It didn't take much time for Takuma and Kameko to pass through the security check, which was expedited because they were shinobi. It helped that the guards in the guard station didn't ask Takuma any questions after Kameko, who went first, told them that they were returning from the Steam-Frost war.

The two of them stood with the gates behind them, looking at the village as though they were tourists. If it wasn't the height of the day with the sun glaring down, they would have had actual tourists standing with them.

Outside Team-9, they had known each other the longest, but that relationship had essentially been non-existent until the Genin Corp Basic Training when it had turned sour. Neither of them thought they would like the other, but after being on the same team and surviving a dangerous mission, it was tough to dislike the person you trusted to have your back.

A hug would still be awkward, thought Takuma—their relationship didn't really have skinship. He straightened his back and held out his hand. That felt right, he thought when Kameko promptly gripped his hand and shook it a couple of times before letting go.

"I'll see you around, I guess," he said.

"Probably when Anko invites us," she replied.

Takuma chuckled and nodded in agreement. He also couldn't imagine the two of them having a meal alone on their own accord but then he thought about that and said, "Don't think you can't reach out to me if you need something. If I can help, I will— so don't think I won't."

Kameko looked surprised but then nodded with a small smile. "The same goes for you. You know where I live.. It was a decent time serving with you, Takuma," she said and turned to walk away with a single wave of her hand before disappearing.

Takuma glanced at the gates once more before walking into the city. He chose to walk through the streets and take the city in slowly. It felt so different from Yu. It was much more crowded, warmer, and more animated; the atmosphere was one of constant activity. He looked around and knew that the people were bothered and numb to the hubbub of the city.

He, too, was once like them, but after returning to it after such a long time, he enjoyed it. Each step felt like he was rediscovering the Hidden Leaf village. He recognised places from his memories, and they hadn't changed at all because it hadn't been that long, but there were tiny little things that were different, which made everything feel so much more vibrant.

The village was a moving, thriving place, which was a stark contrast to the unstimulating Yu he had just liberated.

Even when he left the busy main streets and entered the quieter residential area, he found himself staring at little things like pamphlets stuck on poles, people's clothes drying on hanging wires the difference in architecture between the two cities, the amount of green that was present in the city due to the abundance of trees.

He got lost in admiring his surroundings and didn't realise where his feet had taken him until he started noticing the potholes in the road, which now felt narrower. The older buildings with degraded paint, and the mess of electrical wires stuck out to him—half of which didn't seem like they were put in by the city—and there bits of garbage on the pavement.

Takuma stopped when he realised where he was and where he was going. He looked at the corner in front of him and knew that he would need two turns to get to the house he had lived in for more than three years—longer if he included the time the boy had lived there after moving out from the orphanage.

He chuckled at the thought that he had walked all the way to his old home purely by habit but then he turned away sharply, as a thought ran through him—he didn't have a home.

Of course he didn't have a home.

He had stopped renting on his own accord. Just a few days earlier, he had given his teammates a P.O. box address because he didn't have a home address—he didn't have a number for calling. But the thought clicked in at that moment, and it felt like the sky was falling.

He didn't have a place to live in the city he could call home.

His heart began to thump harder and sweat began to press against his skin. All those little changes he had seen on his way snowballed, and suddenly, he felt like he didn't recognise the city even though a moment ago, it had felt so familiar. He panted and looked around, and without warning, the shitty neighbourhood he had got so used to living in felt identical to some backstreet he had seen in Yu.

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He looked at buildings, and the architecture was identical—even though, in fact, none of it was true. It was simply Takuma's tired mind that hadn't been allowed to rest in the past three months since they had started planning for the precursor mission collapsing under itself.

The moment Takuma allowed himself to relax and let himself feel safe, his mind dumped everything he had accumulated from his time in the Land of Hot Waters. The realisation that he didn't have a home was the first piece of a domino chain, and once Takuma knocked the first piece, there was nothing he could do to stop it.

