“You’ve stopped eating.”
The voice came from Chouji who sat in front of him, both of his cheeks puffed up with food. Ino was sitting next to him.
They were at Yakiniku Q.
In the two years since the war, his two friends had become quite the adults. Chouji was still as chubby as ever, but there was a masculine look in his eyes now, and he now had a goatee. Ino had been growing out her hair more and more, abandoning her ponytail for leaving it loose, and looked more like an adult compared to before as well.
“Did you eat something before you came here?” Chouji opened his mouth wide to drop in even more meat, chewing and swallowing it down.
“Shikamaru and I’ve stopped growing a long time ago, so we’re not eating ridiculously the way you do, Chouji.”
“Hey!” Chouji’s eyes widened in indignation.
Shikamaru laughed without thinking. A calming breeze was blowing through his heart. It’d been a while.
“I came specifically to eat lunch with you two, so how could I have eaten something beforehand?” So saying, Shikamaru extended his chopsticks towards a piece of beef that looked like it was about to burn.
Another pair of chopsticks intercepted him.
“Hey, that’s the meat that I put on the grill!” Chouji protested.
“Alright, alright.”