Under Konoha’s Shadow

Chapter 40: Insect Cuisine

At Yamamoto Ryusei's new house, the group was busy copying the scrolls they had brought from their respective clans. Hyuga Natsuki noticed that Uchiha Kagami wasn't looking well and asked, "Kagami, are you not feeling well?"

Kagami shook his head. "No, it's just that I recently signed a summoning contract, and I haven't been able to eat."

Sarutobi Hiruzen said with some surprise, "Something like that can happen? I didn't experience that when I signed the contract with Enma."

"It's probably because he's too angry to eat," Inuzuka Rō said with a straight face. "I have a cousin who was like that. He signed a contract with a problematic dog. He couldn't switch, so he was too angry to eat for days."

Hyuga Natsuki was surprised. "Your Inuzuka clan can still make mistakes like that? You've been raising dogs for generations!"

Rō said helplessly, "What can you do? That dog's physical condition was top-notch, but it was a pacifist. It refused to fight at all and was only willing to track people and deliver things. A messenger dog."

Natsuki lamented, "So even ninja beasts have psychological problems. Kagami, is the ninja beast you signed a contract with like that too?"

"N-no," Kagami said, feeling a wave of nausea as he remembered the food at Mount Myōboku. "It's because their food is too disgusting. I just can't accept it!"

"Huh?" Rō said. "You even eat the food your summoning animals make?"

Kagami looked a bit stunned. "What? You guys don't?"

Rō pointed at Rōmaru. "Does Rōmaru look like he knows how to cook? I'm the only one who cooks for him."

Kagami looked at Hiruzen, who also shook his head. "I don't. At most, I'll eat some fruit. If I want cooked food, I have to make it myself."

Ryusei's shadow clone, which had been left there to copy the scrolls, also asked, "So the food you ate, was it raw or cooked?"

Kagami thought of those insects again, and another wave of nausea hit him. He quickly covered his mouth and nose, and only after a good while did he manage to suppress the urge to vomit. He said with a sigh of relief, "It should be considered cooked."

Ryusei's clone thought for a moment. "Then the summoning beast you signed a contract with must be very powerful. Compared to their clans, they've already entered a civilized society."

"Yes..." Kagami said excitedly. "Some of the toads there are bigger than mountains!"

"Toads?" Ryusei's clone stood up excitedly and asked, "Kagami, is the place where those toads live called Mount Myōboku?"

Kagami nodded. "Yes. How did you know, Ryusei?"

The shadow clone sat back down, lost in thought. The original story never said that Uchiha Kagami signed a contract with Mount Myōboku. Could this be a butterfly effect that I caused?

Seeing Kagami's questioning gaze, he attributed the information to Hashirama. "I heard Teacher Hashirama mention it. He said that Mount Myōboku, Shikkotsu Forest, and Ryūchi Cave are known as the three great sage regions for summoning animals. Teacher Hashirama himself has a summoning contract with Shikkotsu Forest."

Hiruzen was confused. "The three great sage regions? Why are they called that?"

The clone continued, "It's because of sage arts. The three great sage regions all have their own sage arts."

"Sage arts? What's that?" Natsuki asked.

Kagami said excitedly, "I know this one! Sage art is a technique that can greatly increase the power of ninjutsu. Sage Fukasaku used sage art to make the C-rank Great Breakthrough have the power of an S-rank ninjutsu!"

"Really? Can I learn it?" Hiruzen and Rō asked. Natsuki, who only practiced taijutsu, wasn't interested.

Kagami shook his head. "You have to sign the Mount Myōboku summoning contract first."

The two who had already signed other contracts were instantly dejected.

Ryusei's clone looked at the two who seemed to have missed out on hundreds of millions of ryo and consoled them, "Even if you hadn't signed a contract, it's unlikely you could have signed one with the three great sage regions. It requires a certain fate. Kagami's luck is just good."

The group could only look at Kagami with envy. Kagami, however, said with a pained expression, "Ryusei, don't you know Master Liu Maoxing? Can you ask him how to make insects taste good?"

"Eating insects?" The other three's faces turned a little pale when they heard what Kagami's food was.

