"Madam."
"Hm?"
"I want to…"
"What do you want?"
"…I want you."
Nara Yoshino froze. The earnest seriousness on Uchiha Tobika's face made her instantly misinterpret everything. She hesitated, then shook her head firmly.
"No. If Shikaku finds out, I'll be beaten."
"You don't tell him. I don't tell him. Problem solved."
"There's no such thing as a wall that doesn't leak sound."
"Just help me. Please."
Hands together, expression solemn, Tobika looked like a monk begging for alms instead of a jonin bargaining for supplies.
"No," she repeated.
Tobika stepped back, jaw tightening as if making a grave decision."Three times," he said. "Just three."
"…Three?"Yoshino tapped her cheek thoughtfully, eyes drifting over Tobika's broad shoulders and powerful frame. Then she subtly raised five fingers.
"Three is too few. Five. If you agree, I'll do it."
"Fine… fine."He accepted it like a man agreeing to sell part of his soul.
Yoshino grinned, pulled out a large package from behind the counter, and slapped it into his arms.
Tobika didn't bother hiding his annoyance. The Nara clan produced medicine and herbs for almost all of Konoha. He knew he was being extorted politely.
"Flying Bird-kun," Yoshino said sweetly, "what do you need these basic medical herbs for? Someone in your clan trying to become a medic-nin?"
"No."Tobika slung the package over his shoulder, clicking his tongue."I took in a kid as a student this morning. Wants to learn medical ninjutsu. Fresh out of the Academy. Wallet as empty as your face is dry."
"Wow," Yoshino said, eyes widening. Then she raised a thumbs-up."You talk so well."
"If I talk that well, then how about three medical checkups instead of five?"
"No, no. You got these herbs for eighty percent off. That's basically a donation from us."
Tobika's eyelid twitched.He remembered the last time he tried to liquidate his assets before his fake defection. The Cat Granny had robbed him blind. Konoha's shopkeepers turned his rusty kitchen knife into some "wind-thunder blade," inflated prices, and nearly bankrupt him again when he tried to buy everything back.
Ninja life: full of traps.Merchant life: worse.
"Flying Bird-kun, about the investigation… how's it going?" Yoshino asked.
Tobika pointed at the wall calendar."Madam. It's been one day."
"Really?Felt longer… Well then, keep working."
"Yeah, yeah."
He left the Nara pharmacy.In passing, he noted Yoshino's chakra signature—her pregnancy timeline, her son's presumed birth month: September.
Given how fast babies matured in this world, Shikamaru might recognize people within a month, read by two months, and solve puzzles by three. Perfect timing for Tobika to befriend him with a lollipop.
…Unless Tsunade's growth spurt rules apply and Nara babies mature even faster.
Night fell.
Nara clan district.Tobika moved like a shadow, avoiding patrols until he reached Nara Ryoko's room. Knock. Silence.
"Who—?"
She stiffened when she saw him remove his mask. "You finally came."
"Relax."Tobika guided her back, lowering her panic. "Last time, your clan's patrol spotted me. Then your clan head's wife suspected… you and I had a thing."
Ryoko's eyes widened in realization.So that's why Yoshino barged into her house, asking weird questions, implying she might be seeing a man so soon after her husband's death.
Ryoko had beaten Yoshino out with a broom.All the pieces made sense now.
Her expression softened."Just cure my son. I don't care about rumors."
"I care."Tobika stepped away from her decisively.He did not want Danzo thinking he was getting involved with Root members. And he definitely did not want whispers about midnight rendezvous with a widow—especially one with a child and, frankly, not his type.
He glanced at the moonlight spilling through the window.A stray thought drifted in…Kaguya on the moon, her sons dead or missing. Fugaku marrying a Hyūga. Their kids inheriting weird traits. Maybe a clan-wide problem in the future…
Another item for the next clan meeting.
After treating Ryoko's son, they sat against the wall to keep their silhouettes from showing through the paper windows.
"This really isn't difficult," Tobika said. "Just explain it to Yoshino."
Ryoko looked relieved. Her son's condition was improving; a few more sessions might make him fully healthy again.
"Yoshino's actually very understanding. When she learns you're coming only to treat my child, she won't—"
"Funny how you're calling her sister-in-law now. Earlier you were shouting insults about her."
He shot her a look.
"The real problem is your superior."
Danzo.Problematic, dangerous, and far from stupid.
If that man sniffed out anything, he'd follow the trail back to Root and Ryoko. The last thing Tobika desired was Danzo reorganizing Root through mass elimination.
"What should I do then?" Ryoko asked.
Tobika stood, dusting his clothes."Honestly? Uchiha–Nara marriages wouldn't be a bad idea. Your clan has brains. Ours… less so."
"So… what exactly are you suggesting?"Her eyes widened.Was he implying marriage?To her?
Tobika stared at the distant Uchiha compound.
"For the future of the clan," he said solemnly, "we sacrifice the clan head."
Ryoko blinked.Then horror washed over her face.Was he planning… to kill Fugaku?!To cover up this small misunderstanding?!
"Don't look at me like that," Tobika groaned. "I'm going to push the blame onto Fugaku, not murder him."
He stretched his back.
"I'm from the Uchiha Divorce Faction. If I help Fugaku find a wife outside the clan, that's the greatest act of loyalty I can offer. Danzo asks why your kid is recovering? You tell him it's part of Fugaku's proposal gift. You, meanwhile, play the tragic, pure widow who 'never wants to marry again.' Boom. Clean solution."
Ryoko exhaled in relief.So the clan head wasn't dying.And Tobika's plan… somehow actually worked.
She could even tell people that an Uchiha was pestering her to consider marriage, while she only wanted her son healed. Easy to feign innocence later.
But one worry remained.
"Won't your clan head kill you?" she whispered.
Tobika pointed at himself, then toward the Uchiha compound.
"Unless he risks blindness summoning a giant chakra avatar, I doubt he can kill me. Besides, the clan's radicals threaten to kill Konoha elders every other day. If Fugaku tolerated that, he can tolerate this."
Ryoko stared at him.
She once thought Uchiha were mentally unstable.Now she realized: some were far beyond unstable.Yet this one—surprisingly—was the most normal of the bunch.
Then she remembered: Yoshino had hired Tobika to investigate her.
Ryoko's expression darkened. She looked toward the clan's center and shouted in frustrated rage:
"Damn you, Nara Yoshino! You really sent someone to investigate me?!"
Tobika winced.
Another peaceful Konoha night.