The Harvest Festival in Konohagakure started each year with parades and music, drums and processions, with the Great Ninja Clans of Konoha showing face alongside the samurai clans and the artisan guilds and the merchant union. Ninja marched in their eclectic battle dress beside samurai in their armor, raising high the banners of their clans.
Sayaka did not march.
She sat on a rooftop, high away from the parade, watching as Kiba walked behind his mother and his sister as part of the Inuzuka Procession. She watched as the Chikurin Clan strode past, lacquered steel armor glittering under the sunlight.
She took a breath and tried to quell the curl of emotion in her chest.
Of course it made no sense for her to be in the parade. The Uchiha were still only one person, and the Uchiha Fan flew only as one of the founders' banners, beside the Hokage's battle standard. Sayaka was used to it by now, at least somewhat, but Kiba had resurfaced her desire to see her family's banner flying in the parade once again.
Sayaka grimaced. She hadn't slept well last night, mind whirling with too many thoughts of her brother, of her clan, of honor and failure and revenge. It was a rut that Kagami-sensei said she should try to break out of with her meditation exercises, or reciting her accomplishments, or maybe both. It was hard though, with sleep deprivation pressing against her temples.
At least her temple donation was not a catastrophe, merely the normal amount of mediocre. The Fire Temple monks had a shrine in the village, and every year they put up a signboard listing who in the village had donated what things. The Uchiha had not been put in a place of distinction, but they weren't at the bottom as a cursory gesture either. It could have gone worse, but the Abbot hadn't seen fit to humiliate Sayaka further.
It was fine. Her brother was unlikely to appear today. It didn't fit his profile, too much undirected and random slaughter.
It was fine.
Sayaka took a deep breath and looked back at Kiba. She took another breath and watched as he threw a handful of confetti up over the heads of a group of children. The children laughed and jumped, snatching at the strands of paper and the tiny blessings printed onto them.
It was going to be okay.
The Harvest Festival in Konohagakure was a riotous explosion of noise and color. Crimson and white, gold and silver, shouts from shopkeepers and the laughter of children, it was a wall of celebration.
Hinata bowed her head as the visiting clan departed the Hyuuga tent, then sat back with a sigh. There were so many people to talk to.
"More tea?"
Hinata looked up and nodded as Tadaaki sat down next to her. He poured out a cup of tea for Hinata, then filled his own cup.
"Holding up?" Tadaaki asked quietly as they drank.
Hinata took a breath and wished for Naruto. "I am f-fine."
"Of course," Tadaaki agreed. He took his own breath. "Nami-chan is at her family's shop."
Hinata looked up at the sky. The sun was hidden behind the shade of the tent.
"It is n-near lunchtime," she said.
Tadaaki finished his tea. "Hinata-sama, may I provide a lunch suggestion?" he said when he set his cup back down. "If there are no other demands upon your time?"
Hinata nodded and finished her tea. "There should be no conflicts. S-shall we depart?"
She left a word with one of the Branch Hyuuga and then followed Tadaaki as he led her through the streets to a yakisoba stand. The walk had been in the open though, slow, at a civilian's pace, easy to see and to watch. Nobody would mistake Tadaaki and Hinata for an affectionate couple, but that was unnecessary. All that was necessary was that they be seen together. Tadaaki even plucked at Hinata's sleeve in the familiar way a Branch Hyuuga was normally not permitted to treat her.
Hinata slipped away as they neared. It would not do, on this day, to accidentally imply that the Hyuuga Clan favored any particular vendor—at least, not without the clan head's approval. She watched from nearby, hiding her frown as Tadaaki ordered three takeout bowls. The vendor and her fiancee were clearly familiar with each other. Hinata saw the vendor say "the usual".
Tadaaki's food was ready quickly, and his path turned to an alley that led behind an ink and stationery store. Hinata joined him as Tadaaki tapped on the back door.
There was the sound of running footsteps. "I've got it!" someone shouted as the door opened. "Tadaaki-kun, thank the gods, did you finally—"
Nakano Nami was a plain-looking girl with her hair tied up in a bun under a dark blue cloth with her family's symbol on top. She had ink smudges on her fingers and a smudge of crimson sealing pigment on her nose—the kind used to mark official documents or make a trader's mark on specialty products. Her yukata was dark blue as well, tied back with a white tasuki to match the white obi. And she was making an expression of perfect mortification as she realized that Hinata was standing next to Tadaaki.
"Hin— Hyuuga-sa— o-hime—" Nami spluttered, recoiling in shock and slapping her hands over her mouth.
"Hinata-chan is fine," Hinata said and put on her best friendly smile. Nami did not look particularly comforted.
"H-h-hinata-o-hime-sama," Nami insisted before falling to her knees, "I— please forgive my impertinence, I—"
"This is unnecessary, Nami-chan," Tadaaki interrupted. He stepped forward to pull her to her feet as gently as he could and put the boxes of yakisoba into her hands. "Come on, these're going to get cold."
"Nami-chan, is everything alright?" someone called from inside. From the voice, Hinata supposed it was probably Nami's mother.
