A ticklish tingle spread from his left shoulder.
Ino looked fierce enough, but there was hardly any strength in those slender hands of hers, and the threat came off more like the sulking of someone who knew them both well.
Shikamaru looked up at the sky, resignation in his eyes, and grumbled again.
“Women.
Such a pain.”
There it was.
Shikamaru’s whole can’t-be-bothered personality had been with him since childhood.
Though saying that in front of a girl was a good way to get hit, Yuuga thought, enjoying it a little.
There was a smack.
“Ow!”
Yuuga turned his head.
Shikamaru was crouched down clutching his head, and Ino had let go of him at some point and was shaking a fist at him.
“Shikamaru, you jerk, who are you calling a pain?”
Ino still had her baby fat, and her cheeks were puffed out.
She looked plenty angry.
Yuuga looked at Shikamaru crouched on the ground, felt a wave of sympathy, and patted his shoulder, covering for him.
“Ino, what he said was ‘women are such a pain.’ You’re a pretty girl, charming as lavender, so how could you be a woman?
Right, Shikamaru?”
“Yeah…” Shikamaru answered from the ground, cowed.
Miss Ino of the Yamanaka clan was terrifying.
And girls were a pain too.
“Hmph, at least you know better.” After Yuuga’s flattery Ino was in a much better mood, and she forgave Shikamaru on the ground.
Beside them Choji was crunching through his chips, and the moment he swallowed the last one he pulled a fresh bag out of his little pack and kept going, chip powder all over the corners of his mouth.
Yuuga sighed.
“Ino loves Sasuke the way Choji loves chips.
Anyway, Ino, it’s just one failed confession.
Try again.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Ino pouted and glared at him, and in doing so caught sight of the floral-print cloth wallet in his hand.
She forgot to even blush.
“Yuuga, that wallet in your hand is mine.
Where did you find it?”
Huh?
It was Ino’s wallet.
Yuuga held up the floral cloth wallet and remembered the hair clip inside, which did look a bit familiar.
He handed the wallet over to her.
“I just picked it up right here.
I was about to ask around and get it back to whoever dropped it.
Didn’t think it’d be yours.”
“Yeah, I’ve been looking for it.
There’s a really important hair clip in there.” Ino took the floral wallet, delighted, and opened it carefully.
Once she’d checked that nothing was missing, she looked up at Yuuga with a sweet smile.
“Thank you, Yuuga.”
“No problem.” Yuuga smiled back.
[Ding!
Quest complete: The Lost Wallet.
Quest Reward: 50,000 ryo.]
His mouth curved up.
The System’s reward this time was fairly generous.
Looking at the three friends he hadn’t seen in a while, and weighing what he’d just been given, Yuuga said, “Want to go for barbecue?
My treat.
I just finished a few jobs and got paid.”
Choji swallowed the chips in his mouth and nodded hard.
“Yes, yes, barbecue!”
Shikamaru stood up from his crouch too and nodded.
“It’s been a while since we had barbecue.
Good excuse for the four of us to get together.”
Ino didn’t agree right away.
She glanced at Yuuga, a little worried.
“You’re spending the money you worked so hard for on barbecue for us?
What about your living expenses?”
“It’s fine, it’s fine.” Yuuga shrugged it off.
“I can take more jobs tomorrow.
I’ve got two hands and two feet, am I really going to starve to death in Konoha?”
That settled Ino’s concerns, and she nodded happily.
Yakiniku Q was also on the commercial street on the east side of the village, and not far off.
Twenty minutes later the four of them were sitting at a table around a grill, drooling.
The meat sizzled and gave off a smell that kept getting better, and Choji grabbed a napkin and scrubbed hard at the drool at the corner of his mouth.
Yuuga’s eyes were shining too.
He’d been holed up at home for nearly a month, and this world didn’t have anything like food delivery, so he’d been living entirely on instant noodles.
Now, faced with barbecue, his mouth was watering.
Ino looked at the three boys and laughed.
The meat wasn’t ready yet, so she went looking for another topic, and her eyes moved.
“Say, Yuuga, why don’t you go to the Academy?
Always shut up at home by yourself, like some burnout.”
Shikamaru, eyes fixed on the meat, winced at the thought of the Academy.
“Ugh, it’s such a drag.
If I had the choice, I wouldn’t go either.”
Yuuga and Choji said nothing.
Choji had nothing but barbecue on his mind and hadn’t heard a word of it.
Yuuga heard her, but he had no intention of going to school.
Ino got annoyed.
She glared at Shikamaru first, then turned to Yuuga.
“Don’t be so unambitious.
You should at least try to be like Sasuke.
Boys who do well are popular with the girls at school.
Sitting at home alone is boring.”
“Don’t want to.” Yuuga had sharp eyes, and the moment a piece of meat was done he shot his chopsticks out and got it into his mouth, chewing as he spoke.
“School’s boring too.
I’ve got more freedom at home.”
“Hey, that’s cheating!” Choji shouted in horror as Yuuga took the first piece, and hurried to get his own chopsticks in.
Shikamaru raised an eyebrow and moved fast too.
Ino didn’t rush for the meat.
She said, angry, “Do you want to be a slacker your whole life?
You have to become a good ninja to find a good girl.
Young man, you can’t go on like this.”
“Come on, eat the barbecue.” Yuuga’s words came out muffled.
“Yuuga, are you listening?
Remember to sign up at the Academy.
With your ability you should be able to skip straight into our class,” Ino insisted.
Yuuga swallowed his meat, then laughed.
“Ino, here’s a scary story: the meat’s gone.”
“Ah, Choji, you jerk, you’ve almost eaten all of it!” Ino shrieked, and joined the fight for the barbecue.
Yuuga never actually agreed to go to school, because he thought school really was boring.
Still, home was boring too, and he figured it was time to find something to do.
He couldn’t become the first transmigrator in history to just coast along waiting to die.
That would be embarrassing.
“Hey, hey, did you hear?
Icha Icha Paradise has a new volume out.
I’m going to buy it later.”
“You’re only hearing now?
I got mine yesterday.
The master’s new book is as ‘frank’ as ever, and the scenes he writes, heh heh heh…”
Two drunk men were laughing nearby, and from the sound of it they were talking about Jiraiya’s Icha Icha Paradise.
Yuuga scoffed.
That dry little novel counted as a masterpiece?
The bar for being a great author here was awfully low.
Wait.
Novels?
Yuuga froze, and a bold idea came to him.
He could write novels too, or even draw manga, or make films, bringing the classics from before he transmigrated into this world.
It would pass the time and make him money.
Why not?