My First Official Date with Rin

Rin was no fool. She had guessed that Long Ye had given her most of the mission reward to repay her for treating him to meals so often in the past.

Although he had found an excuse to let her treat him to dinner, she knew perfectly well that while the Seafood Feast was expensive, it would cost at most five thousand ryo.

That was clearly nothing compared to the no fewer than fifty thousand ryo in her hands.

Long Ye added, "I'm already used to you treating me to meals. Whether the money is with you or with me makes no difference, unless you don't want to treat me to meals anymore."

Rin looked conflicted, but in the end, she nodded.

"Then... all right! But let's agree that I'm only holding your share for you temporarily."

"So, can we go eat now?"

Long Ye was eager to get going.

He had been in Konoha for a year. To him, the Seafood Feast was a place he had only heard about, and he was rather looking forward to it.

When the two arrived together at the entrance of the "Seafood Feast," they ran into two familiar figures.

"Eh? Yugao!"

Rin called out.

The two ahead of them had just been about to enter when they heard Rin's call and turned around together.

When they saw the two of them, both were startled.

"Rin, you made it back safely?" Uzuki Yugao looked pleasantly surprised.

Standing beside her was the sickly-looking Gekko Hayate.

Apparently, he had been the one to tell her about Rin.

Gekko Hayate's gaze fell on Long Ye, and his eyes held a trace of gravity.

Although he had never fought Tao Gui, he had tracked him before and witnessed the way Tao Gui killed. He was certain that Tao Gui possessed Jonin-level strength.

Based on what he knew of Rin, there was no way she could have survived Tao Gui alone. That left only one possibility: the mysterious Long Ye at her side.

Yugao stepped forward. "Rin, don't tell me you never ran into that Iwagakure shinobi?"

"Of course I did. It was really dangerous, but luckily Long Ye happened to arrive afterward. Yugao, Tao Gui was captured alive by us! He's already been handed over to the Interrogation Department."

At the mention of this accomplishment, Rin could not quite hide the pride in her eyes.

"What? Captured alive?"

Uzuki Yugao and Gekko Hayate exchanged a glance, each seeing the shock in the other's eyes.

An Iwagakure Jonin had actually been captured alive by two Genin. It sounded utterly unbelievable.

Capturing someone alive was far more difficult than killing them. Only with overwhelming strength could one possibly capture an opponent alive.

After Rin finished speaking, her gaze shifted between the two of them. She was suspicious at first, then her eyes turned sly as she spoke with a teasing smile.

"Yugao, you turned down my invitation today and said you had something important to do this afternoon. Don't tell me you meant going on a date with Hayate?"

Uzuki Yugao's eyes became flustered, and a blush flashed across her cheeks. She stammered for a long while without coming up with an excuse.

Then her gaze fell on Long Ye, as though she had found something to retort with, and she smiled mischievously.

"Rin, you're one to talk. Aren't you two here on a date too?"

Rin had not expected that at all. At Yugao's words, the tips of her ears immediately turned red with embarrassment.

"Yugao, wh-what nonsense are you saying? We came here because... because Long Ye saved my life, so I'm treating him to dinner to thank him."

Rin clenched her delicate fists tightly and desperately defended herself.

"Is that so?"

Uzuki Yugao looked unconvinced.

The usually quiet Gekko Hayate looked at Long Ye and suddenly said, "Earlier, I told Long Ye that Tao Gui, the one Rin went looking for, might possess Jonin-level strength. He rushed off to save you without hesitation. I thought he was acting rashly out of concern and overestimating himself. Turns out he had confidence in his abilities."

"What?"

Gekko Hayate's words changed Rin's expression, and she turned to look at Long Ye.

She had always thought Long Ye had accepted the same mission and that their encounter had been a coincidence. Only now did she realize there had been no coincidence at all. Long Ye had deliberately gone looking for her.

And only she knew that things were not as Hayate had said—that Long Ye had confidence in his abilities.

At the time, both of them had narrowly escaped death. Their survival in the end had also been largely due to luck.

It was easy to imagine that if she had not possessed Water Release ninjutsu, neither of them would have survived this time.

Facing Rin's searching gaze, Long Ye did not deny it. "No matter what, thank you this time. If you hadn't told me Rin was in danger, the consequences today would have been unimaginable."

Gekko Hayate smiled. "Before I saw you, I kept wondering whether I should have told you. You might have died because of it. But fortunately..."

"All right, Hayate. Let's go."

Yugao tugged at Hayate's sleeve.

She could tell something was off in Rin's expression and had already guessed that Rin probably had not known what Hayate had just said.

"Long Ye, you..."

At that moment, Rin's feelings were extremely complicated.

On one hand, she was touched.

After learning that she was in danger, even though going to save her might cost him his own life, he had disregarded life and death and rushed there without hesitation.

On the other hand, she was somewhat upset.

It had clearly been too reckless. A qualified ninja could never let emotions rule them. If he had lost his life trying to save her, that was obviously not something she wanted to see.

"Rin, did you forget this?"

Long Ye reached into his clothes and took out a jade-white seashell, holding it up before her eyes.

"When you were in danger, wasn't it only natural for me to save you?"

Rin's eyes were slightly wet. She pressed her lips together and nodded hard.

"Come on, let's go eat!"

Rin grabbed his wrist and ran into the shop bearing the three ink-brushed characters, "Seafood Feast"...

Having gone through that life-and-death ordeal together, Long Ye had an indescribable feeling for quite some time afterward.

If Rin's concern for him before had been driven more by kindness, then after this incident, she had come to regard him as someone close enough to entrust with her life, someone worthy of unconditional trust.

Naturally, Long Ye was more than happy about that.

Early the next morning.

Long Ye had no plans for the day and intended to sleep in.

But things did not go as he wished. A series of running footsteps drew closer and closer to his ears.

Long Ye had long been exceedingly familiar with those footsteps.

He smiled and got up, walking to the door.

Just as he estimated that she was about to push the door open, he suddenly pulled it open.

A startled cry came from outside.

Caught off guard by Long Ye's sudden pull, the petite figure's hands pushed at empty air, and she lunged straight inside.

Even after a year of hard training, Long Ye's body could hardly be called sturdy. With Rin throwing herself at him so forcefully, he staggered backward.

Instinctively, as his body fell, Long Ye wrapped his arms around the girl who had crashed into his chest.