Naruto: Nine And Seven

Chapter 6

A day later, the group was walking down a path in a forest towards the village of Katabami. As they went, they were told more of the conditions the Kurosuki clan put them in and Rokusuke constantly complaining about the speed they traveled at. It seemed he was still holding out hope that their friend was alive even after being buried for so long, but his friends were more realistic and tried to make him see the truth.

It was near sunset when they walked out of the forest and saw a curry shop by the side of the road.

"What's this? 'Curry of Life Shop' huh? We can use that as our base. Let's see if we can spend the night here and get to business in the morning." Jiraiya said as they came to the shop and entered. An old woman who was cleaning the counter looked up when they walked in.

"Well, it's been a while since anyone's come here. I'm Sansho, welcome, please, take a seat. Would you like me to fix you something or you just want to rest a bit." the woman said with a smile.

"Thanks, I think we'd all like a bite to eat, how about the house special?" Jiraiya asked.

"Sure, I'll have some of my special curry ready in a minute." Sansho replied as she turned to a cooking pot. A few minutes later, they were all seated at two tables, Jiraiya and his students at one and the miners at another. Before them each was a glass of water with a spoon.

"So, that mountain we saw was the Katabami Gold Mine?" Naruto asked.

"That's right. So, what do you plan to do?"

"Well, tomorrow, we'll scout out the village, try to get an idea how many enemies there are, their positions and level, that kind of thing, then we'll come up with a plan of attack." Naruto said.

'He really is a bit more mature... the old Naruto would probably have wanted to just charge in head first, thinking everything would turn out ok.' Jiraiya thought to himself with a grin. Just then, Sansho walked to their tables with trays.

"Here you are. It's my specialty: the Curry of Life." The old woman said as she placed their plates on their tables. The sauce was black and bubbled, obviously spicy to an extreme. The group looked down at the curry before Naruto, Fu and the miners turned to Jiraiya and glared at him slightly.

"...What are you all looking at me for?" Jiraiya asked as he noticed the glares.

"Isn't it obvious?" Fu asked.

"You're the one who ordered this." Naruto said.

"Yes, well... let's just eat. We don't want to seem ungrateful." Jiraiya said, obviously not too pleased either and the others reluctantly nodded before they all took a spoonful of the curry and slowly took their first bites... then all their faces turned bright red and their eyes bulged. Seconds later, screams of pain could be heard outside the shop.

Everyone was paralyzed by the intense spices for a moment before the ninja recovered and quickly grabbed their glasses and drunk half the water in one gulp, gasping for breath afterwards. The miners still hadn't recovered.

"... Wow... that's some curry... " Jiraiya said to their host.

"Why thank you, it's famous around these parts. I remember the last Konoha ninja who came through here. He collapsed from exhaustion, but one spoonful of my curry and he was wide awake." Sansho replied with a smile.

"Yeah... I'll bet." Naruto said. 'I don't think anyone could sleep through that.' "So, you're here by yourself? You don't have anyone to help out around here?" Naruto said, thinking about using his shadow clones to help out. It might save them a bill, not that they couldn't pay, and it would be nice to help out the old woman. Sansho looked down sadly.