Seven in the evening.
The sun had sunk behind the western mountains, and the mist of night settled over everything like gauze, but Konoha's evening was only just beginning.
The streets and alleys glowed with the colorful candlelight of roadside shops. Crowds thronged the night market, jostling shoulder to shoulder, while stalls offered every kind of food and amusement. Vendors carrying shoulder poles called out their wares as they wandered past, and a juggling act on a street corner drew countless spectators. The air brimmed with a warm, lively energy.
After a hard day's work, the villagers of Konoha enjoyed buying themselves a little treat during their time off. Even Madara Uchiha was no exception.
After dealing with disobedient brats and that nauseating pile of homework, Madara Uchiha was exhausted in both body and mind. The bizarre students at the Ninja Academy always managed to make him seethe with rage, and that unreliable bastard Hashirama was no better. He kept sneaking off to gamble and dumping all the work on Madara!
He was the one who suggested teaching at the Ninja Academy in the first place!
If Princess Mito had not started teaching that year and volunteered to take on much of the workload, the furious Madara would have exploded like a firecracker long ago and stabbed a few holes clean through Hashirama, who never stopped slacking off.
Madara picked a shop at random, chose the daifuku Shingetsu liked and his own favorite inari sushi, then prepared to pay and leave. The shopkeeper packed the food and handed it over with a smile. When Madara took the bag, it felt much heavier than he had expected. He opened it and found that, sure enough, the shopkeeper had stuffed in plenty of extras for him.
It would have been impossible to