Three months flew by, and Konoha's reconstruction really was nearing completion.
It wasn't just talk of being "nearly done." You could see it with your own eyes.
Rows of new houses rose, with white walls and gray tiles, laid out even more neatly than the old village.
The streets grew busier. Vendors set up stalls, children chased one another, and ninjas made their regular patrols. Everything had returned to its old rhythm.
Yet these days weren't quite the same as before.
Because strange shapes were always weaving through the crowds-white, small, hands, feet, eyes, and ears, all clustered together.
"Hand Princess Big, over here!"
A white hand emerged from the crowd, scurrying along on five fingers, the eye in its palm narrowed to a slit as though it were smiling.
With a bag of candy clamped in its mouth, it pattered up to the general store, plopped the bag down, and straightened its "body."
Miyoko poked her head out from behind the counter and looked helplessly at the bag of candy. "Buying this much again?"
Hand Princess Big nodded vigorously, blinking the eye in its palm. "Shuo said to buy more."
Miyoko opened the bag and looked inside. It was packed with fifty orange chestnut candies. She clicked her tongue. "Can he eat this much in a month?"
Hand Princess Big tilted its "head" and pointed behind itself. "He's not the only one eating them. We want some too."
Behind it crouched a pile of white fragments, hands, feet, and torsos squeezed together, every eye fixed on the bag of candy. The faint light on their bodies flickered, like a group of children waiting for their share of sweets.
Miyoko froze for three seconds, then suddenly laughed and swore. "Fuck, you lot eat even more than that kid."
Hand Princess