Away from the noise of the Academy, everything around went quiet.
Under the moonlight, a slender figure raced across the rooftops and walls of the village.
Her toes barely touched the tiles before Anko shot off again as if the wind were at her back.
Maruzen-do, one of the top publishing houses in all of Konoha, occupied a large plot in the production district at the far south of the Village.
It was a long way from the Academy, though.
Hurrying the whole way, it still took her nearly half an hour, and in the end that was because Konoha was simply too big.
Anko dropped onto one knee to absorb the landing, coming down right in front of Maruzen-do, which was lit up bright.
A steady creaking sound kept drifting out, the sound of the presses.
Hardly anyone lived in the whole southern district, and apart from Maruzen-do and Iwanami Shoten, many of the shops had closed up long ago.
A beautifully designed sign with the words “Maruzen-do” on it hung high above the wide entrance.
Anko tossed her hair back and walked straight up to push open the door.
“Hello, welcome.” A clerk in his twenties stood at the counter and smiled at Anko as she came through the door.
“I’m Shiye Bize of Maruzen-do.
Lady Mitarashi, is there something I can help you with?”
As a special jonin of the Village, Anko was a household name in Konoha.
That went double given her famous “teacher.” She didn’t recognize the clerk, though.
She raised her arm and gave it a light lick out of habit, then said flatly, “Who here handles submissions?
I came to submit a manuscript.”
“Huh?…” Shiye Bize stared at her blankly, disbelief all over his face.
“Lady Mitarashi, aren’t you a jonin?
How could you…”
Anko waved a hand impatiently, her eyes narrowing into “smiling” slits.
“I’m submitting for a friend.
I’m in a hurry, I didn’t come here to chat with you.”
“Oh, oh…
sorry, Lady Mitarashi.
Please come with me.” Looking at Anko’s unfriendly face, Shiye Bize shivered, then hurried to lead her through.
Momoko Kinomoto sat in her office, her desk buried under schedules, task lists, company finances and more, the tea in the cup at the corner of the desk gone completely cold without its owner ever getting around to a sip.
Momoko pushed the long hair back from her forehead and rubbed at her temples with her fingertips, irritated.
She was the head of operations at Maruzen-do, the second in command, working for the owner behind the scenes, one rank below the top, the equivalent of a president in a modern company.
The current situation was giving her a headache.
The owner’s cash flow on the business side had gone wrong, and he’d pulled out all of Maruzen-do’s reserves.
On top of that, they were in a lean stretch: the author of Icha Icha Paradise hadn’t mailed in a new manuscript in nearly half a year.
The previous volume of Icha Icha Paradise had gone through three reprints and sold across the Five Great Shinobi Countries, but the market had long since been saturated.
She had tried writing to that “gentleman,” but he had no fixed address.
The letter was written, but she still had no idea where to send it.
Her gaze passed over a letter on the desk, and her chest tightened.
As things stood, Momoko had to find another way forward for Maruzen-do, and not only because the owner trusted her.
It was her own feeling for the place.
She absolutely could not stand by and watch Maruzen-do fall.
Three knocks came at the door while Momoko sat there worn out and lost in thought, followed by a man’s voice.
“Momoko-senpai, Lady Mitarashi is here with a manuscript.
She says she wants to submit it.”
Mitarashi?
Momoko sat up, puzzled.
There was only one person named Mitarashi in all of Konoha, and that was Anko Mitarashi.
A ninja coming to submit something, surely it wasn’t another one of those dull ninja autobiographies?
Momoko thoroughly detested that stale “ninja autobiography” genre.
Those stiff, traditional memoirs were Iwanami Shoten’s specialty, so why bring one to Maruzen-do?
She had heard about Anko’s bad reputation, though.
The woman was a special jonin, and she had always respected the people who kept the Village safe.
Momoko composed herself and tidied the things on her desk before answering.
“Please, come in.”
Standing outside, Shiye Bize dutifully pulled the door open, then gestured for Anko to go through, and once she was inside he closed the door and left.
Anko was direct by nature.
She walked up to Momoko, pulled the blue notebook out from inside her coat and held it out, then sat down in the chair across from the desk.
“This is Konoha Love Story, written by a friend of mine.
He asked me to submit it.
Take a look and see if it works?
There’s only one chapter for now, he’s still writing the rest.
Another ten days or so and it’ll be finished.”
“Hm?
Konoha Love Story?” Momoko blinked at the title.
Something new, she thought.
She took the blue notebook and smiled at Anko, respectful.
“Lady Mitarashi, please have a seat.
Can we talk once I’ve finished reading it?”
Momoko set the blue notebook down on the desk first, poured a cup of hot water for Anko and brought it over to her, and only then returned to her own seat and began reading Konoha Love Story.
When she turned to the first page, Momoko was still reading with half an eye, but the opening gave her a small shock.
The author clearly had a good hand, and had put real work into the details.
He was no worse than that “gentleman” behind Icha Icha Paradise.
But that alone was nowhere near enough.
Only a story with a plot that rose and fell, with an audience for it, could catch fire.
When she turned to the second page and read on, though, the expression on her face changed.
As the story developed, she became very invested in where Rika’s love was headed.
By the time she reached the words “End of Chapter One,” Momoko let out a breath and asked, “Rika will be happy, won’t she?”
Anko had been staring off into space, and at Momoko’s question she slammed a fist down on the desk, worked up.
“Of course she will!
A woman as lovely as Rika, if she doesn’t end up happy, that would be a real tragedy.”
The two women had landed on the same thought.
Momoko cleared her throat.
It felt a little rude, but she lowered her voice and asked anyway, “Lady Mitarashi, what happens next in the story?
Do Rika and Kanji end up together?”