On the small wooden pier by the Naka River, Uchiha Hikari snatched the box of sweets from Menma's hand. She took a fierce bite out of a tri-colored dango, the pale green mochi flattening between her teeth.
Cheeks bulging, she glared at him like a territorial kitten guarding its bowl, clearly having no intention of leaving him even the last skewer.
"Alright, alright, stop being angry," Menma said, resting his hands on her shoulders.
Members of the Uchiha clan were inherently "tsundere," possessing a feline-like pride; one had to stroke their fur in the right direction. Of course, one could follow the path of Hashirama Senju suppressing Madara, or Naruto Uzumaki winning over Sasuke through raw force.
But at this moment, Hikari was more like a moody house cat who had knocked over the vinegar jar of jealousy because her owner had secretly petted another cat.
Menma simply pushed the entire box toward her. He watched with quiet amusement as she continued to devour the sweets, her puffed-out cheeks making her look unexpectedly adorable.
"Do all Uchiha have a thing for sweets?" he asked.
Uchiha Itachi loved tri-colored dango.
Uchiha Obito had a soft spot for red bean cakes and dumplings.
Uchiha Sasuke loved tomatoes.
Uchiha Shisui seemed to favor dango as well.
For some reason, the Uchiha clan had a strange obsession with round, skewered foods—even their clan crest looked suspiciously like a dango.
"We do not!" Hikari snapped, turning her head so sharply that her puffed right cheek brushed against the tip of Menma's nose. Her eyes were brimming with grievance, making her look exactly like a wronged young bride.
Menma smiled. As long as she was still willing to talk to him, things were manageable.
He took the opportunity to pull her into his arms. He felt her body stiffen at first, then gradually soften, until the only thing moving was the slow, rhythmic chewing of her dango.
Quack, quack, quack.
A few ducks swam across the water as the final rays of the sun bathed the pair in gold.
"One-two-one! One-two-one!"
Up on the riverbank, Might Guy passed by during his extra training. He glanced down at the young couple on the pier and sighed with emotion. "Ah! The scent of youth! How envious!"
"Two hundred more push-ups tonight!"
"Hey..." Hikari spoke up suddenly, her voice muffled as she swallowed the last of the mochi. "Will you... will you eventually look down on me for being an old woman?"
"After all, I was sealed for so long. If you count the years, I'm over three hundred years old."
Despite being a ninja, she was still a girl. She couldn't help but worry about her age and appearance. The long centuries of being sealed had become a heavy shackle in her mind—especially after discovering that Menma's true body was that of a child. The age gap felt like a thorn in her heart.
"What kind of nonsense is that?" Menma reached out and pinched her cheek playfully. "For a girl this cute, isn't it perfect to stay this age forever?"
"Cute?" Hikari looked up suddenly, her gaze turning fierce. "That little girl with the White Eye was quite cute, too."
"Well, about that..." Menma rubbed his nose with a dry laugh. "You are all my wings."
"Hmph." A soft snort vanished into the evening breeze along with the ripples she kicked into the water.
Hikari didn't press him further on exactly how many pairs of wings he intended to have. Her toes dipped into the river, sending a trail of droplets into the air.
"Why is it that you're so young, yet you possess such power and such grand ambitions?" she asked curiously.
"Just as you were sealed for centuries, perhaps I simply have a few more decades of life experience than a normal child," Menma replied vaguely, his fingers idly twining a stray lock of her hair.
He didn't explain his status as a transmigrator, nor did he mention the decade spent within the Limited Tsukuyomi. He kept it ambiguous.
Hikari didn't dwell on it. Everyone had their secrets. For her, the first person she saw when her seal was broken was Menma, and the one who untied the knots in her heart was Menma. That alone sealed their fate. To overthink it would only be counterproductive.
Besides, that Hyuga girl was only a few years old. Even if she was the "childhood friend" type, Hikari—the "fated girl from the past"—had full confidence she could win!
"Kurosuki Raiga is dead," she said, shifting the topic to the mission Menma had assigned her.
"He and his Kurosuki kinsmen were occupying the Katabami Gold Mine in the Land of Rivers, terrorizing the locals. He enjoyed burying people alive for fun—he had completely abandoned the code of a ninja. So, I killed him. As for the rest of the Kurosuki clan, I had Hotarubi and Natsu take them back to the Land of Stars."
"Mm, he deserved it," Menma nodded, reaching out to pat her head. Seeing that she didn't resist, he knew the "angry kitten" had mostly calmed down.
"By the way, have you ever heard of the Land of the Sky?" Menma recalled meeting Shinnō and Amaru a few days ago. The Gold Mine happened to be in the southern coastal region of the Land of Rivers.
"The Land of the Sky was destroyed, wasn't it?" Hikari searched her memories. Back in the Warring States Period, the Land of the Sky was a decent-sized nation with many ninjas. During her time in the Land of Stars, she had been catching up on history and knew that the Sky Village had been wiped out by Konoha during the Second Shinobi World War.
"Yes. The ruins of the Sky Village should be in the southern Land of Rivers. Some remnants fled to the southern seas, using a fleet as a base to build a mobile Sky Village. Their ruins likely contain quite a bit of technology. We should send someone to scavenge it."
The chakra-to-kinetic energy conversion of the Ancor Vantian, the warship tech, flight gear, and kunai launchers—those things were likely already in small-scale production. In a few years, they would invade Konoha with nearly everyone equipped with flight gear.
"Also, that girl from earlier... she's a pawn I've prepared," Menma said, thinking of Uchiha Izumi. He pulled out the Book of the Vermilion Moon.
"Want to see?" He held the book out to her.
Curious, Hikari placed her hand on the cover. As a faint crimson glow rose from the book, the world before them shifted.
They found themselves standing before the Uchiha Clan District.
Hikari instantly activated her Mangekyō Sharingan, sensing that this was a genjutsu world. However, the level of the illusion was incredibly high—so high that even her Mangekyō struggled to break free.
"Incredible genjutsu. It feels completely real," Hikari remarked. She turned to see Menma had also changed his attire.
"Welcome to my theater!" Clad in a black robe and wearing a white, three-eyed fox mask, Menma stood atop a roof and waved her over.
Hikari leaped up beside him. Following his gaze into the district, she saw Uchiha Izumi slumped on the ground. The girl was watching in horror as a version of Uchiha Itachi swung his blade toward a child who looked no more than three or four years old. Nearby, two elderly people lay in a pool of blood.
Looking down at the "Weasel" slaughtering his own kin, Hikari's brow furrowed in distaste.