Chapter 345: The Sudden Earthquake
The name Yuhi Kurenai rang a loud bell for Ryū — Konoha never had that many named kunoichi to begin with, and named ones from canon specifically were painfully few and far between.
Among Konoha's kunoichi, Kurenai counted as a reasonably well-known supporting character — though obviously nowhere near the screen time of mainstays like Tsunade or Sakura Haruno.
In canon she'd been a Jōnin, but here she was still only a Chūnin — the exact same rank as Anko.
Uzuki Yūgao was likewise one of the rare named kunoichi from Konoha, and apparently a taijutsu specialist to boot.
Not the One Piece world's kind of body-arts, mind you, nor Dragon Ball's — even distinct from Guy's brand of taijutsu.
Yūgao's Leaf-style swordsmanship counted as taijutsu too, technically, though it leaned much closer to assassin's work.
Meaning her HP bar, so to speak, ran a lot thinner than Guy's.
The only reason Ryū had mistaken them for background extras in the first place was that his only frame of reference was their adult selves — who on earth could recognize either of them as teenagers?
The old saying about girls changing dramatically as they grow up wasn't just for show.
It wasn't until Anko actually said their names out loud that it clicked for Ryū — oh, it's these two kunoichi!
He gave a small nod by way of greeting.
Kurenai and Yūgao returned the gesture politely.
Both pairs of eyes gave him a quick, appraising once-over before shifting to a curious look at Anko.
Kurenai gave Yūgao a discreet poke, shooting her a loaded look, as if silently asking what exactly was going on between Ryū and Anko.
Yūgao just rolled her eyes back at her — if she actually knew the answer to that, she wouldn't be sitting here just as puzzled herself.
Sure, she'd known Anko was bringing a friend along, but yesterday's conversation had never once mentioned that friend being a guy!
And at a glance... he was kind of handsome, too, with a certain presence that only added to it.
Ryū, of course, could see exactly what was running through both their heads. Why did every girl's mind seem to jump straight to this particular conclusion?
Clearly he still didn't understand the female mind all that well — if he had, maybe he wouldn't have stayed single for as long as he had in his last life.
Once they'd all taken their seats, Anko slid the menu over to Ryū with a smile. "Order whatever you like, Ryū-oniisan, don't hold back. Money's not something a Chūnin like me is exactly short on."
Was that so?
Ryū had a strong feeling that if he actually let loose, he could bankrupt this particular Chūnin outright — possibly to the point of her having to borrow cash from her two friends just to cover the bill.
In the end, he shook his head, smiled, and pointed at the menu. "This, this, this, this... about this much should do it. Not too hungry today."
He let go of the idea of eating her out of house and home. She was a thirteen-year-old girl who had to go out on dangerous shinobi missions just to earn a bit of money — he wasn't some kind of monster, no need to run up a bill that size on her.
Now, if it were Minato treating him, that'd be a different story entirely — no amount of eating was going to bankrupt a Hokage. Worst case, it'd just sting his wallet a little.
Once the server had brought their desserts out, Kurenai — who'd clearly been stewing in curiosity the whole time — finally couldn't hold back the question she most wanted to ask. "So... um, are Anko and Ryū-oniisan, you know, together?"
The bluntness of the question caught Anko off guard mid-bite of cream cake, a flush of red spreading across her face, and she found herself eating faster without quite meaning to.
Ryū gave a wry laugh. "Just an accidental one-off — I covered her tab by mistake last time, that's all. She's thirteen this year, I'm eighteen. If there were anything like that going on, the Sharingan crowd would be knocking down my door."
"The Sharingan crowd?" Yūgao asked, a strange look crossing her face. "You don't mean the Uchiha clan, do you?"
At Ryū's nod, Yūgao just looked baffled. Openly calling the Uchiha clan out like that — wasn't that a little bold?
If any Uchiha actually heard that, it'd be a real problem, surely.
Then again, Anko had said this Ryū-oniisan was on good terms with the Fourth Hokage himself — so maybe he had connections enough to say whatever he pleased.
Honestly, aside from being quite handsome with an unusual presence about him, Yūgao couldn't spot anything else particularly special about Ryū.
He wasn't even wearing a headband — clearly no shinobi. So how had he ended up acquainted with the Fourth Hokage in the first place?
There was something almost like a veil of mystery hanging over the man, making it hard to get a real read on him.
Just as Yūgao was about to say something more, she suddenly heard Ryū, sitting across from her, speak up out of nowhere.
"Huh... trouble already, just a few days after getting back to Konoha? This village really can't catch a break. It's barely been more than half a year since the whole Nine-Tails incident."
His comment sounded borderline absurd in the moment — Konoha was, at present, about as peaceful as it had ever been.
No telling if the village had ever, in its entire history, seen a day quite this peaceful.
What on earth could possibly go wrong under conditions like these?
Even if something did happen, it'd be petty theft at worst — nothing on the scale of actually threatening the whole village, surely.
Just as all three girls were still processing Ryū's out-of-nowhere comment, the juice sitting on the table began to sway, slow and steady.
Through the clear glass, the juice inside could be seen "jumping" faintly, over and over.
All three of Konoha's kunoichi — Anko, Kurenai, and Yūgao — went pale at the exact same moment.
Because something felt off — the ground beneath their feet had started to tremble faintly, and even the table in front of them was shaking now.
Anko stared blankly at the shuddering tabletop, feeling the tremor rising through the floor, and it clicked for her all at once. "An... an earthquake?! Why would there suddenly be an earthquake?!"
After all, Konoha didn't sit anywhere near a fault line — an actual earthquake there was the kind of thing that happened maybe once every few centuries.
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