"That sounds really bad to eat..."
Hatake Satoru made a bitter face and muttered to himself.
They weren't so poor that they had to eat dirt, were they?
But it was him who asked if there was anything special, so it was normal to unexpectedly eat dirt in To Land.
"I think maybe we can try it, yeah!"
Deidara was very interested in that stuff and responded excitedly.
The four of them went to buy food with great fanfare.
In fact, To Land would naturally use its own characteristics to develop related products, since so many foreign traders came and went every day. They definitely had to make such preparations.
Using their own special stuff to make some money from others.
Sasori quickly directed the group to a place similar to a dessert shop. This place didn't seem to be purely open to tourists.
At dusk, there were already a few families sitting in the store eating.
There were couples and families of three, and the people's clothes all looked like locals from To Land.
"Whoa, not bad, I didn't expect you to know about this kind of hidden restaurant."
Hatake Satoru finally stopped bringing up the fact that Sasori came here decades ago.
The group sat down at a table and looked through the menu, but from the moment they came in, they had been stared at by a strange gaze.
They seemed to be sizing them up, subtly.
This made Sasori and Deidara, who were both rogue ninja, very uncomfortable. They were already particularly sensitive to gazes, and those people were staring at them without restraint.
I'll kill you all if you keep looking.
Deidara groaned in his heart, then moved his attention to the menu, trying to distract himself as much as possible so he wouldn't be so alert.
The waiter who was originally going to take their order was replaced by the older owner.
Hatake Satoru held the menu in one hand and casually swept his gaze over to the group.
They seemed to be whispering about something, but if there was really something going on, they should come and talk to them.
Besides, they didn't seem to be malicious, so Hatake Satoru lowered his eyes and didn't say anything.
"Um... are you ready to order now?"
The owner came over with a small notebook and stood in front of the table.
"Strawberry cake, chocolate ice cream, ah... and dango, sweet flavor."
"And..."
Hatake Satoru's eyes quickly scanned the menu, and he mumbled several names of desserts.
Deidara frowned. What was this combination? It sounded like a toothache set.
Fortunately, Deidara would still eat some normal food like oden, but with the special request of four times the chili powder, it sounded like there would be a bloody scene.
Karna automatically excluded himself, put the menu in front of Sasori, and sat obediently on the side.
After the two of them ordered, Sasori also ordered a serving of clay for both of them, to satisfy Hatake Satoru's earlier desire to eat something special.
Hatake Satoru covered his face for a moment, but quickly perked up.
Trying new things wasn't bad, so he boldly asked for regular clay with condensed milk and ice cream.
This strange request, which sounded like a dessert spirit, made the owner lean back in surprise. This wasn't right, was it?
Sasori flipped through the menu and scratched his red hair.
"I don't want anything to eat, that's all."
After hearing what Sasori said, the owner, who was taking the order, paused with his pen.
He looked up at Sasori and asked hesitantly.
"What's your name, kid?"
The group became alert at the same time. Being asked for their names was strange, but for them, being asked for their names felt like something bad was about to happen.
"Sa... Sashiki."
Sasori almost blurted out his name, but fortunately he corrected himself in time.
He had some impression of this owner, but Sasori had met so many people in his twenty years that he hadn't paid much attention to the owner of this shop.
The reason he brought Hatake Satoru and the others here was because he only knew this one place...
He hadn't been here for over twenty years, so the owner shouldn't still remember him, right?
The owner seemed to be really hoping he would say a certain name, but when he heard the name "Sashiki," which had almost no connection to Sasori, he was visibly disappointed.
"Oh, I see, so it's not that person. After all, it's been so many years..."
"Chiyo told me before that if Sasori came again, I should remember to give him the cake he liked to eat as a child, but that person should be in his thirties or forties now."
"Haha... but you really look alike! I'll give you a cake for free."
"It's been so many years, I probably won't see that kid again..."
The owner rambled on and turned to walk back to the counter. Both Chiyo and Sasori's names were very familiar to everyone at the table.
This place didn't seem to have much security, but except for Deidara's special needs.
These bad guys probably wouldn't be interested in this kind of place.
Deidara opened his eyes wide in surprise. If he went back to Iwagakure Village now, he would definitely be disliked, but he didn't expect that Sasori would have this kind of treatment in this small shop.
"I didn't expect people here to still remember you! Yeah!"
"You've been listed as a rogue ninja for so many years, but you still get this kind of treatment?"
If Sasori was a premeditated and purposeful murderer, Deidara was simply a passionate murderer.
Deidara was more self-centered, and it felt like he was born to be this way.
Sasori pursed his lips and didn't respond to Deidara's words, but stared thoughtfully at the table.
It was meaningless, food or anything else, it was all meaningless to him. Doing this only made his heart hurt more, and it was useless.
He did want to kill Chiyo when he saw her again before, for no other reason than that they were ninja, weapons.
The enemy was the enemy, and nothing else mattered.
And Chiyo could sacrifice everything to protect that village, to protect that place, and Sasori had never been able to understand that.
What was so good about that place that was worth protecting?
What could it protect? In the end, his parents had died too, and everyone was alone.
"If you went to Iwagakure Village and someone offered you a cake for free, what would you think?"
Hatake Satoru glanced at Sasori's face, which didn't look good, and shifted the topic to Deidara himself.
If he stirred up Sasori a little more, the two of them would probably start fighting.
"It must be poisoned, yeah!"
"Even if it's not poisoned, they'll definitely try to stall me first and then find someone to kill me, yeah!"
Deidara nodded as a matter of course, and seemed to be very self-aware about his own position.
Hatake Satoru couldn't help but laugh and shake his head.
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