After Yakumo and Hinata finished listening, their two cute little faces scrunched up the same way.
They imagined themselves in that situation, pictured the whole scene, and Hinata nearly lost control of her Byakugan.
Looking at it this way, the situation really was urgent.
Karin, on the other hand, only frowned a little, then picked up the dango on the table and started eating.
Honestly, she was already used to what Sakura described.
She often ate at Aoba's house.
Scenes of those two eating, then… weren't exactly rare.
And there was Konan too.
Those two older sisters were like sharks, always looking like they were going to swallow Aoba whole.
"I think we can't keep fighting separately anymore. We have to join forces!", Ino stood up, clenched her fists, as if giving an important declaration.
"Yugao-nee and Konan-nee are our biggest enemies!"
"We need to snatch Aoba from their hands. We can't let them monopolize him forever!"
At least she didn't forget about Konan.
"But… Yugao-nee and Konan-nee both live with Aoba-kun, and Yugao-nee has been taking care of him since he was little. We can't win," Hinata pointed out their biggest disadvantage.
"This…"
The full-on fiery Ino instantly deflated.
"Karin, why do you look like you don't care at all?"
Yakumo poked Karin, who was happily eating dango like she was totally outside the situation.
Karin pursed her lips, "I got used to it ages ago at home. What you guys saw is nothing."
She told them everything she'd seen at home.
The girls instantly fell silent.
"Do you think… Aoba might have already with Yugao-nee…"
The last few words Sakura said were very quiet, but the girls all heard them and their faces flushed.
"Sakura, what are you even saying!"
Ino poked Sakura's waist, face red.
She had only ever kissed Aoba so far, but Sakura was already thinking like that?
"Because… when Inner Sakura goes to find Aoba at night, she's always blocked by a barrier."
Sakura spoke a bit guiltily, but no one was focused on that.
Hinata nodded as well, "My Byakugan can't see through it either."
"Karin, have you noticed anything?"
Tenten looked at Karin, and the others also turned toward her.
After all, Karin lived right next door to Aoba's house. She'd definitely be the most likely to notice something.
Karin hesitated, then nodded, "Yugao-nee and Konan-nee… probably already…"
Everyone was struck like lightning, dead inside.
They weren't even grown yet, and Aoba had already been...
"We have to take action!"
Hinata was the first to make up her mind.
She didn't notice that beside her, Yakumo had been keeping her head down the whole time, hiding the guilt in her eyes.
After all, she and Aoba, although… Well, you could say they understood each other very well by now.
———
[Amegakure/Village Hidden in the Rain]
Rain drizzled softly from the sky.
Aoba had no idea the girls were plotting something. He simply held an umbrella and walked down the street with Konan.
Konan held a bouquet of white chrysanthemums. Since she hadn't returned to the Rain Village in a long time, she planned to pay respect to the fallen members of Akatsuki.
Of course, she meant the former Akatsuki.
Before coming, she had even gone to the Yamanaka flower shop to buy a bouquet of white chrysanthemums.
And because he kept going there with different girls, Aoba had received plenty of white-eyed glares from Yamanaka Rino.
Thankfully Ino wasn't there, or she would have bitten him again.
"Pain should already know we've arrived."
Konan stretched her hand outside the umbrella, feeling the raindrops fall into her palm.
There was faint chakra within the rain. If you didn't sense carefully, you'd never notice it.
This was Nagato's Rain Tiger at Will Technique.
"Then should we go see Pain first?", Aoba asked.
Konan shook her head, "No. Come with me to the memorial stone first."
"Sure."
Aoba had no objections.
He had worried earlier that Nagato might have already found traces of the Six-Tails Jinchuriki and run into Terumi Mei's group, but it seemed he didn't need to worry now.
Just as they reached the memorial stone.
The figure of Deva Path Pain also appeared behind them.
"Konan, is that flower from Konoha?"
Because of Rain Village's environment, flowers didn't grow well there. White chrysanthemums didn't grow at all, so they normally used paper flowers for memorials.
As he appeared, the gentle drizzle suddenly stopped.
The rare sunlight pushed away some of Rain Village's usual gloom, making it a bit fresher.
That little act had a bit of "showing off" mixed in.
Konan inhaled the fragrance of the flowers, then gently placed them at the Akatsuki memorial stone.
Softly, she said, "Pain, real flowers will always be better than fake ones. Even if they wither, they can return to the soil and guard them."
"..."
Pain didn't speak. After some time apart, Konan seemed even more mature.
In many meanings… he felt.
And most likely because of that Aoba guy.
He turned and looked at Aoba, and clearly spotted the wound on his lip.
He didn't have experience in these things, but some things were obvious.
Aoba also noticed Pain staring and looked puzzled.
He didn't know why, but even though Pain was just a puppet body, he could still somehow read displeasure from that expressionless face.
He was just standing there quietly… how did he offend him again?
Pain withdrew his gaze, shook out the annoying mental images, and looked back at Konan.
"How long are you planning to stay this time?"
Konan's expression stiffened slightly, "Pain, the main reason we came this time is to find you."
"Find me?"
Pain looked surprised, though his puppet face stayed the same, "What is it?"
"This…"
Now that it came down to saying it, Konan found she couldn't get the words out.
Leaving Akatsuki was already something she felt guilty about toward Nagato, and now she had even poached Kakuzu and Sasori. That really was too much for Nagato.
Naturally Aoba noticed her difficulty and spoke up.
"A couple days ago, my teacher and I went to Takigakure, and we happened to run into Kakuzu and Sasori."
Pain's gaze sharpened, his voice turning cold as he looked at Aoba, "You killed them?"
"No. The two of them joined Konoha."
Aoba answered calmly.
"Huh?"
Deva Path Pain's puppet seemed to freeze, and far away in the central tower, Nagato himself showed a stunned expression.
His anger suddenly lost all foundation.
He thought the two had been killed by Aoba, but who knew they had actually changed jobs.
A moment later, Nagato suddenly realized…
'Am… am I about to become the last man standing?'
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