“And? Do you have any ideas?” Sasuke drummed his fingers on the table.

A monotonous knocking was heard above his head - a tricolor figurine of maneki-neko, next to which a metal teapot with a curved spout stood, hugged a coin and shook with her paw in greeting.

It was gloomy, warm and cozy here, like in a mother's womb. A dim soft light poured from the ceiling; there was an earthy smell of spicy myrrh, which came from the incense sticks smoldering along the walls. They were lit to muffle the intrusive cat scent, because, apart from ninja cats, a whole multitude of whiskered pets lived in the dwelling of Nekobaa and her granddaughter Tamaki.

“One just doesn’t understand anything anymore”, Nekobaa took the mouthpiece of the kiseru-pipe from her wrinkled lips. A blue cloud of tobacco smoke rose into the air above her.

Sasuke furrowed his brow.

“I know that”, muttered he sullenly.

He had just told Nekobaa and the others about everything that had happened to him, starting from the very moment he met Naruto again near Orochimaru's hideout. Before that, however, he was dressed up, fed and given a rest, which was usual, when he stopped by Sora-ku, so now Sasuke was full of energy and even wore a new hooded cloak on his shoulders.

The shopkeepers also took care of the weapons: they helpfully presented him a chokuto, exactly like the one that he left at the bottom of that crater. Of course, the blade still could not be compared with the previous Kusanagi, but, in any case, it was rather more convenient to operate with it, than with an ordinary surgical knife. The chakra passed through it surprisingly smoothly.

Of course, Sasuke was helped not for nothing - in order to pay for equipment, he had to fork out a lot. It was good that he once stumbled upon a pawnbroker on the way here: just one moment of activated sharingan - and all contents of his pocket were now Sasuke’s. Well, at least financially, he would not have to experience difficulties yet.

Sasuke would generally consider himself satisfied with his life unless he thought about revenge and the purpose with which he came to the Uchiha supply base.

A low meow sound came from the floor. Sasuke looked down - an elegant fold cat in a red kimono stepped into the spot of light in front of him. He even knew her name - it was Hina, one of the accompanying ninneko. She was considered a frequent guest by Nekobaa.

“What you were purring about, sounded very similar to the usual Transfor-meow-tion Technique”, she noticed and sat down, wrapping her tail around her paws. “Such techniques can be applied by anyone who signs a contract with ninbyo cats”.

“Yes, but there is a little note about this meow-tter”, the second voice sounded. A black-eared cat in a blue kimono and with a shinobi symbol on his forehead - Hina’s partner called Denka - stopped next to her. “Ninbyo cats don't make contracts with people. Not at all!”

They laughed together, shaking their fluffy whiskers. Sasuke nodded slowly; well, he had known about it since childhood, when he dragged one kitten by the tail to refill his encyclopedia with paw prints. He wanted to make this kitten obey, but he only scratched his nose and ran away.

Cats didn’t like contracts. They prefered to wander by themselves.

Nekobaa thoughtfully tapped on the bowl of the pipe, leveling the tobacco inside. She was sitting on wide pillows, and numerous cats were fussing around her - furry, long-tailed, pop-eyed. Of various colors and sizes, they flooded almost all visible space. Some sat still or dozed, while others asked to play and meowed insistently. They could only be understood through a headband with cat ears, that was why Nekobaa wore it on her head all the time.

“You can't use a technique without a contract”, she groaned, pulling a pipe again. “My nose feels that something else is involved here. Right, Sasuke-kun?”

Sasuke lowered his eyelids in agreement. Sure, right, and that was what confused him most in that story. The transformation happened by itself, and he felt that there was something wrong about it.

A small gray cat with black stripes on its back jumped onto the table in front of him and sniffed carefully. Sasuke hadn't seen her before. He decided that this was a new pet of Nekobaa, but the cat suddenly spoke to him.

“I feel bakeneko inside of you!” she hissed, baring her thin fangs. “Strange chakra, very strange… Get out of here!”

Sasuke listened with interest. This cat obviously wanted to scare him: fluffed her tail and raised the fur on the back of her neck, which made her seem bigger. Young ninneko did not wear clothes yet, so it was difficult to distinguish them from ordinary cats.

