Pakura's Rebirth!

Moonlight spilled like water, yet it could not douse the stifling heat inside the room.

A peculiar, blush-inducing scent hung in the air.

Pakura knelt on the floor with her head lowered, mechanically gathering the mess scattered across the ground.

Whenever her fingers touched the torn fabric, her fingertips trembled faintly.

It was too quiet.

The only sounds in the room were the man's soft breathing and the occasional chirp of insects outside the window.

This silence felt even more oppressive than the stormy commotion from before.

Tobirama Uchiha leaned against the headboard, his scarlet eyes roaming brazenly over her body.

From the pale nape exposed as she bent over, to her slender waist, and then to her powerful, shapely legs.

It was a perfect body, honed through years of brutal training.

Like a fully drawn bow, it brimmed with wildness and tension.

"You're cleaning up rather slowly."

Tobirama suddenly spoke, his voice hoarse and lazy.

Pakura's entire body stiffened, and her hands paused for a moment.

"S-Sorry, Master. I'll be done soon."

She did not dare look back. She could only hasten her movements, trying to escape that gaze that seemed determined to see straight through her.

"Come here."

Without any warning, Tobirama gave another order.

Pakura's heart suddenly clenched as though a massive hand had seized it.

She bit her lower lip, hesitated for half a second, then slowly rose and turned around.

Under the moonlight, her spirited face was flushed red. Her eyes flickered as she did not dare meet the man leaning against the headboard.

She shuffled toward the bed step by step.

With every step, her legs felt as heavy as lead.

"Raise your head."

Pakura took a deep breath and forced herself to look up.

The next second, a large hand reached out, its rough fingertips lightly caressing her burning cheek.

The touch was not gentle. It even carried the invasive force of possession.

"You heard everything outside just now, didn't you?"

Tobirama's touch made her narrow her eyes involuntarily.

"Your heart is beating so fast, and you're sweating more than you do in battle."

"What? Even a hero of Sunagakure can't handle a scene like this?"

Pakura clenched her fists tightly, her nails digging into her palms.

Shame washed over her like a tide.

This Devil!

He clearly knew what kind of torment she had endured outside, yet he still had to tear away that last veil and drag her shame out to whip it over and over again!

"I... didn't."

Pakura tried to deny it, but her voice shook so badly that it carried no conviction at all.

"Didn't?"

A teasing curve formed at Tobirama's lips.

His hand slid down from her cheek, passed over her long neck, and finally stopped at her collarbone.

His fingertips pressed lightly against her throat.

"Your body is far more honest than your mouth."

"The rhythm of this pulse can't lie."

"And besides..."

Tobirama suddenly leaned closer and whispered into her ear, his warm breath brushing over its edge.

"Your scent has changed. It smells like desire."

She wanted to retreat. She wanted to run.

But the hand pressing against her throat was like an iron clamp, sealing off every path of escape.

"What? Don't you want to resist?"

Tobirama looked at her eyes, filled with fear and struggle, amusement flashing through his own.

"You're a user of the Scorch Release Kekkei Genkai. If you wanted to, you could throw a fireball into my face right now."

"Or drive a Kunai into my heart."

"Why aren't you doing it?"

Pakura trembled.

Fight back?

Of course she had considered it.

But leaving aside the hopeless gap in strength, just thinking of Maki sleeping next door and Sunagakure being flattened by a meteor...

All her killing intent turned into profound helplessness in that instant.

She could not resist.

And she did not dare resist.

Even... in the depths of her subconscious, faced with this supreme powerhouse who had destroyed her faith in an instant, she felt a twisted urge to submit.

Pakura closed her eyes, and two streams of tears slid down her cheeks.

She released her clenched fists, letting her arms hang limply at her sides.

It was a silent answer.

And a complete surrender.

"Hmph. A smart choice."

Tobirama stubbed out the cigarette in his hand.

Since the prey had already given up struggling and exposed its softest belly.

Wouldn't it be a waste for the hunter not to enjoy the feast delivered right to him?

"Since you listened for two hours, why not... make up this lesson yourself?"

Before his words had faded.

