Chapter 166: "Middle-Aged Couple Energy"
"You think this is funny? Keep laughing!"
"I'm telling you, you have no idea how serious this is!"
Haruno Mebuki watched her daughter shoveling rice with a vague smile on her face and felt a headache coming on.
Everything about Sakura was exceptional. Strength to spare, talent to spare, ability to spare, prestige to spare.
Too exceptional, honestly. Who in the world was ever going to measure up?
What if she ended up like Lady Tsunade — a legendary spinster still single into her fifties? The thought genuinely unsettled Mebuki.
Sensing her mother drawing breath for another round, Sakura put her thoroughly cleaned bowl down and made a run for it.
Ridiculous. In her past life she'd gotten the marriage-talk at twenty-something. Here in the ninja world, she wasn't even thirteen and it was already starting. Absolute nightmare.
Marriage? Sure. Come back and talk to her after someone had used their face to catch a blow from Enma plus Strength of a Hundred.
And she'd be adding Sage power to that stack soon. Then the full yang-release boost. Then the yin. Long line. Take a number.
Mebuki watched the pink-haired blur vanish and sighed. Then she turned, eyes narrowing, toward the other side of the table — where her husband was quietly, very carefully, minding his own bowl.
"And you."
"You just sat there and said nothing?!"
Kizashi's chest tightened. He'd been doing his best imitation of furniture, and somehow he'd still been hit.
"Well," he said, choosing each word like he was defusing something, "I think Sakura's situation is... beyond our interference at this point."
Kizashi had always been clear-eyed about himself.
Average talent, average ceiling — he'd known it since the Academy. He'd settled comfortably into logistics, worked the Leaf's supply depot for decades, and only ground his way to chunin through sheer accumulated seniority. He'd assumed that was just how his life would go, steady and unremarkable, until somehow this ordinary nest of theirs had produced a phoenix.
The day Sakura became the Hokage's apprentice, Kizashi — already cautious by habit — became even more careful. Colleagues he hadn't traded three words with in years suddenly appeared wanting to take him to lunch. He'd declined all of them, every time, terrified of causing her trouble.
Outside two or three friends he'd known since childhood, his social circle hadn't changed at all.
Now that Sakura was making the entire village shine just by existing, Kizashi felt even more strongly that a father like him had no business meddling in her life.
She'd always been sharp. He'd never once thought he was smarter than his own daughter.
If Sakura were merely ordinary-exceptional, maybe he'd show off a little in front of his friends. But she was so far beyond ordinary that it kept him quiet and careful instead.
"You!"
Mebuki stared at the husband who had, for apparently the first time in their marriage, declined to take her side. She felt a flash of real irritation.
"I'm just saying," Kizashi said, setting his chopsticks across the bowl, "it's time to let go."
The man with the absurd sea-urchin haircut exhaled and spoke with uncharacteristic seriousness.
"Sakura is beyond anything you or I could have become. Compared to what she's carrying, questions of romance are background noise. She's twelve years old. Whatever she wants to do — let her do it. If we keep pushing, we're not helping her. We're in her way."
Mebuki opened her mouth.
Kizashi's expression went quiet and direct.
"Or do you think you know better than she does?"
Mebuki stared. This was her husband — the one with the stupid hair and the bad puns — and for once he looked completely serious. The strangeness of it threw her.
"Fine! Fine, I was wrong, happy now?!"
She huffed, crossed her arms, and dropped onto the couch in full sulk mode.
"Hmm?"
"How could my darling Mebuki ever be wrong? I just figured Sakura was all grown up now, that's all."
"Come on~~ give Daddy a kiss~~~"
The moment he saw his wife sulking, Kizashi snapped right back to his usual ridiculous self, shuffling over with his stubbled chin jutting out and puckering up like an absolute menace.
"Ugh~~"
"Get away from me~~~"
Mebuki shoved at him, her irritation crumbling despite her best efforts.
