The next few days were hectic. The War was over, the revived dead back to being dead, the Zetsu annihilated... People were happy.

It had taken about that long to sort and categorize everything. In end, we were running pretty low on casualties; some 34% of the gathered Ninja injured, 12% with permanent, crippling injuries, and 16% dead.

Which... considering the enemy force had been just as large and consisted entirely of zombies or creatures that were incredibly difficult to actually kill, wasn't actually that bad. In fact, it was pretty fucking good. Casualty ratios like that were normally only dreamed of.

Which, of course, left everybody with the stark feeling of relief. And, among Ninjas, that was almost as bad as boredom.

Festivities were, thankfully, limited mostly to more gambling. Naruto and Fu cleaned house, then spent three hours dragging the other Jinchuuriki into a big game which was joined by Hagoromo and Hamura, as well Shukaku, Isobu, and Son Gokū.

The tension had been enough to make the spectators almost pass out. A few even did, when they forgot to breathe when a particularly dramatic play came out.

They were still tallying the bets for that game. More money had passed through it than your average Chunin exam.

I am fairly certain that Hinata came out on top, judging by the amount of money that had been grudgingly given to her by the end of it.

As for me...

I flopped forwards onto the soothing comforts of Yoshino's couch.

In what could not possibly have taken longer than a tenth of a second, Tsubaki and Kuroko slammed on top of me. "YAMI!"

"YOU'RE BACK!"

"FOR REAL, THIS TIME!"

"LETS PLAY!"

"NO SHOUTING IN THE HOUSE!" Yoshino shouted from the other room.

"Hmm. No. I think I'm just going to lay here for the next twelve hours and not do anything at all."

"What?!" Kuroko said, much more quietly. "But we missed you."

"You were gone." Tsubaki says, pouting.

Oh, come on... How dare they...

"You two know that nothing can keep me from you." I said, shifting around. "Tell you what, I'll get you some pastries, how about that?"

They share a glance.

"Six pastries."

"Don't be greedy, girls."

A tug.

First, I relaxed. Just stopped for a while. It was great.

Then I told Naruto, and he reacted about the same way as I expected.

"I invited the Shinigami to your apartment."

"What?!" Naruto shouted. "Why?!"

"Because he's never had cake and we're going to fix that."

"Fine, but you have to tell more about that war."

"No."

A tug.

Then I gave my reports.

"Honestly, there's not a whole lot to say about the fight itself. I couldn't kill it, it couldn't kill me, so we whacked each other until one of us gave out."

Hiruzen raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"It was eleven days of us throwing things at each other. It's... really repetitive. You not missing much."

A tug.

Then I got the damned cake. As well as pastries for the girls.

"Why are you baking a cake, anyway?" Takato asked.

"It's for a friend. He's never had any."

Takato frowned. "Never had cake? That's a tragedy. You should fix that."

"Why do you think I asked to borrow the bakery?"

Have to get something nice for Takehiro and Yoshie, too. Sake? Wait, no, Yoshie likes Kobe wine more...

"Also, I need some pastries."

"Usual kind?" He asked.

"Yep."

He went over to the fridge to go grab them. "Oh, by the way, did I tell you about the apocalypse cult that tried to kidnap me?"

I paused. "No. You did not. When did that happen?"

"Three days ago." He shrugged. "They were pretty dumb, so it wasn't any real trouble. Just some property damage when they showed up. Got school off for the rest of the week, too." He smiled. "Rika was pretty angry. She didn't get school off."

I slowly nodded my head. "That... makes sense, I guess."

A tug.

And after that...

Well, there was cake.

The Shinigami sat, silent, chewing on piece of cake.

His chair was far too small for him. The slice of cake he had could fit on a single finger. It was bright pink from the icing and glaze I'd used.

"I like this." The Shinigami said, looking down at the half-missing slice of cake held carefully between two finger. "This is good. We should do this again."

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura stared at the sight, and then glanced between each other.

I just offered up another slice of cake.

A tug.

For once... Things were looking up. There were no immediate threats to be dealt with. Madara was dead, Obito in a cell, the Akatsuki disbanded or dead... Toneri's thing with dropping the moon on the planet had been neatly averted thanks to Hamura. Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura were a match for anything else on the planet. Shukaku, Isobu, and Son Gokū are free, with a promise to not be hunted extracted from the villages by Hagoromo.

Black Zetsu was dead, and with him, the manipulations that had lead to so many wars over the course of history. The Uchiha Clan was still going, Hiruzen was still alive, Danzo was dead, Kurama was friends with Naruto...

The Elemental Nations were set to look towards peace.

I had the Keyblades and the Keyblade Armours. I had at least a decade before the next threat would even glance in the direction of this planet.

Things had all worked out, and it was good.

All things...

A tug.

Except for that. That had been going on all week.

Well, no... That has been going on since a little bit after Isobu joined us in the other dimension. I just... hadn't recognized it, then. Too distracted by Isobu and the Juubi to keep note of it.

That was a pull. A pull that felt... familiar. I'd felt pulls like that before, in the depths of the Realm of Darkness... One pull to Kingdom Hearts, submerged in the deepest abyss of the Great Darkness, another to the Kingdom Key of Darkness, only slightly above it...

This one, too pulled me towards Kingdom Hearts... Or, rather, not Kingdom Hearts itself, but near it, just to the wall, if I'm not mistaken...

I'd been ignoring it for the past week. I had had things to do, after all...

But still...

It was niggling. Insistent. Something was calling to me.

Something that felt... familiar to me.

And I wanted to know...

Why.