Birthday

Nawaki's birthday feast was held at the old Senju residence.

A large table had been set up in the courtyard, with several hearty dishes and a pot of sake.

Tsunade sat in the host's seat and poured herself a cup.

Kitahara Kaede sat across from her, looking toward the inner room.

Nawaki hadn't come out yet.

"What's taking him so long?" Tsunade asked with a frown.

The inner room's door flew open.

Twelve-year-old Nawaki dashed out, his newly issued Genin Forehead Protector polished to a shine and tied crookedly around his forehead.

He didn't seem to notice, but his voice arrived first—

"Sis!"

He plopped down beside Tsunade and lifted his chin.

"Just you wait. I'll surpass you in two years at most!"

Tsunade nearly spat out the sake in her cup.

"Two years?"

She set down her cup and smacked Nawaki on the head.

His already crooked Forehead Protector tilted even further.

"Try throwing a Shuriken straight before you start bragging."

"That was last month! I can hit the target seven times out of ten now!"

"Good students can hit it every time without trying."

"I've still got three years to practice!"

Tsunade was stumped by his sheer confidence. At a loss, she reached over and straightened his Forehead Protector.

"Eat."

Nawaki picked up his bowl. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted someone and froze with his chopsticks in hand.

"Kaede! When did you get here?!"

Kitahara Kaede was sitting across from him, less than two steps away.

"I've been here the whole time."

"Then why didn't you call me?"

"You were in the inner room practicing tying your Forehead Protector in front of the mirror. You did it six times in a row. You wouldn't have heard me."

Nawaki's whole face turned red.

Tsunade laughed beside him.

Nawaki stomped his foot in frustration, but forgot all about it a moment later. He carried his stool around to Kitahara Kaede's side and leaned in, propping his chin on his hands.

"Kaede, what exactly happened during that infiltration mission in the Land of Rain?"

"It was an intelligence mission. There was no fighting."

"Liar! How could a Jonin-level intelligence mission not involve fighting?"

Kitahara Kaede didn't answer. He picked up a piece of grilled Pacific saury and put it in Nawaki's bowl.

"Eat."

"You always do that!"

Nawaki grumbled, but dutifully stuffed the fish into his mouth.

After a couple of chews, he couldn't hold back and mumbled something through his food.

"Then in the northwest—"

"Don't talk with your mouth full."

Nawaki glared at him with puffed-out cheeks.

Kitahara Kaede reached over and ruffled his hair.

The boy immediately stopped sulking, grinned, and scooted back to his seat. He ate quietly for two whole minutes.

Tsunade didn't say anything.

She watched them.

Nawaki was just as clingy as he'd been at seven or eight, only now he was a little taller.

At some point, her gaze had shifted from Nawaki to the person beside him, head lowered as he picked up food.

The corridor lamp lit his profile.

Tsunade took a sip of sake and looked away.

"By the way."

Nawaki suddenly put down his chopsticks.

He glanced at Tsunade, then at Kitahara Kaede. A mischievous grin slowly spread across his face.

Tsunade's instincts kicked in.

But it was already too late.

"Kaede, are you actually my sister's boyfriend?"

The table fell silent.

Tsunade's chopsticks froze in midair.

Her first instinct was to beat the kid up.

But her body reacted a beat slower than her mind—because at that same moment, she noticed the person beside her turn his gaze toward her.

Kitahara Kaede was looking at her.

It wasn't the instinctive glance of someone caught off guard by an awkward question.

He simply looked at her.

Quietly, directly.

As though he were looking at an answer he'd already known.

The instant Tsunade met his eyes, her heart skipped a beat.

Heat surged up.

From the base of her neck to the tips of her ears, so fast she couldn't stop it.

She wanted to glare back, but her throat tightened, and she couldn't say a word.

Three seconds.

Tsunade was the first to lose.

She turned her face away, stood up, and punched Nawaki on the head.

"What's it to you?!"

"Ow, ow, ow—!"

Nawaki crouched down, clutching his head.

But the corners of his mouth were turned up.

He wasn't stupid.

His sister's reaction just now—avoiding Kitahara Kaede's eyes, blushing ears, then standing up to hit him—that combination was more convincing than a hundred yeses.

He rubbed his head and got back up. While Tsunade wasn't looking, he winked at Kitahara Kaede.

Kitahara Kaede looked at him and gave a slight shake of his head.

That kid.

Tsunade sat back down and picked up her cup, using it to hide half her face.

The heat in her ears hadn't faded yet.

He'd sent her that look without the slightest warning, and she'd caught it without the slightest warning.

And just like that, right in front of him, she'd blushed like a fifteen-year-old girl.

Tsunade quietly gritted her back teeth.

"Kaede!"

Nawaki had already jumped to his feet. He pulled a practice Kunai from behind his waist and waved it around.

"Let's play a round! Target practice!"

Kitahara Kaede glanced at Tsunade.

She was glaring at a dish of edamame as if it owed her five thousand ryo.

"Go on, get out of here." Without looking up, she waved them away. "Quit getting in the way."

The two of them went around to the practice range behind the courtyard.

After three rounds, Nawaki had hit the target six times, and Kitahara Kaede five.

The last shot veered two inches off course.

Nawaki didn't notice.

