After walking together for a while, Motoyo Tano finally gathered the courage to speak.
“Kai… what do you think of Ino?” Kai blinked in surprise and looked at her curiously.
“What do you mean?” Motoyo Tano’s face instantly turned red, as though she had come down with a fever.
Even so, she still forced herself to ask the question that had been bothering her.
“I mean… do you think she’s pretty?” “And she’s from the Yamanaka Clan too.
Boys usually like girls like that, right?” Truthfully, Motoyo Tano was even more beautiful than Yamanaka Ino.
Combined with her gentle personality, she was exactly the kind of girl most boys would naturally like.
However, Kai had no idea why she was suddenly asking such a question.
To be honest, he had always assumed that Yamada Itsuki and Motoyo Tano had a rather special relationship.
The only reason he was walking her home today was because Itsuki had hurried off due to some urgent matter.
After thinking for a moment, Kai answered, “Ino is definitely pretty.” The moment she heard that, Tano became visibly anxious.
Turning toward him, she quickly asked, “Then… do you like her?” Kai paused briefly before replying, “We’re friends, so of course I like her.” “That’s not what I mean!” Motoyo Tano hurriedly clarified.
“I mean that kind of like.
The kind between a boy and a girl.” She sounded incredibly nervous as she asked.
“Definitely not,” Kai answered honestly.
“We only met today.” “But why are you suddenly asking me this?” Kai looked at her curiously.
Hearing his answer, Motoyo Tano visibly relaxed.
Smiling softly, she explained, “Because I think she treated you differently from the other boys today.” “I could tell… she seems to have a good impression of you.” Kai laughed.
“You’re overthinking it.
Ino acts that way toward any handsome guy.” Motoyo Tano froze for a second.
She had not expected Kai to joke around like that.
Then she lightly smacked his shoulder.
“So you think you’re handsome now?” Kai smiled.
“Am I not?” “You are.” Motoyo Tano laughed.
The two exchanged glances and burst into laughter together.
Under the glow of the streetlights, their interaction looked intimate enough to easily invite misunderstandings.
At that moment, the distance between them undeniably became much closer.
To Kai, Motoyo Tano had become someone he could comfortably joke around with.
And to Tano, she had finally seen another side of him.
Kai was not actually as cold and unapproachable as he appeared on the surface.
As they chatted and laughed together, they soon arrived at her home.
Looking at the massive estate before him, Kai teased, “So Itsuki really wasn’t exaggerating.
Tano, your family really is rich.” In the center of Konoha, where land was worth a fortune, her family actually owned a residence closer to a private manor.
That was far beyond ordinary wealth.
After all, aside from ninja, Konoha was also home to many ordinary civilians.
Shinobi themselves did not engage in production work.
The village still relied on ordinary civilians to maintain many aspects of daily life.
At the same time, many wealthy merchants and nobles from the Land of Fire chose to live in Konoha for security reasons.
That was also one of the primary sources of Konoha’s many low-rank mission requests.
Of course, Konoha’s greatest source of income still came from the military funding allocated by the Land of Fire.
After hearing Kai’s words, Motoyo Tano suddenly became nervous.
She was afraid Kai might distance himself because of her family background.
In her panic, she even forgot her embarrassment and grabbed Kai’s hand.
“Kai… you won’t dislike me because of my family, right?” Kai glanced down at her hands.
Her pale, delicate fingers caused him to briefly lose focus.
But he quickly recovered and asked, “Why would you think that?” “Having a rich teammate is a good thing.
Why would I dislike you for that?” Hearing his response, Motoyo Tano finally relaxed.
Then she quietly explained, “In the past, whenever people found out I was from the Motoyo family, they stopped wanting to play with me.” “And the older we got, the worse it became.” “They were always worried about accidentally hurting me.” “Ever since entering the Ninja Academy, Itsuki was the only one willing to stay close to me.” As she spoke about those memories, her mood noticeably dropped.
Kai lightly patted her shoulder.
“Then starting today, you’ve gained another friend.” “We’ll be fighting side by side from now on.” “And I hope I can trust you both with my back.” Hearing the sincerity in his voice, Motoyo Tano nodded excitedly.
“Kai, I definitely won’t hold you back in the future!” She understood very clearly that her talent was not especially outstanding.
Meanwhile, Kai already seemed incredibly strong.
All she wanted was to work harder in the future so she would not become a burden to the team.
Kai smiled.
“You won’t.” “You and Itsuki are both great.” “Well then, I should head back now.
It’s getting late, so hurry inside.” Motoyo Tano nodded.
By now, she had already begun viewing Kai as someone important to her.
Children’s feelings were often simple like that.
They could easily grow attached to someone— And just as easily come to hate someone too.
Even now, however, Kai still viewed Motoyo Tano as just a child.
After Kai left, Motoyo Tano continued standing at the gate, watching his departing figure until he completely disappeared from sight.
“So that’s your teammate from the new squad?” Just as she stood there absentmindedly staring into the distance, a voice suddenly sounded beside her.
Startled, she jumped in shock.
Turning around, she discovered it was her mother.
“Mom!
Why do you walk around without making any sound?
You scared me to death!” Motoyo Tano’s mother was named Senju Mei.
Tano resembled her somewhat.
She stood around 170 centimeters tall, with long golden hair tied into a ponytail that reached her waist.
Although she was already nearing forty, she still looked as though she were only in her twenties.
Her temperament was elegant and dignified, and her appearance was exceptionally beautiful.
Most importantly— Her surname was Senju.
Had Kai been present, he definitely would have been shocked.
In all his years in Konoha, he had never once encountered someone carrying the Senju surname.
However, he had never believed the Senju Clan had gone extinct.
A clan that powerful, with such immense prestige within the village, could never completely disappear within just a few decades.
Besides, if they truly had been wiped out, people would constantly discuss them just like they discussed the Uchiha Clan.
Yet throughout all his time in Konoha, Kai had barely heard anyone mention the Senju Clan at all.
Because of that, Kai had long guessed that the Senju Clan had simply integrated into Konoha itself.
After all, even Tsunade no longer used the Senju surname.
Most likely, many members of the clan had abandoned the family name altogether.
And the truth was indeed close to Kai’s speculation.
Many members of the Senju Clan in Konoha really had discarded the Senju surname.
Though only a portion of them had done so.
However, after Hashirama Senju and Tobirama Senju, the clan truly had not produced many geniuses on their level.
Some members abandoned the surname entirely and fully merged into Konoha society.
Others, meanwhile, still retained the Senju name.
Their presence could still be found throughout many of Konoha’s major departments.
Kai simply had not noticed before because he rarely interacted with many people in the village.
Which was perfectly normal.
After all, he had rarely encountered members of the Sarutobi Clan either.
Over the years, the only Sarutobi he had personally met were Sarutobi Asuma and the Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen.
Yet during the Fourth Great Ninja War, countless Sarutobi clan members suddenly appeared.
Normally, ninja from major clans did not deliberately make themselves visible.
And within the original story, only characters relevant to the plot typically appeared onscreen.
The rest of Konoha’s ninja were busy living their own lives.
Naturally, they would not randomly appear in the narrative.
One had to remember— Konoha alone possessed tens of thousands of ninja.
And when ordinary civilians were included, the population numbered in the hundreds of thousands.
The village itself was so enormous that calling it a “village” hardly made sense at all.
It resembled a massive city more than anything else.
Just one training ground alone spanned nearly twenty kilometers in diameter.
That alone was enough to demonstrate Konoha’s true scale.
Motoyo Tano’s mother was one of the remaining members of the Senju Clan.
Although she had inherited the Senju surname— She herself was not a ninja.