Now that poor Meiko had her nourishment finally brought to her she could finally dig right into it. There was something odd to be found in the manner in which the armored girl ate. She wasn't one of those brutal devouring monsters that just made food disappear in the most beastly manners imaginable, Meiko was much more sophisticated than that. She ate every piece of meat gently, just like a normal person would. She used utensils and all that, never let any of the sauce drip to the side. That being said, she still ate literally everything that was brought, while watching her eat was somewhat pleasing and elegant, she still took double time doing it. At that point, the magician started wondering if her eating like a monster wouldn't have been better...
At some point even observing her friend display all of her elegance and manners at making food disappear got boring, there were only so many thirty minute intervals one could've spent watching someone eat and so the magician found her gaze wandering through the restaurant hoping to find something interesting enough to occupy her attention. It appeared that Shimo was doing the same. It was awkward how little two friends separated for years had to talk about. The several attempts of Mana's to find out more in-depth about his trip were quickly shot down by Shimo changing the subject making the girl believe that he just didn't trust her enough.
There was always that crushing moment when one realized that the person one thought of as one of their best friends had stories and other friends they didn't trust one with. Mana didn't have much experience with dating but she was sure that having her genuine feelings rejected by a boy must've felt somewhat similar. Now that she saw Shimo's hesitance to talk to her about his time away from the village or his lack of interest in what happened to her during the meantime she felt like the Yuki was avoiding her friendship for some reason.
"Shay, Mana... What wazhat Hokage shaid abouf yer shakra?" Meiko suddenly decided to ask with a full mouth. "Why did she take you for a civilian? Why are you just a client in this mission?" the blacksmith wondered. She must've heard bits and pieces about Mana's problem from when the girl was talking to the Hokage but neither she nor Shimo could've known the full story.
"It's nothing, really. Just an injury I had on the last mission, Hokage-sama is just worried if it's more than it actually is, there's nothing to worry about..." the magician smiled and looked away.
Mana's eyes fell on a peculiar young man standing by the counter to order, he must've been particularly impatient since the waitresses usually came to hear one's order out in a while right after sitting down. Why would this man be in such a rush to eat? Such a weird and unimportant detail interested the magician a little so she let her attention remain focused.
"Ummm... Yeah, I'll have the celery carpaccio please..." the man mumbled out like he had just woken up several minutes ago and stumbled into the restaurant for his breakfast.
"Sorry, sir, such a dish doesn't even exist. Carpaccio is an exclusively meaty snack..." the waitress quickly spilled her response out, feeling bad for the fact that she had to refuse a client. The staff here was quite polite.
"Oh... Then I guess... Cabbage shashlik is what I'll have..." the man quickly jumped to another dish.
"Yeah... That's... Not a thing either, a cabbage shashlik would be just cabbage poked on a stick, I mean..." the young waitress was starting to get quite nervous. It was visible that the client annoyed her and yet she felt bad for refusing him as if she felt like she was actually the one who was at fault for not knowing those non-existent dishes.
"Okay, I suppose I could then eat barbecued peas..." the man answered with the same indifferent and sleepy tone.
"Sir, this is a barbecue restaurant, also no one barbecues peas, I am as sure of it as I've never been sure of anything in my life" the waitress responded wiping the sweat off of her forehead, someone signaled the young woman that they were ready to order and the woman rushed off, an older woman came to change her younger colleague.
"Oh shit, Toya, the veggie guy is back! Come here and bring a large spatula!" the woman yelled at someone behind her. As a larger woman left the kitchen with an oversized spatula, the strange client just turned around and left the restaurant before the woman could ask him out with it. Seeing how Mana followed that peculiar man with her eyes all the way to the door her eyes fell on a familiar face sitting in the corner closest to the door. Mana excused herself and walked to the table.
"Hello, Kouta-kun" she greeted the boy she met some time back during her show. This was actually quite lucky for her to bump into the boy right here, who could've known that he was a rich eater?
"Ah! Mana" the boy shouted out in excitement jumping up and shaking the table a bit, the older man he was sitting with looked at the boy angrily but Kouta just scratched the back of his head and laughed out apologetically.
"So how're things, what are you doing here? I never took you for an overeating person?" the magician smiled trying to ease the boy into the question she actually intended to ask. Strangely enough, the girl heard steps behind her and when she briefly glanced back she noticed Shimo approaching them.
"I am actually, I'm eating here with my father, father is still resting after the mission, you see! I must say I am the one surprised to see you here, Mana-chan, what could you be doing here, I wonder?" the boy replied with quite a large amount of excitement in his voice. Most people would've taken Mana's approach and interruption of a peaceful eating out at a restaurant with one's father as rude but Kouta appeared to be quite happy with it.
