"Sasori, don't say things that undermine the organization's unity."
Pain interrupted Sasori's mockery of Uchiha Itachi.
"Get moving. Go recruit new members."
"Itachi, go wait by the stream not far from the base first. Your new partner will appear there soon. Like your previous partner, he's one of Kirigakure's Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist..."
"Once you've gotten acquainted, the two of you will go with Sasori to the Land of Earth to find a child named Deidara and recruit him into the organization. I'll communicate the route to you through my will..."
"As for everyone else, go about your own business."
"Disperse!"
Whoosh!
The figures all vanished.
Inside a luxurious inn in Konoha.
Uchiha Xia Yu and Kurenai Yuhi lay in bed.
The quilt, however, lay on the floor.
Who knew which of them had been restless in their sleep...
Sunlight filled the entire room, its glare waking Kurenai Yuhi from her deep sleep.
Her eyes narrowed, still heavy with sleep. She instinctively rolled over, intending to avoid the sunlight and sleep a little longer.
But after turning over, she seemed to touch something.
"Hmm? What's...?"
Driven by curiosity, Kurenai Yuhi reluctantly opened her eyes to see just what was in her hand.
"..."
"Ah!!!!!!"
Her shrill scream instantly startled the still-sleeping Xia Yu awake.
"Kurenai, what's wrong?"
Still not quite awake, Xia Yu scratched his messy hair with bleary eyes and asked softly.
"X-Xia Yu! You... I... how could... what exactly...?"
Kurenai Yuhi's memory stopped at the moment Xia Yu's lips approached hers at the tavern last night.
She couldn't remember much of what happened afterward.
"Don't worry." After Kurenai Yuhi's startled cry, Xia Yu was no longer sleepy either. He got out of bed, picked up the quilt, and draped it over her:
"We didn't do anything last night. You're pregnant, so we just spent the night being intimate in some other ways."
"W-ways?" Kurenai Yuhi's eyes filled with horror as she wrapped the quilt tightly around herself.
"Uh... lots of them. For example... and then... and then there's... and also..."
Xia Yu described them vividly.
Kurenai Yuhi was dumbfounded.
Last night, I actually did that with Xia Yu...??
What kind of new world was this?
She had never even heard of such things before.
While she was still dazed, Xia Yu had already gotten dressed and handed her a bundle of white cloth strips.
"Come on, Kurenai. Get dressed and come back to the Uchiha Clan Compound with me. You're mine."
"You... you're serious?" Kurenai snapped out of her daze.
She still remembered what Xia Yu had said over drinks last night.
Xia Yu had said he would marry her and be her child's father.
"Of course I'm serious. I may seem like a womanizer, but that's for the sake of reviving the Uchiha. I've never broken a promise to a woman."
"Xia Yu, you..."
This handsome man before her really intended to marry her.
After a moment, Xia Yu's tenderness and romantic attentiveness last night, along with the scenes of their intimacy, gradually came back into vivid focus.
I felt so real like that, so happy.
Asuma Sarutobi had never given her such tenderness or let her experience such a feeling.
This feeling was truly wonderful.
Kurenai Yuhi's cheeks flushed crimson, and she asked herself more than once, This couldn't be a dream... could it?
While Kurenai was still at a loss, her thoughts running wild, Xia Yu had already begun wrapping the white cloth strips around her, layer by layer.
He wrapped them quite well, making a rather decent job of it.
He had experience, after all. He simply wrapped them back on the way he had taken them off yesterday.
Xia Yu held out his hand. "Let's go have breakfast first~"
Kurenai stared blankly at the hand before her, the hand that had wandered over every inch of her skin. After a moment's hesitation, she slowly placed her delicate hand in Xia Yu's palm...
So warm, so gentle...
Kurenai Yuhi's heart was about to melt...
After checking out, the two walked outside hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder, and headed toward a street with breakfast shops.
"From today onward, I, Kurenai Yuhi, belong to Uchiha Xia Yu..."
Before you continue