The next day, just as the sky cleared.
"Are you really going to that place called Rōran?" Yahiko leaned against the cave entrance with his arms crossed.
Shin-chan nodded. "I don't know what the Sunagakure ninja are planning, but now that I know about it, I can't just ignore it."
"You don't even know where Rōran is."
"Tetsu said it's deep in the desert, somewhere to the west."
Yahiko was silent for a moment. "Do you need us to go with you?"
"No." Shin-chan shook his head, then took three specially made kunai from his ninja tool pouch. "These are the official tokens of the Chocolate Stick Alliance. As long as you have one, you're one of us wherever you go."
Konan carefully put her kunai away. "Will you come back?"
"Of course." Shin-chan spoke with complete seriousness. "The Chocolate Stick Alliance hasn't held its first full meeting yet. When the time comes, we need to find somewhere with a ramen shop and hold the meeting while eating ramen."
"Ramen again."
"Ramen is very important. A meeting without ramen is incomplete."
Yahiko couldn't help laughing. Then he held out his fist. "Take care, you idiot ninja from Konoha."
Shin-chan bumped his fist against Yahiko's. "You too, members of the Land of Rain branch of the Chocolate Stick Alliance."
The moment he finished speaking, his figure vanished from the cave, leaving behind only a faint spatial disturbance.
The desert sun was ten times harsher than Konoha's.
The sand inside Shin-chan's shoes had evolved from "a little uncomfortable" to "every grain of sand has its own opinion, and they have unanimously decided to make his feet miserable."
"I should've brought more chocolate sticks."
Shin-chan licked his lips and narrowed his eyes at the distant horizon.
Heat waves rolled across the desert. At the very edge of the sands, the faint outlines of several spires appeared in the air.
He rubbed his eyes.
The outlines did not disappear.
It wasn't a mirage.
At the end of the rolling dunes, a magnificent city rose from the desert.
Shin-chan quickened his pace. The city's outline became clearer and clearer. He saw the walls, the gates, and standing before them...
"Puppets?"
Shin-chan tilted his head.
Two armoured humanoid puppets stood guard at the city gate, their eye sockets glowing faintly red.
One of the puppets spoke in a mechanical voice. "Please present your entry permit."
"Entry permit?" Shin-chan pulled the mission document from the Third Hokage out of his ninja tool pouch. "Will this work?"
The red light in the puppet's eyes scanned it.
"Invalid. Not an official document issued by Rōran."
"What about this?" Shin-chan took out one of his specially made kunai.
"Weapon detected. First warning: carrying weapons into the city is prohibited."
"You're way too strict." Shin-chan sighed. "Chocolate sticks would definitely be allowed, but unfortunately, I ate them all."
Both puppets raised their spears simultaneously.
"Second warning. Leave the borders of Rōran immediately, or you will be forcibly expelled."
"If you're going to expel me, just expel me. Why do you have to sound so mean?" Shin-chan scratched his head. "But while we're talking, do you sell chocolate sticks here? I can trade you this."
He took half a piece of leftover dried food from his ninja tool pouch and waved it in the air.
The red lights in the puppets' eyes flickered twice, seemingly trying to process a request that fell outside their programming.
"By order of Lord Anrokuzan, foreign ninja are forbidden from entering the city."
"Lord?"
"Lord Anrokuzan," the puppet repeated. "Rōran does not welcome outsiders."
"You really are too strict." Shin-chan sighed. "But it's fine. Rōran is so big that there must be somewhere selling chocolate sticks. Once I replenish my strategic supplies, I'll come back and discuss the entry permit with you."
"Warning. Entry without permission is forbidden—"
Shin-chan vanished from where he stood.
Both puppets turned their heads simultaneously. The red light in their eye sockets scanned every corner in front of the city gate, but found nothing.
Eventually, they determined that the target had left their monitoring range and returned to their guard positions.
The streets inside Rōran were even more prosperous than Shin-chan had imagined.
Rows of shops lined both sides of the stone-paved road, selling cloth, pottery, and all kinds of spices he couldn't name.
"Ramen shop, ramen shop... Where's the ramen shop?" Shin-chan's gaze moved back and forth between the shops. "Do the people in this city not eat noodles?"
He turned a corner and suddenly stopped.
Not far ahead, a wooden sign hung above a stall. Several large words were written across it in beautiful lettering:
Rōran Specialty: Chocolate Sticks
The stall owner was a man wearing a headscarf. When he saw a customer approaching, he greeted him warmly.
"Would you like some chocolate sticks, little one? They're a Rōran specialty, made from cocoa fruit grown deep in the desert. You won't find them anywhere else."
Shin-chan's eyes lit up. He reached into his ninja tool pouch, then checked his trouser pockets before turning the inner pockets of his shirt completely inside out.
Finally, his expression froze.
He had given away all the money Grandpa Third had given him in the abandoned town. Only a few coins remained in his pocket, and those had been specially reserved for ramen.
Shin-chan lowered his head and looked at the coins in his palm.
"Mister."
"Mm?"
"How many chocolate sticks can I buy with these coins?"
"None, little one."
"What about half a stick?"
"I don't sell halves."
"A quarter of a stick? I can cut it myself. I have a blade, and I can make the cut very neat."
The stall owner fell silent.
In all his years of selling chocolate sticks, this was the first time he had met a customer who seriously wanted to discuss buying one quarter of a stick.
"You travelled all the way to Rōran without enough money to buy anything, and you still want chocolate sticks?"
"I just walked through the desert for several hours. My toes are almost producing sparks from all the rubbing. If I don't eat a chocolate stick to replenish my energy, I might become the first ninja in history to collapse from chocolate-stick deficiency."
The corner of the stall owner's mouth twitched. "Wouldn't the reason you collapsed be a lack of money?"
"Lacking money only prevents me from buying chocolate sticks. Lacking chocolate sticks is what makes me collapse," Shin-chan corrected him. "Those are two completely different concepts."
The stall owner stared at Shin-chan for a while, then silently took down the chocolate-stick sign.
"Hey, hey, hey! Mister, don't close your stall!"
The stall owner tucked the sign beneath his arm. "Customers like you are too dangerous. You'll wear my profit margin down to nothing."
"I'm not even haggling!"
"You're not cutting the price, but you want to cut the chocolate stick." The stall owner took a step back. "Cutting one chocolate stick into quarters is even scarier than haggling."
While the two of them were discussing the minimum saleable unit of a chocolate stick, a commotion suddenly broke out in the street.
Shin-chan turned and saw a figure staggering toward them along the middle of the road.
"Lord Anrokuzan is arresting people! Run!"
The moment the warning rang out, seven or eight puppets suddenly poured from the corners on both sides of the street.
The stall owner's expression changed instantly, and he nimbly ducked behind his stall.
By the time Shin-chan turned back, the man in the headscarf had already retreated deep into a nearby alley together with his entire stall, leaving behind only a shouted warning.
"Run too, kid! Anyone who catches Lord Anrokuzan's attention disappears from the city by the next day!"
~~~
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