Hinata was initially quite reserved, but everyone present besides Nojuro Ryun was a girl.
Coupled with Ryun's encouragement, Hinata slowly began to eat heartily.
Anko had initially been boasting about footing the bill, but by the time she saw Hinata eating more food than everyone else combined, the color had completely drained from her face.
It seemed her savings were about to vanish completely; she would have to leave the village for a mission tomorrow.
"Don't worry, I'll help cover it if it's not enough."
Kurenai naturally sat with Anko. Although having fun with a group of young kids was enjoyable, in the end, only people of the same age had more topics in common.
"What's going on with you? Did you have another fight with him?"
Touched, Anko finally remembered to show concern for her friend.
Kurenai shook her head, clearly not wanting to talk about it.
But after a few seconds of silence, as if unable to suppress her anger, she said, "He hasn't even successfully pursued me yet, and he already wants to restrict my actions."
"I just planned to come check on my brother's situation on New Year's Day. Usually, I don't even contact Ryun."
Anko grinned and said, "Right, right, you should show some backbone. If you give in now, wouldn't it be difficult to even leave the house in the future?"
Kurenai shot a glance at Anko and said, "Don't worry about me. Instead, what about you—how are things?"
A slight blush appeared on Anko's cheeks. Scratching her head, she glanced at Ryun, who was surrounded by several girls in the middle, a trace of tenderness flashing in her eyes.
She said, "It's pretty good—at least he's really forgiven me."
Kurenai helplessly covered her face. "Don't you have any thoughts about him having so many girls around him?"
"What thoughts could I have? Isn't it natural that he's popular?" Anko looked puzzled.
Kurenai could only pull her close and whisper in her ear, "What I mean is, haven't you considered turning past mistakes into happy memories in the future?"
Anko froze in place, then looked at Kurenai with disbelief, shaking her head like a rattle-drum.
"I'm just happy if he can be happy. Don't talk nonsense about the rest, Kurenai!"
Kurenai also couldn't be bothered to say more. She clearly understood that Anko's current state meant she was already deeply involved.
And it wasn't as if she had any right to criticize Anko; wasn't her own personal life also a mess?
She really didn't know how that guy Ryun had the nerve to attract so many girls at once.
The group played noisily until almost midnight before everyone bid farewell to Ryun and left.
Welcoming the New Year was clearly something best done with family.
Of course, exceptions were made for those without family.
"Aren't you two planning to go back?"
Ryun looked surprised at Kurenai and Anko, then glanced at the empty table in front of them and said, "Staying is one thing, but not even having a drink?"
"Hahaha, I quit drinking. Too much can lead to trouble."
Kurenai also said, "I'll only drink when I'm alone from now on."
Ryun pretended not to hear them, ordered a bottle of sake, and filled their cups.
"It's fine, have a drink. I just won't drink myself."
Anko still felt somewhat guilty, but Kurenai picked up her cup and said in a slightly teasing tone, "It seems you're quite confident about the growth of your strength, little brother—but Anko is a Special Jonin. Her strength isn't something you can imagine."
"No problem. I believe Anko-nee will only use her strength to protect me in the future."
Anko took small, delicate sips of the sake, her face already flushed from the alcohol.
Sometimes drinking is like that; it's not the wine that intoxicates, but the drinker themselves. For Anko right now, just looking at Ryun was equivalent to downing half a bottle of sake.
"Only Anko-nee?"
Kurenai, seeing the subtly warm atmosphere growing between Ryun and Anko, couldn't help but add another comment.
Even though she had already drawn a line with Ryun, watching him transform from her dear brother into Anko's sweetheart, Kurenai couldn't help feeling like a precious treasure was being taken from her.
Ryun naturally wouldn't neglect Kurenai. He said, "As long as Kurenai-nee is willing to stand by my side, then Kurenai-nee will forever be my dearest sister."
"That honeyed tongue of yours—no wonder so many girls flock around you. What do you plan to do in the future? Don't you know this could be very dangerous?"
Kurenai's expression became a bit more serious.
Taking advantage of everyone's good mood today, as Ryun's sister, she inevitably wanted to guide his future path.
Ryun smiled slightly and said, "Do you two sisters remember what I said before? I want to build a big family."
