Isaribi was alright. After being stunned for a moment, she quickly came back to herself.
There was still some shock on her face, though.
After all, having a child was something that felt very far away to her.
She felt like she wasn't mature enough, and with a sister like Anko who loved causing a fuss around her all the time, that feeling was even less likely to appear.
As for Anko, it was as if her brain still hadn't processed what Aoba had just said.
She wore a completely unresponsive expression.
Seeing her sitting there motionless like a wooden statue, Aoba finally understood how Yuhi Kurenai had felt when she saw his reaction earlier.
It was a little funny.
He raised his hand and waved it in front of her blank eyes.
"Anko-nee?"
"Hm?"
Anko came back to herself. The emptiness in her eyes disappeared, and she immediately grabbed the hand Aoba was waving around and stared at him in disbelief.
"Kurenai is really pregnant?"
"Really. I've already checked."
Aoba nodded firmly, making it clear that this couldn't be more real.
"..."
After learning the result, Anko let go of his hand. She stood there blankly and muttered to herself, "Kurenai is actually pregnant..."
"?"
Looking at her reaction, Aoba couldn't help feeling puzzled.
"Why does it feel like you're really troubled by Kurenai-nee being pregnant, Anko-nee?"
"Sigh~"
Although Anko pulled herself together after hearing that, she still couldn't stop herself from letting out a long sigh. She slumped back into the chair.
"Of course I'm troubled. Once Kurenai's child is born, I'll immediately go from a young girl to a middle-aged auntie."
Karin and the others still called her Nee-san, but Kurenai's child definitely couldn't be expected to do the same.
Just thinking about going from the older-sister generation to the auntie generation made her feel a little down.
"..."
Aoba couldn't help twitching the corner of his mouth.
'So after spacing out for so long, this is what you were thinking about?'
His own feelings were pretty complicated too.
Going from a young man to a father all at once was a sudden change in identity.
"What kind of look is that? Am I not a young girl?"
Anko noticed his expression and immediately frowned in dissatisfaction, pressing her red lips together.
Aoba: "..."
Unlike Kurenai, who pinched his face when she got angry, Anko usually went straight for his weak spot.
She never used much force, but it always left him not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
"Yes, yes, of course you are. But now that Kurenai-nee is pregnant, what do you think, Anko-nee?"
Aoba changed the subject.
"What do I think?"
Anko thought for a moment while holding her chin.
"Hmm... If children are obedient, they're all pretty cute and fun to be around."
"Mm."
Aoba nodded as well. He completely agreed with what Anko said.
After all, Tenten, Ino, and the others really had been very cute when they were little.
But Anko shrugged and shook her head, "Still, if you're asking me to have one myself, forget it."
"Hm?"
Aoba hadn't expected that turn. Then again, considering it was Anko, it wasn't hard to understand.
That was just her personality.
She still seemed like a child who hadn't grown up herself.
"Because having a child is too troublesome. You have to wait ten whole months. Especially later on, when you're carrying a big belly around. It's even more troublesome. There are lots of things you can't eat and plenty of things you can't do. Kurenai can accept that, but I definitely couldn't."
Anko explained her reasons briefly. They were pretty much what Aoba had expected.
Aoba didn't think there was anything wrong with that.
If Kurenai hadn't suddenly told him she was pregnant, he wouldn't even have thought about this sort of thing.
"What about you, Isaribi?"
Aoba turned to Isaribi.
"Eh? Me?"
Isaribi was sitting on the bed in a duck-sitting posture. Hearing Aoba ask her, she tilted her head and replied hesitantly, "I heard having a child hurts a lot..."
"That too."
Aoba nodded. Even for ninjas, pain was still pain when it came to this.
As for why Anko didn't care about that, it was probably because she had a higher tolerance for pain.
"But having a child sounds kind of nice too...", Isaribi fell into hesitation.
At that moment, though, a mischievous grin appeared on Anko's face, "That part's easy... When the time comes, we'll just borrow Kurenai's child to play with. If it starts crying, we'll give it back."
"Uh..."
Isaribi didn't know how to respond to that.
'Are children meant to be playing with?'
"..."
Aoba also looked speechless.
"If Kurenai-nee wants to beat you up when that happens, I won't have any objections."
"Hmph! Kurenai's child hasn't even been born yet, and you're already taking her side."
Anko immediately became unhappy after hearing that.
"How is that taking sides? You're clearly the one in the wrong first."
Since Anko showed no awareness of her mistake at all, Aoba directly picked her up from the chair and placed her on the bed Isaribi had already made.
"Isn't being punished after making a mistake perfectly normal?"
"Wait! But I was talking about the future. I haven't done anything wrong right now!"
Anko pinched Aoba's face and argued.
"It's fine. Let's just treat it as giving Anko-nee a preventive warning ahead of time!"
"That's cheating! Mmph!"
"..."
Watching Anko end up in trouble again after only a few sentences, Isaribi could only shake her head helplessly.
Still, she felt that Anko was doing it on purpose.
After all, every time she was punished, Anko's behavior was obviously a little strange.