“Momo, calm down!” Tamaki's voice rang out from behind the curtain on the other side of the room. Nekobaa's granddaughter was sitting behind a folding screen in her cubbyhole and diligently sewing while they were talking, but Momo's words made her get up from her seat and pull the curtain back. “How do you dare to speak with guests like this?”

Momo hissed again and, casting a hostile look at Sasuke one more time, hurriedly jumped off the table and then disappeared in one of the dark corners.

Tamaki lowered her head, sighing guiltily.

“Forgive her, please”, she sincerely asked Sasuke. “Momo used to be an alley cat, but when I took her home, she wanted to become a ninneko”.

“She's a young cat”, Nekobaa mumbled. “A teenager in human years. She hasn't learned yet how to behave properly”.

It was all clear then. So Momo was Tamaki's cat…

“By the way, as ninneko she's very sensitive”, Denka remarked. “And if Momo meows that strange chakra is inside you, then it means that it is indeed”.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. Strange chakra? But how? Although after Orochimaru left a seal, Sasuke couldn't even imagine what kind of chakras mixed inside of him. It might be necessary to visit sannin if the search in the Sky District would be not successful.

“Strange chakra…” said Nekobaa. “That's the same what Nekomata said…”

After words about Nekomata, Sasuke became wary. He still remembered this huge two-tailed demon-cat who tried to lure him into genjutsu.

At that time, Sasuke scored the last hit.

“What did Nekomata say?”

Nekobaa did not answer. Sasuke insistently urged her on.

“Obaa-san, what did Nekomata say?”

“The name of the Neko-meow-ta in Sora-ku should be mentioned with caution now”, Hina suddenly interfered.

“Why?”

“You'll know, if you visit the town with us tonight”, Denka purred mysteriously.

Sasuke paused thoughtfully, lowering his gaze. One way or another, he would have the opportunity to find out the details later. There were more important matters to discuss first.

“But if there is some kind of strange chakra in Sasuke now”, Tamaki said uncertainly, returning to the urgent, “then it probably needs to be somehow pulled out?”

The cats exchanged glances. Sasuke zealously hypnotized the table in front of him - Tamaki was definitely right, however, in order to get rid of this strange chakra, he needed to look into his inner vessel. And, frankly, Sasuke had no idea how to deal with this.

Admitting this, of course, was for him not appropriate.

“We can try meow-ditation”, Hina suggested. “Or make him use up all his chakra and then get strong emotions like tension or fear. He will then be able to reach his vessel”.

Sasuke looked up indignantly. Fear? What was it? This kind of disease that scums like Naruto suffered from?

“I'm afraid the latter method won't work,” he muttered under his breath. “After Orochimaru's training, I forgot what it means to have fears”.

The cats exchanged glances again.

“Well, then meow-ditation”, Denka shrugged his shoulders. “We can take you to the temple of the great Kannon-sa-meow. It may seem to be a bit out of shape in recent days, but it is still open”.

“The temple of the great Kannon-sama?”

“The temple of the cats' goddess”, Nekobaa explained. “They started building it when you were a kitten”.

Sasuke thought for a couple of moments. Then he got up and, waving his sword, stuck it in the back of his belt. The cloak behind him fluttered dramatically.

“Then let's go”, Sasuke commanded, heading for the door. Before leaving, however, he turned around, not feeling that someone was following him.

Denka and Hina calmly continued to sit on their places and had not even moved.

Oh. He had completely forgotten that he was doing business with cats.

“Go? Right meow?” finally, Denka said lazily, twitching his ears.

“I came here not to spend my vacation”, Sasuke reminded. “We need to deal with this problem as soon as possible, before…”

“Oh, these people”, Hina got up on her paws and, stretching well, walked laid-back across the room. “They're always in a hurry”.

Denka snorted in agreement and trotted after her, wagging his tail.

Sasuke let the cats go ahead, holding the noren, which served as the door to Nekobaa's residence, and already was about to follow, but the old lady suddenly called out to him.

“Sasuke-kun, wait a minute”, Sasuke turned around. “Don't forget about the gifts when you go to the temple. It is not good to come to the goddess with empty paws”.

Sasuke nodded glumly, thinking about the jar of catnip, which, along with a bottle of valerian, he prudently got on the outskirts of Sora-ku. Initially, he planned to give both presents to Nekobaa, but now he decided to postpone this desire. A sense of tact belatedly awoke in him.

“I appreciate your understanding…” he said, diving behind the fabric divider after ninneko.

