She mumbled a reply, freed one hand to take the scroll, and stuffed it into her ninja tools pouch without so much as a glance. Then she lowered her head and went back to tackling the grilled fish. With that level of focus, nothing in the world seemed more important than the food in front of her.
Hanabi watched from beside her, giggling.
Toru Kujyo couldn't help chuckling at Hinata's appearance either. On a sudden whim, he pulled an oddly shaped object resembling a small square box out of his Storage Scroll.
"Come on, Hinata, look at the lens."
"Hm?" Hinata instinctively raised her head, half a piece of fish still dangling from her mouth. A smudge of black charcoal dust marked her face, and the wind had tousled her long blue-violet hair. Paired with her pure Byakugan eyes, she looked adorably dazed.
Click.
A flash lit up.
"Hey! Me too, me too!" Hanabi, who had been watching from the sidelines, reacted instantly. The moment the flash went off, she darted over, squeezed in beside Hinata, and pulled a big, mischievous face at the thing he called a "lens."
Toru Kujyo looked at the image frozen in the "camera"-one girl adorably dazed, the other making a silly face, with a babbling river and lush woodland behind them-and laughed.
At dusk, the setting sun dyed the sky a warm orange-red.
They packed up their things and slowly followed the bank of the Naka River back toward the village.
After escorting the Hyuga sisters to a street corner in the Main District and watching them turn into the alley leading to the Hyuga Estate, Toru Kujyo took the silent Sasuke back to the quiet Uchiha compound.
The last rays of sunset stretched their shadows long.
"Oh, right. We've got work tomorrow," Toru