The Land of Rain, Amegakure.
Dark clouds blotted out the sun as rain fell without end.
The air was thick with dampness, lending the entire village an unusually gloomy atmosphere.
Yet inside the room at the very top of the tallest tower in the village, the mood couldn’t have been more different.
The modest room was filled with cheerful warmth.
“Yahiko, come on, don’t just eat vegetables. Have some more meat.”
Nagato piled slice after slice of meat into Yahiko’s bowl until he’d built a miniature tower, leaving Yahiko staring at him with black lines practically hanging over his face.
“Enough, enough! Stop putting more in there. The bowl’s already full.”
Yahiko hurriedly cut him off.
At this rate, Nagato was going to dump everything on the table into his bowl.
“Heh. It’s just that you haven’t eaten in years, so I figured you should make up for lost time.” Nagato scratched his head and grinned foolishly at his masterpiece.
“And I’m telling you, Konan’s cooking has gotten way better over the past few years.”
Yahiko: ?_?
Make up for lost time?
Yahiko’s eyes bulged.
For the first time, he began worrying about his future.
I’m not going to eat myself to death and end up back in the Pure Land, am I?
Konan sat beside them with her cheeks resting in both hands, quietly watching the two talk with a faint smile on her face.
Just as Yahiko was starting to panic internally, the space beside the dining table suddenly twisted into a spiral.
A figure wearing an Akatsuki cloak and a yellow spiral mask emerged from the distortion.
His voice was cold.
“Nagato, what exactly are you doing? Why are White Zetsu and everyone else in the organization out capturing summoned beasts?”
“Hm? What are you doing, playing house? Didn’t that guy die—”
“Hm? HMM?!” Obito’s voice shot from puzzled to shrill in an instant.
“He’s alive?! How is that possible?!”
Rinne Rebirth?
No. Nagato was still alive, so it couldn’t have been Rinne Rebirth.
Nagato found another way to resurrect the dead!
The Mangekyo Sharingan in Obito’s eye spun violently, like a pinwheel caught in a gale.
“What do you mean by that?!” Nagato’s expression darkened.
His Rinnegan power began to stir.
If Obito couldn’t give him a satisfactory explanation, Nagato was perfectly prepared to send him flying with Shinra Tensei and let him cool his head somewhere in the sky.
He and Obito were merely collaborators.
They weren’t even friends.
If someone who wasn’t even your friend suddenly barged into your home, started interrogating you in a hostile tone, and interrupted a family gathering, would you be polite?
“No, that’s not what I meant. I mean, wasn’t he dead? No, wait, I said that wrong. I mean, how is he alive? …No, that’s wrong too. What I’m asking is, how did he come back to life?”
Obito’s words came out in a tangled mess.
“Why should I tell you?” Nagato replied bluntly.
“Does the entire organization being mobilized have something to do with this?”
After his initial burst of excitement, Obito quickly calmed down.
Nagato simply looked at him without answering.
The moment the words left his mouth, Obito answered his own question.
“He definitely knows.”
Tens of thousands of White Zetsu were on the move.
There was no way Black Zetsu wouldn’t know about it.
“Can you contact Black Zetsu?” Obito asked.
He’d originally had a White Zetsu with him.
Unfortunately, the idiot had suddenly run off to pick a fight with a wild summoned beast.
Then it got eaten.
“I—”
Nagato had just opened his mouth when Yahiko spoke first.
“Nagato, help him out.”
“Okay.” Nagato agreed without hesitation.
“White Zetsu, come out.”
He’d kept one White Zetsu nearby specifically for communications.
“You called?” A White Zetsu head poked in through the window.
“Help him contact Black Zetsu.”
Nagato pointed at Obito, then added, “Take White Zetsu to another room. I don’t like having outsiders around while I’m eating.”
“Fine.”
Obito left with White Zetsu and moved to another room.
There were indeed some things better discussed away from outsiders.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Konoha, Branch No. 1.
A White Zetsu who had been serving dishes to Evan and the others suddenly looked up at Black Zetsu.
