They pass down the crowded street and stop at the familiar orange glow emitting from past the cloth banners. They can see most stools are taken, except for one available near the middle of the bench.

The sidewalk is lit by the orange slat of lantern-light. People walk by in great swaths, a large crowd for a Thursday night. The chatter is immense, the little lights of cell phones, the odd sounds of a single shout of laughter or some window slamming shut. Hinata and Naruto linger near a power-pole as they wait for another stool to open. But, there is a group ahead of them, talking amiably with their hands, waiting for a few more stools to open up. The people are in their twenties, one of them wears glasses, the others don't. They are shinobi, too, but Hinata can tell they never fought in the war. They must've been Genin at the time.

"Mahhhh," Naruto sighs, hands in his hoodie pocket, looking at the group of three ahead of them, "We might not get a seat. Maybe we should just go back home, what do you think?"

"Well…" she starts, only to be interrupted by a gleeful shout. They both turn to look and see Kiba cutting through the swaths of pedestrians, hand raised, cheeks flushed, some glint in his eyes.

"Yo, Kiba!" Naruto calls, raising a hand. Kiba slaps it with his own and Naruto raises an eyebrow and laughs once.

"Hey, what's goin' on," Kiba asks, swaying a bit. Hinata and Naruto share a glance.

"Just thinking about going, um, waiting for a stool to open up," Hinata answers. Naruto glances at her.

"Yah, I'm amazed they haven't expanded yet, for more seating. But, the ossan likes it the way it is, I guess. Says it's contemporary and traditional all at once, I don't much understand, though."

"Contemporary and traditional!" Kiba exclaims, making his voice into a sort of cartoon, "Well, if that's his nindo."

They all laugh and one of the people waiting in front of them touches Hinata's shoulder.

"Huh?" she yelps, half-jumping over into Naruto and concurrently cursing herself for not being more aware. Two years of peace has done something.

"Hey…" Naruto starts, and Kiba gives some slanted frown. The guy hesitates, some wild fear in his eyes.

"Oh! S-sorry, I just wanted to say there's two more stools open, now, if you three want it."

"Oh," Hinata says quietly, looking over to Naruto whose still frowning. When they make eye contact, he breaks into a half-contrived grin and thanks the man who asks to shake his hand. Hinata and Kiba take two of the stools while Naruto and the group exchange pleasantries.

Sitting down at the ramen stand, Hinata immediately becomes wary of the cloths draped behind her head and back and how people passing by can see her lower half sat on the stool but she has no peripheral vision to see them.

"Sorry, Hinata, shoulda noticed that guy there, I guess I'm not a great shinobi today," Kiba says. In some way, he is right because he was the only one with direct vision. In the field, he'd have noticed somebody reaching towards his teammate, but here and drunk, in a time of rising peace, he maybe have lost something.

"It's okay. It's peaceful here."

"Nah, you're the Heir of the Hyuuga. I should be more watchful," he mutters, but Hinata knows what he's really saying. She wants to rub his back but decides not to, thinking Naruto probably wouldn't approve. When they were teammates, spending weeks together with Shino and their sensei out in the field, in forests and strange cities, it was not unusual to platonically rub each-other's back or to rest a head on a shoulder. There was a need for it, even, a common need among soldiers for physical intimacy. But now, it's different. Hinata is a Tokubetsu Jonin, now, and usually does work within Konoha itself, often directly for the Hokage or for her clan. As the city grows, she is becoming an iportant political figure, both as a highly ranked shinobi and as a member of the Hyuuga's main branch. Sometimes, she still goes on field missions, but those, like the one for tomorrow morning, are usually diplomatic in nature. She, like her fiancé, has a way of speaking that inspires people. She believes in the goodness of people, and somehow the shinobi world wants to believe in the same thing.