"Tell her it's fine, you're just going to lunch with Tadaaki," Hinata said quickly.
Nami swallowed. "Tadaaki's here with yakisoba!" Nami yelled back. Hinata was impressed by how even Nami's voice was. "I'll be back soon!"
"Okay!"
Nami stepped outside and then shut the door behind her. The three of them stared at each other for a moment.
"Tch, come on," Tadaaki sighed, taking Nami by one arm and giving Hinata's sleeve a quick tug to follow with the other.
"Be respectful!" Nami hissed.
Hinata held back a sigh and wondered if she ought to nip Nami's excessive deference in the bud. She probably needed to.
"I am n-not in the habit of treating my l-lovers that formally," Hinata said. She smiled at the older girl. "There is no need to go to such lengths. M-may I call you Nami-chan as well?"
Nami looked between Hinata and Tadaaki, unsure, before finally nodding. "You— you may."
"Then p-please call me Hinata-chan," Hinata said as Tadaaki came to a stop. They had arrived at a fire escape hidden from both the main street and the Nakano stationery shop. Hinata suspected that they would not be the first group of young lovers hiding from authority there. "A-at least, when it is j-just us three alone together."
Nami had a look on her face like a stunned trout. Tadaaki sighed and prodded her in the side.
"Ah! I— yes, I understand," Nami said with a nod. She cleared her throat nervously. "Um."
Tadaaki gestured vaguely at the yakisoba. "We should eat."
They began to eat. The fire escape was not wide enough for three people to sit next to each other, but it had multiple landings to help the occupants escape. Tadaaki and Nami sat side-by-side on the steps above the first landing while Hinata sat on the landing itself.
The lunch was intensely awkward. Hinata fiddled with her chopsticks and had little appetite. She was a clan heir and she was trained for formal occasions and could do what she needed to do in order to uphold her family's honor, but this was not the same at all.
She picked at her yakisoba as Tadaaki ate, nervous but making airs of indifference. She nibbled at a shard of cabbage while Nami shot looks at Tadaaki for guidance and her boyfriend, in his attempt at projecting confidence, missed them completely.
Hinata sighed. It was an entirely untenable situation, and she knew well enough how important first impressions were.
"Nami-chan," Hinata said, and hoped it was not too familiar of an honorific. "Do you— Tadaaki-kun and I have n-not had occasion to t-talk about you."
"O-oh," said Nami. She fiddled with her chopsticks. "Um."
"Your f-family are ink merchants?" Hinata asked politely. "And paper."
Nami nodded. "Um, yes," she said. She poked at a piece of onion. "Father's family is, well, we've been ink and paper merchants for three generations."
"What kind of ink does your family sell?" Hinata said. She picked up a bundle of noodles. "Do you sell anything other than ink and paper?"
"Oh, well, since we're in Konoha, of course we sell ink suitable for seal use," Nami said. Hinata took a bite of yakisoba as Nami warmed up to her topic. She seemed more comfortable reciting something from memory—Hinata could relate. "Often, sealing ink is just good calligraphy ink, but shinobi in combat often have need of a faster wicking ink, or something pourable but still precise, so we carry many specialty inks in that vein as well. Um." Nami stalled out, caught between the next part of her market speech and not wanting to bore the Hyuuga heir.
"We met when Emon-sensei said my team should learn basic sealing," Tadaaki volunteered. He smiled slightly. "I believe he said it was punishment for breaking the preservation seals in the brewery."
The two lovers glanced at each other, exchanging a smile.
"Tadaaki-kun had to come back a few more times," Nami continued. "He said it was because he needed more supplies, but—"
"I claimed I was particularly bad at seals," Tadaaki said.
"—that's obviously impossible, because most seals are standard formula that you can copy out as long as someone shows you once," Nami finished. "I have a seal manual that I offered to show him eventually, and we started meeting to study it."
Hinata smiled. "That is a v-very sweet story," she said. "You are interested in sealing, Nami-chan?"
"Oh, um, yes," Nami said. She seemed embarrassed. "I um, I wanted to be a kunoichi, when I was little, but Father needed me to help at the shop, so um…"
Ah. "I understand," Hinata said. "What things have you learned?"
"Nothing, um, nothing significant," Nami said. She fiddled with her chopsticks again. "Just some basic housekeeping seals. Fixing lamps, that sort of thing."
"It is m-more than I have had occasion to learn," Hinata said. She picked up another bundle of noodles. "Perhaps you could s-show me sometime?"
Tadaaki and Nami had identical looks of surprise and confusion as Hinata quietly ate some more yakisoba. The vendor really did a good job—Hinata would need to remember to mention the place to Naruto. Eventually.
"Sensei has always s-said that you never know w-what might save your life," Hinata said after she swallowed. "When you have a little f-free time…?"
Tadaaki and Nami started talking at the same time in a jumble of noise, but Hinata was sure that Tadaaki had said no and Nami had said yes. The two of them stopped to look at each other and Hinata stepped in before it could become a problem.
