The sun had set, leaving only a strip of orange-red along the horizon.
Kitahara Kaede walked home with a paper bag of snacks in hand.
Training had ended early today. Hiruzen had gone to a meeting at the Hokage Building, so the three of them had split up.
He was just about to head home when something caught his eye at the street corner.
Orochimaru.
The guy who usually wore nothing but white had a loose black cloak on today, and was making his way out of the village along the wall.
He walked quickly, his head held low.
Kitahara Kaede popped a snack into his mouth.
With a getup like that, he might as well have "I'm up to no good" written on his face.
He chewed a couple of times and followed.
It wasn't as if he had anything better to do.
With his current sensory abilities, Orochimaru wouldn't notice him from twenty or thirty meters away.
They passed through the village gates, one following the other, and reached the river outside the village.
Before he got close, he heard Tsunade's voice.
"Five thousand ryo! A whole five thousand!"
Tsunade was crouched by the river, clutching a deflated wallet. Her face was as bitter as a gourd.
"I didn't even see a splash before it was gone! Those gambling-house owners were definitely cheating!"
She picked up a pebble and hurled it into the middle of the river.
The splash didn't do a thing to cool her temper.
Kitahara Kaede found a suitable tree, climbed up, and perched on a branch.
He tore open the paper bag, took out a rice cracker, and watched as he chewed.
Across the river, Orochimaru was crouched behind a pile of rocks, checking something on a sheet of paper.
The next moment, Orochimaru put on a black hood and pulled a smoke bomb from his ninja pouch.
His entire presence changed in an instant.
Kitahara Kaede paused mid-chew.
Putting on a show?
Boom.
A cloud of smoke burst by the river.
"Who's there?!" Tsunade sprang up and instinctively backed away a couple of steps.
"Heh heh, little girl. It's not safe to be out here alone, daydreaming."
Orochimaru emerged from the smoke, lowering his voice by two whole pitches. He deliberately swaggered as he walked, spinning a kunai around his fingers.
That acting.
Kitahara Kaede gave him a score in his head: eight out of ten.
The voice, the posture, the control over his killing intent—all good.
The only problem was that he'd picked the wrong target.
The woman in front of him had just lost all five thousand ryo and had nowhere to vent an afternoon's worth of anger.
Tsunade stared at the "wandering ninja" before her, stunned for a second.
Then she smiled.
It wasn't a normal smile.
It was the smile of someone who'd just had the whole world put her in debt and then suddenly seen someone volunteering to take a hit.
"Just what I needed."
Tsunade clenched her fist. The pebbles beneath her feet cracked.
"I'll make you cover what I lost today."
Orochimaru's brow twitched.
This wasn't how the script went.
According to Jiraiya's plan, he was supposed to establish dominance, put Tsunade at a disadvantage, and then that white-haired idiot would swoop down from the sky and save the damsel in distress—
Tsunade was already charging.
No opening stance, no unnecessary movements.
Just a punch, delivered at an utterly unreasonable speed.
Orochimaru's body bent backward at the last second, and the punch's force skimmed past the tip of his nose.
The ground beneath him wasn't so lucky.
Boom—
The earth and stones exploded, sending debris half a meter into the air.
The shockwave flung Orochimaru three or four meters back. He braced himself with one hand and slid before coming to a stop.
He glanced back at the crater.
Half a meter deep.
Then he looked at Tsunade.
She had her head lowered, her shoulders rising and falling slightly. Her presence seemed powerful enough to press the river down by three inches.
Orochimaru revised his expectations for the evening.
Something was wrong. Very wrong.
"Pretty quick on your feet."
Tsunade charged again, raising her right leg and gathering force in her heel before bringing it down with enough power to split a mountain and shatter stone.
Orochimaru didn't dare hold back anymore.
He used Body Flicker to flash to the side. Tsunade's heel slammed into the stony riverbank, and the whole bank trembled.
She turned and chased him again.
Orochimaru dodged between the rocks in a series of quick movements. His footwork was elegant, but he could hardly be called relaxed anymore.
