"Ambiguous?"
Konan paused, slightly stunned, before the gears in her head turned and she understood exactly what Makoto meant by "ambiguous."
However, she didn't blush or stammer.
Instead, she just gave her signature look of mild disappointment.
'Why wasn't she embarrassed?'
Well, last time Makoto teased her, Konan had a sudden epiphany: she was a thirty-five-year-old adult woman.
Why should she act like a flustered teenager? Even if she hadn't experienced it personally, she wasn't ignorant.
It was perfectly normal for an adult to know how biology worked.
Thus, she had built up an immunity to Makoto's casual innuendo.
But this time...
After the glare, Konan's brilliant, tactical mind involuntarily and automatically conjured up a "solution" based on the data.
When Makoto, Kisame, and Itachi encountered Team Kakashi during the Wave Country mission, Makoto had explained to Sasuke how to obtain the Uchiha clan's ultimate power: the Rinnegan.
Konan remembered this conversation vividly because Makoto had briefed her on it later.
He explained that the Rinnegan required fusing Indra's chakra (Sasuke) with Ashura's chakra (Naruto).
The method he suggested to Sasuke?
"After achieving the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, drink a daily cup of milk provided by Naruto."
Though somewhat perverted, the logic held up.
It was a fluid exchange of biological data.
Moreover, Makoto had given Sasuke other options, like "cell transplantation," but milk was the least invasive.
Konan's eyes widened slightly.
'Clearly, this logic applies to my current problem.'
If she wanted to obtain Makoto's "essence" to power the restoration of her paper tags, sharing a straw wasn't enough.
The connection was too weak.
To maintain a long-term link... she wouldn't need to share the cup.
She would need to drink the milk directly from the source.
"You know what," Konan suddenly announced, her expression turning dead serious. "I'll just wait for the Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tags scroll. Thinking about it carefully, using your god-like power just to fix paper seems like a waste of talent."
"Hmm?"
Makoto noticed the slight awkwardness beneath her stoic demeanor.
Before he could ask what she was thinking, Konan turned into a cloud of paper and flew away as if she were fleeing a crime scene.
She didn't want to delve deeper into that thought process.
Some tactical simulations were best left incomplete!
...
A few days later.
Makoto arrived at the rendezvous point as agreed—the Hidden Leaf Village.
As an outsider entering the village, Makoto was going through the standard registration process at the main gate.
"From Amegakure, huh..." Kotetsu muttered, stamping a form. "Here to escort a film crew? It couldn't be that crew, could it?"
"Which one?" Izumo asked, looking up from his magazine.
"Who else? The one with the superstar Yukie Fujikaze. Princess Gale!"
"Eh? Didn't you say those were just dumb movies for kids?"
"It's about the plot, Izumo! The plot!"
The two Eternal Gatekeepers chatted while processing Makoto's papers.
Suddenly, Izumo paused.
"Wait! I remember this escort mission was taken by Kakashi's team. He mentioned it to me this morning."
Izumo looked up warily at Makoto. "You there... why is an Ame ninja involved in a Konoha mission?"
"Now, now, Izumo, no need to get worked up," a lazy voice drifted over.
Kakashi Hatake appeared out of nowhere, smiling with his single visible eye curved into a happy crescent.
"Kakashi? Perfect timing. What's going on here?" Izumo asked.
"Simple logistics," Kakashi explained, hands in his pockets. "After accepting the mission, I double-checked with the crew. The one who hired me was the manager, Sandayu. But the one who hired him," Kakashi pointed at Makoto, "was the director."
"It's a joint operation. Just make a simple note. I'll take him with me now. See you later."
Kakashi led Makoto away from the gate, walking casually through the streets of Konoha.
After confirming that Makoto had truly come only for the film crew and would leave immediately once the mission was done, Kakashi visibly relaxed.
"The crew is stationed over there for preparations," Kakashi pointed. "You can head there first. I still need to gather my cute little students."
"To help them understand the mission objectives, I specifically arranged for Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura to watch the movie Princess Gale."
"They should be about finished by now..."
Just as Kakashi said this, he saw Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura running toward them.
They looked kinda disheveled.
"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura yelled. "It's all Naruto's fault! He was making noise in the theater and got us kicked out!"
"It wasn't just me!" Naruto protested. "Other people were yelling too!"
"It wasn't Naruto's fault," Sasuke interjected calmly. "Besides him, many other seven-year-olds got excited and shouted at the ending. The staff were just targeting him."
"..." Sakura stared at Sasuke, feeling betrayed.
Surprisingly, Sasuke defended Naruto.
But it wasn't actually strange.
Before the Chunin Exams, Sasuke's mindset had already begun to shift.
In the future, Sasuke would admit that seeing Naruto suffer made his own heart ache.
He saw himself in the ostracized boy.
It was just that terrifyingly intense Hidden Leaf friendship.
However, Sasuke was slightly mistaken about the cause.
He thought Naruto was kicked out because he was the "Demon Fox."
But Makoto knew better.
As they walked through the village, Makoto overheard the whispers.
"From Amegakure? Look at his clothes. Probably here to beg us."
"Isn't that place constantly raining and at war? He's probably a refugee."
"Stay away from that guy.... people from Ame are thieves, hide your wallet."
"He smells like poverty."
It wasn't much different from when Makoto visited Konoha in the future.
The villagers were bullies.
Their passive-aggressiveness was comparable to anonymous forum trolls.
Amegakure might be dilapidated, but at least in the future, it was part of the peace treaty.
Now? The hostility was raw.
Naruto wasn't just kicked out for being loud. He was kicked out because he was Naruto, and the theater staff were looking for an excuse.
Just like the gate guards were ready to harass Makoto for being from Ame.
"Hey Naruto," Makoto asked with a sudden, mischievous smile. "Interested in playing a prank?"
"A prank?" Naruto's blue eyes lit up instantly. "How? How? Tell me quick!"
"Uh..." Kakashi stood nearby, raising a hand as if to intervene.
'Please don't corrupt my student.'
But then he paused.
Why did it feel like Makoto was the core of his team?
Sasuke sought power? Makoto could provide it.
Naruto wanted to pull pranks? Makoto enabled it.
Even Kakashi's desire to read novels was satisfied when Makoto produced scripts for the film crew.
As for Sakura... Makoto was handsome, so she was already sold out.
'Am I..... am i being replaced?' Kakashi wondered.
"Hold on, let's head to the film set first. I need some props," Makoto grinned, pointing toward the location.