Kiba is also a Tokubetsu Jonin now, and mostly goes on field missions as opposed to diplomatic ones. Or, he would, if times weren't so peaceful and if Akamaru weren't so sick and if he, himself, weren't so busy trying to forget the things that happened. The war still inhabits them all, and just when things were getting a little better, just as the mandatory therapy sessions were paying off, the moon started to fall. He is often in the village, now, exploring the expanding city. His sister works at the hospital, leading the ninken section. His mother retired after the war, where her faithful ninken died in the final battles. She herself suffered an amputated arm and spends her time working with local kunoichi groups and promoting Konoha's pet fostering program. She fosters all sports of animals displaced from the war, not just dogs. For a goo few months, she even had a goat roaming about the Inuzuka house situated just at the former edge of the city, but now, as the city expands, she finds herself with many neighbors. The family in total, however, has split out from their home where they grew up, a big house with a a lot of field space for all the dogs, along with a big mortgage because their mother never did make the money a full jonin makes. They don't need to pay off the mortgage anymore only because Hinata arranged for the Hyuuga to purchase it. Meanwhile, Hana has moved deeper into the city, nearer the hospital, into a nice apartment that allows dogs. Kiba, too, moved into the city, close to downtown. His apartment is sort of ragged, but it works fine. He visits his mother generally every other day, but doesn't; see Hana as much because she's so busy.

Watching Kiba stare at his hands, Hinata clears her throat and orders two large miso ramen with extra toppings of naruto. Ayame smiles and writes the order, pinning it up to the spoke in the back and dings the little bell before rushing to the next customer. Normally, she would talk with her, but it's busy tonight.

"Kiba," Hinata says, he looks up.

"Huh, shit, did I miss my chance to order?"

"I just got you what I got, hope thats okay."

"Ah, sure, thanks."

"Kiba," she says, and he looks at her then looks away, "One day, I think the war will leave us, you know, right now it still sits in our bodies like something metallic, but I think one day it will eave us. Okay?"

"Ahhh, well," he says rubbing the back of his neck, remembering that they used to talk about the war all the time, before the falling moon incident. Back then, everyone talked about the war. All their friends talked about it with each-other. They'd meet up in safe places, in apartments and basements and talk about it. The tone would change when they'd start talking about it. They's sit in circles and talk earnestly. Jokes were fine, but they couldn't be hurtful jokes, they couldn't be jokes meant to dim another's light. Then, before that, just after the war ended, nobody talked about it. They hung out,, but they went to beaches and to hot springs and played around. They were like children again, for a few months, before one day Sakura wrote that grant for the children's mental hospital. The psychological affects of war became a common conversation. And, within the year, the therapy sessions began. Then, even before the way, they all talked together. After Pain's invasion, they'd meet up as a group, hidden in the stacks of lumber, and they'd decide what to do, now. After the invasion, Konoah fragmented, people formed coalitions, took sides. Their group rallied around Naruto and decided to take responsibility for Sasuke. In a way, they were a political organization, a group of young, civic minded Shinobi. It's always been like that, in some ways, too. They were the Konoha 12, the Rookie 9, classmates at the Academy. Of course, of course they were allowed to still talk like this.

"Yeah," he says, "It's just, the war was different from the fighting we did as kids."

"Yeah," she agrees. It's a line they'd all said before, several times.

"Yo!" Naruto shouts, pulling back the curtain and taking a seat on the other side of Hinata, "Yo, Ayame."

"Hey, Naruto!" she calls from behind her back, pulling two large miso ramen with extra naruto out from the back counter.

"Hinata, did you order for me already?" he asks, eyeing the bowls, their usual.

"Well-"

"Kiba! You order yet?" Naruto asks, leaning around his fiancé.

"Hmm? Oh, um, Ayame, could I have the same as them?"

"Of course! Another large miso ramen with extra naruto."

"Hah," he laughs. Naruto grins and leans back.

"It's Ayam-ay, by the way, Kiba, not Ayam-ah!"

"It's fine either way!" she claims, setting the bowls down in front of Hinata and Naruto.

"Well, where's Teuchi, anyway?"

"He's out to buy more chives, we just ran out."