"Well, I stopped here to feed a friend, if I had known of her appetite though I may have reconsidered though... I see you two may just match her though..." Mana noted looking at a large column of emptied plates. It appeared that Kouta's father didn't even stop his mad eating ways even while Mana and Kouta were talking right up to him. Although whereas Meiko ate elegantly and rather slowly Kouta's father ate like a pig barbarian on a rampage to eliminate all the food left on Earth.
"Well... Juugo use out a lot of chakra with their techniques, even more than conventional ninjutsu users do so our appetites are naturally incredibly large because we have to compensate for it" Kouta shyly rubbed the back of his head, it was cute how ashamed he looked of his godlike appetite.
"The pipsqueak here ain't a natural Juugo though so he can't eat half of what I can... I'm Kusagoro Juugo, Konohagakure Jounin." Kouta's father grunted. He stood up and offered Shimo a handshake which the boy accepted. To Mana, it appeared a little strange that he'd offer a handshake for someone who wasn't even participating in the conversation much and was just standing around because being there was much less boring than watching Meiko keep eating at this point.
"Hmph, I see Kouta keeps finding puny friends..." the man rudely remarked before sitting down and digging right into a colossal piece of cooked meat. He most likely referred to Shimo's handshaking skills which he must've found disappointing.
"This gentleman isn't my friend, yet, father. He's a friend of Mana's, who is a friend of mine. I kind of work for her, I heal her stage injuries after her shows, for my internship, remember?" Kouta smiled back at his father, it was strange how completely different these two were.
"Pfff, a useless craft those healing techniques. It's a woman's specialty!" the man remarked after nearly choking on a large bite of meat.
"Well, it turns out that I need this "woman's specialty" expert for a mission, would you maybe wish to help us out?" Mana looked at Kouta with her best attempt at the puppy eyes she saw Meiko make some time back. She really needed this, Kouta was probably one of the few genin medical ninja in the village and she had little time to find the others. Even if Kouta wasn't yet officially a medical ninja, just intern obtaining necessary practice in Hiro's hall where Mana performed, he was still sufficient for a C-Rank mission.
"A mission!? With you? Sure, it'll be awesome!" Kouta yelled out excitedly before blushing a little and looking around everyone looking at his table with strange condescending looks. Everyone was already quite disgusted by the eating manners of the two and now the boy started making noise.
"Hmph... An easy buyer, just like your mother..." Kouta's father yelled out pushing the emptied plate away to form a new column of plates and looked at Mana from her face to her shoes like he was judging her. "If you stopped slacking off with your training by messing around with girls you could maybe survive at least a single one of my punches!" Kusagoro yelled out angrily at Mana even though his anger must've been directed more at the young Kouta who was now sadly clenching his fists looking pretty down after his father's scolding.
"I'll have you know, Kusagoro-san, a respected man once always used to say that there's no more useful and pleasant distraction than women. That being said he lost his arm because of his excessive trust in a wrong woman, however, that fact is something I should've probably kept quiet about..." Shimo but into the conversation.
"I'm not saying that Kouta's friend is to be kicked out of his life, I'm saying that he should at least determine her worth by challenging her to a game before accepting her terms. He's a good kid but he always assumes people are worth his time when most of them aren't!" Kusagoro angrily snapped back after picking up a turkey leg and digging into it. Finally, his full frame turned at the three youths.
Kusagoro was a very large individual, with large and spiky orange hair that spiked mostly behind him. His exotic hair must've been a testament to his clan heritage. The man wore a simple jounin vest. However, his was quite modified. Kusagoro's vest only covered his gut and his chest leaving his neck exposed. It looked like he was issued a vest two sizes too small and just went with it. The man also appeared to be carrying absolutely no weapons with him, not even the usual ninja pouch. While normally Mana would've dismissed it to it just being his free time, the man was actually wearing his combat attire – the jounin uniform and it was battle worn since the black top below the vest had quite several gaping holes as well as his pants. His face had some quite fresh cuts and bruises too.
"A game?" Mana asked the man to clarify when Kusagoro smiled with a pretty cruel smile as if he was certain Mana would lose.
"Yeah! If you want a help of a Juugo beat him in a game! Seeing how you're such a slim little thing you probably couldn't even out-eat him" the man sarcastically made fun of Mana making some pretty crude hand gestures and making a smug face.
Suddenly, Mana felt a crushing weight on her shoulder and felt an arm wrapping around her neck. It appeared that Meiko was listening to the whole last part of the conversation and decided to drop by.
"I've no idea what's happening but my food is all gone and I have to wait for more! I heard about an eat-off and since Mana had already eaten her lunch she's at a disadvantage, I shall be Mana's second in this eat-off!" Meiko cracked her fist right in front of the man with a confident smile.
Kouta shyly rubbed his hands together, he was observing the situation getting out of hand and yet he only found strength in him to oppose it now that the challenge was about to begin. "It's really not necessary, you guys, I'm ready to accept to be in your team, what's the point of this all?" he tried to calm the situation down but his father just yelled at him angrily.
