STIN: Chapter 6/7

Chapter 6: Seated Next to a Snorer

It was early morning, and the paths of Konoha were already bustling with students hurrying to the Ninja Academy.

But as soon as anyone in the crowd spotted that striking head of red hair, "Tsk! Let's go, let's go!"

"Don't block his way."

"Stay away, I don't want any trouble."

Students automatically cleared a path, literally opening a way for Ryo, their eyes avoiding him as if he were a plague.

Who in their right mind would deliberately cross his path? Did they think they were tough enough to take a beating?

What about Ryo himself?

He couldn't even be bothered to lift an eyelid at these glancing eyes.

He was used to it.

Anyway, he wasn't rushing to school to see these people's faces. He had only one real task, catching up on sleep, to fiercely replenish his health bar after that devilish training last night.

With faint dark circles under his eyes, his steps conveyed a numb "don't talk to me" vibe, his mind drifting with two big words: Sleepy. Tired.

Meanwhile, in the old mansion of the Senju clan.

"Ugh… just five more minutes of sleep… just five minutes…"

Kushina was groggily lingering in bed, the warm covers clinging to her like suction cups.

Completely forgetting about waking up early for school.

Uzumaki Mito slowly sipped her tea in the next room. Hearing no movement from Kushina's room, her lips curved into a smile.

Little girl, it's time you learned a lesson. She wasn't in a hurry at all.

Children, after all, would remember after being scolded by the teacher for being late once.

A thin-skinned girl like her would surely not dare to lie in bed again.

"Huuu-ah." When Kushina finally groggily opened her eyes and caught sight of the bright sun outside the window…

"Oh no!! I'm going to be late!!!" She sprang out of bed, as anxious as a cat with its tail stepped on.

"Grandma Mito, why didn't you wake me up!!"

The little girl frantically pulled on her clothes, shouting outside with a tearful voice.

Rushing to the sink, she hastily splashed water on her face, grabbed her hair and tied it up carelessly, but her red hair still defiantly sprouted a few unruly strands.

Breakfast?

No time for that.

Kushina stormed out the door like a whirlwind, her short legs pattering as she ran wildly toward school.

When she rushed to the main gate, the corner of her eye caught sight of the lunch bento on the table, specially prepared for her by Grandma Mito…

Damn it! She forgot her lunch too!!! Kushina wailed inwardly, but her feet didn't stop.

"Never mind, I'll deal with it after school! Just go!"

By the time Kushina, panting and flushed, arrived at the classroom door…

Teacher Kimura Shū was already enthusiastically lecturing at the blackboard with chalk in hand.

The entire class's attention, with a "swish," instantly focused on the red-haired little girl leaning on the doorframe, still gasping for air.

The air solidified for two seconds.

Kimura frowned. "Uzumaki Kushina-san?"

"Y-yes! I'm sorry, Teacher! I… I overslept!"

Kushina's face was beet red, her head bowed low, feeling dozens of gazes piercing her like needles.

A faint "hoo… roo…" came from the back row by the window, Ryo's peaceful mumbling in his sleep, making Kushina's current discomfiture even more apparent.

Kimura looked at the little girl's embarrassed face. After all, she was a new student, and it was her first time being late.

He sighed and waved his hand. "Never mind, since it's your first offense, go back to your seat. Be careful next time."

"Y-yes… thank you, Sensei!" Kushina felt as if she had been granted a great pardon, wishing she could bury her head in her chest and scurried back to her exclusive seat by the window.

Passing by Minato, he cast a gentle and worried glance her way.

Kushina didn't understand his gaze, only feeling that this sissy was mocking her, making her face even hotter, with anger.

Embarrassing. So embarrassing.

The little person in her heart was already banging against the wall.

Sitting in her seat, she heard Kimura's continued lecture, her deskmate Ryo's steady snoring behind her, and faint, uncontrollable snickers.

Kushina wished she could find a hole to crawl into.

Time crawled by.

What was the teacher talking about?

Kushina didn't hear a single word.

"Grumble grumble."

A sound so loud that Kushina wanted to die on the spot came from her empty stomach.

It was so clear that students in the front and back rows probably heard it.

She froze.

Ryo, who was sleeping soundly beside her, seemed to "hmm?" and shifted his position, thankfully not waking up.

The consequences of skipping breakfast began to retaliate without warning.

Hunger was like a small hand, constantly scratching at her stomach.

She was so annoyed she almost cried.

