Shut up!

I'm currently with my dango advisor, learning how to eat this food in the way she calls the correct one to truly appreciate the flavors. That is... eating all three balls at once, quite straightforward I must say, but fun. The young girl seems more cheerful after somehow spending half an hour talking about dangos, recommended flavors, and the like.

But the atmosphere outside of our table is not as pleasant. No, it's not that people are giving me strange looks for getting along with a young teenager. It's more that the girl seems to be receiving all kinds of hostile and malicious glances, as if she's guilty of something. I think she noticed it too, as her movements have become a bit more tense, but since her back is turned to them, she's pretending not to notice and is trying to maintain a strong image.

"Why did I have to meet her here?" one of the customers muttered. "I thought this was a serious establishment."

"Because Hokage-sama allowed her to stay in the village?"

"Yeah, she's the personal disciple of 'that man.' How embarrassing!"

"She actually came back alive from the mission again, what bad luck!"

I should note that all those who are talking have headbands or ninja vests, and every time they echo each other, they seem to have less control over their voices.

Really, how annoying.

"Hey," I stood up at my full height and looked at them, making sure to emphasize my chin-raising gesture to convey pure disdain as I looked down at them. "Could you guys close your mouths? I've only heard crap coming out of them, and it's ruining my appetite and my friend's."

Not only did the ninja give me disbelieving looks, but even the young kunoichi had an expression of surprise, seeing me openly defend her.

Seriously, what's wrong with Konoha and its stupid habit of picking on kids?

"What did you say, you little piece of shit?" one of the hot-headed ninja struck the table and stood up, looking at me with a reddened face. I'm not sure if it's from anger, embarrassment at being rebuffed, or if he's been drinking before coming here.

"Do you really dare talk about size with me?" I replied mockingly, lowering my gaze to his pants. "Want to compare? I can give you some time to prepare, so you don't cry from pure humiliation later."

Wow, his face turned even redder; I think he understood my double entendre, and not only that.

I think I hit a nerve in his pride as a man!

Although it's not like he actually has any, talking in such a cowardly manner as if it were an honorable act for the village. The Will of Fire really stinks.

"This is Konoha; you better shut your mouth if you know what's good for you and stay out of other people's business," he threatened me, while other ninja, encouraged by his words, got up from their tables as well and dared to give me dirty looks.

It's funny; strictly speaking, in my current state, I could wipe out a third of the village with a charged move.

And these idiots think they're someone important?

Bring me one of the first two Hokages, and I'll consider "facing" them, as they say in those Chinese novels.

A light flashed in the shop, and the next thing the owner saw when he recovered from the flash was that the Konoha ninja were unconscious on the floor, emitting black smoke from their mouths.

I didn't kill them, but they'll need a few days of rest before they can speak normally.

"You should leave," unexpectedly, these words didn't come from the shop owner but from the kunoichi I had defended. "You'll be in trouble if you stay too long!" she urged me to leave before reinforcements arrived.

I could see that she was on the verge of tears, and that annoyed me even more.

How bad must her situation be that just defending her a little bit could move her to this extent?

"What's your name?" I asked her.

"I'm... Anko Mitarashi," she replied while looking at the ground.

Oh, now I've connected the dots. Orochimaru must have deserted already, and quite recently at that.

That explains why Anko is getting bullied; people can't deal with her master, so they transfer their hatred to the disciple to feel better.

Pathetic.

I knocked out the shop owner before turning to her.

"Orochimaru's disciple, eh..."

I saw her shudder when I mentioned her identity, which she probably despises at the moment, as she hasn't reached the point of determination to prove she's different from Orochimaru.

"Would you like to come with me out of the village?"

Anko looked up, surprised by the familiarity of that phrase, but she reacted well.

"Yes!" she replied with determination and speed.

The last time her master asked her that question, her hesitation led to her being abandoned by him and becoming the target of hatred in the village for her master's sins.

She loved the village, and it's not like she knew about Orochimaru's cruel experiments done in secret; she found out later, just like everyone else, and was even more devastated.

She only participated in one of them, and it was related to seals, nothing too out of the ordinary in her view.

So why were they treating her this way?

Months after her master left the village, she saw the village's other side and discovered its darkness. If they were going to keep treating her like this, what was the point of staying?

In the end, they would just give her missions to send her to die, and if she managed to complete them, she wouldn't even get a thank you or any recognition.

"Don't you want to know anything about me or my village before making this decision?"

"Any place is better for me right now than Konoha," she replied, with evident distress and an awareness of the weight of her words.

"All right, should you go to your home to let your parents know and get your belongings?"

"Yes, I want to pick up a few things," Anko nodded, becoming restless. "As for my parents... I don't have any, so that won't be an issue."

"I'm sorry, I didn't know."

"It doesn't matter."

Actually, I did know, but given that I encountered her in clearly unexpected circumstances, I couldn't tell her that I know most of her future. And if she's going to join my village, we need to remove Orochimaru's backup from her body.

So Mariko will have to study the Cursed Seal of Heaven and see what she can do.

Having a sealing master is quite convenient.

We turned off the lights as we left to give the impression that the shop was closed, but this would only buy us some time. After accompanying Anko to her apartment, I waited outside with the excuse of keeping watch. While the teenager hurriedly stored her belongings in storage scrolls, I covertly returned to the dango shop and killed everyone present, except for the shop owner.

In his case, I administered small, selective electrical discharges to his head to cut the neural connections storing the memories of today. Even if someone from the Yamanaka clan tries to find out what happened, they won't be able to because the "paths" they would need to traverse are destroyed beyond repair.

Though I may have missed a few times due to lack of practice, so the shop owner will have to suffer from incontinence for a while and won't be able to taste salt for months.

But hey, at least I didn't leave him paralyzed.

I returned to Anko, and within two minutes, she had a backpack filled with storage scrolls. With an expression as if she had decided to turn the page and start a new life (which is precisely what she's doing), she took my hand, and the two of us disappeared, leaving behind some electrical sparks in the air.

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The next chapter may take a little longer due to a mistake, but then everything will go back to normal.