"D-darling!"
The reaction was almost immediate, and Sukuna knew he had made a mistake the moment Karin's expression changed. Hers and Sakura's both.
Karin's eyes widened for half a second before narrowing dangerously at Kiyomi's hand wrapped around Sukuna's, while Sakura simply stared at the Uchiha girl as if she had just grown another head.
Naruto, meanwhile, looked between them with the confused expression of someone who had accidentally walked into a conversation he absolutely did not understand, while Sasuke's eyes slowly moved toward his sister and then toward Sukuna, his expression becoming increasingly strange.
'When did this happen?' He honestly wondered.
"Darling? DARLING…!"
Karin finally asked, her voice dangerously sweet as she looked directly at Kiyomi.
"Since when do you call him darling? No… scratch that, you're not supposed to be calling him that…" She almost looked like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. Hairs were getting increasingly fussy, and an illusion of them floating up behind her was on display.
Kiyomi's smile only widened, and instead of answering, she leaned slightly closer to Sukuna while continuing to hold his hand. "Since I decided it suited him. Isn't that right, Darling…" She intentionally purred on that last word, which finally made Karin snap, and Sukuna sighed. He knew this would happen.
"Y-you bitch… get away from him right this instant… I should be there, Sukuna's dating me. Not you." Karin said, almost as though she needed to remind the entire world of that fact, before pointing accusingly at Kiyomi.
"I'm his girlfriend. You don't get to just start calling him darling!"
Kiyomi blinked innocently. "Oh? I wasn't aware nicknames required your current girlfriend's permission, darling…" Kiyomi said with a glint in her eyes toward Sukuna.
"What a bossy girl, you know men don't like those types. What do you say, wanna give me a go? I'll do exactly what you say. Everything. Thing…" She winked, which had both Sasuke and Naruto almost pop their eyeballs out.
Karin almost blew a gasket, and Sakura looked ready to murder someone. All her love for everything Uchiha seemed to vanish that moment.
Sukuna slowly looked toward the sky, already regretting every decision that had brought him to this moment.
"Kiyomi," he said tiredly, "you're doing that deliberately, ain't you…"
"Doing what, darling?" The immediate answer made Karin's eye twitch.
"Just stop, I don't need a quarrel before going to war."
Sakura had been silent until then, but she finally stepped forward with her arms folded tightly across her chest, glaring at Kiyomi with an expression that made it abundantly clear that she was not amused either.
If anything, she felt like punching the annoying bitch right in the face, but something told her that she might regret that, an instinctive feeling mostly which told her that Kiyomi wasn't the same.
She couldn't say what it was, but her body just seemed to know it, as if by instinct. So, she kept her temper in check.
"And since when did you two become so close?" she asked, her tone suspicious enough that even Naruto took a small step away from the conversation.
"We're teammates," Kiyomi answered casually. "We've been teammates for quite some time."
"And…" She trailed off. "I really like his ice cream…" She said suggestively, a clear jab at the ice cream incident which raised Sakura's blood pressure…
"Why you little…" Sakura shut her mouth before she said something she didn't want to… no, actually, she wanted to, but she shouldn't.
"That's not what I meant. And you know it too." Sakura said with a tick mark forming on her forehead, fist, even her neck by how much effort it took not to curse her to oblivion.
"I know." Kiyomi's smile became just a little more mischievous. "You don't like me being close to your brother."
"Or is it something else entirely…" She narrowed her eyes and looked at Sakura with a knowing smirk which immediately reddened Sakura's face.
"That's not—I'm his sister! Obviously I'm going to be suspicious when some girl suddenly starts calling him darling!"
"Sure, sure… whatever lets you sleep at night."
"Y-you…" Sakura's facial muscles seemed to spasm at the infuriating girl in front of her.
"And 'some girl,' Sakura, really?" Kiyomi repeated, placing a hand against her chest in exaggerated offense. "I'm hurt."
