Anko: "I will take responsibility!"

Early morning, rays of sunlight scattered like stardust.

Anko slept in a hazy daze, her eyelashes fluttering gently. Her slightly flushed face was filled with an unprecedented sense of peace.

The faint, fresh scent of grass lingering at the tip of her nose and the soft, comfortable bed made her subconsciously forget her worries, revisiting the high-quality sleep she used to enjoy during the incomprehensible theory classes at the Ninja Academy.

Wait, I feel like I've forgotten something. This doesn't seem to be my home...

In that instant, Anko jolted awake from her dream. She instinctively looked left and right, finally fixing her gaze on the familiar figure beside her. Her lips twitched, and she asked in a trembling voice.

"You... what are you looking at?"

"Hmm... a landscape that is neither ripe nor raw, green and tender—perhaps it has the potential to become one of the most beautiful sights in the world, hehehe."

Subconsciously pulling the quilt over herself, Anko looked suspicious, feeling a dull ache in her head. After peeking out from beneath the covers, she asked without even showing her face.

"What... what happened to us?"

"What happened? In this short half-night, many unforgettable memories were made, and I was able to taste the brilliant, raw beauty of an unripened scene..."

Before Hanazuki could continue, Anko stiffened under the covers, overcome with shame and anger.

"You hateful guy, who told you to be so detailed! Pay the price—Hidden Shadow Snake Hands!"

Four brown-black pythons suddenly shot out, but before they could bind Hanazuki, the next words made the little snakes hang limply.

"Eh? Wasn't it you who said you'd rather take responsibility than let me be given away to someone else? Who would have thought that Anko, who always loves sweets, would have zero resistance to liqueur chocolate? Hahahaha."

Hearing this, Anko, who felt a faint headache, finally remembered that she seemed to have eaten something extraordinary last night, after which she lost all memory.

In a blur, she recalled her face burning like fire, grabbing Uchiha Hanazuki by the collar and saying something shameful, and then... they rolled together.

"Wait! Liqueur chocolate? Why does a jerk like you have that kind of thing in your house?"

After revealing her head, Anko couldn't help but glare, baring her teeth in an expression that suggested she wanted to bite Hanazuki to death.

"You mean the liqueur chocolate? It was a gift from Kurenai to celebrate me officially becoming a Jonin. Didn't you also bring three-color dango that day?"

Hearing Hanazuki say this, Anko remembered that this guy in front of her had become one of the only two in their batch of ninja students to reach Jonin rank.

The other was their senior by two years, Hatake Kakashi, that hero of Konoha, the son of the White Fang.

"So that's it. Then I definitely can't let this go. Damn Kurenai, why send liqueur chocolate for no reason? It's an anomaly among desserts, and it caused me to..."

Gritting her teeth, Anko stared fixedly at that handsome, clear face with its lazy, mocking expression.

Sunlight spilled down, casting specks of brilliance onto her vibrant, flushed face. Anko's chest heaved, and she finally made up her mind.

"Hmph, I guess I've fallen into your hands. Fine, then. I, Lady Anko, will take responsibility in a dignified manner. From today on, you belong to me."

"If you dare to flirt with anyone else, I'll... I'll cry until you can't stand it!"

Realizing she probably couldn't beat him and had no way to stop him, Anko could only bare her teeth and utter a threat that didn't sound like a threat at all.

"Is that so? Then you'll just be crying for the rest of your life. Do you need to borrow a shoulder?"

"You! Pervert, deviant, playboy..."

Leaning against that chest, which wasn't particularly broad, and gently sniffing that reassuring scent, Anko wanted to sleep a little longer, her expression lazy and filled with charm.

It couldn't help but make Hanazuki sigh; the expressions revealed inadvertently were the strongest weapons for seducing men into sin. Unfortunately, he could only look and not touch. Hanazuki didn't want to carry the title of Dragon King across the ninja world...

Days passed. After being warned by Sarutobi Hiruzen, Orochimaru chose to pull back on the surface, but no one knew his secret intentions, not even Danzo.

With the Land of Earth's supply lines cut near Kannabi Bridge, the successive failures of the Mist, and Orochimaru's outward restraint, the Third Shinobi World War gradually drew to a close.

However, small-scale battlefield conflicts continued. It wasn't just Konoha and other villages; the other villages were also tripping each other up, keeping the Five Great Shinobi Countries in a state of relative, uneasy stability.

Anbu, 'Root'.

Intelligence reports collected by the Root Anbu were placed one by one on Danzo's desk. After Danzo flipped through them, his long-standing ninja intuition led him to notice a seemingly insignificant movement within the Land of Rain.

"Akatsuki? An organization founded by a few young people? They want to bring peace to Amegakure?"

His eyes flickered. To the Five Great Shinobi Countries, a mercenary organization of this level was nothing more than children playing house. But as the 'Root' of Konoha, anything that could threaten the interests of the Great Nations was a target for surveillance.

After a moment of contemplation, Danzo marked the file as intelligence worth noting, then looked up and scanned his surroundings, his eyelids drooping, his expression shifting.

There were many skilled operatives in the Root, but because training a ninja often required a great deal of time, the secrecy of the 'Root' and the special nature of its missions meant it could never be as 'semi-transparent' as Sarutobi Hiruzen's Anbu.

"A lack of talent. If that old stubborn fool Sarutobi Hiruzen could transfer Uchiha Hanazuki to the Root, this childish Third Shinobi World War wouldn't have dragged on until now."

Above the Root headquarters, withered leaves drifted, and a hint of autumn wind blew away the scorching heat of summer.

At the Hokage office building, in the Mission Briefing Hall.

Having recently withdrawn from the battlefield and been helping at the Konoha Hospital, Nohara Rin was summoned to the hall to receive a mission.

A medical mission to the front lines... I have to go to the front again. Will I see someone I know this time? I'd rather not, after all...

As a Konoha ninja and a rare female medical Chunin, Rin had no resistance to missions that required stepping onto the battlefield. She had learned to live on, carrying the blessings of her friends, but she still did not wish to experience the same pain again.

Without realizing it, Rin walked aimlessly along a small path.

The sky gradually turned gray. A light, drizzling rain fell on the grass blades that refused to bend, accumulating bean-sized droplets that slid down the stems to nourish the earth.

Near a secluded training ground on the outskirts of Konoha, Rin stopped without realizing it. She looked at the familiar back, and a brilliant smile appeared on her hesitant face.

"Hanazuki? Is that you, Hanazuki? What are you doing here? Training?"

The figure sitting on the riverbank turned his head. Beneath the familiar Three-Eyed Demon Fox mask, a brilliant smile bloomed.

"If you were to use a flower to represent a person, what would you be?"