I do not own Naruto.


Chapter 9


Itachi had not anticipated the deep sense of loss. Two weeks, and then three passed. His guardsman was nowhere to be found. She did not dwell in the trees or in the underground, as a proper warden would. She'd forsaken her duties to serve as the administrator for his detention.

She was no real guard. Only the illusion of one, irresponsibly placed in his vicinity as some sort of coolant for a wretched soul. If Hatake Kakashi had foreseen what his careless decision wrought upon his daughter's heart, he would not have done it.

Itachi was not certain why she had been assigned to him until the Rokudaime stationed her brothers as well. He presumed it was because Sai's students were of the few who knew about him, but over time, he fathomed that their presence in his life was to simply accompany him.

Youthful, bright companions meant to soothe the plague of the past. But Sai's team was prohibited from entering the property if Kanna was not present. Their absenteeism was also noted.

Sasuke distracted him from Yakushi's revelation. His brother became aware of the resurrection's solved mystery and touched the subject only once, knowing it was a point of contention for Itachi.

It had been too long since he felt loathing for another. It first manifested toward the clan for their pure idiocy and ego. He felt it when Danzo drove Shisui to his death. Another time he boiled with hatred was when Orochimaru dared to interfere with his brother's physiology. It had taken restraint from the heavens to not abandon Akatsuki's infiltration and raid every dungeon Orochimaru ever dug.

But Itachi's anger was often still. It was fashioned to be controlled from a young age. Even if prodded and poked, he meditated on every repercussion of retaliation. He calculated verbal responses as needed. Instant retaliation was for the weak hearted. Revenge belonged to heaven and whoever pursued it was a fool.

So, he did not understand why it had been Kanna who angered him as she had—or why he had found it necessary to be vicious to her.

Sasuke did not discuss Kanna's absence, though the reason for that was unclear to Itachi. No measure of distraction from his family could make him forget that he had foolishly run her off.


With two sons, Kakashi stood outside his daughter's door.

"Daiki," he said, "She likes you the best. You wake her up."

The dark-haired boy gulped. "But what if she's crying again?" He became sick to his stomach whenever his nechan cried.

With dark under eyes, Satomi pointedly stared at his father. "Don't look at me. Kaasan said to leave her alone."

The Rokudaime set his hands on his sides and sighed.

"Instead of training this morning, maybe take her out?" Satomi suggested. "When's the last time you spoiled your only daughter?"

"Nice try," Kakashi said. The teen boys had stayed up playing a new video game. They pawned it off Naruto's kid with a hamburger.

Daiki snickered at the wicked gleam on his brother. His laugh was contagious and Kakashi chuckled with him.

The three of them looked toward the purple door when it clicked open.

"Mornin'," Kanna peeked through the crack of the door and yawned in her hand. Her hair was as wild as Satomi's in the mornings. The rims around her eyes were constantly puffy these days.

Kakashi eye smiled as wind slightly ruffled his hair and clothes. "I wasn't alone a second ago."

Kanna smiled and leaned the side of her head on the doorframe.

Growing serious, he said, "You haven't left the house in three weeks. New missions are posted every day. Why don't you go on one?"

Her mouth crinkled into a small frown and her eyes became glassy.

"Oh Kanna," Kakashi admonished gently as his chest felt heavy. "Itachi has his reasons. You can't take it personally."

But she did. Whatever happened at the Uchiha district after Yakushi's visit set the resurrected man off. Kanna had been content with the position, and had been exceptionally diligent for the last year. To have the gig revoked was hard for her. Even her brothers weren't allowed in sector 149 without her supervision.

The three of them, and Tsubame, were torn up about it. They had all come to care for the stoic Uchiha, but it was Kanna who was the worst at handling it. She always had trouble separating someone's rejection from believing she was not capable in meeting their expectations.

She didn't understand that sometimes someone's negative response had nothing to do with her.

Kakashi crossed his arms. "Your assignment is to be a convicted man's manager. He has no say whether you step foot on that property or not. You can do as you please."

Kanna shook her head, a tear falling from her jaw. She'd rather chew her own leg off than upset Itachi. Really, the man's way of handling Ryuba's visit could have been executed better. Sasuke tried to excuse his brother, but as the father whose children admired the man, it was all very irritating.

Though, what right did Kakashi have to command anything of Itachi?

