Inside the bedroom, Uchiha Mikoto stood leaning against the door.
Her right hand gently rested against the fabric of her purple kimono over her chest, while her heart pounded wildly.
The faint sensation of their fingers interlocking moments ago still seemed to linger on her fingertips.
The boy was three or four years younger than her, yet his hand was already slightly larger than hers.
And the warmth had been just right.
In the three years they had known each other, that had been the second time they had ever “held hands.”
The first had been three years ago, when they had first met on the battlefield.
There had been no warmth or romance then.
Only war and fire, blood and tears.
At the time, the members of her squad had been wiped out one after another, until she was the only one left, desperately holding off two enemies by herself.
Although she had already reached jonin rank, she had only just crossed the threshold of that level of strength.
It had been obvious that she was merely struggling on the brink of death.
Just when her life had been hanging by a thread, Shiranui Rei, who was only a chunin at the time, had rushed onto the battlefield.
He blocked an enemy’s attack for her, grabbed her hand, and pulled her from the depths of despair toward hope.
Still, she really had been in quite a sorry state back then.
Remembering it, Uchiha Mikoto’s wildly beating heart gradually calmed down.
She suddenly burst into a quiet giggle, then hurriedly covered her mouth with her delicate hand, afraid the boy outside might hear her.
Because Shiranui Rei had been exhausted at the time, he had simply slung her over his shoulder like a sack and carried her away while running.
She had not wanted to burden her comrades or hinder the village, so she had struggled several times, trying to make Shiranui Rei abandon her.
But Shiranui Rei had wanted her to stop moving around.
So he had firmly patted her several times to make her stay still.
Thinking about that incident, another blush spread across Uchiha Mikoto’s fair, delicate face.
“Rei-kun…”
Mikoto softly murmured Shiranui Rei’s name as she walked lightly toward the wardrobe.
She did not turn on the light.
Although the room was somewhat dim, the sunlight slanting through the window and falling across the bed provided enough illumination.
She had said she was coming in to clean the room, but instead of doing that, she casually leaned the broom against the corner beside the wardrobe and walked toward it empty-handed.
There were two wardrobes, one on the left and one on the right.
Mikoto opened the left one.
Inside were the clothes Shiranui Rei normally wore when he was not on a mission, along with some comfortable clothes for staying at home.
Since he always used the same laundry detergent, the clothes inside the wardrobe carried the same familiar scent as the one lingering on his body.
Mikoto’s delicate nose twitched slightly.
For some reason, a faint flush crept across her cheeks.
Her body gradually leaned farther into the wardrobe.
…
“Is this my wardrobe?”
Using the sliver of light filtering through the gap in the wardrobe door, Shiranui Rei barely managed to make out the jonin vest hanging beside him, along with the identification number on its inner side.
Clearly, this was the wardrobe where he stored his shinobi clothing and equipment.
Work and personal life needed to be kept separate.
He was certain of that.
Of course, the adult world made it difficult to draw a completely clear line between the two.
But at the very least, there should be some sense of ritual in one’s personal life.
That was why he kept his everyday clothes in the wardrobe beside this one, while all his shinobi-related clothing was concentrated here.
This couldn’t be right, could it?
It felt as though someone had dumped a bucket of cold water over Shiranui Rei.
The corner of his mouth twitched.
If he remembered correctly, he had inscribed the Flying Thunder God seal in the living room.
So how had he ended up in the wardrobe in his bedroom?
Confused, he was just about to push open the wardrobe door and leave when a sound from the neighboring wardrobe suddenly made his entire body freeze.
“Rei-kun…”
Through the wardrobe door, he could faintly hear the girl’s absentminded murmur coming from the wardrobe next to his.
Was she calling my name?
Wait.
That tone doesn’t sound quite right.
And why was the first thing she did after entering my bedroom opening the wardrobe?
Shiranui Rei’s hand, which had been about to push open the wardrobe door, stopped in midair.
His brain completely froze.
Or perhaps he had simply heard wrong?
“Rei-kun, ah…”
From the neighboring wardrobe came Mikoto’s soft voice calling his name once again.
But the suppressed volume made it obvious that she had absolutely no intention of letting him, who was supposed to be in the living room, hear her calling him.
Besides his name, he seemed to hear the faint sound of a deep breath.
However, because of the angle of the wardrobe, Shiranui Rei could not see through the gap clearly enough to determine what Uchiha Mikoto was actually doing.
Hiding inside the neighboring wardrobe, he felt his entire existence becoming numb.
What kind of development was this?
My Mikoto-san can’t possibly be a pervert!
At that moment, the neighboring wardrobe stood open.
Mikoto’s small, fair feet rested inside a pair of cream-colored slippers, standing on the tiled floor in front of the wardrobe.
Her body, dressed in an elegant light-purple kimono, leaned slightly forward.
She gently held a light-colored shirt in both hands and softly rubbed her little face against it, her eyes hazy.
“Ah!”
Realizing what she had just done, Mikoto could not help letting out a quiet gasp.
A trace of clarity returned to her dazed eyes.
“No, I can’t do this…”
She placed Shiranui Rei’s shirt back inside the wardrobe and gently patted both cheeks with her hands, trying to dispel the faint dizziness clouding her mind.
“I was only helping Rei-kun organize his wardrobe. Smelling it was just to make sure the clothes had been washed properly.”
After convincing herself with that explanation, she placed her delicate hand on the open wardrobe door.
She gently rocked it back and forth several times before finally closing it reluctantly.
With the door closing, it seemed as though she had also shut away the little devil whispering in the depths of her heart.
The inexplicable emotions that had taken control of her moments ago gradually settled down.
However, another wardrobe soon appeared before her like Pandora’s box.
“The wardrobe just now was filled with everyday clothes. That means Rei-kun must keep his shinobi clothes over here?”
Mikoto moved gracefully past the wardrobe she had just closed.
A few steps later, she arrived at the neighboring one.
Thinking of the handsome figure she had seen back then, dressed in practical shinobi attire and rescuing her with clean, decisive movements, Mikoto’s gaze became even gentler.
Hearing footsteps approaching, Shiranui Rei, who was still standing stiffly inside the wardrobe with a blank expression, suddenly jolted.
“Flying Thunder God!”
He silently called out the technique in his heart.
Unfortunately, he had only just touched the threshold of the Flying Thunder God Technique.
And judging from what had happened, he seemed to have touched it at a rather strange angle.
Clearly, the technique was not that reliable yet.
He tried to use Flying Thunder God to escape the horrifying situation he was about to face.
But he remained exactly where he was.
As the footsteps drew closer, even Shiranui Rei, whose nerves had become increasingly hardened on the battlefield, could not stop cold sweat from forming on his forehead.
If she opened the door, wouldn’t this be the end of his social life?
Mikoto-san, who had just done something inexplicable with his clothes, would be mortified.
And he, who was inexplicably hiding inside a wardrobe like some creepy voyeur, would be mortified too.
The “friendship” they had maintained for three years would probably come to an end right there.
As for any other possibilities, he had not even considered them yet.
Click.
The sound of fingers gently resting on the wardrobe door.
“Not good!”
Realizing what was about to happen, Shiranui Rei completely held his breath.
His pupils contracted to their absolute limit.