Sakura looked at Aoba with an incredulous gaze, clearly not believing the nonsense he had just said.
But when it came to acting skills and thick skin, how could Sakura, who was only occasionally a little bit green-tea at best, possibly be a match for Aoba.
Facing Aoba's sincere eyes, Sakura immediately began to doubt herself.
'Could it be… that Aoba really is joking?'
'Is it just that I have gotten too happy with my imagination and misunderstood?'
Thinking of this, Sakura's face grew even redder. She admitted that just listening to Aoba's description earlier had made her unconsciously fall into fantasies about him.
'I even imagined…'
Those images made her both shy and happy.
But now Aoba was suddenly telling her that it was all just a joke…
'So, was it really just a joke?'
Sakura lowered her head in embarrassment and apologized, "S-sorry."
"It's fine. Since you're so cute, Sakura, I'll forgive you."
While speaking, Aoba also began to act according to Sakura's request.
And his massage skills had long since been honed to perfection on Tsunade and the others.
Facing someone like Sakura, who was basically a small noob, it was effortless for him.
"..."
After a simple round, Aoba let go of the already
He did not actually do anything so… despicable as using it to eat rice.
After escaping from Aoba's hands, Sakura immediately pulled her foot back.
Looking at Sakura's cute appearance, Aoba smiled and said, "Soak a bit longer. I'll go check on Ino."
"Mm."
Sakura nodded shyly.
Aoba pinched her soft, pink little cheek again, then slowly swam toward Ino, who was diving and blowing bubbles.
At this moment, Ino had her eyes closed, her ears covered, blowing bubbles underwater.
The sounds Sakura had made earlier were really too face-reddening, just like a little kitten.
And Aoba naturally would not miss this opportunity. He had already quietly stretched out his evil little hand.
"Ah!"
Feeling a sudden black hand appear underwater, Ino cried out in surprise. Her head immediately popped out of the water as she instinctively tried to escape.
But how could Aoba, who was already prepared, let her have her way.
However, because Ino's reaction was an instinctive one brought on by fright, her movements were a bit rough. Aoba was also afraid of hurting her, so he did not use too much force.
Letting her luckily escape with one.
Ino hid the one she had pulled back, then finally saw the culprit clearly and said unhappily, "Aoba, what are you doing, suddenly like that?"
"I'll help you too," Aoba said with a smile as he—
"Ah!"
Ino cried out reflexively.
After a moment of flustered struggling, not only did she fail to escape, she instead completely fell into Aoba's clutches.
"Aoba!"
Ino looked at him with some grievance, but Aoba
Ino immediately covered her mouth, preventing herself from making any more strange sounds.
'No wonder Sakura made such unbearable noises earlier. So this is why.'
"Ino, yours is also quite cute," Aoba added another smiling compliment.
"Don't say things that make people embarrassed!"
Ino covered her face shyly. She was also a thin-skinned girl, and hearing this sentence, she instinctively thought of the rice-eating thing he had mentioned earlier.
That was way too weird.
"Phew!"
On the other side, seeing that Aoba had started bullying Ino, Sakura finally let out a sigh of relief.
["Honestly, it was such a good chance to take Aoba down. How could you waste it like that?"]
Inner Sakura floated above Sakura's head with her arms crossed, looking very dissatisfied.
"I just felt that using that condition to do something like that wasn't very appropriate."
Thinking back on what had just happened, Sakura's face flushed red, but at the same time she could not suppress the smile creeping onto her lips, "Besides, I think that experience just now was pretty good too."
"Hmph! If you were just a little bit bolder, that experience would have been even better."
Inner Sakura was still not very satisfied. Then her body directly dove into Sakura's, continuing, "Alright, you've already experienced it. Next, it's my turn!"
This was something the two of them had agreed on long ago.
Sakura did not say anything. After handing control of her body over to Inner Sakura, she herself slipped out in the form of a soul.
She began circling around Aoba.
Naturally, she wanted to enjoy the benefits Inner Sakura had just had.
Then her eyes widened.
Because she noticed something she could not pay attention to earlier.
Because of the positions they were in just now, from Sakura's perspective, it was impossible to see it at all.
But now, from a different angle, she noticed something was off about him immediately.
Sakura's eyes widened, and she subconsciously looked toward Inner Sakura.
Inner Sakura must have already noticed it long ago. Then handing over control of her body to her.
Sure enough, Inner Sakura's lips were slightly curved at this moment, clearly carrying a mischievous smile.
"What are you trying to do?", Sakura quickly floated toward Inner Sakura.
["Sakura, are you trying to go back on your word?"], Inner Sakura looked at her with dissatisfaction.
"I…", Sakura, who had originally wanted to take back control of her body, immediately backed down.
Although Ino could not hear their conversation, Aoba could.
If she went back on her word, wouldn't that affect the image she had in Aoba's heart?
["Then… then you're not allowed to do anything too excessive."]
"Hmph! That's because you're too useless. I have to step in myself!"
Inner Sakura snorted softly, then got up and went straight to the changing room.
Hearing the conversation between Inner Sakura and Sakura, Aoba shook his head helplessly.
But there was no time to care about that. He should first cheer Ino up.
However, Inner Sakura was only gone for a short while before coming back.
But when Aoba saw Inner Sakura coming out of the changing room, his whole body froze.
"Hm? Aoba, why aren't you moving!"
Ino also noticed something was wrong. She followed his line of sight and turned around, freezing as well.
Inner Sakura now had a cat-ear hair accessory on her head. Using both hands and feet, she slowly crawled closer, her hands curled up like a cat's.
Behind her pink swim bottoms, there was also a pink cat tail the same color as the ears.
"Meow…"
Inner Sakura timidly let out another catlike meow toward Aoba.
Aoba and Ino immediately widened their eyes, goosebumps rising all over their bodies.
But it had to be said, this version of Inner Sakura was just illegally cute.
"Aoba, do you like meow?"
Inner Sakura asked in a sweet voice.
"I like it."
Aoba nodded very honestly.
"Hehe!"
Inner Sakura smiled brightly, then leaped up from the ground like a little cat and pounced straight at Aoba.
Aoba was soaked in the warm hot spring water, still a bit dazed.
"Inner Sakura, what are you doing?"
Inner Sakura looked down at him from above, a bad smile on her lips, "Of course, it's returning the courtesy. Aoba must be very tired now too, right?"
"I guess… wait! What are you doing?"
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