[Ding! Detected: spring has arrived, the season when all things awaken. Please make your choice...]
[1. You're an honest man. Keep to your place. Reward: Fūton: Reppū Shō (Gale Wind Palm), Fūton: Kaze no Yaiba (Wind Blade), Suna no Tate (Sand Shield).]
[2. What are you waiting for? Beast or worse than a beast, does this even need thinking? Reward: Chakra Zōka Hijutsu (Chakra Growth Secret Art)!]
[Note: Under conditions of yin-yang harmony, this Chakra Zōka Hijutsu can steadily and continuously increase the host's chakra.]
Looking at the three Sunagakure genin beneath him, trembling like branches in bloom, Teizawa felt his throat go dry.
How a "simple massage" had ended up like this, he didn't know.
But he did know one thing.
Once you'd stepped over the line, there was no such thing as pretending it never happened.
And the reward for Option Two… a chakra-growth secret art?
Now that was interesting.
If he had that, then training with Temari, Kurotsuchi, and these three girls, in the most intimate way possible, could continuously raise his chakra reserves.
If there was no upper limit…
Wouldn't that mean the more he trained, the stronger he got?
Teizawa didn't hesitate.
He made his choice.
Then he pulled the curtain down on the rest, decisive and shameless.
…
When the long, breathless "lesson" finally ended, the private room's scorching white sand was, inevitably, a mess.
Yukata lay on her side, breathing lightly, her face buried in the crook of her arm.
The tips of her ears were so red they looked ready to drip.
Her dark hair had come loose and spilled across the sand in a tangled fan, a few strands stuck to the damp line of her neck, trembling with each unsteady breath.
Matsuri wasn't doing any better.
She'd curled up small, almost disappearing into the sand, only half her flushed face showing, and eyes gone hazy with overwhelm.
She looked like a startled little animal, trying to fold herself into nothing.
Chiyo was the "most composed" of the three, if only barely.
She forced herself upright, then had to brace again with an arm when her waist gave out.
Her clothes were more intact than the other two, at least enough to preserve a sense of order, but the ties had slipped and twisted in the chaos.
There were marks on her back and waist that made her stare at her own hands as if she didn't recognize them anymore.
The three of them sat in heavy silence.
No one knew what to say, because every possible sentence felt powerless in the face of what had just happened.
Then, softly, sand shifted.
All three flinched at once.
Teizawa, back turned to them, was calmly putting his clothes on.
Once the fabric covered his broad back, he nodded with quiet satisfaction and offered his verdict.
"Not bad."
Two words, delivered like he was grading a mission report.
All three girls went bright red again.
Yukata bit her lip and turned her face away, furious and mortified at the same time.
Not bad?
They felt like they'd been taken apart and put back together wrong.
Teizawa bent, picked up the outer robe he'd tossed to the side, shook off the sand, and draped it over his shoulders.
Then he asked, casually, as if it were a minor detail.
"Who was last?"
A beat of silence.
Yukata squirmed and finally admitted, voice small.
"I… it was me."
Her face collapsed into misery.
"I'm still just… I'm still young. If something happens…"
Teizawa rolled his eyes.
"You think you can just get what you want because you want it? Dream on."
Yukata looked like she might cry.
"I won't get pregnant, right?"
"Who knows," Teizawa said, perfectly calm.
He was even joking with himself in his head, the way he always did when he refused to take the universe too seriously.
Then his gaze swept over the three of them.
"Tomorrow," he said.
His voice was low, but it left no room to pretend he was kidding.
"Report to the Kazekage's office."
Yukata snapped her head around so hard she almost pulled her neck.
"R-report?"
Teizawa didn't bother turning back right away.
"Personal aides."
Four words. Flat. Clear.
"From now on, the three of you are my personal aides. Your work area is in the east wing of the Kazekage's office. You'll have individual desks and a resting room."
"Salary will be based on Special Jōnin standards with a thirty percent increase. Mission stipends calculated separately."
Only then did he turn to face them, looking at three stunned faces with the same calm he'd used from the moment he walked in.
"Questions?"
There were a lot of questions.
Too many.
What did "personal aides" actually mean?
What would they be responsible for?
How was this even appropriate?
And… when had they ever agreed to become his aides?
Yukata opened her mouth, a whole storm of protest crowding her tongue, but her voice came out thin and shaky.
"Kazekage-sama… you can't… you can't just…"
Teizawa lifted a brow.
"Can't just what?"
Yukata's face burned hotter. She lowered her head until it was nearly against her chest, fingers twisting the corner of her wrinkled clothes.
"It's too much… Who does that… and with all three of us…"
Her voice dropped until the last words were almost inaudible.
Matsuri finally lifted her face from the sand and nodded hard.
"Yeah! It's too much!"
She tried to look stern and condemning.
With her flushed cheeks and watery eyes, it didn't land as fearsome as she intended.
More like a kitten trying to hiss after being thoroughly bullied.
Teizawa glanced at her.
Matsuri immediately ducked again.
Chiyo stayed quiet for a moment, then spoke more steadily than the other two, though the tremor at the end betrayed her anyway.
"You're Kazekage-sama."
She lowered her eyes.
"Who's going to say no?"
The words were soft.
But the resentment in them made Teizawa pause.
He went quiet for two seconds.
Then he gave a faint, nearly amused exhale.
"When I crossed the line, you didn't say no either."
Chiyo didn't look up, but her ears turned even redder.
Yukata bit her lip and fell silent.
Matsuri muttered something under her breath, too small to catch.
Teizawa gave them one last look and turned to leave.
"Don't be late tomorrow."
His back was relaxed, unhurried, the hem of his robe dragging a shallow line through the sand as he walked out.
(End of Chapter)
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