New Sushi Restaurant

The plan was for Miki and me to go out for the day and explore a little bit farther into the village now that my parents gave me a tad more freedom. Starting from the Uzumaki compound, we went south, looking for something new to do. As we were walking that way, we started to see more and more Mori clan members with their pitchfork-like clan symbols on their clothes.

"Hey Miki, it looks like there's a new restaurant opening up over there. Want to go see what's up with it? It could lead us to a once-in-a-lifetime adventure," I said, trying to entice the chibi Miki beside me. As expected, it worked.

"Heck yeah, let's go," Miki screamed while taking off like a rocket towards the newly established restaurant.

I chuckled and followed behind, making sure she didn't get into too much trouble along the way. When I arrived, though, I found Miki face-to-face with a small, shaggy brown-haired little boy with emerald eyes and a scarlet face.

"Miki, back up. Not everyone wants a random little girl in their face."

Huffing, Miki backed off while shooting me her signature glare when she got annoyed.

"Thank you for the help. My name is Shin Mori. Welcome to our brand-new restaurant. We just opened today, and we're excited to have you here."

"Just opened up today? I guess it's a good thing we decided to come down this way to find something to do. We can be some of the first customers here now," I smiled while looking at Miki, who was still partly pouting at me.

"Yeah, I guess. What do you guys sell here? I am starting to get a tad hungry, and it is lunchtime, so we might as well stay for a little bit," Miki said, as I faintly heard a growl from her stomach.

I think the owner of the restaurant also heard both her question and her stomach as he appeared out of the back in his apron with a rag over his messy hair. The man in question was very tall and portly-looking, but he also wore a warm smile on his face, almost like the feeling of eating a bowl of warm soup during a cold day.

"We mostly sell sushi here, but we also serve a couple of different fish dishes as well," the portly man helpfully replied, pointing at the food on display. While he was pointing at them, my mouth started watering looking at the different sushi rolls on display.

"I'll take a bowl of chirashi and a dozen pieces of nigiri, please."

"Wow, kid, that's a lot for the two of you kids. Are you sure you'll be able to finish it?"

"Two of us? That's just for me. Miki can get whatever she wants; I'll pay for it," I told the man while climbing up onto one of the stools at the bar.

Miki's eyes started sparkling at the thought of getting anything she wanted to eat without having to pay for it and subsequently jumped up onto the stool next to mine and ordered herself something light to eat.

As I said this, the man raised an eyebrow just slightly but still acquiesced to my order.

As the man went to the back, he looked over to the little boy standing off to the side, looking too shy for his own good, and told him, "Go sit with those kids and try to make friends with them."

The boy reluctantly nodded his head and walked toward Miki and me.

"Can I sit with you guys?" the boy asked, sounding quite unsure of himself and the situation he found himself in.

"Sure you can! It never hurts to have an extra person to talk to," Miki's over-enthusiastic response came with lightning-fast speed.

I just rolled my eyes at Miki and smiled at the clearly very shy boy in front of us.

"Sure you can, just like Miki said. It never hurts to have an extra person in the group. My name is Shiran Uzumaki, and this is Miki Yuki. It's nice to meet you, Shin."

The boy smiled and nodded while climbing up onto a stool next to us.

"So, how old are you, Shin? Both Yuki and I are 3 years old this year, but I'm older than her by a month." I whispered the last part to him as Miki was looking at me as outraged as a little kid could look.

"I told you not to tell people that, bastard!" Miki said while I ducked away from the iron fist heading straight for my head.

Shin, seeing this, giggled a little, which caught the enraged girl's attention, and she turned on him, making his face turn a pale color upon seeing the fire in her eyes.

"Here's the food you guys ordered. I hope you enjoy the taste and come back another time," the man said diffusing the situation, before disappearing again, leaving the three kids alone at the bar.

Miki completely forgot about her earlier outrage and decided that the food in front of her had a higher priority.

The conversation, having come to a lull as we ate, started back up after I asked about the academy that's coming in the next couple of years.

"Are you going to be going to the ninja academy in the coming years, Shin?"

"I think so. Both my older siblings are ninjas, and I want to follow in their footsteps and become as strong as they are right now," Shin responded confidently, while I stared at him for an extra second before smiling and nodding my head.

"That's a good goal to have. I'm sure they're both really strong ninjas if you're aspiring to be just like them."

Shin nodded with stars in his eyes, thinking about how cool his siblings looked while wearing their ninja headbands and running around.

"Hopefully, we're in the same class then. We'll start with people we already know, and maybe we can make more friends and add them to our group."

Shin was a little unsure, though. It was only because his dad told him to come over here and socialize that he did. Shin also wasn't fully convinced that everyone would be like Shiran and Miki. Nonetheless, he did hope that these two would be in his class as well.

"Yeah, hopefully, we are in the same class," Shin said back with more conviction in his voice than he usually has.

Shiran, finishing his last bite, turned again to look at Shin to ask him where he lived.

"I live on the northern edge of the Mori compound, right around the end of the Koyo River. If you ask the clansmen around that area, they should be able to point you in the right direction."

"Awesome, I live over in the Uzumaki compound. All you have to do is ask anyone around the center of the compound to take you to Shiran's house, and they'll take you there."

Miki and I got up to leave the new sushi restaurant that had just opened up, and I had a gut feeling that we'd end up eating here a lot in the coming years.