"Heh heh... Sakura turned out so independent, I've got zero sense of achievement as a father. Maybe we should make up for it while we're still young~~~"
"You idiot, take it to the bedroom~~~"
Despite the leer on her husband's face, Mebuki found herself weakening. She shot one glance back at their daughter's firmly closed door — then let herself get swept off her feet, quite literally, as Kizashi scooped her up and carried her down the hall.
!!!
I am leaving this house.
Sakura sat at her desk with a sealing scroll on yang-release theory open in front of her, comprehending absolutely none of it.
Middle-aged couples and their disgusting happiness.
One door does not block my sensory range. Is that door an Uzumaki barrier seal?! Is it?!
Even without the Heaven-Covering Formation active, a ninja's hearing alone was enough. Sakura could hear every rustle of clothing through the wall, and the harder she tried not to hear it, the louder it got in her head.
She shoved the window open, and in the same motion launched herself out into the night.
The evening air had a cool edge to it. Sakura moved across the rooftops of Konoha's residential blocks in long, easy leaps, going nowhere in particular.
It was late. Every home had its lights out. Even the main street, normally lively at all hours, had only scattered foot traffic left — the last shopkeepers locking up, a few stragglers heading home.
Sakura dropped down to street level and walked, hands in her pockets, scanning the darkened storefronts.
This late, I'll end up sleeping on the street.
Then, at the far end of the block: one window still lit.
Ichiraku Ramen.
She realized, with mild surprise, that she'd never actually been. Years in the Leaf, and somehow she'd always been busy — cramming through the Academy, skipping grades, then straight into ANBU. She'd never once stopped in.
The Leaf's most beloved institution, and she'd never visited.
Well. Time to fix that.
Warm yellow light spilled through the gaps in the curtain. Sakura pushed it aside, and the little windchimes overhead rang out with a cheerful jingle.
"Welcome in~~!"
A girl in a white work apron, maybe seventeen or eighteen, looked up from behind the counter with a bright smile.
She registered the pink hair and paused for just a moment — then kept smiling.
"What can I get you? Menu's on the wall."
Sakura didn't think much of the reaction. Her face, and especially her hair, weren't exactly anonymous in Konoha these days. Only one person in the whole village had that color.
"Tonkotsu chashu."
She settled onto a stool and studied the menu board.
"Coming right up!"
Ayame moved with impressive efficiency. Less than five minutes later a steaming bowl appeared in front of Sakura.
Sakura picked up her chopsticks and tried a bite.
Not bad. Better than most places, actually.
She was halfway through the bowl, head down, when the curtain rustled again.
"Welcome in!"
"Sakura?"
The new arrival spotted her instantly.
That voice—
"Naruto?"
Sakura looked up.
She blinked.
Then she briefly questioned whether her eyes still worked.
Who in the—
Blonde hair, check. Whisker marks, check.
But the outfit—
He was wearing the exact same green spandex jumpsuit as Might Guy.
Guy-sensei, what did you DO.
"Hey, what are you doing here so late? Don't think I've ever seen you at Ichiraku before!"
Naruto slid onto the stool beside her, grinning his usual grin.
Can I tell him I ran away from home? Because technically that's what this is.
And can he PLEASE change out of that green monstrosity before it gives me a permanent eye injury—
"Looks like you just got back from a mission," Sakura said through her teeth.
"Yeah! We just got back from the Land of the Moon — me, Guy-sensei, TenTen, Lee, and Neji!"
"Ayame-nee, one extra-large deluxe bowl, I'm literally dying—!"
He'd ordered his food before he'd even finished the sentence.
While Ayame disappeared to make it, Naruto launched into a full debrief of the mission — every unexpected complication delivered at full volume.
Sakura listened and kept eating.
She knew about this mission. She'd even asked TenTen to keep an eye on him before they left.
But who could have predicted this?
What had happened to the kid in the orange tracksuit?
Guy-sensei's green spandex cult had a new recruit. That was what had happened. First Lee, now this. What was he teaching out there?
