As night fell, stars dotted the sky and the moon hung high.
Ginji finally knocked on the Hatake family's main gate, guided by Nawaki.
"I thought you were gonna sleep with your Great-Gran today."
The moment the butler opened the door, Tsunade's voice came from behind him.
"Mom."
"Sister."
Ginji threw himself into Tsunade's arms while Nawaki respectfully addressed her as "sister."
"You're how old now? Aren't you even a little embarrassed?"
"You've set the date already, right?"
Tsunade lovingly patted Ginji's head before looking up at Nawaki.
"Yeah, in twenty-three days."
Nawaki scratched his head slightly, clearly feeling a bit awkward.
"Even my younger brother's getting married soon too."
"You need to act more mature from now on. You'll carry heavier responsibilities."
Nawaki could swear he'd never seen his sister smile so gently before.
"I get it. I'll do my best."
Nawaki lowered his hand, suddenly looking very serious.
"Come inside for a bit?"
Tsunade invited Nawaki in. After all, he didn't seem worried about returning home late.
"Don't worry about it. Just let Brother-in-law know. I'm heading back now."
Thinking about how he'd be interrogated by several people if he went in, Nawaki decided it was more comfortable just to go home.
"Alright then, we won't keep you. Head back safely."
Tsunade didn't bother inviting Nawaki again unnecessarily. She simply waved him away.
"Bye, Uncle."
After saying goodbye to Ginji, Nawaki turned around and left.
"You should go to bed earlier, Butler. Let others handle the gate-opening tasks."
Tsunade knew this butler was practically the only servant who had watched Kawaki and Hirai grow up—definitely not an ordinary servant.
"I'm going to rest already. I just happened to hear what was going on."
The butler bowed slightly, answering very politely.
With the current state of the Hatake household, he truly feared those clueless newlyweds might dishonor the Hatake name.
He felt safer handling things like opening the gates himself.
"You..."
"Never mind. I'll take Ginji myself."
Tsunade gave up; she knew he wouldn't turn in until very late.
"Goodnight."
The butler bowed until the footsteps faded, then straightened his posture, stroking his mustache thoughtfully and vanished back into the shadows.
"There you are, son. Come here, Dad's got you."
Kawaki opened his arms as he sat beside the stone table, and Ginji reluctantly sank into his strong embrace.
"Where did Great-Gran take you to play? Why are you back so late?"
When they weren't training, Kawaki doted on his son.
"Just look at his belly. Grandma definitely didn't listen to a word I said."
Still, Tsunade had expected this all along—the chances of Mito actually listening to her were about as likely as the sun rising in the west.
"I didn't eat that much."
"Great-Gran was happy today, so she took me shopping a bit."
"It's boring just walking around. Great-Gran bought some snacks."
Despite being so young, Ginji was sharp-minded and spoke with surprising sense and logic.
"Snacks again? How many did she buy?"
"And don't think I've forgotten—what exactly did you have for dinner?"
Tsunade fired two questions in a row, leaving Ginji completely speechless. There hadn't even been dinner—he was stuffed from all the snacks!
"There's dumplings, sushi, squid, sashimi..."
Ginji wasn't lying. He recalled every detail by counting on his fingers, looking utterly adorable.
"You even ate sashimi?"
"Great-Gran would never eat that kind of stuff."
Tsunade was a little surprised—Great-Gran and Ginji were surprisingly close.
"I thought Great-Gran was really enjoying it."
Ginji scratched his head. He originally thought Mito liked it so much that he gave her half of his own portion.
Now that he thought about it, no wonder Great-Gran had looked off—back then, he hadn't questioned it.
"You're just lucky. I and your uncle never had such treatment when we were little."
"We got beaten up pretty rough."
When Tsunade raised her hand, Ginji instinctively flinched and pulled away in fear—he clearly had trauma from this.
"Don't scare him for no reason. If you wanna hit someone, just go ahead."
