The curtain falls, regrouping, the Five Kage Summit, and the campaign against the Akatsuki!

"All right, all right. My fault."

Yemu sighed and admitted his mistake in a gentle voice.

He knew that trying to reason with a woman-especially someone as obsessively possessive as Qingxue Uchiha-was the stupidest thing he could do.

Right now, all he needed to do was follow her lead and admit he was wrong. What exactly had he done wrong? That hardly mattered.

"No... no, Yemu, you didn't do anything wrong."

Qingxue Uchiha's voice was soft, yet laced with an obsessive tenderness. Her flame-red eyes fixed on Yemu with a suffocating infatuation.

"I'm the one at fault... I should have kept you firmly by my side from the very beginning."

Light as a swallow, she slowly approached. Her warm breath brushed his ear, and her soft, supple body pressed almost entirely against him, as though she wanted to meld herself into him.

"Yemu, Qingxue, hurry up, you two. You're falling behind."

Up ahead, Hinata Hyuga looked back.

She had already noticed the two falling behind, but she hadn't expected it to be because they were getting all lovey-dovey.

She simply slowed her pace and came over to them.

"Hinata, you really must be itching to taste my blade."

Qingxue Uchiha's tone remained gentle, but her tilted head, the red glow surfacing in her eyes, and that expression that suggested she could kill with a smile sent a chill through anyone who saw her.

"Qingxue, I'm not joking." Hinata sounded hurried, sweat sliding down her cheek. "The Cloud Ninja behind us are catching up. We have to move faster."

"Yemu, please talk some sense into her."

Yemu shrugged, looking helpless. "She's right. There are plenty of pursuers behind us. Qingxue, let's retreat first."

The moment he said that, Qingxue Uchiha's face fell. Her bright, alluring expression froze over as though coated