"So you really are leaving... sob... huh?"
Hyuga Ruri had been crying her eyes out, but suddenly realized something. Looking at Keigo Uchiha's faintly smiling face, her beautiful eyes widened as she stammered, "Y-you bastard... you actually tricked us!"
Under the sunlight, Keigo Uchiha's handsome face was illuminated.
He was as dazzling as a sun god.
There was no one in the entire world more dazzling than him.
"Mi-chan, stop crying. This jerk was fooling us!"
Beside her, Inuzuka Mi's beautiful eyes trembled with confusion. Her little face was full of sorrow, tears silently streaming from her eyes, making her look like a wronged little thing. Hyuga Ruri pulled her over, and the two of them began pounding Keigo Uchiha's chest together.
"I'm terribly sorry, but from now on, you'll have no choice but to remain on the same team as us."
Keigo Uchiha grinned, his mood greatly improved.
"Who wants to be on the same team as you? You damned liar!"
"Oh? Then who was crying her eyes out just now, looking like she was ready to die?"
The three of them bickered and played all the way to Orochimaru's laboratory.
Along the way, the newborn sunlight shone upon them, filling them with youthful vigor. Inuzuka Mi wore a gentle smile at the corner of her lips, glancing at Keigo Uchiha from time to time as though confirming that he was still there.
Meanwhile, Hyuga Ruri gently touched her chest.
Her pretty face was flushed red.
At that moment just now, she seemed to have confirmed, through her body's reaction... the thing she had been avoiding all this time.
Under normal circumstances, Orochimaru should have been inside the laboratory. Yet this time, he was actually... chatting with someone outside, making Keigo Uchiha's eyes narrow in surprise.
"Teacher has friends