Noka waited outside Noritsune's door as he was changing. Once she could hear him say 'Come in', she opens the door.
"What is it you want to talk about?" Noritsune asks as she sat on the floor across from him.
"What did you do as a bad man?" she says and Noritsune immediately had a grey expression on his face.
"That's... you'll know it when you're older," he responds almost as a mumble.
"...Do you regret doing bad things?" she continues as Noritsune sighs.
"Yeah, I do... And I really hope to make up for it..."
"How??" Noka asks. But for some reason, her tone was much louder than before and she looked somewhat upset.
"Why do you want to know so badly?" he says slightly confused as Noka realize she raised her voice at an adult and looked down in embarrassment.
"Sorry, but.. bro told me, dad was a bad person so since he has the same blood in his veins... he thinks he's a bad person too," Noritsune's heart nearly fell to the floor as he heard Noka explain.
Her brother's situation sounds like a lot where he is. To have the blood of evil in his veins.
Noritsune let out a huge sigh and thought about the words she should give to her.
"Listen, um... Noka? Just because you're related to someone who did 'bad things' doesn't mean you're a bad person," he continues.
"Take Sohma for example, he and I are siblings of the same father but we grew up in different circumstances. Our, or my father, trained me to follow his footsteps to become a bad person," he frowns as he talked about his past but then he smiled.
"Sohma however, he became a good person to serve under the Chief of the Wind Village and Lord Yoshitsune as well. He finally had a family and when we reunited, they all let me be a part of it as well," Noritsune smile was sad but it was quite bright for Noka that she even smiled.
"Except for Hyosuke though," she stated.
"I'm still trying to make up for that guy," they both laughed.
"Anyways, life is something you can choose what to do. Others will play an important role in it as well. That's why you treat other's well okay?" he pokes her nose as she nodded and nudges his hand with her head.
"Do you want me to pet you?" he asks.
"Nyau~!" she purrs.
"Hehe, alright," he chuckles and ruffles her head gently but he couldn't shake the feeling he was being watched.
When he looks up towards the door, Hyosuke was standing there creepily glaring daggers at him.
"Uhh.. can I help you?" Noritsune said as Hyosuke opens the door a little more.
"Yoshitsune is requesting for you if you're done," he mumbles.
"I see, thank you," Noritsune smiles at him but he turns away in a huff. Noritsune sighs again and walks off leaving the two.
Noka looks up at Hyosuke who turns away from her huffing. Noka felt her heart getting heavy and tried lighting up the mood "Are you jealous~?"
"No! How could you betray me and be friends with him! Do you know that jerk- oof!" he held his gut in pain from being punch as Hyuga came out from nowhere.
"Hey Brats, the two of you should get packing," he says in a cold tone.
"..Y-yes..sir.." Hyosuke heaves in pain but Noka had a shaky look on her face.
"Oi Noka, come on," Hyuga orders her to follow him as she quickly chases after him.
As they walked, she looked up at Hyuga "...W-where are we going?" she stutters.
"...Somewhere far from here," he replies bluntly. "But we're also going to an adult social event so you have to behave as well,"
Noka went quiet after that with a look that Hyuga could tell that she was deep in thought. "You're awfully quiet," he spoke.
"Huh? I... how long are we going out?" she asks in a soft tone.
"A week or less... Maybe longer," he gives another blunt answer but when he looked down at her she looked somewhat scared.
"Are you... afraid to travel?" he says as Noka looked up at him in surprise that nods as she shuffles her feet awkwardly.
"...I guess whatever happened to you before traumatized you but it's your choice whether you want to go or not," he states.
"But... we might have a better chance and look for your brother," Hyuga suggested but as soon as she heard that she immediately stopped and quickly covered herself with her hood in fear.
Hyuga felt shocked and thought if he said something wrong. She wanted to look for her brother, right? Then why is she shaking so much? He wanted to say something to smooth things over until he hears someone coming.
"Noka?" (Y/n) says looking at the two.
"I..It's not what it looks like," he says and (Y/n) rush over to a shaking Noka.
"Shh.. shh... it's okay.." (Y/n) whispers gently as she grabbed onto her.
"Let's go Hyuga," she says and they both went into her room.
(Y/n) sat on the floor with Noka's head on her lap as she gently stroke her head.
"I'm sorry..." Hyuga apologizes as he sat next to (Y/n). "I probably said something wrong to her..."
"Hyuga... as long you apologize it's okay," (Y/n) assures her. However, Hyuga doesn't seem too convinced as he was looking down at Noka.
"Some parent I'm going to be... I can't understand a kid," he says.