"I won! Kaede, I beat you!"

On his twelfth birthday, he'd won a round against the person he admired most.

That was enough to keep him happy for half a year.

"Lucky shot." Kitahara Kaede patted him on the shoulder.

Nawaki grinned from ear to ear, his face flushed red, and tugged him back toward the table.

Tsunade hadn't moved from her seat.

But from there, she had a clear view of the practice range.

She'd seen the last round.

The instant Kitahara Kaede threw, his wrist had shifted two inches.

A Jonin's Shuriken throw would veer two inches off course?

Tsunade held up her empty sake cup, the corner of her mouth curling upward.

She hadn't even noticed.

After that, Nawaki chattered like a sparrow that couldn't stop, moving from training to classmates, then from classmates to the missions he wanted to take in the future. He gestured with both hands so wildly that he nearly knocked over a dish.

Kitahara Kaede listened quietly, responding every now and then.

Tsunade watched the two of them from across the table without interrupting.

Gradually, Nawaki's speech slowed, and his eyelids began to droop.

He propped his chin on his hand, his voice growing more and more indistinct.

"...And then, on that mission, I... I..."

His head tilted to one side, and he slumped over the table.

Tsunade sighed, stood up, and took off her coat, draping it over him. She tucked it around his collar.

Nawaki gave a little hum and curled up under the coat, a thin trail of drool slipping from the corner of his mouth.

—He'd fallen asleep. Or at least, he looked like he had.

Tsunade glanced at Kitahara Kaede.

He understood. She wanted to talk alone.

He nodded, then bent down and picked Nawaki up.

Tsunade pushed open the door to the inner room. Kitahara Kaede stepped inside and set Nawaki on the futon, then covered him with the coat.

Nawaki rolled over, grabbed the edge of the blanket, and muttered something unintelligible in his sleep.

The two of them stepped back outside.

The air in the courtyard had turned cool.

Tsunade walked to the veranda and leaned against a pillar.

Kitahara Kaede stopped beside her, half a step away.

"There's something I want to talk to you about."

Tsunade spoke first.

"Mm."

"I want you to be Nawaki's teacher."

Kitahara Kaede didn't answer immediately. He glanced toward the inner room.

That kid who'd been trailing after him for over a decade.

Every time they met, he'd pester him with questions. Winning a round of Kunai practice could make him jump for joy on the spot.

He looked away.

"All right."

Tsunade watched his profile.

"If you don't teach him properly..."

"Then what?"

"I'll beat you up."

"Fine."

Tsunade folded her arms and lowered her eyes to her toes.

There was more she wanted to say, but by the time the words reached her lips, they'd all come out wrong. In the end, only that sentence remained.

A sudden rustle came from the inner room.

There was a dull thud, and the door was kicked open from the inside.

Nawaki came sprinting over.

"Really?! Kaede's going to be my teacher?!"

A vein twitched at Tsunade's temple.

"When did you wake up?"

Nawaki guiltily took a step back, but his answer came without hesitation.

"Since you said, 'There's something I want to talk to you about.'"

Tsunade took a deep breath.

Nawaki quickly assessed the danger as S-Rank. With a sidestep, he darted behind Kitahara Kaede and poked his head out from under his arm.

"Teacher! Starting tomorrow? What are we practicing first?"

Kaede shifted to the side, refusing to shield him.

Nawaki was now within Tsunade's striking range. He instinctively ducked his head—but Tsunade didn't move.

He mustered his courage, bounced out, and ran to stand straight in front of Kaede.

He looked up, his eyes impossibly bright.

"Teacher!"

Kaede looked down at him.

He reached out and placed a hand on Nawaki's shoulder.

"Your first rule when you train with me."

Nawaki's smile faded a little, and he straightened his back.

"Stay alive. It matters more than anything."

Nawaki didn't quite understand the weight of those words.

He was only a twelve-year-old boy who had just received his Forehead Protector. The battlefield was far away, and death even farther.

But he saw the look in Kaede's eyes.

It wasn't like usual—not the casual look when she ruffled his hair, nor the gentle warmth when she served him food.

"I'll remember!"

Nawaki nodded firmly.

Kaede let go and ruffled his hair.

"Go back to bed. The day after tomorrow, five thirty in the morning."

"F-five thirty?"

"Too early for you?"

"Not at all! Not even a little!"

Nawaki turned and ran inside, then doubled back after two steps and grinned.

"Kaede, thank you."

He vanished in a flash.

The door closed.

The courtyard fell quiet. Only the two of them remained.

Tsunade leaned back against a pillar and looked up at the moon above the eaves.

They were silent for a while.

"What you said just now."

"Which part?"

"Staying alive matters more than anything."

She turned her head and looked at him.

"Do you feel the same way about yourself?"

Kaede didn't answer.

The night breeze drifted by, gently swaying the silver chain at Tsunade's neck.

She waited a few seconds, but no answer came.

"Now you owe me one more answer."

"I'll make it up to you someday."

"You always say someday."

Kaede turned his head to look at her.

The moonlight was faint, just bright enough to illuminate half her face.

"After the war is over."

Tsunade said nothing.

She lowered her eyes, her lips moving slightly.

But no words came.

After a long while,

she gave a soft "Mm."