007CCG Chapter 387 I Told You When You Were Asleep
Chapter 387 I Told You When You Were Asleep
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The ancestral house where Ino’s grandmother lived was quite large, though most of the courtyard had become overgrown. However, the section where her grandmother stayed was empty, yet still very clean.
At the entrance, Naruto noticed that Ino seemed a bit nervous and couldn’t help but ask in doubts, "Didn’t you come here often? Why are you still nervous?"
"Grandmother doesn\'t like outsiders." Ino glanced at Naruto with a hint of worry, biting her lip nervously.
Naruto froze for a moment, his head buzzing.
"You didn’t tell your grandmother in advance that I was coming?"
"No." She shook her head. Seeing Naruto inhale sharply, she quickly explained, "Even though Grandmother doesn’t like strangers, once someone shows up, she won’t..."
"Act tsundere?" Naruto asked tentatively.
"Don’t say it like that." Ino pulled his sleeve and lowered her voice. When the spring breeze blew, she nodded quietly again.
"Oh, that\'s not so bad then." He muttered softly.
They knocked on the door.
An elderly woman with silver hair stood at the entrance. Upon seeing Ino, her stern expression softened slightly, but when her eyes landed on Naruto next to Ino, her brows furrowed.
"Grandma, he’s..." When Ino saw the old woman frowning, her heart skipped a beat and she quickly explained.
"Uzumaki Naruto." Naruto didn\'t wait for Ino to speak, and took the initiative to introduce himself, "A friend of Ino\'s. I came to accompany her and visit you, Grandma."
He didn\'t know what to call the old woman. He couldn\'t really call her ‘old woman’. So, he simply followed Ino’s lead, figuring he’d eventually have to change the way he addressed her anyway.
The elderly woman had a slight hunch in her back, and her face, like tree bark, bore the marks of time, including a few age spots. Her silver hair was neat, but her expression remained stern.
"Grandma…" Ino pleaded softly.
"Come in, I\'ll cook for you." The old woman said, casting a glance at Naruto before turning slowly to head back inside, her steps unsteady.
"Don\'t mind her... Grandma is like this, but she’s really soft-hearted." While the old woman was walking in front, Ino pulled Naruto\'s clothes and whispered softly in his ear.
"Got it." Naruto responded.
For their first meeting, he wasn’t overly eager. Instead, he watched the old woman carefully. Combined with what Ino had said, he guessed that the old woman\'s personality was also a bit cold, so he gave up the idea of giving her a gift.
While her grandmother was preparing to cook, Naruto pulled Ino aside and said, "Convince your grandmother to sit down. I’ll do the cooking."
"Huh? You think that’s a good idea? My grandmother doesn’t even let me cook.” Ino replied in surprise, “If I insist on cooking, she’ll get angry."
"She won’t be mad. Your grandmother doesn’t want to trouble her precious granddaughter. I’m different." Naruto said with a gentle push, "If you don\'t believe me, let\'s make a bet."
"What\'s the bet?"
"Come closer, and I’ll tell you."
"No way, it’s definitely not a good thing." Ino playfully pushed him and said proudly, "I won’t bet this time. I’ll trust you just this once."
"He wants to cook?" The old woman looked a bit surprised. She looked at Ino a few times. Time seemed to have flown by. She recalled that it felt like just yesterday when Ino was only knee-high.
Ino didn\'t know that the old woman was actually reminiscing about the past. Seeing the old woman in a daze, she thought she was unhappy and immediately became nervous.
"Grandma, are you alright?"
"Hmm, if he wants to cook, let him." The old woman had no expression, but there was a slight undertone of reluctance, "Ino-chan, come sit with Grandma for a while."
"Oh, alright, grandma." Ino beamed, delighted that Naruto had guessed right.
"He really went to cook." Ino giggled as she pulled half her body back from the doorway, "Grandma, he offered to cook because he didn’t want you to work too hard."
