After coming out of the herbal medicine shop, Tenten did not follow the main street, but turned into a relatively quiet alley. Her route was direct, she was obviously extremely familiar with this area.
Naruto did not deliberately hide his footsteps. He followed behind at a leisurely pace, maintaining a distance that was neither threatening nor likely to lose her.
Tenten was a Genin who had graduated the previous year, with a full year more of training and practical combat experience than Naruto.
The training intensity of Team Guy was notoriously brutal throughout all of Konoha. A ninja capable of surviving the self-abusive training regimen of Guy could not possibly have low vigilance.
Sure enough, when Tenten reached the middle of the alley, her pace suddenly faltered slightly. In a fraction of a second, she switched from someone just walking to someone ready to fight at any moment.
Then, she turned a corner without changing her expression, rushed into a corner at the end of the alley where empty wooden crates were stacked and turned around to face the direction of the alley entrance.
The small cloth bag in her hand was already placed by her feet and her fingertips were less than a centimeter away from the buckle of the ninja tool pouch at her waist.
"Who are you? Why are you following me?"
At this moment, she was sizing up the blonde boy in front of her with a scrutinizing gaze.
Konoha forehead protector, Genin, with three whisker-like marks on his face.
She had never seen this person, but judging from the description of his appearance, she could vaguely guess who he was.
It was that fox demon whom everyone detested.
Naruto stopped at the alley entrance, with no intention of approaching.
He nodded slightly, revealing a polite smile. "Hello, I am a Genin who just graduated this year, Uzumaki Naruto."
"The Chunin Exams are coming up soon, and I need some ninja tools to improve my combat effectiveness. I heard your family runs a Ninja tool shop, so I wanted to follow you to see your family's shop."
Tenten looked Naruto up and down. It was a habit trained by Team Guy to evaluate any stranger who approached proactively before responding.
"There are so many ninja tool shops on this street, yet you didn't enter a single one and specifically followed me down an alley. Why did you seek me out?"
Naruto reached out his index finger and tapped the three whisker-like marks on his face, then pointed at the Konoha symbol on his forehead protector.
"You should be able to roughly guess my identity."
Tenten's eyes shifted slightly. Of course she could guess. As a peer, she knew better than anyone what kind of people the owners of the Ninja tool shops on this street were. They would probably want to shut the door if they saw the fox demon entering the shop.
"On this street, there probably isn't a single owner willing to sell things to me." Naruto reined in the arc of his wry smile a little.
"Then why are you so sure I would sell to you?"
Tenten moved her hand away from the buckle of her ninja tool pouch.
Naruto met Tenten's scrutinizing gaze, and before answering, he thought very seriously about how to organize his words.
"Because the way you look at me is different from other people. Just now when you turned back at the alley entrance, your first reaction was to evaluate a stranger's strength and intentions, rather than retreating."
"When others see me, their first reaction is to step back or turn their faces away. You didn't, so I felt you must be different from them."
"Sorry, following you for most of the alley was indeed not very polite."
Hearing this, Tenten's arms slowly lowered from her chest.
"Fine, come with me."
Tenten picked up the small cloth bag by her feet and then tilted her head toward the outside of the alley.
"I don't guarantee I have what you need."
"Thanks."
Naruto followed. "By the way, I forgot to ask just now, what is your name?"
"Just call me Tenten."
"Okay, Tenten."
Tenten led Naruto out from the other end of the alley, rounded two street corners, and finally stopped in front of a Ninja tool shop in the middle of the Ninja district.
The shop front was not particularly large, but the sign was hand-carved with three characters: Ninja Tool Shop.
Naruto paused when he saw this shop, he had just passed by it earlier. He had stood at the entrance for five or six seconds at the time, carefully examining the samples displayed in the window. The Chakra metal plating covering the blades showed faint textures under the side lighting, the quality was indeed top-notch.
He wasn't sure if this was Tenten's family shop at the time, so he didn't rashly push the door open to enter. He didn't expect it to be this one.
Dong!
Tenten pushed open the wooden door, and the bronze bell hanging above the lintel made a crisp sound.
The inside of the shop was not particularly spacious, but it was arranged extremely neatly. Shuriken and Kunai of various sizes hung on the left wall, ranging from standard sizes to lengthened and weighted ones.
Inside the glass counter on the right were several complete Ninja tool maintenance kits and rune engraving knives specifically for Fuinjutsu.
On the entire wall facing the door, there was a locked glass cabinet displaying several weapons with special designs.
A long whip that could be folded into three sections, a set of matching throwing daggers...
Tenten placed the small cloth bag containing military rations on the counter and waved at the display racks in the shop.
"Look for whatever Ninja tools you want, and tell me when you've chosen."