"I don't care how hungry I am, Neji! I will not beg anyone for food!.. A ninja—I mean, a person—has pride! "
"I'm not going to sit on the floor and act like a puppy for a piece of bread!"
Neji froze. He stared at Naruto with his mouth slightly open. "I... I never said that," Neji muttered, his eye twitching. "I literally never said the word 'beg'."
Sasuke, watching from the side, didn't miss a chance to be mean. He looked at Neji with a face full of shame.
"Wow, Neji. I can't believe you wanted to go and beg for scraps. And you call yourself a genius? I'm embarrassed to even be in the same group as you right now."
"I DID NOT SAY WE SHOULD BEG!" Neji roared, finally losing his cool. He turned on Naruto, looking like he wanted to use a Gentle Fist strike on the air.
"Naruto, you idiot! Why did you even think that? I was going to suggest we go look for a cheaper place to eat, not go and cry for soup!"
"Well, you said 'come with me' while looking at the food stalls!" Naruto argued, pointing a finger back. "What else was I supposed to think? You have that long, sad hair—you'd probably be a great beggar!"
"My hair is not 'sad'!" Neji shouted, stepping closer to Naruto. The two of them were now chest-to-chest, arguing loudly in the middle of the street.
"If you say one more word about begging, I will make sure you never eat ramen again!"
"Try it, ponytail!" Naruto yelled back.
Lee watched them with stars in his eyes. "Look at them! Such a passionate argument about dinner! This is the fire of youth!"
Mini-Sasuke stopped crying for a second just to look at the two of them and shake his head. "They are both stupid," he whispered to himself.
Neji had reached his absolute limit. He didn't say another word. He didn't argue. He simply reached out with the speed of a master, grabbing Naruto by the back of his orange jacket and snagging Mini-Sasuke by his collar.
With his eyes squeezed shut to maintain his 'blind' act, Neji began to walk. He moved with a terrifying, silent focus, dragging both of them behind him like two bags of trash.
"Hey! Let go! I can walk on my own!" Naruto yelled, his feet skidding against the snowy stone. "Where are we even going?! Neji! Stop being so bossy dattebayo!"
Mini-Sasuke didn't even fight it. He just hung there from Neji's hand, looking completely defeated by the stupidity of the older boys. He looked like a small, grumpy kitten being carried by its mother, staring blankly at the ground as they slid past.
Neji didn't slow down. He navigated the street perfectly using his other senses, leaving the area before the Samurai guards Or the Commoners could come over to investigate the noise.
His face was a mask of cold stone—the face of a genius who was currently calculating how many years of meditation it would take to forget this day.
Back by the steaming pipes, only Sasuke and Lee were left.
The silence was sudden and heavy. A single piece of trash tumbled past them in the wind. Sasuke stood with his arms crossed, staring at the spot where the trio had disappeared.
His eyes didn't even blink.
Lee turned to Sasuke, his eyes wide and shining with admiration. "Sasuke-kun! Look at Neji's form! Even while dragging two people and pretending to be blind, his balance is perfect! Truly, the power of a rival is a beautiful thing!"
Sasuke let out a long, slow breath. He felt a headache forming behind his eyes.
"Lee," Sasuke said quietly.
"Yes, Sasuke-kun?!"
"Let's just find a hotel before I decide to join the Samurai and arrest my own team."
The steam in the indoor hot spring was thick and warm. It felt like a soft blanket. The girls finally took off their dirty clothes and stepped into the big stone tub. The water was hot and perfect.
Sakura leaned her head back. Her pink hair floated on the water. Her skin was turning a soft pink because of the heat. She looked at her arms and legs. They were thin but strong.
Tenten sat near the edge. Without her baggy clothes, her structure was very fit. Her shoulders were toned from throwing thousands of weapons every day.
Hinata sat in the deepest corner. She was trying to hide under the bubbles. Her skin was very white and smooth, like silk.
"Finally," Tenten sighed, stretching her arms. "I felt like a frozen block of wood." She looked over at Sakura.
Sakura blushed a little, looking at Tenten and said "What are you looking at Tenten as it is I feel so... flat. Look at me. I'm like a board."
She turned her eyes toward Hinata, who was hiding in the steam. "Now Hinata... she's the one with the real secret."
Hinata's face turned bright red. She pulled her knees to her chest under the water. "W-what? Me?"
"Yes, you!" Sakura giggled, moving closer.
