"Are you alright? Are you injured anywhere? Did you catch a cold? How's your mood? Do you want me to have the Hokage, uh... I mean, how do you feel?"
Hiruzen immediately came up to Takumi, inquiring solicitously the moment he saw him.
That level of enthusiasm was really a bit too much for Takumi to handle.
"Uh, I'm fine, Hokage-sama. It's the enemy who had issues."
Takumi repeatedly stepped back, waving his hands.
"Is that so?"
Hiruzen was still somewhat worried. After all, being trapped in such a large water prison, even he wouldn't find it easy to escape, let alone defeat an opponent in their specialized domain.
"Really. Look, my clothes aren't even torn." Takumi quickly turned around, showing Hiruzen his undamaged clothes.
"Good that you're fine."
Hiruzen looked at the intact clothes and finally sighed in relief. "But you must be extremely careful. I don't know if those Akatsuki guys are crazy, but they keep targeting you."
"I really don't know what those bastards are thinking, insisting on targeting my Konoha."
"What a fate of many hardships!"
Hiruzen sighed.
At this moment, his heart was, so to speak, a mix of worry and joy.
On one hand, Takumi being constantly ambushed brought him danger. A slight mishap could lead to his treasured successor being buried.
On the other hand, it was precisely because these enemies kept attacking that Takumi's strength could be trained.
Maybe it could even trigger other abilities of Takumi's.
As for Takumi, he was just silently complaining.
'Dammit, aren't I being hunted down because you praise me as a hero?'
'They can't allow someone so awesome to exist in Konoha!'
"If there's nothing else, I'll take my leave now." Takumi showed a bright and cheerful smile.
"Alright, go. Don't keep your friends waiting." Hiruzen looked at Takumi's departing back with satisfaction.
"He really is a polite and good child, don't you agree?" He looked at the Anbu on either side.
"Yep yep yep."
The Anbu dared not say otherwise. Even if it wasn't true, they could only say yes.
Hiruzen didn't catch the Anbu's perfunctory tone. His eyes were only on Takumi's retreating figure.
Exiting the Hokage Tower, Sakura, who had been waiting, immediately came forward and skillfully wrapped around his arm.
"Let's go. We should hurry over."
"Huh? Why are you alone?" Takumi was a bit surprised. Usually, Ino wouldn't miss out on these occasions.
Although having both of them clinging to his arms was sometimes inconvenient, now that one was suddenly missing, he felt a bit unaccustomed.
"Hehe, Ino-pig was dragged away by her parents. They said she's been too slack in practicing her clan's secret techniques lately and need to train her hard."
When talking about Ino, Sakura immediately snickered.
"I see."
Takumi understood, then looked at Sakura with pitying eyes.
'Ino still has clan secret techniques to learn, but what about you?'
'You don't even have any to learn!'
"What's wrong?"
Sakura looked at Takumi puzzled. She felt Takumi's gaze was making her feel strange.
"Nothing. Let's go."
Takumi's face showed a perfect smile, immediately making Sakura discard that strange feeling.
"Here, this way."
Sakura stopped overthinking and pulled Takumi towards the restaurant Choji had found.
Along the way, they were still constantly teased by villagers.
"Takumi, I heard you completed another S-Rank Mission?"
"I heard you destroyed one of Orochimaru's bases. Truly our hero."
"Is this your little girlfriend? So enviable."
"I heard you just repelled a malicious strong enemy. You really are our hero."
"Takumi, keep it up! Konoha's future depends on you!"
"Not at all, I just got lucky."
Takumi pretended to be embarrassed, scratching the back of his head and replying with a sincere smile.
Beside him, Sakura's cheeks were flushed, but she clung even tighter to Takumi's arm.
Takumi knew…
It was because someone recognized her as his girlfriend earlier that made her so excited.
"Alright, calm down a bit. If you go in like this, they'll definitely make fun of you."
Takumi stood at the restaurant entrance, lightly teasing.
Sakura's face became even more crimson, but she still didn't let go. "Let them tease. They've seen it plenty anyway."
"Alright then."
Takumi smiled and led her into the restaurant.
Following the waiter's directions to the private room, they saw a large table already full of dishes, but no one had touched the food.
Choji kept swallowing saliva, his gaze fixed on the delicious dishes.
Seeing Takumi enter, he immediately let out a cheer, "Takumi's here! Let's eat!"
Takumi couldn't help but laugh.
Seeing Choji like this is quite amusing.
"Hold on, Choji."
Shikamaru slapped Choji's hand with a look of exasperation. "Takumi hasn't even sat down yet. Be patient a little longer. He's the main character this time."
"Urgh..."
Choji sat back down crestfallen, biting his chopsticks and unable to tear his gaze away from the food.
"It's fine. I'm here now anyway. If it's not enough, we can order more. I'll treat today," Takumi said with a smile.
Hearing this, Choji immediately stood up and started grabbing food frantically.
"Hey, this place isn't cheap," Shikamaru kindly reminded. "If Choji eats freely..."
"Don't worry about it."
Takumi smiled slightly. "I earn more."
"That's true. You're already an Elite Jonin now. Any S-Rank Mission you take probably covers several meals," Shikamaru then remembered the huge gap that had opened between Takumi and them.
Although he himself had been promoted to Chunin after the last combined Chunin Exams, there was still a not-insignificant distance to Takumi's Elite Jonin status.
Takumi sat down in the deliberately reserved seat of honor. Against the background noise of Choji chomping down on food, he raised his drink and said, "It's a cause for celebration that we encountered a powerful enemy this time without any casualties."
"I hope that in the future, we can all return safe and sound."
"Everyone, we are Shinobi. We live with danger and are born bearing a heavy mission: to protect our village well."
"For this, we all have the determination to sacrifice ourselves if necessary. But I still sincerely hope we can peacefully live through our lives, no matter how powerful the enemies we encounter."
"This time, I was fortunate to be present and drove back the enemy. But what about next time? We have already graduated from the Academy and have seen death."
"We should rein in the mentality of relying on luck in our hearts and treat each following day more seriously."
"Everyone, let us raise our glasses, to every day in the future!"
"Cheers!"
Everyone, including Choji, was moved by Takumi's words. They raised their glasses one after another to clink with Takumi's.
For a moment, the crisp sound of clinking filled the private room.
After drinking, Sasuke's expression was extremely serious.
Shikamaru still had that couldn't-care-less look, but under the table, his hand had quietly clenched into a fist.
Neji, Lee, Shino, and Kiba all looked serious. They had all thought about how their recent performance had been quite sluggish.
Compared to Takumi, their performance could be called non-existent.
As for the rest, although they felt Takumi had said something important, they hadn't really taken it in.
Especially the thick-skulled Naruto.
He, like Choji, was eating the delicious food in big mouthfuls.
These were all things he had never eaten before.
After eating and drinking their fill, the group parted ways at the restaurant entrance.
Sasuke looked at Takumi, opened his mouth as if to say something, but then closed it and left silently.
'What did he want to say?'
Takumi watched Sasuke puzzled. He had seen Sasuke's hesitation to speak just now.
He was waiting for Sasuke to speak.
But in the end, Sasuke said nothing and just left.
'If he won't say it, then forget it. Just pretend I didn't see it.'
Takumi shrugged, then turned and walked Sakura home.
"Takumi-kun, I had a great time today."
Before parting, Sakura gave Takumi a tight hug, then turned home with a happy face.
At the door, Takumi saw a woman with a gentle face… likely Sakura's mother.
He nodded politely, waited until Sakura and the woman went inside, then turned and left.
In the evening, he had a good time with Kurenai.