Anko: "I'll Take Responsibility!"

In the early morning, wisps of dawn light spilled down in scattered specks.

Anko's sleepy eyes fluttered open, her lashes trembling lightly. Her faintly flushed face was filled with an unprecedented sense of peace.

The fresh scent of grass and trees lingering at her nose, along with the soft, comfortable bed, made her instinctively forget her worries and relive the quality sleep she had enjoyed during those incomprehensible theory classes at the Ninja Academy.

Wait, it felt like she had forgotten something. This didn't seem to be her home...

In that instant, Anko jolted awake from her dream. She instinctively looked around before finally turning toward the familiar figure beside her. Her lips twitched as she asked in a trembling voice, "You... what are you looking at?"

"Hmm... scenery that is not yet ripe, green and tender. Perhaps it could become one of the most beautiful sights in the world. Hehehe."

Anko instinctively yanked the blanket over herself. Her face was full of suspicion, and she felt a headache coming on. After checking beneath the covers, she asked without even poking her head out, "Did we... do something?"

"Did something? In the short span of last night, we created many unforgettable memories. I also got to experience the splendor of youthful innocence and the scenery of something not yet mature..."

Before Huayue could continue, Anko froze beneath the blankets for a moment, overwhelmed by shame and indignation.

"You bastard, who told you to describe it in such detail?! Pay the price for that—Hidden Shadow Many Snake Hands!"

Four dark brown pythons suddenly shot out. Before they could tie Huayue up, his next words made the little snakes droop weakly.

"Huh? Didn't you say you'd rather take responsibility than hand me over to someone else? I never thought Anko, who has always loved sweets, would have no resistance to liqueur-filled chocolate. Hehehe."

Upon hearing that, the headache-stricken Anko finally recalled that she seemed to have eaten something incredible last night, after which she had completely lost her memory.

In a daze, her face had burned like fire as she grabbed Uchiha Huayue by the collar and said something embarrassing, and then... they had rolled together.

"Wait! Liqueur-filled chocolate? Why the hell did you have something like that in your house?"

After sticking her head out, Anko glared furiously at him, baring her teeth as though she wanted to bite Huayue to death.

"You mean the liqueur-filled chocolate? It was a gift Kurenai sent over to celebrate my officially becoming a jonin. Didn't you send Tricolor Dango over that day too?"

Hearing Huayue say that, Anko remembered as well. The guy before her was already one of only two among their batch of ninja students to become jonin.

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

"I see. Then I absolutely can't let this go! Damn Kurenai, why would she send liqueur-filled chocolate for no reason? Such an aberration among desserts... it made me..."

Grinding her teeth, Anko stared fixedly at that handsome face wearing a lazy, teasing smile.

Sunlight streamed down, flecks of light falling upon her delicate, striking little face. Anko's chest rose and fell repeatedly before she finally made up her mind.

"Hmph, I guess I've fallen into your hands. Fine, then. Great Anko will take responsibility openly and honorably. From today onward, you belong to me."

"If you dare flirt around again, I'll... I'll cry for you to see!"

Realizing that she probably could not beat him and had no way to stop him at all, Anko could only bare her teeth and make a threat that did not sound threatening in the slightest.

"Is that so? Then you can only cry for the rest of your life. Do you need me to lend you a shoulder?"

"You! Pervert, freak, playboy..."

Leaning against that not particularly broad chest, gently breathing in that reassuring scent, Anko wanted to sleep a little longer. Her expression was lazy, her charm overflowing.

Huayue could not help but sigh. The expressions one revealed unintentionally were the strongest weapons for tempting men into sin. Unfortunately, he could only look and not eat. Huayue had no desire to carry the title of Dragon King throughout the Ninja World...

The days passed one by one. After being warned by Sarutobi Hiruzen, Orochimaru chose to stop openly, but no one knew what he was planning in secret. Danzo was no exception.

As the Land of Earth's supplies near Kannabi Bridge were cut off, Kirigakure suffered successive defeats, and Orochimaru reined himself in openly, the Third Great Ninja War gradually approached its end.

However, small-scale conflicts still continued. It was not only Konoha and the other ninja villages; the other villages were also undermining one another, keeping the Five Great Shinobi Nations in a relatively stable state.

Anbu, 'Root.'

Reports gathered by Root's Anbu operatives were placed one after another before Danzo's desk. As Danzo reviewed them, his ninja instincts honed over many years caused him to notice an insignificant development within the Land of Rain.

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

His eyes flickered. In the eyes of the Five Great Shinobi Nations, a mercenary organization of this level was nothing more than children playing around. But as Konoha's 'Root,' any existence capable of threatening the interests of a great nation was a target for investigation.

After pondering for a moment, Danzo marked the document as intelligence worth watching. Then he raised his head and looked around, his eyelids lowered as his expression flickered.

There were quite a few skilled people in Root, but because training ninja often required a great deal of time, Root's secrecy and the special nature of its missions meant it could not become "semi-transparent" like Sarutobi Hiruzen's Anbu.

"A lack of talent. If that old fool Sarutobi Hiruzen had transferred Uchiha Huayue into Root, this childish Third Great Ninja War would never have dragged on until now."

Above Root headquarters, withered leaves drifted down as a faint autumn breeze scattered the scorching heat of summer.

Inside the Mission Assignment Hall of the Hokage Office Building.

Not long after withdrawing from the battlefield, Nohara Rin, who had been helping at Konoha Hospital, was summoned to the hall and assigned a mission.

Frontline medical duties... I'm going to the front again. Will I see anyone I know this time? It would be better not to. After all...

As a Konoha ninja and one of the rare female medical chunin, Rin did not resist missions that sent her onto the battlefield. She had learned to live on while carrying her friends' blessings, but she still did not wish to experience the same pain again.

Before she knew it, Rin was wandering aimlessly down a small path.

The sky gradually darkened. A light drizzle fell upon blades of grass that refused to bend, gathering into large drops of rain that slid down their stems and nourished the earth.

Near an abandoned training ground at the edge of Konoha, Rin unconsciously stopped walking. Looking at that familiar back, the hesitation on her face gave way to a radiant smile.

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

The figure sitting on the rocky outcrop turned around. Beneath the familiar Three-Eyed Demon Fox Mask, a brilliant smile appeared.

"If people were represented by flowers, what flower would you be?"