Tobirama suddenly reached out, seized Pakura's wrist, and yanked hard.

"Ah!"

Pakura cried out as she lost her balance and fell onto the wide bed.

The next second.

A scorching body filled with masculine heat pressed down on her like a mountain.

Tobirama braced one hand beside her ear while the other covered her lips.

He glanced toward Tsunade, who was still sleeping beside them.

"Keep it down."

"If you wake her up, you won't be able to bear the consequences."

Pakura's eyes widened, her pupils shaking violently.

Madman!

This man was truly insane!

Tsunade was right beside them! Even if she was asleep.

But Tobirama gave her no chance to think.

His burning kiss, like a raging gale sweeping through the desert, instantly stole her breath away.

Tyrannical and beyond question.

This was not asking. It was plundering.

It was conquering territory.

Pakura's formerly rigid body began to tremble involuntarily beneath that overbearing force.

Having grown up in the Land of Wind, Pakura often felt like a lone blade of grass in the desert. But now, she had suddenly encountered the most terrifying downpour in a century.

The rain was not gentle nourishment. It carried the force to destroy everything, threatening to uproot and drown her completely.

"Mmph...!"

Pakura tried to make a sound, only to have it ruthlessly smothered.

Then.

The storm descended.

If Tsunade was a reef capable of withstanding a storm.

Then Pakura was a dam utterly incapable of resisting a flood.

Once its gates were forcibly breached, all that awaited her was total devastation.

Pain intertwined with an unfamiliar sensation.

Pakura bit down hard on a corner of the pillow, her fingers clawing at the sheets beneath her until her knuckles turned white.

She did not dare cry out.

She could only whimper deep in her throat like a wounded little beast.

That suppression instead became the finest catalyst.

It was the thrill of transgression, the pleasure of surrender.

It was the despair and madness of a defeated woman being utterly possessed and branded by the victor.

Tobirama showed no tenderness whatsoever.

For a rose covered in thorns, only the fiercest methods could grind those thorns down one by one.

He could feel the body beneath him shift from resistance, to trembling, and finally to compliance.

It was the process of the flames called Scorch Release being utterly extinguished and assimilated by an even more tyrannical tsunami.

The temperature in the room kept rising.

It grew even hotter than before.

Moonlight filtered through the gap in the curtains, falling in mottled patches across them.

Their shadows overlapped and swayed on the wall.

Like candle flames flickering in a violent wind, ready to go out at any moment, only to burn even more fiercely the next second.

Pakura felt as though her soul had been pulled from her body.

She seemed to be stranded in a vast ocean, surrounded by towering waves.

Unable to grasp anything, she could only cling tightly to the man above her, the man who gave her this storm.

He was her only driftwood.

And her only master.

On this long night.

Pakura, the hero of Sunagakure, died.

What took her place.

Was a woman whose pride had been shattered, whose body and soul had both been branded with Tobirama Uchiha's name.

No one knew how much time passed.

The storm finally subsided.

Pakura lay sprawled on the bed like a puddle of mud, without even the strength to move a finger.

Her eyes were unfocused, and sweat-soaked strands of hair clung tightly to her cheeks.

The Sunagakure forehead protector that had once represented her pride had somehow fallen onto the carpet, looking especially ironic.

Tobirama got up and refreshedly rolled his neck.

The Nine-Tails' chakra and Hashirama Cells within him granted him endless stamina. This level of exertion was no more than a warm-up to him.

He looked down at Pakura, who had completely passed out, and a satisfied smile tugged at his lips.

This blade.

Had finally been properly sharpened.

He casually pulled over a blanket and covered her with it.

Then he glanced at Tsunade, who had turned over and was still sleeping like a dead pig, and chuckled.

"Neither of them can put up a fight."

"Looks like I'll have to keep developing new combat power."

Tobirama lay back down, wrapping his left arm around Tsunade while resting his right hand on Pakura's waist.

Surrounded by these two renowned female powerhouses of the Ninja World, he closed his eyes.

That night.

The wind in Konoha was very gentle.

But for certain people, it marked a world-shaking rebirth.