Yakiniku Q

In Samui's view.

A family of three sat in a booth by the window, heartily enjoying their barbecue. Their plates were piled high.

All three were fat, and each had a prominent "Food" character embroidered on the front of their clothes.

Among them,

the most eye-catching was a man with long, spiky red hair and two sweeping blue war-paint marks on his cheeks. According to the information Samui had gathered, he was none other than—

Choza Akimichi, Clan Head of the Akimichi Clan.

A close confidant of the Third Hokage.

Samui calmly looked away, then pointed to the booth beside them and said to Dan:

"Gym Director, this booth looks nice. Let's sit here."

"Sure."

Dan nodded and plopped down, then expertly picked up the menu and started ordering.

"Beef, tenderloin, pork skin, ham, chicken wings... squid, cuttlefish, yellow croaker... chives, eggplant, shiitake mushrooms, tofu skin... Hmm, let's start with fifty plates of each."

Dan spoke.

He didn't ask Samui what she wanted to eat because he'd ordered almost everything on the menu.

"What?"

The server, paper and pen in hand, thought he must have misheard. He instinctively turned to Dan for confirmation. "Fifty servings of every dish, sir? For the two of you?"

Just then,

the manager hurried over and smiled apologetically at Dan.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Dan. This employee is new and doesn't know who you are. Please forgive him."

Then he urged the server to hurry to the kitchen and tell them to prepare the food.

Dan was one of Yakiniku Q's biggest customers. What he spent in a single evening could match the combined bill of dozens of people.

The manager naturally wanted to keep such a valued customer happy.

While they waited for the food,

Dan closed his eyes to rest, while Samui, sitting across from him, quietly pricked up her ears and eavesdropped on the Akimichi family at the next table.

"Choji, today's your birthday, so eat your fill! The more we eat in the Akimichi Clan, the fatter and stronger we get!"

Choza Akimichi laughed heartily, clearly doting on his son.

"Mmph... Thanks, Dad."

Five-year-old Choji Akimichi stuffed his face as he spoke indistinctly, then raised a greasy little hand. "Five more plates of pork belly!"

The other customers in the restaurant were amazed by how much the family of three could eat.

They'd heard the Akimichi Clan were all big eaters. It was true.

Before long,

the food Dan had ordered arrived. There was so much of it that the table was nearly too small.

At barbecue restaurants, customers usually grilled their own food. But if they didn't want the trouble, they could ask the staff to grill it and bring it over ready to eat.

Dan had ordered his food ready-made. Grilling it himself would have taken too long.

"Mr. Dan, should we bring out the rest of the dishes later?" the server asked.

Although Dan looked strong and like a big eater, the server didn't think he could finish all that food in one sitting.

No matter how much a person could eat, the stomach still needed time to digest it. There was only so much room in there.

Even the famously ravenous Akimichi Clan had their limits.

"Just bring it out."

Dan's answer was brief. Then he said to Samui, "Let's eat."

And so,

the two of them began enjoying the food in front of them.

Samui was a refined young woman. She ate slowly and carefully, even managing to look elegant while eating skewers.

Dan was different.

He was a human beast, devouring food in a whirlwind, wolfing down meat and gulping drinks. Before long, he'd polished off more than half the food on the table.

Then Dan stopped, his belly bulging high, as if he'd eaten his fill.

But right after,

his abdomen began to rise and fall, and a rumbling sound came from his stomach.

Dan shut his eyes and focused his mental energy on his stomach, controlling the rhythm of his digestive tract's movements. It worked like a concrete mixer on a construction site, repeatedly grinding the food.

After years of physical training,

Dan had gained complete control over his autonomic nervous system. He could move all 639 muscles in his body at will, performing all kinds of difficult feats and even changing his appearance and physique through muscle movement.

He'd also figured out how to control his visceral nervous system. With his mind, he could regulate his heartbeat, adrenaline secretion, and digestion, training his internal organs just as he trained his muscles.

At that moment,

Dan's stomach produced large amounts of acid, while the muscles in his digestive tract worked furiously. His digestive capacity was dozens, even hundreds, of times greater than an ordinary person's.

An ordinary person needed an entire afternoon to digest a meal. Dan needed only a few minutes.

Soon,

Dan's once-bulging stomach was flat again.

The sight left the server standing nearby dumbfounded. The family of three at the next table were just as astonished.

Little Choji even forgot to eat the grilled meat by his mouth. He stared wide-eyed at Dan without blinking.

The server came to his senses and no longer dared to doubt Dan's appetite. He hurriedly urged the kitchen to keep the food coming.

But even with several employees grilling at once, sweating buckets as they worked, they still couldn't keep up with Dan's pace.

While they waited for another round of food,

Dan put down his chopsticks and went to the bathroom. Two minutes later, he returned looking as calm as ever.

He'd expelled the food waste his body couldn't digest.

All the nutrients and energy from the food had entered his bloodstream and traveled throughout his body, making his muscles stronger and fuller.

Dan was incompatible with the five basic nature transformations of Chakra—Water, Fire, Wind, Lightning, and Earth—but he possessed Yin Release and Yang Release, which Chakra Paper couldn't detect.

Yin Release came from the Sharingan bloodline of the Uchiha Clan.

Yang Release came from his naturally gifted body, which bore a star-shaped birthmark.