Grandma Mito is too mean! Why didn't she just wake me up this morning! Now I'm not only being laughed at by the whole class for being late, but I'm also hungry! My bento! It's still on the table at home…

Kushina desperately sprawled on her desk, pressing her arms tightly against her stomach, trying to suppress the hunger.

But the more she pressed, the clearer the feeling became.

Hungry, wronged, and humiliated.

Kushina vowed never to sleep in again.

Glancing at her red-haired deskmate who was sleeping soundly, the girl felt even more annoyed.

Although Ryo was innocently sleeping soundly at this moment, it didn't stop the girl from taking out her anger on him.

The Ninja Academy didn't have many classes. Usually, there were only two in the morning, but each class was as long and tedious.

Finally!

"Ding-a-ling-a-ling."

The dismissal bell sounded sweeter than celestial music.

It was lunchtime.

The classroom immediately became lively, filled with the sounds of lunchboxes opening and the aroma of food.

This aroma was double torture for Kushina, who had been hungry for two classes all morning and whose stomach was rebelling.

She covered her face with a worried expression.

What should I do… Should I go home to eat? There's not enough time to go back and forth! Am I going to spend the afternoon hungry too?

Just thinking about it made her vision go black.

Just as Kushina was in a dilemma, worrying about her tragic lunch…

The little blonde boy in the front seat picked up his lunchbox, turned back, and glanced at the distressed Kushina a few times, wanting to pluck up the courage to walk over.

The little blonde, who had been paying attention to the girl, had, of course, heard Kushina's stomach rumbling that morning.

However, just then…

"Ugh… hmm?" A lazy groan came from beside her.

Kushina's unshakeable deskmate, the "Sleeping Tyrant" Ryo, was finally awakened by his lunch biological clock.

He rubbed his sleepy eyes and stretched with a huge yawn.

Making Kushina inwardly grumble: Did sleeping suck all his energy?

Then Ryo, very naturally and unhurriedly, pulled out a large, tightly wrapped bento package from his desk.

No need to guess, it was definitely the luxurious product of last night's hundred-pound cooking.

The aroma of food seemed to subtly waft out from the package, precisely entering Kushina's nose…

Kushina: "…"

She was even hungrier now, hey.

(To be continued.)

Chapter 7: Crying Won’t Work, But Pork Might

"Gulp."

Kushina clearly heard herself swallow a large mouthful of coveted saliva.

Tears at the corners of her eyes wanted to spill out uncontrollably.

She pursed her lips tightly, her eyes glued to the coarse cloth bag that Ryo slowly unfolded.

The coarse cloth was peeled back layer by layer, revealing the main attraction inside, a huge, simple bamboo lunchbox lid, filled with… meat.

It wasn't the kind of soft, stewed chunks, but golden-brown, crispy ribs with tiny oil bubbles sizzling at the edges. There were slices of smoked meat, cut uniformly thick, evenly coated in sauce, glistening invitingly. There were also chewy, well-marinated meat strips.

The lunchbox seemed to have been specially insulated, and steam and aroma wafted upward. Kushina felt her stomach clench violently, and her empty belly let out a deafening roar. "Gulu rulu rulu."

This time, the sound was too loud.

Several classmates around, who were also opening their lunchboxes, all looked over in unison, their gazes darting between Kushina and the sinfully fragrant plate of meat.

Kushina's face instantly turned as red as a ripe apple, an intense shame intertwining with an almost devouring hunger.

She no longer cared about her small resentment toward Ryo or the unpleasantness of yesterday.

Heaven and earth were vast, but filling her stomach was paramount.

She mustered the greatest courage of her life, abruptly turned her head, her light blue eyes wet with longing and embarrassment, and stared intently at the meat mountain lunchbox in Ryo's hand, which was larger than her own face.

"Ryo-kun!" Her voice trembled slightly from nervousness and weakness, her fingers subconsciously twisting the hem of her clothes. "You… yours looks like so much! Can… can you…" The rest of the words were really hard to say, but the desire for food ultimately overcame her shame. "…can you share a little bit with me? Just a tiny bit!" She quickly made a small gap with her thumb and forefinger, her voice as faint as a mosquito's, but full of pleading.

Ryo was about to pick up a crispy, delicious-looking rib, thickly coated in sauce, when he heard Kushina's words and his movement paused in mid-air.

He turned his head, his face expressionless, only the instinctive impatience of being disturbed during his meal.

