Chapter 521: "Then let me ask you, what is this?"
Chapter 521: "Then let me ask you, what is this?"
Upon hearing this, Hikari frowned slightly, a faint trace of disappointment flashing through her black eyes, but she quickly returned to a state of calm.
She did not voice any objection, simply letting out a soft "Mm," indicating she understood, though she was silently calculating something in her heart.
Otohime took in this scene entirely, her interest deepening within her golden Rinnegan.
She felt the situation before her was truly very interesting.
The few girls gathered around Naruto had a subtle atmosphere between them, yet they maintained a kind of superficial harmony; it wasn’t like what she had anticipated, where they would cause a scene or even come to blows over competing for Naruto.
When they were together, there was no sign of jealousy either.
Hanabi and Hinata were sisters, so their harmonious relationship was normal.
But that black-haired girl named Hikari and the red-haired girl named Karin had completely different hair colors; it was impossible for them to be sisters, right?
The bloodthirsty spectator attribute deep in her bones couldn’t help but feel a little regretful.
Why wasn’t there any more intense drama to watch?
Fight!
If you can’t win, I’ll give you the White Karma and lend you power!
While leading Hinata, Hanabi, and Otohime through the corridor to see the reserved guest rooms, Naruto suddenly paused, swept his gaze across the courtyard, and asked in confusion, "By the way, where is Simba?"
Only then did he belatedly realize that the little dog with yellow and white fur, which always liked to roll around and frolic in the courtyard, was nowhere to be seen tonight.
It seemed that because he had been away from home for a while, and upon returning was entangled by various matters, he hadn’t been able to notice the little guy’s absence right away.
"Simba went to the Inuzuka Clan,"
Karin explained upon hearing this, "Inuzuka Hana came and took him away. She said Simba’s father missed him and wanted to take him back to stay for a couple of days."
"Simba’s father?"
Naruto recalled for a moment.
He remembered; it was an important member of the Inuzuka Clan’s dog pack named Huangmaru, whose status in the pack was second only to the Clan Chief Inuzuka Tsume’s summoning partner, Kuromaru, making him the "second-in-command."
Dogs have strong fertility, and for a small mixed-breed dog like Simba, who looked neither like an Akita nor like a standard rural dog, giving birth to five or six at a time was common.
Huangmaru probably had quite a few offspring.
But why would Huangmaru suddenly think of Simba and specifically have Inuzuka Kiba come to take him back?
A somewhat ridiculous thought popped into Naruto’s mind: It couldn’t be that he wanted to take Simba back for breeding, right?
But Simba was a male dog, and generally speaking, male dogs needed to be around two years old to be suitable for breeding; Simba wasn’t even a year old yet.
Unable to figure it out, Naruto shook his head and decided not to dwell on it.
"Forget it, if I have time later, I’ll just go to the Inuzuka Clan and check it out; it’s not far anyway."
He continued leading the others to look at the rooms.
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The Inuzuka Clan was one of the more prosperous families in Hidden Leaf Village, with their clan grounds located in the southeast corner of the Village. Unlike other ninja clans, a relatively spacious piece of land was specifically designated near the Inuzuka Clan as a habitat and training ground for the "Ninja Dog Clan" that had signed contracts with the Family for generations.
Here, the sound of dogs barking rang out from time to time, occasionally mixed with a few words of human language.
The reason Huangmaru called Simba back was actually very simple.
He felt that it was time for Simba to systematically learn "human language."
In Huangmaru’s view, although Simba could understand quite a bit of human speech, he couldn’t speak at all, which meant his after-sales education hadn’t kept up.
As a father, he had a responsibility to handle this "little problem" for that busy Hokage-sama.
Huangmaru had numerous offspring, and Simba was just one of the ordinary ones, without any particularly outstanding Bloodline or talent.
If one had to say there was anything special, it was that he was lucky enough to be chosen by Inuzuka Hana, who was leading people to select dogs at the time, and given to Uzumaki Naruto, who hadn’t yet become Hokage.
The Ninja Dog pack that had signed contracts with the Inuzuka Clan was naturally also regarded as a part of Hidden Leaf Village as a whole.
Now, Naruto was the Sixth Hokage.
In order to help the Inuzuka Clan maintain and deepen their good relationship with the Hokage, Huangmaru decided to take action himself and properly teach this son.
Previously, Simba was being taken care of by Uzumaki Mito, so Huangmaru hadn’t been able to bring him back, but now the time was right.
Simba was undoubtedly lucky; within the dog pack, learning human language required not only talent but also a dog willing to teach.
After all, a dog’s vocal cords were different from a human’s, and if one fumbled through it on their own, they might never be able to speak human words in their entire life.
At this moment, in a quiet open space within the Inuzuka Clan grounds, Huangmaru—a sturdy Ninja Dog with brown-yellow fur and sharp eyes—was sitting on the ground, with a few fruits placed in front of him: an apple, a banana, and a peach.
Simba was squatting opposite him, looking innocently at this father he hadn’t seen in a long time.
Huangmaru raised his front paw and pointed quite seriously at the apple: "This is an apple."
Then he pointed at the banana: "This is a banana."
His voice was deep, but his pronunciation was surprisingly clear; he had clearly mastered the skills of communicating with humans.
Next, Huangmaru’s paw pointed to the peach on the side, looking at Simba with burning eyes: "Then let me ask you, what is this?"
Simba’s pair of black, round little eyes widened abruptly, and he looked at his majestic father in disbelief, his dog face seemingly filled with question marks: "Do you want to hear what you are saying?"
"Woof woof! (Peach!)"
Simba answered in the most instinctive dog language.
Huangmaru was very dissatisfied, patting the ground with his paw and emphasizing: "Speak human language!"
Simba was simply speechless, tilting his head, his eyes filled with accusation: "Listen to what you are saying yourself?"
"Who teaches speaking like you?"
"Starting by pointing at objects and then directly asking questions?"
"Shouldn’t learning human language start with the basics, like how to mobilize a dog’s vocal organs to imitate those strange syllables?"
He looked at Huangmaru, who was serious and looked like a "strict father and master teacher," then looked at the fruits on the ground, and finally drooped his ears in resignation, trying to squeeze a strange gasping sound from his throat to imitate his father’s pronunciation, but ended up only making a series of indistinct "Awoo... gurgle..." sounds.
Huangmaru frowned, seemingly feeling that teaching this stupid son was a long and arduous task.
If it really didn’t work, he would talk to Tsume; the task of getting closer to the Hokage should be left to Hana.
When Hana brought the Hokage over before, the two seemed to have a very good relationship, and Hana should also be a beauty among humans; at least he had seen many men stare at Inuzuka Hana and be unable to move their feet several times before.
In the distance, inside the kennel, other Ninja Dogs peeked at the comical scene of the "father-son teaching" over here; some grinned as if laughing, while others yawned, unimpressed.
Unlike the leader Kuromaru, Huangmaru was purely a warrior; letting him fight was fine, but teaching someone—wasn’t that just delaying the child?
But since Simba was Huangmaru’s own son, how he messed around was his own business, so let him be.
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