Ryusei leaned in a fraction closer, a smirk tugging at his lips. "Relax, Kanae. If I wanted to take advantage of you, I wouldn't need excuses. This is me helping you. Or do you prefer I stop halfway and leave you weak?"
He ignored her protest, his expression steady, the grin never leaving his face.
Then, without hesitation, his palm moved to her chest near the collarbone, brushing dangerously close before settling there, channeling chakra straight through her network.
"L-let go! Idiot! People could see—!" she stammered, thrashing lightly, though her strength melted under the warmth.
Ryusei leaned close, voice low. "What I'm doing is saving you from being dead weight. Call me whatever you want, Kanae, but in the end you'll still be stronger because of me."
Kanae froze, trembling as the warmth rushed through her in heavy waves, her face burning scarlet.
"Y-you're insane… this is—this is humiliating…" she whispered, though her voice was shaky, uneven. Ryusei smirked. "Then call it humiliation that makes you stronger. In a moment, you'll thank me."
One hand then brushing down her abdomen and toward her legs, each touch precise, deliberate, not groping, but clinical, his fingertips radiating warmth as Yang chakra flowed through.
He didn't even warn her. That hand pressed against her side just above the hip, his thumb brushing her skin through the torn uniform, while the other hand stayed firmly on her upper chest near her collarbone.
Chakra surged into her system instantly. Kanae yelped, her entire face going red, eyes snapping open wide.
"You—you're seriously touching me there? In the middle of battle!?" she spat, her voice an octave higher than usual.
Ryusei only grinned, eyes narrowed with that mock-gentle look. "Hot already? Good. That means it's working."
With his other hand, he guided her wrist up, placing two glowing fingers against the side of her neck to stimulate her chakra flow there, finally.
Their faces ended up close, his calm and smirking, hers flustered beyond measure.
Kanae bit down on her lip, eyes squeezed shut, muttering in a trembling voice, "You're unbearable… do you know how indecent this looks?" Ryusei only chuckled. "Indecent or not, you're burning hotter by the second."
His other hand slid to her inner wrists at the last, channeling chakra into the meridians there.
Kanae's face went crimson, even as she tried to swat him away. "Are you insane?! We're in the middle of a battlefield—!" Her voice wavered, caught between outrage, embarrassment, and something she didn't want to name.
Renjiro, meanwhile, remained "frozen" in shock the entire time this was happening, barely parrying an enemy strike. He now suddenly woke up after hearing the "battlefield".
"Oi, Ryusei! You're seriously doing this here? Right now? You two want me to leave you lovebirds alone in the middle of a war or what?"
"Shut up and focus, Hatake," Ryusei shot back dryly without looking at him, still holding Kanae steady. His voice dropped, serious now. "This isn't what you think. Listen carefully, Hyūga. This is Vital Surge—a Yang Release technique I finished perfecting long ago, back before I even opened the First Gate. But I don't need it for myself anymore. But for Kanae, it's perfect."
Kanae's breath hitched again. The warmth was spreading deeper now, not just skin-deep, but through her muscles, her joints, her chakra coils.
Her Gentle Fist had always relied on fine control, precision release, and she expected this crude, forceful chakra to disrupt it, but instead, it aligned almost perfectly, amplifying her strikes without unbalancing them, as she tested it just now by micro-ejecting traces of chakra from a few tenketsu of different parts of her body.
Her lips trembled. "You… modified it?"
Ryusei smirked. "Exactly. The original was like a poor man's version of the Gates. A brute force stimulant. Burned tissue, shredded balance. Useless to me now. But you? Gentle Fist doesn't need the overwhelming chaos of the Gates. It needs a sharper body, faster release, and stronger discharge at the point of impact. So I rewrote it, stripped out the parts that scramble the chakra system, tuned it to push your muscles instead, to make your strikes faster, harder, more punishing. Precision intact."
Kanae's eyes widened, and for a moment she simply stared at him. The warmth seeping into her body wasn't just chakra; it was hot, intoxicating, strange. Her chest ached, her stomach fluttered, her body betrayed her. "Idiot…" she whispered, her face scarlet, eyes wet again.
Renjiro groaned loudly, almost yelling over the clash of steel. "You've got to be kidding me. She's blushing. He's grinning. I'm just standing here like an extra in your damn romance novel! This is a battlefield, not a date!"
