Ino gave the little fatty a roll of her eyes and retorted, "That wild boar was also very cute, didn't you eat it quite happily too..."
Choji was completely dazed... A wild boar? Cute? How could a wild boar be associated with the word 'cute'?
Shikamaru nudged his little companion with his elbow and secretly pointed at Ino, hinting:
Do you dare say this little wild boar isn't cute?
Choji turned his head again: "Shikamaru, why are you nudging me?"
The adults watched with amusement. Akimichi Choza, Nara Shikaku, and Inoichi Yamanaka laughed boisterously and unrestrainedly. The wives laughed more reservedly but couldn't help themselves... This silly little fatty Choji was quite endearing, and the other two little ones each had their own unique characteristics. The daily life of the new 'Ino–Shika–Chō' would surely be very exciting.
"It's so nice... When we were kids, it seemed..." Nara Shikaku recalled his childhood—they basically didn't have a childhood—they went to the battlefield early. Although the three clans mostly handled intelligence, strategy, and reconnaissance work and rarely fought on the front lines, how could there be a childhood on the battlefield? "I really envy them!"
"Yeah, Ino is a good kid. She's got a quick tongue and is efficient with her work... especially her cooking..."
Akimichi Choza didn't hold back his praise... Inoichi Yamanaka said, "Girls always mature a bit earlier than boys... Ino likes mathematics, so she's calmer in personality."
Inoichi Yamanaka had the face of an 'old father' who looked like he was about to burst with pride. Nara Shikaku gave a very disdainful 'tch'.
After the three families had eaten their fill, they split into three groups: the men talked with the men, the women talked with the women, and the children played with the children. They didn't interfere with each other, yet it was harmonious.
Ino pulled Shikamaru and Choji aside to begin their 'conspiracy'—
"Choji, do you want to eat bunny? Stewed with mushrooms, fresh and fragrant, with some chili. Especially the rabbit head, the taste is even better..."
Hitting the snake at its seven-inch mark, Ino knew exactly how to make Choji defect. Things like 'cute' had zero presence in the face of 'delicious'.
After a mouth-watering description, the little fatty shamelessly stood on Ino's side:
"Right now we've just finished eating, no rush. Even if we're going to eat bunny, we have to wait until tonight... So, our plan is roughly divided into the following two steps: one, successfully lure the bunny out; two, kill the bunny unexpectedly—once it's dead, no one will have any objections to eating it..." It really lived up to the word 'rough', as it was divided into exactly two steps.
Shikamaru pondered for a while and also offered his own suggestion: "Luring the bunny can be carried out by Choji and Fat Aunt. I saw that Fat Aunt seems to want to eat it too. Just right, one for each person. We'll talk to Fat Aunt alone in a bit..."
"Then, leave killing the bunny to me!"
...As for how to kill it, Ino had already designed it. Isn't there the idiom 'waiting for a rabbit to hit a tree stump'? If the rabbit hits a tree or a rock by itself and dies, what does that have to do with the three of them?
As for how to make it hit a tree or a rock... isn't that so easy!
...When evening came, the three little ones re-confirmed the plan and then split into two groups to execute it:
The little fatty successfully caught a little rabbit, but the little rabbit 'accidentally' escaped. As a result, in its panic and lack of direction, it slammed its head into the rock Akimichi Choza had sat on and died. This hit was so powerful that the entire rabbit bounced back a foot.
Fat Aunt had also been turned long ago. The rabbit she lured over seemed to forget the rabbit in her own hands out of disbelief when the little fatty lost his rabbit and it hit the rock and died.
And then... her rabbit also successfully slammed its head into a rock and died.
Mrs. Akimichi had a face full of pity, but her eyes couldn't hide her craving for rabbit stewed with mushrooms. "Oh, what a pity... These two rabbits couldn't be a couple, could they? Seeing Choji's rabbit die, it chose to die for love?"
She was truly as clever as a horse, coming up with such a tragic love story on the fly... Tears of sympathy almost flowed out of the corners of her mouth unprofessionally.
Nara Shikaku rolled his eyes and said lazily, "Oh well, since the rabbits are already dead, don't let them go to waste. Let's eat them!"
Inoichi Yamanaka said, "Don't waste the rabbit skins either... Skin them neatly. I plan to make a pair of gloves for my wife." After saying that, he felt it was somewhat inappropriate, after all, there were the wives of his two best friends, so he asked the two of them, "How about we hunt a few more rabbits? How about a pair of rabbit skin gloves for each of the wives?"
"Hmm... Inoichi is right!"
"Just two rabbits aren't enough to eat anyway. Let's hunt more!"
Akimichi Choza stood up, kicked Nara Shikaku, and dragged him along. In a short while, they came back with a string of rabbits—
All dead rabbits.
The three little kids had worked so hard to successfully turn the cute rabbits into edible ingredients; he, as an uncle, couldn't hold them back.
Mrs. Yamanaka and Mrs. Nara looked at each other, both annoyed and amused. It turned out that out of the nine people, only the two of them were true rabbit lovers—the little fatty was fine before, but he was turned in less than half a day.
Inoichi Yamanaka, Akimichi Choza, and Nara Shikaku did it themselves, carefully peeling off each rabbit skin completely.
The rabbit skins were stretched, opened, and hung on high branches. Looking at these flawless white rabbit skins, Yamanaka Nobuko thought the fur looked quite beautiful. If they were made into a style similar to a sunscreen mask, they would definitely be warm to wear in winter, especially the fur on the surface, which looked comfortable... Then dye some parts to create a blush similar to eye shadow, and make eyebrows... "Ino, how about Mommy makes a sunscreen mask out of rabbit skin for you?"
Good things are naturally for the daughter.
Ino:...Are you sure it won't suffocate me?
...The firewood crackled under the burning of the flames. Pot after pot of rabbit stewed with mushrooms bubbled in the soup pots. The spicy fragrance spread in the night. Some moths and insects flew constantly around. Inoichi Yamanaka took out some insect-repelling powder and sprinkled it into the fire, so the insects didn't dare to approach, forming a hollow zone of about three zhang.
"The Aburame family's insect-repelling powder is very useful." Inoichi Yamanaka showed everyone the treasure in his hand and then stuffed it back into his bag.
The Aburame Clan's presence in Konoha is transparent, but they have a close relationship with the Yamanaka Clan, just like the Ino–Shika–Chō.
Since there is Ino–Shika–Chō, there is naturally another combination called 'The Insect-Pig', which is not inferior to Ino–Shika–Chō.
It's just that the Akimichi and Nara families have little contact with the Aburame, limited to a nodding acquaintance like 'a friend of a friend'.
The insects crawling in and out of the Aburame Clan members' bodies at any time are truly hard to accept... Even if one isn't afraid, it's inevitably uncomfortable to look at.
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