There was a knock on the door, and Naruto slowly got up from the bed. By the time he opened the door, the server had already left. There was a small food cart outside the door, with a different dish on each layer.
At the same time, he noticed that the room across the hall had also ordered room service. A small food cart was quietly placed at the door, and the door handle was turned. It seemed the other party was coming out as well.
Naruto suddenly felt a wave of awkwardness and quickly thought about retreating to avoid running into them. But it was too late. The door across the hall opened, revealing a face he hadn’t expected.
Mei stared at Naruto across the hall, and suddenly remembered that she seemed to have seen that man before, in a teahouse, where he had been laughing with two girls.
‘Ugh, what a good-looking scumbag.’
Seeing the way Mei was staring at him, Naruto suddenly realized that he was still disguised as Sasuke. He felt relieved and boldly stared back at her.
His gaze swept over Mei’s figure like a scanner, but his unscrupulous gaze didn’t seem to bother her.
"Who are you?" Mei asked.
Hearing this, Naruto looked at her a few more times, and the doubts in his heart gradually disappeared. Although he had taken on Sasuke’s appearance, he had changed his clothes and hairstyle.
The Five Kage didn’t pay much attention to the specific appearances of Missing-nin from other villages, and they only knew their names.
As long as Naruto didn’t reveal the Uchiha name, it would be easy to bluff his way through.
"Uh... Choji."
"Choji?" Mei instinctively gave him a scrutinizing look, "You don’t look like someone without a surname. Are you from outside the village? Just a first name?"
…
Konoha.
"Achoo! Achoo!! Ah... Achoo!!" Choji sneezed several times in a row. His head was a little confused and he thought to himself, ‘This is really strange.’
"Choji, what’s wrong?" Shikamaru glanced at him while holding his tea.
The two were sitting around a table drinking tea, with three cups set out. The third person hadn’t arrived yet. Just as Choji was about to speak, the sliding door was pulled open.
"Sorry, I'm late."
Ino walked in, not bothering with formalities in front of her two friends, and took a seat. She picked up her teacup and turned to Choji.
"I could hear you all the way down the hallway, Choji."
"Strange, I rarely sneeze," Choji said, scratching the back of his head, looking a bit frustrated, "Unless someone’s talking about me, but I’ve never offended anyone."
"But if someone’s planning to backstab me, the list of suspects isn’t long. There’s probably only one person left."
After saying this, Choji squinted his small eyes and turned to look at Ino, staring at her.
"Don’t point fingers at me. Why would I want to mess with you? We’ve been friends for years. No way!" Ino waved her hands dismissively.
"I'm not talking about you. You wouldn’t mess with me, but that guy in your family... that’s another story." Choji said with a firm expression.
Ino immediately understood what he meant, and was somewhat speechless. However, she could not find a way to argue.
Based on her understanding of Naruto, she knew he was exactly the type to do something like that.
Well, no words needed. She had chosen this herself.
"Speaking of which, why didn’t Naru… I mean, why didn’t he come back with Lee and Neji?" Shikamaru took a sip of tea and suddenly asked.
"I don’t know. Ever since Kakashi-sensei became Hokage, he’s rarely come back." Ino sighed, her expression growing complicated.
"He never liked the village much to begin with. Now that the village is stable, and with the whole Danzo situation resolved, after Tsunade-sama left, Naruto found an excuse to leave too."
Hearing this, Shikamaru frowned.
"Tsunade-sama doesn't dislike the village, she just didn’t like staying in the village as it is now. The village they remember only exists in the past. After losing so many people they cared about in the war, staying in the village would only make them sadder."
He didn’t mention Naruto, but both Choji and Ino understood what he meant.
Naruto never liked the village. After everything he’d been through, he’d never once talked about protecting the village or anything like that. He didn’t seem to have much goodwill toward the villagers either, only caring about his friends.
But after all, their life experiences were different. Not everyone could embrace the Will of Fire that Konoha preached.
Now Naruto just avoided the village, following Jiraiya’s path… only coming back when absolutely necessary.
"He... he doesn’t even have a house in Konoha, even though he has the money." Ino sighed, "When I asked him where he wanted to live before, he always dodged the question."
"Does Naruto not plan to come back to the village at all?" Choji asked, his small eyes narrowing, his expression a bit downcast.
"It's hard to say what will happen in the future." Shikamaru said, putting down his teacup.
…
Kirigakure, the hotel hallway.
Mei stared at him for a good ten seconds, making Naruto sweat nervously. He was starting to think he’d been exposed.
Just as he was considering whether to make a run for it, Mei finally spoke, "You're so good-looking. It’s rare to see someone without a surname."
Hearing this, Naruto secretly breathed a sigh of relief. But he didn’t try to overexplain, knowing that saying too much could backfire, and Mei herself is not a fool.
If he accidentally said something wrong or left a loophole, it would be a case of trying to be clever and ending up worse off.
"Yeah." He nodded.
The two of them left it at that, then pulled their food carts, closed the doors, and began to feast.
‘This is ridiculous.’ Naruto complained silently in his mind while eating, "I haven’t found Chojuro, but I ran into Terumi Mei. It would be great if she had the Ninja Sword in her hands."
But since they’d crossed paths and he’d managed to bluff his way through, Naruto didn’t dwell on it.
Even if Mei saw through his disguise and wanted to bring people to catch him, they wouldn't be able to do so.
Long before checking into the hotel, he had set up a Flying Thunder God’s kunai around him. It would be difficult for the Kirigakure’s Shinobi to catch him. After all, they’d be lucky if they could even keep up with him in terms of Taijutsu.