By the time Karin reached her third bowl, she slumped in her chair, declaring she couldn't eat another bite.
She rubbed her stomach, looking at Hinata, who had already eaten seven bowls of rice, in disbelief, and couldn't help but exclaim, "Hinata's appetite is even bigger than mine, and I'm from the Uzumaki clan. This is just too much."
At Karin's comment, the chopsticks in Hinata's hand froze in mid-air, and the red on her face spread from her ear tips all the way down to her neck.
She snuck a glance at Naruto and found him calmly pushing a plate of saury toward her, with no surprise or disgust on his face.
Naruto smiled. "Hinata, you don't need to worry about anything in front of me. Just be yourself."
Hinata lowered her head, looking at the rice in her bowl and the piece of perfectly charred fish skin on top, and fell silent.
Ever since she could remember, every bite she took at her own family's dining table was subject to etiquette teachers correcting her hand placement and the way she held her chopsticks, and after she grew up, she would deliberately control her food intake when dining out with teammates.
This was the first time someone had told her at the dinner table that she didn't need to be self-conscious and that she could just be herself.
"Naruto-kun, this is the house where the Fourth Hokage lived, right? Why did you move in here, Naruto-kun?" Hinata finished the last piece of fish and asked curiously.
'As expected of the Young Miss of the Hyuga Clan, she is well-informed.' Naruto thought to himself.
He said in a calm tone, "I am the son of the Fourth Hokage, so this counts as coming home."
Hinata tilted her head, full of question marks.
Karin also looked up in surprise. She knew Naruto's parents had passed away, but having grown up in Kusagakure, her understanding of the specific weight of the title 'Hokage' was not as deep as Hinata's.
However, she could still weigh the significance of being the Hokage's son.
No wonder Tsunade-sensei had arranged a detached villa for Naruto right from the start.
Hinata sat frozen for quite a while before finally coming to her senses.
She recalled the unusual attitude her father had shown after returning today, hinting that she should have more contact with Naruto.
Naruto must have done something major today, which is why her father urged her to do so.
"Naruto-kun, I didn't know you were the child of the Fourth Hokage. But in my eyes, regardless of what status you have, you are still Naruto-kun." Hinata didn't stutter when she said this, and her eyes didn't dodge.
Naruto smiled and reached out to ruffle Hinata's hair. "Yeah, I know, Hinata."
The moment Naruto touched her head, Hinata turned red from head to toe, with wisps of white steam rising from the top of her head.
"Naruto-kun touched my head..."
Then, her body swayed slightly and she tipped backward.
"Naruto, why did you make Hinata faint?" Karin quickly reached out to support Hinata.
Naruto steadied Hinata and let her lean against the back of the chair.
He hadn't expected that just ruffling her hair would make her faint. When he watched the anime, he thought the portrayal of Hinata blushing and fainting at every turn in front of Naruto was a bit exaggerated, but after experiencing it firsthand, he realized it wasn't exaggerated at all.
When Hinata woke up, she found herself leaning against the chair, draped in Naruto's white windbreaker.
Karin was sitting next to her, sipping a cup of hot tea while waiting for her to wake up.
Naruto was already wearing an apron in the kitchen, cleaning up the bowls and chopsticks.
Hinata rubbed her eyes and sat up straight. She carefully folded the windbreaker, placing it on the chair.
She looked up at the sky outside the window. The sun had already sunk below the trees, and all of Konoha was dyed in warm colors.
Hinata quickly stood up and bowed slightly to Naruto in the kitchen. "Naruto-kun, it's getting late, I should head back. Thank you for dinner today, it was delicious."
Naruto nodded and took a Flying Thunder God Kunai from his ninja tool pouch, handing it to Hinata. "Take this and keep it with you. If you encounter danger, channel your Chakra into it, and I will sense it immediately and rush over."
Hinata took the Kunai with both hands and carefully placed it into her ninja tool pouch.
Seeing that Hinata was leaving, Karin stood up from her chair and brushed off her clothes. "I should head back too, there are still some things at the new house that I haven't finished unpacking."