Sighing again, Kakashi put a hand on Kanna's head. "What about border patrol? They could always use a few chunin for the new year. Give the guys up there a nice little break."

Interest stirred, she refocused on him. "How long?"

"A couple of weeks. What do you say?" It would get her mind off things, and hopefully by the time she returned, Sasuke would have talked some sense into that brother of his.

Her expression turned hesitant. "That's too long."

She didn't like that he was interfering again, but she was too polite to outright tell him not to. Chunin status, she had officially become an adult in the summer. Yet being seventeen in today's world looked different than it had in his day. What hadn't Kakashi done at seventeen–what hadn't he done at thirteen?

Being a parent made hypocrites of everyone.

His wife Ayame told him not to push their daughter. If she became fed up and moved out, because she legally could, he would be one sorry husband.

Kakashi had no parents growing up. In contrast his children had an abundance of adult relatives. He saw the benefits of this in their life, yet he perceived how the line between innocent and ignorant was thin, and his children were both.

In many things they were more childlike compared to how he was at their age, and yet when it came to love and expressing themselves, they had far surpassed him. Kakashi had been emotionally stunted for a long time. But in one thing were his children just like their father—to an utter fault.

That was that their loyalty to their loved ones was raw and overflowing.

Down the hall, Hiroyuki started wailing for his mother. Kanna ducked her head and jogged out of her room to tend to the toddler.

Shaking his head, Kakashi went downstairs where his sons were conspiring against 'a creepy bird' that was circling outside and who would be the first to 'throw a rock at it.'


Winter came. Soota visited his taciturn friend when he could and brought groceries each time. Kanna had asked it of him.

If Itachi were a fouler man, he would curse her. She had no business loving him. Why could she not control this part of herself? How many times had he shut off his own desires to do the right thing? He may have spurned her, but he had no true influence of whether she did her job or not. It was by choice that she was absent.

She did not come because Itachi could not give her what she desired.

Kabuto thought his deed was benevolent. Mercy returned. But what life was this, so full of regret and with a suffocating lonesomeness ever on the horizon. Surely one day it would drive him mad.

"If you can't live for yourself, live for others." He was trying.

In the new year, Itachi sent another crow to the Hatake home. It was in vain. Kanna did not respond. And so, he sent another and another. Yet his attempts at communication failed.

"You let her touch you." It had been nothing. Did she not know?

It was when the frost melted and the ache of aloneness began to ebb into numbness, as all pain did, that Kanna returned with a basket of provisions. He was pulling weeds when her neat white shoes appeared in his peripherals. Her stockings were a light rose color and delicately rested below the knee.

Itachi did not glance up from the garden rows. "I attempted to apologize. There is only so much I can do."

She squatted beside him, mindfully tucking the skirt of her dress between her calves and thighs. "Apology accepted."

She wore a long-sleeved dress, the fabric of it thick for warmth. She glowed beneath the sunlight, hair now at her elbows.

"It was big news," her soft voice came. "It must have been overwhelming."

Itachi focused on his task. "I should have been kinder to the boy." He met her gaze stoically. "And you."

A small smile tugged at the corner of her mouth, but she pursed it away. He resumed clearing out unwanted growths, and in her quiet way, she began to pick at the weeds nearest to her.

"Kanna," he spoke with gentle words. "I am in need of a friend and only that."

"Then I'll be your friend. And only that."

"Thank you."

He was glad that when he looked at her, she was pleased. Perhaps during her absence, she came to her own conclusion that loving him as a man was fruitless.

"Just know," she hesitantly started as they worked, "that how I…how I feel hasn't changed."

"Very well."

She was putting herself aside to do her duty. To be his friend. To be objective.

In his heart, he would honor this by adding her to the list of persons he cared for most in the world. She and her brothers' team had become consistent beings in the realm of his new life, worthy of being counted as dear.

He, too, had come to his own conclusions in their absence. And that was that he wanted them back.


In his underhanded way, Soota convinced Kanna to propose a night of leisure at Itachi's home. Knowing who was behind the suggestion did not matter, since it was her who came with pleading eyes and hair tucked behind her ears.

The Uchiha relented on the basis that it would only be the two of them, but Kanna quietly asked to bring her own friend to make the card game even.

Sarutobi Mirai joined their ranks. Although the new addition to their group was at times fretful in making decisions, she was a kunoichi with a mild disposition, falling into place within Soota and Kanna's orbit. The three had been raised together and so their dynamic was easy.

