After realizing that Teuchi's eyes were naturally just that small, Naruto also became aware of how rude his earlier question had been.
He pressed his palms together and sincerely apologies to Teuchi.
Naruto really hadn't expected the truth to be like this!
Teuchi just smiled faintly at the kid's reaction, clearly not taking it to heart.
Then, he placed two huge, steaming bowls of seafood ramen in front of them.
"Please enjoy your meal."
These bowls of seafood ramen were absolutely massive. To be honest, it looked more like a seafood stew that just happened to have some noodles in it. The bowls were even bigger than Naruto's face.
Compared to the paper-thin slices of beef you'd get in certain so-called 'beef ramen' back in his previous life, this was the definition of generous.
Naruto pushed one of the bowls in front of Hinata.
Naruto knew Hinata was thin-skinned, so he even found an excuse for her.
"Come on, just eat a little with me."
"But… "
Hinata was about to refuse when Naruto shoved a pair of chopsticks into her hands.
After hesitating for a few seconds, she finally lowered her head and began eating, taking small, dainty bites.
Hinata is not stupid. She knows that Naruto said this to take care of herself.
And the excuse he used was so clumsy it was honestly kind of adorable...
But being the sweet girl she was, Hinata didn't call him out. She just smiled and pretended not to notice anything.
Half an hour later...
Naruto's stomach was spasming, and even the slightest movement made him feel like he was going to throw up all the ramen he just ate.
There were 18 empty bowls placed in front of him, and there were about 60 bowls placed in front of Hinata.
Slurp…
Hinata quietly slurped up her final bite of noodles.
No one would be able to tell that this girl has already eaten more than sixty bowls of ramen.
"N-Naruto-kun… are you okay?"
Hinata actually felt a little guilty for not being able to hold back and eating that much in front of him.
"I'm… fine…"
"I just need a minute to recover."
Naruto swallowed with difficulty and took several deep breaths before gradually feeling better.
At the beginning, he'd just eaten alongside Hinata to be polite, to keep her company.
As a result, when he ate the tenth bowl, he suddenly felt a strange sense of male competitiveness.
He really wanted to see if he could eat more than Hinata...
By the time he finished his fifteenth bowl of ramen, Naruto realized he had made a terrible mistake.
Hinata's stomach is even more exaggerated than the fox in his belly!
At least Kurama would let him know when he was getting full, but Hinata…
She always looked just 'kind of full'.
And when asking her if she was full, Naruto would always hear Hinata say she was 'kind of full', and it sounded like she would be full after eating one more bowl…
In short, don't ask, as the only answer you will get is 'kind of full'.
Hinata's face turned slightly red, and she still felt very embarrassed.
While Naruto wasn't paying attention, she quietly slipped some money under a napkin and then walked around to help him off his stool.
As they walked, she gently rubbed his back, as if to help ease his discomfort.
For the stuffed-to-the-brim Naruto, it was truly pain and joy mixed into one.
And while he shuffled along in agony, the fox in his belly started mocking him again.
"You're too pathetic, brat!"
"You couldn't even out-eat a little girl!"
After Kurama finished speaking, he opened his massive mouth and sucked in several huge chunks of meat from a massive barbecue grill in front of him.
Naruto was speechless after hearing this.
'I'm a normal human being! How the hell am I supposed to compete with freaks like you?!'
'Also…'
'Did this big fox really not notice that he had grown bigger due to overeating over the years?!'
'Just wait!'
'When you see the other Biju again, you're going to be embarrassed, I promise!'
Naruto didn't want to pay attention to the mouthy furball in his stomach.
Naruto, who was taken care of by Hinata, quietly cursed the greedy fox in his belly.
"…Wait."
"We didn't pay just now, did we?"
Naruto suddenly stopped in his tracks when he suddenly remembered that the two of them seemed to have just left Ichiraku Ramen directly without handing over a single coin.
Although he, Uzumaki Naruto, does not have a good reputation in the village, he has never been willing to do things like dine and dash.
Besides...
When he was three years old, he casually tossed a gold ingot out from the system, and then realized that there was no one in this world richer than himself.
If Naruto wanted to, he could literally crash the entire world's economy just by dumping a fraction of the gold ingots in his system into circulation.
In fact, if he did that, there would be no need for Obito to start the Fourth Shinobi World War, as the Shinobi World would have gone to war on its own because of the economic collapse.
"I-I already paid…"
Hinata lowered her head and didn't dare to look at Naruto, afraid she'd get blamed.
"…Alright then."
"But next time, remember to tell me first."
Naruto didn't care about being paid by girl.
Seeing Hinata lowering her head, he just reached out and patted her head gently.
"What the hell are you doing!?"
"Get your hands off Hinata-sama!"
A loud shout from ahead suddenly shattered the tender moment and sent the two springing apart.
Naruto turned and saw a member of the Hyuga Clan standing in front of him.
Judging from the guy's long, jet-black hair and the white-hot rage flashing in his Byakugan...
Naruto knew that this guy is his future brother-in-law, Hyuga Neji.
"N-Neji-nii-san…"
Hinata became a little flustered when she saw Neji's furious expression.
She wasn't afraid that Naruto would get hurt, she was mainly worried that her cousin would be injured by Naruto...
Neji glanced at Naruto coldly, and then saw Hinata standing in front of the yellow-haired boy...
Neji raised his head slightly and took a deep breath. The Hyuga Clan's strict traditions helped him suppress the fire in his chest.
Although he had heard before that this yellow-haired boy had a special relationship with his clan's eldest princess, he'd always assumed it was just idle gossip.
But who would have thought...
This yellow-haired guy is really trying to kidnap the eldest princess of the Hyuga Clan away!?
'As the eldest princess of the Hyuga Clan, she shoulders the fate of the entire clan...'
'And the fate of the entire branch family was also tied directly to her...'
'But she's actually hanging out with this yellow-haired guy!?'
'What the hell was she thinking?'
'Shouldn't she be training hard to grow stronger at a time like this?!'
Neji felt that it was a joke that his fate was tied to Hinata.
To be honest, in his heart, he looked down on this timid young lady, and he also looked down on the yellow-haired guy who didn't seem to understand his own place in the world.
In short, Hyuga Neji was very, very angry at this moment.
"You're the one called Uzumaki Naruto?"
"Bro... do you need something?"
Naruto almost subconsciously called out 'Brother-in-law'. If he hadn't reacted in time, he estimated that Neji would have been so angry that Neji would explode on the spot.
Even though Naruto's reply sounded completely normal, in Neji's ears it might as well have been a direct challenge.
'Does this idiot even know how to read the room!?'
Neji knew he couldn't let this slide. If he didn't teach this yellow-haired brat a lesson right now, he'd never learn.
He shifted his weight, lowering his stance. His right hand moved to the side, and his feet slid into position, which is the starting pose of the Hyuga Clan's Gentle Fist.
Hinata looked at Neji, then at Naruto, and suddenly felt things were about to get very bad.
As for Naruto, he was amused by Neji's challenge.
'A hand-to-hand fight?'
'I, Uzumaki Naruto, lived for this kind of stuff!'