Please Marry Me (Please Keep Reading)

Naka River.

A youth in clan attire sat by the bank, staring blankly as the river flowed into the distance.

"Ah..." After a long while, he sighed and tossed the stone in his hand.

Splash!

The stone fell into the water, sending ripples across the tranquil surface. The handsome face reflected in the water shattered with them, yet the light screen before the youth's eyes did not flicker in the slightest.

[Welcome to the All-in-One Offense and Defense System!]

Looking at the interface that only he could see, Uchiha Chi finally couldn't hold it together anymore.

"Why did things turn out like this... Traveling to the Ninja World and awakening a system were obviously two happy things, so why did they end up like this...?"

Clearly, he was a transmigrator.

A few days ago, he had stumbled into the greatest stroke of luck in his life. Then, when he opened his eyes, he had arrived in this world and become an Uchiha.

The light screen before him was the system he had activated after transmigrating.

[This system can collect all kinds of emotions. Whether they are heartfelt blessings or vicious curses, they will rapidly increase the host's strength.]

According to the description of this All-in-One Offense and Defense System, as long as Uchiha Chi collected qualifying emotions for it, he could receive rewards. He could also earn points and exchange them directly for whatever he wanted in the shop.

However...

Ever since awakening the system, Uchiha Chi had gone out every day to help old ladies cross the street, guiding them from south to north, from sunrise to sunset.

Yet even after all the old ladies in the clan compound had started avoiding him, Uchiha Chi had not received so much as a single reward from the system.

After carefully reviewing the matter, setting aside the possibility that the old ladies simply did not know how to be grateful, only two possibilities remained.

The first was that those old ladies were not human at all.

However, Uchiha Chi felt that possibility was rather unlikely. After all, his luck could not possibly be so bad that every old lady he helped was not human.

As for the second possibility, the elderly were advanced in age, so the emotional fluctuations they produced were too weak to meet the system's collection standards.

Uchiha Chi's intuition leaned more toward that possibility.

Then how could he make their emotional fluctuations stronger...?

He couldn't exactly make a heartfelt confession to an old lady, could he?

Emotional fluctuations, emotional fluctuations...

Just as Uchiha Chi was racking his brain over this.

"Is that... Chi-kun?"

A clear, gentle voice drifted into his ears like a spring breeze.

Uchiha Chi turned around and saw a sweet-faced young girl standing beneath a banyan tree some distance away, looking across at him.

Shoulder-length brown hair, clear brown eyes, and the two purple markings on her cheeks...

Uchiha Chi recognized her at once. She was his classmate from his days at the Ninja Academy, as well as Uchiha Obito's crush—Nohara Rin.

"So it really is Chi-kun..."

When she saw Uchiha Chi's face as he turned around, a gentle smile appeared on Nohara Rin's face. She stepped out from the tree's shade.

"What are you doing here, Chi-kun? Are you... waiting for someone?"

As she spoke, a trace of curiosity flashed through her eyes.

In truth, Nohara Rin did not know much about Uchiha Chi. She only knew that although he was handsome, he was rather withdrawn and always kept to himself. She had never seen him close to anyone.

Yet at this hour, after sunset, he had come alone to such a secluded place as Naka River. It was difficult for Nohara Rin not to think that he was waiting for someone here.

So who was he waiting for?

Unable to suppress her curiosity, Nohara Rin studied the instant-noodle-haired youth before her.

At the same time, Uchiha Chi's gaze locked onto Nohara Rin.

Naturally, it was not because he was a lecher. After all, he only liked gentle older women.

It was because seeing the girl before him gave him a clever idea.

Emotional fluctuations...

The threshold for emotional fluctuations in boys and girls should be much lower than in the elderly, right?

With that thought, the look in his eyes gradually grew heated.

Lips, neck, collarbones, arms... Uchiha Chi overlooked not even those fair little feet.

Perhaps he had been going about this the wrong way all along...

Feeling Uchiha Chi's aggressive gaze, Nohara Rin took half a step back. "...Chi-kun?"

Uchiha Chi came back to his senses and hurriedly waved his hands, explaining apologetically, "Sorry, I was thinking about something just now."

"I see..." Nohara Rin nodded in understanding as she slowly backed away, getting farther and farther from him.

That was clearly not what Uchiha Chi wanted to see.

He called out to stop Nohara Rin. "Don't go yet!"

Nohara Rin jumped in fright and looked at Uchiha Chi like a startled deer. "W-what is it?"

Although she had stopped walking, her body was still angled away from him, as though she was ready to run at any moment.

Seeing how cautious she was, Uchiha Chi could not help but chuckle.

"I really am waiting for someone here." He blinked. "Do you want to know who it is?"

At his words, a conflicted look appeared on Nohara Rin's face.

His gaze just now was so strange...

Nohara Rin pressed her lips together in hesitation.

She wanted to hear the gossip, but she also wanted to run away.

But...

It should be fine if she only listened for a bit, right?

And besides...

Nohara Rin secretly glanced at Uchiha Chi's profile.

He doesn't look like a bad person.

With that thought, Nohara Rin stopped and looked at Uchiha Chi.

"Then," she no longer hid her curiosity, "who is Chi-kun waiting for?"

She took the bait!

Seeing Nohara Rin's curious expression, Uchiha Chi's lips curled up, and he nearly hummed on the spot.

With the setting sun sinking beneath the horizon behind him.

Uchiha Chi turned to face her and softly said, "I'm waiting for you."

Ding!

The moment he finished speaking, a crisp mechanical sound rang out in Uchiha Chi's mind.

Uchiha Chi's heart stirred slightly. The system had really been triggered.

It seemed his guess had been correct. To successfully trigger the system, the target not only had to feel emotion, but the intensity of that emotional fluctuation had to be great enough.

Then...

He lowered his gaze and continued looking at Nohara Rin.

Increase the dosage!

On the other side, Nohara Rin blankly pointed at her own face.

"Eh... me?"

A trace of confusion appeared on her little face. She clearly had not expected that the person Uchiha Chi had been waiting for would be her.

Did he need something from her?

But they had barely spoken before, hadn't they?

Had there been some mistake?

"There's no mistake. You're the one I'm waiting for." As though he had heard her thoughts, Uchiha Chi gazed into her light-brown eyes and said seriously, "Nohara Rin, there's something I want to tell you."

As he spoke, he walked over to Nohara Rin and met her eyes with an almost devout gaze.

Feeling the youth's burning stare, Nohara Rin felt dizzy.

Thump, thump. Thump, thump...

What does he want to tell me?

Nohara Rin lowered her head and tightly clutched the hem of her clothes, unconsciously holding her breath.

She did not know what was about to happen, but her heart was pounding so fast, so fast, as though it might leap out of her body at any moment.

After a while, Nohara Rin spoke in a voice so soft that even she could barely hear it. "What does Chi-kun want to tell me?"

Without the slightest pause.

Uchiha Chi loudly answered Nohara Rin's question.

"I've liked you for a long time. Please marry me!"

At the same time, from within a bush in the small woods.

A heart-wrenching roar rang out.

"Kakashi, let go of me!"