Big Brother and Sister-in-Law

At that moment, Dohka and the others came up to Toru, bowed respectfully, and said, "Thank you for stepping in to help us, big brother."

Toru waved a hand, not particularly concerned with their thanks.

He had only stepped in because he was curious—curious about the Hyuga Clan as opponents.

The Gentle Fist and Byakugan had seemed interesting, but those few hadn't been anything special.

Still, Toru could tell that they seemed much more sincere toward him now. It wasn't just the thickheaded Tekka, who was practically moved to tears; even the shrewd Dohka was more genuine with him, and the other underlings looked ready to follow his lead.

There was no harm in taking them on as underlings, so Toru accepted them without hesitation.

"All right, if there's nothing else, I'm heading out," Toru said.

Dohka asked, "Big brother, would you be interested in having a meal with us? I'll treat you."

Toru lightly scratched the bridge of his nose and politely declined. "No, I'm having dinner with someone else tonight."

With that, Toru waved and left, while Uchiha Doka and the others looked at one another in confusion.

After a while, Dohka slapped his palm, as if he'd suddenly realized something. "If big brother's having dinner with someone, they must be pretty close. We should find out who it is. That way, we can get on his good side."

Tekka and the others thought that made sense. They'd clearly reached a consensus: they were going to cling to Toru's coattails.

At the Yuhi Household, Kurenai had finished setting the table. It was covered in delicious-looking food, and it didn't seem to be homemade. It looked like takeout from a restaurant, beautifully presented and probably expensive.

As the only daughter of Yuhi Shinku, a Konoha jonin, Kurenai clearly had a fair amount of savings.

Kurenai sat alone at the table, idly fiddling with her slender, fair fingers.

Just then, the doorbell rang.

Kurenai sprang to her feet, delighted, but quickly realized how eager she looked. She lightly patted her cheeks twice, forcing herself to calm down, then went to the door and opened it.

As expected, Uchiha Toru was standing outside.

When he saw Kurenai, Toru stepped inside and casually asked, "Is your father out?"

Kurenai explained, "Dad went on a mission. He might not be back in Konoha for the rest of the month, so he left me some money to cover our meals this month."

She explained in great detail, and Toru simply nodded.

As a ninja, you generally spent more time away on missions than relaxing at home, especially if you were a jonin like Yuhi Shinku.

After changing his shoes, Toru looked at Kurenai and remarked, "Your face looks a little red." Then he went to wash his hands. He'd just been in a fight, and they were a little dirty. His fastidiousness wouldn't let him eat like that, except in special circumstances.

Kurenai stayed where she was, silently touching her slightly flushed cheeks and thinking in frustration, Why does this always happen whenever I'm alone with him?

After washing his hands, Toru came over to the table and looked it over. "Did you buy all this outside?" He hadn't eaten out since coming to Konoha.

He usually bought groceries and cooked for himself at the Uchiha compound.

After all, losing both his parents had made an already struggling household even worse off.

Kurenai finally snapped out of it. As she walked over, she replied, "Yes. I got it from that new yakiniku restaurant. It's called BBQ Q."

"You like yakiniku, don't you? Oh, and I got white sugar too." As she spoke, Kurenai went into the kitchen and brought out a small dish of granulated sugar.

Toru smiled, accepted the sugar, and said, "Thanks. That was thoughtful of you."

The two of them sat together and started eating yakiniku. The restaurant had included a simple wooden grill, and the charcoal inside was burning brightly.

Toru used the tongs to arrange the slices of meat on the grill one by one, then quietly waited for them to cook. The sight of the fat sizzling was one he hadn't enjoyed in a long time.

While they waited for the meat to cook, Kurenai asked about what he'd been doing earlier. "What was that thing you had to take care of after school?"

Toru didn't dodge the question. He answered honestly, "I went to fight someone."

The casual way he said it startled Kurenai.

Hearing "after school" and "fight" in the same sentence made it easy to imagine some sort of violent incident.

Kurenai hurriedly lifted Toru's shirt to check whether he was hurt.

To her surprise, Toru didn't have a single wound. His skin was smooth and fair.

Kurenai quickly realized she'd overstepped. She let go at once, lowered her head, and murmured so softly she was almost inaudible, "I'm sorry."

Toru just smiled faintly. "Those opponents weren't strong enough to hurt me."

Seeing that the meat was cooked, Toru picked up two slices and placed them on Kurenai's plate. "Go ahead."

As for himself, he set the white sugar within reach, picked up a slice of meat with his chopsticks, and dipped it in sugar. He looked utterly blissful.

Getting to enjoy his two greatest loves together was enough to make even the usually composed Toru lose his composure.

Seeing him, Kurenai turned her attention to the yakiniku too and began eating.

Maybe it was the heat from the grill or something else, but Kurenai's cute little face stayed rosy until Toru left her house.

Another day passed.

The next day, Toru went to school as usual, but along the way, he heard all sorts of rumors about himself.

"Isn't that Uchiha Toru? He really is handsome."

"Hey, don't let his fair, delicate looks fool you. He's the toughest kid in our school now."

"Really? What happened?"

"I heard he took a bunch of Uchiha with him yesterday and beat up some members of the Hyuga Clan. Some of the ones who got beaten were older students about to graduate."

"That's amazing, but won't the Hyuga Clan go after him for revenge?"

"Hahaha, I heard the Hyuga Clan sent people to the Uchiha to demand an explanation, but they got thrown out. If the Uchiha are going to protect him that fiercely, doesn't that tell you how formidable he is?"

"Wow, that's seriously impressive."

With rumors like these flying around, Toru's image in the students' minds somehow grew larger and larger. He became someone nobody wanted to mess with.

Toru didn't pay much attention to it. He just treated it like kids messing around.

When he got to class, he thought his reputation must have suffered by now, and that the girls who had a crush on him would have settled down.

But it turned out that girls that age were into exactly this sort of thing. Toru couldn't take it anymore, and had to scare off the girls who crowded around him with a cold expression before he could get on with class.

During a break, Kurenai dragged Anko out to use the restroom.

When Kurenai came back, she was unusually flustered and snapped at Toru, "Go talk to your people and tell them to stop spreading rumors."

Toru wasn't sure what she meant, but from Kurenai's reaction and the amused look on Mitaraishi Anko's face, he could guess they'd heard something outside.

So Toru walked out of the classroom. Sure enough, Uchiha Doka and the others were there.

Dohka came over with a big grin and gave Toru a thumbs-up. "Big brother, your sister-in-law is beautiful."

Toru immediately understood why Kurenai had reacted the way she had. He slapped Dohka on the head, making him hunch his neck in alarm.

"Don't call her that again. We're just friends."

Only then did Dohka realize that all his digging around to flatter Toru had completely backfired. He hurriedly apologized, saying he'd been careless.

Seeing that Dohka seemed to have gotten the message, Toru was about to turn away when he suddenly remembered something and turned back. "Also, there've been a lot of rumors lately. Keep them under control. I don't want to hear them."

Dohka nodded repeatedly. Only then did Toru return to his seat.

"I've told them. They won't call you that again."

Kurenai gave a soft little hum. It was hard to tell whether she was pleased or displeased.

Anyway, after Toru's warning, Dohka and the others must have done something, because the rumors about Toru and Kurenai at school really did die down. At least, Toru stopped hearing them.