Hearing this, the old woman looked somewhat displeased. She thought to herself, ‘I was still here, but she was already siding with an outsider?’ But she wouldn’t get mad at her granddaughter.
"When did you two meet?"
"Quite a while ago. Right, when did we first meet?" Ino looked up and thought for a while, "We knew each other when we were kids, but we really started interacting after we graduated from the Academy."
"Why didn’t you tell me before?" The old woman asked, leaning back in her chair.
"I did!" Ino’s voice dropped a bit. "It’s just... I told you when you were asleep. You can’t blame me for that."
Grandmother: "…"
From the kitchen came the clamor of cooking: the sizzling of oil, the clash of the wok, it almost sounded like the house is being renovated.
"Does he know how to cook?" The old woman couldn\'t help but asked in a stiff tone.
"He should," Ino replied as she quickly ran over to the door, peeking out. But hearing the racket, even she began to doubt herself. Swallowing nervously, she muttered, "I\'ll go and take a look."
Grandmother: "…"
Less than two minutes later, Ino rushed back. The old woman was still reclining in the chair, not having moved an inch. From afar, she asked, "What did he say?"
"He said…" Ino\'s face looked slightly uneasy, "He said there\'s no problem."
In fact, when Ino had asked him why it sounded like he was demolishing the house, Naruto had simply turned back amidst the blazing flames, flashed a cheeky grin, and shamelessly said, “How can I make my presence be felt in front of your grandma without making too much noise?”
Although Ino didn’t fully understand what antics Naruto was up to, she knew he was doing it to win her grandmother\'s favor. While she outwardly complained, inwardly, she was touched.
"What\'s his name?"
"Uzumaki Naruto, grandma." Ino said as she moved closer to comb her grandmother’s hair, her eyes shining with affection.
"He volunteered to cook?"
"Yeah!" Ino said with enthusiasm, "Actually, he’s really nice. Grandma, did you know? Once on my birthday, Naruto set off fireworks for me alone."
"Not bad." The old woman commented sparingly.
"Right? Naruto’s great! Though sometimes... he can be a bit annoying, always teasing me." Ino trailed off mid-sentence, realizing she might\'ve said too much and quickly backtracked, "But I never really get mad. I just pretend to be upset."@@novelbin@@
Ino had completely forgotten about the time she had cried on the steam train. In front of her grandmother, she only mentioned the good, carefully avoiding the fact that there was also Hinata between her and Naruto.
"Hmm." The old woman responded, nodding slightly without saying more.
Before long, the food was served.
Four dishes and a bowl of miso soup, all in the authentic Konoha style. Naruto didn’t usually cook much, but he’d observed Sakura making meals enough times to remember the basics.
Replicating it wasn’t too difficult. While the flavor didn’t quite match up to Sakura\'s, Naruto believed it was decent enough.
The old woman took a bite without saying eating, just eating slowly and methodically.
Seeing this, Naruto raised an eyebrow, thinking, ‘This grandma is definitely a bit tsundere.’
But looking at her elegant eating manner, it seemed like it didn’t matter whether the food tasted good or bad, and all went down the same. It gave off the vibe of someone who remained unshaken by wealth or poverty, praise or blame.
From this, Naruto deduced that before Ino was born, her grandmother likely lived a life of nobility. But after the events Ino had mentioned, she ended up estranged from everyone, with only her little granddaughter left for company.
As he thought about this, Naruto suddenly felt a pang of guilt, as if he were stealing the only person the old woman could talk to. But on second thought, he quickly brushed it off.
‘This was not considered stealing, Ino’s mine to begin with. And besides, she is gaining another family member: me! It’s a two-for-one deal, no, three! She’s the one benefiting, really.’
And anyway, only Ino’s grandmother got this kind of treatment. If it were someone like Hiashi, Naruto definitely wouldn’t have gone out of his way to be so nice.
"Delicious!" Ino said in surprise.