The glare made his eyelids feel hot.
Sen sprawled in his big vine chair, limbs splayed.
The old wicker creaked and groaned beneath his weight.
He held a half-dried thatched grass root.
He poked it back and forth between his teeth.
He picked out a tiny strand of gristle from yesterday's grilled meat.
Ptooey.
He spat it onto a green grass leaf beside him.
Life really was damn comfortable.
There were no more explosive tags flying overhead.
He no longer had to sleep with one eye open, guarding against someone slitting his throat.
That rotten stench of blood that had lingered in the air year after year.
Now the sweet fragrance of the orchard behind the mountain had covered it completely.
Well, there it was.
This was a truly peaceful world at last.
Someone kicked the old wooden door open with a bang.
Its hinges gave an ugly squeal.
Naruto shuffled in wearing old straw sandals with huge holes in them.
He carried a coarse porcelain bowl bigger than his face.
Two greasy strands of ramen still clung to the bottom.
"Sen! Your gate's way too flimsy!"
He plopped carelessly onto the bluestone paving.
His blond hair was as wild as a crazed monkey that had just raided a bird's nest.
Sen couldn't even be bothered to lift his eyelids.
"Break it and you pay full price. A hundred thousand ryo per gate."
"If you can't pay, stay here and clean my courtyard's dry latrine for two months."
Naruto hurriedly hugged the bowl to his chest in alarm.
"Come on! I just stuffed myself at Uncle Teuchi's place."
"How am I supposed to afford your rip-off gate?"
He let out an enormous burp that smelled of chives.
"So what's it like out there now?"
Sen idly tossed out the question