Opening the window and barging in to disturb him really did have a certain savage flair to it.
But what he ran into was an old monster.
A cat that hated water, yet still wanted to sneak a peek at something important the very first chance it got.
He lay hidden in the shadows on the floor.
Like an old spider lying in wait, staring at the silent window.
In truth, that dark hatred of his could almost count as a kind of success.
When Teizawa was still in Konoha, he had already reached out to interfere once.
He formed a seal, his hands moving slowly together.
If the man did not return in time, then perhaps...
Perhaps something really would have happened while he was away.
Teizawa leaned against the window, a playful smile touching the corner of his mouth.
That smile carried a quiet, amused meaning.
After all, he had seen the entire scene play out before him like a live broadcast.
How could he possibly miss the real intent behind it?
The Tailed Beasts were strategic weapons.
They were forces powerful enough to reshape the balance of the world.
If one were to be stolen from Konoha and fall into the hands of some other faction, the village's internal equilibrium would collapse.
With Danzo's obsessive, weak-minded fear of being attacked from every angle, how could he possibly allow such a thing to happen?
He would definitely try to stick his hand into it somehow.
Either to intervene directly, or to use the opportunity for something else.
Or perhaps...
To probe him?
"Interesting."
Teizawa murmured to himself.
He figured that the reason Danzo had someone come looking for him was not just because of official business.
That old man had another hidden agenda.
After all, in Danzo's eyes, the fact that the Kazekage had not gone to see the Hokage first, but had come to see him instead, probably mattered more than anything else.
Teizawa shook his head in disdain, the corner of his mouth curling upward.
Then suddenly, a faint disturbance came from outside the window.
It was subtle.
Very subtle.
But to Teizawa, the sound was impossibly clear.
Footsteps shifting position.
More than one.
The movement of masked ANBU.
Teizawa's lips lifted.
Looks like they're about to move.
He rose and walked to the center of the room.
Then he pointed toward the shadow cast beneath his body.
A figure separated itself from him.
An identical double sat down in the chair.
It looked around lazily, perfectly natural.
Meanwhile, the real Teizawa had already melted into the night outside the window.
He did not head in the direction Yamanaka Fu had gone.
Meet Danzo?
As if he cared about that.
Let the old fool wait there like an idiot.
As for him...
Of course he was going to see Kurenai.
So Teizawa shot off toward a quiet district of Konoha's residential quarter.
...
The night wind was sharp, and the moonlight flowed like water.
Teizawa's figure skimmed lightly over the rooftops like a soundless ghost.
Below him lay Konoha's streets and alleys.
Now and then, a villager returning home late hurried along beneath the eaves.
No one noticed the shadow that flashed across the roofs overhead.
Before long, he reached a quiet residential area.
Because it was not far from the outer zone near the Hokage's office, the place was especially calm and orderly.
But it also carried a warm, lived-in feeling.
Flowers and potted plants filled the little yards.
Freshly washed clothes hung from clotheslines.
Every now and then, faint murmurs drifted out from inside the homes.
Teizawa stopped outside a first-floor window.
He did not go in immediately.
Instead, he stood in the shadow of the wall and looked toward the faint light spilling from inside.
A vague silhouette was reflected in the glass.
That figure was leaning by the window, seemingly lost in thought.
Teizawa's mouth curved upward.
He raised a hand and lightly tapped the window frame.
A soft cough followed.
The figure inside visibly jolted.
Then...
The window opened a crack.
A startled face appeared in the gap.
Those eyes were full of shock and disbelief.
Kurenai.
She was still wearing a night robe, staring at him in stunned silence.
Teizawa leaned against the shadows, moonlight scattering across her face in broken patterns.
He smiled faintly and said in a quiet voice, "Long time no see."
The window was open only a sliver, and moonlight leaked through the gap, casting a thin strip of silver across the floor.
Kurenai stood at the window.
One hand still rested on the frame, her fingers unconsciously tightening around it.
She kept looking at the man in the shadows outside.
At that face outlined beneath the moonlight.
At that smile at the corner of his mouth, forever impossible to read.
Her mind had gone completely blank.
"You... why are you here?"
Her voice trembled slightly, carrying a shake she did not even notice herself.
Teizawa smiled, those eyes of his as calm as if he were simply remarking on the weather.
"I missed you."
He paused, and the smile at his lips deepened.
"So I came."
Kurenai froze.
I missed you.
Those three words were like a stone tossed into a still lake.
Ripples spread through her heart one after another.
She wanted to tell him this was absurd.
Wasn't he just standing outside her window?
And yet all at once, memories of that night in the woods came flooding back.
That man.
That unbearable tangle of feelings.
She had imagined countless times what it would be like to see him again.
Would she really want to meet him?
What would happen when they faced each other again?
Would she turn and leave as if he did not exist?
But now...
Now that she was truly standing here, looking at him through the narrow window, she realized that what welled up inside her was not just bitterness.
There was also a trace of joy.
No.
That's wrong.
She fiercely shook her head in her heart.
I shouldn't be happy.
I should hate seeing him.
Why would I be happy?
But that feeling was like spring grass.
The harder she tried to crush it down, the more stubbornly it grew.
Teizawa watched the shifting emotions play across her face through that tiny window, and the smile in his eyes deepened.
"What?"
he asked softly, his voice low and teasing.
"Are you not happy to see me?"
Kurenai trembled faintly.
Reason told her she could not let him in.
This was her house.
If anyone found out the Kazekage had appeared here in the middle of the night...
But another voice whispered to her:
Let him in.
Just for a little while.
No one will notice.
She bit her lip so hard it almost bled.
Then...
She stepped aside and moved away from the window.
The window slowly opened wider.
Teizawa smiled.
With a light leap, he drifted into the room like a falling leaf.
He made no sound at all.
The window closed softly behind him.
Now only the two of them remained in the room.
Moonlight spilled in through the cracks of the window, throwing broken patches of silver across the floor.
Kurenai stood by the window with the moonlight at her back.
Her long lashes hung low.
But in the dimness, her eyes shone with complicated emotions.
Teizawa stood before her, looking down at her.
Several seconds passed in silence.
Then...
He reached out and gently lifted her chin.
Kurenai's body trembled faintly, but she did not pull away.
"Kurenai."
He softly called her name.
His voice was low and gentle, almost unbearably tender.
Kurenai looked at him.
Looked into those eyes, still so deep even in the dark.
And then, all at once, the tears she had held back for so long spilled over.
"You bastard..."
Her voice trembled, thick with tears.
"You bastard..."
Teizawa said nothing.
He simply pulled her lightly into his arms.
Kurenai struggled once, just once, and then stopped.
She buried her face against his chest and let her tears soak through his clothes.
That ache inside her, she could not suppress it anymore.
All the longing she had hidden through countless nights and days...
At this moment, it all turned into silent sobbing.
The moonlight shone quietly over them.
In the room, only the faint sound of her crying and the mingled rhythm of their breathing remained.
(End of Chapter)
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