“We are helping you, just because we've known you for a long time”, Denka threw over his shoulder, confidently walking to a wide road. Hina nodded, silently catching up with him.

Sasuke sighed and followed. It would be useful to find out which rumors were going around the town about Nekomata and why could his name no longer be pronounced aloud.

***

The streets of the deserted town Sora-ku were desolated and drowned in the viscous and oppressive silence, like in a swamp quagmire. Gust of wind swept over them sometimes, and then a frightening creak was heard over the road - shabby paper lanterns swayed under the signs of once flourishing shops.

Yes, one time, there was a real revival here. There were lights in the windows of houses, now abandoned and covered with vines, people were chatting merrily at the gates, and yatai carts were always standing at crossroads selling fried rice and tonkatsu. Although Sasuke had seen those times, he remembered them vaguely. The memories of the mission with team number seven were much fresher in his head - but even then Sora-ku did not seem to him as gloomy and unfriendly as now.

Probably something must have happened while he was away. The town, obviously, had since fallen into even greater disarray: the buildings’ walls have become dilapidated, cracked or completely leaky, glasses were missed in the windows, and it was scary to look into the doorways. Piles of garbage towered everywhere, slops stank in the sewers, and the nearest alleys were densely overgrown with thick grass almost as tall as a man.

Sasuke followed his companions, frowning around. In front of one of the houses - its roof was askew and covered with mold because of the rain - a skinny ninneko was turning a skewer over the fire, on which a dead rat was frying, which caused an unpleasant aroma of rotten smoked meats to spread over the road. Other rats - already fried - were lying in neat heaps nearby, but the trade was apparently going badly: Sasuke had heard that cats did not like rat meat because it was considered a carrier of infection.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Only something really serious should have made them eat it.

A furious meow sounded from the side. Sasuke looked around; from the mouth of one of the empty entrances they were passing, a cat jumped out and rushed along the road. He held a trapped mouse in his teeth and had not even reached the corner, as his pursuer overtook him and attacked from behind. A cat fight ensued. A squeal rose, and tufts of fur flew in every direction.

Denka and Hina indifferently walked past the fray and did not even stop. Sasuke silently followed them and his gaze lingered only on the mouse, which in the heat of battle remained lying on the ground. The mouse was scrawny and had already turned into a carrion on some points.

Are they willing to fight each other to the death because of such paltry prey? How worse must the situation in Sora-ku have gotten, if this was really the case.

Anyway, Sasuke didn't care about someone else’s problems. Along with ninneko, after passing several more deserted blocks, he slowed down a little near the porch with a row of small red akachochin lanterns over the threshold. This building must have been known as the local izakaya. Passing by the half-lowered curtain, from under which a dim light was oozing, Sasuke unconsciously looked inside.

The hall, surprisingly, was not empty, several cat heads and tails could be seen in it. And next to them - even people.

“There are some custo-meow-rs here today”, Denka meowed, nodding behind the curtain. “Shall we come in?”

Hina anxiously ruffled the fur on the back of her neck.

“We'd better not get into trouble”, she hissed warningly. Denka sat down on the road and, licking his front paw, stroked it behind his ears.

“Sasuke had to find out about Neko-meow-ta”, he recalled. “We'll just hear what they're meowing about him”.

Hina shook her broad head and looked at Sasuke. He continued to watch the hall from the outside with a concentrated gaze. Hina was right - they shouldn't have gotten into trouble when they had plenty of them anyway. However… Something bad had obviously happened here, and Sasuke really wanted to know if Nekomata had anything to do with it.

...And also he himself.

However, Sasuke had not been in this area for a long time and therefore could only guess what rumors had spread about his old escape from Konoha, if, of course, they had generally come here during this time. An extra precaution would not be unnecessary now.

Sasuke raised his hand with two fingers folded. “Dog”, “boar”, “ram” - a combination perfectly learned by him at school and now used entirely automatically - and now Sasuke's appearance was no longer that of the last survivor from a once prominent noble clan, but of this moneylender from whom he temporarily “borrowed” some money. This one was the last whom Sasuke met on his way, and there just wasn't enough time to work on a better cover right now. Anyway, the appearance of the pawnbroker turned out to be not memorable at all and absolutely unremarkable, so that in Sasuke's memory it eventually merged into a set of standard features - flabby tanned skin, narrow dark eyes and coarse hair shaved to the top of the head in traditional chonmage style.