While playing, Soota and Mirai revealed to Itachi that earlier in the winter Kanna had gone on a stealth mission to return the Fire Daimyo's family crest. The ring that Tsubame had stolen. This all to avoid war from breaking out with the Earth Daimyo, whose grandson was accused of burglarizing an ancestral heirloom.

"Alone?" Itachi spoke up. The fire Daimyo had around the clock S class shinobi guarding him and the noble family. It was dangerous.

Soota passed him a curious look. "She had an escort."

Kanna sighed behind the cards in her hands. "I went as the Hokage's child," she said. "Tousan says my cuteness promotes diplomacy."

Soota laughed. "Meanwhile he has you sneaking into the Daimyo's room. Too bad Boruto isn't old enough to play diplomat. If he went, a war really would break out."

Mirai shook her head. "My mom said my dad used to hate when the Sandaime used him like that."

Kanna innocently shrugged. "I don't really mind. Daimyo-sama is very nice to me. And the ring had to be returned."

"Oh Kanna-chan," Mirai tsked, "you're always covering up for your brothers' team."

"I couldn't help it this time," Kanna reasoned. "Tousan and Naruto-sama officially asked me to do it. They even asked a clan head to create a sealed message to the Daimyo's night guards, so they could turn a blind eye."

"Let me guess," Soota mumbled, setting down a card. "Hyuga?"

Kanna enthusiastically nodded.

"The byakugan can detect you?" Itachi asked lightly.

"Only when I'm moving," she said, becoming downcast at her limitations. "I can't shift the outline of the jutsu as fast as the byakugan can detect that something is wrong."

Mirai patted Kanna's head. "There, there. You'll just have to keep practicing. Soota—leave some for Kanna. Those are her favorite."

"Oh," he mumbled with a mouth full of dried persimmon cuts. "Here." He handed a piece to Kanna and she happily partook, bopping her head in approval as she bit into it.

They spoiled her. The two were older by a few years but they delighted in her as if she were theirs to indulge. Or perhaps they saw how she was with everyone else and returned her kindness tenfold, so that she could remain as she was and never tire from lack of reciprocation.

Itachi placed a card down, knowing the answer to his next words. "Do you work on skills beside the Ghost Technique?"

Kanna swallowed a dried persimmon. "Hmm, yes?"

Deadpanned, Mirai and Soota both answered, "No."

Itachi closed his eyes. "I see."


From an open lettuce panel, Itachi watched Kanna walk through the garden rows. She was smiling at the stems of green that had sprouted every few feet.

She opened a door he could not close.

How could he? She had been his constant companion for the past year, knowing him, speaking with him, caring for him when she had no reason to.

Every moment spent together began to replay in his mind's eye. He realized that her gestures and blushes meant more than what he had given thought to. She had been discreet with her feelings until she couldn't.

Soft-natured and beautiful.

He was only a man.

She was petite, lightly curved but wholly female. And she was not so young that he should feel ashamed of acknowledging her beauty.

The shame that was present came from the growing curiosity of what her sweet feelings could become if he allowed the space for them. She agreed to have a friendship with him, and despite the amount of time she had been away, nothing changed. She was the same as before. Soft and feminine. Rosy cheeked and devoted.

In the past, women had desired him for his face. Never in all his travels had he indulged in worldly pleasures. With his goals and bloodline, to do such a thing on a whim would have been foolish. But with Kanna, he need only reach out—

Her evolved feelings were not unsolicited. It would be a lie to say they were unreciprocated.

He had been the one to ask personal questions, unable to withhold his curiosity. He complimented her character and implied individuals with her moral compass changed the world for the better. He proposed using each other to hone their trademark jutsu. He found solace in the warmth of her palm on his brow.

It was him who noticed the growing length of her hair, when sunlight honeyed her eyes, the blushes on her nose and the whispered mumblings when she worked. The curve of her neck and the tenderness of her thighs when she wore shorts may have initially been noticed because he was male, but the extent of their appreciation grew evening by evening.

He felt as if he were disgracing her by this expanding interest and that he was fostering deception by not articulating to her such thoughts.

He could not—he could not stop thinking about her.

It was never meant to be this way. His second life sat outside its rightful timeline. And even so, he accepted it for what it was and had developed a personal goal for a quiet life, participating on the fringes of his brother's family.

