In an instant.
Kurenai still had tears hanging on her face.
But the sorrow in her eyes had already been replaced by a far more complicated emotion.
Kurenai suddenly shoved Teizawa away.
She crossed both arms over her chest, her cheeks flushed red, and stared into his deep eyes.
"What are you doing?"
Teizawa's hand was still suspended in midair.
Frozen in a grasping motion.
He merely shrugged, then smoothly reached back and closed the door behind him.
The movement was fluid and natural.
As if he had done it countless times before.
"I came to see you in the middle of the night…"
He turned his head, a half-dead smile tugging at his lips.
"What do you think I'm here for?"
Kurenai's face turned even redder.
She wanted to argue, wanted to curse him out, wanted to tell him, "Get the hell out"…
But when the words reached her lips,
they turned into a weak, powerless murmur instead.
"You… wait…"
Teizawa had already stepped forward and wrapped an arm around her waist.
The motion was overbearing, yet natural, impossible to refuse.
Kurenai struggled for a moment.
When she realized she could not break free, she simply gave up.
She leaned against his chest, feeling that familiar warmth and scent.
A complicated emotion she could not name welled up inside her.
"What is it this time?"
Teizawa lowered his head and looked at her.
There was a trace of helplessness in his tone.
But even more than that… indulgence.
Kurenai bit her lip, then finally gathered the courage to ask the question that had been weighing on her heart for so long.
"Tell me honestly…"
She lifted her head and looked straight into his eyes.
"Asuma… did he die because of you?"
Something flickered faintly in Teizawa's eyes.
He did not answer right away.
He only looked at her, at those eyes filled with tangled emotions.
"Why would you ask that?"
He answered her question with another.
Kurenai gave a bitter smile.
There was guilt in it, unease, and a deep exhaustion.
"I… I don't want him to have died because of me."
She paused, her voice dropping lower.
"If it really was because of me… I'd never forgive myself for the rest of my life."
Teizawa looked at her.
At the guilt on her face, the struggle in her eyes.
At that complicated fear that she might somehow be the true culprit.
As expected.
He thought to himself.
These native shinobi of the ninja world - once you had their bodies, it was only a matter of time before you got their hearts.
He knew very well how deep Kurenai's feelings for Asuma had once been in the original story.
But that had been built on the foundation of her still being "whole."
Now, though…
The corner of his mouth lifted slightly.
"No."
He spoke in a firm tone.
"It had nothing to do with me."
Kurenai froze.
"Asuma died fighting Hidan, a member of the Akatsuki."
Teizawa continued, his voice steady and serious.
"They didn't have enough intel. They didn't know what that lunatic Hidan's ability was, so he got caught by it."
He paused, then lowered his head to look at her.
"But I already avenged him."
"That madman Hidan was dismembered by me. He's packed away in a box now, stored in a lab in Sunagakure."
Kurenai's pupils contracted slightly.
She parted her lips, as if to say something.
But in the end, she only let out a long breath.
That breath carried relief, release,
and the lightness of finally having a burden lifted.
It was not because of him.
And not because of her.
It had simply been an accident.
That realization finally made the stone that had weighed on her heart for so long fall away.
She closed her eyes and rested her head against his chest.
"Thank you…"
Her voice was muffled, so soft it was almost like sleep-talking.
Teizawa said nothing.
He only gently stroked her back.
Several seconds passed in silence.
And then…
Kurenai suddenly let out a startled cry.
"Ah!"
Her cheeks turned scarlet in an instant.
Her whole body trembled slightly.
"Don't… don't do this here…"
Her voice came out in broken pieces, tinged with pleading.
"Carry me back to the bedroom…"
Teizawa looked down at her, the smile at his lips deepening slowly.
"All right."
He agreed, but he did not let go.
He merely adjusted his hold
and swept her up into his arms.
Kurenai instinctively wrapped her arms around his neck.
She buried her face against his chest, too embarrassed to look at him.
Holding her, Teizawa strode toward the bedroom.
His footsteps were steady and unhurried, as though he had walked this path countless times before.
The bedroom door was gently pushed open, then softly closed again.
Moonlight spilled through the gap in the curtains,
casting hazy shadows across the floor.
The two of them were already long familiar with this sort of thing.
There was no awkward testing, no unnecessary words.
Only the most primal, the most familiar…
The night was deep.
In some corner of Konoha,
inside an unremarkable house, two figures were entwined together.
Outside the window, the rain gradually came to a stop.
As if even it had grown shy, not daring to watch any longer.
…
At the same time.
Inside the Root underground base, in the candlelight.
The dim yellow glow shone against the cold stone walls, throwing mottled, wavering shadows.
The air was damp and chilly, carrying the musty smell of a place that never saw sunlight.
Danzō Shimura sat on a crude wooden chair.
His right eye was tightly wrapped in bandages, leaving only his left eye exposed, dark and unreadable.
He simply sat there without moving.
Like a statue.
Fū Yamanaka stood at his side.
He too did not move, like another statue.
Time passed second by second.
The candle flame flickered, occasionally giving off a faint crackling sound.
Danzō's brows gradually drew together.
"You said…"
He finally spoke, his voice hoarse and low.
"That man said he would come see me?"
Fū bent slightly, his tone grave as he replied,
"He did indeed say so."
Danzō fell silent for a moment.
Then he let out a breath and leaned back in his chair.
"Then this old man will wait a little longer."
After all, he was the Kazekage. After all, he held the Four-Tails in his hands. After all, this meeting concerned Konoha's future strategic layout…
Waiting a little longer was only proper.
So he kept waiting.
…
The candle flame continued to flicker.
Time continued to pass.
A quarter of an hour.
Half an hour.
An entire hour.
Danzō's brows drew tighter and tighter.
In that one exposed left eye, impatience began to show.
At last, Fū could not help but speak.
"Danzō-sama, I'll go invite him once more."
"No need."
Danzō's voice was as cold as ice.
He rose to his feet and walked to the window.
The unsteady light cast alternating brightness and darkness across his face.
"That man…"
He paused, then let out a cold laugh.
"I'm afraid he never intended to come at all."
Fū fell silent.
He knew Danzō was right.
That Kazekage had never once taken them seriously.
"What a fine Kazekage."
Danzō's voice grew colder still, laced with suppressed anger.
"What a fine Teizawa."
He turned around and slowly walked into the darkness.
That hunched silhouette was stretched long beneath the candlelight.
"We…"
His voice drifted out from the darkness, cold and certain.
"…shall see."
When his words fell, his figure disappeared completely into the dark.
Only Fū was left behind.
Standing beside the wavering candle flame.
He looked toward the direction where Danzō had vanished.
There was still no expression on his face.
But in his heart, one thought silently flashed through his mind:
That Kazekage…
He actually dared to stand Danzō-sama up?
The candle flame gave a soft flicker.
The underground base sank back into dead silence.
And somewhere in Konoha, in a warm bedroom… the man who had made Danzō wait half the night, the man who had stood him up, was holding the beauty in his arms, sleeping soundly.
(End of Chapter)
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