Kita Ward

Takasaki Tsuki's family izakaya was in Tokyo's Kita Ward.

It was not far from Jinguji High School in Bunkyo Ward, less than a ten-minute walk away. Tsuki had gone home first to get things ready, and Uchiha Naruto had agreed to arrive before five thirty.

Not long after leaving Bunkyo Ward and entering Kita Ward, he could already feel how much more run-down it was.

If one applied the city layouts common in Western novels to Tokyo, then Chiyoda, Chuo Ward, and Minato Ward in the city center were undoubtedly the noble districts, where only the rich and powerful could settle. Bunkyo Ward, with its strong cultural atmosphere and good public safety, counted as the upper town, while Nakano Ward, where the Uchiha home stood, was the lower town. To put it more harshly, Kita Ward, Adachi Ward, and Arakawa Ward were Tokyo's "slums."

Those last few wards sat at the bottom of the social pecking order. In short, they had poor transport, poor public safety, and poor economies.

Kita Ward could only reliably beat Adachi Ward, which ranked dead last, and struggled back and forth between second and third from the bottom.

Uchiha Naruto arrived outside an izakaya in a two-story building. It had not yet opened for business, and the coarse blue fabric curtain still hung across the entrance. He looked up at the sign, which read "Takasaki Izakaya." Once he confirmed he had the right place, he lifted the curtain and walked inside.

The interior of the Takasaki Izakaya was simple and unpretentious. A counter separated the cooking area from the dining area, with square dining tables beyond it. Customers could see at a glance how the chef prepared the ingredients-a typical izakaya layout. Handwritten menus, another characteristic izakaya touch, were pasted on the walls.

One unusual feature was the presence of several water tanks in the cooking area, though they were mostly empty.

At a glance, Uchiha Naruto spotted Takasaki Tsuki wiping down the seats with a cloth.

Hearing someone enter, she was about to bow and say, "Welcome," but once she recognized Uchiha Naruto, she said happily:

"Uchiha, you're here! You're ten minutes earlier than we agreed."

"It's my first day on the job, so of course I should make an effort. Is there anything I can help with?" Uchiha Naruto rolled up his sleeves, ready to help clean.

"No, that's all right!"

Takasaki Tsuki clutched her cloth, looking rather flustered as she stammered. Just then, a girl carrying an enormous shopping bag came through the izakaya entrance.

"Move, move! Don't block the way!"

Uchiha Naruto stepped aside. The girl struggled farther inside with her shopping bag, and he glanced into it. It was full of vegetables and meat bought at the supermarket.

The girl reached the cooking counter, pulled a bag of wriggling little octopuses from the shopping bag, and tipped them into a water tank. Only then did she have her hands free. After studying Uchiha Naruto for a moment, she turned a dubious look on Takasaki Tsuki.

"Sis, is this the helper you found? This pretty boy doesn't look very reliable."

"Anzu, how can you speak to Uchiha like that?" Takasaki Tsuki apologized to Uchiha Naruto. "I'm sorry. This is my younger sister, Takasaki Anzu. She's always been blunt like this, but she doesn't mean any harm."

Takasaki Anzu looked almost identical to Takasaki Tsuki and was about the same age. The only difference was the slight upward tilt of her eyes. Her demeanor was also unlike the sweet, well-behaved Tsuki's; she had something of a delinquent girl about her.

"You only came out a few minutes before I did. Stop acting like such a big sister all the time. I was against you opening for business in the first place. Wouldn't it be better to wait until Dad gets out of the hospital? Then we wouldn't need to hire anyone," Takasaki Anzu said with a snort.

"Anzu!"

In a rare departure from her usual demeanor, Takasaki Tsuki's face hardened as she sternly rebuked her. "The doctor said that even if his recovery goes well, Dad won't be discharged until next month at the earliest. Are we supposed to sit around eating through our savings until then? What if he doesn't recover that quickly? Even if it's just us two daughters, we have to keep this place going."

Takasaki Anzu muttered a few words under her breath but stopped arguing.

"I'm sorry you had to see that, Uchiha."

Takasaki Tsuki bowed to Uchiha Naruto, then stepped over to open the shopping bag and check the ingredients inside.

After taking out the cabbage, onions, beef, pork, and other ingredients, she rummaged through the bag again and asked Takasaki Anzu:

"Didn't I ask you to buy a few live fish? Did you forget? How could you be so careless? Sashimi is our specialty at the Takasaki Izakaya. Plenty of regulars come here specifically for it..."

"That was when Dad was the chef!"

Finally finding an opening to argue back, Takasaki Anzu declared loudly and confidently:

"You said the helper you found has amazing knife skills, but who knows whether that's true? If he's all show, won't the fish go to waste? Live fish aren't cheap, and we can't keep them until tomorrow. Wouldn't that just be throwing money away?"

Casting a glance at Uchiha Naruto, Takasaki Anzu continued:

"And now it looks like I had plenty of foresight."

"Anzu!"

Takasaki Tsuki's face flushed bright red with embarrassment. She was about to say something when a sudden knock came from outside.

"Is anyone from the Takasaki Izakaya here? I'm from the Kirin Draft Beer Company. Our refrigerated truck is outside. Could someone come out?"

"Coming!"

Takasaki Tsuki called toward the entrance, then bowed repeatedly to Uchiha Naruto and said:

"Uchiha, sorry for the trouble, but please help my sister wash these ingredients and do some basic prep. I'll cook them afterward. Anzu will tell you what to do. And Anzu, no picking fights with Uchiha. If this keeps up, we might not be ready to open on time."

With that, Takasaki Tsuki hurried toward the entrance.

"Tch! Come with me."

Takasaki Anzu clicked her tongue, then led the way behind the counter.

Although Takasaki Anzu wore a sour expression and looked unhappy, she deftly tied on an apron, then began sorting and washing the vegetables.

"My sister might nag, but she isn't the type to fall for some pretty boy's sweet talk. If she brought you here, you must have some skills. Can you carve onion flowers?"

Takasaki Anzu submerged the vegetables in water, wiped her hands on her apron, and brought over a bag of onions.

"Leave it to me."

Uchiha Naruto picked up an onion and deftly wielded a knife with his other hand, carving it into a flower. He finished in the blink of an eye.

As though that had not quite satisfied him, he picked up another onion and spun his knife swiftly, almost as if showing off.

A few swift cuts later, two onion flowers sat side by side, one in full bloom and the other still a budding blossom.

Takasaki Anzu stared, a little stunned. Carving onion flowers was not particularly difficult, but watching Uchiha Naruto finish in an instant with such pleasing movements was a real eye-opener.

Still, Takasaki Anzu was not about to admit it.

"Passable. They're only onions. They're easy to cut anyway. Once you're done, cut up this chicken, pork, and beef."

Uchiha Naruto set a whole chicken on the cutting board. His blade turned, separating flesh and skin from bone and sinew in moments. The flashing knife flowed effortlessly, with room to spare. As he cut the meat, the blade struck the board without a pause, its crisp sounds falling into a steady rhythm.

He was merely preparing ingredients, yet Uchiha Naruto made it look like a stage performance. His knife work was a spectacle in itself.

Ingredients that they had expected to take half an hour to prepare were all finished by Uchiha Naruto in under five minutes!

Takasaki Tsuki then gave the prepped ingredients a little more work, turning them into partially prepared dishes. At last, they opened for business before six.