"What are you looking at me like that for?" Kurama felt that Naruto was acting strange, and the look in his eyes that he looked at him had an indescribable malicious intent.
"Nothing. Get some rest early." Naruto said with a smile.
Hearing this, Kurama was immediately terrified. This was way too weird. He would rather Naruto mocked him directly, as this sudden gentleness just put him on edge.
"If you've got something to say, just say it. Don't act like this. You're scaring me."
"It's nothing. There might be a time when I'll have trouble with you in the future." He stood up and glanced at Kurama, still with that unpredictable smile on his face.
"Uh…" Kurama was a little confused.
He was just a Biju, and spent most of his time being imprisoned, so he didn't understand that there was no such thing as a free lunch in this world, and all the gifts of fate had already been secretly marked with a price.
Night fell. Having slept for two days straight, Naruto wasn't particularly tired. He decided to go out since he was in a good mood.
But it was not convenient to look for Ino or Hinata at night, so…
"You're talking about the Rinnegan?" Anko lay sprawled on her couch in a thin black nightgown, looking at him lazily, "Can you talk about such confidential information casually?"
"What, are you planning to betray the village?" Naruto said indifferently while drinking juice and biting the straw.
He shot her a sidelong glance, as if to say, 'You don't want anyone to know about your treasonous thoughts, would you?'.
Anko immediately shook her head and denied it instantly, "I have never thought about it."
"Then it's fine. If you don't betray the village, it won't be considered as leaking information." He shrugged shamelessly, "Besides, you're just a teacher at the Academy, you don't get involved in those things."
"Wait, did you tell me that on purpose? To show off?" Anko was stunned and looked at Naruto with contempt, "And here I thought you were above all that."
Naruto didn't bother denying it. There was no risk in saying this to Anko. It didn't matter if it was to show off or to brag… the most important thing was to feel good.
"What's wrong with that?" He glanced at Anko nonchalantly and said proudly, "I've done so many missions for the village, so can't I enjoy myself a little?"
"Ugh, your personality is seriously the worst. You don't do anything serious all day long."
"Hmm? Aren't you the same?" He retorted, "I really feel bad for your students at the Academy. It's really embarrassing to meet a chuunibyou teacher."
"You are the one who is a chuunibyou!" Anko's face flushed red.
"Aren't you? Remember during that time's Chunin Exams…" Naruto turned his head and was about to spill every last one of Anko's cringey moments. Seeing this, Anko panicked.
"Shut up!" She rushed over and covered Naruto's mouth with her hand.
Her face was hidden behind her messy black hair, but the soft curves of her chest clearly visible through the thin silk, and her slender waist peeked through the gaps in the fabric.
"Huh? Can't face reality?"
"Just stop talking! Damn it, I really should've punched you to death back then."
"You couldn't beat me six years ago either, you washed-up Jonin." Naruto grinned, and was soon met with more intense retaliation, including punches and kicks.
"Student, your attitude towards the teacher is very bad." Anko pressed Naruto under her body and pulled a black hair tie from her wrist.
After speaking with a little breathlessness, she bit down on the tie and swiftly gathered her loose hair into a ponytail.
"Detention." She mumbled around the hair tie, "You're staying after class for some... strict private tutoring!"
…
In the middle of the night, after finishing the private tutoring, Anko dragged her exhausted body and walked barefoot on the floor. She grabbed two chilled drinks from the fridge and randomly put together some quick snack platter.
"Here." Anko sat cross-legged on the bed, wiped the sweat off her face, and handed a can of soda to Naruto.
The latter took it and pulled it open at the same time with her calmly. With a hiss, they both raised their cans, took a swig, and set them down at the same time.
"Ahhh! So refreshing!" Anko sighed, "It's really nice to drink a bottle of iced drink after all that."
"Yeah." Naruto narrowed his eyes and looked relaxed.
"By the way, this beef is also very delicious. Although it is instant food, it tastes as good as the real thing." Anko seemed to be slowly recovering and said excitedly.
"It's indeed delicious, but the fresh ones aren't expensive, and it's not good to store so much instant food." Naruto said, even though he was the one who stored the most instant food.
His seal space was packed with boxes of instant food, most of which he never touched. He kept them just in case, as no one knew what the future held.
And if they neared expiration, he'd just donate them to Konoha's orphanage.
"I know, I know." Anko slumped against the headboard, looking drained. She took another sip of soda and sighed, "The salary at the Academy isn't high, so of course we have to be thrifty."
"Are you short of money?" He asked.
"You want to give me?" Anko asked back.
"Uh…" Naruto said with a guilty conscience, "You should've said earlier. I've already spent most of mine. I've only got a hundred thousand ryo at most."
"You're that broke?" She was stunned.
There are many things one can do with a hundred thousand ryo. One can buy hundreds of packs of instant ramen, and eat twice a day for half a year. But for a Shinobi, a Ninja Tool might cost tens of thousands of ryo.
"I'm fine, I have everything I need." He described freeloading in such a refreshing and refined way.
"Compared to you, I'm practically a rich woman!" She drew a circle in the air, laughing at herself before turning to him and asked, "Do you want me to lend you some?"
"No need." Naruto shook his head, "I've got other ways. Anyway, money is never an issue for me. If you're ever short, just let me know. I can scrape something together."
"Uh…" Anko couldn't even muster the energy to complain about this shameless guy, "Forget it, forget it. Money's never been a big deal to me anyway. As long as I have enough for myself, that's fine."
The two chatted for a while before Naruto suddenly seemed to remember something. He looked up at Anko and asked, "Shall we go on a date or something?"
"Why?" She was a little surprised and didn't understand why Naruto suddenly become so crazy.
"Welll… In our current state, shouldn't we at least go on a proper date? Otherwise, it feels kinda unfair to you." Naruto frowned and spoke after hesitating for a while.
"Not really! This is fine as it is!" Anko was a little confused, "Why would you think that? I'm not the type who likes complicating things. Dating might just end up being a hassle for both of us."
"While I do think about it sometimes, I'm not some overly demanding person either. It doesn't really matter if we don't go on a date."
"It's not like it'd be that much trouble, I forgot to tell you recently." Naruto said, "Anyway, it's a bit troublesome to explain. Let's just do this…"
Without another word, Naruto opened the Gate of the Underworld right in the middle of the room, setting the coordinates to the Land of Waterfalls.
The dead of night is usually his prime time for lazing around, either sleeping like a log or rolling over to continue sleeping like a log. But driven by some inexplicable sense of guilt, Naruto brought Anko across thousands of miles to the Land of Waterfalls.
The land was famous for its countless waterfalls, all naturally formed. Fireflies swarmed the mountains like a sea of stars, their glow surging like an empire paying tribute, which is a breathtaking sight.
"Whoa! What kind of Ninjutsu is this? Spatial teleportation?" Anko did not hesitate to express her admiration, "This should be the Land of Waterfalls, right? I've heard about it before."
"There are so many big waterfalls! Wow!" She pointed at the forest-like clusters of cascading water, her vocabulary reduced to the eloquence of a modern-day person who could only say 'damn'.
"Mhm. Pretty amazing, huh?" Naruto smirked smugly.
"Yeah, yeah, super impressive." Anko said sarcastically, "Though if you had reminded me before teleporting us, or brought some clothes with you, we wouldn't look like a pair of perverts right now!"
"Uh…" Naruto looked up at the night sky, the chilly breeze suddenly making the whole situation feel absurd.
"Eh, whatever. Tutoring can be done at any location." Anko, the easygoing free spirit, licked her lips.