(っ－＿－)っAM N. NOT.
Tsunade and Nemuri were discussing Nemuri's new advisory class while Tsunade talked about the plan she and her mother had prepared if they finally decided to leave the clan. While they spoke about their own agendas, their attention constantly drifted toward Maki, who had suddenly gone silent with his hands covering his ears.
They noticed that he didn't move at all. He remained completely still, almost unnaturally so, which caused both of them to become bewildered.
Then Tsunade suddenly felt something was wrong.
She sensed a surge of chakra flowing through his body.
It wasn't a normal flow. It felt like a dam filled with water that had suddenly opened slightly, releasing a portion of its overwhelming contents. Tsunade clearly felt it. The change lasted only a second, but she sensed it unmistakably.
The chakra around him was chaotic.
Surging.
"What is happening here?" she asked, standing up from her seat.
The overwhelming sensation of chakra suddenly surged again around Maki. Tsunade quickly walked over to him and placed her hands on his shoulder, shaking him slightly.
"Danna? What's wrong?"
Her voice carried clear concern.
Nemuri saw this. As someone who held authority over genetics, she could not sense the chakra surging from Maki. But seeing the worried expression on Tsunade's face made her uneasy as well.
"What's wrong, Sis-Tsuna?" she asked as she stood up from her seat.
Tsunade didn't answer.
The moment she touched Maki, the chakra she had sensed earlier grew even stronger.
"Ugh… what the fuck is this…"
Tsunade felt a stinging sensation when she touched his shoulder, but she refused to remove her hand.
Nemuri quickly walked toward them, intending to inspect Maki as well.
But Tsunade raised her voice.
"Nemuri, don't touch him."
Nemuri immediately pulled back her hand just as it was about to reach him.
The two women were beginning to panic.
They didn't know what was happening to Maki. With so many strange things already surrounding him, this new development only deepened the eerie feeling growing inside them. They couldn't help but fear that something terrible might happen to him.
Meanwhile, Maki remained completely unaware of the situation.
Inside his consciousness, he continued watching the massive turtle island swimming freely through the ocean. The creature simply moved through the water, living peacefully in its vast domain.
There were no explanations.
No additional details.
Only the image of the enormous turtle roaming the sea.
Then the memory abruptly ended.
Inside Maki's consciousness, the endless void remained.
Normally, when fragments of memory finished playing, the system panel would appear.
But this time it didn't.
The void remained silent and empty.
Maki tilted his head and began walking through the darkness.
Then he heard it.
A heavy breath.
Just a single exhale.
Yet the force of it created a gust of wind that rushed toward him.
He turned his head to the left.
What he saw was the same eye he had glimpsed earlier.
A massive golden pupil surrounded by a golden-and-black iris.
It belonged to the island turtle.
Compared to that enormous eye, Maki looked like nothing more than an ant.
The golden eye stared directly at him.
Maki tilted his head and stared back.
Then he raised his finger and pointed at the eye.
"Y-you're that turtle island."
The massive golden eye examined the man standing before it.
Then a voice echoed through the void.
It was low and rumbling, slow and deliberate. Calm yet powerful, carrying the weight of something ancient and wise.
"What is your name?"
"Oh… you can talk… Damn…"
"Ateqarpunga Maki."
Maki answered the turtle island. His eyes were shining with excitement, like someone witnessing mythology, stories, and ancient legends suddenly becoming real right before him.
"If mother and father saw this massive turtle, they would definitely pass out from shock," he muttered to himself.
Then the ancient voice of the island turtle echoed again.
"The name is Isobu."
Maki heard the name and nodded.
Then the void suddenly disappeared.
His consciousness returned to the system panel.
He looked around, but the turtle's eye was gone.
"Where did that turtle go…"
Before he could think further, he felt someone shaking him.
His consciousness snapped back to reality.
His eyelids slowly opened.
To one side, he saw Tsunade gripping his shoulder, her expression filled with worry.
On the other side, Nemuri stared at him with equally concerned eyes.
"What? Wrong?" Maki asked.
Tsunade and Nemuri watched him carefully as his eyes opened. When they saw that his gaze remained calm and unchanged, both women felt a slight sense of relief.
Their eyes lingered on him, searching for any abnormal reaction.
There was none.
Tsunade felt the most confused.
Earlier she had clearly sensed a powerful surge of chakra. She had even felt Maki's body heating up, sending a numbing sensation through her hand when she touched him. Yet the moment he opened his eyes, the strange sensation completely disappeared.
Still, she refused to ask him about it.
She feared the earlier phenomenon might happen again.
So she swallowed all the questions and doubts rising in her mind.
She gritted her teeth in frustration. The mysteries surrounding him remained sealed, just beyond her reach.
Finally, she let out a breath of relief.
"Danna, are you okay?"
"Hmm… yeah. I'm fine," Maki said as he removed the hands covering his ears.
Nemuri, however, remained worried. Seeing Tsunade act that way had unsettled her too.
"Hey, bitch. What was that earlier? I got scared," she said while pointing at Tsunade.
Then she suddenly hugged Maki's head, pressing his face between her breasts.
Tsunade scoffed and crossed her arms.
"What do you know, you slut? You didn't feel the chakra earlier, so how would a slut like you know?"
Maki simply listened to their argument.
Everything seemed normal again.
So he closed his eyes once more and covered his ears with his hands.
AM N. NOT.(っ－＿－)っ