The rain that never ceased year-round made open-air hot springs a luxury in Amegakure.
Bathhouses built indoors naturally became the preferred choice for leisure and relaxation.
After treating Orochimaru and Kabuto to the local specialty, meat buns, Nagato took them along to an inn with a large bathhouse in southern Amegakure.
"Excuse me," Nagato greeted politely as he entered.
The innkeeper was a woman of considerable charm.
Wearing a plain kimono with a small pillow-shaped ornament hanging from her sash, her hair piled high in a bun, she knelt on the tatami at the entrance. Holding a slender smoking pipe between two fingers, she studied the three men entering the inn and frowned slightly at the corners of her eyes.
She probed, "You gentlemen are unfamiliar faces. Were you introduced by someone?"
"No."
"If not, that makes things difficult. This establishment only serves regulars." The innkeeper exhaled a puff of smoke and directly showed them out. "Why don't you gentlemen look elsewhere?"
"They are foreign guests invited by Lord Pain." At that moment, Konan entered with Pain Rin at her side!
"Lady Angel!" At the sight of her, the innkeeper's cold attitude made an immediate one-hundred-eighty-degree turn!
She rose to her feet and said in delighted surprise, "Really?! These three are honored guests invited by the gods!!!"
"Mm." Konan nodded with a smile, then pointed to Pain Rin. "As for her, she is my personal attendant, Lily Bell~!"
"Hii~! Pleased to meet you!" Pain Rin raised her little hand and playfully greeted the innkeeper!
"Ah!! To think you have the fortune of serving Lady Angel—how enviable!" the innkeeper sighed. Her hand drifted beneath her kimono to her swollen belly as she said complicatedly, "If only my child could have such good fortune after growing up..."
The innkeeper's husband, A-Tie, had