"Don't forget, I'm your wife. We can go through this together. Baby steps!" she cheers which made Hyuga slightly smile and gave her a kiss on the head in return.
"Sorry I can't give you a proper kiss since the kid's here," Hyuga says and looks at Noka again but he notices that her eyes were closed. "She's already asleep?"
"They do say kids rest a lot and that's why they always have tons of energy," (Y/n) says.
"Huh, then I can do this," Hyuga pulls (Y/n)'s face to his and kisses her lips that soon grew deeper.
"Mmm... Hyuga!" (Y/n) pulls away with cheeks bright red. "What if Noka wakes up?"
"Nah, I've been waiting to do this for so long since you've only been taken care of her..." he pouts as he blushes.
"T-that's not true!"
"Just shut up and kiss me," he says and goes in for another kiss before (Y/n) could respond.
The next day, the group already headed out on the road ahead of them. (Y/n) promised Noka that she will buy her Manjū once they get to the next town. Plus, some of the guys could always cheer her up when she feels scared or sad. However, Hyosuke was still a bit grumpy with Noka that he didn't talk with her as he did before.
"Let's rest here for today," Yoshitsune said as everyone got off their horses. Hyuga helped Noka got off (Y/n)'s horse as they sat somewhere on the ground.
"Did you like riding Kurodayu, Noka?" (Y/n) asks as she nodded in response.
"I'm hungryyyyy... (Y/n) did you pack any food?" Hyosuke whines.
"I did, it should be in one of the bags we packed," she says as she stood up and walked over the horses.
"Hey Noka, want to find some water for the group?" Sohma asked as he walked over to her with Mizuki behind him.
"Okay!" Noka exclaims jumping back to her feet and follows after them into the forest.
Noka kept walking at a fast pace since they were adults and did a good job staying near them.
"Want us to slow down?" Sohma asks looking down at her.
"I'm fine!" she responds energetically.
"You sure?" Mizuki was the next to ask.
"Yup! I do this all the time," she answers as they both continued to walk.
"You walk through the forest all the time?" Mizuki says.
"Well we needed to get from town to town and I wanted to help bro while he was looking for work to travel,"
"What did your brother worked as?" Sohma continues to question her to keep up the conversation.
"A cook, florist, herbalist... whatever he could get and do. I didn't want him to be the only one so since he thought me about herbs and medicine I would go to the forest and pick herbs to sell them," she says.
"You're a smart girl Noka," Sohma praises her as he pets her head. As she blushes with pleasure, Mizuki stops.
"Did you find water?" Sohma asked as Mizuki nodded in response. He gestures two fingers for them to follow him as he walked off in the lead.
They followed after him as she looked up at Sohma who had a calm expression on his face. Noka sniffed the air as they walked deeper into the forest and the air was cold.
"We're here," Mizuki bluntly says and immediately they've found themselves in front of a waterfall. Mizuki went over with a bamboo canteen in his hand and scooped up some water. Sohma did the same thing as Noka watched both of them.
"Here Noka, try some," Sohma says handing the canteen from her and she grabbed it taking a huge gulp from it. She returns it back to him as he scoops more from the waterfall.
"How did you manage to find water so quickly?" Noka asks but Mizuki could only keep quiet.
"Mizuki's a ninja from the Water Village where ninja's train with the element and environment of water," Sohma says in his place.
"Is it a good idea to tell her that we're ninjas?" Mizuki said.
"Well, she's staying with us so she should at least know what's going on. It's already dangerous enough that she's traveling with us," he explains.
"Fair enough," Mizuki responded.
"Anyway, we should head back to the group. Right Noka- Where did she go?" Sohma says in a panic tone once he notices that they weren't around her.
"Noka!" Sohma shouts her name but Mizuki instead pointed his finger at a tree.
At the top were many peaches and she was up on one of the highest branches. She was picking the peaches from the tree and used her cloak as a bag to hold them all at once.
"Noka! Get down from there, it's dangerous!" Sohma shouts, jumping onto the bark of the tree and then grabbing a tree branch close enough to reach her.
"I found some peaches!" she exclaims showing her cloak carrying a bunch of them.
"That's nice, but let's get down from here," with his wooden arm, he scoops Noka up and jumps down from the tree.
"Are the two of you okay?" Mizuki asks with a worried look on his face.
"We're fine, right Noka?" Sohma grins.
"Yeah, look at these Mizuki!" she shows the peaches to him as he looks at them with a smile.
"These look really fresh.. Good work Noka," he says but she could barely see his smile with his mask on. She smiled brightly and thankful enough to get praise from him.
"Let's go back then, we've been gone long enough and I don't want to upset (Y/n) knowing that you're gone," Sohma says as they all agreed and went on their way.