"You'll be okay, right?" Naruto looked at Karin.
Karin gave Naruto an OK gesture, then grabbed Hinata and headed out together.
Once the sound of their footsteps faded away, Naruto closed the courtyard gate and returned to the living room.
He stood in the center of the living room, activating Mind's Eye of the Kagura and Negative Emotions Sensing simultaneously.
In an instant, the entire Konoha was within his perception range. Danzo's Chakra was not in the village, and the Anbu monitoring him had all been withdrawn.
Afterwards, he went to the training room and took out two hundred Flying Thunder God Kunai.
Naruto gathered Chakra at his fingertips, and wiped away Minato's technique formula on the handle layer by layer. Every time he wiped one clean, he would re-carve his own mark onto it.
—
The next day.
Early in the morning, the Hokage Building released two announcements.
The first: According to the executive order signed by the Fifth Hokage, Root is officially disbanded. All of Root's organizations, personnel, equipment, and archives are to be merged into the Anbu, to be under the unified jurisdiction of the Hokage. No individual or group may harbor military forces in any form.
The second: Verified by the Hokage's direct archives, Jonin Uzumaki Naruto is the son of the Fourth Hokage. His identity is officially made public to all villagers of Konoha starting today.
Regarding the first announcement, the various major clans of Konoha applauded in unison.
Over the years, relying on his control over Root, Danzo had more than once used the excuse of special mission requirements to forcibly draft excellent ninjas from various clans. Those who were taken away either never returned, or returned looking like different people, refusing to say anything when asked.
Major clans like the Hyuga could still rely on their strength and political weight to argue with Danzo, but those small clans without backgrounds were miserable, completely controlled by Danzo, daring to be angry but not daring to speak.
Now seeing the notice of Root's disbandment, the heads of these clans were almost ready to set off firecrackers at their front doors.
As for the second notice, most people from the major clans knew Naruto's true identity, but hindered by the gag order issued by the Third Hokage back then, no one dared to speak it out in public.
But for the ordinary villagers of Konoha, personnel changes in the Root or Anbu had no direct relation to their daily lives of buying groceries and cooking. However, the second notice was like a heavy blow, stunning everyone.
The demon fox they had cursed for twelve years was the son of the Fourth Hokage.
Twelve years ago, when Nine-Tails attacked Konoha, it was this young Hokage, only twenty-four years old, who stood alone in front of the village, trading his own life for the safety of the entire village.
Whenever anyone in Konoha with some age mentioned the Fourth Hokage's name, their eyes would involuntarily turn red. He was the hero of Konoha, the one who lit a lamp for everyone with his own life in the deepest despair.
And how had they treated his child all these years?
Throwing eggs at him, forbidding their children from playing with him, closing their shop doors when he passed by...
Vegetable vendors would deliberately double the price of vegetables whenever Naruto passed by their stalls.
The bathhouse owner had posted a wooden sign at the entrance forbidding the "demon fox" from entering.
Now these memories all turned into a slap in their faces.
In front of the bulletin board, a middle-aged woman selling dried goods stood with her mouth agape for a long time.
In the past, when she was closing up her stall, Naruto had once run past her stall, and she had even cursed under her breath, calling it bad luck.
Those who had received kindness from the Fourth Hokage back then felt the worst.
An old man who ran a grocery store squeezed tremblingly to the front of the bulletin board. After seeing the words written on it clearly, his cane almost slipped from his hand.
He still remembered that over a decade ago, when his son was injured on the battlefield, it was the Fourth Hokage who personally brought him back.
Later, his son retired and opened this grocery store, and every year during the Hokage Festival, he would place a small bouquet of white chrysanthemums at the store entrance.
But all these years, every time he saw Naruto passing by the shop, he would hurry to take back the flowers placed at the entrance, fearing that the "demon fox" would spread bad luck.
Many people wanted to go and apologize to Naruto in person. But when they rushed to the apartment where Naruto used to live, they found that the room had long been empty.