When Rei Kaguya finished a day's work and stepped into the restaurant he usually visited most often, preparing to order a sumptuous dinner to reward himself, the first thing he saw upon entering was Tsunade violently dismantling a giant king crab, and Jiraiya sitting beside her with a troubled expression as he looked at a plate of oddly shaped tempura fried from deep-sea catch.
"Ah, Lord Fourth! Over here, over here~"
Seeing Rei Kaguya appear at the restaurant entrance, Anko Mitarashi immediately waved at him very naturally, signaling that he could come over.
Rei Kaguya looked at the empty tables around them and confirmed with the owner whether Konoha's group had booked out the whole place. Only then did he unhurriedly walk to the empty seat beside Jiraiya, sit down, and mercilessly point at him while mocking,
"You must have eaten plenty of Mount Myoboku's insect dishes while training in Sage Mode, Jiraiya. How has a mere serving of deep-sea fish tempura managed to trouble you?"
"I'm worried this thing is poisonous. Is that not allowed?"
"Is Tsunade beside you just decoration? Even if the problem is so serious that she can't deal with it, isn't Orochimaru still here as insurance?"
"…Is it really fine to say that name so openly?"
"I already sent Anko out to receive you. Do I look worried that you won't know Orochimaru is working for me?"
After rudely criticizing Jiraiya's cowardice, Rei Kaguya turned his head and asked Anko Mitarashi, who was wolfing down a plate of crab roe fried rice,
"Anko, how is your discussion with Princess Tsunade regarding cooperation going?"
"Not very smoothly, but it's not a major problem either. After I take Lady Tsunade to visit the first cursed seal customization shop we opened tomorrow, continuing the negotiation should not be difficult."
Anko Mitarashi swallowed the fragrant food in her mouth in one gulp and answered unclearly.
Tsunade, who had just finished removing the meat from a king crab leg and placed a portion onto Jiraiya's plate, frowned and asked Rei Kaguya,
"Wouldn't it be more direct to ask me in person about something like that, Lord Mizukage?"
"Asking Anko is also asking about her work progress. Asking you personally, Princess Tsunade, would not have that effect."
Rei Kaguya shrugged.
He picked up a piece of deep-sea fish tempura and took a bite. While enjoying the crisp, fragrant flavor spreading between his lips and teeth, he casually answered,
"What do you think of this chef's skills? I've been hesitating for quite a long time on whether to recommend this restaurant to the daimyo of the Land of Fire and have them help promote the Land of Water's specialty cuisine."
"It tastes very good. Even though the ingredients are all things I have not really encountered before, tasting them for the first time did not make me feel uncomfortable."
Tsunade remained silent for a moment, but still gave an honest answer.
Hearing Tsunade's evaluation, Rei Kaguya raised his chin in a rather pleased manner. He turned to the owner, who was walking over with the lobster bisque Rei had ordered, and said,
"Boss, Princess Tsunade of Konoha in the Land of Fire just gave your cooking quite a good compliment…"
"Considering her level of discernment, you should already be qualified to represent the Land of Water's culinary industry and have me recommend you to the daimyo of the Land of Fire. Do you want to consider expanding into the Land of Fire?"
"Oh my, that truly is an impressive evaluation. Thank you, honored guest."
The owner placed the dishes down and bowed to Tsunade, whom Rei Kaguya had pointed at, with visible delight. Then he tactfully refused,
"But Lord Fourth, as you know, my health is not very good. If I went to another country, no one knows whether I could still live healthily there. Rather than pursuing some vague reputation, having you visit my little restaurant as you always have is already the greatest recognition of my skills."
"Mm. Not going is fine too. If you left, I really wouldn't be able to find another place with cooking that could replace yours for a while…"
"Haha, if Lord Fourth says that, then I will have to work twice as hard."
The owner chuckled and retreated.
Jiraiya, who had witnessed the entire exchange between the two of them, narrowed his eyes and asked curiously,
"Do you really like this owner's cooking that much, Lord Mizukage?"
"This is Kirigakure Village. For the time being, there should be no one worthy of me deliberately flattering them."
Rei Kaguya gently took a sip of the lobster bisque in front of him. While nodding appreciatively, he continued,
"His skill is genuine. It's just that he has stayed in Kirigakure all this time and never gone outside, which is why his reputation has not spread…"
"That really doesn't sound like something a Mizukage would say."
Tsunade, who still maintained her stereotype of Kirigakure, shook her head and sighed.
"Honestly, even now, I still find it extremely unbelievable that Kirigakure suddenly became like this…"
"There are countless unbelievable things in this world. Why is Kirigakure's transformation the one thing that makes you sigh so deeply, Princess Tsunade?"
Rei Kaguya turned his face sideways and looked at Tsunade's ageless, youthful face with those pure white eyes as he asked calmly.
"Because you changed Kirigakure's heart. In all things under heaven, there is nothing harder to change than the heart."
Tsunade put down the tableware in her hand and said in a deep voice,
"The Village of the Bloody Mist. I don't know how many people in Kirigakure truly believed in that creed. But under so many years of rule by the Third Mizukage—or rather, by Madara Uchiha—it should have been deeply engraved into the hearts of everyone in Kirigakure."
"But now, at least in the places I can see, there is no trace of what the Village of the Bloody Mist once left behind in the eyes of Kirigakure's residents."
"Why? Why can you accomplish something like this? Why, as a shinobi born in Kirigakure, were you not affected by the Village of the Bloody Mist at all? Why were you able to make those who once firmly believed in the policies of the Bloody Mist change so greatly in just two short years?"
"It is a very simple principle."
Rei Kaguya raised his right hand, gently opened it, then clenched it tightly before opening it again. Then he raised his other hand and pointed to the marks left on his palm by the force of his clenched fist. Calmly, he said,
"Learning how to clench one's fist into a posture with greater lethality requires a very, very long period of training. But opening one's palm is an instinct even a newborn infant possesses."
"Whether it is Kirigakure or the shinobi world as a whole, everyone spent an incomparably long time learning how to clench their fists into the most lethal shape. They learned how to use a tightly clenched hand to grasp weapons and harm enemies more effectively…"
"But in contrast, a clenched fist only needs the slightest guidance from the brain to stretch open once more."
"Even if marks are left on the palm when the fist is clenched, with the passage of time, those marks that seem very deep will quickly recover and heal."
"I merely let the people of Kirigakure know that maintaining their lives does not only have one path—clenching their fists around weapons, then using them to viciously harm their enemies."
"That is all."
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