The morning started with mission slips.
Two of them, both were white and ordinary. The first was a delivery to the herbalist on the fourth street, a crate of bandages wrapped in oilcloth. The second was a retrieval, a merchant's ledger left on a cart near the second bridge, between the farming settlements and the village edge.
Akane stamped the first slip, tucked the crate under his arm, and walked.
The fourth street was quiet at this hour. The shops were opening, the shutters being folded back, and the smell of fresh bread was coming from the bakery near the corner. A woman sweeping her doorstep looked at him, looked at the crate, and went back to her sweeping.
The herbalist was an old woman with hands that shook when she counted but did not shake when she cut. She counted every bandage before signing the receipt. She counted twice, then counted again, and when she was satisfied, she gave Akane a pear from the basket by the door and told him to eat something that wasn't mission rations.
"The boy from yesterday brought his own lunch," she said. "You should do the same."
"I don't have time in the morning," Akane said.
"Make time. You are too thin."
He ate the pear on the walk to the second assignment. The juice ran down his wrist, and he wiped it on his sleeve. The ledger was where the slip said it would be, sitting on the cart like someone had forgotten it in a hurry. The cart was old, with the wheels warped, and the merchant's seal on the ledger was cracked at the edges. He picked it up, checked the seal, and walked back to the mission desk.
The clerk was there, the same one from yesterday, and he looked at the completed slips with the expression of a man who had found something unexpected.
"Efficient," the clerk said.
"I had a good morning," Akane said.
"You always have a good morning."
"Is that a problem?"
"No. It is just unusual."
He stamped three more slips for other genin, ate a rice ball at the desk, and at midday walked to the Academy.
The gate of the Academy was open, with the students spilling out in the way they did when the teacher had said the word and no one was listening anymore.
Some ran around, very few walked, and many stood in groups and argued about things that would not matter tomorrow. Akane leaned against the wall across the street and waited.
The one who came first between the two was Kushina. She had her bag slung over one shoulder and her hair was slightly damp from the rain that had passed through an hour ago. She saw him, and her face did the thing it always did, which was to look angry and pleased at the same time.
"You are early," she said.
"I finished early."
"You always finish early."
"I am efficient, as the clerk said."
She punched his arm. It was the way she said hello.
Mikoto came next, walking at the pace of someone who had nowhere to be and was in no hurry to get there. She nodded at Akane, which was her way of saying hello, that she had noticed him and also that she was not going to make a fuss about it.
"You brought food?" she asked.
"A pear."
"One pear."
"The herbalist gave me one pear."
"That is not enough for four people."
"It is what I have."
Nawaki came last, running, his bag bouncing against his back. He skidded to a stop in front of Akane and said, "Did you bring food?"
"I brought a pear," Akane said.
"One pear," Nawaki said.
"The herbalist gave me one pear."
"That's not enough."
"It is what I have."
They sat on the low wall near the gate. Kushina ate the rice ball Akane had saved. Mikoto had brought her own lunch, a small box with pickled vegetables and rice, and she ate it without comment. Nawaki complained about the pear, then ate half of it anyway.
Across the street, a boy with blonde hair stood near the corner. He was watching them. Not obviously, but enough that Akane noticed. The boy was about their age, maybe a year older, with sharp eyes and a jacket that was too big for him. He had the kind of face that looked like it was always thinking about something. He stood there for a minute, maybe two, and then he turned and walked toward the training grounds without a word.
"Who was that?" Kushina asked, following Akane's gaze.
"No one," Akane said.
"He was staring."
"People stare."
"Not like that."
Akane said nothing. Kushina looked at him for a moment, then went back to the rice ball. Nawaki was talking about a jutsu he had seen in a scroll, something about wire threads and chakra control, and Mikoto was listening with the expression of someone who already knew the jutsu but was letting him explain it anyway.
"Third seal is wrong," Mikoto said when Nawaki paused for breath.
"What?"
"The third seal. You said it was tiger. It's a horse."
Nawaki frowned. "Are you sure?"
"I am sure."
He looked at Akane for confirmation, who nodded in return, and Nawaki sighed and went back to eating.
The break lasted twenty minutes, then Nawaki ran back inside for his forgotten bag, Kushina said she had to return for advanced calligraphy, and Mikoto walked with Akane to the gate.
"She is getting better at hiding it," Mikoto said.
"Hiding what?"
"The way she looks at you."
Akane said nothing in return, and Mikoto didn't expect anything. She walked back toward the Academy, and Akane went to the mission desk for his afternoon assignment.
The afternoon was a retrieval mission to the north road, a misdelivered package of medical supplies that had ended up at the wrong compound. The package was heavy, wrapped in brown paper and tied with string. The address was written in a hand that Akane recognised as the pharmacist's apprentice, who always mixed up his twos and his threes.