Kanna's love had come quietly, prettily. What was he to do with it? He did not want it.

Without words she made her feelings known. She sincerely agreed to be friends, but lately his thoughts—Itachi looked away from her.

He truly was only just a man.


Sasuke was uncertain if Itachi knew, but every time he addressed Kanna, his own voice lowered, matching her soft volume.

A once minimal sense of wonder made its way toward the forefront of Sasuke's mind. Quietly, he observed the way the young—they were closer in age than he and Itachi—couple interacted.

Near the garden, Kanna and Itachi set up a bamboo pergola. She laughed at something. Although his brother was a stoic being, long fashioned to have little emotion, he wore a soft gaze. She had required direction and his brother provided it gently and thoroughly.

"One moment, Sasuke," Itachi had said, excusing himself so he could show Kanna the proper way of things. She had not even asked for assistance. From the house all his brother had needed to see was that she read the instruction manual for a little longer than necessary, and he intervened.

Doing too much, Kanna grabbed many planks of bamboo and was about to unknowingly trip over a box. Itachi reached out and grabbed her forearm. His mouth formed the words "careful." The girl turned pink but nodded.

Sasuke looked down at the ceramic cup in his hand, feeling as if he was interfering in a private moment. A part of him was concerned over the insinuations of those two getting closer. He wanted to believe his brother would properly push Kanna away should the situation call for it.

But the truth was, Sasuke did not always understand Itachi. Even decades later, many of his brother's decisions were a mystery to him. There were things that sat ill with Sasuke, but he wanted to respect Itachi's space, especially since it had been violated time and time again.

One thing he did know. Should Kanna unlock the love of Uchiha Itachi, there was nowhere she could ever hide where his devotion would not swallow her up.

Sasuke knew that very well.


Itachi stood on the shore of a great lake in the district. In his arms was a silver haired toddler named Hiroyuki. Far in the distance, young shinobi ran a race on the water's surface.

Kanna brought the child and presented him to Itachi in the morning. Her parents were on a holiday and her brothers were in her care.

The Hatake family and Tsubame came unofficially in their swimwear to the Uchiha district. Satomi and Daiki endeavored to race on water and convinced the young women to ride on their backs to increase the challenge.

And so, with a smile, Kanna stepped forward and handed Itachi the child named Hiroyuki. "Just for a bit," she whispered, kicking her sandals off to follow the others. Her slender feet walked very well on the water. There were no ripples to her steps.

"Ah, ah!" Hiroyuki grasped toward his siblings. His small legs kicked under Itachi's forearms.

"Child," he said, "let's wait here."

He put the toddler down and proceeded to remove both their shoes. "Come," he took the boy by hand and walked into the shallow of the lake.

How many times had he taken a young Sasuke to play on this very lake? Two hundred and fifty-six times.

Hiroyuki squealed, striking his legs out, splashing water until Itachi regretted not removing the child's shirt. Drenched, his small silver spikes fell flat on his little forehead.

"Wa-tah!" he shouted while jumping. He looked up at Itachi with big gray eyes, pulling at the man's hand. This child looked the most like the Rokudaime.

"What is it?"

"Ah!" He pointed toward his siblings again.

"You cannot."

The boy's face scrunched up and his lips wobbled, the skin beneath his mouth crinkling like Kanna's when she was put out. He rubbed his eyes with the heel of a tiny palm until his face was flush.

"Dai!" he wailed multiple times and Itachi knew the boy had a favorite. When his brother ignored him, Hiroyuki called to the others. "Ne-Ne! Nii! Nii!" He even called for the orphaned girl.

Itachi waited patiently until the boy realized his siblings were too far away to pay him any mind. Hiroyuki turned to his impromptu caretaker and raised his free hand, making a squeezing motion with his fingers.

"Up pweese!"

The man scooped the child up. Immediately, Hiroyuki ducked his head into Itachi's neck and fell asleep. The warmth of a tiny body holding on to him stirred a profound sense of nostalgia that stole the air from out of his lungs. Usagi was still too little to hold others like this.

Water dripped down Itachi's shirt and into his lap from the soaked toddler. The boy was tired.

He turned and made his way to the house. He sent a clone to wade in the water until the Hatake siblings finished.

