Chapter 343: Anko Pays a Visit
Few days back, Ryū had been sharing dango with Mitarashi Anko at a street stall — the very same day a certain youkai sage had ambushed him with an out-of-nowhere confession, which was exactly why that particular day had stuck so firmly in his memory.
Hard to forget the day he'd gotten himself a girlfriend, after all. And with it being January 1st on top of that — about the easiest date in the world to remember — forgetting it wasn't really an option.
With the snow still coming down, Anko stood on the street corner, breathing warm air onto her hands over and over, clearly feeling the chill.
The way she kept pacing back and forth made it clear something was weighing on her — though what exactly, there was no telling.
Ryū remembered Anko mentioning her house was nearly a kilometer from here — so what was she doing all the way out here? Getting dango? Except the vendor who usually ran that stall didn't look like he'd shown up today.
He spread his Observation Haki outward, curious what was actually running through the girl's head. She clearly had some reason for standing out there — no ordinary person had that much free time to spare in this weather.
But Observation Haki's mind-reading came up empty — whatever she was thinking, she seemed to be keeping it buried deep, and there wasn't much he could do about that. He murmured to himself, "Can't pick up anything useful, but I'm getting a little of the surface-level stuff, at least."
"She's actually here to see me?"
Ryū's expression turned faintly puzzled — as far as he could recall, the two of them had barely exchanged more than a few words in passing. There was really nothing more to it than that — the most casual of nodding acquaintances.
As Ryū watched, Anko seemed to reach some kind of decision, stopped her pacing, hesitated another few seconds, and finally started walking toward his house.
Stepping across the not-yet-cleared snow, her feet never sank in — as a shinobi, she naturally knew the water-walking technique, and adapting it to snow wasn't much of a stretch.
Coming to a stop right in front of the two-story house, a conflicted look crossed her face, as though she were still debating whether to go through with it.
She drew a slow breath of the cold winter air, let out a long plume of white breath, and — steeling her resolve — stepped forward and knocked, asking, a little nervously, "Um... is Ryū-oniisan home?"
Only a few seconds after she spoke, the front door rattled — pulled open from the inside — and Anko found herself looking at a face she knew well.
Ryū looked back at her, a little surprised. Anko was bundled up more than usual today — the weather really must have been cold, if even a Chūnin like her needed to layer up that much.
Before Anko could get another word out, Ryū spoke first, curious: "Something up?"
The sudden question caught her briefly off guard, but she recovered quickly, gathering her nerve.
"Ryū-oniisan, I..."
She trailed off, still working up to it.
"If there's nothing else, I'll head back in, then—"
"W-wait!"
Just as Ryū started to turn back inside, Anko blurted it out in a rush: "Ryū-oniisan, you— you treated me to dango last time. So... so today I wanted to treat you back. That's— that's all!"
Even Anko wasn't sure why her words kept coming out so clumsily. All she knew was she felt strangely on edge — genuinely nervous. She'd been a little nervous on the walk over too, but nothing like this. Now she felt like she might actually start sweating.
"Huh? I treated you to dango? Last time, during the festival? I actually... did that?"
This time it was Ryū's turn to look puzzled. Had he really paid for her food?
Didn't ring a bell.
Wait.
He remembered that night — he'd handed the vendor his money and walked off before the man could even give him his change. And on top of that, he'd been chatting with Anko at the stall for a while beforehand. So in both the vendor's eyes and Anko's, it must have looked like he'd covered her tab too.
Ah. That explained it.
Ryū quickly pieced the whole thing together, and felt fairly confident he'd landed close to the truth.
A faintly bemused look crossed his face as he regarded her. "It was just one round of dango. You really didn't need to come all the way out here to pay it back, you know."
This time, Anko's expression turned unusually serious. "No, that won't do. My father always taught me — if someone lends me one tael, I owe them two or three back, as soon as I can. It's our family's rule, passed down for generations."
Bringing up a family precept, no less — though from the earnest look on her face, it was probably a real one.
The girl was only thirteen this year, apparently, so being a little too by-the-book about it wasn't especially strange.
Still, wasn't she being a bit too conscientious about this? Even Minato thought twice before treating him to a meal — did this kid's wallet even have that much in it?
Ryū found himself faintly amused, if a little at a loss, watching her. Guess I really am a bit hungry, come to think of it. That fight in the Dragon Ball world took something out of him too.
Though it had only been...
Hm, ten-odd minutes?
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