Chapter 58: Black Zetsu's Little Scheme, Naruto's Curiosity and Wariness
"White Zetsu?
What's this thing doing coming to my place?"
Byakuya was mildly surprised.
"Could it be… scouting for information?
Or is it purely trying to test me?
Looks like Akatsuki is paying special attention to me~
Well, that's pretty normal, I guess.
All within expectations."
After thinking for a few seconds, Byakuya simply shook his head.
"Sorry.
I'm not hiring."
"Is it because the shop is small and you don't have enough funds?"
The White Zetsu girl asked in an extremely soft, sweet voice.
Byakuya instantly got goosebumps all over.
"Yeah~"
"I can actually work as a volunteer…"
"Why would you work as a volunteer?"
"Because… because…
Because I like Senpai!"
Byakuya: "…"
He forcibly suppressed the urge to slap the thing to death with one palm.
Then he pointed sharply at the door.
"Get lost."
"Senpai!
Please give me a chance!"
This time Byakuya didn't bother replying.
He simply released an extremely faint Fuuton that gently blew White Zetsu right out the door.
"I already have someone I like. Give up."
As he spoke, Byakuya conveniently pulled over Hinata, who had just come to the bookstore to call him for dinner.
"Eh?!"
Hinata's face exploded into bright red in an instant.
"You… you…
Umm…"
Before she could finish the rest of her sentence after "you", Hinata fainted on the spot.
"…Alright then…
Sorry for the disturbance!"
White Zetsu put on a very dejected expression, bowed toward Byakuya,
then slowly walked out of the bookstore.
The moment he turned around, the dejected look vanished instantly.
What remained was pure gloom.
"Non-exposed probing, first attempt — failed."
White Zetsu silently transmitted the experience back to the main body.
Meanwhile,
the White Zetsu main body and Black Zetsu were analyzing the results of this probe together.
"That Fuuton… was it really just a coincidence?
Why do I feel like it absolutely wasn't a coincidence?
Otherwise it wouldn't have been so perfectly timed to blow away all of White Zetsu's spores."
"Whether it was a coincidence or not, our first probe failed."
White Zetsu's tone was extremely complicated.
"If we had chosen an exposed-style probe, maybe we could have found something out."
"No."
Black Zetsu shot the suggestion down immediately.
"Let's wait a little longer."
His tone was gloomy, heart heavy with worry.
The reason he insisted on non-exposed probing
was mainly because Black Zetsu was afraid the other party had the exact same goal as them.
If the other side's goal was the same as theirs,
and it got exposed during probing… that would be disastrous!
It would definitely affect their grand plan.
So he stubbornly stuck to this slow, gentle style of testing.
"I still don't know whether he has any connection to that organization.
I also don't know… who exactly that organization wants to resurrect…"
...
After White Zetsu left,
Byakuya lightly pinched Hinata's philtrum.
"Wake up."
"Mm…"
Hinata groggily opened her eyes and immediately saw Byakuya right in front of her face.
"Kyaa!"
She panicked and shot upright.
Her movement was so fast she nearly headbutted Byakuya.
"I-I came to call you for dinner!"
Hinata explained in a fluster.
Byakuya didn't mind at all.
He was already used to it.
...
After Byakuya left, Naruto had been in a state of extreme excitement.
He rushed outside first and practiced Rasengan following Byakuya's instructions.
And to his shock—
The Rasengan that he had practiced for ages without success
was actually completed in one go thanks to the shadow clones!
The exhilarated Naruto proudly showed off in front of Jiraiya.
He was just about to rush off and show Tsunade right away
to win the bet.
However…
remembering the agreement with Byakuya, he forcibly held himself back.
"Mmm, I absolutely cannot let my showing off ruin Byakuya's plan!"
Naruto thought seriously.
But the more he thought, the stronger his curiosity grew.
"Just what method is he going to use to make Granny Tsunade come back and become Hokage?"
Carrying this burning curiosity,
Naruto followed Jiraiya to the izakaya that night.
He began using every trick in the book to get the two adults to drink.
The effect was quite good.
Both Jiraiya and Tsunade drank to their hearts' content.
When they returned, Naruto was too excited to fall asleep.
Lying on the floor, staring at the moon, he kept thinking.
"Just what method is he going to use…?"
He tossed and turned with this question.
It made it really hard to sleep.
But no matter how strong curiosity is,
it eventually loses to the invasion of sleepiness.
Deep into the night,
he finally passed out.
Therefore—
the next morning, he successfully overslept.
"AAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!"
Naruto stared at the alarm clock beside him, face full of panic.
"I OVERSLEPT!!"
"Shut up!"
Jiraiya grumbled and threw a pillow at him from the side.
But Naruto didn't care about such details at all.
He hurriedly changed clothes and rushed out in a panic.
Then…
Then he saw Tsunade, Shizune, his mom, and Byakuya
all sitting together eating breakfast.
Chatting and laughing, looking extremely harmonious.
"Naruto~"
Kushina spotted him and smiled, waving him over.
Here, her identity was just a accompanying ANBU member.
Therefore Tsunade hadn't realized she was Kushina.
"Byakuya!
You… you…"
Naruto ignored his mother and ran straight toward Byakuya.
He only got halfway through his sentence before suddenly remembering Tsunade was there.
He paused, sneaked a quick glance at her,
then lowered his voice.
"Did you succeed?"
"What do you think?"
Byakuya replied with a smile.
"I…"
Naruto looked at Tsunade — whose entire aura was completely different from yesterday —
then at the beaming Kushina and Shizune.
He instantly guessed the answer.
But…
There was no sense of participation!
"AAAAAARGH!
What the heck happened?!
Why did I have to oversleep?!"
Naruto roared internally.
Then he wolfed down breakfast at lightning speed
and immediately glued himself to Byakuya's side,
beginning to pester him about exactly how he did it.
Byakuya heard this and immediately looked at Naruto with great interest.
That gaze… was like looking at a specimen.
"You want to know?"
"Mm!"
Naruto nodded furiously.
"Promise me one thing and I'll tell you."
"What is it?"
Naruto suddenly became wary.
"You're not going to pull some evil prank, are you?!"
Suddenly he remembered —
not long ago, right after they graduated,
on the day the team assignments were announced.
Everyone was gathered in the classroom waiting for the results.
Naruto couldn't find Byakuya in the room, so he started arguing with Sasuke again.
In the end he even squatted right in front of Sasuke, glaring at each other.
Then at that moment—
someone behind him suddenly bumped into him.
As a result, Naruto and Sasuke accidentally kissed.
The whole class was shocked.
Of course…
if that was the end of it, it might still have been bearable.
But when Naruto turned around to vomit—
he was horrified to see Byakuya passing by the window outside,
holding a portable camera in his hand!
That moment between him and Sasuke… had been photographed!
Afterward, no matter how much Naruto and Sasuke demanded it back,
Byakuya kept up an innocent "I don't know what you're talking about" act,
face cold, completely ignoring them.
In the end they helplessly gave up on getting the photo back.
At the same time…
they also understood one thing very clearly—
Beneath that expressionless face of Byakuya's
hid a heart that occasionally indulged in very wicked mischief!
That's why right now, Naruto was extremely, extremely wary.
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