"..."
Silence fell over the orchard. The three adults, two little ones, and two monkeys remained speechless for a long time, embarrassment freezing every inch of air.
Shingetsu's ears and neck flushed scarlet. She abruptly covered most of her face with both hands, so mortified that she wanted to find a crack in the ground and crawl into it.
Why did she have to endure such an embarrassing confession in front of so many people when she was only five? Did the brats of the shinobi world really have to be this precocious?
She really was just a child. Please give her a break!
"..."
Staring at his disciple prostrated before everyone, Tobirama Senju's brows abruptly knotted together. His expression was utterly dark. Whenever he remembered Hiruzen Sarutobi's stomach-churning love poems, he wanted to throw the embarrassing fool into a trash can.
What an absolute disgrace!
Tobirama held his forehead and sighed in despair, bitterly regretting his moment of madness back then.
What had he ever seen in this ungrateful little monkey? How had he even decided that the boy could someday inherit the heavy burden he and his elder brother carried?
If this rotten monkey really became the next Hokage, wouldn't he disgrace Konoha completely?
Tobirama couldn't help picturing it: a brown-furred monkey wearing the Hokage Robe, reciting those unbearably corny, shitty love poems with dramatic inflection, then prostrating himself on the ground again and chasing after Uchiha Shingetsu with a lecherous look.
That brief imagining alone sent a chill shooting from Tobirama's toes to the top of his head, raising goosebumps all over him. The hellish scene frightened him into a cold sweat, leaving only one thought echoing in his mind:
No. Absolutely not!
An endless stream of dark aura spread outward, becoming visible to the naked eye.