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By the time Sawara Kiri returned home with his vegetable basket, it was already evening.
He opened the door and took off his shoes.
Immediately, a pattering sound came from the kitchen.
"Onii-chan!"
The girl dragged out a long, drawn-out syllable, and like a small ball of fluff, she crashed into Sawara Kiri's arms with a thud, knocking the annoying small vegetable basket that had occupied her embrace's ecological niche awry.
Sawara Yuki struggled to lift her head from his embrace, looking indignant: "Why are you only coming back now? Didn't you say you'd be home last night? Why weren't you waiting obediently at home for me to absorb onii-chan energy?"
A deadly triple-question!
Sawara Kiri vigorously messed up the little thing's hair, helped her up, and casually said: "I went to the Hokage Building this morning to hand in a mission, which delayed me a bit, and I bought some groceries on the way back."
"Yuki, too, your patrol mission was supposed to last until noon today, right? You're home so early."
Yuki was like a clingy cat; even after he helped her up, she didn't step back, instead grinning and linking her arm through his other one, stating confidently:
"Because I was severely lacking onii-chan energy, I immediately used all my strength to Shunshin back home after the mission ended!"
"I also stopped by the Mission Hall to check Kiri's mission records and was happy for a long time when I saw you had completed the mission, but then I came home and no one was here."
"Yuki-sama, kanashii yo~ (So sad)!"
Upon hearing this, Sawara Kiri immediately leaned back, looking with an extremely subtle gaze at his sister, who clung to him, pouting like a pitiful little cat.
If he remembered correctly, the patrol area on your mission sheet was at least eighty kilometers from the Village, right?
— The mission ended at noon, and the little Genin student ran two full marathons back to the Village at full speed, then went to the Hokage Building to inquire about him, and finally, before the sun set in the afternoon, she pretended to be weak and waited at the door at home.
Just imagining this terrifying itinerary, Sawara Kiri felt a sense of being continuously pulled by an invisible black hole, a delusion and phantom pain that his entire life for the next few decades seemed to be distorted by this immense gravitational pull.
Heavy... heavy woman?
When did this start!?
However, when he thought that Yuki had already reached a 'Four' bond level, Sawara Kiri calmed down again.
He hadn't recognized the truth of this system before.
But now, after personally witnessing the extent to which Lady Tsunade, who had a very vulgar figure but an unexpectedly traditional and proper temperament, could be distorted in the "Final Path".
He suddenly felt that all of this seemed to be only natural.
Think about it.
Lifesaving grace, timely assistance, exchange of favors.
After a triple approach, his bond level with Tsunade barely reached Lv1 — under normal circumstances, this would already be considered laying a very deep emotional foundation, right?
He even rode a colorful auspicious cloud to save the beautiful widow; wouldn't it be acceptable to call himself her "intended" after rounding up?
From this, it's evident that this so-called "bond level" has an astonishingly high value.
Then, associating this with Yuki being his first heart-knot harvesting target...
"Hiss."
In Sawara Kiri's heart, a very unsettling association suddenly arose regarding Yuki's "Final Bond Path".
"Anyway, go wash your hands."
"Such a big girl, although she hasn't started growing yet, it's almost time for her to develop, so no more hugging and cuddling with brother from now on."
"Eh—!?"
Yuki's trailing voice was filled with great dissatisfaction. Her eyes widened, and she pointed at him, raising her voice: "Kiri! Barely allowing you not to bathe with me was already my bottom line!"
"Now I can't even hug you?"
"How can you be so greedy!"
Sawara Kiri, however, did not respond as he usually would. Instead, he somewhat forcefully changed the subject: "Yuki must be hungry too, right? We're having hamburger steak for dinner tonight."
"Hulululu—"
Yuki still clung to him, making a threatening cat-like sound.
"What? Don't you like it?"
Sawara Kiri tried to play dumb: "Then how about fried meat cutlets?"
The family relationship he painstakingly maintained to conceal his identity must not collapse due to the gravity of this clingy sister!
"..."
The brother and sister were at a stalemate in the entryway for a long time.
Finally, it ended with a light huff from Yuki, who reluctantly let go of his hands and followed him with her hands behind her back.
"Who said I don't like it."
"As long as it's dinner made by Kiri, Yuki likes all of it!"
Sawara Kiri finally let out a small sigh of relief in his heart, carrying the vegetable basket into the kitchen, and praised: "Oh! That last sentence from Yuki scored very high in brother's heart."
"Of course."
Yuki, who had been looking angry just a second ago, now had a cute, triumphant smile back on her face. She took the vegetables needed for dinner from the basket, washed and chopped them, her knife movements swift and precise.
Sawara Kiri, meanwhile, picked up the manual meat grinder in the kitchen and ground the fresh pork into the paste needed for the patties, continuing to ask:
"Does Yuki have some secret?"
"Why are you always able to make everyone around you happy with the simplest words?"
"Please teach the other socially awkward member of the Sawara family!"
Sawara Yuki put the freshly cut potato shreds into a basin, holding a kitchen knife, and turned to look at his back with a gentle expression:
"That's because of love, of course!"
"More than my parents, more than anyone else in this world, I love Kiri that deeply."
"Thud."
The kitchen knife embedded itself in the cutting board.
Sawara Kiri's heart also seemed to skip a beat with that sound.
Yuki had her back to him, her voice faint:
"So, onii-chan."
"The gardenia scent and alcohol smell on you, the two strands of smooth blonde hair stuck to your shirt, and a sickly sweet smell like dango..."
"Where did they all come from?"
"You... you didn't go on a date with some girl who likes to drink, did you?"
The coldness, like a sweeping winter, made Sawara Kiri feel as if his entire body was frozen in place, unable to move his feet.
It's over, my sister is a big problem!
While Kiri was being Entanglement by his clingy sister.
Located in the deepest part of the underground burial site, a large Anbu training institution, abbreviated as — Root Headquarters.
Shimura Danzo was sitting at his desk, covering his forehead with his hands, looking at the punishment and rectification notice sent down from the Hokage Building two hours ago.
The stack of documents made him tremble with rage, his entire body breaking out in a cold sweat and his hands and feet turning icy even on a hot day.
"Clang!"
Finally, he could no longer bear it.
He lifted both hands and violently flipped over the heavy solid wood desk in front of him, producing a dull thud.
He gnashed his teeth, pacing back and forth, shouting and cursing loudly to vent his emotions:
"That was an order! Attacking the Third Raikage was an order!"
"How dare they pin this failure on me just because the mission failed?!"
"The situation has deteriorated to this point, everyone in Konoha is deceiving me, even Sarutobi Hiruzen is doing so."
"They are all a bunch of disloyal and unjust cowards!"
Aburame Ryoma, who was nearby, saw that things were amiss, glanced at Orochimaru on the other side, and tried to appease him: "Danzo-sama, you cannot insult the Third Hokage."
Danzo's voice, however, rose even higher: "Cowards! Traitors! Incompetent trash!"
"Everyone wants to make peace just because of the threats from that mere girl Tsunade, and that idiot Hatake Sakumo who only knows how to kill!"
"And they even want to cut Root's staff by half?"
"I will never accept it!"
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