Kirigakure
Mei Terumi stood at the harbor to welcome them, smiling alluringly.
She looked at the two women behind Genya, and her lips curved.
"Genya, your whole family is so good-looking."
Mei Terumi personally took them around Kirigakure's floating market.
Hinata bought a pearl bracelet, and Kaguya bought a seashell wind chime.
Genya bought Tsuki a box of Kirigakure's specialty candies.
When he mailed the candies back to Konoha,
he stuck a note on the package.
"For Tsuki. Don't you dare sneak a single one."
When Black Zetsu received the package, he read the note three times, then silently placed the candies on the table in Tsuki's room.
Wasn't he a person too?
When Tsuki came home from school and saw the box of candies, a faint smile lifted the corners of her lips.
Sunagakure
The nights in Sunagakure were cold. Sand that baked under the sun during the day turned icy after dark.
Genya, Hinata, and Kaguya sat on the rooftop of the Kazekage Building, watching the stars. The desert sky shone brighter than anywhere else, with no clouds, no mist, only a sky full of stars.
Hinata leaned against his shoulder, while Kaguya sat beside him, gazing up at the sky. The light of the Milky Way reflected in her pure white eyes.
One leaned against his left shoulder, and his right arm rested around the other.
At this time a few years ago, he had still been worrying about diapers for the children.
Now he sat here watching the stars, marveling at how strange life could be.
A year was neither particularly long nor particularly short.
They traveled through the Five Great Nations and also visited the Land of Iron, the Land of Grass, the Land of Rain, and the Land of Waterfalls.
The samurai of the