Absentmindedly, Itachi rubbed Hiroyuki's back as they walked through the woodland. He thought of giving the boy something dry to nap in. But it was unneeded. Beside Kanna's bag was a colorful carrier meant for small children. It sat on the engawa and possessed a change of clothes.

The boy slept through the entire wardrobe replacement. He barley stirred when Itachi set him on a makeshift futon on the wooden porch.

Itachi leaned against one of the engawa beams, stretching his legs. His pants were still damp. Unbothered, he opened a scroll to read. The child lay sprawled near Itachi's ankles, carefree and sighed at random intervals.

The sun was behind a pristine white cold and there was a cool breeze. Glancing away from the text and to the slumbering child, Itachi wondered if the Rokudaime had really orchestrated all of this. The property, his children, the Anbu…

After the last war, his brother described his old sensei to have been persistently unmatched in his integration of Sasuke within the shinobi community.


It was Sarada's last year in the academy and it stood to reason that the academic material would cover the severe historical aspects of the shinobi world, specifically the instances where Konoha had undergone them.

The Uchiha family sat gathered in Itachi's living area, simply existing within one another's orbit. Sasuke had made a rather pleasant lunch.

Itachi held Usagi, observing how the girl slept. He was focused on the way her pink eyebrows twitched every so often when Sarada asked him a question that had every adult's spine straighten.

Sarada inquired after her paternal grandparents. She wanted to know her uncle's version of them since her father had already given his renditions. Itachi answered all that he could, reserved and simply.

His niece expressed she read something in the academy about the civil war, and when she matter-of-factly asked how her grandparents died and which side they were on, Sakura shouted "Sarada!"

Usagi startled in Itachi's arms and began to cry.

Sakura's scowl was fierce, angry at her daughter's lack of tact. This was not a new conversation for the small family. Sarada's back stiffened in her sitting position, but her expression remained stubborn.

"I just want to understand—the textbook doesn't make sense. I asked sensei and they acted so strange."

"Stop it, Sarada!" Her mother reprimanded, abruptly standing, causing her eldest child to flinch in fear.

"But Mama!" Sarada's own eyes spawned tears. "I want to know about my family. Papa, please, tell Mama!"

Usagi wailed louder. Itachi's chest grew heavy. A moment later Sasuke was kneeling next to him and taking the infant from his arms. "Go," he said quietly. "I will find you later."

Itachi stood and left the home that was given to him—that once belonged to his closest friend—Shisui.


"Itachi, wait. Itachi, Itachi—"

His vision was narrowing. "Leave me."

"I won't," Kanna whispered, "you're getting sick. I'll take you back—!"

"No!"

Her eyes widened at his tone. But he had no energy to spare or words of comfort for a young woman who was too attached.

His shoulder and arm dragged down against the bark of a tree. "I need only a moment—Kanna!"

She was sitting behind him and wrapping her arms around his waist. "It's okay. I'm here."

Itachi closed his eyes, pushing his forehead against a tree root. She was warm against his back and he could feel her breath at his collar.

"Breathe," she said, knees folding behind his.

He wanted to push her away—she was holding her body closely to his, heating his back with her chest and his abdomen with her forearms. Breathless, he concentrated on his chakra paths, the hard bark on his cheek and the warmth of the tenacious chunin that was hardly more than a girl.

Kanna inhaled loudly and he endeavored to mimic her. His exhale followed hers. And again they did this.

"If Sasuke comes," he said between a breath.

"I know."


"Kanna, are you awake?

She answered yes with a whispery yawn and kept her eyes closed. Her arms lay sprawled above her, midriff exposed to the forest's elements. It was not the first time they had fallen asleep together. He had used her to hide from his brother and awoke to find her asleep on the engawa, beside him.

Now he lay on his side in the dark of the night, facing his guardsman on a woodland ground. The moon's light illuminated her hair with an ethereal glow.

Itachi placed a hand on her cheek, turning her face to him. She needed to awaken.

"Kanna."

"Hmmm," She sighed as his thumb caressed her.

"It is dangerous to sleep here." There were unfriendly boars and snakes in the area.

"S'kay. I'll just…hide…us…" Her voice lulled off.

"It is well past midnight."

Her eyes fluttered open. "Itachi?"

"Yes?" He pulled his hand away.

"Are you feeling better?"

He gave a small nod and she smiled.

"That's good," She whispered and closed her eyes again.

"Kanna."