"You don't look hurt!" Sakura snapped. "It's most likely you're just enjoying this!"
"Very much so…" Kiyomi grinned.
Sakura finally turned toward Sukuna in frustration. "You… stupid, idiot… explain what's going on. Why she…" She trailed off at the mischievous and flirty girl in front of her, looking nothing like the Kiyomi she knew.
The girl was annoying, she agreed, but now she was simply infuriating.
Sukuna stared at her for a moment before looking down at the hand Kiyomi still had wrapped around his. "What a drag…"
Karin immediately nodded. "Exactly."
"Oi… she is your sister, right? Drag her out of here if you have to, just take her away." She snapped at Sasuke, who wasn't sure how to respond to that. Kiyomi gave both girls a satisfied little smile, apparently delighted that they had managed to agree on something. "You two really are cute when you're jealous."
"WE'RE NOT JEALOUS!!"
Sakura and Karin shouted together, which only made Kiyomi laugh.
Both girls looked at each other simultaneously, and just like that, an alliance was formed without any verbal or written agreement against the evil force of Uchiha Bitches.
Sukuna sighed deeply and looked at the three girls surrounding him, wondering how a simple goodbye before deployment had somehow turned into this.
As soon as he thought this was getting annoying and decided to stop it, everyone heard a voice.
"What a pathetic display."
The voice cut through the chaos before anyone could react, and the temperature around the group seemed to drop several degrees the instant one Neji Hyūga strolled into view, hands tucked lazily into his pockets, an insufferable smirk already fixed in place.
Sasuke's posture shifted immediately, shoulders tensing, Sharingan threatening to flare on instinct alone. Kiyomi's reaction was faster and far less subtle — the playful mischief that had colored her face a moment ago vanished entirely, replaced by something cold and sharp enough that even Sakura and Karin's bickering died mid-sentence.
"You. What the fuck are you doing here, Hyūga…" Kiyomi said, low, all traces of teasing gone from her voice. She, in fact, let out a killing intent which surprised everyone else besides Sukuna himself.
"Me," Naoya just seemed to shrug that killing intent off, very pleasantly at that, entirely unbothered by the venom directed his way. If he noticed the massive improvement in her curse energy, which he did, he didn't care enough to bat an eye at it.
"Still sore about our little match, I see. Understandable. Losing to someone this thoroughly tends to leave a mark. But then again, what did you expect? You're just a woman. That should be expected…"
"You…" Kiyomi said, her voice gone deceptively soft, "Careful, Hyūga… or I'll show you exactly how much of a mark I can leave next time."
"Threats from a woman." Naoya's smirk widened. "How adorable. Do try to remember your place before you write checks that body can't cash."
"Excuse me?" Both Sakura and Karin blinked at that. That almost felt too sexist, didn't it…
Their tempers redirected instantly toward the new target with that word. Strange female logic, Sukuna didn't look into it too deeply.
"You heard me." Naoya's eyes swept dismissively over the group, lingering with open condescension on each of the girls in turn. "Frankly, I'm amazed Konoha lets this many women play at being shinobi. No wonder the village is in decline…"
"You… watch how you talk to my sister…" Sasuke's irritation flared up, whether it was his own dislike of the guy or on behalf of Kiyomi, but spoke up.
"Oh, threats from the little brother too. How predictable." Naoya's gaze finally settled somewhere else entirely — the chūnin vest resting easily on his own shoulders, and he made absolutely certain everyone noticed it before he spoke again.
"Though I suppose I should be gracious. Not everyone gets promoted this quickly."
That landed exactly the way he'd intended it to. Every genin in the group went still, eyes snapping toward the vest they hadn't registered until he pointed it out himself.
"You're a chūnin!" Naruto said, disbelief plain on his face.
"As of this morning." Naoya's smirk somehow widened further. "Turns out excellent performance during an invasion counts for quite a lot. The village needed capable fighters for the front lines. Woman as she was, I have to give it to her, the old hag knew talent when she saw one…" His eyes flicked deliberately toward Kiyomi. "—Impressive, right…"
Naruto leaned sideways to Sasuke. "Who is he talking about now?"
