A fruit feast and Hashirama's son

Beneath a fruit tree, Shingetsu had long since lost track of time as she devoted herself to weaving baskets.

Before she knew it, baskets had piled up all around her. The ugly things formed a small mountain, which a vine rising from the ground held firmly together to keep them from tumbling down again.

Under Shingetsu's direction, several slender vines twisted clumsily, swaying stiffly and sometimes tangling together. In the end, however, they obediently formed a respectable little basket.

"This one turned out pretty well~"

Holding her newly woven basket, Shingetsu smiled smugly, her eyes narrowing with delight. She slowly rose to her feet, finally finding the leisure to examine the orchard she had created with her own hands.

Every tree was laden with large fruits of all kinds. Ripe fruit weighed down the branches, gleaming in the sunlight. Apricot yellow, vermilion, emerald green, deep purple... the dazzling array of colors transformed the vast orchard into a dreamlike paradise.

Lemons gave off a refreshing fragrance, apricots were crisp and sweet-tart, grapes glistened with juicy sweetness, and peaches were rosy and delicious. Even the tiny blueberries were utterly adorable. The rich fruit fragrance filled her lungs; a single sniff left her feeling lightheaded and pleasantly tipsy, while one bite left sweetness lingering on her tongue and warming her heart.

Shingetsu gazed at the vast orchard in astonishment. She really had never imagined she could create so many varieties of fruit trees in one go, let alone produce an entire forest like Hashirama. Looking down at her hands, she felt that this had gone far beyond anything she could have imagined.

"Was I really this amazing?"

The sun slipped behind the clouds, and the breeze turned pleasantly cool, carrying a refreshing fruity fragrance. Shingetsu grew drowsy, wishing she could simply lie down and take a nap.

A tiny blueberry blew loose and fell onto her head, dispelling her sleepiness. Shingetsu looked up and only then noticed that the tree was covered in blueberries. A question surfaced in her mind.

Did blueberries grow on trees?

Her mind grinding to a halt, Shingetsu stiffly turned her neck and carefully surveyed the surrounding fruit trees. More and more questions arose.

Did grapes grow on trees? Did raspberries grow on trees too?

Why did I feel like that wasn't right?

This had clearly strayed into a gap in Shingetsu's knowledge. As someone who had always been responsible only for eating, she recognized the fruit itself, but asking her where it came from was really asking too much.

Whatever, whatever. This was the Shinobi World, not Earth. If I said they grew on trees, then they grew on trees!

She grabbed the blueberry off her head and popped it into her mouth. Its sweetness soaked into her tongue and seemed to nourish her all the way to her internal organs. A lover of sweets who had long suffered through Konoha's dango, she was like a parched seedling suddenly blessed with a light rain, desperately wishing it would pour harder.

Shingetsu tossed blueberry after blueberry into her mouth, crunching away as though they were candy beans, unable to stop. She ate every fruit she encountered along the way, only stopping once she was stuffed.

Only after eating her fill did Shingetsu remember that she needed to find the others. Madara and the Senju brothers had vanished somewhere, but no one had ventured into the orchard's secluded depths. Apart from her, there was not a soul in sight.

Shingetsu scratched her head in frustration. She had been so focused on eating fruit that she had paid no attention to where she was going. And now she was lost.

If only I hadn't made such a huge orchard!

"Ah, where on earth did Master go?"

"Shingetsu."

Madara Uchiha, who had been watching her from behind a tree all along, let out an almost imperceptible sigh at those words, then stepped out of hiding.

"Master!"

Shingetsu cheered in delight and trotted back to Madara, spreading her little arms to ask for a hug as naturally as could be.

Madara was about to reach out and pick her up when he suddenly remembered what Tobirama had said earlier, leaving him momentarily uncertain. When he still did not lift her, Shingetsu grabbed his sleeve and shook it. Her clear, doe-like eyes shimmered with moisture and brimmed with hurt. Madara promptly cleaved the Tobirama in his memory in two and picked her up.

Once in his arms, Shingetsu nuzzled his cheek contentedly. Then she looked in puzzlement toward the mountain of Wood Release baskets in the distance, thinking of Hashirama Senju, who had said he would pick fruit and then disappeared.

"Where on earth did Lord Hashirama go?"

As people spread the news of their own accord, more and more Konoha villagers poured into the orchard. Seeing this place that stood within Konoha yet seemed like a paradise beyond the mortal world, their hearts pounded, and their eyes filled with disbelief and joy.

In resource-starved Konoha, fresh, sweet fruit was already a rare delicacy. For villagers who spent their days struggling to make a living, it could even provide a day's food, enough to relieve their immediate hunger.

For a time, shinobi and civilians, Senju and Uchiha-all those usually divided by grudges and class-set aside their disputes and differences in status. They flocked into the orchard together, enjoying the delicious fruit and sharing this rare moment of joy.

These rare sweets offered comfort to people whose hard lives were spent either struggling to survive or hovering on the brink of death. Apart from the shinobi of the great clans, the vast majority were learning for the first time in their lives what sweetness actually tasted like.