Sasuke had come when she was asleep but had not approached, likely misunderstanding again.

Her brow furrowed in distress. "Please just a little longer."

"Your family will be worried." There had been Anbu roaming the parameter. They disappeared shortly after Sasuke passed through.

She turned on her side to face him, rearranging her hands under her cheek to form a makeshift pillow. "I can already hear my father," she mumbled. There was grass in her hair and on her clothes. He looked no different. He watched as she blinked away the fatigue from her eyes.

Her physical warmth had grounded him faster than he ever managed on his own. It had been the same when she hid him from Sasuke.

The words to thank her were on the forefront of his mind. How many times was it now that she aided him in this way. What did it matter? No one in the world had seen him as she had.

Kanna's cheeks began to heat under the weight of his constant staring.

"How I feel hasn't changed," she had said to him.

His hand cupped her cheek again and his face drew near. "How should I thank you? I have nothing," he said.

Her fingers touched the sleeve that hung between them.

He leaned in closer. "Nothing," he repeated in a whisper.

"It's okay for me, just like…this," she carefully said. "Being around you is enough."

"Why?"

She gave a shrug with a little shake of the head. She did not know. He was the same. He did not understand the feelings she awakened in him nor why she had taken captive his thoughts at the most inopportune times. Her winter absence had disquieted him.

For so long he had been an empty gourd, cracked from disuse but at least strapped to his brother's back. Kanna's return has moistened the dried-out walls.

The tips of Kanna's fingers tapped his chin. There was devotion in her eyes as they followed the trail she made across his jaw. It was like she was admiring a diamond, testing the smoothness of his skin with a caress.

He touched his forehead to hers. "I have nothing." He said again.

Her mild touch scooted near his mouth.

He knew this was what she wanted. Her jealous tantrum had made it clear. So, should he indulge her? Or himself, for that matter. The softness of a woman had made many shinobi lose their way.

Kanna's hands lowered away, her fingers curling against her own chest. Their knees gently collided. Itachi's mind went somewhat blank at the feel of her. They were a hairbreadth away, gazes steady on each other.

He closed his eyes, regret pulling at his mind. What was he doing?

Her lips grazed his. "I won't…say anything," she said it with a nervous tilt to her voice. So she knew the implications.

She pressed her mouth fully against his and he dare not return the gesture. Dark thoughts swelled within him, alone with her in the forest. His thumb caressed her cheek until she finished pressing the short kiss on his mouth.

His narrowed gaze observed as she withdrew with a coy smile.

Itachi sat up. "Let's go."

He waited until she stood to begin walking and she was surprised when he passed his home with her. Passed the bamboo wall and to the edge of the district.

Kanna was flushed under the moon when they came to his mandatory stop. She waited a moment before stepping into him and placing her hands on his chest.

Itachi's brow furrowed. "Will you expect this from me?"

She shook her head, holding on to his shirt. She rose on her toes. "Um…just…one more."

He did not believe her.

His gaze shifted to the side in uncertainty, because if he gave in, how would they go on? The mystery was not one he wanted solved.

"Please," she whispered, eyes focused on his mouth.

His hand cupped the back of her neck. "This and no more."

She nodded and quickly closed her eyes.

Itachi slanted his mouth on hers, kissing her. The hand on her neck pressed her closer and his lips slid over hers purposefully. His kiss held more intent than hers had, the weight of its execution heavy on his mind.

But Kanna was besotted with the mature change. She was unable to keep still, trying to receive the new rhythm, almost bouncing in place.

Although succumbing would complicate many facets of his life, it was a lie to think he was not enjoying the feel of her submission—the taste of her feelings for him. Her eagerness for his attention agitated an untouched instinct, and it had for some time.

The moment she sighed into the kiss, and he felt the heat of desire, he stepped away.

"That is enough," he said.

Kanna's fingers touched her lips, awed by the novel experience of kissing a man. "I'll see you tomorrow," she said, curling a hand into a loose fist at her chest.

The Uchiha gave a hesitant nod, hoping she would keep her word. One more, she said, and that was all he would give her.

He thought of the times she sabotaged the rules to their spars, and he grew concerned.

When it came to personal matters, she was good and proper and there should be no reason why he could not hold her to her word—but he thought of the spying and interfering and her response when Tamashine had touched his chest.

And there was Sasuke, who had questioned his motives with the Rokudaime's daughter.