"Yeah," Kagami said, slumping weakly onto the table. "They're all toads. What else would they eat but insects... They boil a lot of insects together. Some of the soup is even green; that's all the insects' blood. And there are white skins floating in it. It's all sticky when you eat it, like green snot."

"Blech..." Hearing Kagami's description, the others couldn't help but dry heave.

Ryusei's clone quickly cut him off. "You don't need Liu Maoxing for that. I can teach you myself. But where are we going to get the insects?"

"You guys wait here, I'll go catch some. We can eat together later." After saying that, Kagami disappeared with a Body Flicker to go catch insects. Now you'll all get a taste of it.

Hiruzen's face turned pale. "Ryusei, are we really going to eat the insects Kagami brings back?"

The shadow clone said with full confidence, "Don't worry. What I make will be absolutely delicious."

Natsuki said in a grim tone, "Ryusei, you're a shadow clone, right? Don't run away. Call your main body over to eat with us." He then punched the clone, dispelling it.

Natsuki, Hiruzen, and Rō were gathered around a dish on the table, but no one dared to be the first to try it.

Ryusei and Kagami came out of the kitchen with the finished dishes. Seeing that the three hadn't touched their chopsticks and were just staring, Ryusei asked, "Why aren't you eating? It smells pretty good, doesn't it?"

Ryusei had cleaned the insects Kagami brought back, coated them in breadcrumbs, and deep-fried them. The aroma was so good it could make the neighbor's kids cry with craving.

Hiruzen said with a pained expression, "It does smell good, but the moment I think about it being made of insects, I instantly lose my appetite."

"What's the big deal?" Ryusei sprinkled some salt and pepper and chili powder on top, then popped one into his mouth. "I've cleaned all of these."

Natsuki said with hesitation, "I still have a bit of a mental block."

"Just pretend you don't know," Kagami said, picking one up. "Look, after being coated in breadcrumbs and fried like this, how can you even tell? The ones at Mount Myōboku were clearly, obviously insects." He then tossed it into his mouth. "The taste is really good. It's a completely different world from the food at Mount Myōboku."

"That's right," Ryusei and Kagami said in unison. "Don't look at how ugly it is. Its protein is five times that of beef! Eating more is good for your body."

"It smells so good! What are you guys doing?" Senju Miyuki came in from outside and saw the dish on the table. "You're secretly eating good food! I want some too!" She then tossed a piece into her mouth.

"Wait..." Ryusei wanted to stop her, but seeing that she had already eaten it, he swallowed his words.

Miyuki chewed on the piece of insect meat and tilted her head. "What's wrong?"

Ryusei gave a sheepish grin. "Nothing." He secretly tried to take a step back and slip away.

Seeing Miyuki eat it with such relish, Hiruzen couldn't help but pick one up and toss it into his mouth. His expression changed instantly. "Rō, Natsuki, this is really good!"

Rō and Natsuki also picked up pieces and began to eat.

"I never thought these insects could be so delicious when cooked like this."

Miyuki froze, then asked with doubt, "What insects?"

Rō pointed at the dish on the table. "This is made from the insects Kagami brought back. Ryusei cooked it to improve Kagami's meals at Mount Myōboku."

"Blech... Bleegh... URRRGH." Miyuki immediately grabbed the table and threw up everything she had just eaten. It was a good while before she stopped.

"YAMAMOTO RYUSEI!" Miyuki wiped the saliva from her mouth with her arm, then glared at Ryusei with murderous eyes. She grabbed the too-slow-to-escape Ryusei by the collar. "Why didn't you warn me that was made of insects?!"

Ryusei gave an apologetic smile. "I was about to say something, but you had already eaten it. But I did clean those insects."

Miyuki said grimly, "So it's my fault then?"

"No, no, no," Ryusei shook his head frantically. "My mistake. I shouldn't have made such a dish in the first place."

Miyuki, seeing Ryusei's attitude, nodded slightly before letting him go. "Don't make such dark cuisine next time," she said, then turned and ran off.

Ryusei shot a resentful glance at Kagami, who gave an awkward smile. Looking at the dish on the table, Kagami knew that his days at Mount Myōboku would be much better from now on.