Sasuke wavered. He wasn't really sure. According to his mother, his brother had been very busy since the Chunin Exams, and today he had even left for work without eating breakfast.
Seeing Sasuke's conflicted expression, Naruto decided to add fuel to the fire, "My dad has been very busy lately, and even Kakashi-sensei has been dragged to work by him today. Itachi-aniki definitely doesn't have time. Even if you go ask him, he'll probably just say, 'Forgive me, Sasuke, maybe next time.'"
Naruto imitated Itachi's tone, dealing a critical blow to Sasuke, and even reached out to poke Sasuke's forehead.
"...Annoying." Sasuke slapped away Naruto's hand. He thought about his brother's usual behavior and found himself unable to refute it for a moment.
"I understand." Sasuke dejectedly said goodbye to Mikoto, packed his things, and went with Naruto to find Sakura.
...
"Sakura Bro!" Naruto shouted directly at Sakura's window from downstairs.
Sakura's house was in a three-story building, very close to Ino's house. Naruto had seen her and Ino on their way to school, competing with each other, and had also come to find her for missions after graduation, so he knew where Sakura lived.
"What's all the noise, early in the morning!" Sakura, still wearing her pajamas, listlessly poked her head out, then her eyes instantly locked onto Sasuke, and she suddenly woke up, "Sasuke-kun!"
Sakura quickly retracted her head, scratched her messy hair to make her hairstyle look less terrible, then put on a sweet smile and poked her head out again, "What's the matter?"
"There's a mission, we're going on a long trip." Naruto said concisely.
Sakura seemed to have taken stimulants, as if she had learned Kogoro Mouri's five-second transformation technique. In the blink of an eye, she was dressed neatly, had made herself up, and had packed her things. She jumped out of the window and cheerfully shouted back:
"Dad, Mom, I have a mission, I'm leaving!"
Naruto vaguely heard Sakura's mother's voice behind him, "How many times have I told you? Why are you jumping out of the window again? You're so rash and don't have the slightest bit of a young lady's demeanor! How will you ever..."
Naruto, satisfied with successfully inviting his teammate, Sasuke, depressed because he couldn't train with his brother, and Sakura, radiant because she could get away from her parents' nagging, were the three of them going to walk towards the village entrance? Jiraiya had said he would be waiting there.
...
Konoha Village entrance.
"That guy... is really Jiraiya-sama, one of the Three Legendary Sannin?" Sasuke asked incredulously, pointing at a lecherous white-haired old man.
"...That's him." Naruto said helplessly, "You'll get used to it."
Sakura also found it hard to believe, "How are we supposed to get used to that..."
It wasn't surprising that the two were shocked, Jiraiya's current image was really not good—squatting in the corner, holding a Crystal Ball in his hand, with a perverted smile on his face. As the scene in the Crystal Ball switched to the women's bathhouse, the old pervert was almost drooling.
"Actually, it's not that bad, isn't Kakashi-sensei pretty much the same?"
Naruto's words made Sasuke and Sakura silent. Did ninjas have to have some special hobbies to become strong? Impossible, impossible, the past Hokage were all so strong, and they hadn't heard of them having any quirks.
The two banished the strange thoughts from their minds, but they didn't know they had missed the correct answer. Most Konoha people didn't know that their respected past Hokage, the First Hokage, who was legendary and full of majesty, was actually a goofball, the Second Hokage was a brother-complex, a tsukkomi and a rights activist, the Third Hokage was a peeping tom, and the Fourth Hokage—beneath his warm, sunshine-like smile, hid a chuuni heart...
Naruto didn't plan to let Jiraiya continue "gathering material."
"Hey, Pervy Sage, we're ready!"
Jiraiya instantly put away the Crystal Ball and stood up, putting on a serious expression of a senior expert. In front of unfamiliar juniors, Jiraiya still had to pay attention to his image to some extent.
"You are Naruto's teammates? You are all very good children."
Sasuke was thoughtful, judging from the speed at which he hid the Crystal Ball, his strength was indeed stronger than Kakashi's.
Sakura politely said modestly, "Thank you for the compliment, senior."
[Inner Sakura: What a joke! I don't want to be praised by you at all, you old pervert!]
"Cough." Jiraiya didn't know if he was clearing his throat or demonstrating embarrassment, "Since you're ready, let's set off."
"Wait a minute." Naruto held out his hand to Jiraiya, "Give me the thing."
"What thing?" Jiraiya pretended to be stupid.
"That Crystal Ball, it's from the Hokage Office, right?"
"You might be mistaken."
"Is that so? Then I'll ask my mom to see if she remembers wrong."
"Is there any need for that..."
"Yes, there is." Naruto, as a good young man of the new era, didn't want to condone this kind of behavior.
Jiraiya sweated on his forehead and stuffed the Crystal Ball into Naruto's arms, "That, what I mean is there's no need, I found this, Minato, that kid, how can he just throw away such an important thing, luckily I found it."
...
After Naruto used the Flying Thunder God Technique to send a package to his old man, the group of four, one old and three young, officially embarked on the journey to find Tsunade.
Naruto was looking forward to seeing that legendary big fat sheep, and was also considering when to take advantage of Tsunade's wealth to gamble a few times and earn some food money for his wife.
...
What Naruto didn't know was that shortly after he and Sasuke left, Itachi returned home.
"Itachi? Why are you back?" Mikoto looked at her eldest son who suddenly came home and asked in confusion.
Itachi smiled and replied, "Ah, I specially took a leave of absence this morning to come back and accompany Sasuke in his training, to help him prepare for the Chunin Exams, where's Sasuke?"
"Ara..." Mikoto showed a troubled expression, "Sasuke was taken away by Naruto, saying there was a mission, he should have left the village by now."
Itachi's expression froze, "This is really...troublesome, I rarely take a day off."
Mikoto said with a smile, "It doesn't matter, Sasuke has Jiraiya-sama leading the team, there's no problem with his training, Itachi can still do other things."
"But I don't have anything else to do, I might as well go back to work." Itachi is the squad leader of the Anbu, and with his qualifications, he's about to be promoted, so he's indeed quite busy.
"There is something to do." Mikoto suddenly thought of something and smiled very gently, "Izumi has come to look for you many times, but unfortunately you're never there, even out of politeness, you should ask her out once, right?"
"That's true, but..." Itachi's plan to give his younger brother a surprise fell through, and he wasn't in high spirits.
"No buts, I know a shop, the Dango is very good, you can go and try it with Izumi, Izumi didn't invite you to eat Dango a lot when you were little, did she?" Mikoto knew her son too well, the person he valued most was his younger brother Sasuke, followed by Shisui, who was both a teacher and a friend, then his parents, and then probably only Dango could move him.
"Hmm...okay." Itachi changed into a set of casual clothes and went out.
Mikoto smiled happily at home, he's so old, but he doesn't think about finding a girlfriend, and spends all his free time with his younger brother.
It was hard to come by that Sasuke wasn't home, and you were free, see if I don't arrange everything clearly for you—the dessert shop she just introduced to Itachi wasn't the best tasting, but the furthest from the Uchiha Clan Compound.
It can only be said that parents all over the world care about their children
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