After a while, Uzumaki Naruto's brows furrowed slightly, looking somewhat conflicted.
"What is wrong with you now?" Jokichi looked up and asked.
Uzumaki Naruto opened his mouth, hesitating to speak.
After hesitating for a moment, he took a deep breath and looked at Jokichi with firm eyes.
"Jokichi, do you know why the villagers treat me like this?"
Jokichi looked at him weirdly, with a look as if he were looking at an idiot, which made Uzumaki Naruto very uncomfortable.
"Hey, what is with that look?"
Uzumaki Naruto slapped the table, protesting in dissatisfaction.
"Nothing, I just realized you are even stupider than I imagined."
"What did you say!?"
Jokichi curled his lips, casually saying while flipping the barbecue meat, "The whole village treats you like this, so naturally the whole village knows the reason. And yet you are asking me, do not you think what you just said was very redundant?"
"Eh! Then you..."
"Why I do not hate you, right!"
"How did you know what I wanted to say?"
Uzumaki Naruto looked at Jokichi, his eyes wide open.
Jokichi chuckled, put a piece of grilled pork belly into his mouth, and said while chewing, "Everything you are thinking is written all over your face."
"Is it that easy for me to expose my inner thoughts?"
"Mhm!"
"..."
Uzumaki Naruto was like a deflated balloon, his entire body going limp, unable to muster any energy.
But, in the next second, he immediately regained his energy.
"Since you know the reason, then why do not you hate me?" He stared closely at Jokichi, both nervous and confused.
"Why should I hate you?"
He looked up at Uzumaki Naruto with a weird face.
"Weren't your parents killed by the Nine-Tails? Then why do not you hate me? They all say I am the demon fox!" Uzumaki Naruto seemed a bit agitated, shouting at Jokichi.
Jokichi ignored him, but instead calmly swept his gaze around. The people in the shop were all attracted by Uzumaki Naruto's shouting, and their gazes toward him became even more disgusted.
Faintly, words like as expected of the demon fox, he has no upbringing at all could be heard.
Uzumaki Naruto also noticed the surrounding situation, immediately lowered his posture, cast apologetic glances around, and then looked back at Jokichi who was eating barbecue as if nothing had happened, asking in a low voice, "Why, just tell me!"
"There is no need to act like an underground party member."
Jokichi swallowed the meat in his mouth and curled his lips uncaringly, not knowing whether he was dissatisfied with the taste of the barbecue or unconcerned about the things Uzumaki Naruto said.
This attitude made Uzumaki Naruto very annoyed.
Forgetting the situation just now, he prepared to shout loudly.
"Then are you the demon fox?"
Jokichi's flat voice made Uzumaki Naruto swallow the words that had reached his lips.
He stared blankly at Jokichi, looking at him with disbelief and expectation, and asked, "What did you just say?"
Jokichi looked up at him and asked uncaringly, "Then are you the demon fox?"
"No, I am not."
"Then there you have it."
"But they all..."
"Five years ago, I saw the demon fox run across the ruins that buried me with my own eyes. I can be sure that the demon fox is not you."
"Is, is that so." Uzumaki Naruto sighed in relief.
Uzumaki Naruto actually did not want to mention this matter to Jokichi at all.
Because he was worried that after Jokichi knew that others treated him as the demon fox, he would also become like the others.
However, earlier on the street, Jokichi said he was his friend.
Ahem...
Alright, he did not say such words, but he said words with that meaning.
Uzumaki Naruto believed that since they were friends, there should be no concealment.
Although he was very worried that Jokichi would become disgusted or even hostile toward him after knowing this, he still told Jokichi.
Fortunately, Jokichi was not like the others.
The heavy stone in Uzumaki Naruto's heart fell, and with no more misgivings, he happily ate the barbecue.
While eating, he also shared some happy things he had encountered with Jokichi like a chatterbox.
Meanwhile, Jokichi acted as an audience, quietly listening to Uzumaki Naruto pour out his heart, responding a sentence or two from time to time.
Although their mental ages were different, which caused Jokichi to not be interested in Uzumaki Naruto's topics, this was the first time in the five years since he came to this world that someone accompanied him for his birthday.
He felt a long-lost warmth in his heart and was very happy.
...
This barbecue meal took three hours, and the street was already pitch dark.
The two said goodbye at the entrance of the shop and then went their separate ways home.
On the way, he thought about the trouble that getting close to Uzumaki Naruto would bring, and then smiled disapprovingly.
The current him was no longer the him from a month ago.
With the Perfect Sage Body, he could endure more of the Nine-Tails' chakra, and with Uchiha Shisui's Mangekyo, he could notice anyone lurking around him.
The capital he possessed was different, so the choices he could make were naturally more numerous.
Half an hour later, Jokichi returned to his small apartment.
Just after opening the door, a thin, slightly hunched body with hands clasped behind its back, standing by the window and gazing out, came into view.
Jokichi rubbed his eyes and looked at the figure inside again. After confirming it was not an illusion and his eyes were not playing tricks on him, his mouth opened wide.
"Old Man Third Hokage!?"
Hearing the exclamation, the person inside turned around.
He had white hair and a face full of wrinkles, wearing a red kimono inside and a white haori outside, with a bamboo hat bearing the character for Fire hanging at his waist, holding a smoking pipe in his hand.
It was exactly Konoha's Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen.
Seeing Jokichi, the wrinkles on Sarutobi Hiruzen's face squeezed together, revealing a kind smile. "Jokichi is back."
"No, wait, why did Old Man Third Hokage come to my place?" Jokichi's mouth was wide open, still not having recovered from the fact that the Third Hokage ran to his house in the middle of the night.
"What, am I not welcome?"
Sarutobi Hiruzen smiled and joked, the wrinkles on his face practically squeezed into a pile.
"No no no, I just did not expect Old Man Third Hokage to come to my house this late. Have a seat first, I will boil a pot of water for you."
Saying that, Jokichi picked up the kettle on the table, preparing to go to the bathroom to get water.
Sarutobi Hiruzen hurriedly raised his hand to stop him. "It is so late, there is no need."
"It is fine, I need to drink some anyway."
Jokichi filled the kettle with water, then placed it on the stove and lit the fire to boil it.
Sarutobi Hiruzen nodded slightly and said, "Coming to disturb you this late, there are mainly two matters."
"What matters?"
"One is that I wanted to say happy birthday to you."
Bullshit!
Jokichi scoffed inwardly, but on the surface, he still thanked him very happily, "Thank you, Old Man Third Hokage."
"And then the second matter, this is a gift."
Sarutobi Hiruzen took out two envelopes and two scrolls.
"This is?"
Jokichi took them in confusion, squeezed the thickness of the envelopes, and opened the very thick one. Inside was a thick stack of banknotes.
"What is the situation?"
Jokichi looked at the Third Hokage, his eyes perfectly round.
Could it be that giving red envelopes for birthdays had also become popular in this world?
But this was way too much!
Although he did not count carefully, these thousand-ryo banknotes amounted to at least tens of thousands of ryo.
One must know that Ichiraku's most ordinary ramen was only 60 ryo, and tonkotsu ramen and chashu ramen were between 70 and 80 ryo.
Tens of thousands of ryo in banknotes, even with his current appetite, was enough for a month's expenses.