Miharu looked out the train window, sighing deeply for the hundredth time since the start of the trip. The Japanese scenery flew by outside, a blur reflected in the boy's big green eyes.

"Just like your mother," his grandmother had said when she left Miharu at the train station. Miharu squinted and focused his eyes on his reflection on the train window.

He almost thought he saw Asahi looking back at him instead of his own reflection.

Miharu was jarred out of his thoughts when the train compartment door slid open with a swoosh.

Yukimi stood in the doorway holding a food tray holding two salads and a small bag of chips.

The blonde sat down on the seat across from the boy and popped the lid off of one of the salad containers. He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair, looking out the window towards the faint lights of the Fuma village, fading into the background. He glared at bit when he thought about where he was going, and especially who he was going there with.

"I still can't believe you talked me into doing this, kid. If you ask me, we were perfectly fine living with the Fuma ninja in the village. But no, that life wasn't enough for you."

Miharu gave Yukimi an apathetic look out of the corner of his eye. Yukimi deepened his glare, earning a small smile from Miharu.

"You want to know, too, though. I know you do. Even if you refuse to say it." Miharu said suddenly.

The kid's voice took Yukimi off guard. He looked away from Miharu and back out the rain-streaked window.

The thing that annoyed Yukimi the most was the Miharu was exactly right. He did want to know. He was dying to know. He had secretly been wanting to take this trip for the last three years, but had never worked up the courage.

Miharu was the perfect excuse for Yukimi to go to Tokyo.

"Yukimi..." Miharu said softly after a few minutes of listening to the rain fall on the train's metal roof.

"Yeah?"

"Did you tell the others where we were going?" he asked.

Yukimi remembered the exact moment when he had told Kotaro, Raimei, Koichi, and their obnoxious bed-head sensei about he and Miharu's departure. They had been less than enthusiastic about it, but had grudgingly allowed the two to leave in peace.

Inside, they all want to know too, Yukimi thought.

"Yeah, I told them. But I was wondering, why didn't you tell them yourself?"

Miharu shrugged.

"Didn't want to, that's all."

Yukimi rolled his eyes and went back to his salad.

I may never get a straight answer from that brat as long as I live, he thought.

"Can I have my salad?" a voice made Yukimi's head turn back to Miharu.

"What?"

"I said, can I have my salad? I'm hungry."

Yukimi reached over to the tray and handed Miharu the remaining container. The boy leisurely took off the container and proceeded to eat it's contents.

Suddenly, another question came to Yukimi's mind as he watched Miharu eat. He paused in the middle of a bite and regarded the boy. At sixteen years old, he cad come far since the first time Yukimi had met him. Miharu was tall now.

Almost as tall as Yoite...Yukimi's mind told him.

But he shut the thought out.

Let's not think about this now, Yukimi, the man told himself.

But he still needed to ask Miharu his question.

"Miharu, can I ask you something?"

"Sure," the boy answered around a mouthful of lettuce.

"What...what are you going to do if...if we don't end up getting what we came for?"

Miharu stopped chewing. He swallowed the food in his mouth and sighed.

"Let's not think about this now, Yukimi." the boy said. The sudden fierce look in his eye surprised him.

"Alright, I'm just making sure you'll-"

"We'll find him, Yukimi. We're going to find Yoite."