It was the same familiar place, the same familiar atmosphere.
As the clock approached 8 PM, everyone who was supposed to appear in the Hokage's office showed up.
"Eh~ Sakura, what are you doing here?"
Inside the Hokage's office, Naruto looked at Sakura behind Tsunade, his face full of surprise.
Sakura, who had been nervous before, immediately relaxed upon seeing Naruto and Sasuke. With a chuckle, she asked, "If you and Sasuke can come here, why can't I?"
"This..."
After being guided by Kushina and spending time with Hinata, Naruto had indeed made progress.
If this had happened before, he would have blurted out, "We're not the same as you."
And it was true—they were different.
Whether it was Naruto Uzumaki or Sasuke Uchiha, both had powerful backgrounds.
His father was the Fourth Hokage, his mother was the previous Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, and his teacher was Jiraiya, the Fifth Hokage of Konoha.
Sasuke's background wasn't any less impressive either.
Not only was he the disciple of the head of the Konoha Research Division, but he was also the current leader of the Uchiha clan.
Though the Uchiha clan may have only a handful of members now, with powerful figures like Fugaku, Itachi, and Obito, no one dared underestimate them.
At this point, Naruto's emotional intelligence had grown. He just gave Sakura a silly smile and said nothing.
"Why did you bring Sakura?"
When Jiraiya saw Sakura, he was also puzzled.
The existence of the light screen was a closely guarded secret, and anyone who could appear here was undeniably a trustworthy person.
He hadn't even brought Nara Shikaku, so it was even more surprising that Sakura was here.
"Don't worry, Sakura is someone I can trust, and I've already accepted her as my disciple."
Tsunade raised an eyebrow and continued looking at Jiraiya, "You can't say that your disciple, Orochimaru's disciple, can come, but mine can't."
"You know that's not what I meant."
Jiraiya sighed helplessly.
No matter how you looked at it, Sakura couldn't compare to Sasuke or Naruto.
One was the "main character," the other the "second lead."
As for Sakura?
She was at most a supporting character in the same team as the main character.
But since Tsunade had already brought her up and even said something like, "Your disciple can come, but mine can't," Jiraiya had no choice but to agree.
On the other side, Sakura walked up to Sasuke, a bit shy, and asked, "Sasuke, if I don't understand something later, can I ask you?"
"You can ask, but I can't promise I'll answer."
"That's great, don't worry, Sasuke, I won't bother you too much."
"Mm."
Sasuke wasn't in the mood to chat with Sakura.
He was thinking about Itachi Uchiha.
A month. An entire month. Itachi had been breeding.
Sasuke could tell that Itachi's body was in really bad shape. If this kept going on, he believed it wouldn't be long before Itachi died in bed.
Well, don't get the wrong idea, Sasuke wasn't feeling sorry for Itachi. He was just wondering whether to choose a male or female clone when he revived Itachi.
"After all, he's still my older brother. As a younger brother, I should at least ask for his opinion."
A slight smile appeared at the corner of Sasuke's mouth as he decided to leave this difficult choice up to Itachi.
It's up to him whether he continues to be the man who "gives" or the woman who "receives."
[Hi hi hi~ Hello, dear audience, I'm the "countdown" host, Hayashi Sora.]
At 8:00, the screen appeared on time.
The moment the screen appeared, the office that was lively just a moment ago immediately became silent.
Even Sakura sat upright beside Tsunade, looking seriously at the screen.
[In the last episode, we counted the princess consort Hinata Hyuga and the villain Hiruko.]
[This time, let's count the "princess consort's consort," Sakura Haruno, and one of the masterminds behind the Fourth Great Ninja War, Obito Uchiha.]
"Huh? What does this person on the screen mean by that?"
When Sakura heard the screen refer to her as the "princess consort's consort," her serious expression immediately collapsed.
Beside her, Sasuke looked incredibly awkward.
Being as clever as he was, Sasuke quickly guessed what the quotation marks around "princess consort" meant.
The "prince" undoubtedly referred to Naruto.
The "consort" referred to Hinata.
But with the quotation marks, the meaning had definitely changed.
If the prince is still Naruto, then this consort…
Although he didn't want to admit it, Sasuke felt that this consort was most likely himself.
As for Sakura, the consort within the consort, Sasuke felt incredibly uncomfortable.
He never imagined that in the world of Naruto, he would actually end up marrying Sakura.
He slightly turned his head, glancing at Sakura out of the corner of his eye.
He noticed that she was asking Tsunade something with a confused expression.
Sasuke shook his head, steadied his emotions, and continued watching the screen.
"I didn't expect Sakura really married Sasuke."
Over here, after the explanation from Minato and Kushina, Naruto understood that the "princess consort" most likely referred to Sasuke.
With no more romantic thoughts about Sakura, Naruto couldn't help but feel happy for her when he saw the result.
The others who guessed correctly also looked at Sasuke and Sakura with smiles, giving them a flirtatious glance, completely ignoring Obito, who would be counted in the second half.
"Rin, do you think I should run away?"
"Huh? Why do you ask that, just because they'll bring up you in the second half?"
"You know how many terrible things I did back then. I'm afraid they might lose control after seeing it and want to kill me."
Hearing this, Rin gently hugged Obito to ease his nervousness.
"Obito, no matter what you've done..."
Just as Obito thought Rin would support him running away, she suddenly changed her tone.
"No matter what you've done, you have to take responsibility for it."
"Huh? Rin, are you telling me to die?"
"What's the big deal about dying once? Don't worry, I've saved up a lot of money from my missions recently. I have enough to revive you."
Obito's lips twitched, "Well, then I guess I'll thank you in advance."
"No need to thank me. We're the best partners after all."
[As the female protagonist with the least screen time, Sakura Haruno can be said to have one of the most surprising character developments in Naruto.
[At the start of the story, Naruto is an orphan from Konoha and the Jinchuriki of the Nine-Tails, constantly looked down upon.
[Sasuke, the last surviving member of the Uchiha clan, destroyed by his brother, always gives Naruto the cold shoulder.
[Among the three, only Sakura was born into an ordinary family, carrying the dreams of an ordinary girl: to steal Sasuke's first kiss. Sakura would always try to get closer to Sasuke.
[After graduating from the Ninja Academy, Sakura's first dream was shattered.
[Sasuke's first kiss was unexpectedly given to Naruto.
In the scene, Sasuke and Naruto kissing was shown up close on the screen.
Amid the sounds of everyone laughing, the two of them were extremely embarrassed.
Sasuke: "Idiot, look what you've done."
Naruto: "Huh? You think this is a good thing?"
Sasuke: ...
*********
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