Kurenai and Anko didn't understand the meaning of his words at first. Seeing Ryun's look of fearless confidence, Kurenai opened her mouth in astonishment and said, "You—you want to marry several people?"
Anko was also shocked, her face flashing with expressions of astonishment, regret, and hope before she forcibly turned it into one of concern. She said, "Little brother, doing this might get you torn to pieces by angry kunoichi. Are you prepared?"
"If among them are those who can't accept my way of thinking, naturally, I won't end up with them. Not forcing others is my own principle."
Ryun's casual, nonchalant manner gave Kurenai a headache.
She pinched the bridge of her nose and said, "Ryun, perhaps because you're an orphan, you don't fully understand Konoha's current situation. Konoha almost universally follows a monogamous system—though no one has explicitly mandated it."
"Even my generation and Anko's are already accustomed to this. Do you really think these younger girls will agree to share you with others?"
Ryun sighed and said, "Sisters, I know it's difficult. But like I just said, I won't force anyone."
"There will always be someone who agrees with this—hopefully, right? If not, I'll just become even more outstanding."
"This isn't a matter of you being outstanding or not; it's that matters of affection must be exclusive!"
Kurenai tapped the table. Her previously unsubdued anger seemed to flare up again.
Ryun wasn't intimidated. Instead, he said, "Kurenai-nee, I haven't reached the stage of romance with everyone yet either!"
"If that day truly comes, I won't hide my thoughts."
Kurenai was left speechless. What Ryun said was indeed true.
Even with Tenten, with whom he had the closest relationship, their interactions were intimate but clearly still not at the level of lovers.
Ryun hadn't done anything excessive with them either—in fact, compared to them, Ryun had done more excessive things to *her*.
"Anyway, doing this in Konoha is not acceptable. You'll get beaten to death by others."
Ryun sighed faintly and said, "If it still doesn't work, then I'll just have to leave Konoha. Maybe I can try going to the capital?"
Kurenai froze in place. Only then did she realize that Ryun wasn't a ninja.
Even if Ryun had considerable strength, if he wanted to leave Konoha, Konoha had no authority to stop him.
The Land of Fire was, in the end, the Daimyo's Land of Fire. Konoha was a military stronghold within it, responsible only for managing ninja and defending national security, with no authority over civilians.
Of course, that was in theory.
In practice, ninja using force to coerce civilians would go unpunished as long as it didn't cause a major incident.
But precisely, Ryun had the ability to cause a major incident. After all, even the Daimyo's wife had come to buy his books that day.
"Little brother, why do you have such thoughts?"
Seeing that a hard approach wouldn't work, Kurenai felt she should try a softer one.
"In reality, happiness doesn't lie in the number of people. Look at Hinata and Hanabi before; they weren't happy either, right?"
Ryun, unusually, directly rebutted Kurenai. "But if there's no one at all, then you really can't talk about happiness. The three of us are proof of that."
Kurenai was left speechless.
Those who were truly happy had already said their goodbyes and left to be with family.
If the three of them could have scraped together even one family member, they wouldn't be drinking in this little tavern.
"That's not the same thing. You can't lump it all together—"
Seeing that Kurenai still wanted to say something, Ryun turned his gaze to Anko.
He hadn't planned to convince Kurenai, just to water the seed already planted in her heart.
"Anko-nee, you'll support me, right?"
Ryun poured Anko another cup of sake and flashed a charming smile.
Anko was completely captivated. She hurriedly said, "Mm, I'll support you in whatever you do, little brother."
"Anko!"
Kurenai was both exasperated and amused. Anko's favoritism towards Ryun didn't even consider the occasion.
She hadn't expected Anko to start rebutting her too.
"Kurenai, little brother just wants more family. He wants to experience life in a big family. How can you form a big family by marrying just one wife?"
"Even if his future wife were willing to bear him ten children, he couldn't support them all by working alone!"
"As long as everyone is willing and agrees, isn't that fine too?"
After saying this, Anko even gave Ryun a thumbs-up. "How about this: if any of little brother's future children want to become ninja, I'll be their instructor, okay?"
"Don't worry, by that time, I'll definitely have become a Jonin!"
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