While in the bath I tried attaching some leaves to my forehead to train my chakra control. Although I watched the anime mostly for the action, I faintly remember about a training method like this somewhere in the anime. I tried concentrating as much as possible while pouring chakra onto the leaf but it helplessly fell down into the hot water. I looked at Hakai for a bit while doing it. That Kumo-nin had mentioned that he had killed many kin of his. I couldn’t lie that I was curious about his past but it didn’t surprise me too much that this rotten old man had killed children before.

“Are you trying to practice chakra control?” Hakai had been observing me silently. “Forget it. You can’t train chakra control until you’re a bit older.”

“What do you mean by that?” I was perplexed by what he said. I wasn’t aware of any such condition to learn chakra control.

“Members of our clan can’t control chakra very well until we grow our horns. They act as a support organ to help us.” He pointed to his empty head to indicate the horns but they were currently no horns there.

“When will mine grow then?” I questioned.

“Soon” He gave annoyingly short replies like usual. Only explaining half of the stuff and leaving the rest out conveniently.

I hadn’t heard anything of the sort while watching the anime. To be fair matters surrounding the Hagaromo clan weren’t very clear. I didn’t really trust in what he said and continued to attempt improving my chakra control. How can such an absurd condition even exist?

We got out of the spring after a while and changed into cleaner clothes before going to the room where food was served.

“This…” I looked at the transparent soup like substance placed in front of me by Isao. It gave of the strong smell of rotten meat. I picked up a spoon and tasted some of it. It tasted bland and was tough to take down the throat. Especially for someone like me who was tired eating it all my life.

Hakai was gulping all of it down like usual as if it were the best meal of his life. I hadn’t seen him go away so it couldn’t have been him who had prepared it. It was the weird dish that he prepared every day for every meal back at Konoha. “Ugh! You said we were going to eat something good. Why are we eating this rubbish that we used to eat every day!”

“It is good for you.” Hakai chopped at my head. “Don’t disrespect the food you have been eating for all your life. It is a secret recipe passed down in Ippei’s family. It is excellent for the body especially for young children like you.  It is much better than the food outside prepared unhygienically and filled with oils and fats. You should be honored to eat it.”

I rubbed my stinging head ruefully. “Hmph, if you don’t want to spend money then just say that.” I told him. What he said wasn’t entirely wrong. I wasn’t having any problems growing up, in fact I was bigger and healthier than most boys my age. How much of that could be attributed to the food was unknown. “Didn’t you get money from the Hokage for raising me because of my mother? Give it to me so I can buy something.”

He frowned with some surprise on his face not expecting me to have known about it. “That money is not for you but for me to take the pains to raise you. How much do you even think I received from that stingy Hokage. All I have is some change. I have already spent most of it anyway.”

“How can you spend that money? You must surely have some money left.” I was left speechless momentarily because of his shamelessness. How could he just claim all that money was his?

“You think raising a kid like you is easy? The food you are eating takes a lot of money to prepare.”

“It can’t be! Don’t lie to me!” I didn’t believe his bullshit for a minute.

“He’s right customer.” Isao interjected our conversation out of nowhere. He was standing nearby us after serving us our food to be of service to us.  “The meal you are eating is prepared meticulously with lots of ingredients. It is indeed very healthy but expensive and the reason we don’t have many customers as it is the only meal available at our inn. Grandfather doesn’t allow for other dishes to be served at the inn.” Isao was smiling a bit painfully as he explained all that to me.

I settled down after hearing him. Isao looked like an honest kid, there was no reason for him to lie. I calmed myself down and chugged the rest of the meal down. In the end my goal was to grow strong. If I had to eat some shit food to do so then fine! I could do it. It wasn’t because I didn’t have money to buy good food! Also looking at his smile growing more painful as I spoke about how bad the food was didn’t make me feel good.

“Thank you for the meal.” As I said that, Isao finally smiled brightly again and took our dishes away before setting some mattresses for us to sleep in.

“Come to the hall after a while. I’ll give you some better food” Isao said silently to me and went away to do some more chores. I was a bit excited when I heard that. Was he also a comrade who was suffering like me eating this bland food every day? He must have figured a method out to sneak in some tasty food once in a while. Truly a good person who couldn’t see someone else suffering just like him! I hadn’t judged him wrong.

I left the room as soon Hakai had gone to bed. He was a deep sleeper that snored like a donkey. He usually goes to sleep as soon as he falls on to the mattress. It was a pain in the ass that I had to get used to or I wouldn’t get a wink at night. Tonight, however it was fine.

I walked through the narrow hallways and into the hall to find Isao sitting on one of the chairs with two bowls in front of him. They were wafting off a delicious smell with steam coming out from it.

“Here!” Isao called me out.

I was all smiles until I looked into the bowl. It was the same shitty bland soup like food.

“Don’t worry it’s not the same food as what you ate earlier, I changed it a bit.” Isao quickly said as he noticed my expression getting dark.

I sniffed it a little bit. He was right, it didn’t have that rotten meat smell anymore but I still hesitated to eat it.

“Try it. I’ll guarantee to you it tastes good.” He encouraged me again.

I took a bit slowly and apprehensively still in doubt. “Oh?” It was actually good. It finally tasted like something. Almost like chicken broth.

“It tastes good right? I added some spices and lemon to it to take the smell away.” He was looking at me excitedly waiting for me to answer him whether the food was good or not.

Although it wasn’t very tasty it definitely was a step up from its previous version. I nodded at him. “It’s good.”

*Whew~* He sighed in relied after hearing me. “I’m glad. I have been working on it for the past few months. It was really tough to change the taste and smell of it without taking away its nutrient value or its consistency.” He looked around the inn for a bit as if he was reminiscing. “Grandfather is really stubborn. He doesn’t want to change anything in this place. This Inn was the last thing left behind by father after all. He also believes his family food is the best and wouldn’t allow any other dishes to be served.” He was smiling but it was more of a helpless smile.

“We really are in a desperate situation with no customers and funds. This place needs renovation soon. We might’ve had to close this down eventually because of the debt but maybe customers will start growing since I have changed the taste of the dish.” His smile started to grown into a hopeful one as he kept on talking.

I highly doubted it as the dish’s smell and taste weren’t the only reasons why this inn wasn’t working. “Well, I hope it works out for you and your grandpa. Anyways can you tell me about the new recipe?” If I knew the new version’s recipe, I could give it to Hakai so we could improve the dish.

Isao was just opening his mouth to tell me about it excitedly when the wall beside us exploded. A piece of wood screamed past me impaling and lodging itself into Isao, dragging him into the ground.

TMBTL

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