Over the past twenty-odd years,

Dan had used scientific training and nutrition to strengthen his body to an unbelievable degree.

Steel tendons, iron bones, copper skin, mercury blood, frost marrow.

These weren't metaphors. They were literal descriptions.

Dan's copper skin and iron bones made him virtually immune to Kunai, Shuriken, Explosive Tags, and ordinary Ninjutsu attacks.

"Hello, mister."

A deep, muffled voice suddenly rang out.

It turned out

that little Choji had walked over to Dan. He tilted his head back, full of curiosity, and asked how Dan had done it—how he could eat even more than Choji and still have such a good physique.

Without a trace of fat.

Choji's little face was round and chubby, with red, spiral-shaped marks on both cheeks. He didn't look particularly bright.

He'd inherited the Akimichi Clan's excellent genes from birth. Eating was his greatest passion, but it had also made him fat. His friends often teased him, and some even called him a fat pig.

He thought it would be wonderful if he could be like Dan and gain muscle without gaining fat.

Before Dan could answer,

"Sorry, my son can be a little forward."

Choza Akimichi walked over with an awkward smile, took his son's hand, and apologized to the stranger before him. He then politely asked Dan his name.

"My name is Uchiha Dan," Dan said calmly.

At that, Samui was startled.

In her memory, the Gym Director had always called himself "Dan," never using the Uchiha surname. This was the first time he'd done so.

The Gym Director seemed different from before.

Hearing the name Uchiha, Choza Akimichi's expression changed. His initial interest in befriending Dan quickly faded.

"Sorry for the interruption."

He led Choji back to their table, clearly not wanting to get involved with the Uchiha.

Dan didn't take it to heart. He simply remarked,

"Your son has good potential. It'd be a shame if he didn't work out. If he's interested, he can come to my gym."

At his words, Samui quickly stood and walked over, handing Choji's mother a business card with the gym's address on it.

The woman hesitated and exchanged a glance with her husband, Choza Akimichi. In the end, she politely thanked Samui and accepted the card.

Perhaps the family of three had eaten their fill, because they settled their bill and left soon afterward.

After that little interruption,

Dan and Samui continued enjoying their meal.

An hour later,

"Burp~"

Samui was so full she couldn't help letting out a belch. She quickly covered her mouth with her hand.

"Sorry, Gym Director... I think I ate too much," she said quietly.

"Eat as much as you like. I can afford to feed one employee," Dan said, pouring Samui a cup of Barley tea.

As far as Samui knew,

the gym and Dan's daily food expenses added up to a considerable sum. Though the Gym Director came from the wealthy Uchiha Clan, he hadn't inherited any family assets.

However,

every so often, Dan left Konoha for a while to earn money. He seemed to have some unusual source of income.

Samui had once tried to follow him, but she'd failed.

Still, she knew better than to ask questions she shouldn't.

After they finished eating,

Dan took out his wallet and paid at the counter. Their meal had cost nearly fifty thousand Ryo.

As the manager and staff bowed together to see them off, they left Yakiniku Q.

As they walked down the street,

Samui was feeling content when a cold breeze suddenly blew by. Goosebumps rose on her arms, and she couldn't help shivering.

Dan took off his jacket and draped it over Samui's shoulders, warming her.

"Thank you, Gym Director," Samui said, her face turning slightly red.

To Samui, Dan was usually a stern, taciturn man—not the witty sort who knew how to charm women. He always gave off an air that warned others to keep their distance.

But sometimes, the thoughtfulness and tenderness he showed without even realizing it were all the more likely to make a woman's heart flutter.

Oh no.

Samui abruptly came to her senses.

She'd almost forgotten she was a spy. The affection she usually showed Dan was all an act.

If she got too deep into the role and accidentally fell for him, she'd be finished.

With that in mind,

she took a deep breath and composed herself.

After strolling in the evening breeze for over ten minutes, they returned home.

"Good night, Gym Director."

In the hallway, Samui bowed to Dan and watched him enter his bedroom.

Clunk.

She slid open the door and returned to her little room. In an instant, her expression changed, turning sharp and alert.

It was completely different from the way she acted in front of Dan.

Night had fallen.

In the dim room, Samui sat at the desk by the window and used the faint moonlight to organize an Intelligence scroll.

It contained all the information she had on Uchiha Dan: his height, weight, and age; his family ties; and his abilities and fighting methods.

It also recorded in particular detail how Dan had killed the Five Amegakure spies.

Along with it was a photo Samui had secretly taken of Dan from behind.

In Samui's view,

if Cloud Hidden and Konoha ever broke out into full-scale war, Dan could grow into a formidable enemy of the Cloud Hidden Village if he went to the battlefield.

She couldn't afford to ignore him.

"Poof."

Samui swiftly formed Hand Seals, summoning a Ninja hawk with grayish-white feathers.

She tied the intelligence to the hawk's leg, then opened the window and watched it take flight and disappear from Konoha beneath the cover of night.

Northward.

After sending off the hawk, Samui closed the window and was about to go to bed.

"You're... still awake?" a voice suddenly sounded outside her door, and the hallway light came on.

"!"

Samui was so startled that her face went pale.

She turned to look. Through the translucent paper lattice of the sliding door, she saw a tall, dark silhouette standing outside.

It stood perfectly still, like a ghost.