Yen had no home in Konoha. No bricks, no tiles, no relatives, no family.
After entering ANBU, he even had to take care of chores within the unit, so he lived in ANBU's quarters.
Now that he had three days of leave, he could not stay in ANBU. If a mission came up and the captain saw him around, his vacation would be ruined.
He changed into ordinary clothes and, with a guilty thrill, left the Forest of Death where ANBU was based, then wandered through the village.
He stopped and looked at the Hokage Rock in the distance.
The faces of the First, Second, and Third Hokage were enormous, enough to stir a sense of giant-phobia.
The closer he got to the Rock, and to the Hokage Building beneath it, the stronger the sense of oppressive pressure from those giant faces.
This village did not have the youthful energy of a shonen manga like in the original. It carried only the suffocation of death.
Everyone here was like Kakashi in the story. A dead teammate, a dead teacher, a dead friend. Everyone carried some kind of trauma.
This was a village where mental illness was the norm.
During the Second Shinobi War, most shinobi were on the front lines, leaving Konoha somewhat desolate.
After half an hour of aimless walking, Yen decided to find a cheap place to stay.
"My wallet?"
When he reached for money, he realized his pouch was missing it.
Thinking carefully, he concluded he must have left it at Tsurugetsu Tavern, so he went there to search.
Outside the tavern, the voluptuous and beautiful owner had just tossed out garbage. Seeing last night's ninja approaching, she trembled so hard her teeth chattered.
It's over.
Was her spy identity exposed after all?
That handsome young man had killed her Iwa comrade last night.
To prevent leaks, the comrade had never met her face-to-face. Why was she exposed anyway?
What should she do?
She pretended not to see him and went back inside.
Clutching a sharp fruit knife, she sliced lemons at the bar.
When Yen sat down, she looked up. "Do you still want a pot of sake?"
"Give me back my wallet first. Then I'll have money for sake."
"Huh?"
She stared at the Konoha ninja. Her fingers loosened, then tightened, then loosened again on the knife.
He wasn't here to arrest her?
"What are you staring for? My wallet."
"Wallet? What wallet?"
Looking for a wallet?
That excuse was so absurd it sounded real.
After the plunge and the rebound, joy welled up in her chest and made it rise and fall.
Yen hopped off the stool and walked toward the courtyard.
The owner hurriedly blocked him.
"Sir, the courtyard is under repair. You can't go in!"
She was terrified.
When she woke last night, the room was empty.
The comrade underground was gone. The handsome ninja was gone.
She tried her special method to contact her teammate. No response.
There was a patch on the ground with a different color, as if someone had dug up something and then covered it.
Yen pushed her hand aside and stepped into the courtyard. Sure enough, it was under repair.
The paving stones were lifted. Who knew what they were fixing.
"I told you it's under repair. How about this, sir. Rest upstairs first. I'll go into the courtyard and look for your wallet." She wrapped both hands around his arm.
"I remember now. You were last night's customer!
Why did I faint? Why did you leave? Didn't you say we were going to explore yin and yang release?"
"You fell, hit your head, and blacked out. I like enthusiastic responses. I don't like lifeless ones."
Her full curves pressed around his arm as they went upstairs.
"What's your name?" Yen asked.
"Qiaoyi."
In the second-floor private room, Yen said:
"Qiaoyi, my wallet has 150,000 ryo. You must find it. You must pay me back."
Konoha shinobi were famous for their thin pay.
A whole month of ANBU missions, gambling with death, had only earned him 100,000. The extra 50,000 was what he wrung out of the captain last night.
Qiaoyi went downstairs to search.
She checked the courtyard, the side room, every table and chair. Nothing.
When she came back up, she adjusted her expression and slipped into the room with sultry eyes.
"Ninja-sama, I really couldn't find your wallet. I'm such a fool. Only now do I guess you're not really here for your wallet. Even if I couldn't find it, I can make it up to you in other ways."
She had heard Yen liked enthusiastic responses, so she gave everything she had.
In the tavern's main hall, lunchtime guests had just arrived.
After ten minutes, one looked up.
Dust trickled from the ceiling planks.
The boards creaked.
After twenty more minutes, the door to the upstairs room opened.
Qiaoyi tugged her strap back onto her shoulder, panting, and closed the door again.
Inside, Yen lounged on the bed, lazy and satisfied. "You said it. You lost my wallet, so I get to stay here three days."
"I'll make up your loss in every way I can."
Yen stretched out with contentment, dozing.
So young, so inexperienced. Last night he had even thought firm and steady was a flaw. Not bad. Pretty good, actually.
Three days later, Qiaoyi, heartbroken, saw him off at the door.
This Konoha ninja's mouth was too tight. Three days, and she had not pried a single word from him.
They had even reinforced the floor once. Were all Konoha shinobi this good at secrecy?
But she was sure now the handsome ninja was not here to investigate her.
That night, Yen returned to ANBU.
Inside his locker was his wallet.
He picked it up in shock. Why was it here?
He had been careful. Three days ago, when he left ANBU, there was definitely no wallet in the locker.
Behind him came the captain's voice, appearing out of nowhere again.
"Fox, I took back my 50,000 and added the 100,000 reward for the B-rank mission. So your wallet has 200,000 now. Count it if you want."
Counting no longer mattered.
Yen only wanted to know why Qiaoyi had been so enthusiastic these past days. Why so very enthusiastic. Hm?
Wait. She had been a little too warm. Too warm.
Could she be a spy?
Doesn't matter. Whether she's a spy or not is Konoha's problem, not his.
Even if Konoha was destroyed, it had nothing to do with him.
Female spies are good. They always need investigating. Thorough investigating.
"Move out," the captain ordered. "The spy we captured was from Iwa. Time to pull the thread."
Yen put on his fox mask and sighed behind it.
Another squad had once tried pulling a thread and all of them died. Any spy daring to act in Konoha had real strength. Hard to say who was the vine and who was the gourd.
He buckled on the iron vest, slung the standard ANBU blade, checked every detail, and followed the captain and two teammates out of ANBU.
He just hoped it would be a simple C-rank mission.
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