Menma and Jiraiya's conversation continued for quite some time, ranging from the flavor differences of ramen across various countries to strange tales and even delving into the folk customs of some minor nations.
Jiraiya, seemingly unrestrained, was actually carefully probing with every sentence, trying to catch any clues from the mysterious boy's words.
Menma, on the other hand, responded with ease, his words witty and his insights unique, as if he were truly just a well-traveled food enthusiast.
Ajisai sat silently to the side, eating the bowl of ordinary instant ramen in small bites.
She watched the two go from strangers to chatting happily, the atmosphere so harmonious it was like old friends who had known each other for years. She felt something was odd.
'This guy had a maturity beyond his years, and while the white-haired old man seemed lecherous and slovenly, clearly not a good person.'
Their conversation was something she couldn't follow, but she instinctively felt it was unusual.
Finally, the bowls were empty.
Menma put down his chopsticks and sighed contentedly. "Thanks for the meal, boss. The taste was average, but having a hot bowl of noodles on a rainy night is a pleasure in itself."
Menma placed a few crumpled Land of Rain banknotes on the counter.
The money was more than enough for two bowls of noodles.
Jiraiya immediately put on his mercenary shopkeeper smile, accepting the money, but his gaze remained fixed on Menma. "I'm glad the customer is satisfied! Seeing you two are so young, be careful out so late at night."
"Keep that advice for yourself. You don't seem to be a local either, shopkeeper," Menma replied with a smile.
Jiraiya's heart grew increasingly uneasy. 'Has this guy seen through my disguise?'
Ajisai quickly put down her chopsticks and obediently followed behind Menma, her small figure appearing somewhat frail under the dim light.
Just as the two were about to step out of the toad-disguised ramen shop, Jiraiya couldn't hold back any longer and called out to Menma's retreating back, "Hey, kid! After talking for so long, I still don't know your name?"
Menma's steps paused at the doorway, the sound of rain clearly audible from outside.
He didn't turn around, only tilted his head slightly, a curve forming at the corner of his mouth. His voice cut clearly through the rain:
"My name is Ichiraku. Just a passing foodie."
Ajisai blinked her big eyes. Though she felt this name was definitely fake, out of politeness, she softly added, "I... I'm Ajisai."
As her words fell, Menma pushed open the shop door and led Ajisai into the continuous curtain of rain outside.
Inside the shop, the smile on Jiraiya's face instantly froze.
"Ichiraku...?" Jiraiya watched their backs disappear outside the door, then shook his head helplessly. "What a flimsy fake name. Mentioning Konoha and Ichiraku Ramen repeatedly... this kid is definitely doing it on purpose!"
He immediately realized that not only had the other seen through his disguise, but he had also used this method to highlight his knowledge of Konoha. It was practically a silent mockery.
However, the other party had shown no hostility from start to finish, which only confused him more.
He could feel that the boy who called himself 'Ichiraku' had an indescribable familiarity.
But this feeling of being completely seen through while knowing nothing about the other party made even this experienced Sannin feel a trace of unease.
Just then, the voice of the Mise Gama, filled with gravity and suspicion, sounded within the ramen shop: "Jiraiya! That kid who just left is definitely not right!"
"Huh? What is it?" Jiraiya collected his thoughts, raising an eyebrow.
"The aura on him... is very, very dangerous!" The Mise Gama's voice carried a barely perceptible tremble. "Although he concealed it extremely well, the moment he put down the money and his attention wavered slightly, I still sensed a trace of a leaked dangerous aura..."
"Icy, violent, full of destructiveness, like... like facing a Tailed Beast!"
"Even more heart-palpitating than an ordinary Tailed Beast!"
"Tailed Beast?!" Jiraiya was first stunned, then laughed dismissively. "Mise Gama, aren't you too nervous? How old does that kid look? How could he be a Tailed Beast? Is some village's Jinchuriki just wandering around..."
His laughter cut off abruptly, his expression changing drastically as he remembered the top-secret information from Hiruzen, relayed via the Mount Myoboku communication toad not long ago.
After Kumogakure was raided by Shura and suffered heavy losses, they had stormed over to confront Konoha, adamantly insisting that Shura was the Nine-Tails' Jinchuriki.
At the time, including Hiruzen, all of Konoha's higher-ups believed this was Kumogakure making unreasonable trouble, trying to frame Konoha. After all, the Nine-Tails was clearly sealed inside Naruto, that was an indisputable fact.
But... what if the Mise Gama's perception was correct?
That young man exuding a dangerous aura comparable to a Tailed Beast...
Kumogakure's accusations... the various rumors about the mysterious ruler Shura of the Land of Stars... the blue-eyed young man unusually familiar with the customs of various countries, especially Konoha and Ichiraku Ramen...
Countless clues suddenly connected at this moment, forming a guess that made Jiraiya's heart stop!
"Could it be... that kid just now... is Shura himself?!" He muttered in a low voice, his pupils contracting slightly in shock. "But... what is Shura doing in Amegakure? And with a seemingly weak Amegakure's Genin girl by his side?"
'It couldn't possibly be... to pick up girls, could it?!'
A sense of immense absurdity and deeper suspicion washed over him.
He suppressed the thought as soon as it arose.
'Impossible. The other party's behavior, while seemingly casual...'
'This guy who stirred up the Ninja World and gave the great nations headaches, infiltrating Amegakure from afar, must have a more important purpose.'
