Farewell

"It's normal that you don't know her; it was established just a few days ago," I replied, shrugging as I continued to move things without stopping. I do remember enough about Terumi; it's better not to give her too much time to talk or I'll get caught in a whirlwind of questions and gossip.

"Really? It's been a while since someone tried to do that; it seems like people don't learn," Terumi shook her head. It was clear that she didn't consider it smart for anyone to try founding a village given the current state of the ninja world. In her opinion, it was best to join an established village that had stood the test of time.

"Is that everything?" I asked Ameyuri when I looked around and saw that there didn't seem to be anything else to store, even the furniture her father had made was stored in the scroll.

"Yes," Ameyuri looked around at the walls with nostalgia, knowing that once the village realized her desertion, there was a good chance her father's house, built with his own hands, would be demolished.

"Don't worry, I'll drop by from time to time to clean the place if you ever want to come back and use it as a vacation home or something," Terumi assured while waving her hand.

Ameyuri looked at her friend with a complicated look; it wasn't an exaggeration to say that Terumi was among her top five most important people in her life. They had grown up together, saved each other's lives on missions, and helped her not feel alone in a village where strength prevailed in status. Without her, it was very possible that she would have become a tool without feelings for the village. She took a deep breath before taking a piece of paper from a box and handing it to Terumi.

"Is this... the property deed?" Terumi recognized the documents after reading the large words.

"No, keep them," Ameyuri said, raising her hand to stop her friend from returning them. "I remember that you've always wanted a more private place than the room you have in your clan. It seems to me that this place meets the requirements. Just make sure to take good care of it, okay?"

This was the only way Ameyuri found to prevent the house from being destroyed in her absence and at the same time, repay the friendship Terumi had given her all these years.

"You better invite me to the wedding!" Terumi didn't insist and stored the documents because she knew that once Ringo made a decision like this, she was too stubborn to change her mind. She might as well accept the house and make sure to always reserve a room for her friend.

"Count on it!" Ameyuri laughed heartily, giving Terumi's shoulder a friendly pat, and Enel scratched his cheek with a helpless smile. She had thought of celebrating the wedding on Sky Island once the two of them got more familiar with each other over time and when she could prepare a unique engagement ring. But if they have to invite people like Terumi, then maybe she'll have to reconsider where to hold the ceremony. She couldn't say it's a very realistic genjutsu, nor could she reject the guests once the bride invited them so convincingly.

"Thank you for supporting Ameyuri. I hope you can continue to do so in the future, no matter the circumstances," I said, taking an apple and handing it to the bewildered Terumi. "Take this as a token of gratitude; it's a specialty."

"An apple?" Terumi looked puzzled at the fruit in her hand and remembered the symbol on Enel's headband, assuming it made sense that apples were the specialty of her former village if they had gone so far as to use it as their representative symbol.

"Do you want to stay and spend some time with your friend?" I asked as Terumi continued to look at the apple. "I can wait for you at the entrance of the house."

Ameyuri understood without a problem that I was referring to the landing point.

"No, it's fine," Ameyuri shook her head, knowing that if she stayed, it would be difficult to leave, and she couldn't stand those kinds of things.

Terumi averted her gaze from the apple to look at the couple and raised the corner of her lips a moment later, misinterpreting Ringo's expression. Was she being the third wheel? Well, she couldn't blame them; she had seemingly interrupted a very enjoyable moment before.

"I should go, actually. I returned from a mission recently and went shopping, so I'm a bit tired. We can meet another day, okay?"

Without waiting for a response, Terumi left, and only after walking a few streets, she descended to the ground and looked back with a defeated expression.

"Why do all the good men end up with other women?" she sighed before returning her attention to the apple she was holding. "Well, I haven't eaten anything yet, and apples are healthy; let's give it a shot."

(◎ ◎) !!!

"Have all the apples I ate in the past been rotten or something?" she wondered for a moment.

...Back with Enel and Ameyuri...

Once Terumi left, I followed my fiancée to another place in the village she wanted to visit before leaving: the cemetery. Compared to the one I saw in Konoha in the series, the cemetery here was larger and less well-kept. Most of the tombstones were deteriorated, and only a few seemed to have been properly maintained.

"Since the implementation of the Blood Mist, people have been giving less and less importance to their dead," Ameyuri said as she guided me to a corner of the cemetery with familiarity. "People now prefer to use the dead as a reason for revenge or an excuse to unleash conflicts. Although I guess I can't complain about it; I did exactly that."

We stopped in front of two graves that were relatively better preserved and a bit separated from the cemetery area, with some white flowers around them and green leaves forming a distinctive, clearly artificial patch.

"These flowers are called Creeping Snowberry; they were my mother's favorite," Ameyuri said as she looked at the graves. "They don't need much care because they grow very slowly, and this environment is perfect for their growth. I managed to get a handful of high-quality seeds with some effort and planted them around here years ago, thinking they would like to feel their fragrance."

(These flowers exist in reality; you can look them up.)

"They're beautiful," I said honestly. I don't know much about flowers except for the most common ones like roses, but I'm aware that there are many that are a delight for both the eyes and the nose.

"Do you think we could plant one of your apples here?" Ameyuri asked, turning her head to look at me.

"I could, but it won't grow," I said, not just because of the unsuitable climate or soil. The absence of seeds was one of the things I requested to prevent someone from trying to plant apple trees behind my back. I have some apple trees on Sky Island, after all, and I want them to maintain their monopoly.

"Right, they don't have seeds," Ameyuri recalled that when she ate the apples, they seemed to have no seeds. "In that case, take out and give me an apple."

"Don't you want two?" I asked, thinking she would ask for one for each grave as an offering.

Instead of responding, Ameyuri took the apple, tossed it into the air, and with a swift motion of Kiba, she split it into two identical halves before leaving them on the ground at the foot of her parents' graves.

"My parents always liked to share desserts."

I put my arm around Ameyuri's shoulder, and we stood in front of the graves in respectful silence for an indefinite time before Ameyuri took my arm and led me away. Not without first bowing to what would be my future in-laws, promising to make their daughter happy.