Chapter 26: The Battlefield of Love is a Vicious Deathmatch
Rations Pills. Not bad.
They fill you up and restore Chakra. They're convenient.
Aside from tasting a bit awful and lacking the feeling of having eaten a real meal, they were genuinely not bad.
Hiiro Rinko had always believed that things like nutrient gels and instant pastes were among the world's greatest inventions. They were just too convenient for saving time.
Taste? He was already eating this stuff. Did you think he still cared about taste?
Efficiency and gluttony were never on the same level for Rinko—at least, not when he was holed up in his lab. When he was relaxing, he'd occasionally treat himself at a recommended restaurant.
He just had very low desire for material things in other areas; it wasn't that his taste buds were broken.
"You've really been surviving on just Rations Pills?!"
For Pakura, this was a bit too much.
In her world, even shinobi on missions wouldn't subsist on Rations Pills if they had any other choice. For Rinko to eat them for over a month straight... with that kind of perseverance, he could probably succeed at anything.
Thinking of this, she suddenly felt at ease.
"We had to get back to Sunagakure from far away. There wasn't much time for cooking on the road."
Rinko swallowed the pill and took out a water canteen from a scroll fixed to the inner lining of his pouch, taking a few gulps.
Chiyo had given him the scroll. It didn't have a large capacity and could only hold small, miscellaneous items, but it was perfect for practicing Sealing Jutsu. Even if he got a wild hair and dismantled the scroll, it wouldn't be a painful loss.
When it came to being frugal, Suna was the undisputed authority.
"Ah, speaking of which, Hiiro-kun, you were adopted by Lady Chiyo, weren't you?"
Karura suddenly remembered what Rasa had said before the sparring match.
"Mhm, yeah. The Old Hag saw my natural talent, a one-in-a-million shinobi prodigy, so she brought me back."
Rinko wasn't lying, he just omitted a lot of details that would be a pain to explain.
"Then, Hiiro-kun's parents..."
"Dead. Killed by another shinobi, right in front of me."
His tone was incredibly flat, as if he were talking about something that had nothing to do with him.
He walked to the table and sat down, licked his somewhat chapped lips, took another sip of water, and then added:
"I burned the bodies myself. Burned them to ash, along with my house."
"..."
Now, neither Pakura nor Karura spoke. The two girls just looked at each other, feeling that the atmosphere he created didn't quite match the words he was saying.
This overly 'matter-of-fact' attitude even made them overlook his disrespectful way of addressing Chiyo, one of Suna's greatest masters.
"Why the long faces? In an era like this, isn't this kind of thing normal? At least I'm not dead."
Propping his chin on one hand, Rinko's other hand restlessly pulled various gadgets from his pouch and stuffed them back in. He raised an eyebrow. "Lunch break isn't that long. You two should eat quickly."
"Oh, right." "Mhm."
With Rinko actively changing the subject, the two girls stopped dwelling on issues they couldn't possibly resolve and turned their energy to another battlefield.
They glanced at each other, then, with a tacit understanding, sat down on opposite sides of the table and opened their bentos.
The already-full boy glanced over. Both lunches were very standard, home-style meals. The only noteworthy thing was the large amount of dried or preserved goods.
Given the Land of Wind's climate, that was normal.
But now, neither girl made any move to pick up their chopsticks. He thought about it. It was probably because he was there, making them a little self-conscious.
From his knowledge of girls in his past life, they usually needed to chat for a good while about various topics while eating or drinking.
Thinking this, Hiiro Rinko turned his gaze to Pakura.
"Speaking of, Pakura-san, your Chakra is a Fire nature, isn't it? That's rare in the Land of Wind."
Aside from the Land of Fire, with its vast resources and diverse geography, the shinobi of the other Great Nations naturally followed the geographical and social trends of their Chakra natures.
In the Land of Wind, a desert country of yellow sand, the most common Chakra nature was, of course, Wind Release. Pakura's Fire Release was indeed quite rare.
"Me? I actually have dual natures, Wind and Fire."
Hearing Rinko speak to her, Pakura's eyes visibly lit up.
She shot an imperceptible glance at Karura, then began to explain enthusiastically.
Because of this Fire nature, she had always felt she was special.
Although that delicate pride had just been smashed to pieces by Rinko, wasn't that even better?!
"Wind and Fire, huh… Sunagakure probably doesn't have that many Fire Release jutsu for you to learn, right? What do you plan to do? Switch back and focus on Wind Release?"
That's normal, too. In fact, it would be stranger if Pakura didn't have a Wind nature.
"You're so strong, you must have a special training method. I'm going to learn it and then I'm going to defeat you!"
Pakura huffed twice, put down her chopsticks, crossed her arms, and tilted her head back, responding with righteous conviction.
Clearly, this was the excuse she had found to spend more time with Rinko. The girl, interpreting the sourness in her heart as the frustration of defeat and of being ignored, genuinely wanted to defeat this opponent, and then…
Make his gaze lock onto her, and never look away again!
"...Is this just how you people in Sunagakure are?"
Rinko was dumbfounded.
Setting aside the fact that her answer had nothing to do with his question, what was the difference between what she just said and "I'm going to steal your trade secrets"? Wasn't that a bit much?
Even he, in his past life, wouldn't have been so blatant about it—although, he'd be lying if he said he didn't imitate every useful thing he saw.
Including just now, when he'd mentally recorded the hand seals and Chakra circulation for both Pakura's and Rasa's jutsu.
Ah, thinking of it that way, I can't really refute her with a straight face.
Rinko felt his moral baseline had been "weakened" to a certain extent—as in, he was slightly more moral than before.
"Ehh… That's... more or less correct... I think?"
Karura blinked, looking uncertain.
Who was she kidding? She was absolutely certain.
There's an old saying: "Harsh lands breed hard people." And you couldn't find a land with harsher mountains or more unforgiving waters than the Land of Wind. Forget the other four Great Nations; even if you asked a minor country to trade territory with the Land of Wind, no one would be willing.
If you need something, you must take it. If you don't fight for it, you get nothing. This was, indeed, the Suna way—the way of the entire Land of Wind.
And, of course, that included people they liked.
Hiding her intentions behind smiling, crescent-moon eyes, Karura felt she had never wanted to fight for something so strongly as she did right now.