Under Karin's astonished gaze, Aoba was driven out of the house by the embarrassed and angry Uzuki Yugao.
"Aoba-nii, has Yugao-nee not calmed down yet?", Originally repairing the courtyard, Karin immediately ran over to ask.
Aoba resumed his serious demeanor, "Actually, she's already not angry anymore."
"If she's not angry, why did she drive you out?", Karin didn't believe it.
"She was just being shy."
"Shy? Why shy?", Karin was puzzled.
Aoba leaned forward and lightly tapped Karin on the cheek.
Karin was stunned for a moment, then her eyes turned into mosquito-coil shapes, her face flushed red, and she stammered for quite a while without being able to speak.
"You see, this is being shy, right?"
"I... I, I...", Karin was shy.
"Alright, I've got something to do, so I'll be leaving first," Aoba patted Karin's head, saw that she was still in a daze, sighed in relief, and quickly left.
———
"Sigh~ I miss Aoba so much," Ino sat on the grass by the river, facing the breeze, lost in thought.
Hearing this, Shikamaru revealed a dead-fish-eyed look, then also spaced out.
Choji, meanwhile, was eating potato chips on his own.
Sarutobi Asuma, seeing Ino's expression, unexpectedly thought of himself and could only sigh inwardly.
"Today's combat training ends here. There shouldn't be any missions for the next few days. You guys should take a good rest," After saying this, he turned to leave, he had to go try asking Kurenai out again.
See if they could grab a meal together.
Hearing this, Ino suddenly snapped back to her senses, stood up, and looked at Sarutobi Asuma with a face full of expectation, "Asuma-sensei, how about we do a joint mission with Aoba's team?"
"Didn't you want to pursue Kurenai Sensei? This is also a good opportunity, right?", Ino tempted Sarutobi Asuma.
"This…", Sarutobi Asuma couldn't help scratching his head, "But Kurenai said their team isn't planning to take any missions recently."
"Asuma-sensei, this is… huh?", Ino had originally intended to keep persuading him, but then suddenly reacted, "Aoba and the others have already returned?"
Sarutobi Asuma nodded, "Kurenai's team returned the day before yesterday…"
He was going to continue speaking, but upon seeing Ino suddenly freeze in place, as if all the color drained from her, he closed his mouth and walked away shaking his head and sighing.
Shikamaru was already starting to feel like this was trouble.
"Aoba clearly said… he would come find me first thing…", Ino muttered with a bit of grievance, then sat back down on the grass.
Her face full of dejection.
In the end, she began pulling out the grass in the lawn, as if that grass were Aoba.
While pulling, she muttered to herself, "Damn Aoba! How dare he not keep his word! He must've gone to hang out with Tenten and the others! Even if he comes to find me, I won't pay attention to him!"
Shikamaru and Choji exchanged a glance. They were preparing to slip away, if it were a fight, they'd help out.
But this kind of thing, they couldn't get involved in lightly.
Just as the two stood up, they were surprised to see a figure on the riverbank.
Shikamaru blurted out, "Aoba!"
Then he felt a breeze pass by.
Ino, who was pulling grass just a moment ago, had vanished and now appeared in front of Aoba.
"..."
"Today's wind is really noisy," Shikamaru muttered, then turned and pointed at a supermarket in the distance, speaking to Choji, "Choji, I heard that supermarket over there has half-price potato chips."
"Really?", Choji's eyes lit up immediately.
"I'll take you," Shikamaru rested his hands behind his head, then said to Aoba, "Aoba, we've got something to do, we'll leave you two to chat."
"Aoba, treat you to potato chips next time," Choji also waved to Aoba, then dragged Shikamaru and ran off.
Aoba was a bit dumbfounded, 'How did I never realize these two had such joker attributes?'
"Asuma-sensei said you guys came back the day before yesterday?", Ino's somewhat gloomy voice rang out.
Seeing Ino's aggrieved expression, Aoba opened his mouth, but didn't explain. He simply nodded.
"Didn't you say you'd come find me first thing?", Ino pressed on.
With an apologetic look, Aoba helped brush aside a few strands of hair on her forehead, "Sorry, I broke my word. So, as compensation, Ino, you can ask me to do anything today."
Ino was slightly stunned when she heard this, "Really anything?"
"Uh… anything," Aoba hesitated a bit. He suddenly thought of last night with Yugao.
'Ino won't ask something like that… right?'
"Hmph! Then you'd better be mentally prepared today," The corners of Ino's mouth lifted slightly, "Close your eyes first."
"Okay," Since he'd agreed, Aoba certainly wouldn't wimp out.
He closed his eyes, and the surrounding world was filled only with the soft rustling sound of the wind.
And Ino's gradually quicker breathing.
As if taking deep breaths…
The next moment—
"Mmm…", Two warm lips pressed against his.
Aoba instinctively opened his eyes, just in time to see Ino's nervous and shy face.
After a long time.
The two sat together on the grass by the riverbank. Ino, her face slightly flushed, gently rested her head on Aoba's shoulder.
"Didn't expect it to taste like oranges…"
"That's because I ate an orange before coming here," Aoba replied with a smile.
"So, was it your first time, Aoba?"
"Uh…"
The smile on Aoba's face immediately froze.
The next moment, a hand had pinched the soft flesh at his waist.
'So, this must be a girl's special ability.'
"Say! Who was it?", Ino's tone turned rare and serious, like an intense interrogation.
"It was Yugao-nee," Aoba immediately answered.
"You… you two…", Ino's eyes widened.
"That was when I was a kid…", Aoba explained with great seriousness,n"It was just that time."
Ino was silent for a while, "I feel like you're pretending to be dumb, Aoba."
"Abba abba~"
"Haha~ I'm hungry!"
"Then let's get something to eat."
The two didn't have a proper meal. Instead, they wandered from one street to another.
Eating all sorts of street snacks.
Trying out all kinds of roadside games.
In the end, they also watched Princess Gale, which Aoba had already seen.
The two held hands the whole way, unwilling to let go, both unable to hold back happy smiles.
All the previous negative emotions caused by various reasons seemed to have been completely forgotten by the girl.
Just like that, laughing and playing, enjoying the moments of having him by her side.
Finally, at dusk, when it was time to part.
The girl seemed to realize something, stopped at the street corner, and looked up, gazing blankly at Aoba.
"Did you have fun today?", Aoba asked with a smile.
"I did! But it feels like something is still missing," Ino replied with a smile as well.
Aoba said nothing, and leaned in proactively.
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