Chapter 10

It took me one day to travel on foot. I arrived at the town and it was pretty big. There were people roaming around, laughter in the air and smiles on everyone's face.

They were quite happy to have survived the war and were in a good mood, even though the war ended more than 18 months ago.

I looked around. I had to search for a 20 year old ninja in a huge town with no information. I knew it would take time for me to search for him, so I first needed a place to stay.

I looked around and found an inn to stay in. I was lucky to find one which didn't ask for an advance payment, as I didn't have a single ryo with me.

That idiot Danzo wouldn't give out even a single ryo to anyone. I settled down and started searching for him.

While looking for him, I found a takoyaki store run by a woman and a small girl was helping her out. The small girl looked like the woman's daughter. While her mother was making the takoyaki, the small girl gave out orders and collected cash from customers.

Then a man came running towards the girl and snatched the box from the little girl. The thief was running towards me. I put my leg before his to stop him.

He tripped and fell down. The small girl, with black shoulder length hair and black eyes came running towards him.

She came to me and said "Thanks".

She was completely tired and looked too weak to work anymore. I nodded and said " You don't look like you are in a condition to work. Do you need help?"

She refused out of courtesy. She picked up her box and tried to walk, but almost fell. I could tell that she was weak. She looked around 6-7 years old.

I helped her back to her shop and her mom looked at her daughter. She came to her and asked "Are you ok? Did something happen to you?"

I answered for her daughter and said "She is weak, I think she needs rest."

Her mom helped her and took her inside their house. It was just behind the shop. She then came back and said to me "Thanks for helping us. Would you like some takoyaki?"

"I need work. Since you and your daughter don't look like you could work and could really use a helping hand." I said and she was surprised.

I was just a five year old kid and was sad to see an orphan. That was expected, as after war the only things left for civilians are death, sorrow and tears.

She nodded and asked "I can't pay you much. How much do you want?"

"I know I am asking too much, but I only need 100 ryo and a meal a day. This is a lot, but I can help increase the income, making this amount less." I replied.

She smiled after hearing my confident tone. I hated this baby body. My confident and stern look were only words of a kid, which wouldn't mean anything.

I was asked to look after her daughter's work, but I refused and said "Let me cook while you relax."

She completely refused and said "You are still a kid, you can't cook."

I said in return "If I mess up even once, I will work for free the whole day."

She was amazed by the confidence I had in myself and agreed after thinking for a while.

I went into their kitchen and brought out some ingredients with me, along with some spices.

I started making takoyaki, which came out better than I expected. I could cook in my previous life, but that's what you would expect when your parents die in a young age.

I wanted to try different cuisines and had to learn to cook myself. After the first batch was done, she tasted them and I could tell by the look on her face that she loved them.

She asked "How did you make them? They taste amazing."

"I don't know. I had a feeling that I could make takoyaki and after I looked at the ingredients, my hands moved on its own." I said.

She was confused, but didn't want to get into my personal life. I said that because I couldn't explain my knowledge in cooking. This was the only believable reason I could come up with.

Even though it wasn't a reason she would believe, the root ninja spying on me would easily believe this. Since everyone in the root knew about me and my memory erase thing.

So, they would think that I knew cooking before I lost my memories. This would make them think I had muscle memory of cooking.

I continued making takoyaki. All I had to do was wait for the regular customers to arrive first and he arrived.

An old man came with his grandson and he loved the food. Seeing them enjoy the food and the smell coming from the food, attracted people around us.

Her daughter returned and looked at the customers outside. She was happy seeing the customers. I handed a serving for her and her mother.

They accepted and enjoyed the taste. Her mother then looked at me and asked "We haven't even introduced ourselves didn't we? I am Saki and she is my daughter Akari. What about you?"

I introduced myself "I am Hakuto" and I got back to my work. I got my daily wages and food, which was enough for me to live in the town till I found my target.

Since the shop opened at evening and stayed open till late night, I could search for my target before and after work.

I could also collect information while working in that shop, since after drinking, men would come there to eat. I don't know if takoyaki and sake would go along, but I couldn't try.

So, after staying in the town for a month, I finally found my target on the other side of the town.

It was daytime when I found him. He was still sleeping in his room, which had traps set to alert him if anyone snuck in.

I carefully entered the room through the window, but I still had a kunai flying towards my face.

He was a ninja and even though I didn't trigger any traps, he still found out.

He immediately got up and jumped away from me, with a kunai in his hand. He looked at me and said "They seriously underestimated me. They seriously sent a kid to kill me."

I had my bird mask on, so he couldn't figure out mu exact age.

I said "You might regret that. You just have a 100,000 ryo bounty on your head. I don't think they need to send a chunin or jonin level ninja for you."