“Whaaat? No! I’ll carry them! If I poke ’em in here, they won’t be in the way.” The “here” that she selected was the collar of his shirt. Skrtch, skrtch. He felt the stems rub against his back.
“Oh, yeah?” He turned his gaze toward the show window next to them and saw his own self reflected back, sunflowers sticking up off his head like antennas. Quite the lively fashion. “You think they suit me?” he asked Himawari.
She laughed in return. “They’re perfect!”
“Heh heh heh heh!” Naruto laughed, slightly embarrassed.
“The wee ones these days… It’s all beep boop beep boop. They’re obsessed with their beep booping. Don’t have the time of day for the old games,” the old lady groaned, a difficult look on her face. She’d been running the ancient sweet shop for too long to remember, wrinkled since Naruto was a kid, and that hadn’t changed now; she was still covered in wrinkles.
Entranced by the candies, Himawari cocked her head to one side, lips covered with kinako sweet powder. “What’s a beep boop?”
“Boruto plays with one during supper,” Naruto said. “A beep boop. That’s what she’s talking about. Believe it.”
“That’s not a beep boop,” the old lady argued. “That’s the star of hope for the next generation of toys, the light-en-ing scroll.”
“It’s different? So then, what’s a beep boop?”
“A beep beep’s a beep boop. You get a title and put on these airs, but you can’t even tell a beep boop from a lightning scroll. That’s a sad state,” the old woman grumbled as she pulled a package off a shelf. “Now then. I s’pose you’re looking for that Kuraa-ma or whatever it is.”
“You got any?!” Naruto’s heart thumped hard in his chest.
“Nope. Unfortunately, there are none here. None of that…but I got something even better.” The old lady assumed an air of importance and then pulled out the contents of the package. “Origami.”
He was speechless.
“What’s that look for? This is muuuuch more fun than any beep boop or what have you.”
“Himawari.” He turned to his daughter. “Let’s get your mouth cleaned up there.”
“Mm.” She nodded.
“Aah!” the woman cried. “Leave it! Quit that! Don’t use that to wipe the wee one’s mouth! It’s not a napkin, you know! Now listen! Get folding! Hurry up and fold!”
“We’re actually in a hurry… Well, I guess it can’t hurt.” He folded the paper, getting instruction from the old lady as he went. Maybe because it was the first time he’d done origami in a while, he managed to have a decent amount of fun. And Himawari also seemed pleased with the shuriken he made out of silver paper, so he strung it onto a hemp cord and hung it from her neck.
He never did find out what a beep boop was.
Naruto turned half an eye into the ninja tool shop, Ninja Tools Tententen. The owner, Tenten, was leaning back in her chair, arms hanging—she was extremely lazy.
“Caaan’t sell a daaaang thing. And after I went and got some family-type kunai in stock just for the holiday. Haven’t sold a siiiiingle one.”
“What exactly are family-type kunai, anyway?” Naruto asked.
“Hm!” Tenten waved a hand in the general direction of the showcase, still half-lying down.
Tucked away inside were uniquely shaped kunai, each with a different blade at the end of its hilt. One was long and slender, while the other had a roundness to it like a pen nib and although short, glittered sharply at the tip.
“How’s that got anything to do with family?” He raised a doubtful eyebrow.
“The long blade’s the parent, and the short one’s the kid,” she explained. “See? Looks like a parent with their child, right?”
“Bit of stretch, don’t you think?” Naruto commented. “Anyway, you got this toy, Nine Tails Kuraa-ma?”
Tenten’s swaying stopped abruptly. “That’s the fourth time I’ve gotten that question today. So is that what’s going on? You all telling me this tool shop’s behind the times? That I should close up and open a toy store already? You think so, too, Lord Seventh? That’s why you asked, isn’t it? The shop’s a loser, so I better get a side hustle going with toys? Is that what you’re trying to tell me?!”
“I don’t think that, and I’m not saying that. Believe it,” Naruto denied the charge weakly.
“It’s true, this place isn’t popular. At. All. The neighborhood kids just use the place for their little games of chicken. They say I got a huge gourd in here that speaks in a human voice. Plus, I’m way overstocked on ironware, so people come and complain that the magnetic field’s wonky around here. If I could just sell wholesale to the police or the academy, I’da sold all this stuff ages ago. But noooo, they all take those contracts somewhere else…”
“Daddy, why’s that lady crying?” Himawari asked.
“Hmm.” Naruto paused. “I guess ’cause we’re at peace maybe.”
“But that’s a good thing, right?”
“Sure is.” Naruto decided to buy some earrings that caught his eye. Miniature kunai dangled from the ends of the clips, just big enough to sit on his fingertip.
By the time he was paying for them, Tenten was back to her old self, customer-service smile plastered on her face. “What about picking these up at the same time?” She pointed again to the family-type kunai. Naruto burst out laughing at the power of her mercenary spirit and the speed at which she switched gears.
Together with Himawari, he ran around to each and every store in the old town, but they didn’t encounter a single Kuraa-ma egg. And now the sun was sinking in the sky. Naruto gritted his teeth. After all, he had the real Kurama inside of him and yet… His only hope now was Kiba off in the new town.
“Heyyy! Narutooooo!”
He heard Kiba’s voice from above and looked up to see the man on the roof of the restaurant next to him.
“I found it!” Kiba shouted. “A real Kuraa-ma this time!”
“S-seriously?!” Naruto shouted back.
Kiba kicked at the sign and dropped down to the ground before turning toward Himawari and popping a thumb up. “Everywhere was sold out, but there was just one left at the shop at the train station. In the souvenir shop on the platform for long-distance trains to other villages. Unlike Konoha, the other villages are not particularly interested in Kuraa-ma.”
“But are you sure?” Naruto asked, hesitantly. “You wanna give one to your fox-loving girlfriend, yeah?”
“She doesn’t love foxes! She likes cats. And anyway, I didn’t tell her I was going to get her one, so no harm no foul, basically.” Kiba shrugged.