signingbooks Chapter 603 Mai Uzumaki
Chapter 603 Mai Uzumaki
"I was just passing by when I saw you getting angry with two strangers."
A blonde girl with blue eyes stood at the entrance of the dessert shop, speaking softly. She stood like a sapling that wouldn't sway in the rain, quiet and unassuming, yet impossible to ignore.
"...Mai?" Naruto couldn't help but repeat the name when he heard it. Uzumaki Mai? Not Naruto? He glanced at Satsuki instinctively.
"Who are you two?" Mai looked at Naruto and Satsuki. Her blue pupils flickered slightly under the light, but quickly returned to their usual calm, revealing no emotion.
After asking her question, she didn't wait for Naruto's reply before immediately speaking again, "Sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Uzumaki Mai, and I'm a ninja from Konoha. Who are you two? I don't think I've seen you in Konoha before."
"Nice to meet you, my name is... Menma." Naruto stammered in his reply, "Her name is Satsuki, we're just tourists."
Naruto had seen various versions of Sasuke, but seeing a female version of himself for the first time still made him feel a little uncomfortable.
Mai Uzumaki stared intently at Naruto Uzumaki, her blue pupils unwavering, as if trying to discern something.
"I see." She nodded. "Although I don't know why Sasuke is with you guys, but..." Her tone suddenly changed slightly, "Sasuke rarely gets angry. What did you do?"
"It's nothing."
However, Sasuke spoke up, glancing at Satsuki with a hint of provocation in his eyes. "They were just saying some boring things."
"Oh. Travelers." Mai's gaze shifted from Sasuke back to Naruto, her tone still calm and unhurried. "Did you find a place to stay today?" Her question changed quickly.
"Huh? A place to live? I don't have that yet."
"Should I help you make arrangements? It's a bit difficult to book hotels in Konoha these days..." Mai paused slightly, then added a sentence that sounded vaguely familiar to Naruto. "Don't get me wrong, it's just something I did on the side."
Then Sasuke suddenly spoke up.
"You don't need to worry about this," Sasuke's voice came from beside Mai. "Let me handle it. After all, it was I who approached these two."
"There is still plenty of space in the Uchiha clan's territory."
Mai nodded, neither arguing nor doing anything unnecessary. Then she stood there quietly.
Sasuke turned to Naruto and Satsuki, his dark eyes appearing less cold under the warm yellow light. "What are your opinions?"
"...Then I'll have to trouble you."
And so, Mingyue and her companion decided on their lodgings for the night in a rather haphazard manner, even though they had only just woken up.
"Oh, right, Mai," Sasuke said again. But his gaze wasn't on Mai; it was fixed on the nearly empty parfait in front of him. "I don't have a mission tomorrow."
"Hmm? What's wrong?"
"I heard that while we were on a mission in the Land of Snow, that actress's new movie was about to premiere." Sasuke spoke a little faster than usual. "You probably don't have anything to do tomorrow either."
How do you know I'm free tomorrow?
"...I guessed. Anyway, you're free, so come with me."
Why did you just arrange my time so naturally?
"What does it matter? You have nothing else to do anyway."
"Can't you go by yourself?" Mai tilted her head, her golden ponytail sliding down her shoulder. Her tone neither refused nor agreed.
"...There's no other way." Sasuke's voice lowered again. "I bought two tickets."
"...Why did you buy two tickets?"
Sasuke's voice lowered even further, as if afraid Naruto and Satsuki sitting next to him would hear, "...I thought you'd definitely like watching it." His voice was a little muffled, tinged with a hint of sullenness. "Are you going or not? If not, I'll get a refund."
"...You just want to go out with me, don't you?"
"...Think whatever you want."
Naruto and Satsuki sat opposite each other, seemingly forgotten, quietly listening to the two people opposite them talking as if no one else was around.
"...Well, let's go together then." In the end, it was Mai who spoke up and chose to back down.
Upon hearing this, Sasuke looked up, his black eyes flashing for a moment. Then he suppressed that light, not extinguished it, but hidden it, concealing it beneath a stubborn "I don't want you to know I'm happy" facade.
He took two movie tickets out of his pocket, handed one of them to Mai, and his finger lingered on the stub of the ticket for a moment.
"Okay. I'll come find you tomorrow." Sasuke's voice held an undisguised, lighthearted joy. "Remember our promise."
"Okay." Mai took the ticket, glanced at it, folded it, and put it in her pocket.
Next came the parting. The group emerged from the dessert shop, a night breeze blowing from the other end of the street. After saying goodbye, Sasuke turned and walked towards the other end of the street.
Naruto and Sasuke followed, the three of them walking together, Sasuke in front, Naruto and Sasuke behind, a slightly awkward silence falling between them.
Mai stood there, watching the three people slowly leave.
But no one noticed that her eyes were fixed on the young man with the same hair and eye color as her, the one who used the alias "Menma" and claimed to be a tourist. On Naruto's back.
Mai Uzumaki turned around and prepared to leave.
She walked along the path in Konoha, her eyes somewhat cold. It wasn't a deliberate, feigned coldness, but rather a coldness that had become ingrained in her, a coldness that no longer required effort to maintain, a coldness that emanated from her very bones.
Her gaze fell on the road ahead, on the road illuminated by the streetlights, and there wasn't a single Konoha villager in her sight... or rather, no Konoha villager had entered her field of vision at all.
She was so familiar with those people's faces, expressions, and lip movements that she no longer needed to look at them.
Whenever a pedestrian comes along and sees that golden, twin-tailed figure in the distance, their expression changes subtly in an instant, as if they have seen something they shouldn't have seen, a mixture of disgust and fear.
They quickly shifted their gaze, their eyes abruptly turning to the other side, and quickened their pace, stepping aside to make room for the golden figure, wide enough for two people to walk side by side.
Then, accompanied by whispers, the voices were not loud, but every word seemed to be deliberately amplified, clearly drilling into Mai's ears.
"It's that guy again..."
"Stay away from her, she's bad luck."
"How dare she walk on the street like that...?"
"Can't her parents discipline her a little...?"
"Shh, keep your voice down, what if she hears us..."
The villagers who were shopping and selecting goods at the street stalls immediately put down the items they were looking at and walked away without looking back the moment they saw Mai Uzumaki passing by.
Upon seeing this, the stall owner's expression changed from enthusiasm to annoyance, and he muttered a curse.
"unlucky."
This wasn't the first time. Mai remained completely unmoved.
These gazes, these whispers, these sudden quickening of footsteps as she passed by, these conversations that only dared to resume after she had gone—they had never ceased; she had endured them for countless years.
Mai didn't react at all; she left the bustling city center. The lanterns on the street became fewer and fewer, and the pedestrians became fewer and fewer. The streetlights overhead went from dense to sparse, and the light went from bright to dim.
The buildings on both sides changed from shops and restaurants to ordinary residences. Finally, she came to a two-story house with the word "Vortex" written on the door. She opened the door and went inside.
"Mai, welcome back."
Then, a warm and loving voice, completely different from the one before, came from inside.
However, Mai Uzumaki simply hummed in response, without even raising her head, her expression unchanged. She didn't beam with joy at the "Welcome back," nor did her eyes well up with tears at that warm voice, nor did she breathe a sigh of relief at finally leaving that street filled with cold stares and whispers.