Kawaki grinned wickedly, clearly amused, as he picked up Ginji and placed him on Tsunade's lap.
"Mama would never hit me."
Ginji wrapped his arms around Tsunade's neck without hesitation, showering her with sweet talk, completely forgetting how pathetic his cries had been when he actually got beaten before.
"Oh yeah? I totally would."
Tsunade clearly wasn't affected. These were all cheap tricks Kawaki had already overused.
"Haha! Serves you right for being overly affectionate."
"Come here to Auntie."
Natsuki couldn't help but laugh. She was probably the only one who'd never hit Ginji.
"Auntie treats Ginji the best!"
"Now I'm going to play with Big Brother and Little White."
Ginji quickly wriggled out of Tsunade's arms, kissed Natsuki's cheek, and dashed straight toward Kakashi.
"This kid is truly endearing."
Covering her mouth slightly while laughing, Natsuki was indeed the kindest maternal presence in the house.
"Tender hearts bring forth failed children."
Sakumo murmured under his breath, immediately shutting up when catching Natsuki's death glare.
"So Nawaki and Misaki finally set their wedding date?"
Natsuki shifted her attention away and returned to her gentle, virtuous wife mode.
"Yeah, twenty-three days from now."
"Sometimes I think... time really flies."
"In my memory, Nawaki was still that child always following me around. Now he's about to marry and raise a family himself."
Tsunade spoke with heartfelt emotion—she was no longer the young girl she used to be but had long settled into being a wife and mother.
"That's exactly how it feels."
"At this point, I'm already over thirty."
Natsuki still remembered vividly those small moments from when she was dating Sakumo—it felt like yesterday.
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"Okay okay, you two are still shining just as bright."
"With Nawaki's wedding coming up, Lady Mito must be super busy. Natsuki, why don't you go help more often?"
Sakumo rarely gave compliments, yet with his own hectic schedule, he could only ask his wife to step in.
"You don't need to tell me. I'll head over tomorrow."
Natsuki, being the thoughtful person she was, didn't really need reminders from such a blunt guy like Sakumo.
"Sister-in-law, thanks for all your hard work."
"I'll have Kawaki join you tomorrow. He's free."
Tsunade naturally wouldn't let that street-smart slacker Kawaki sit idly by.
"What do you mean 'I'm free'? At most, I'm just squeezing in some free time between everything else."
"Some things are better left unheard, but I'm Kawaki Hatake, the God of Shinobi. Do you think I don't care about my reputation?"
"Give me a break. You call dozing off in your office 'finding time amidst busyness'?"
Tsunade didn't spare Kawaki Hatake any face. This guy wouldn't believe it until he saw it with his own eyes.
"Cough cough~ I was just tired, that's all."
Kawaki Hatake awkwardly scratched his head. He couldn't really argue because what Tsunade said was indeed true.
"Just go already and stop whining."
Sakumo adopted Big Bro's authoritative manner, swaggering behind Tsunade, clearly enjoying the moment.
"Alright alright, I'll report to Grandma first thing tomorrow morning."
As for his future brother-in-law's wedding, even without being told, Kawaki Hatake would naturally take it seriously.
After all, Nawaki was his close buddy with whom he shared deep bonds.
"That's more like it."
Tsunade gave Kawaki Hatake a satisfied look. She wouldn't push him too hard tonight.
"Come to think of it, the destiny between Nawaki and Misaki is truly amazing."
"Who brings home a wife from the battlefield?"
Recalling how timid Misaki had been when Nawaki first brought her to the camp, Sakumo found the word 'destiny' truly profoundly poetic.
"You're telling me. That brat must've got damn lucky."
Tsunade burst into laughter but agreed. She believed Misaki would definitely become a model wife and mother someday.
"I think it's Misaki who got lucky instead."
"Anyway, we should just give them our blessings."
Kawaki Hatake remained silent. Only he knew just how tragic Misaki's fate would have been had Nawaki not appeared.
...
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