Interlude I


Three years later, Genma was fourteen and skilled with senbon, and Hayate was a ninja and still engaged to Yugao.

They still met up in their field after missions, still just sat and talked for hours.

Genma still couldn't speak properly and Hayate still corrected him.

Both of them still didn't mind.

-

A year after that, they still used the field, but now they trained, and most of their talk was about the fact that next year they'd be eligible for ANBU.

Genma still couldn't straighten out his grammar.

Hayate had given up on correcting him.

Sometimes Hayate didn't make it to the field; he was undergoing courting ceremonies with Yugao.

Those days, Genma sat and chewed wheat and wondered why his much-bigger hand still couldn't completely block out the sun. He went inside and stayed up all night, full of things he'd wanted to say that bounced around inside of him and were gone by the next afternoon.

But it was still their field.