"Can't I just not want to leave yet?"
Yanbai looked at Madara Uchiha. This kid was rather cute when he wasn't being so stubborn.
Madara Uchiha looked at Yanbai in silence.
Was Yanbai neither admitting nor denying it, stepping outside the choices of "yes" and "no" to pick a third answer?
Madara Uchiha sighed. "I see. You're just being stubborn, right? Then I suppose I'll reluctantly keep you company for the rest of your life."
Yanbai: "..."
Madara Uchiha returned to his earlier posture, casually resting both arms on the edge of the hot spring pool behind him. "Could it be that opening the window just now was actually your subtle way of attracting me with those tantalizing glimpses?"
Yanbai: "..."
Madara Uchiha smiled and said, "It's also quite amusing to imagine your heart fluttering because you're with me."
"You-shut-up-"
"Oh, hey, are you lashing out in embarrassment because I hit the mark?"
After the New Year, everyone returned to their own lives.
No...
Uchiha Itachi suddenly brought Yanbai two children.
It was a winter night bathed in clear moonlight.
Winter was nearing its end, but the snow in the courtyard had yet to melt completely.
Moonlight illuminated the white snow in the courtyard.
The night air was clear.
Yanbai sat on a cushion laid beside the narrow veranda, with Madara Uchiha beside him as always. The two had been drinking.
Artificial Night Pearls lit both the narrow veranda and the inner room.
Madara Uchiha leisurely poured himself some wine, silently watching the scene before him.
Uchiha Itachi had just brought two children to visit and introduced the backgrounds of the two children in the inner room.
In Madara Uchiha's opinion, Uchiha Itachi also seemed unwilling to let Yanbai leave this world so soon.
It was probably because Uchiha