A long kiss that lasted for a full five minutes.
Until their breathing became a little uneven.
Uchiha Raizen finally let go of Yamanaka Inori.
Inori was breathing hard, pressing her lips together to pull down the string of saliva.
"This is my first kiss, Raizen-kun. You have to take responsibility for me."
Uchiha Raizen gently rubbed the girl's delicate nose in his arms, pretending to be serious:
"Then who else do you want to be responsible for you?"
Before, he thought Inori was just a cheerful and innocent cute girl.
Now he realized she actually had a lot of little tricks, especially when it came to teasing him.
He wasn't disappointed at all; in fact, he felt happy.
Because in this harsh ninja world, kind and pure people often face great danger.
"Raizen-kun, you forgot to turn off the stove," Inori suddenly pointed to the kitchen.
"What?!" Uchiha Raizen quickly went to turn off the fire.
The pot was already boiling hot.
Luckily, the food was taken out earlier, otherwise the green pepper stir-fry would have been ruined.
He glanced at the lovely girl standing beside him with a bit of annoyance.
"It's all your fault, you little troublemaker."
Inori blinked innocently and puffed out her cheeks.
"What do I have to do with it? You wanted to kiss for so long."
Then she smiled playfully.
"Raizen-kun, why don't you take off the apron and let me cook?"
Uchiha Raizen shook his head helplessly and gave the difficult task of cooking to Inori.
Half an hour later.
Green pepper stir-fry, tomato scrambled eggs, ham sushi, tonkotsu ramen, and more were all served on the table.
"Too bad sister isn't here to enjoy the food with us," Uchiha Raizen said.
Inori replied without thinking,
"There will be many chances for that in the future, most of our lives."
After saying this, her cheeks blushed.
She was becoming less shy by the day.
They sat together eating, their chopsticks almost always in each other's mouths.
The sour smell of young love was about to overflow from the room.
After finishing, it was already late at night. Inori's parents would never really allow her to stay overnight at Raizen's house, so no matter how late, she had to go back.
Before leaving, Inori hesitated for a long time, then finally made up her mind and said:
"Raizen-kun, the Uchiha clan's territory, has been under twenty-four-hour surveillance. You have to be extremely careful!"
Raizen Uchiha was stunned. He didn't expect Inori to tell him this.
He knew that monitoring the Uchiha clan was the highest secret in Konoha.
Inori, as a genius of the Yamanaka clan and an elite in the intelligence division, was the only one qualified to know this information.
By telling Raizen this, she was taking a serious risk—this could even be seen as betraying the village!
Raizen sighed and said, "You shouldn't have told me this."
Inori showed a stubborn and determined look. "Raizen-kun, you are the most important to me."
"That's not what I meant. I mean, I've known about this for a long time. Not only me, but Captain Fugaku and the elite Jonin in the clan also know."
"What? You all already knew the village was secretly watching?"
"Do you think the Uchiha's Sharingan is just for show?"
Inori was suddenly speechless.
Her pretty face was full of worry.
Earlier, when Yamanaka Ren had spoken during the day, it had actually touched on her deepest fears. That's why she had been so rude to Ren.
She actually knew very well that the distrust between the Uchiha clan and the village's higher-ups had already become deeply rooted and was impossible to reconcile.
This ticking time bomb, still being suppressed, could cause unimaginable consequences once it exploded.
If Uchiha Raizen got involved...
Yamanaka Inori couldn't bear to think any further.
Uchiha Raizen smiled and stepped forward, hugging the anxious girl.
"Little girl, I don't need you to worry about me. Look what this is."
He stretched his slender hand in front of Inori's eyes.
Inori stared without blinking.
The next second, she was shocked to see Raizen's hand change into a fierce and terrifying beast's claw, covered with a layer of blue-green scales.
Her cheeks instantly turned pale, her voice trembling.
"Raizen, what… what forbidden technique is this? Forbidden techniques are very dangerous. Are you okay?"
"Do I look like I'm in trouble?" Uchiha Raizen removed the beast form, pulled open his collar, revealing a dragon-shaped mark on his chest.
"This is a cursed seal technique I developed, containing the power of the Azure Dragon. Just now, my palm transformed into a dragon's claw and scales."
"Azure Dragon?" Inori gasped.
In the ninja world's legends, dragons do exist, though no one has ever seen one. They are even rarer than the tailed beasts.
She never expected that Raizen had actually gained the power of a dragon!
Uchiha Raizen said slowly, "I have been researching this technique for years, almost forgetting to sleep and eat. Recently, I finally succeeded. So, you don't need to worry about me. I have enough power to protect myself."
Yamanaka Inori looked at the young boy's handsome and confident face. The unease in her heart slowly faded, replaced by admiration she couldn't hide in her eyes.
Could it be that Raizen was working so hard behind the scenes?
Forgetting to sleep and eat, researching nonstop, inventing a unique cursed seal technique, and gaining the unimaginable power of the Azure Dragon.
Raizen was truly amazing!
Inori couldn't help but reach out her delicate finger and draw a circle on the dragon-shaped mark on Uchiha Raizen's chest.
"I didn't expect Raizen to be really good at inventing, just like the Second Hokage, Tobirama-sama. I heard he invented many unheard-of ninjutsu and kinjutsu."
Uchiha Raizen said nothing.
Is it really okay to compare me to Senju Tobirama? I'm a naturally evil Uchiha, after all.
He silently complained in his heart, then said:
"My cursed seal technique can not only hold the power of the Azure Dragon but also other mysterious abilities. I want to inject the same cursed seal into you and my sister, so no one can ever hurt you again."
Yamanaka Inori felt dizzy from Raizen's intimate care. If he asked her to defect from Konoha with him now, she probably wouldn't hesitate.
"I'll follow whatever you say, Raizen."
"Hmm, the problem now is that the materials needed to develop the cursed seal are quite expensive. The Azure Dragon seal alone has almost ruined me financially. I still haven't finished paying off my bank loan for the house."
"Is Raizen short on money? I have some. I have about three million ryō here. Would that be enough?"
Three million ryō wasn't even enough to buy the cheapest ordinary-type Zoan Devil Fruit.
But Uchiha Raizen didn't want to discourage the girl's enthusiasm and joked, "That's enough, enough. You make me sound like a freeloader."
"I'm happy to let you be one."
They stayed close for a while. As the time neared midnight, if Inori didn't go home soon, she would definitely get scolded.
After a final kiss goodbye, Uchiha Raizen suddenly remembered something and said, "By the way, Inori, don't come to the Uchiha clan territory so freely anymore. If there's something, I will come find you."
"Ah? Okay."
Although Inori was unwilling, she wasn't a careless girl.
At such a tense time, often going in and out of the Uchiha clan territory was definitely not a good thing for her.
Waving goodbye to Raizen, Inori walked home through the mountain under the moonlight, her face sometimes showing a sweet smile.
She didn't notice a figure and several Root shinobi hiding in the shadows, watching her leave the Uchiha clan territory.
"Leaving this late… What are they really doing?"
That figure was Yamanaka Ren, who had been recruited by Danzo.
At first, he still hesitated about whether to side with Danzo and take revenge on Uchiha Raizen.
But when he thought about the last six or seven hours, Uchiha Raizen and the goddess in his heart staying alone together in a room, possibly doing all sorts of things, his heart felt like it was being eaten by a swarm of ants.
He was going crazy. His hatred had completely swallowed his reason.
Yamanaka Ren swore, he would make Uchiha Raizen pay the price for taking away the person he loved!
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**********
Support me on my patreon and read upto 30 early chapters.
patreon.com/PirateKing24