In one word, nothing special to such a degree that even ninneko would hardly pay attention to him, let alone some suspectful strangers. Successful transformation at once added confidence.

The curtain opened slightly, causing the dim light to scatter in spots on the porch steps. Sasuke lowered his palms, then put his head down and crossed the threshold, beckoning to the cats to follow him.

“Let’s go”.

Denka eagerly ducked inside. Hina, with her ears close to the head, followed reluctantly.

The room was unbearably stifling. The braziers must have had a faulty air vent, and the smoke that was coming from the kitchen almost made one’s eyes water. Sasuke walked past a row of tables in the direction of the corner farthest from the entrance; when he caught up with the bar where two suspicious-looking men were drinking, Hina prudently scratched his ankle.

“Put on your hood, Sasuke-kun”, she shushed, nodding towards the strangers. “There Are Black Marketeers Here”.

Sasuke obeyed, involuntarily squinting at the counter. Although the jutsu of transformation served well as a distraction, it would not hurt to attract as little attention as possible even with a changed appearance.

The merchants at the table looked like what they were called - the shoulders of the dark deel coats they wore were wrapped in several layers of thick black cotton fabric. Their turban-like headdresses were also sewn from the same fabric. Merchants did not take off their hats even indoors; in some ways they resembled tagelmusts - they hid the forehead and lower part of the face, well protecting it from the vagaries of weather. Probably for the same reason, devices like hermetically-round magnifying glasses sat on the strangers’ noses - Sora-ku was located in the middle of a bare rocky wasteland open to all winds, and Marketeers, which was no secret, hade been considered local regulars for centuries.

Sasuke just had never noticed before that they dared to leave Nekomata's fortress and go out into the town.

With an effort turning his gaze away from the smugglers’ figures, he glanced around the room in order not to arouse suspicion. Three windows were located only on one wall and were tightly curtained. Reddish light streamed from the ceiling lamps. At the very back of the hall there was a wooden staircase,next to it - a corner raised on a platform, furnished with partitions for drinkers right on the floor at low tables, legs of which had form of cats’ paws. Ninneko moved under the usual tables. Some of them, similar to Denka and Hina, sat catlike right on the countertops. Others, who were walking upright and wearing clothes, ate at the tables like people. These were bigger and sometimes even armed - Sasuke decided that they were probably also warriors of the Nekomata’s fortress. There was a monotonous hum around, occasionally interrupted by unfriendly meowing and loud slurping.

One of the Black Marketeers behind laughed out loud, banging a pint on the countertop. Sasuke listened warily and immediately sat down on the nearest empty chair on the way. Ninneko exchanged questioning glances, but still took turns jumping onto the table in front of him.

For the sake of appearance, Sasuke ordered salty edamame. The cats limited themselves to squid strips from the teppan grill. Pulling the beans out of the hard pods, Sasuke diligently pretended to be a disinterested visitor, but at the same time he strained his ears to hurt.

“Are Tomio and Tomiko still catching their borrower?” Sasuke heard from behind. “They just aren’t able to find him, but boasted themselves so much, saying that they would certainly grab a precious necklace and then sell it at an exorbitant price”.

“Hard to say, whether at an exorbitant price… I wanted to tell, but talking to them is like gold coins to a cat,” a second voice rang out. “You know, after all, they once almost got him, the borrower. Yeah, they got him, but he ran away right there, this beast. There were rumors that he and one of Kage are in kinship, so he is then hided everywhere”.

“Ph! It will surely last long till they catch him again”.

“Well, what should we do, it's not our concern. Better tell me how you're doing, Kintaro-kun. I hear you've set up over there pretty well: no matter what happens, you always benefit now. Money is rolling in from all sides.

“Yes, you can really deal with Nekomata”, a satisfied bass rolled. The Marketeers, apparently, were well aware that the cats, except for ninneko, could not understand the human language, and therefore did not hesitate to talk about things that were never meant for an animal ear. “He has extremely good conditions for a partnership. Unlike those snobs from Uchiha…”

Sasuke gritted his teeth, almost biting the pod.

“Oh, that's who was always snotty and didn’t stay out of our business!”

“Don't remind me. Working with them was just awful…” agreed the first one. “I just could breathe again four years ago when their time was finally over. And, to be honest, I still don't believe it.