Sasuke grunted. "The Hokage…"
"What… Tsunade Baa-chan?" Naruto's eyes widened, wondering how his bones were intact if he behaved like this in front of Tsunade.
Kiyomi's hand twitched on the other hand, toward the weapon at her hip before she visibly forced herself still, jaw clenched tight enough to ache.
"That's not fair," Sakura said, some of her earlier frustration with Kiyomi momentarily forgotten in favor of this fresh outrage. "We all fought in that invasion too."
"Fought, sure." Naoya shrugged. "Doesn't mean you fought well enough to matter. The village makes its decisions based on results, not participation trophies. Something the rest of you might want to internalize before you all get left behind entirely."
"Well, at least there is someone who is not useless here…" His eyes flickered to Sukuna, who looked completely disinterested in him.
Recalling the small visit the boy had given him regarding following certain rules while he was in the village, and scaring the living daylight out of him back in the Chūnin Exams… Neji made certain to keep his remarks mild at best.
Say whatever you want about Naoya Zenin, he knew when to bend when he saw someone strong. Too bad, his misogyny was stronger than his survival instincts. And Maki got one heck of a left hook.
Sukuna, who'd stayed quiet through most of the exchange, finally exhaled and stepped forward, cutting through the mounting tension before it could actually boil over into something physical. "As entertaining as this is," he said dryly, "we're leaving for the border. Some of us would like to actually prepare instead of standing around trading insults."
"Fine by me." Neji's attention shifted back toward Sukuna, something calculating flickering behind his usual arrogance. The shift in attitude was a little too extreme for the others, though.
"Bye… suckers." Neji grinned at the others and waved them off, then left.
He was gone before anyone could respond, footsteps fading down the path, leaving behind a silence thick with barely restrained fury.
"I am starting to hate him," Sakura said with a flat tone.
"Get in line," Kiyomi muttered with even more agitation.
"He's not wrong about one thing, though," Naruto said miserably, kicking at the dirt. "We are staying behind. While both of you—" he gestured vaguely at Sukuna and, grudgingly, toward the direction Neji had disappeared in, "—get to actually go do something."
Irritation and unsatisfied looks were clear on all of them before finally Naruto shouted.
"Ahhhh… I can't take it anymore…" He shouted, already running away.
"Oi… where are you going, you idiot?" Karin shouted.
"To Tsunade Baa-chan's office. I'll make her make me a Chūnin too, and I'll go with Sukuna as well." Naruto shouted from further away.
"That idiot." Sakura grunted. If only it were that easy.
"Hm… I'm going too." Sasuke grunted.
"You too…" Sakura was genuinely surprised.
"I refuse to stay back when both Sukuna and that Hyūga are going to the front line." That being said, Sasuke too dashed off behind Naruto.
"Darling… wait for me, I'll get my Chūnin vest from that old hag and meet you in a short while…" Kiyomi said with a wink, with a confidence that almost felt like she wasn't going there to ask for permission but rather demand the promotion…
And then he left.
"Seriously… Her too." Both Sakura and Karin looked at each other, and just like that a competitive feeling rose inside them, and both girls dashed away together.
Sukuna was left there alone.
"Sigh, What an absolute drag…"
xXx
A/N : AH... Do tell me, did you guys like me combining both Mai and Yorozu together as Kiyomi. We already know that both stand alone are not right, Mai is too much of an bum even though she was coming out of that phase recently and then there is Yorozu who is, well highly unfuctional with anything related to modern social norms. However, combine then together and you bring them in that perfect goldy lock zone. Of course, the big reason I did it this way is to, one, give Sukuna the lead he needed to figure out what was going on. Two, that would prevent me from having another character with same technique and not to mention another harem member for MC. And lastly three, make both Mai and Yorozu functional.
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