Unreasonable

In the room, a young man and woman sat facing each other. There was undeniably no hostility between them; on the contrary, they seemed quite close, though an air of heaviness hung between them as well.

The two were Qi and Anko, and the place they were in was naturally Anko's home.

Anko held a teacup in her hands, her expression somewhat dazed. In her confused eyes, longing and resentment kept alternating.

Qi, sitting across from her, looked far more composed. He leisurely drank the tea the girl had brewed for him, seemingly entirely unconcerned by her rather undignified state.

"You... you shouldn't call me that. Really, it won't do you any good."

Only after quite some time did Anko manage to say those words. Her expression had softened by then.

"You're older than me. Just call me by my name. You don't need to be so polite."

"You're my senior sister. That's a fact, and it's also the rule. Whatever the people above us are fighting over is their business. It doesn't affect the relationship between fellow disciples like us."

Qi chuckled. He knew why Anko felt awkward. Orochimaru was certainly one reason, while the other was that she was nearly four years older than him. Anko was still only nineteen and had only just been promoted to chunin. Of course, for a ninja, nineteen was already a sufficiently mature age. Ninja training often began when one was four or five.

However, seniority between fellow disciples was not determined purely by age. Anko had entered Orochimaru's tutelage far earlier than Qi, so it was entirely reasonable for Qi to call her senior sister. It was the same principle as how, despite the huge age gap between Minato and himself, he privately called Minato senior brother.

"Fellow disciples... You still