24 Making some 'Friends'

The academy spars ended, in which I won in the girls section, with some difficulty.

As if!

Anyway, after that, we were given lunch break, and it was time to make some 'friends'. 

"Hey Naruto."

"Hmm?"

"Let's sit besides Shikamaru and Chouji."

"Who?"

I blinked several times. It seems like Naruto doesn't care enough to remember names of the people sensei shouted. 

I gestured to them, and Naruto said, "Pineapple twig and Chubby doodles?"

Oh? What interesting nicknames. 

"Yes. The chubby guy is the clan heir of Akimichi, so I am sure he will show some appreciation to my food and I can get a good deal."

"Oh."

Naruto seems a bit down for some reason...

Anyway, we three, including Sakura who was following me like a duckling, sat besides a sleeping Shikamaru and eating Chouji. 

I brought out the bentos I made for Naruto and myself. Rice, fried chicken leg with gravy, and four Rasogullas for each of us, straight out of my fridge. They actually don't make the industrial polished sugar, but just dried sugarcane juice with some process that it's like gur, but cut in small pieces like sugar cubes. So it is less harmful, and I make the fried dishes in pure ghee. Plus, it's okay to eat more carbohydrates and fats here since we do so much work. 

Sakura also opened her bento, and it had a normal japanese rice, veggies and curry. 

Chouji's head snapped towards us, to our bentos more specifically, and I could see his mouth watering. 

"Want some?"

Naruto offered, Chouji nodded. As Naruto gave him one rasogulla, I gave one to Sakura too. Then some fried chicken pieces were exchanged with veggies from Sakura and dango sticks from Chouji. Sharing food like this would have been unimaginable in my previous world after Covid, and I just hope something like that doesn't happen in this world too. 

"Huh!? What's this!? It's so delicious!"

"Hehe! Shiori-chan makes me food like this everyday."

Naruto gloated. Aww Naruto, so smug!

"Chouji-san, would it be alright if you put a good word for me to your father? I was hoping if I could sell the recipe to the Akimichi-"

"It will be done."

He gave me a determined thumbs up, still eyeing our bentos. 

"Then when will your father be free? If you want, I can deliver a sample for all the recipes I want to sell directly to the Akimichi clan tomorrow."

"We can always make time for tasty food!"

"Thank you Chouji-san."

"Just call me Chouji! Hey Shikamaru, introduce yourself! Hey! Wake up!"

Shikamaru yawned, and grumbled about being woken up. He just said "Nara Shikamaru." and went back to sleep, not before mumbling 'what a drag'. 

"Sorry about him. He is just tired."

Chouji defended his friend, not calling him lazy or anything. 

I just smiled, "I was tired as well. Sleep is very important."

"Yeah! Shiori-chan gets REALLY pissed when someone-"

"Naruto."

Naruto, you shouldn't blab like that~

"H-haha, I was just saying that I also like to sleep."

"Yes. Sleeping is very important."

Naruto, scared from me for some reason, started talking with Chouji, and started arguing whether Ramen or barbeque is better. Now that I think about it, besides Ichiraku Ramen, no restaurant has ever allowed us to enter when I am with Naruto. 

And for some weird reason, some rumours start spreading about them that they use stale food some days later. I really wonder why. Though we haven't ever tried Yakinu Q, which is an Akimichi restaurant, and the only ones we tried to enter were some civilian ones, so there was no repercussions of those places getting some rumours. 

Speaking of Ichiraku Ramen, it has become very popular since Shin-chan eats Ichiraku Ramen instead of Choco-chips. 

I took no advertisement fees for that because RamenGuy is one of the good guys, and has even advised me on how to make certain food whenever I asked.

RamenGuy is the GOAT. 

Anyway, the break ended, and we were free to play for the rest of the day. 

"Naruto, play with Shikamaru and Chouji, I will play with Sakura."

"But-! fine."

Naruto became down again, but obeyed me and started playing with those two.

Playing with Shikamaru will make him smarter afterall, so its necessary.

"Sakura, come with me, I will give you a makeover!"

She just nodded, and as I held her hand, she followed me like a duckling. Finding a place where not many children were there, I opened my bagpack, and with my saliva, opened the secret storage seal in which I store my makeup kit. 

Not being able to use chakra makes things a lot harder. It's a good thing that I am able to use my saliva to open the seals I made, because drawing out blood everytime will be a pain and may even lead to infections. 

Not that I like licking my seals. And I certainly can't use paper bombs like that. 

Sakura was surprised, but too shy to ask. Really, she looks nothing like that brash bitch who punches Naruto for no reason right now. 

As I pulled her bangs from her forehead, she swatted my hands away, and held her bangs. 

"Please don't!"

Sigh. I held her chin, to look in my eyes. She was on the verge of crying, so I Talk-no-Jutsu'ed her a little. 

"Sakura, don't be shy because of your forehead. It signifies that you are smarter than normal people, and you know what is better than a beauty? A beauty with a good brain. Will you let me do my work?"

She held her tears, and looked at me expectantly. Sigh, small kids are really petty monsters. They bully others for the lamest things. 

She turned her head, and mumbled in a small voice, "O-okay."

So I started doing my job. I lifted her bangs and tried different headbands and clips on her. I mostly used purple, golden, silver, white and black colors, and as I tried them all, dark purple, went well with her pink hair. 

Then I tried various purple bindis I made in pass-time, which I don't really use because they don't really suit me. They have very small kanjis for barrier, and I was thinking of making them for protection. But it didn't work for me because they will need chakra and Naruto doesn't have enough chakra control to fill them up. 

A diamond-shaped bindi looked good on her, just like the Byakugou. Next are the earrings- oh. She doesn't have ear piercings. I will have to convince her to get them later.

Then I applied some Hinoki oil to her hair, to make her hair more shiny. Her hair in the Shippuden looked kind of ugly, unlike in Boruto. 

And lastly, I did some eye-brow work on her, and she winced due to the threads.

It's not that painful...

And in about half an hour, my work was done. I gave her a mirror, and she was surprised. 

"How pretty..."

"See? Remember this, most of the girls call other girls ugly because they are jealous. They must have been jealous of your pink hair and cute face. So forget about them, and focus on yourself, okay?"

"B-but I can't keep-"

"Keep them. My gift for you. Afterall, you are my friend now."

Cheap worker/bodyguard/family doctor.

She became incredibly happy, and hugged me.

"Thank you!"

I should thank you, bodyguard 1. 

Now, I have to ship her with Shikamaru somehow. Well, I already have a plan. I won't let my precious subordinate become a single mother with Sasuke as her husband.