He walked to the compound, collected the package, walked to the correct compound, handed it over, and walked back.
The sun was starting to sink when he reached the village, and the streets were longer in the evening light, the shadows stretching across the stone, and the smell of cooking was coming from the houses along the road.
Kushina and Mikoto were waiting at the Senju compound gate. Kushina had changed out of her Academy clothes into something that looked like she had tried to look nice and then decided to look like she hadn't tried. Mikoto was wearing her usual dark clothing, which meant she had not changed at all.
"Where are we going?" Akane asked as he looked at the two girls, who looked like opposites but were always together.
"Anywhere," Kushina spoke as soon as she heard Akane, and he nodded in return.
They walked through the market district where the stalls were already closing and the vendors packing up their unsold fish and vegetables. The lanterns were being lit one by one along the street, and the light was warm and yellow, making the stone walls look softer than they were.
Akane bought three sticks of dango from a woman who remembered him from last week.
"Same order?" she asked.
"Same order."
Kushina took the strawberry one. Mikoto took the plain one. Akane ate the third.
They walked past the Academy, past the training grounds, past the Uchiha compound wall as well. The wall was high and old, the stones dark with age, and the gate was closed. Mikoto looked at it as they passed, then looked away.
Kushina talked about a jutsu she had seen in a book, something about Fire Release and hand seals. Mikoto corrected her on the third seal, and Kushina argued, and Mikoto repeated the correction in the same tone she used for everything, which was the tone of someone who had already thought about it and was not going to change her mind.
"It's horse," Mikoto said.
"It's tiger," Kushina said.
"It's horse."
"Show me the book."
"I don't have the book."
"Then how do you know?"
"Because I read it."
They stopped at the park near the Hokage monument. The stone faces were dark against the evening sky, the eyes shadowed, the mouths set in the same expressions they had worn for a generation. Akane sat on the bench with Kushina sat next to him, and Mikoto sat on his other side, a careful distance away.
"Did you have a good day?" Kushina asked.
"It was a regular day," Akane said.
"That's not an answer."
"It was a good day."
Kushina looked at him for a moment, then looked at the monument. The wind was warm and smelled of woodsmoke and the river. Mikoto was watching the people pass on the street below, her eyes following them with quiet attention.
"Your hair is getting longer," Mikoto said, without looking at him.
Akane touched the back of his neck, and she was right. It had been weeks since he had cut it.
"It suits you," Mikoto continued her words.
Kushina said nothing in response to her words. She was still looking at the monument.
They stayed until the lanterns were fully lit and then walked back to the Senju compound. Mikoto turned toward the Uchiha district,t but before taking a step, she paused, looked at Akane, and said, "Good night."
"Good night."
She walked away, her footsteps getting quieter as her shadow disappeared from their sight. Kushina turned towards the gate with a grin, but then she also stopped, looked at Akane, and said, "Tomorrow."
"Tomorrow," he replied with a smile, and she went inside with a laugh. The gate closed behind her with a sound that was not quite a click and not quite a thud.
Akane stood in the garden for a while, listening to the village settle into its night sounds. Somewhere a dog barked. Somewhere a door closed. The wind moved through the trees above the compound wall, and the leaves rustled as if someone was whispering words to him.
When Akane got bored of trying to listen to the silence, he stepped towards his room and went there.
Instead of sleeping, he bit his thumb and summoned Katsuyu first.
The slug appeared in a small puff of smoke, no bigger than his palm, and looked at him with a patient expression instead of her usual cheerfulness.
"I need you to go somewhere," Akane said.
The slug tilted its head, and Akane wondered if he summoned her while she was sleeping.
"Land of Wind," he said. "To a certain place. A White Zetsu will carry you. Stay there, and when it says so, reverse summon me."
The slug blinked twice and then nodded at him, the motion so small that it barely moved its body.
He called a White Zetsu from the earth. It rose silently, pale and expressionless, and waited for his orders. Akane placed the small Katsuyu on its shoulder.
"Take her to Himari's place and wait for my further instructions," he said. "Now."
The Zetsu nodded and sank into the ground, carrying the slug with it. The earth closed over them without a sound.
Akane sat on the edge of his bed. The room was so quiet that he could hear his own breathing, slow and even, and the distant sound of the river beyond the compound wall.
'The beating I will receive if something goes bad is going to be deadly.'
He closed his eyes, reached for the dreamspace, and went there.
The violet sky opened above him, and the garden appeared with the swing that moved in wind that did not exist.
Somewhere in the Land of Wind, Himari's eyes were closed, and without her knowing, she had appeared under the violet sky too.
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