"Though I will be busy for a few weeks," she said as if nothing had happened. "S-so, maybe later in the winter."
It was even mostly true—there were preparations to make for the Shichi-Go-San Festival, to celebrate Hanabi's coming of age, and in the run-up to the current festival Team Seven had been neglecting their team exercises. There would be… challenges to work through. So later would be better for Hinata, if she really was going to learn anything from Nami about household seals.
"Maybe later, yes," Tadaaki said quickly. Nami nodded along. It was clear from the set of Tadaaki's shoulders and the way Nami looked down at her noodles that neither was really ready to let Hinata into their circle. Even if Nami was willing to try more than Tadaaki was, Hinata didn't want to push the issue. They had a lot of time, and rushing wouldn't help anyone.
Hinata smiled and changed the topic.
Naruto sighed and sat down on a bench by the river.
It had been a long day, but a fun one. It had started with letting Kazuko out of the seal. The namazu had been profoundly offended by the crowds but put up with it because they had stuck to the rooftops instead of walking through the streets. They had gone to Ichiraku to pick up three bowls of takeout ramen and then they had gone to pick up Ebihara at the apartment.
The ex-missing-nin was, by Naruto's very limited eye, doing well. Miracles weren't going to happen, and Ebihara wasn't magically going to start liking the village that had killed her father, but it was clear she wasn't nursing the resentment either and greeted Naruto and Kazuko with a smile.
They'd had breakfast. Ebihara and Kazuko were making swift progress using Konoha Sign to communicate, but the three of them were also getting used to Naruto translating between spirit speech and human. The talk over breakfast flipped between both methods of communicating, with Ebihara and Kazuko flicking hand signals at each other and Naruto filling in the gaps when Kazuko wanted to say something complicated.
After breakfast was the festival. They had watched the parade and prayed at the Temple—well Naruto had—and then gone to the stands where they bought trinkets and played games like the children they were supposed to be or, in Kazuko's case, pretending to be. It had been fun.
Then there was lunch, and a break in the shadows of a willow tree, and then more games until dinner, after which Naruto had called for a second break here, at the riverside.
Naruto rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands and looked down at the river. The sun was low and the water was cold, which meant that Kazuko had sunk down to her nose in it, eyes closed, hair spreading out and trailing behind her in a brown sheet. Ebihara crouched down at the bank, arms wrapped around her knees as she watched the water lap against the shore.
"Did you ever learn to water-walk?" Naruto asked.
Ebihara glanced back at him. "Of course."
Naruto slouched back against the bench. "Did you learn from another missing-nin?"
"Yes."
"Do you—"
"Naruto-san," Kazuko said. She had risen slightly out of the water. "You shouldn't ask so much about someone's past without being invited."
Naruto glanced between Kazuko and Ebihara. He saw that Ebihara's shoulders were drawn into a stiff line and sighed. "Sorry Ebihara."
"It's okay."
A beat of silence.
"Gramps— the Hokage asked me if you would be willing to be a Konoha ninja," Naruto said before he had stopped to think if that was a sane question to ask.
Ebihara stood up to look at him directly, frowning. "Is that a serious question?"
Naruto looked at Kazuko who was busy rolling her eyes at his stupidity. Naruto turned back to Ebihara. "Sorry. I— that was a stupid question. I shouldn't have asked it."
Ebihara looked down at the ground. "…I would though. Be willing."
Naruto's eyebrows shot up. "Really?"
Ebihara laughed coldly. "What other options do I have? I am a ninja, was trained since I could walk. All I have to offer is my abilities as a shinobi and my body, and I would rather not offer my body up just yet."
Naruto swallowed thickly at Ebihara's implication.
"Besides, my parents died long ago, and a missing-nin has no use for sentiment," Ebihara said. She took a deep breath and sighed. "At least now, maybe I can make good on honoring their deaths."
"I woulda thought you'd hate us," Naruto said.
"I let myself get captured didn't I?" Ebihara asked. Her smile was dark and bitter. "Maybe I hated Konoha once, but a missing-nin has no honor. This is my only chance—and so I will endure, as I always have."
The riverbank was silent. Naruto had no idea how to respond.
Kazuko clapped her hands. "Come, this is no day for such dark words," she said. "The past is not so easily forgotten, but the present is not made less bright. You know how to walk on water, Ebi-chan, can you also dance?"
Naruto translated and Ebihara looked confused. "I— not particularly?"
"I will teach you," said Kazuko. She stepped onto the surface of the water and took Ebihara by the hands, tugging her out onto the river. "It will be fun! The first step is like this…"
Naruto propped his head up on his hands as he watched, and wondered what the feeling his chest was. Guilt, for Ebihara? Affection? He thought of Hinata and wondered if it was instead loneliness.
But Ebihara was smiling. Naruto considered what Kazuko had said. It was true that today was no time for darkness. It was the Harvest Festival. He should have fun. There would be plenty of time tomorrow for worrying.
With a grin, Naruto stepped onto the water.
"Hey, Kazuko, can you teach me to dance too?"