“Hah! Maybe it's for the best that they were all killed by this madman from their clan. Now, there is no one to keep us on our toes”.

A pinkish veil gradually began to cover his eyes. Sasuke, not paying attention to this, continued to listen intently.

“That's it. But not everyone was killed?”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I heard one kid, his brother, was left, but then he ran away, too. To some wrongdoer, I guess”.

“What a family! They match each other”.

Sasuke clenched his fists. The pinkish veil inflated itself, becoming more and more saturated.

Pathetic whelps… How dare they? His parents, his family, his friends and relatives - they were all brutally murdered, undeservedly died without any fault, and only one person was the reason for that. He himself could not stop this man, he spent years in torment, reproached and hated himself for his weakness, to realize just in the end, that he would calm down only when he annihilated this person forever. And he swore that he would do it, wipe him off the face of the earth without a trace, but these nitfits… It looked like they were happy to glorify him; they magnified his brutal deeds so shamelessly, as if it was his main merit!..

The Marketeers only laughed in a low voice, clinking dishes.

“But thanks to them, now our hands are untied”.

“For sure! Ever since the Nekomata took over the city, it has been completely under our control”.

“Indeed. These stupid cats don't dare even to utter his name, so the trade will be going much better. We will squeeze every last sen out of them. It's profitable, too: the cost price is the same, but the benefit is growing!..”

Something knocked. Sasuke dropped his forearms on the table - the veil before his eyes continued to thicken, the crimson contours of objects around were outlining more precisely.

The skin on his chest began to tingle again, and it burned inside unbearably. Sasuke felt the chakra surging in streams from the rage. The idea of a cover-up disappeared from his head on its own. Right now, he just couldn't afford to keep quiet and let these scumbags talk about Uchiha like this.

As if through a pillow, Denka's whisper reached him.

“Hina, his eyes…”

“I see”, Hina shook her head. Sasuke barely heard her. It seemed to him that now he was all turned into indomitable anger. In his dreams of getting up and chopping off these two of their ugly heads, Sasuke did not even notice how his forearms were covered with a bluish shimmer under the bracers. Hina shifted her gaze fearfully.

“And the chakra cover... It’s bad”, she stepped on one of the bracers with her front paws and looked at Sasuke. “Sasuke-kun, it's a bit stuffy here. Shall we go out and get some fresh air?”

Sasuke resignedly bored the table with his eyes. The veil did not fall off - sharingan worked even in someone else's guise - and, seeing nothing in front of him but just this veil, Sasuke thought only about how he would leave the headless bodies of the Marketeers to rot in the nearest drain. Hina unobtrusively sank her claws into the bracers. The pain from the outside immediately brought him to his senses.

“Ts”, Sasuke pulled his hand back, painfully grabbing his wrist. Then he shook himself, calming down. Vision returned to normal.

One could only hope that the moment of hatred inside him had gone unnoticed.

Denka and Hina, after exchanging glances, were the first to jump off the table and quickly trotted to the exit. Getting up noisily, Sasuke left the money for food on the table and hurried after them.

When he was passing by the bar, someone hailed him.

“Hey you, in the hood”. Sasuke stopped. “Turn around”.

He looked at ninneko ahead. They tensely froze two steps away from him. No, after all, he shouldn't have allowed himself to get angry. Although he was now able to keep the transformation technique active for some time, it was still possible for him to be unveiled sooner or later. And if that happened, he would forever say goodbye to the opportunity of successful hiding in this town.

So that one barely noticed, Hina slightly wagged her tail to the right, tactfully advising to obey. Sasuke held his breath and slowly turned around.

Of course, it was not difficult for him to stand up for himself, as well as to force any Marketeers who dared to slander his clan to answer for their words if the cover finally would not work. He was just well aware that starting a fight now was too risky. Without this, there was no stone left from Sora-ku so after years of decline without the clan support. The best thing would be to go undetected.

The man who called Sasuke, referred to as Kintaro by his interlocutor, for a while gazed into his face.

“Ah, it just seemed”, he said after a minute of stiff silence, and Sasuke mentally exhaled. He thought he had luck this time. Kintaro grinned lazily, pulling his palm behind the back of his head. Through the dark glasses, his eyes were completely impossible to read.

