Her lips pressed together as she thought. One of her eyebrows arched slightly, almost cute despite her cold face.
The Suna headband was long gone, leaving her fair forehead bare, strands of green-orange hair hanging loose.
"…Chakra reserves," she admitted finally. "Just now, I felt my bloodline finally reach its peak maturity. My Scorch can now do more with less, but my overall chakra is still the bottleneck. I can't sustain it."
Ryusei nodded. "And how did that special chakra I used feel to you?"
She paused, rembering the alien green frost that had shaken even the Hyūga. Her eyes flicked toward him. "…It wasn't human. External. Wasn't it?"
Ryusei nodded once. "Exactly. External. If you follow , I can find sources like that for you, too. Even elevate your essence itself, your body, your chakra, push it beyond human limits. Think of what your Scorch Release could beco with that kind of fuel."
Pakura's pulse jumped. She tried to hide it, but the thought alone seared in her chest. "…If you're lying, or planning to trick , you'll regret it," she warned, her tone sharp but asured.
Ryusei only grinned. "If I ant you harm, you'd already be dead. You saw it. I saved you more than once today. Besides…" his head tilted slightly, "…it's you who could trick . Pass word about , feed details to the right people, and cause all kinds of problems. So maybe we should trust each other, hm?"
Pakura exhaled slowly. He was right. She had no better path left.
She was already a missing-nin, and the only future awaiting her otherwise was scraping through the underworld, chained to gangs until she withered.
Better to cooperate, at least for now.
Ryusei reached into his cloak and withdrew a sealed scroll. He unrolled it just enough for her to see two Sharingan sealed within, both gleaming with three tomoe.
Pakura's breath caught. Her eyes widened faintly behind the mask. "…You… you have Sharingan too?" Her heart thudded faster, realization hitting all at once.
'Byakugan. Sharingan. Both in his hands.' And not weak eyes, perfect tomoe. She knew what that ant. That level of Sharingan was no trinket; it was a strength that rivaled or surpassed elite jōnin.
Ryusei's tone was calm, but edged with pride. "Now you see. I'm not just spinning words. I an what I say when I talk about research, about progress. About strength." He let the scroll close with a snap. "And from my stature, you can probably guess, I'm only in my early teens. Yet I stand here, stronger than most n twice my age. What does that tell you?"
Pakura stared, her throat dry. She hated admitting it, but her voice betrayed a trace of awe. "…That you're dangerous. And that if anyone could turn those promises into reality… it might actually be you."
However, surprisingly, in the next mont, Pakura's full lips curved faintly, a strange softness breaking through her usual steel.
Her hazel eyes glinted with sothing uncharacteristic, teasing.
"…I already guessed who you are now, no use hiding it anymore," she said, almost offhand, though the smug undertone was clear.
Ryusei tilted his head at her, just slightly, his grin behind the mask pausing. "…Oh?"
A small, lodic chuckle slipped from her throat, light and surprisingly pretty for soone who had spent the day drowning in blood and betrayal. It startled even her, but she didn't stop.
"I am now the only one who saw you use all those multiple releases back then when you saved ," she explained smoothly. "And I also didn't miss the way you moved then. Your taijutsu level. Later, I noticed your amazing sensing. And now…" her gaze sharpened as if piecing the puzzle together, "…you've as much as confird your age. You're no drifter." She leaned in a little, hazel eyes narrowing with smug satisfaction. "…Ryusei Nishida, that young talent from Konoha, the one just making waves in this war lately. That's you, isn't it?"
However, instead of anger or further shock, Ryusei's lips only curled as he tilted his head.
"So you've been following that closely, hm? Should I take it as flattery or concern?"
His slit-eyed gaze lingered on her narrowed hazel eyes, a sly grin tugging at his mouth.
"Careful, Pakura. You almost sound impressed. And you're looking far too smug for your own good."
However, before she could reply with her usual steel, he raised a hand and slid the mask away.
His face was revealed: sharp yet youthful, dark brown hair ssy from battle, framing foxy, almond-shaped eyes.
One was an ordinary black that glead with wry amusent, the other an uncanny violet Byakugan, narrowed into that slit-eyed, "gentle" look of his.
Pakura's breath caught against her will.
Her eyes flicked over his features, caught off guard by how handso he actually was, too handso, almost irritatingly so, for soone so sly and manipulative, always plucking people's eyes like it was nothing.
She felt her cheeks heat again, but forced her expression to be cold.
Ryusei's grin widened at her reaction. "What's this? Don't tell you're staring."
Her brows knitted, a glare snapping back into place as she huffed. "Keep talking like that, and I'll lt that smug face off, Nishida."
"Fair," he said lightly, unbothered. Then his voice evened, returning to business.
"Anyway, now that you know who I am, it's easier to explain. While you wait for to finish my research, ways to push power, including yours, higher, I have a semi-permanent undertaking for you. But nothing that chains you. Just sothing useful for now."
Pakura crossed her arms, her stance regaining that soldier's edge, though her flush hadn't fully faded. "A new job, huh? You really don't waste ti." Her lips pressed into a thin line before curling faintly again. "…Fine. Tell , Nishida. What exactly do you want to do?"
Ryusei didn't stop at admitting his na this ti. Strange, even to himself, how freely the words left his mouth.
He told her everything.
About the Senju, how the clan had chosen self-destruction, assimilation into Konoha, leaving only a handful of hardliners.
About the revivalists who clung to their identity and were slowly hunted into extinction under Hiruzen's rule.
About his parents, how he was cornered by impossible traps and assassinations, more than once.
Pressure had forged him sharper, harder.
