nma and Jiraiya's conversation continued for quite so ti, ranging from the flavor differences of ran across various countries to strange tales and even delving into the folk customs of so minor nations.
Jiraiya, seemingly unrestrained, was actually carefully probing with every sentence, trying to catch any clues from the mysterious boy's words.
nma, on the other hand, responded with ease, his words witty and his insights unique, as if he were truly just a well-traveled food enthusiast.
Ajisai sat silently to the side, eating the bowl of ordinary instant ran in small bites.
She watched the two go from strangers to chatting happily, the atmosphere so harmonious it was like old friends who had known each other for years. She felt sothing was odd.
'This guy had a maturity beyond his years, and while the white-haired old man seed lecherous and slovenly, clearly not a good person.'
Their conversation was sothing she couldn't follow, but she instinctively felt it was unusual.
Finally, the bowls were empty.
nma put down his chopsticks and sighed contentedly. "Thanks for the al, boss. The taste was average, but having a hot bowl of noodles on a rainy night is a pleasure in itself."
nma placed a few crumpled Land of Rain banknotes on the counter.
The money was more than enough for two bowls of noodles.
Jiraiya imdiately put on his rcenary shopkeeper smile, accepting the money, but his gaze remained fixed on nma. "I'm glad the custor is satisfied! Seeing you two are so young, be careful out so late at night."
"Keep that advice for yourself. You don't seem to be a local either, shopkeeper," nma replied with a smile.
Jiraiya's heart grew increasingly uneasy. 'Has this guy seen through my disguise?'
Ajisai quickly put down her chopsticks and obediently followed behind nma, her small figure appearing sowhat frail under the dim light.
Just as the two were about to step out of the toad-disguised ran shop, Jiraiya couldn't hold back any longer and called out to nma's retreating back, "Hey, kid! After talking for so long, I still don't know your na?"
nma's steps paused at the doorway, the sound of rain clearly audible from outside.
He didn't turn around, only tilted his head slightly, a curve forming at the corner of his mouth. His voice cut clearly through the rain:
"My na is Ichiraku. Just a passing foodie."
Ajisai blinked her big eyes. Though she felt this na was definitely fake, out of politeness, she softly added, "I... I'm Ajisai."
As her words fell, nma pushed open the shop door and led Ajisai into the continuous curtain of rain outside.
Inside the shop, the smile on Jiraiya's face instantly froze.
"Ichiraku...?" Jiraiya watched their backs disappear outside the door, then shook his head helplessly. "What a flimsy fake na. ntioning Konoha and Ichiraku Ran repeatedly... this kid is definitely doing it on purpose!"
He imdiately realized that not only had the other seen through his disguise, but he had also used this thod to highlight his knowledge of Konoha. It was practically a silent mockery.
However, the other party had shown no hostility from start to finish, which only confused him more.
He could feel that the boy who called himself 'Ichiraku' had an indescribable familiarity.
But this feeling of being completely seen through while knowing nothing about the other party made even this experienced Sannin feel a trace of unease.
Just then, the voice of the Mise Gama, filled with gravity and suspicion, sounded within the ran shop: "Jiraiya! That kid who just left is definitely not right!"
"Huh? What is it?" Jiraiya collected his thoughts, raising an eyebrow.
"The aura on him... is very, very dangerous!" The Mise Gama's voice carried a barely perceptible tremble. "Although he concealed it extrely well, the mont he put down the money and his attention wavered slightly, I still sensed a trace of a leaked dangerous aura..."
"Icy, violent, full of destructiveness, like... like facing a Tailed Beast!"
"Even more heart-palpitating than an ordinary Tailed Beast!"
"Tailed Beast?!" Jiraiya was first stunned, then laughed dismissively. "Mise Gama, aren't you too nervous? How old does that kid look? How could he be a Tailed Beast? Is so village's Jinchuriki just wandering around..."
His laughter cut off abruptly, his expression changing drastically as he rembered the top-secret information from Hiruzen, relayed via the Mount Myoboku communication toad not long ago.
After Kumogakure was raided by Shura and suffered heavy losses, they had stord over to confront Konoha, adamantly insisting that Shura was the Nine-Tails' Jinchuriki.
At the ti, including Hiruzen, all of Konoha's higher-ups believed this was Kumogakure making unreasonable trouble, trying to fra Konoha. After all, the Nine-Tails was clearly sealed inside Naruto, that was an indisputable fact.
But... what if the Mise Gama's perception was correct?
That young man exuding a dangerous aura comparable to a Tailed Beast...
Kumogakure's accusations... the various rumors about the mysterious ruler Shura of the Land of Stars... the blue-eyed young man unusually familiar with the customs of various countries, especially Konoha and Ichiraku Ran...
Countless clues suddenly connected at this mont, forming a guess that made Jiraiya's heart stop!
"Could it be... that kid just now... is Shura himself?!" He muttered in a low voice, his pupils contracting slightly in shock. "But... what is Shura doing in Agakure? And with a seemingly weak Agakure's Genin girl by his side?"
'It couldn't possibly be... to pick up girls, could it?!'
A sense of imnse absurdity and deeper suspicion washed over him.
He suppressed the thought as soon as it arose.
'Impossible. The other party's behavior, while seemingly casual...'
'This guy who stirred up the Ninja World and gave the great nations headaches, infiltrating Agakure from afar, must have a more important purpose.'