"What's the point!? Didn't you hear? This hatchling tin can decided to challenge you! A Juugo never backs down from a challenge, especially one from a girl! Fulfill your duty and eat this girl under the table!"
"Fine..." Kouta sighed sadly and sat back down in his chair with Mana serving both of the devourers their servings. Somehow the magician decided that just going with it and helping the two out with their eat-off was the best choice.
And so the greatest eat-off in the junior weight class began, Meiko and Kouta ate one barbecue serving after another making entire plates disappear. It was Meiko's gentle style of eating against Kouta's barbaric annihilation of food which he picked up from his father, no doubt. The two ate for almost an hour which was amazing seeing how Meiko just finished half of her order. At some point, the waitress brought Meiko the rest of her food which was split along the two. Meiko ate and Kouta followed, the magician had to hand it to the boy, for such a short and a rather athletic fellow he ate like a beast.
"Ugh... I don't... Feel... So good..." Kouta bellowed and collapsed under the table slipping down the chair like a sack of potatoes. Kusagoro slapped his forehead and growled like an angry dog.
"Ugh... This isn't fair, I think the girl is still one deer leg behind!" the jounin tried to trick the trio but Mana shook her head and pointed to Kouta's plate.
"I've been serving him an empty serving for five minutes, he passed out from eating air for five minutes whereas Meiko kept on eating. If anyone's cheating, we should stuff five minutes worth of servings down Kouta's throat," the magician just barely contained her wild laughter.
"Ugh... Please don't, I concede..." Kouta moaned from under the table forcing his father to just pull his son out with one careless hand movement and put him back down on his chair.
"Fine, you can drag my son along with you, whatever your stupid mission is..." Kusagoro angrily growled and pulled out his wallet to pay for all the food. The mission he came back from must've been at least an A-Rank since his wallet was overflowing with ryo bills. A single A-Rank mission may have granted one an entire life living in moderation or a single wasteful night, depending on how one looked at it...
"Yaaay..." Kouta moaned out again rather indifferently but Mana knew it was just because of overeating. She saw already how excited Kouta was and she was a little glad that he'll be there to watch their backs too. Meiko stood up finishing her serving and nudging the medical ninja into his cheek.
"No offense, you've got a pretty mean stomach it's just that I was in my best shape, you never stood a chance..." she joked as the three were preparing to leave.
"A piece of advice, girl, next time as a team leader you should face your own challenges. A team leader that loses is much more respectful than one who chickens out and lets his lackeys win..." Kusagoro grunted out at the three as they were ready to leave. Shimo turned back at him angrily. This wasn't good, Mana had already seen those eyes on her friend.
"You offended Mana-chan and Meiko-chan at the same time. My name is Shimo Yuki and I'm going to kick your ass for the disrespect you showed my friends!" the Yuki swordsman declared starting to remind Mana of how he was before. She should've been more careful about what she wished for previously, this new Shimo was way better to work with, now he returned to his old self and picked a fight with a Jounin!
Kusagoro stood up and fixed the band around his wrists angrily before cracking his knuckles. "You better think about that some more, brat, cause when I start going at you I won't stop until you're in no condition to go on that mission!"
Mana angrily shook Shimo's shoulder, she could feel her own weakness since she tried making it hurt but her lack of chakra made it feel more puny than painful for the young man.
"What are you doing!? You don't have to do this, neither I nor Meiko were offended, if you attack him now you'll just justify his words – you'll fight for us. It's something we don't even need right now!" the magician tried to talk the Yuki swordsman down.
Shimo turned at Mana with happy eyes and smiled at her gently removing her hand off of his shoulder.
"It's fine, I know you don't want me to fight again, it's just like last time. The thing is though that defending woman's honor isn't something I let the woman decide, it's a part of my identity. I must do this!" Shimo declared.
Mana took a couple of steps back. Identity. Why was that his exact word? That magic word that crippled any resistance Mana had inside from letting this fight happen. She looked at Shimo with determination, confidently and a little angry at him.
"This time I won't pull you out of this, you're on your own. You better win, we've no time to find your substitute if you get hurt!" she let him know angrily.
"Are you sure, Mana? That guy said he's a Jounin, didn't he? He'll kick Shimo's butt..." she indifferently declared sitting down and turning the chair at the two to better observe their confrontation.
"Identity... I know a little too much how much losing it hurts" Mana replied looking at Shimo with a troubled look. She had no time for this, this was completely stupid yet this one stupid word made her just stand here and let him fight it out...
"I don't really get it but if you're OK with this, I'm fine too" Meiko declared laughing out and relaxing in the chair observing the fight that was about to break out.
"Well then, kid, let's take this outside..." Kusagoro declared as the entire party moved out. Mana's eyes slipped and stopped at Kouta for a moment but the boy hesitated, he was too shy and hesitant to stop his father and even if he did, it was quite unlikely that anything in the world could've prevented this nonsense...
Knowing the people involved one could've only wondered how come it didn't happen sooner...