Compared to the shock in the Kazekage's office and the frenzy in the plaza, the bedroom deep inside Teizawa's courtyard was a different kind of chaos.
Temari looked like she'd just been hauled out of the water. Her skin was flushed a vivid pink, sweat-dark bangs clinging to her temples. She didn't even have the strength to lift a finger.
Her blonde hair stuck to her damp forehead and the side of her neck. Her breathing was still ragged, every inhale tugging at her aching waist.
Maybe it was just the aftereffect of all that exertion, but she couldn't shake the feeling that the man beside her was even more overwhelming than last time.
Teizawa lowered his gaze, taking in the beauty who'd gone limp in his arms. He lazily twined a damp strand of her hair around his finger and gave a short, amused snort.
"That's it? Your stamina's this bad? Come on, Temari."
Temari was too tired to even lift her eyelids. Still, she refused to lose.
She let out a small huff through her nose and shot back, voice soft but stubborn, "Don't get cocky… I'm just not in good shape today. Normally I definitely wouldn't…"
It was classic Temari, all mouth, no fuel left in the tank.
A sharp smack landed.
Temari yelped on reflex, caught completely off guard.
Teizawa's mockery followed immediately, cool and cutting. "If you're weak, admit it. If you admit it, you get it again."
The lingering sting made her shiver. Embarrassment surged up and drowned out the exhaustion.
She tried to wriggle in his arms, jaw clenched as she forced herself to argue back. "W-who are you calling weak? If you've got guts, then don't use those…"
She almost blurted out "those weird positions," but her words died in her throat.
Because Teizawa's eyes changed.
That half-smile, that lazy, eager look like he was about to test her again, made her whole body go cold.
"Want to try again?" he asked, unhurried.
Temari jolted, and the soreness running through her bones made her choose survival over pride.
A wise person knew when to retreat. She folded instantly, like it was muscle memory.
Turning her face aside, she pressed her burning cheek to Teizawa's chest and pleaded in a small, sweet voice.
"Onii-san… I was wrong… I'm really wrong…"
The drawn-out ending, paired with how soft and limp she was right now, hit exactly where it needed to.
"Please let me off… next time, next time for sure…"
"Heh."
Teizawa let out a quiet, cold chuckle and finally stopped pushing his advantage.
His arm loosened, granting a temporary reprieve to this tough-talking, quick-to-surrender "little weakling."
Temari looked like she'd been pardoned from execution.
She shifted into a more comfortable position against him and lay there in silence, slowly regaining her strength.
After a long while, when her breathing finally steadied and her mind cleared, Temari remembered the real issue.
"You're hiding like this, for what?" she asked, tilting her head to look at Teizawa's sharp jawline. "Trying to dodge the heat?"
"Chiyo… she's furious this time. The daimyo's estate isn't something you can just brush off."
There was worry in her tone.
In her eyes, the elders were the village's immovable bedrock.
Teizawa didn't care. If anything, he sounded almost bored.
"Why rush? Once those two see the 'sincerity' I brought back, they'll shut up on their own."
Then his voice cooled, hardening by a degree. "And if they still won't stop after seeing the money, if they can't put themselves in the right place…"
"I don't mind replacing a couple seats on the council with people who understand how to behave."
Temari froze.
She hadn't fully processed the contempt in his words before she felt his gaze settle on her face.
He looked at her and smiled, faint and dangerous. "For example… my Temari is very well-behaved."
Temari went completely still.
She blinked, not understanding at first.
"Me?" She pointed at herself. "You're kidding, right? Is that even possible?"
Her voice trembled with disbelief.
And with a sudden, greedy hope.
An elder's seat wasn't just honor.
It was real power. A hand on the lever that decided where the village went.
Teizawa's mouth curved upward. He lowered his voice, the tone almost coaxing. His fingers brushed over her lips, still a little swollen from earlier.
"Why wouldn't it be?"
His voice was low, steady. "You're my woman. If my woman wants a seat, then she gets a seat."
Thump.
Thump.
Temari's heartbeat lurched faster, blood roaring through her veins.
That line hit harder than any love talk ever could.
She stared at his face so close to hers, the fascination in her eyes deepening into something feverish. The light in her gaze shifted, from startled and flustered to a blazing resolve.
Chiyo.
Ebizo.
Maybe it was time to tell the old generation one simple truth.
Times had changed.
Temari swallowed, restless, unable to hold still.
"I… I want…"
Teizawa raised a brow, watching the determination on her face. "Don't force yourself."
"Quit talking!" Temari snapped, rare and fierce.
And then…
Not long after, her voice rose again, half mortified and half furious.
"Bastard… you're bullying me…"
Teizawa only let out a short sound, like he found her outrage entertaining.
…
Yet while spring heat filled Teizawa's bedroom aboveground, a different scene unfolded below.
Directly beneath his room, deep underground, was a sealed chamber carved entirely from hard stone.
No windows.
The only light came from a wall lamp in the corner.
Kurotsuchi was curled up on the cold stone bed, knees hugged to her chest, face buried in her arms.
Since Teizawa had brought her back to Sunagakure, she'd been imprisoned here.
The entrance to the chamber was hidden to an almost insulting degree.
It was his bed.
That fact alone made humiliation burn in her throat. It made her feel like nothing more than a trophy, locked away and kept private.
Something to be taken out for his amusement whenever he felt like it.
How could Kurotsuchi accept that?
Her mind raced, chewing through every possibility: escaping, sending a message, buying time, finding a weakness.
Sunagakure's layout. Guard rotations. Teizawa's habits.
She replayed every scrap of information again and again.
She had to stay sharp. She had to wait for an opening.
But while she was thinking, faint sounds drifted down from overhead.
First, indistinct footsteps. Then muffled voices she couldn't make out.
And then…
If this were Kurotsuchi from months ago, the granddaughter of the Tsuchikage who still had some innocence left, she might have been confused for a moment.
Now she understood exactly what those sounds meant.
A hot surge of anger rushed from her chest to her face so fast it made her dizzy.
Kurotsuchi didn't even know why she was so furious.
She just was.
"Disgusting bastard," she cursed silently. "Shameless. Filthy."
Teizawa, that man…
No, what was he treating her as?
Even if there was nothing between them but hatred, this was too much. Too disrespectful.
Especially when she had already…
Her thoughts twisted, and with them came a strange, ugly sensation, like something that belonged to her had been taken and then casually used by someone else. The darkness made it worse, sharpening every sound, amplifying every beat of her own pulse.
Her curses weakened in her mind.
Her breathing wouldn't settle. The noises overhead pulled her apart, dragged her focus to places she hated.
She tried to calm down.
She couldn't.
The fear that came with that realization was sharp and sickening.
It wasn't complicated. She was trapped, exhausted, and her body remembered too much too fast. In a certain kind of environment, with certain triggers, a person's instincts could betray them.
"I'm… insane," Kurotsuchi thought, squeezing her eyes shut.
She buried her burning face deeper into the crook of her arms, as if that could block everything out.
No. This couldn't happen.
"I'm Kurotsuchi," she told herself, desperate. "I'm Iwa…"
But the sounds continued.
Worse, they intensified.
Kurotsuchi shuddered hard.
And in the darkness, when she realized she couldn't stop her own body from reacting, she pressed her hand to her mouth to smother any sound and forced herself to turn away from the thoughts that were trying to swallow her.
(End of Chapter)
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