Amazed by the fruit's sweetness and plumpness, some marveled that it was an auspicious gift from heaven to Konoha, only to be told that it was the work of Uchiha Shingetsu, the second person to awaken Wood Release.

As more and more people spoke her name with heartfelt gratitude, the name Uchiha Shingetsu took on an extraordinary radiance.

Before this, people had only associated her with Wood Release and Madara Uchiha. Afterward, this bountiful orchard would be the first thing Konoha's villagers pictured whenever they thought of her.

As they walked from the orchard's depths toward its exit, Madara Uchiha watched the villagers picking fruit and listened to their happy, satisfied cries. His features, normally as hard and sharp as though carved by blades and axes, gradually softened. Their happiness and contentment were like a gentle breeze and fine rain, offering a little comfort to a man tormented by the darkness of the Shinobi World.

In his arms, Shingetsu was concentrating on peeling a green grape. Its translucent flesh soon emerged from beneath the green skin, and she happily gobbled it down in one bite.

"Master, here."

After peeling a second green grape, Shingetsu was about to eat it too when she finally remembered that Madara Uchiha had not had any. She held the flesh to his lips as though presenting a treasure. Looking at his disciple, who forgot every care the moment she saw sweets, and the grape in her hand, Madara pursed his lips slightly and ate it.

Tasting the delicate, tender flesh, Madara, who also had quite a sweet tooth, felt its juice flow into his mouth like honey. Watching Shingetsu smile, he could not help thinking-

This kind of life wasn't bad at all.

"Madara, Shingetsu, there you are!"

Just as master and disciple were sharing the green grapes, taking one each in turn, Hashirama finally broke free of the surrounding Senju clansmen and followed their trail over.

To escape successfully, he had even abandoned all the fruit he had picked. Mentally drained and utterly exhausted, Hashirama felt as though those overexcited clansmen had nearly stripped the skin off him.

"Lord Hashirama, this is for you."

"This basket is beautifully woven. Thank you, Shingetsu."

Seeing that Hashirama had finally arrived, Shingetsu quickly handed him the basket she had been carrying all along. Hashirama accepted it and wandered around nearby, placing freshly picked fruit inside until the basket was packed full.

Once Hashirama returned with the fruit, the three of them sat around the basket as though having a picnic.

Hashirama reached into the basket and took out a piece of fruit. Carefully opening his mouth, he bit off a little flesh and cautiously sampled its flavor.

After his disastrous encounter with a lemon, he no longer dared eat fruit indiscriminately. The mango in his hand, however, clearly suited his tastes, and he happily continued munching away.

Tobirama soon escaped the clansmen's relentless encirclement as well. Seeing their picnic-like gathering, he sat down beside Hashirama without ceremony. Despite the basket full of fruit right in front of him, he pulled a lemon from his pocket under Hashirama's astonished gaze.

"Tobirama, don't touch that!"

"I'm not going to eat it."

Tobirama replied coldly as Hashirama reached out to stop him. He had only picked the fruit for experiments. Until he had examined them thoroughly, he would not eat these strange fruits produced by Wood Release.

However, when he passed a lemon tree, he had taken a liking to its fresh fragrance and casually picked one.

Now, sniffing its scent, he instinctively began considering the fruit's uses.

"This fragrance would be quite suitable for incense. Perhaps it would make a good seasoning too."

A breeze swept through the orchard, stirring a soft rustling. A black-haired Senju clansman walked through the trees, heading straight toward them. To her surprise, Shingetsu noticed that he looked remarkably like Hashirama.

As he saw the newcomer, the goofy smile on Hashirama's face gradually froze. To Shingetsu's astonishment, he actually looked at a loss and somewhat eager to please!

That only made Shingetsu more curious. What sort of person could make Hashirama wear an expression like that?

"Tatsuki, you're here."

The Senju clansman before them, dressed in a light-colored clan robe, was Hashirama Senju's son, Senju Ryūju.

Compared with Hashirama, who was flustered and had no idea how to interact with his son, Tobirama was clearly closer to his nephew. He greeted him naturally and invited him to sit down, but Senju Ryūju remained standing awkwardly to one side.

In his eyes, someone as weak as he was had no right to sit together with these people.

"Father, Uncle, Lord Madara."

Senju Ryūju looked at Hashirama Senju with apparent respect, but his words carried a sense of distance. Coupled with Hashirama's stiff movements and expression, as though he had been frozen in place, anyone could tell that the relationship between father and son was decidedly strained.

"Good day, Lady Shingetsu."

As he looked at Shingetsu, the newly awakened Wood Release user, a complicated gleam flashed through Senju Ryūju's eyes. There was admiration and envy, but also acceptance and curiosity. The bitterness behind it was probably something only he understood.

Shingetsu looked up curiously at this man she had only ever heard of in rumors, only to discover that Hashirama's son looked as though he had been cast from the very same mold.

Compared with the cheerful Hashirama, who had a certain goofy air about him, his son seemed more melancholy and dispirited. Yet that very difference made Senju Ryūju stand out as a handsome man with both looks and presence, rather than turning into comic relief whenever he smiled like his father did.

Huh, was Hashirama's son really this handsome?