The Shopping Spree Begins

At a sheltered street corner, a simple little table had been set up on a bench.

Kushina shoveled mouthfuls of fresh rice from her bowl, picked up a piece of translucent, fall-apart braised pork belly, and stuffed it into her mouth. Sauce smeared across her cheek, but she did not bother wiping it off.

"Mmm... this meat is incredible!"

She mumbled through a full mouth.

Mikoto Uchiha sat beside her, helplessly handing over a handkerchief and wiping the stains from the corner of her mouth.

She looked up, her gaze passing through the rising steam toward the people lined up along the long street to receive food.

The tension that had gripped her brow for days finally eased a little.

"Fugaku and the others in the Security Force have been working around the clock for days. Even iron men are about to collapse."

She lifted a bowl of steaming soup and sighed softly. "But at least... no one in Konoha will go hungry now."

In the shadows ten steps away, Ye casually tossed over a scorching foil-wrapped bundle.

Kakashi caught it, peeled away the foil, and the scent of hot roasted sweet potato spread through the cold air.

He pulled down half his mask and took a bite. His movements paused slightly as he lowered his eyes to the golden flesh. "Very sweet. High sugar content. It doesn't seem like a wild variety."

"An improved variety fresh from the Geothermal Farm."

Ye leaned against a mottled brick wall, his gaze likewise resting on the huge pots of thick soup boiling in the distance.

Kakashi said nothing more, silently finishing every last bite of the sweet potato.

"Over at the Daimyō Mansion, they're probably still eagerly waiting for Konoha to be littered with starving corpses."

The falling snow thickened.

On