Up in the tree, Kitahara Kaede finished his rice cracker and switched to a rice cake.
He saw a flash of white in the distance, hurrying toward them.
Jiraiya had arrived, carrying a bouquet of wildflowers.
"Stop! Don't you dare hurt my comrade!"
His voice sent ripples across the river.
When he charged into the scene, what he saw was just a little different from what he'd expected.
Tsunade was chasing.
Orochimaru was running.
Every punch that landed made the ground tremble.
Orochimaru raced past Jiraiya.
As they brushed past each other, Orochimaru didn't even break stride. He just tossed out three words.
"You're finished."
Then he used Body Flicker and vanished into the night.
Only two people remained on the riverbank.
Jiraiya was still holding the bouquet, its flowers tousled by the wind.
Tsunade slowly turned around.
She didn't attack right away.
She just looked at Jiraiya, then at the direction Orochimaru had disappeared in, and finally at Jiraiya's getup: a floral shirt, a new hairstyle, wildflowers in hand, and a stupid face that practically screamed "plan successful."
"Ji—ra—iya—"
"Tsunade, let me explain..."
"Explain what?"
Tsunade snatched the flowers from his hand and shoved them, stems and all, up his nostrils.
"You had Orochimaru pose as a rogue ninja while you played the hero?"
Jiraiya's face went pale.
"You think I'm stupid?"
Tsunade threw a punch.
It hit him squarely.
Jiraiya flew into the air, tracing a beautiful arc through the night.
He landed in the branches of a tree.
It was less than ten meters from the tree Kitahara Kaede was hiding in.
Kitahara Kaede looked at Jiraiya hanging upside down in the other tree.
Two wildflowers were still stuck in Jiraiya's nostrils. His white hair hung straight down, and two silent tears slid down his face.
Kitahara Kaede looked down, finished his rice cake, and brushed the crumbs from his hands.
That was probably enough.
He dropped down from the tree.
Tsunade was still standing by the river, panting, both fists clenched, her chest rising and falling.
At the sound of footsteps behind her, she whipped around. When she saw it was him, most of the murderous look on her face faded, replaced by the awkwardness of being caught in an embarrassing moment.
"Kaede? When did you..."
"I just got here."
Kitahara Kaede walked a couple of steps closer and glanced at her hand.
The knuckles on her right hand were scraped. It wasn't serious, but they were bleeding.
She'd thrown those punches at Orochimaru too hard and hadn't controlled her strength.
He said nothing. He took a handkerchief from his pocket and held it out to her.
Tsunade lowered her head and only then noticed her hand.
She took the handkerchief and wiped it quickly, muttering, "Those two idiots..."
Her voice was much quieter than before.
Kitahara Kaede walked to the edge of the riverbank and bent down to pick something up.
A wallet.
Jiraiya's.
That punch had sent him flying along with his belongings. His wallet had landed among the rocks.
Kitahara Kaede opened it and took a look.
It was stuffed full.
He weighed it in his hand and turned back.
"How much did you lose today?"
"Five thousand ryo," Tsunade said, still fuming. "Why?"
Kitahara Kaede tossed her the wallet.
Tsunade caught it on instinct and opened it. Her expression changed.
"This is—"
"His." Kitahara Kaede nodded toward the tree. "He probably saved it up for tonight."
Tsunade counted the money. There was far more than five thousand ryo.
She fell silent for two seconds.
Then she decisively stuffed the wallet into her pocket.
"Consider it compensation for my emotional distress."
Kitahara Kaede couldn't help the corners of his mouth from curling up.
Tsunade caught sight of it.
"What are you laughing at?"
"I'm not laughing."
"You're obviously laughing."
"Come on, let's get something to eat." Kitahara Kaede turned and headed toward the village. "You're paying."
"Why should I pay?"
"You just came into a windfall."
Tsunade glared at him, but she couldn't quite keep the smile from her lips.
She hurried to catch up, walking beside him.
The streetlights blinked on one by one, their reflections flickering across the river.
A distant wail came from behind them.
"Hey... at least get me down from here..."
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