The night passed without incident.
The next morning, Kyosuke ordered a table full of sumptuous breakfast dishes.
As he put it, he was still growing. He could make do with anything else, but his food had to be nothing short of perfect.
"What a waste." Mito instinctively sneered at the sight, but retribution came swiftly.
"What?" Kyosuke looked at her in confusion. "I ordered this for myself. If you want some, go buy your own."
"...Fine. You're ruthless." Ponytail sat to one side in a huff, pulled some dry rations from her bundle, and took a vicious bite without another word.
She seemed to be treating the flatbread as a certain Uchiha bastard.
"Make it last. That's your food for the next few days." Even with grease coating his mouth, Kyosuke didn't forget to twist the knife.
"Mind your own business!"
"Fine. Just don't come begging me later."
Watching the girl's retreating back, Kyosuke grinned wickedly. This little girl is so proud. She needs some proper train... no, tempering.
Otherwise, she would suffer badly for it someday.
He took the Sealing Scroll from his pocket, found the section marked "food," and packed away the dishes the owner had prepared.
It was an extravagant thing to do. A single Sealing Scroll was worth over a hundred times as much as the food. No normal person would use one like this.
But Kyosuke was no ascetic. If he could enjoy himself, he certainly wouldn't suffer for no reason.
As an Army Commander, he could carry a large stock of blank scrolls.
The Family paid for them anyway. Why pass up free supplies?
Unbeknownst to him, someone with ulterior motives had noticed what he was doing.
Two young kids, casually using a Sealing Scroll to pack up their food.
They might as well have written "easy marks" across their foreheads.
The watcher felt he would be betraying his profession if he didn't rob them.
Soon, a band of robbers surrounded Kyosuke and Mito.
"Kid, come with me if you know what's good for you. Otherwise, the blade goes in white and comes out green-I'll puncture your gallbladder!"
Kyosuke sucked in a breath. Were robbers this ambitious nowadays?
They were even threatening to stab gallbladders now. Wouldn't that mean he'd be killed by his own bitterness?
Clearly, Lady Mito didn't share his talent for entertaining himself.
She was already seething, and now a gang of clueless robbers had crossed her path. They had only their own blindness to blame.
Her chakra erupted. The quiet girl instantly became a ferocious beast, charging into the crowd and sending men sprawling everywhere.
Kyosuke stood to the side, making a constant stream of exaggerated cries. "Hey, you're far too violent! Far too bloody!"
"They only wanted to stab our gallbladders. Why are you stabbing their kidneys too?"
"You're never going to find a husband at this rate."
The remaining robbers felt like crying.
Please stop talking, man. If you keep this up, we might lose our remaining kidneys too.
Grabbing the middle-aged robber in front of her, Mito demanded coldly, "Talk. How many accomplices do you have, and just how many atrocities have you committed?"
"S-spare me..." The middle-aged robber's miserable expression neatly concealed the murderous gleam in his eyes.
Just as Ponytail was about to torture him for answers, the seemingly ordinary robber suddenly unleashed chakra on par with an Elite Chunin.
In less than a second, he turned the tables. Now Mito was the one at his mercy.
"You!" The princess's eyes widened. She hadn't expected to be fooled so easily.
Besides, if he was this strong, why had he stooped to robbing travelers?
"Fool." Pressing a kunai against the girl's neck, the middle-aged man sneered darkly. "You should have just obeyed. Now that you've seen my strength, neither of you is leaving here alive."
"People have to pay for their stupidity."
"Listen to that." Kyosuke looked at the girl with exasperation. "He's absolutely right. Take that lesson to heart. Got it?"
Got it, my ass... Both the Chunin robber and his hostage, Mito, were rather bewildered.
At a time like this, you still felt like joking around?
The man was about to threaten him further when he suddenly realized the boy in front of him had vanished.
It wasn't high-speed movement. He had simply disappeared from where he stood.
"Looking for me?"
The teasing voice beside his ear terrified the man, and he instinctively turned his head.
Then he saw a pair of eerie, blood-red eyes.
Clang! The kunai fell to the ground. The man stood rooted to the spot like a walking corpse, letting his hostage slip free.
"Genjutsu?" Mito frowned. She hadn't expected him to be skilled in genjutsu too.
Wasn't he a little too versatile for someone so young?
Ignoring Mito's doubts, Kyosuke looked at the robber and asked calmly, "Who are you?"
He wasn't some inexperienced girl. There had to be more to this middle-aged ninja's presence.
Since he had already stumbled into this, there was no harm in asking for details.
"My name is Sarutobi Jiichiro. I'm a Chunin of the Sarutobi Clan, ordered to intercept and kill traveling merchants to raise war funds for the Family."
The Sarutobi Clan was one of the most prominent clans in the Land of Fire. After Konoha's founding, one of its sons would even become Tobirama Senju's disciple.
That was Hiruzen Sarutobi, the future Third Hokage.
Who would have thought such a prestigious clan of the Warring States Period was secretly engaged in something so filthy?
Even Kyosuke found it contemptible, let alone Mito Uzumaki.
"What are you going to do?" Mito gazed at him, seemingly hoping for something she couldn't quite name.
Instead, without another word, Kyosuke flicked his kunai and killed the man outright.
"You're just a ninja passing through. Did you want to play hero?"
Glancing at the paltry two hundred points, Kyosuke gave a disdainful smile and turned to continue their journey. "Let's go, unless you want to make another enemy for the Uzumaki."
Those words struck her right where it hurt.
The Sarutobi Clan was powerful, and its fighting style, combining its members with summoning beasts, was unpredictable. Rumor even had it that the Family had some tenuous ties to the Three Great Sage Lands.
If she provoked them, the Uzumaki would almost certainly pay a price.
"I still didn't think things through enough."
They traveled in silence, and before long, they approached the eastern territory of the Land of Fire.
Neither knew that someone had already begun secretly following them.
Even someone as strong as Kyosuke noticed nothing amiss. Whether the pursuer was too powerful or possessed some special means of concealment was unclear.
"Hey, what did you come here for?" Mito finally asked the crucial question.
"To find help. You already knew that, didn't you?" Kyosuke blinked, deliberately playing dumb.
Left with no choice, Mito went back to ignoring him.
She wanted to see just what sort of help he could find.
There were certainly forces that could rival the Uzumaki. The real question was, how could he persuade them to act?
Before you continue