Chapter 313: Mitarashi Anko
There were a few small stools set up next to the grilled meatball stall, and Ryū had already been sitting there for several minutes now.
He waited quietly for the vendor to finish grilling his order, a faint, savory aroma drifting into his nose—it smelled genuinely good, from the first whiff.
After another half minute or so, the vendor hurriedly grabbed the skewered meatballs off the grill and packed them into a wooden bowl.
He handed it over to Ryū with a warm, courteous smile. "Here you go, enjoy—careful though, the bowl's wood, but it might still be a little warm."
Taking the wooden bowl, Ryū had just reached for a skewer when a faint, pleasant scent drifted past his nose.
He turned, a little surprised, and noticed another passerby had just sat down on the stool right beside him.
Glancing over out of curiosity, he studied her for a couple of seconds before turning his attention back to his food—he didn't recognize her.
She didn't appear to be any named character from the original canon, though even if she had been, Ryū couldn't have realistically recognized every single named character from the source material anyway.
After all, this was currently eleven years before the events of the original story—Naruto, Hinata, and Sasuke were all barely a year old at this point, and every other canon character was, correspondingly, a full eleven years younger than their canonical appearances.
Being eleven years younger changed people plenty. There was no way he could reasonably expect to recognize every single canon character at this stage of their lives.
Ryū didn't exactly have a supercomputer-grade memory like a certain youkai sage, after all.
But the vendor's next words made him freeze for a moment.
"Little Anko, is it? Grilled mochi rice balls again today? Not feeling like switching it up? Fish balls, beef balls, shrimp balls, maybe? Take this customer next to you, for instance—ordered two or three skewers of every single flavor. Now THAT'S how you properly enjoy yourself!"
"Meatball-uncle, you know perfectly well I only like mochi rice balls. Not interested in the other kinds. Oh, and remember to slather on extra grilling honey, okay?"
"I know, I know! Though a girl eating this much sweet stuff all the time, you're gonna put on some weight, you know!"
"Hmph, 'weight' doesn't exist for me. I'm a shinobi, you know—how could a shinobi possibly gain weight? Also, meatball-uncle, that whole 'thirty ryo a skewer, three for a hundred' thing you keep shouting? That's blatantly ripping people off. Scam artist!"
"Ahem, ahem! Just a humble little business here, humble little business! Don't go stirring up trouble, kid!"
"Fine, fine, I'll leave you alone, uncle. Give me five skewers of mochi rice balls. And remember, extra honey—I'll say it twice since it's important."
"You got it!!"
[...]
The vendor clearly knew this particular customer—like an old regular, practically.
Little Anko?
Anko?
Ryū froze for a moment, then it clicked instantly, and he turned back toward the girl beside him.
She looked like she'd just finished bathing not too long ago—her black hair still slightly damp, a faint, pleasant fragrance clinging to her.
No telling whether it was natural body scent or just soap and shampoo.
Normally speaking, even a genuinely beautiful girl wouldn't have a naturally pleasant body scent—that was usually down to bath products, shampoo, or perfume.
But that conclusion came from his past life back on Earth. This was the Naruto world now—who knew whether girls here might actually carry some kind of natural scent.
Little Anko...Mitarashi Anko?
Orochimaru's female student?
The Special Jōnin from the original canon?
Looking at her more closely now, this girl—who looked maybe two or three years younger than Kaguya—did genuinely resemble the canonical Mitarashi Anko.
Same black hair. Same love of mochi rice balls. Same sweet tooth.
As if sensing the attention on her, Anko turned, a little startled, and met Ryū's gaze, a hint of confusion flickering in her bright, clear eyes.
She couldn't help but ask, curious, "Um...big brother, do we know each other?"
Ryū had been 17 when he'd first transmigrated into the Naruto world; a year had passed since, putting him at 18 now.
To someone like Anko, currently only 13 or 14—two years younger than Kakashi—Ryū genuinely qualified as an "older brother" figure, no question.
Hearing her puzzled question, Ryū shook his head and let out a faint, awkward laugh. "It's a bit complicated to explain, honestly. Logically speaking, I should know you, but you shouldn't know me. Actually...no, wait, maybe you do know me, in a way."
"I've met your teacher, Orochimaru, a few times before—talked with him more than once, actually. Maybe he mentioned me to you at some point?"
The moment the name "Orochimaru" left his mouth, Ryū clearly saw the black-haired girl in front of him go rigid, her whole body tensing up all at once.
Orochimaru's defection had clearly left a deep mark on Anko.
After all, as his personally-trained student, and with Orochimaru having defected from Konoha, any reasonable person would naturally suspect Anko herself might have been involved in his human experimentation.
Some people, in fact, had probably tried to squeeze whatever information they could out of her regarding Orochimaru.
Unfortunately for them, Anko hadn't been involved in any human experimentation whatsoever.
And, cursed with Orochimaru's mark as she was, she couldn't actually recall much detailed information about him at all.
"Honestly, Orochimaru's not entirely heartless when it comes to his old student-teacher bonds. If he'd been the type of person who was truly cold-blooded and ruthless, the moment you refused him, you'd likely have ended up a corpse."
That comment made Anko's pupils contract sharply, disbelief plain in her bright, striking eyes.
Her fingers had already drifted toward the kunai at her hip, wariness radiating off her whole body now, as she demanded, incredulous, "Who...who exactly are you? How do you know all this? Are you with ANBU?"
ANBU?
Right, of course.
Even though Konoha's leadership had quietly buried the whole matter of Orochimaru's defection from public knowledge, ANBU operatives would certainly know about it. Was that why this girl had jumped straight to assuming he was ANBU?
Ryū shook his head, laughing wryly. "This isn't really that closely guarded a secret among Konoha's leadership anymore—it's just that ordinary civilians don't know about it. As for who I am? Hm...not sure whether Orochimaru ever happened to mention the name 'Ryū' to you before."
He didn't bother hiding anything about himself in front of this young girl, and had no real interest in playing coy or teasing a kid barely into her teens. He simply gave her his name directly.
The moment Ryū said his own name, he could see Anko visibly freeze, clearly turning something over in her head.
Her expression shifted—from wary confusion, to sudden realization, and then straight into utter disbelief.
She stared at him, genuinely stunned. "You...you're that Ryū-kun he mentioned?"
From her reaction alone, it was clear enough—Orochimaru really had, at some point, brought up Ryū's name to his student.
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