“Obito wants to know where you are.”
Black Zetsu, who was still locked in battle with Sarutobi Hiruzen, froze for a split second.
That was all the opening Hiruzen needed.
His chopsticks darted out and snatched the final piece of pork belly from the Hot Pot.
“Damn it!” Black Zetsu cursed, then immediately turned back and resumed fighting with Hiruzen.
As for White Zetsu’s question?
He didn’t bother answering.
Compared to Obito, arguing with this old bastard who had dared question the sacred mother-son bond between him and Mother was far more important.
Black Zetsu might not care, but someone else did.
Evan’s interest was immediately piqued.
“Tell him to come over.”
Originally, Evan had planned to personally travel around the shinobi world collecting the ingredients gathered by the White Zetsu.
Now there was no need.
Obito’s Kamui dimension could serve as a warehouse.
He could simply travel around the shinobi world in Evan’s place and pick up everything the White Zetsu had gathered.
“All right.” White Zetsu nodded and passed the message along.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Outside the restaurant, quite a few people were already sniffing the air as they followed the source of the fragrance to the entrance.
“Huh? When did a restaurant open here?… That’s a weird name.”
“No idea, and I don’t care. Right now, all I want is to get inside and eat something. That smell is killing me.”
“Brother, what a coincidence. That’s exactly what I was thinking. Want to go in together?” Visit g.com for the full chapter.
“Sure.”
Within a few sentences, the two had formed an impromptu party and walked into the restaurant.
As soon as they stepped through the door, they instinctively swept their gazes across the interior.
Then their eyes landed on Evan’s table.
The moment they spotted a familiar figure, both men jolted.
Their expressions immediately turned excited and respectful.
“Lord Hokage!”
“Hello.” Hiruzen greeted them with a kindly smile.
He had sensed them approaching earlier and had immediately stopped fighting Black Zetsu for food.
He was the dignified Third Hokage, after all.
He had an image to maintain.
Black Zetsu naturally noticed this too.
He immediately began frantically scooping every edible thing he could find from the Hot Pot into Kaguya’s bowl.
Hiruzen watched helplessly.
Every piece Black Zetsu took felt like a knife twisting in his heart.
Receiving Hiruzen’s friendly response only made the two customers even more excited, and much more relaxed.
They had always heard that the Third Hokage treated people warmly.
Apparently, the rumors were true.
“Lord Hokage, what are you eating?”
With his nerves gone, one of the men couldn’t resist pointing toward the steaming, wonderfully fragrant pot on the table.
“Oh, you mean the Hot Pot?” Hiruzen stroked his snowy white beard and smiled as he recommended it.
“This is a rare delicacy. You two should order one and try it.”
Evan shot Hiruzen an approving look.
Now that’s how you behave.
The old monkey’s advertising for me without even being asked.
“Hot Pot? That’s kind of a strange name,” one of the men muttered.
“Who cares whether the name is weird? If it tastes good, that’s all that matters. Didn’t you hear Lord Hokage say it’s a rare delicacy?”
His companion immediately shot him down.
They were here to eat.
Why obsess over the name?
“You’re right.” The first man nodded, then called toward the kitchen.
“Boss! One Hot Pot!”
“What kind of broth?” Evan wiped his mouth with a napkin, stood up, and looked at the pair.
“I’ve got Dual-Flavor Hot Pot, Clear-Broth Hot Pot, Mala Hot Pot, Vegetarian Hot Pot, and Herbal Hot Pot.”
“If you choose Mala, you can pick from four spice levels: Mild, Medium, Extra Spicy, or Insanely Spicy.”
“If you order the Dual-Flavor Hot Pot, you can choose any two of the other four broths and combine them. As for Clear-Broth, Vegetarian, or Herbal… you get whatever version I feel like making.”
The two men stared blankly as Evan rattled off the entire explanation in one breath.
They nodded mechanically.
Only one question remained in both their minds.
Boss… why are you sitting at the same table eating with your customers?