"Please... don't kill him!" Temari begged, her voice cracking. "We surrender! The invasion failed! Just let him live... I'll do anything!"
I paused, deactivating my Haki. The black sheen faded from my skin.
I looked down at the Sand Princess kneeling in the dirt, practically offering herself up. I tilted my head, a slow, incredibly wicked smirk spreading across my face.
"Oh?" I drawled, leaning forward slightly. "Anything?"
Temari froze. Her teal eyes widened as the heavy, unmistakable implication of my tone hit her. She remembered the firm grip of my hands on her waist, the weight of my body pinning her to the stadium floor, and the comments about her fishnet skirt.
A deep, violent blush exploded across her cheeks, turning her face the color of a tomato. "I... you..."
"Kenji! You absolute pervert!"
SWISH.
A fist flew straight at the back of my head.
I didn't even turn around. I just casually ducked. Sakura's fist sailed harmlessly over my hair, carrying her forward until she stumbled and nearly tripped over a tree root.
"Whoa, easy there, Pinky," I laughed, putting my hands in my pockets.
Sakura spun around, her face red with absolute fury. "Are you out of your mind?! She's an enemy ninja! She literally just helped destroy the village, her brother turned into a giant monster that tried to kill us, and you're... you're flirting with her?!"
"I'm negotiating terms of surrender, Sakura," I corrected smoothly. "It's high-level diplomacy. You wouldn't understand."
"You were looking down her shirt!" Sakura shrieked.
"Are you jealous I'm not flirting with you?" I teased, raising an eyebrow.
"W-Who is jealous of that?!" Sakura sputtered, crossing her arms defensively. "I wouldn't want a creep like you flirting with me even if you were the last guy on earth! I have Sasuke-kun!"
"It definitely seems like you're a little jealous," I sighed dramatically, shaking my head. "But what can I say? You're a bit too... aerodynamic for my tastes. Flat as a cutting board. I need a little more cushion for the pushin', you know?"
Sakura's jaw dropped. The sheer disrespect short-circuited her brain.
"But," I stroked my chin, my eyes trailing down her back, "you do have a decent squat form. With that ass, I suppose I could give you a chance in a few years."
"KENJI, YOU BASTARD!" Sakura screamed, abandoning all ninjutsu and charging at me with both fists swinging, her face burning with a mix of homicidal rage and utter embarrassment.
I easily dodged her flailing punches, laughing out loud.
"Hey! Leave Sakura-chan alone!"
Naruto finally caught his breath and stomped over, pointing an accusing finger at me. His orange jumpsuit was torn to shreds, but his righteous indignation was fully intact.
"How can you say that to Sakura-chan?!" Naruto yelled, standing protectively in front of the fuming pinkette. "She's beautiful! You're a jerk, Kenji! Apologize right now!"
I easily sidestepped Sakura's final punch, grabbing her wrist and spinning her away before looking at the blonde idiot.
I stared at Naruto for a long, silent moment. I just shook my head, letting out a heavy sigh of profound disappointment.
"Look at this guy," I muttered aloud, addressing the sky. "He has an incredibly devoted, sweet, aristocratic girl with a massive... heart, waiting for him back in the village, ready to faint every time he looks at her. And yet he's still knocking on the wrong, violently locked door. Some people are just blind to their own blessings."
"What are you talking about?!" Naruto yelled, completely missing the reference to Hinata. "Who's knocking on doors?!"
A few feet away, kneeling in the dirt, Temari watched the exchange in absolute silence.
The adrenaline of the battle was fading, replaced by a strange, hollow ache in her chest. She looked at Sakura, furious but unharmed. She looked at Naruto, loudly defending his teammate. She looked at me, effortlessly defusing the tension with shameless, borderline-insane banter.
They were arguing. They were yelling at each other.
But there was no killing intent. There was no fear. It was... warm. It was the messy, chaotic camaraderie of people who actually trusted each other. People who had a home to go back to.
Temari slowly lowered her gaze to her own hands, resting on the sand.
When had she ever had moments like this?
Her entire life in the Hidden Sand Village had been a brutal exercise in survival. Her village was desperately poor, suffocated by the desert and ignored by the Feudal Lord. Her mother had died in childbirth, sacrificed to seal a demon into her youngest brother. That same brother had grown up into an unstable, homicidal monster who terrified her. Her other brother hid behind layers of face paint and wooden puppets, too cynical to ever joke around.
And her father? The Fourth Kazekage had raised them as weapons, not children. And now, putting the pieces together from the sudden appearance of Orochimaru... she realized with a sickening drop in her stomach that their father was likely already dead, murdered and replaced by the snake Sannin to orchestrate this doomed invasion.
She had nothing. No warm village. No cheerful teammates. Just sand, blood, and a terrifying, uncertain future.
A profound sense of loss washed over her. Her shoulders slumped, the fight completely leaving her body.
"Temari?" Kankuro whispered, noticing his sister's sudden change in posture.
I stopped dodging Sakura and looked down at the Sand siblings. My [Observation Haki] easily picked up the sudden plunge in Temari's emotional state. The defiance was gone, replaced by a crushing, hollow vulnerability.
Before I could say anything else, the trees surrounding the clearing rustled violently.
Four Konoha ANBU operatives dropped into the clearing, their porcelain animal masks gleaming in the afternoon sun. They immediately drew their short swords, surrounding the Sand siblings.
"Target secured," the ANBU captain stated, his voice devoid of emotion. He looked at Gaara, who was barely conscious, then at Naruto, Sakura, and me. "Good work, Genin. We will take the enemy combatants into custody from here."
Temari closed her eyes, accepting her fate. She didn't fight back as an ANBU operative grabbed her arms and bound her wrists with chakra-suppressing wire. Kankuro and Gaara were treated similarly.
They were prisoners of the Hidden Leaf now. The T&I (Torture and Interrogation) department was waiting for them.
As the ANBU hauled her to her feet, Temari looked over her shoulder at me. Her teal eyes were a mix of fear, exhaustion, and that lingering, confusing heat from our fight.
I gave her a lazy two-finger salute.
"Don't worry, Princess," I called out to her, a shameless smirk on my face. "I'll make sure to drop by your cell during visiting hours. I might even bring you a new fishnet top. Yours is looking a little torn."
Temari's face flushed a brilliant red, but the ANBU didn't give her time to retort, dragging the three siblings away into the trees.
"You are unbelievable," Sakura groaned, rubbing her temples. "They're being taken to prison and you're still harassing her."
"I'm establishing foreign relations, Sakura," I corrected, stretching my arms. "Now, come on. Let's go see if there's a village left to return to."
Author's Note:
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