Before Jiraiya could sort out his chaotic thoughts, the ran shop door opened again, the wind chi under the eaves ringing clearly.
Two Ninja wearing standard Agakure uniforms and dripping straw raincoats walked in. As they hung their dripping coats on the rack by the door, they called out boldly, "Boss, what's good to eat? This damned weather, we're starving!"
Jiraiya's eyes instantly sharpened, temporarily suppressing the guess about Shura.
He once again piled on that overly enthusiastic smile, as if the shock from monts ago had never happened.
"Oh oh! Welco!" He rubbed his hands together, coming out from behind the counter, his tone carrying a strange note. "Today... I specially recomnd this shop's [Interrogation Set al]! Guaranteed to make you... rember it for life!"
The two Agakure's Ninja were taken aback by the strange dish na, before they could react to what it ant, they saw the 'shopkeeper' in front of them suddenly form hand seals!
"Release!"
Bang!
A puff of white smoke flashed, and the diocre shopkeeper appearance and attire instantly vanished, replaced by a heroic figure with wild white hair and a red short coat.
Jiraiya!
"You... you are?!" The two Agakure's Ninjas' pupils constricted sharply, instantly recognizing this famous face in the Ninja World. Terror instantly spread across their faces.
They almost instinctively turned to flee, only to find the ran shop door tightly closed, unmovable no matter how hard they tried!
"Easy to co in, hard to get out," Jiraiya's voice held a hint of mockery.
The next mont, the entire interior of the ran shop began to twist and distort violently!
The warm lights went out. The wooden walls and tables and chairs seed to co alive, squirming and rapidly turning into disgusting pink flesh walls covered in mucus and folds!
A strong, sour, corrosive sll filled the air. The ground beneath their feet beca soft and adhesive.
"Wh-what is this?!"
"M-monster!"
The two Agakure's Ninja scread in terror. Their limbs were as if stuck in a swamp, tightly adsorbed and wrapped by the squirming flesh walls around them. No matter how they struggled, they couldn't break free, instead sinking deeper.
It was as if they were inside the digestive organ of so giant creature. Despairing fear instantly overwheld them.
…
anwhile, not far from the ran shop, on an abandoned pipe platform on higher ground.
nma held his oil-paper umbrella, standing shoulder to shoulder with Ajisai, quietly watching the alley below.
Under Ajisai's astonished gaze, the seemingly ordinary ran shop they had just left rapidly deford and contracted like a popped bubble, finally revealing its true form.
A giant, peculiarly shaped, jade-green toad.
The toad gradually shrank, looked around, then pushed off with its hind legs, leaping forward with a 'splash' into the rushing river, sending up a large spray of water before disappearing from sight.
"The... the ran shop just now... was... was a summoning creature in disguise?" Ajisai covered her small mouth, her eyes filled with disbelief.
Although only a Genin, she knew a summoning creature that could disguise itself so realistically, even simulating food aroma and steam, was absolutely no ordinary thing.
'Who exactly was that white-haired uncle?'
"Mm." nma responded indifferently. However, his gaze did not follow the departing toad, but instead seed to casually sweep over the shadows of another alley not far away, and the top of a certain iron tower higher up.
In his Mind's Eye of Kagura, two familiar Chakra Presences were faintly discernible.
Zetsu lurked like mold underground at the street corner, while Konan stood as lightly as a paper crane high above. Their attention was clearly focused on the toad that had entered the water and the Jiraiya inside it.
'Agakure won't be peaceful from now on,' nma withdrew his gaze and looked at the still-shocked Ajisai beside him, his tone calm but carrying a barely perceptible warning.
"Protect yourself. If you encounter danger you can't handle, go to the room I rented and find my shadow clone."
Hearing this, Ajisai's heart tightened.
She heard the obvious note of farewell in nma's words.
He was leaving, going to complete the real 'business' that brought him to Agakure.
An inexplicable sense of loss and attachnt surged in her heart. Although their acquaintance was brief, although this young man was mysterious and dangerous, the ran he treated her to, the umbrella he handed her, the peace he occasionally revealed that didn't match his powerful strength... all made her feel a peculiar sense of security.
"I... I still don't know your na?" Ajisai looked up. The rain had wet her purple short hair, her hair bun sowhat ssy. She mustered her courage and looked directly into nma's excessively blue eyes in the rain.
"That 'Ichiraku' na, you were lying to him, right?"
nma looked at the pure worry and a trace of stubborn questioning in her eyes, a sowhat gentle smile appearing on his face.
"Yes, I lied to him." He nodded, his voice clearly piercing through the pattering rain. "My na is nma. Uzumaki nma."
Having said that, he gently shoved the umbrella, which seed to isolate the rain, into Ajisai's hands.
Then, before Ajisai could react, his figure blurred slightly like ink blending into the rain, and he completely vanished before her eyes, leaving no trace.
Only the still-dry, slightly warm umbrella in her hand proved his previous existence.
"Uzumaki... nma..." Ajisai stood dazedly in place, repeating the na, feeling the sensation from the umbrella handle, her heart filled with mixed feelings.
She looked down in the direction nma had disappeared, gripped the umbrella in her hand tighter, turned, and quickly left this place that was about to beco a hotspot.
User Comments
0 comments from readers