Naruto's eyelid twitched as he looked at the red-haired loli in front of him.
"This is too much," he thought.
It's really too much!
Naruto raised his hand and ruffled the Cattle Herding Girl's burgundy short hair, a bright and cheerful smile on his face: "You're still small now, you have to wait until Rhine grows up."
Little girls are still easy to coax.
The Cattle Herding Girl cheered and happily went back to her room to change clothes.
Rhine's mother saw this, tilted her head, cradling her cheek with one hand, and said with a half-smile: "Oh my, Naruto, you can't let my daughter down."
"…"
Naruto quickly changed the subject: "Auntie, is the apple pie ready?"
"Right! My apple pie!!"
Rhine's mother jolted, quickly opened the oven door, and used a wooden spatula to scoop out the apple pie from the oven.
"Thankfully it didn't burn."
Rhine's mother let out a sigh of relief.
The apple pie was baked golden and crispy with a slightly charred crust, looking very delicious.
Since the Sword Saintess hadn't woken up yet, Naruto asked Rhine's mother to cut a portion of the apple pie and leave it for the Sword Saintess to eat.
After the meal.
Naruto left Iron Water Village and, in an empty forest clearing, performed the Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu, leaving three Shadow Clones to grind monsters for leveling and handle miscellaneous tasks.
He then logged out of the Underground City and returned to his home in Konoha Village.
"I'm back again."
Naruto scanned the spotless one-bedroom apartment, pulled open the curtains, and found that the sky over Konoha Village was covered by night, with countless stars, which made him feel as if he had been in another world.
"A whole night passed in the Goblin Slayer World, and it's already late morning there, but it's only evening in Konoha Village."
"This way, by utilizing the time difference between the Underground City and the Fire Shadow World, I can increase my strength at the fastest pace."
Thinking of this, Naruto couldn't help but feel ambitious.
With the Underground City for leveling, even without using the Nine-Tailed's power, he was confident he could reach Super Hokage level… no, it should be Six Paths level or even stronger!
He would level up to one hundred, a thousand, and let the Fire Shadow World experience the shock of a stat monster.
Of course, Naruto himself was already a stat monster.
"First, I'll select some Ninjutsu scrolls for my Shadow Clones to take to the Underground City to learn, wait… someone's coming?!"
Just as Naruto was about to form hand signs, his eyes flashed, and his ears picked up faint footsteps outside the door.
His 15 points in mental attributes gave him stronger perception.
"I wonder if Naruto has eaten yet."
"Haha, I brought Ichiraku Ramen, he'll definitely be happy."
A young man wearing a green standard Ninja vest with a horizontal scar on his nose arrived at Naruto's doorstep and raised his hand to knock, but the tightly closed door suddenly opened.
Naruto stood at the doorway, still holding the doorknob in the pushing motion.
"Iruka Sensei?"
Naruto called out.
The person who arrived was none other than "Super Hokage's Teacher" Iruka Umino.
Iruka was slightly stunned, then came back to his senses and asked: "What a coincidence, Naruto, are you going out?"
"Uh, no, I just opened the door when I sensed someone approaching," Naruto replied truthfully.
"You can hear my footsteps?"
Iruka was a little surprised.
He was, after all, a genuine Chunin; even if he didn't deliberately hide his footsteps, it wasn't something a boy who hadn't even graduated from the Ninja Academy could detect.
Iruka naturally didn't take it seriously and smiled as he held up the takeout box in his hand, "Have you had dinner? I brought Ichiraku Ramen."
Naruto's gaze swept over the Ichiraku Ramen logo on the takeout box; he actually wanted to say he had just eaten, although it was breakfast.
"I had breakfast, but not dinner yet."
Seeing Iruka's concerned eyes, a chord within Naruto was lightly touched, so he didn't disappoint Iruka's good intentions.
"What time is it, and you're just having breakfast?"
"Naruto, you're in puberty now, a time when you're growing, so you can't eat one meal and skip the next."
As a teacher, Iruka's advice was more insightful.
He glanced at Naruto and smiled: "You don't want to be shorter than Sakura, do you?"
"Sakura Haruno? I don't care."
Naruto shrugged his shoulders.
Honestly, who cares about her?
Iruka was stunned again; how did he feel… that Naruto didn't seem to like Sakura that much anymore?
"Maybe he's just having a spat with Sakura."
Iruka stepped inside the door and saw the clean and tidy one-bedroom apartment; he froze, standing still, completely petrified.
After a while.
Iruka stiffly turned his neck, looking at Naruto with a shocked and puzzled expression.
"Naruto, has your house… been robbed?"
"No."
Naruto opened the refrigerator, poured Iruka a glass of water, and motioned for him to sit down.
"No? If not, how could it be… so tidy?"
Iruka remembered that when he usually visited, Naruto's one-bedroom apartment didn't even have room to step, unlike now, where it was spotless, cleaner than his own house.
"I just tidied it up when I had some free time," Naruto replied calmly.
It's his own home, after all; how could he live in it if it was like a dog's kennel?
He sat next to Iruka, unwrapped the Ichiraku Ramen takeout box, one bowl for himself and one for Iruka, and gave most of the uneaten ramen from his own bowl to Iruka.
"Is that enough for you to eat?"
"Yes, I'm really not hungry."
"Alright…"
"Eat less instant noodles; the nutrition is imbalanced."
"Drinking milk for calcium can help you grow taller, but don't stock too much, it expires easily."
"Thank you, Sensei, I understand."
A moment of silence, and in the small room, only the slurping sound of noodles remained.
"Naruto, are you in a bad mood today?" Iruka suddenly asked.
"No."
Naruto was stunned for a moment, ramen still hanging from the corner of his mouth.
He had a very fulfilling day today.
"Then why didn't you go to school today?"
Iruka turned his head to look into Naruto's azure eyes.
"…"
Naruto fell silent.
He couldn't possibly say that he had been grinding Goblins in the Underground City all day to level up and had completely forgotten about school.
Iruka earnestly advised: "Naruto, going to school is still very important.
Have you forgotten your ambition to become Hokage?
If you can't graduate from the Ninja Academy smoothly, let alone Hokage, you can't even become a Genin."
"Whoever wants to be Hokage can be Hokage."
"It's not just a lot of trouble, but you also have to deal with the noble Ninja clans of Konoha Village and get caught up in their open and secret struggles."
"Minato Namikaze was young and promising, becoming the Fourth Hokage at a young age, but during the Nine-Tailed incident, how many strong Ninja clans helped him? After his death, he didn't even have many former subordinates."
"Besides, the Hokage is still not the highest-ranking person; there's still the Daimyo of the Land of Fire above him."
Naruto muttered inwardly, not caring for the empty title of Hokage.
He understood in his heart that no matter if it was the Fire Shadow World or anywhere else, strength would always be respected, and power would always reign supreme.
As long as his fists were hard enough, power, status, money, and beautiful women would all be within his grasp.
There was no need to be constrained by a mere empty title!
"Iruka Sensei, I will go to school," Naruto promised Iruka Umino with a smile.
Attending class was secondary; he mainly wanted to go to the Ninja Academy to see Hinata, Sasuke, Sakura Haruno, Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara, and Neji Akimichi