Before Jiraiya could sort out his chaotic thoughts, the ramen shop door opened again, the wind chime under the eaves ringing clearly.
Two Ninja wearing standard Amegakure uniforms and dripping straw raincoats walked in. As they hung their dripping coats on the rack by the door, they called out boldly, "Boss, what's good to eat? This damned weather, we're starving!"
Jiraiya's eyes instantly sharpened, temporarily suppressing the guess about Shura.
He once again piled on that overly enthusiastic smile, as if the shock from moments ago had never happened.
"Oh oh! Welcome!" He rubbed his hands together, coming out from behind the counter, his tone carrying a strange note. "Today... I specially recommend this shop's [Interrogation Set Meal]! Guaranteed to make you... remember it for life!"
The two Amegakure's Ninja were taken aback by the strange dish name, before they could react to what it meant, they saw the 'shopkeeper' in front of them suddenly form hand seals!
"Release!"
Bang!
A puff of white smoke flashed, and the mediocre shopkeeper appearance and attire instantly vanished, replaced by a heroic figure with wild white hair and a red short coat.
Jiraiya!
"You... you are?!" The two Amegakure's Ninjas' pupils constricted sharply, instantly recognizing this famous face in the Ninja World. Terror instantly spread across their faces.
They almost instinctively turned to flee, only to find the ramen shop door tightly closed, unmovable no matter how hard they tried!
"Easy to come in, hard to get out," Jiraiya's voice held a hint of mockery.
The next moment, the entire interior of the ramen shop began to twist and distort violently!
The warm lights went out. The wooden walls and tables and chairs seemed to come alive, squirming and rapidly turning into disgusting pink flesh walls covered in mucus and folds!
A strong, sour, corrosive smell filled the air. The ground beneath their feet became soft and adhesive.
"Wh-what is this?!"
"M-monster!"
The two Amegakure's Ninja screamed in terror. Their limbs were as if stuck in a swamp, tightly adsorbed and wrapped by the squirming flesh walls around them. No matter how they struggled, they couldn't break free, instead sinking deeper.
It was as if they were inside the digestive organ of some giant creature. Despairing fear instantly overwhelmed them.
…
Meanwhile, not far from the ramen shop, on an abandoned pipe platform on higher ground.
Menma held his oil-paper umbrella, standing shoulder to shoulder with Ajisai, quietly watching the alley below.
Under Ajisai's astonished gaze, the seemingly ordinary ramen shop they had just left rapidly deformed and contracted like a popped bubble, finally revealing its true form.
A giant, peculiarly shaped, jade-green toad.
The toad gradually shrank, looked around, then pushed off with its hind legs, leaping forward with a 'splash' into the rushing river, sending up a large spray of water before disappearing from sight.
"The... the ramen shop just now... was... was a summoning creature in disguise?" Ajisai covered her small mouth, her eyes filled with disbelief.
Although only a Genin, she knew a summoning creature that could disguise itself so realistically, even simulating food aroma and steam, was absolutely no ordinary thing.
'Who exactly was that white-haired uncle?'
"Mm." Menma responded indifferently. However, his gaze did not follow the departing toad, but instead seemed to casually sweep over the shadows of another alley not far away, and the top of a certain iron tower higher up.
In his Mind's Eye of Kagura, two familiar Chakra Presences were faintly discernible.
Zetsu lurked like mold underground at the street corner, while Konan stood as lightly as a paper crane high above. Their attention was clearly focused on the toad that had entered the water and the Jiraiya inside it.
'Amegakure won't be peaceful from now on,' Menma withdrew his gaze and looked at the still-shocked Ajisai beside him, his tone calm but carrying a barely perceptible warning.
"Protect yourself. If you encounter danger you can't handle, go to the room I rented and find my shadow clone."
Hearing this, Ajisai's heart tightened.
She heard the obvious note of farewell in Menma's words.
He was leaving, going to complete the real 'business' that brought him to Amegakure.
An inexplicable sense of loss and attachment surged in her heart. Although their acquaintance was brief, although this young man was mysterious and dangerous, the ramen he treated her to, the umbrella he handed her, the peace he occasionally revealed that didn't match his powerful strength... all made her feel a peculiar sense of security.
"I... I still don't know your name?" Ajisai looked up. The rain had wet her purple short hair, her hair bun somewhat messy. She mustered her courage and looked directly into Menma's excessively blue eyes in the rain.
"That 'Ichiraku' name, you were lying to him, right?"
Menma looked at the pure worry and a trace of stubborn questioning in her eyes, a somewhat gentle smile appearing on his face.
"Yes, I lied to him." He nodded, his voice clearly piercing through the pattering rain. "My name is Menma. Uzumaki Menma."
Having said that, he gently shoved the umbrella, which seemed to isolate the rain, into Ajisai's hands.
Then, before Ajisai could react, his figure blurred slightly like ink blending into the rain, and he completely vanished before her eyes, leaving no trace.
Only the still-dry, slightly warm umbrella in her hand proved his previous existence.
"Uzumaki... Menma..." Ajisai stood dazedly in place, repeating the name, feeling the sensation from the umbrella handle, her heart filled with mixed feelings.
She looked down in the direction Menma had disappeared, gripped the umbrella in her hand tighter, turned, and quickly left this place that was about to become a hotspot.