His deep-set eyes glanced at Kushina's cute, red, embarrassed little face, then lowered to look at his own important rations, which he had spent time and effort making last night to replenish his energy.

"Eh?" He let out a short sound, his brows habitually furrowing slightly. "Sorry." He refused bluntly, his tone flat, without malice, merely stating a fact. "This is all for one person." He emphasized "one" and "person."

What a joke, this little bit of meat wasn't even enough to fill his own teeth. All the energy to support his physical recovery was in this.

How could there be any extra to give to others?

Especially this deskmate he had only met yesterday, who was just a small trouble in his eyes.

He, Ryo, was not some generous philanthropist.

This cold, crisp refusal, without any room for negotiation, was like a small ice pick, precisely piercing Kushina's last bit of forced dignity.

No.

Not even a tiny bit.

Was it because she was an outsider? Was it because she was new? Or was it because he was simply a cold, selfish, straight-laced jerk?

The shame of being mocked for being late, the grievance, hunger, the feeling of being isolated, the pain of a fallen country, the helplessness of being alone in a strange environment, all the suppressed negative emotions erupted at this moment.

Kushina felt like a balloon blown to its limit, and it exploded.

No matter how strong Kushina used to be, she was still just an eight-year-old girl.

So those light blue eyes, which had been stubbornly holding back tears, could no longer contain the surging emotion.

Large, hot tears rolled out uncontrollably, sliding down her rosy cheeks, pat, pat, falling onto the open textbook, quickly soaking into two dark flowers.

She didn't wail like ordinary little girls, but just bit her lower lip tightly, letting the tears flow silently, her body trembling slightly from trying to suppress her sobs.

She even stubbornly didn't raise a hand to wipe them away, just buried her head deeply into her arms again, curling into a ball.

Her fiery red hair, at this moment, was no longer a dazzling flame, but like a cluster of fallen leaves, soaked by rain and trembling in the wind.

Her appearance made her seem like she had been abandoned in a corner by the whole world.

Ryo held the rib, frozen in place.

"???"

His mind was instantly filled with question marks.

Isn't it normal to refuse to share food?

He didn't even have enough for himself.

Being hungry was unpleasant, but… crying like this? Was it really that bad?

Ryo looked at the fragrant meat in his hand, then at the red-haired girl next to him, who had shrunk into a trembling little shrimp, her tears almost soaking her textbook.

"Trouble." Just as he muttered this word in his heart, something suddenly pricked him.

He couldn't stand the tears of women and children, especially the pure, wronged, and sad kind like Kushina's.

The scene before him completely exceeded his simple, logical scope of fighting, killing, eating, sleeping, and training.

A little girl who had just been rejected by him, whose stomach was growling with hunger in front of him, and who was crying so miserably after being refused…

His defense line of avoiding trouble and stay away from me instantly broke a large hole in the face of this silent, incredibly destructive tear attack.

Her angry look after school yesterday and this pitiful little crybaby in front of him overlapped. A strange feeling called unease of conscience emerged in the straight-laced Ryo's heart, making him feel uncomfortable all over.

"Tsk… so annoying." Ryo growled inwardly with extreme impatience. This emotion, beyond his handling capacity, made him irritable.

But his body acted before his brain.

He almost rudely put down the rib, wiping his greasy fingers casually on his clothes.

Frowning, he rummaged through the pile of meat. Which piece to choose? No, he really couldn't bear to part with it. Too many bones… this piece? Too fatty, afraid she'd choke… Damn it, why is sharing some meat so hard!

Finally, as if he had made some huge decision, with a sense of tragic heroism akin to a warrior severing his own arm, he, with great effort, tore off a whole piece of fatty and lean meat, with tendons and skin, glistening with oil and substantial in weight, from the largest stewed hind leg, which he himself hadn't even dared to gnaw on yet, with the most sauce and the crispiest skin, a pig hock.

The size of that pig hock was almost as big as Kushina's small face.

Thick, rich sauce dripped down Ryo's fingers, steaming hot and fragrant.

Ryo, with a dark expression, stiffly almost prodded this extremely tempting large piece of meat next to Kushina's lowered head.

His voice was still stiff, with obvious impatience. "Here. What are you crying for? Take it. Eat quickly." His tone was like he was dealing with a troublesome piece of garbage, rather than offering a fragrant piece of meat that could fill her stomach.

That rich, immediate aroma of meat, like a tangible shockwave, instantly pierced through Kushina's self-pity.

Her crying stopped abruptly.

(To be continued.)