'I have to get away,' Takuma thought as he slipped into a semi-fugue state. All he wanted to do was run away from everything to somewhere safe where he could sit down and control himself—and to his horror, the first place that came to his mind was the factory base in Yu—the cold, shitty, dust and rust filled, pest infested, abandoned piece of crap that refused to get cleaned no matter how much he tried.

But at that moment, it seemed to be the safest place because no one knew that he lived there. So much so that he didn't even consider that just barely an hour ago, Kameko had said to him—"You know where I live".

His tired and stressed mind couldn't connect anything useful.

He began to heave and hyperventilate as he hugged the wall with his back to ensure no one could get ambush him but then he saw a man step out into the tiny balcony in a corner building—and the moment their eyes met—

—Takuma ran away.

———

.

Maruboshi Kosuke returned to his humble abode near the edge of the inner city in the evening. The house was older than him, built by his parents, and he had lived there his entire life barring a few years in his teens when he had the desire to live alone.

The sliding door rattled, the floorboards creaked, and the wind chimes sang as the breeze played them. He never fixed the doors and floorboards because they told him if someone other than him was in the house, and the wind chimes were pleasant to his ear. He didn't like being in his home during the day because he felt he was withering away if he stayed inside. Thus, he preferred spending time outside doing anything productive. Fortunately, D-rank missions gave him enough meaningful things to do, helping anywhere that needed him and contributing in his own way.

Today, however, he had been invited by one of the jonin he had known since she was a genin fresh out of the academy. She had asked him to address a new batch of chunin and give them advice for what lay ahead of them. He had received such requests a few times in the past couple of decades, and he wasn't initially comfortable with the request in case he adversely influenced the future of the village.

But he had learned to be thankful for the respect and opportunity and gave his sincere efforts to the youngsters in hopes that it might make their futures even a little bit easier. He smiled when he remembered the faces of a couple of chunin who seemed thoroughly unimpressed in anything he had to say because he was a genin. And, of course, the first question he received was he wasn't a chunin or jonin—which he had to answer in the only way he could—he didn't want to be one, which was apparently something they couldn't comprehend.

Maruboshi took a bath and was about to start preparing his dinner when he heard a knock on his door which puzzled him. He looked at the wall clock in his kitchen, which showed it was already six in the evening, which was already too late for someone to visit him.

As he headed to the front door, he pondered who it might be. He didn't get many guests because he was rarely at his home, so perhaps it was one of the neighbours. He was close to everyone on the streets because he had seen most of them grow up, and maybe one of them wanted his help.

The bell rang again just as he switched into his outdoor slippers, and he responded habitually,

"Coming!"

The front door squeaked as he pushed it open, only for it to stop halfway through because it hit whoever was standing in its path. Maruboshi expected the person to move or at least say something, but there was no response at all. Perplexed by the situation, Maruboshi peered around the door to see a man with his head bowed against his door.

"Excuse... Takuma!"

Maruboshi couldn't recognise him instantly because of the longer, shoulder-length hair covering his face because of his bowed head.

Takuma slowly raised his head, showing his face to Maruboshi, who instantly noticed the new scar on the edge of his lips. But he was utterly shocked when he saw his condition; he was dressed in a simple shirt and pants with a large backpack on his shoulders. He was dirty, covered in it from top to bottom, with leaves and even branches sticking to him. The bandages around his arms and hands were all soiled.

His face was more gaunt than ever before. It was clear he had lost weight, which concerned Maruboshi because Takuma had always been underweight.

"My child, what happened to you?" Maruboshi immediately grabbed his shoulders and looked him over to see if there were any pressing injuries besides the bandaged ones.

"Uhm, mmhm," Takuma tried to speak, but his voice cracked. "So-Sorry, but can I stay with you for the night? I-I don't have a-a place to live anymore. Just one night would—"

Marubsohi quickly and gently shushed him and hugged him to his chest. "Yes, you can stay here," he spoke clearly and explicitly confirmed the request with a pat to Takuma's head, "you can stay here with me for as long as you want. It's okay, you're home now; everything's going to be alright."

He took off Takuma's backpack and guided inside, making sure to hide his worried gaze lest he startle the boy he'd come to see as one of his loved ones.

What had happened out there?