had a look of disbelief: "Uso! You two are actually... Uh, I'm not discriminating against you, I will respect you!"
"No way! Tenten, don't listen to Natsuki's nonsense!"
Naruto and Sasuke really exploded, not expecting Tenten to actually believe Natsuki's ghost stories.
It's true they kissed, but it was an accidental bump, there was absolutely no love involved, don't you know not to believe or spread rumors?
However, at this moment, a voice that terrified them rang out: "Oh, I just arrived and heard such explosive news. It seems that as a teacher, I still don't quite understand you. Naruto, Sasuke, I didn't expect you two to have such a relationship. I thought you didn't get along; it seems Teacher was mistaken."
Kakashi appeared on the rooftop at some point, and the words he spoke were enough to make Naruto and Sasuke die of anger.
Naruto immediately stamped his foot: "Kakashi-sensei! How could you also believe Natsuki's nonsense, believe it! It was an accident! Sasuke and I accidentally kissed, believe it!"
Sasuke's face changed: "Idiot Naruto! Stop talking!"
That idiot is so loud, now the whole world is going to know they~ kissed!
As expected, Kakashi's eyes widened: "So you really kissed? Natsuki wasn't talking nonsense? Tsk tsk, the world is truly wonderful, but don't worry, I won't discriminate against you!"
"No way! Kakashi-sensei - don't talk nonsense either!"
Naruto and Sasuke had truly exploded, while Sakura was still in disarray.
Not afraid of making things worse, Natsuki took out a photo, showed it to Tenten first, which instantly made Tenten cover her mouth in shock, and then he tossed the photo to Kakashi.
Kakashi took it, a bit stunned, and after one look, he was even more astonished: "It seems it's true, and there's even a photo as a souvenir!"
Natsuki laughed: "This was precisely sneakily taken by me, a super photographer. The theme is called 'Naruto and Sasuke's Love'. Or perhaps 'The Beautiful Scenery of Team Seven'. Kakashi-senpai, look closely, isn't Sakura's disheveled expression also in the background?"
Kakashi looked closely again, marveling: "You really did capture a good angle, Team Seven was all there, it's truly beautiful!"
"Haha! Right, right? I'll give this photo to Kakashi-senpai. This is a treasure for Team Seven!"
"A treasure for Team Seven? Very good, I'll take it. If any of the three of them are disobedient in the future, I'll go to the photo studio, get a large print, and post it on the street, so everyone can come and watch this beautiful romance!"
"Please don't, Kakashi-sensei!"
The farce finally ended with Natsuki treating them to Ichiraku Ramen as an apology. As for the photo, it was impossible to destroy; this was beautiful youth after all.
Inside Ichiraku Ramen, the four members of Team Seven ate heartily, while Natsuki and Tenten were drinking beverages.
They had just eaten barbecue and didn't feel hungry.
Naruto looked up and asked while eating: "Natsuki, how did you and Kakashi-sensei meet, believe it?"
Natsuki didn't hide it and pointed to Tenten: "Tenten's squad leader, Might Guy, knows Kakashi-senpai. I happened to want to ask Kakashi-senpai for guidance, so I asked Teacher Kai to help introduce us."
"I see."
Naruto nodded, but then felt something wasn't quite right, "Not just that, right? I heard Kakashi-sensei speaks very highly of you, believe it. Your relationship must not be that simple, believe it!"
Natsuki rolled his eyes: "Naruto, you're quite nosy. Take care of yourself first. I haven't even talked about you yet. You completed this mission like that, and you were just proudly showing off to me. I wanted to scold you."
Huh? The other members of Team Seven immediately looked over, and even Kakashi was surprised.
Sasuke was unhappy: "Natsuki, do you think we didn't do well on this mission?"
Natsuki, however, looked at Kakashi: "Kakashi-senpai..."
Kakashi put down his chopsticks, having surprisingly already finished his ramen: "Perfect, I also want to hear others' insights on this mission. Go ahead and speak freely, don't worry about me."
Naruto, however, had already stood up: "Natsuki, you can't just belittle our Team Seven like this because you're jealous that we did a B-rank mission, believe it! This time, we completed the mission excellently, even Lord Hokage praised us and raised the original C-rank to B-rank. What did we do wrong?"
Natsuki glanced at this guy: "See? I haven't even said anything specific yet and you're already anxious. With such an impatient personality, can you do missions well? You must have caused quite a few jokes during the mission because of your rashness, right?"
Naruto choked, unable to refute.
Even Sasuke and Sakura couldn't help but nod.
In reality, it was true; Naruto's personality was very rash, and he caused quite a few jokes along the way.
Natsuki organized his words before speaking: "Firstly, from the moment you discovered Tazuna was hiding something and that there would be Ninja enemies in the mission, you continued the mission without any clear information. That was truly reckless."
"Then are you telling us to just abandon Uncle Tazuna and the Land of Waves?" Naruto got anxious again.
"Did I say to abandon them? I said you were reckless! Shut your mouth first and let me finish speaking!"
Natsuki's tone also became unpleasant, "Leaving aside Tazuna's mistake of hiding information, just continuing the mission when you basically knew nothing about the enemy's information was an extremely dangerous act. If something went wrong, people would die! You think Tazuna and the Land of Waves are pitiful, but don't you think the lives of your comrades from the Village are also very important? Couldn't you have paused the mission, returned to report to Lord Hokage, and then properly thought of a solution?"
Naruto opened his mouth but couldn't make a sound. In reality, having experienced this mission, he also knew it was very dangerous.
If another team had done it, perhaps they wouldn't have been as lucky as their team, and people really would have died. If Konoha Ninja died then, Konoha would not only fail to help the Land of Waves but would also hold Tazuna accountable.
Therefore, what Natsuki said was actually correct!
Wanting to act heroically and help them, they still couldn't be reckless, and even less could they put their comrades in danger!
Sakura weakly raised her hand: "Natsuki, the Land of Waves is very poor, Uncle Tazuna didn't have the money to post a high-level mission..."
Natsuki chuckled: "Is that a reason? If they didn't have money, couldn't they pay in installments? Couldn't they pay the reward in other ways? Is our Lord Hokage the kind of cold-blooded, unreasonable person? If Tazuna had just been honest and explained clearly, would Lord Hokage not send people to help? Couldn't he pay the reward after he built the bridge, started his business, and made money? But he chose to hide it, chose to put Konoha Ninja in danger. Was he right to do that? Did you trust Lord Hokage?"
Sakura opened her mouth but had nothing to say.
Kakashi scratched his head and said sheepishly: "Well, I actually have some responsibility in this matter too."