"Hinata, you are so curvy! We always see you in that big, thick jacket, but in here... wow. You have a really beautiful body. It's not fair!"
Tenten nodded, splashing a little water playfully toward Hinata. "She's right. You have such a soft, feminine shape. I'm all muscles and bruises from training. I feel like a boy compared to you."
Hinata hid her face in her hands. She felt very shy. "No... please don't look. I feel very heavy and... and clumsy sometimes. I wish I was lean like you, Sakura-chan. My clothes always feel too tight."
"That's because you're a woman, Hinata!"
Tenten laughed. "Trust me, if we ever go to a normal getogether, all the girls will be looking at you with envy. You're like a hidden masterpiece."
Sakura looked at her own small reflection in the water and then at Hinata's curves. She felt a little bit of that girly insecurity.
"I wonder if being 'flat' makes me faster at ninja moves," she joked, trying to feel better. "But seriously, Hinata, you should be proud. You're gorgeous."
The three of them sat there, talking about things girls talk about—skin, hair, and how hard it is to look pretty when you are busy being a ninja. They were so busy talking that they completely forgot about the plan.
Suddenly, Sakura stopped talking. Her eyes went wide.
"Wait a minute," Sakura whispered.
"What is it?" Tenten asked.
"Ino," Sakura said, her voice shaking. "We never told Ino which bathhouse we were going to. She has our new clothes. And she has no idea where we are!"
The room went quiet. The only sound was the drip, drip, drip of the water.
The market air was biting, and the merchant's stall was overflowing with thick, heavy fabrics.
Ino and Karin stood before a rack of mid-quality travel gear—clothes that looked decent enough to pass for merchant families, but weren't as luxurious as the high-end silk cloaks displayed in the window.
"These will do," Ino said, running a critical hand over a purple high-collared shirt and a mint-green top. She knew they had enough in Gama-chan to buy the expensive stuff, but reaching Konoha came first, and every Ryo saved was to buy more food later.
The merchant, a stout man with a greasy mustache, stepped forward with a greedy grin. He tallied up the nine outfits, the goggles for Neji and Hinata, and the extra bags.
"For the lot? 4,500 Ryo," he stated firmly. "And that's a 'local' discount."
Ino and Karin froze. They shared a look of pure, synchronized disbelief. Then, the 'Savage Duo' went to work.
"4,500?!" Ino shrieked, her voice drawing looks from other shoppers. "For this? Karin, show him what we're actually looking at."
Karin pushed her glasses up, her eyes narrowing as she began a clinical inspection.
"First of all," Karin began, grabbing a mint shirt which they decided for Sakura, "The shoulder seam is uneven. It's not proper. We're not paying full price for a defect. 3,800 Ryo for now. "
"Ino snatched a purple tunic which they decided for Hinata. "And this dye job? Look at the hem. It's already fading. One snowy day and it will be a grey rag. So do it 3,200 Ryo."
"Look at the yellow sweater," Karin pointed to the crooked frog emblem on the sweater. "This is clearly a knock-off. 2,500 Ryo is the absolute most this pile of lint is worth."
The merchant's face turned purple. "Out! Get out of my shop!" he roared, reaching to grab the bags back. "I'm not a charity! If you want trash prices, go find a dumpster!"
Ino didn't move. She grabbed the bag for the cloaks and slung it over her shoulder with a cold stare.
"Fine. We'll leave. And we'll tell the Samurai guards at the gate that you're selling defective winter gear to travelers. I wonder how long your permit will last then?"
She and Karin turned to walk away, their boots crunching in the snow. They got exactly five steps before the merchant's spirit broke.
"Wait! Wait!" he wheezed, his shoulders slumped in defeat. "Fine! Take it all... just give me something. Give me 2,000 Ryo."
Karin stopped and looked back over her shoulder, her glasses gleaming. "1,800 Ryo only. "
The merchant let out a sound like a deflating balloon. "1,800. Just take it and never come back."
Ino smirked, peeling the coins out of Naruto's frog purse. "Pleasure doing business, Sir."
They walked away with two heavy bags: one filled with their newly bought clothes in which they will keep old clothes later, and one empty bag to keep food while traveling, leaving the merchant shaking his head in misery.
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SNEAK PEAK LINES💬
"We could probably buy out half the meat stands in the city!"
"One has bright pink hair, and another is a very quiet girl with her eyes shut—she's supposed to be blind!"
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—With love, one forehead poke away from collapse,
Sakura Shinomiya 💫
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