Chapter 201: A Day at the Pictures

On the second day after his return, Tonbo stayed away from work and took the entire family to the cinema.

Teuchi closed the original Ichiraku shop for the afternoon. He insisted that a grandfather ought to watch a film with his grandchildren and refused to admit that the busiest lunch shifts had become harder without Ayame beside him.

The chain shops could manage without either of them for a few hours. Ichiraku had spread steadily through the Land of Fire, while the first shop remained Teuchi's own place to work. Retirement held no appeal for a man who had spent most of his life behind the same counter. Customers still traveled from distant towns to compare the branches with a bowl made at the original shop.

Each branch followed the same base recipe, but Teuchi insisted that broth still remembered the hands that prepared it. He visited the other shops often enough to correct their habits and returned home pleased whenever their bowls matched his standards. The original counter belonged to him in a more personal sense. Even if the chain earned enough to support the whole family, sitting idle while other cooks worked would have made him miserable.

"The recipe you improved made an enormous difference," Teuchi told Tonbo as they walked. "It tastes as though you spent ten years developing it yourself."

Tonbo held Maki's hand. "Of course it works. If Tenyu and Maki discover they have no future as shinobi, I need to leave them another form of security."

He had used Contact Evolution to screen the ingredients, then compared their effects through repeated experiments with information gathered from human bodies. The result was a broth designed around taste and absorption rather than guesswork. It was an ordinary household craft improved with ninjutsu, and the customers who returned each week proved the application sound.

Different combinations produced measurable reactions in taste, appetite, and digestion. Tonbo adjusted proportions until the ingredients reinforced one another and removed changes that made a first mouthful impressive but the full bowl tiring. He had cheated by applying a shinobi technique to cooking, yet Teuchi's skill remained necessary to make the formula taste the same on a rainy evening as it did during the summer rush.

Tenyu heard the part that concerned him. "If I do not become a shinobi, I inherit a great deal of money?"

"Yes."

"Then I will stop going to the Academy. Give me the money now. I do not have to be a shinobi."

Tonbo looked down at him. "Are you asking for a beating? Do not make me slap you while I am in a good mood."

Tenyu made a face. He had known before asking that his father would refuse.

The cinema sign soon rose above the street. Adults and children alike smiled when they saw the painted poster. Teuchi and Tōsei went to buy snacks, and the twins followed because their grandfathers yielded more easily than their parents when asked for popcorn and sweets.

The twins knew exactly how to divide their requests. Maki asked Teuchi for popcorn while Tenyu showed Tōsei the sweets sold in commemorative boxes. By the time the four returned, each grandfather could claim he had purchased only one reasonable treat, although the children carried enough food to last through two films.

"Uncle Tonbo!"

Naruto's voice crossed the lobby. Team Seven stood beneath the schedule board.

Tonbo raised one hand. "Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, and Kakashi, the lone man with no wife."

Ayame blushed and wrapped both hands around his raised arm.

Kakashi's visible eye flattened. "Immature."

"I am a genin now," Naruto said, pushing his forehead protector higher. "You cannot call me little Naruto."

He copied Tonbo by extending an arm toward Sakura and waited hopefully. Sakura ignored him and reached for Sasuke instead. Sasuke stepped half a pace away before she could take hold.

"Call me Sasuke," he said to Tonbo. "Without the little."

"Are you here to see the film?" Tonbo asked. "Kakashi is treating you? Remarkable. I thought he lost his money buying that collector's edition of *Make-Out Paradise* from the pirate seller who cheated him."

Naruto stared at his sensei, then burst out laughing.

"Kakashi-sensei was scammed? A jōnin was scammed over a book?"

He planted his hands on his hips and repeated the accusation with growing delight.

Kakashi disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Sakura looked at the empty place. "Kakashi-sensei, you have not paid for the tickets!"

She turned upon Naruto. "You made him run. You are paying now."

"Tonbo started it!"

The twins returned with their grandfathers and an unreasonable quantity of food.

"Big Brother Naruto," Tenyu called. "Are you watching the film too?"

Tonbo glanced toward the open doors. "Do not disturb them. We should take our seats. The sequel to *Princess Gale* begins soon, and Yukie Fujikaze is still the greatest actress in the Land of Fire."

He led the family into the theater. Their laughter followed them through the doors.

Naruto stopped arguing. Envy crossed his face as he watched the parents, children, and grandfathers disappear together. If his own mother and father had lived, perhaps an ordinary afternoon could have looked like that.

Sasuke watched the same family and understood the silence better than anyone else there. His own hatred had settled deeper since joining Team Seven, buried beneath missions and daily quarrels. Without the later wounds Tonbo remembered, Sasuke might never become as extreme as the future he once knew.

That did not make the hatred false. It meant his team had given him ordinary moments beside it: arguments with Naruto, Sakura's attention, Kakashi's inconvenient lessons, and now the chance to see a film after completing a mission. For once, Sasuke chose to answer the sight of another family by keeping his own small group together.

"Naruto, Sakura," Sasuke said. "I will pay this time."

Naruto immediately touched his forehead. "Do you have a fever?"

Sasuke knocked the hand away. "No."

Naruto studied him as if a transformation might be hiding beneath his skin.

"Stop that," Sakura said, pulling Naruto back. "Sasuke is being kind."

Her expression turned dreamy before she finished the sentence.

Naruto opened his frog wallet and counted the coins inside. He did not have enough for all three tickets.

"Fine. You can pay this time. I will treat everyone next time."

They entered together.

From the shadows outside, Kakashi watched them go with a faint smile. Team Minato had never visited a cinema together, but their arguments had once carried the same warmth. He had failed to recognize the bond while he still possessed it.

Obito would have shouted about the tickets. Rin would have settled the dispute, and Kakashi himself would have complained that a film wasted training time. Remembering the roles now made their ending no less painful, but it allowed him to see what Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura were beginning to build before loss taught them its value.

His wallet had escaped the afternoon's expense, and the team no longer needed him to choose whether to enter. Kakashi turned away from the cinema. He had free time now, and there was someone at the memorial stone he wanted to visit.