Konan made abalone soup tonight. She had specially ordered one hundred fresh abalones from an Amegakure seafood vendor. Each one was plump and tender, and they had cost a small fortune.
Worried that the food would go to waste if they could not finish it, Nagato had Pain Rin join them at the table.
After tidying up the small kitchen, Konan walked over to the dining table.
Nagato and Pain Rin were both digging in with gusto.
Pain Rin pried open an abalone shell with her little hands and sucked up the juices, looking utterly satisfied.
Konan's expression shifted slightly. "Can you taste it?"
Pain Rin set down the empty shell. Without even bothering to wipe the juice from the corner of her mouth, she picked up another gleaming abalone and smiled sweetly. "I can't taste it~, but just thinking about how Konan cooked these herself makes me want to try them..."
"Is that so? Then eat more if you like it." Konan propped up her cheek with a slender hand and took out a book with an orange cover from her robes.
Nagato looked up. "Konan, aren't you eating?"
"Mm. I'm not very hungry..." Konan's eyes moved across the lines of text, occasionally lingering over certain passages as though she could not bear to move on.
Nagato thought, Konan has been cramming Jiraiya-sensei's masterpiece day and night lately. After taking Orochimaru's special medicine, she really does look much more energetic...
"Glug, glug~!" After filling her stomach, Pain Rin gulped down water and patted her round, distended belly. "Kada~ kada~! (I'm full, I'm full!)"
When Konan came back to herself, she found Pain Rin looking at her strangely.
"What is it?"
"N-Nothing." Konan lowered her gaze.
Just now, she had wanted to ask where the food Pain Rin ate and