Kitsuchi

After hearing the elderly woman's account,

"That's outrageous!" Kiba Inuzuka slammed his fist into the ground and gritted his teeth.

"Indeed. Grandma only wanted a bite to eat. The owner of that noodle shop is being completely unreasonable," Minato Namikaze said with a frown.

As a war orphan, Minato had once begged for food before he was taken in by Konoha. So compared with Kiba and Uchiha Matsuri, he understood the elderly woman's hardship and pain more deeply.

"Hmph, what kind of lousy owner does that? I'll teach him a lesson." Kiba raised his fist and charged toward the noodle shop.

Seeing Kiba lose his temper, Uchiha Matsuri hurried forward and grabbed him.

"Kiba, we're in the Land of Earth. Don't let your temper get the better of you." Uchiha Matsuri looked at Kiba calmly.

"I don't care about the Land of Earth or Iwagakure! I'm going to avenge Grandma!" Kiba shouted.

"Stop!" Uchiha Matsuri snapped. "Kiba, if you keep acting so impulsively, you'll get us into serious trouble."

"Hmph, Matsuri, I've seen right through you today." Kiba glared angrily at Uchiha Matsuri. "Grandma's suffering, and all you care about is avoiding trouble. You're nothing but a coward who's afraid to die!"

Uchiha Matsuri was about to explain, but Kiba suddenly kicked him. Caught off guard, Uchiha Matsuri fell to the ground.

Meanwhile, Kiba headed for the noodle shop with Ono the Ninja Dog in his arms.

Bang!

Kiba kicked open the noodle shop's door.

The diners inside were startled at first, but when they saw that the intruder was only a child, they lowered their heads and went back to eating.

Seeing that no one in the shop reacted to him, Kiba immediately grew annoyed.

"Get your boss out here!" Kiba shouted.

Seeing Kiba charge in aggressively, the employee at the counter said, displeased, "Who do you think you are, demanding to see our boss? Our boss is—"

Before he could finish, Kiba kicked him across the room.

"Cough, cough..." The employee fell to the floor and clutched his chest, coughing.

"Who's looking for me?!"

Suddenly, a burly man with a face full of scars came out from the back.

He glanced at the employee lying on the floor and flew into a rage. "Kid, I don't care what you want. You wrecked my shop, and you're not leaving here alive today."

"Hmph, tell me, why did you treat Grandma so brutally? She only wanted something to eat, but you threw her right out! Don't you have any compassion?" Kiba said indignantly.

After hearing Kiba's accusation, the burly man suddenly burst out laughing. The diners watching nearby also mocked Kiba for sticking his nose into other people's business.

The burly man glanced at Kiba, who was brimming with "righteousness," and sneered. "Tch. That old woman? I didn't like the look of her, so I kicked her out. What are you going to do about it?"

"You're asking for it," Kiba gritted out.

Then Kiba gave the Ninja Dog in his arms a look. Ono immediately barked in response.

"Ninja Art—Fang Over Fang!"

Kiba and Ono spun together, forming two intersecting tornadoes as they charged straight at the burly man.

Seeing Kiba use a ninjutsu, the civilian diners lost all interest in watching and scrambled toward the door.

Meanwhile, the burly man's earlier bravado vanished. He turned and hurried toward the back courtyard.

But just one second later, Kiba and Ono were right in front of him.

Outside the noodle shop.

Seeing the diners rush out in a panic, Uchiha Matsuri and Minato Namikaze thought, This is bad.

"Looks like we're going to have a hard time getting out of this unscathed today." Uchiha Matsuri sighed helplessly.

Damn it, they were in Iwagakure!

They'd wrecked someone else's village without a word. No one would let the troublemaker get away with that.

There was a much better way to handle this, but he just had to pick the most dangerous one. What a great way to drag his teammates into trouble!

Despite his complaints, Uchiha Matsuri chose to stay and clean up Kiba's mess.

He could have left Kiba to fend for himself, but a few days earlier, when Matsuri had passed out, Kiba and the others hadn't abandoned him.

With a tremendous crash, the noodle shop was reduced to rubble.

Seeing Kiba panting heavily amid the wreckage, Uchiha Matsuri felt utterly helpless.

"Sorry. I think I may have caused trouble for everyone." Once he'd come to his senses, Kiba lowered his head and walked over to Uchiha Matsuri and Minato Namikaze.

"It's all right. You've avenged Grandma, so let's hurry and leave," Minato said.

"Heh. Unfortunately, we're not going anywhere."

Uchiha Matsuri gave a bitter smile.

Looking up, he saw several dozen Iwa-nin silently surrounding the three of them.

"Trying to leave?"

A dark-skinned, burly man in his early twenties stepped out from the Iwa-nin's ranks.

"Lord Kitsuchi, those are the three brats who just wrecked that noodle shop," one of the Iwa-nin said quietly, pointing at Uchiha Matsuri and the others.

"Those three?" Kitsuchi asked in surprise.

Just moments earlier, when Kitsuchi had arrived in front of them, he hadn't sensed that any of the three had particularly powerful chakra.

Three Genin actually causing trouble in Iwagakure? That doesn't make sense.

Pondering their intentions, Kitsuchi walked toward the three of them.

"You three Konoha shinobi, why did you cause trouble in our Iwagakure?" Kitsuchi asked bluntly.

"It was all a misunderstanding..."

The three of them recounted everything that had just happened, from beginning to end.

After hearing their account, Kitsuchi suddenly burst into laughter.

"You think I'm going to believe that?" Kitsuchi waved a hand and laughed loudly.

"We're telling the truth. You can ask Grandma if you don't believe us... Huh? Where is she?"

Kiba looked around and realized the elderly woman was nowhere to be seen.

"Stop pretending. You attacked a communications outpost belonging to Iwagakure Anbu, then made up the stupidest excuse imaginable to get away with it. Do you think I'm that easy to fool?" Kitsuchi said with a disbelieving laugh.

"We really—"

Kiba tried to explain, but Kitsuchi cut him off.

"That's enough. I don't want to hear any more of your so-called explanations." Kitsuchi waved a hand, a trace of anger in his voice.

"By Konoha's usual practice, shinobi carry out missions in teams of four. That means you must have another accomplice."

Kitsuchi pulled out a shuriken, pointed it at Kiba, and asked coldly, "Tell me where your accomplice is! What are you trying to do?"