[Rika walked up beside Kanji Nagao, looked at the dazed young man and laughed out loud, covering her mouth.
“Hello.
I’m Rika Akana, a clerk at the Konoha ninja tool shop.
The boss sent me to meet you.”]
[“Hello, Miss Akana.” Kanji Nagao snapped out of it, embarrassment flashing across his face, then rubbed his head, awkward.
“I’m Kanji Nagao, from Ai Village.
Please look after me from now on.”]
[“Oh, Kanji, Kanji…
Kanchi.
How about I call you Kanchi from now on?” Rika winked at him and leaned in close, gentle with a touch of mischief.]
“Ohh,” said Anko Mitarashi, going soft at the nickname “Kanchi.” This was moving way too fast.
They were already at the nickname stage?
[The honest, simple country boy looked at Rika’s face suddenly close to his and nodded, an innocent look on him that was genuinely endearing.]
[With the entry paperwork registered, Rika Akana and Kanji Nagao said goodbye to Takaki and went into the Village together.
Just then the last slant of sunlight vanished below the horizon and the lamps came on.]
[Kanji Nagao, with those dopey-looking eyes of his, followed behind Rika Akana, right hand gripping his bundle tightly, a little nervous.
She seemed to notice, and slowed her steps until she was walking alongside him, thoughtfully explaining Konoha’s customs and people, the shops, the food.]
Anko Mitarashi tilted her head and shifted into a more comfortable position to keep reading, brushing aside the bangs that were blocking her view and baring her smooth forehead.
She wasn’t a woman with a personality like Rika’s, but every move this heroine made felt good to read.
[Kanji Nagao, the young man from the countryside, was exactly a head taller than Rika, and walking side by side the two of them looked like something of a match.
From that evening on, the ninja tool shop in Konoha had an outsider named Kanji Nagao working there.]
[Kanji Nagao had come from Ai Village to work in Konoha, and though he knew nobody and nothing, he had met a warm, kind coworker in Rika Akana, and she looked after him often.
Rika’s bright, lively personality dissolved his unease.]
[Morning and evening, as the days went on, a certain feeling quietly took root and sprouted in Rika Akana’s heart.
By the time she noticed it, she could barely keep the fluttering down.]
[Gentle as she was, Rika was open about her feelings, and in the course of ordinary work she started letting her feelings for “Kanchi” show now and then.]
[Kanji liked Rika well enough, but he couldn’t stop thinking about the girl he’d had a crush on back in his village, Satomi.]
Anko Mitarashi blanked, then shouted, “What the hell?
Kanchi already has someone he likes?
Isn’t Miss Rika supposed to be the heroine?”
Anko Mitarashi shot upright from lying to sitting, so hard that she nearly fell off the maple tree, though she caught herself once she remembered where she was.
Her thrashing sent the leaves showering down far worse than before.
She ground her teeth and read on.
[One autumn night, Kanji Nagao, off work early, appeared at the door of a tavern on the shopping street, gritted his teeth, and went inside.
Three days earlier he’d received an invitation from the Ai Village hometown association, and thinking that he hadn’t seen any of his old friends since coming to Konoha, he’d decided to attend.]
[He walked in, gave the room number, and a server led him to the place and left with a bow.
He knocked and said nervously, “I’m Kanji Nagao from Ai Village.
May I come in?”]
[“Come in.” A low woman’s voice answered, and the door slid open.]
[Kanji Nagao froze, then shouted, not quite believing it, “Satomi!”]
[“Kanji.” Satomi smiled and turned to one side, throwing him a flirtatious look.
“What are you standing there for?
Hurry up and come in.”]
Anko Mitarashi snorted.
This Satomi has to be the classic scheming rival.
What’s wrong with Kanchi’s eyes?
Falling for a girl like that, when Miss Rika is the one he should love.
[The moment he stepped into the inner room, several familiar voices greeted him one after another, and he answered each.
But when he saw Rika Akana he was shocked.
Kneeling down at an empty seat, he asked, “Rika, why are you here?”]
[Kenichi Mikami filled Kanji’s cup and answered for her.
“Rika’s a friend of Satomi’s, she came along with her.
Here, Kanji, drink.”]
[Kanji, Kenichi Mikami and Satomi Sekiguchi had been inseparable back in school, and to run into Satomi and Kenichi at a hometown gathering in Konoha five years after graduation left him thrilled.]
[Not long after the gathering started, Rika Akana realized that Kanji liked Satomi.
The way his eyes drifted to her, on purpose or not, was the same as the way she looked at him.
A woman’s mind is delicate and keen, and something pricked faintly in her chest.]
[Luckily, though, Satomi seemed to care about Mikami.
Rika Akana consoled herself: if Doctor Kenichi Mikami had feelings for Satomi too, then maybe she still had a chance.
Lively as she was, she pulled herself back together fast.]
[Satomi, who had been chatting with Kenichi the whole time, noticed Rika and curved her lips into a smile.
Being a woman herself, she had understood Rika’s little secret long ago.
After a moment’s thought she said to Kanji, “Kanji, it’s been five years.
Do you have someone you love?”]
[“Ah.” Kanji straightened up the instant she said his name.
The word “love” turned his face bright red, and he stammered, “Sa…
Satomi, I don’t have anyone, you…”]
[“Oh, what luck.” Satomi laughed happily, then grabbed Rika Akana’s hand and waved it in front of him.
“Miss Rika is on her own too.
How about…”]
[“No need.” Kanji Nagao’s reaction was enormous, his voice so loud that the people outside could probably hear it.
Every eye turned to him, and he deflated and mumbled, “I can do it…
myself…”]
[Satomi’s idea of playing matchmaker for Kanji was shot down by Kanji completely.]
[Rika]
The writing stopped dead there.
Anko Mitarashi had only just turned the second page, and the ink ended on that one character of the name.
She was about to lose her mind.
=-=-=-=-=
Some stones plz?!
Hmm 50 and I’ll release 5 more chapters today