"Was this the village you grew up in, Naruto?"
An army-green SUV drove along a narrow concrete road in the countryside. In the distance, Mount Arakawa towered into the clouds, lush forests blanketing its slopes below the mountainside.
The countryside was sparsely populated, with rustic wooden buildings and flat rice paddies lining the road, giving it a touch of rural charm.
"I wasn't born in the village. I only lived here for a few years in elementary school, and I moved back to Tokyo before middle school."
Uchiha Naruto chuckled at the wheel, casting an amused glance at Young Lady Matsudaira, who was curiously surveying the rural scenery from the passenger seat.
Matsudaira Chiyo rolled down the window, letting a fresh breeze rush into the car.
It was June, a season of growing grass and flitting warblers. The rice paddies were green with young ears of rice, and occasionally they spotted a water buffalo lazily swishing its tail as it grazed on a paddy ridge.
"It looks beautiful." Matsudaira Chiyo took a deep breath and smiled with her lips pressed together.
"It's just a novelty to a young lady like you. In a little village without even a convenience store, you'd be crying to go back to Tokyo within two days."
Uchiha Naruto joked, turning his eyes toward Mount Arakawa with a trace of nostalgia.
"Besides a few handicrafts and farming, the village barely has any industries or local specialties. The one thing worth mentioning is that you can see Mount Fuji from the top of Mount Arakawa. But getting here isn't as convenient as reaching some of the other villages, so tourism never took off either."
The Uchiha family's hometown was a small village at the foot of Mount Arakawa in the Oi River area, part of Kawanehon Town