Ryusei chuckled under his breath and leaned just slightly closer, enough for Kanae to feel his warm breath. "Test it if you don't believe me. Or do you plan to stand there sulking while I waste my precious time tailoring something just for you?" His tone was sharp, teasing, but there was sincerity underneath it.
Kanae bit her lip hard, trying not to look at him, but her Byakugan betrayed her. Through her own vision, she could see it, her chakra network strengthened, her body output elevated.
She couldn't deny it. She clenched her fists, heart pounding, then finally muttered, "Fine… I'll test it."
Ryusei pulled his hands back, letting the chakra fade. "Good. Later, I'll hand you the full manual. With those Yang Release exercises I gave you earlier, you'll be able to replicate it on your own soon enough. Then it won't just be me boosting you, you'll own it yourself."
Kanae's chest tightened strangely at that. No one had ever spoken to her like this and helped her like that.
It made her face burn hotter, her heart pound harder, the guilt twisting deeper into her stomach, but she still clenched her jaw and nodded.
She had already forgotten the way Ryusei had just taken advantage of her, or perhaps it was more accurate that her body and subconscious had already begun to treat it as something natural.
So natural, in fact, that she hadn't even raised an instinctive defense, letting herself be swept away by those strange, burning sensations before he even explained it was part of a technique, reacting almost as if they were an ordinary couple.
Ryusei smirked again, that same wolfish grin. "Now let's go. Time to hunt a commander. You didn't think I went through all that trouble just to hold your hand, did you?"
Renjiro rolled his eyes so hard it looked painful. "Kami save me. If the enemy doesn't kill me, being the third wheel in this circus will."
Together, the three of them turned toward the enemy commander's position. Kanae's steps felt lighter, her body sharper, her Gentle Fist ejection probes humming with new strength.
She felt like she now stood at roughly the same level as Renjiro, her strength pushed up to low-jōnin for the moment. The effect wouldn't last forever, but she judged it would hold steady for at least the next half hour, more than enough to matter in this battle at least.
As they moved across the broken battlefield, weaving past smoking craters and fallen stone walls, Ryusei finally broke the silence with that narrow-eyed grin of his.
"You know, Kanae… do you have any idea how much of my precious time I wasted tailoring that technique just for you? Days, weeks of thought. All so you could prance around looking stronger than you really are. Don't I at least deserve some 'reward'?"
Kanae's cheeks warmed instantly by a few magnitudes, and she snapped her head away, trying to hide it behind her damp bangs. "You're unbelievable…! Who even asked you to do that? I never—never asked for something like this," she stammered, though her voice cracked halfway, betraying the fluster she tried to bury.
Ryusei leaned in slightly, still grinning. "Exactly. You didn't ask. I just decided you weren't allowed to stay weak. That's how generous I am. Some would call that love."
"Idiot," Kanae hissed under her breath, face burning hotter, her stride quickening as if to outrun the words. "Keep talking like that on the battlefield and people will think you've lost your mind."
Behind them, Renjiro groaned audibly, dragging his tanto along the stone with exaggerated noise. "Unbelievable. Just when did this happen? Weren't you the polite, narrow-eyed stiff always playing mister gentle? And you—" he jabbed the tanto toward Kanae, "—weren't you the frozen Hyūga princess, all cold queen act, looking down on everyone like you'd snap their neck if they got too close? Now I look back, and it's like I'm walking behind a completely different pair. What's next? Should I check myself for genjutsu?!"
Kanae flushed even deeper, glaring daggers at him. "Shut up, Renjiro! You're imagining things."
"Imagining?!" Renjiro threw his arms up. "I'm watching you turn into some helpless little lamb while Ryusei here morphs into a damn smooth-talking bad boy right in front of me. Don't tell me I'm crazy when the two of you are practically flirting in front of my face."
Ryusei smirked wider at that, his voice laced with mock sympathy. "Sorry, Renjiro. You were never meant to be the protagonist of this drama."
Renjiro clicked his tongue, face darkening, but beneath it, he was rattled. He'd sparred beside these two for months, and their roles had always been fixed—Kanae, the cold untouchable queen, Ryusei the oddball polite type with his narrow-eyed mask. Now, suddenly, they looked… reversed. Like replacements.
He muttered under his breath, "What the hell did I miss? When did they progress this far? Did I fall asleep on watch and dream half of it? Or am I really under genjutsu?"
Ryusei only chuckled, as if Renjiro's confusion was the sweetest background music for his steps. Kanae, meanwhile, clenched her fists tighter, trying to walk ahead, but her ears burned scarlet.