“I must have messed you with someone”, he shrugged guiltily. “Sorry, brother”.

Sasuke’s lips curled contemptuously. He had only one brother, and now he knew for sure that he had to kill him at all costs.

Ready to leave, Sasuke already wanted to throw his hood on again, but then a second Marketeer looked out from behind Kintaro's round back.

“Yutaka-kun, is that you?” he fumbled, getting off the bar stool, and lowered the fabric of tagelmust to his chin. A crooked smile stretched under his nose, from which a denture flashed gold. “We haven't met since last week! Did you come to repay that koban fiver?”

Sasuke shuddered. Apparently, transforming into a pawnbroker who, by an unfortunate coincidence, owed this stranger money, did not turned out to be the best decision.

“I was thinking”, the Marketeer came closer meanwhile and gave Sasuke a friendly slap on the shoulder. Under the guise of Yutaka, he grimaced again, but forced himself to stand still. “We've known each other for a long time, so I forget about the interest - you will return just a half. All right?” The Marketeer held out his rough hand.

Sasuke followed it with his eyes in confusion. It was too late to get out of the image - both merchants looked at him with such a simple-minded, but demanding expectation that, apart from giving money, Sasuke had no other options left.

Well, it seemed it was worth being more far-sighted in the future. In thoughts annoyed at this little omission, Sasuke nevertheless reached into his pocket.

After receiving the debt back, the second Marketeer clicked his magnifying glass to check the coins in light. Then he bit one of them by the edge and happily counted the rest, after which, definitely pleased, he hid it in his bosom.

“That's it!” He smiled again, pulling the fabric up to eye level again. “Consider yourself lucky that you've paid me off now. Another time I might not have been so generous”.

“Yeah, Yutaka-kun”, agreed his friend Kintaro and couldn't resist not to brag once more. “After all, things are going uphill here today! You see, come on and visit us more often, maybe you'll get something, too”

Sasuke suppressed an ardent desire to pounce on them at the same moment and only nodded stiffly, noting with self-approval that the transformation technique still worked out great. Then he silently turned around and, together with ninneko, headed for the exit.

“Kintaro, and how only did you know it was Yutaka?” The voice of the second Marketeer reached him from behind. “If you hadn't called him out, I wouldn't have recognized him from the back. I thought it was an ordinary traveler…”

“Travelers nowadays are such a rarity in these backwoods”, the first Marketeer replied thoughtfully. “But hell with him. What were we talking about there? Oh, yes, about profit…”

Once appearing outside, Sasuke got off the step and, dispelling the jutsu, wearily leaned against the wall. Kami, how many problems could he have brought upon himself if he hadn't thought about transformation in advance and - even more so - had took out a weapon… But these two were begging for a good beating on their own. He just wanted to tear their roguish grins, which, because of their thick cheeks, were even protruding from under the tagelmusts’ fabrics, off the swollen faces.

But none of it mattered now. Although he hasn't managed to get his cut yet, a fake handful of coins would fool their brains for a while. With the Technique of Transformation, which Sasuke still could impose at the last moment, the debt returned to the Marketeer must turn to dust only the next day. Until then, he would let him rejoice in an empty fake.

Sasuke woke up from the stream of prickly thoughts only when he felt something with his foot. Then he lowered his eyes - Hina sympathetically touched his shin with her tail.

“Is everything okay?”

Sasuke forced himself to nod. Suffocating anger still overwhelmed him, but he was happy that he did not let it consume his mind completely. Since he received the Seal, he has learned to handle it skillfully. This could not sadden.

He looked at his palms - they seemed to be pulsating, as when they were enveloped by chakra’s flame. Although Sasuke believed that he had only unconsciously summoned the scalpel technique, Hina for some reason called this flame a “cover”. Cover… Something similar might have been undergone by Naruto when they fought in the Valley of the End. It was bad that back then, blinded by the rage and black energy of the Cursed Seal, Sasuke almost didn't concentrate on it.

Well, maybe he just imagined. He would make guesses, when he found out more.

Denka, who was sitting on the road nearby, got up impatiently and waved his tail, pointing over the roofs of houses.

“It's getting late. We'd better rush if we want to get to the temple. It's only open until the meow-tfall”.

Shaking himself, Sasuke stepped back from the wall and went out onto the street.

“Let's hurry”, he said to ninneko. “The sun is almost down”.