It was physically painful to look at.
"Naruto," Sakura said carefully, with great restraint, "that outfit—"
"Oh!"
"This!"
"Guy-sensei got it for me specially! Ultra-performance compression fit — breathable, warm, showcases the full power of youth!"
"And check out the muscle definition—"
His bowl arrived. He did not touch it. Instead he leaped off the stool and began striking poses — a full series of them, biceps flexed, each one more unnecessary than the last. He finished by pointing both thumbs at himself and flashing a blinding grin.
More painful. Somehow more painful.
Sakura's eye twitched.
Guy-sensei, I hope you're proud of yourself.
"My, my, very impressive~~~"
Behind the counter, Ayame watched Naruto's performance with an amused smile.
Sakura looked at her.
Do you actually think that, or—
Naruto, receiving validation, became twice as animated.
Sakura gave up and went back to her noodles.
But she understood now, at least, why Naruto kept coming back to this particular stall.
The food was genuinely good. And Ichiraku — the old man and Ayame both — had never once looked at Naruto with that particular expression. No wariness, no calculation, no distance. She'd seen it everywhere else. Not here.
"Alright, alright."
Naruto finally sat back down and started on his bowl.
"So why are you here this late, Sakura? You've never come to Ichiraku before."
Beside him, Ayame's ears perked up almost imperceptibly.
Sakura considered this for a moment.
"I suppose you could call it running away from home," she said.
"What?!"
Both Naruto and Ayame stared at her.
Naruto looked genuinely thrown. Sakura was one of the most put-together people he knew. The idea of her doing something as impulsive as running away from home had simply never occurred to him.
"Did something happen with your parents?"
He asked it carefully, tentatively.
"No. Nothing like that." Sakura rested her chin on her hand. "They're busy with something very important right now. Something that could directly affect the next generation of humanity. I'm not the right person to be in that house at this moment."
Naruto furrowed his brow. Ayame quietly turned pink.
"Sakura's parents sound like seriously incredible people!" Naruto said, wrenching his brain around the phrasing. He couldn't figure out what they could possibly be doing that sounded that important — but if Sakura said so, it must be true.
"So where are you going to stay tonight?"
The question sent Naruto's heart into an unexpected rhythm.
"I was going to go to Kushina's or Ino's," Sakura said.
Something in Naruto's chest went oddly hollow. His eyes dimmed slightly.
"But it's too late now. They're probably asleep."
His eyes lit back up.
"In that case, um, would you want to—"
"Why not stay at Naruto-kun's place for the night?"
Naruto had been searching desperately for the right words when Ayame just said it, entirely casually, while wiping down a plate.
!!!
Ayame-nee, I love you so much.
I'm coming here every single day. Ten bowls a day. Every day forever.
...
Sakura looked at Ayame. Then at Naruto's expression — open, hopeful, doing a terrible job of hiding it.
This boy. Still.
"Even at this hour, it's not really safe for a girl to be out alone."
Oh, Ayame was helping actively now.
...
Excuse me.
Haruno Sakura. In Konoha. After dark.
Not safe?
If something actually managed to find me out here, the question of who's in danger wouldn't take very long to answer. I would turn whatever it was into paste and call it an early night.
"Besides, Sakura-san doesn't have anywhere to be, and Naruto's a teammate — spending one night isn't a big deal."
Sakura looked at Ayame again. Then at Naruto.
She reached over and placed her hand lightly on top of his head, ruffling the gold hair once.
"Fine."
"It's perfectly normal for an older sister to ask a favor of her little brother."
Naruto lit up — and then the last half of the sentence registered, and he went slightly blank.
Behind the counter, Ayame pressed her lips together with a look of quiet, helpless sympathy.
Naruto-kun. I did what I could.
But I think Sakura-san genuinely means it.
Same wavelength. Girl to girl, Ayame read it clearly.
Naruto — maybe think about someone else? What about that Ino girl you've mentioned a few times?
☆☆☆
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