Chapter 551: Wedding Date

Inside the spacious and bright living room of Naruto Uzumaki’s home, the atmosphere was relaxed and joyful.

Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Shikamaru, Choji, Ino, Hinata, Hanabi, Kiba, Shino, Neji, Rock Lee, Context-dependent, and a host of other friends were gathered together, making for a rare get-together recently.

Otohime was still playing games, seemingly still sulking because of what happened yesterday.

During this period, whether it was Naruto or the others, everyone had experienced many things and had rarely been in the Village.

The table was laden with food and drinks prepared by Naruto and Karin, and everyone sat casually, chatting about recent events and joking around.

Just then, a masked purple-haired Anbu silently appeared at the doorway, knelt on one knee, and whispered a report to Naruto about something that had just happened on the street.

"Uchiha Itachi was pelted with rotten eggs in the street?"

After hearing the report, Naruto’s face displayed an extremely strange expression.

He subconsciously looked toward Sasuke, who was sitting not far away.

Sasuke also looked over at almost the same moment. Their gazes met in the air, and both read the same confusion and a hint of absurdity in the other’s eyes.

Naruto: "Did you do it?"

Sasuke: "Did you arrange it?"

Clearly, Naruto wasn’t that bored, and Sasuke wouldn’t do something like this.

Both shook their heads slightly, denying the other’s guess.

That was strange.

Naruto rubbed his chin, looking puzzled.

Who would be so bored as to go and throw rotten eggs at an S-rank Rogue Ninja who was terminally ill and under strict surveillance?

Were people in Hidden Leaf Village this restless?

He remembered that Itachi was being paraded through the streets; throwing rotten eggs directly on the street, wouldn’t that pollute the environment?

And this behavior...

It was just too much like a street thug, right?

It didn’t fit the style of any faction currently in Hidden Leaf Village.

"To be precise, it wasn’t rotten eggs."

The Anbu responsible for the report, Yūgao Uzuki, added, her tone carrying a hint of helplessness, "It was a special, homemade projectile that was extremely pungent, sticky, and difficult to wash off. According to on-site observations, it was the work of two Genin, Yusuke and Jiro."

"Yusuke? Jiro?"

Naruto was taken aback, then exchanged glances with Shikamaru, Kiba, Choji, and others who had known these two guys back at the Ninja Academy. Their faces all displayed a sudden realization, followed by an expression of wanting to laugh but feeling somewhat speechless.

Weren’t those the two guys they used to beat up the most back then?

And they never learned their lesson.

"So it was those two guys..."

Shikamaru leaned lazily against the back of his chair and rubbed his forehead. "That’s not surprising then."

Naruto, Sasuke, Kiba, Choji, and even Sakura and Ino all wore expressions of "that’s not surprising."

Back in the Ninja Academy, they were "notable figures" who took pleasure in bullying classmates, didn’t seem to be very bright, and had extremely childish and nasty styles of behavior.

Who would have thought that after so many years, the courage of these two guys had actually kept pace with the times.

"I didn’t expect them to have such ’guts’."

Kiba couldn’t help but laugh out loud, tapping the table with his hand, a mischievous smile on his face.

"To actually dare to throw that kind of thing at... Uchiha Itachi? Aren’t they afraid that Itachi might suddenly snap and crush them to death?"

Although he knew Itachi’s Chakra was sealed and his body was in terrible condition, a starving camel is still bigger than a horse; an elite Kage-level ninja was not someone two Genin could provoke.

As Kiba spoke, the scene automatically appeared in his mind: the arrogant Yusuke and Jiro throwing the stink bomb at the expressionless Itachi, then trembling with excitement...

The image was too perfect, and he couldn’t hold back and burst into laughter.

At the same time, he remembered the scene back then when he and Naruto had beaten these two guys until they were crying for their parents, and his smile deepened involuntarily.

"Alright, alright," Ino clapped her hands at the right moment, interrupting the topic. With a bright smile on her face, she grabbed Naruto’s hand beside her, drawing everyone’s attention. "Today is our get-together, so let’s not talk about those buzzkills and their antics."

Then, Ino cleared her throat. A blush appeared on her face, but her eyes were bright as she loudly announced, "Naruto and I formally set our wedding date yesterday! It’s on October 10th, four years from now! We will officially get engaged the year after next when we are sixteen."

"Eh—,?!"

Everyone was stunned for a moment, then burst into exclamations.

Although everyone knew more or less that Naruto had close relationships with Ino, Hinata, and the others, hearing that the formal wedding date had been set still came as a pleasant surprise.

Hinata also blushed and added in a small but firm voice, "A-and me and Hikari, and Karin..."

Her voice grew quieter as she spoke, and her face turned redder and redder, but she finished bravely.

Sakura was stunned. What was going on?

How did she not know!

Even Ino hadn’t mentioned it to her.

"Wow!"

Now the exclamations were even louder. Although they were mentally prepared, hearing that Naruto was really going to "have them all," and that the specific candidates and approximate time had been decided, still gave everyone a shock.

"You’re quite capable, Naruto!"

Kiba was the first to react, laughing as he raised his juice cup and winked at Naruto. "October 10th, four years from now? Isn’t that your eighteenth birthday? You must make it lively when the time comes!"

"Congratulations, Naruto!"

"Congratulations!"

"You have to invite us to the wedding feast then!"

The others also laughed and offered their blessings, and the atmosphere instantly shifted from the previous strangeness to warmth and joy.

Hanabi, sitting beside Hinata, let out a disgruntled "Hmph" and buried her little face in her sister’s lap, leaving only a pouting back of her head visible.

She was still too young and had to wait another three years before...

Hmph! The older sisters are too cunning! Naruto-nii-chan too!

Neji also twitched the corner of his mouth; he knew about this too.

The specific reason was that Hiashi and Inoichi had jointly found Naruto, saying they wanted to take advantage of the time Naruto was in the Village to get things settled first.

Neji had learned about this from his uncle after returning home last night.

He heard that Naruto had left for a while in the middle; if it hadn’t been for the commotion Sasuke caused, Hiashi and Inoichi would have been ready to fight Naruto to the death.

Naruto was a bit embarrassed by everyone’s teasing; he scratched his head and gave a silly laugh.

Even with how eloquent he usually was, he didn’t know what to say at this moment.

He looked at Ino and Hinata, who were blushing but smiling happily beside him, and Karin and Hikari, who were also wearing shy smiles, and his heart was filled with warmth and satisfaction.

As for the trivial matter of Uchiha Itachi being pelted with rotten eggs... well, compared to his major life events, it wasn’t worth mentioning at all!

Let those two guys amuse themselves.

Itachi’s Chakra and Ocular Power were both sealed, and with Anbu and Might Guy watching from the shadows, there wouldn’t be any major trouble.

The living room was once again filled with laughter, and the earlier interlude regarding Uchiha Itachi had long since been cast to the back of their minds.

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