"Dinner's ready!"
Thud!
Hikari slammed the table with both hands and shot a death glare at Kakashi, who was sprawled on the couch blankly staring at a copy of Icha Icha Paradise.
Just what was this guy thinking, openly reading an R-rated novel like that?!
"…Coming."
Kakashi calmly closed the book and walked over to the dining table.
It had to be said—Hikari's cooking was excellent.
Maybe because she hadn't eaten a proper meal in five hundred years, she treated food with deadly seriousness. In her eyes, anyone who dared ruin perfectly good ingredients deserved nothing less than being roasted alive by Amaterasu—inside and out, from head to toe.
After dinner, Kakashi quietly did the dishes while Hikari tried to tiptoe back to her room. Just as her foot touched the hallway, his voice drifted out from the kitchen.
"Hold on. I need to talk to you about something."
Hikari's sneaky steps froze mid-air. Her heart did a little flip.
What does this pervert want now?
Is he going to… again?!
The memories of that day flashed unbidden across her mind. She instinctively clapped a hand over her mouth to muffle a tiny whimper.
"W-what is it…?"
She forced the words out as loudly as her courage allowed.
"It's about the Five Elements Seal on you. I'm Hokage now—I have the authority to remove it."
Oh. So that's it.
Hikari's shoulders relaxed instantly.
"But there's one more thing I need to ask of you."
Kakashi emerged from the kitchen, wiping his hands on a towel, his expression unusually grave as he looked at the girl curled up on the sofa.
"What else…?"
Secretly, Hikari was a little happy—he'd started working on freeing her the very day he took office. But that deadly serious face made her uneasy all over again.
He's not going to pull some sleazy line like, "Little Uchiha, you don't want to stay sealed forever, do you…?" right?
The mere thought made her shrink deeper into the cushions, eyeing him with open suspicion.
Kakashi, not quite understanding her reaction, simply crouched in front of her and met the eyes of this Uchiha ancestor from five centuries ago.
"Sit up straight and lift your shirt."
"???"
Hikari distinctly remembered Jiraiya never asked her to bare her stomach when he slapped the seal on her!
This guy is absolutely taking advantage of me again!
"I only learned the Five Elements Seal today," Kakashi explained with a perfectly straight face. "To get the best result, I need direct skin contact."
His heart didn't skip a beat. His expression didn't even flicker.
A gentleman? Never claimed to be one.
"…Fine, fine. I'll believe you just this once," Hikari grumbled, cheeks burning. She looked anywhere except at the silver-haired man in front of her.
Slowly, reluctantly, she tugged up the hem of her light-green sweater.
Smooth, pale skin came into view. Because she'd spent so long cooped up indoors with almost no exercise, there was the faintest, softest layer of pudge around her waist—an imperfection that, in Kakashi's eyes, only added to the charm.
He reached out and gently brushed his palm across that warm, silky stomach.
Hikari jolted at the calloused touch of a hand that had gripped a blade for decades.
"W-what do you think you're doing?!"
"Locating the seal nodes," he answered, utterly unfazed.
…This damn Hatake is one hundred percent groping me!
Just as the ancient Uchiha matriarch was about to explode, Kakashi spoke again.
"Circulate your chakra."
…Oh.
Hikari blinked, then quickly complied—mentally kicking herself for not realizing sooner.
But still! She couldn't let him get away with it for free, could she?
A little depressed, she accepted that she probably wasn't escaping this guy's clutches anytime soon.
Chakra flowed.
Five pitch-black seal marks bloomed across her abdomen. Kakashi's gaze sharpened. The five fingers resting on her belly ignited with chakra flames—wind, lightning, water, fire, earth—each corresponding to one of the marks.
Following the reverse sequence he'd memorized from the scroll that afternoon, he pressed all five fingertips down at once.
Five Elements Seal—Release!
A surge of chakra poured from Kakashi into her body. In that instant, the seal that had imprisoned her for three long years shattered completely.
Hikari felt her pathways open like floodgates; chakra roared through her meridians, wild and unrestrained.
"It's done."
Kakashi gave her stomach one last reluctant pat before pulling his hand away.
"Hmph!"
Hikari huffed, glaring at the man who still looked like he wanted seconds.
She wasn't scared of him anymore.
If he tried anything else, she'd—
"I need your power."
"Okay."
The answer slipped out before her brain caught up.
A second later she blinked.
…Wait, what did I just agree to?!
"I want you to place the Eight Thousand Spears' mental imprint on me."
"I will always be me," Kakashi said solemnly, looking straight at the newly freed Uchiha ancestor.
This was something he had already decided.
Right now he was only an acting Hokage. If he moved against Koharu Utatane, Mitokado Homura, Danzo Shimura, and the Uchiha hardliners too early, there was a very real chance he'd eat Shisui's Kotoamatsukami.
And if he caused too much commotion, this "acting" prefix would be stripped away in the blink of an eye. That wasn't a possibility—it was a certainty.
Even setting the Uchiha aside, Danzo's ambition far outstripped his actual power, but the man called the "Darkness of the Shinobi World" had terrifying instincts. The moment he sensed Kakashi becoming uncontrollable, he would do something drastic.
So Kakashi needed to endure—for three years.
Three years from now, once he officially became the Fifth Hokage, he could settle every account.
Among all the threats, Uchiha Shisui—who already distrusted him and clung stubbornly to his own beliefs—was the most dangerous.
In a straight fight, Kakashi had no fear. Even if Shisui brought out Susanoo, Kakashi could whittle him down until he dropped.
But Kotoamatsukami was silent, insidious, and almost impossible to defend against. One careless moment and it was over.
That was why he needed Hikari's Eight Thousand Spears: Yin Release against Yin Release, Mangekyō against Mangekyō.
For the next three years of lying low—and on the day he finally moved against the Uchiha hawks—he needed absolute insurance that his mind would remain his own.
————
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