he stared at Mimon's contented face with disgust, and snorted coldly: "Her bento is so delicious!" The scene was left behind, and he said coldly to the two people beside him: "Let's go, I'm hungry, go eat."

Kakashi was stunned, and then realized that although Sasuke was wearing a thick mask and exposed to the scorching sun of the noon sun, he didn't sweat a drop, but instead had a sinister aura.

"What a dishonest person." Kakashi shook his head with a wry smile, and took a last look at Sakura's luxurious bento with nostalgia.

Well, if Sasuke wasn't here, he and Sai could go there and enjoy together; regardless of the taste of the bento, at least the money for the treat would definitely be saved...