My Sister Also Has a Big Problem!

It was evening by the time Sahara Mizu returned home, groceries in hand.

He opened the door and took off his shoes.

A flurry of footsteps immediately came from the kitchen.

"Onii-chan!"

The girl's voice trailed off as she barrelled into Sahara Mizu's arms like a little furball, bumping the annoying little grocery basket that had occupied the prime spot in her embrace.

Struggling, Sahara Yukie tilted her head up from his chest, looking pouty. "Why are you only coming back now? Didn't you say you'd be home last night? Why weren't you here waiting for me so I could absorb some Onii-chan Power?"

A deadly triple question!

Sahara Mizu vigorously ruffled the little thing's hair, helped her stand up, and said casually, "I went to the Hokage Building to turn in a mission this morning, got held up for a bit. Picked up some groceries on the way back."

"Yukie, you too. Your patrol mission was supposed to last until noon today, right? How did you get home so early?"

Miss Yukie was like a clingy cat. She didn't back away after he helped her up. Instead, she hooked her arm through his other one with a cheerful grin, stating matter-of-factly:

"Because I was severely lacking Onii-chan Power, I Shunshined home at full speed as soon as the mission ended!"

"I went to the mission hall on the way to check Mizu's mission records. I was happy for quite a while when I saw you guys had finished the mission, but then I got home and no one was here."

"Yukie-sama, kanashii yo~ (So sad)!"

Hearing this, Sahara Mizu instantly leaned back, looking at his sister clinging to him with an incredibly subtle gaze. She looked like a pathetic little kitten with a pouting mouth.

If I remember correctly, the patrol area on your mission scroll was at least eighty kilometers from the village, right?

* Finishing the mission at noon, the little Genin student sprinted two full marathons back to the village at full speed, then went to the Hokage Building to check on him, and finally, before the sun set in the afternoon, pretended to be all weak and floppy, came home and sat by the door waiting.*

Just imagining this terrifying itinerary, Sahara Mizu felt a sense of being constantly pulled by an invisible black hole, a delusion and phantom pain that his future decades of life seemed to be twisted by this immense gravity.

Heavy... heavy girl?

When did this happen!?

However, thinking about how Miss Yukie's Bond Level had already upgraded to 'Four', Sahara Mizu calmed down again.

He hadn't recognized the truth of this system before.

But now, after personally witnessing the extent to which the very voluptuous yet unexpectedly traditional and proper Lady Tsunade could be twisted in the "Final Path".

He suddenly felt that all of this seemed perfectly reasonable.

Think about it.

Life-saving grace, help in a time of need, exchanging favors.

Even with this three-pronged approach, his Bond Level with Tsunade barely reached Lv1. Under normal circumstances, wouldn't this be considered a fairly deep emotional foundation?

He even arrived on a rainbow-colored auspicious cloud to save the beautiful widow. Rounding up, calling himself her "intended one" wouldn't be excessive, right?

This shows just how frighteningly high the value of this so-called "Bond Level" is.

Then, considering that Miss Yukie was his first Heart Knot target...

"Hiss."

In his heart, Sahara Mizu suddenly had some very unsettling associations regarding Miss Yukie's "Final Bond Path".

"Anyway, go wash your hands quickly."

"You're a big girl now. Even though you haven't started growing yet, you're getting to that age. No more hugging and cuddling with your brother from now on."

"Eh—!?"

Miss Yukie's voice was full of dissatisfaction as it trailed off. She widened her eyes, pointed at him, and raised her voice, "Mizu! Barely allowing you not to bathe with me anymore was already my bottom line!"

"Now I can't even hug you?"

"How can you be so greedy!"

Sahara Mizu didn't pay attention like usual. Instead, he changed the subject somewhat forcefully, "Yukie must be hungry too, right? We're having hamburg steak for dinner tonight."

"Hmph..."

Miss Yukie was still clinging to him, making a threatening little cat-like sound in her throat.

"What? Don't you like it?"

Sahara Mizu tried to play dumb. "How about fried meat cutlets instead?"

The family relationship he was painstakingly maintaining to hide his identity absolutely could not collapse because of this heavy sister's gravity!

"..."

The siblings stood in the entranceway, locked in a stalemate for a long time.

Finally, it ended with a light hum from Miss Yukie. She reluctantly released her grip, put her hands behind her back, and followed him.

"Who said I don't like it?"

"As long as it's dinner made by Mizu, Yukie likes all of it!"

Sahara Mizu finally let out a small sigh of relief in his heart. He carried the grocery basket into the kitchen and praised, "Oh! That sentence you just said, Miss Yukie, scored very high in big brother's heart."

"Of course."

The moment before, Miss Yukie had looked so angry, but now a cute, proud smile reappeared on her face. She took the vegetables needed for tonight's dinner from the basket, washed them, and chopped them with swift, precise cuts.

Sahara Mizu, meanwhile, picked up the manual meat grinder in the kitchen and ground the fresh pork into a paste for the meat patties. He continued to ask:

"Does Miss Yukie have some kind of secret?"

"Why can you always make everyone around you happy with the simplest words?"

"Please teach this other socially awkward person from the Sahara family!"

Sahara Yukie put the freshly cut potato shreds into a bowl. Holding the kitchen knife, she turned her head gently to look at his back.

"That's because of love, of course!"

"More than my parents, more than anyone in this world, I love Mizu that deeply."

Thud.

The kitchen knife embedded itself in the cutting board.

Sahara Mizu's heart seemed to skip a beat along with the sound.

Miss Yukie had her back to him, her voice low and eerie.

"So, Oniichan."

"The scent of gardenias and alcohol clinging to you, the two strands of soft golden hair on your shirt, and that sweet smell like dango..."

"Where did they come from?"

"You... you didn't go on a date with some girl who likes to drink, did you?"

That chill, like the onset of deep winter, made Sahara Mizu feel as if his entire body was frozen in place, unable to move.

I'm finished. There's something seriously wrong with my sister!

While Mizu was being entangled by his obsessive sister, deep underground, in a large Anbu training facility, known as the Root Headquarters.

Shimura Danzo sat at his desk, staring at the disciplinary and rectification notice that had been sent down from the Hokage Building two hours earlier. He covered his forehead with both hands.

This stack of documents angered him so much that he was trembling. In the heat, he was covered in cold sweat, his hands and feet icy.

CRASH!

Finally, he couldn't stand it anymore.

He lifted his hands and violently flipped over the heavy solid wood desk in front of him, letting out a muffled bang.

He paced back and forth, grinding his teeth, shouting and cursing loudly to vent his emotions.

"That was an order! Attacking the Third Raikage was an order!"

"How dare they blame me for the mission failure?!"

"Things have deteriorated to this point. Everyone in Konoha is deceiving me, even Sarutobi Hiruzen."

"They are all a bunch of disloyal, unjust cowards!"

Oil Aburame Ryoma, seeing that things were going badly, glanced at Orochimaru on the other side and tried to appease him. "Lord Danzo, you cannot insult Lord Third."

But Danzo's voice rose even higher. "Cowards! Traitors! Incompetent failures!"

"Everyone wants to smooth things over 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 this!"

(Sahara Yukie ↑)

Thanks to readers "My Yamato" and "Geda Nihao" for the monthly votes!

The next chapter will be a little late. I'm having dinner with friends today and will get home a bit later, probably around midnight.