Stronger than they ever wanted him to beco.
The only reason he wasn't still living on the edge of paranoia was because, sohow, he had managed to open Tsunade's eyes, and that leverage he now had on the Fire Daimyō himself.
Enough to keep breathing. Enough to keep moving.
He even ntioned Orochimaru, almost casually.
Called him the world's secret greatest research genius, soone whose mind was too valuable to ignore, and that he would visit him soon again, trade insights, and together they would keep climbing toward their own peaks, so she should have even more confidence.
Then Ryusei's slit-eyed gaze fell back on her. "You understand, don't you? The Kage only ever see threats. You had it happen to you today. I've lived it since birth. That's why I'm telling you this. You're the only person I've ever opened up this much to."
Pakura didn't reply, her eyes sharp, watching him carefully. They stayed locked on him, sharp and searching, like she was trying to pierce through the mask and into the truth of him.
"What I want from you," he continued, "isn't complicated. I need you to connect with those six Senju remnants and their new network of control over the Daimyo and his royal family. Stay with them, protect them. They're backup if Konoha's leadership ever decides to pull sothing clever, which I feel like they probably would as more ti passes and they think of counterasures. If they sohow break the Daimyō free, or kill my six guards, you'll be the one to stop the attack, or at least buy enough ti to escape, with the Daimyō in tow."
Pakura's gaze darkened. "That's what you want for? A bodyguard?"
Ryusei smirked under his mask. "Not just that. My real plan… is to seal away your chakra while you're there. You'll look like nothing more than an... ordinary attendant. No one would ever factor you into their plans."
Her eyes snapped wide, heat flashing across her face. "…Seal my chakra? You want to strip down to nothing and make play servant?" She almost hissed it, embarrassnt mixing with anger. "Are you out of your mind?"
Ryusei's grin didn't waver. "Think, Pakura. If they know a shinobi of your caliber is stationed with the Daimyō, you'll be in danger from the mont they move. They'll plan around you. This way, they'll overlook you completely. You'll be the card they don't account for. at all"
She clenched her fists, jaw tight, still glaring at him.
He leaned back slightly, voice calr now. "Besides, I won't leave you alone there. I'll keep a clone sealed on-site permanently. But clones aren't as durable as my real body, and I can't waste too much chakra feeding one constantly. If sothing happens, it might be too late by the ti I'm alerted."
His eyes narrowed faintly. "But that's where you co in. If danger breaks out, my clone can summon Katsuyu. Katsuyu can reverse-summon my real body instantly. Until I arrive, or if I'm tied up elsewhere, you'll be the one to hold the line. Or run with the Daimyō if it cos to that, you understand?"
Pakura stared at him for a long ti, lips pressing tight. Heat still lingered in her face from the humiliation of his proposal, but there was no mistaking the logic in his words.
"You're insane," she muttered coldly, though her eyes betrayed that she was already weighing the plan.
Her hazel eyes flicked toward him, narrowed. "I don't like it. Being sealed, playing servant. You strip down to nothing and make wait for your signal? It feels like another cage."
Ryusei's lips curled into a grin behind the mask. "A cage? No. A sheath. Even the sharpest blade needs one until it's ti to cut."
She held his gaze for a mont, her face hard, but the faintest tremor passed through her chest. The words landed sharper than she wanted to admit.
Pakura exhaled slowly. "You make it sound easy. But you're asking to trust you. Completely. If you vanish, if your clone fails, I'll be exposed and powerless."
Ryusei tilted his head, slit eyes glinting. "And if I wanted you gone, I could've left you in Sasori's threads. Or let the Hyūga's secret power erase you minutes ago. But I didn't."
Her lips pressed tight again, but her chakra aura shifted just slightly, less brittle, more steady.
"…Tch," she muttered, finally turning her gaze aside. "I'll think about it. But don't expect to enjoy pretending to be weak."
Ryusei's grin widened faintly. "Good. I don't want you weak. I want you overlooked. There's a difference. And when the ti cos, I'll be right there when you unsheathe yourself."
Pakura's jaw tightened at the phrasing, but she said nothing more, stepping forward with him into the shadows of the forest.
On the way to the hidden point where Ryusei said he'd ssage the six Senju remnants, regarding the subsequent arrangents for her and his clone, Pakura found her thoughts circling him more than she cared to admit.
He had saved her when she was seconds from death, when even her own comrades had looked away.
He had seen through her pain, spoken to her as though she wasn't just a weapon. He had promised her power, trusted her, and shielded her, even when it ant slowing himself down.
And all the while, he'd carried himself with a strange confidence that unsettled her.
Sohow, in a single day, this boy had beco the anchor she leaned on in so way.
It felt dangerous, reckless, even wrong. She had been betrayed by her own only hours ago.
Yet here she was, walking alongside soone who felt nothing like them.
Ryusei wasn't competing with her, wasn't trying to control her, wasn't dangling empty words like the Suna council had.
Instead, he spoke of power as sothing real, sothing to be built and shared, of human nature with a clarity that cut through her doubts.
What unnerved her also was his growing, brazen teasing. He spoke to her as if their ages were reversed, as if she were the younger one.
He didn't hold back or treat her with solemn pity; instead, he provoked, needled, and made her glare and flush like she hadn't in years.
It was absurd. And yet… her heart felt lighter than it had in months, maybe years.
The previous weight of war and the most recent stab in the back seed to fade just walking beside him.
As if, for reasons she couldn't na, he always had everything under control.
Her gaze slid briefly to him, the edges of her lips tightening. She refused to admit it all aloud.
User Comments
0 comments from readers