Because of the Reincarnation Game's arrival, Yukino Yukinoshita and Yui Yuigahama had never become friends the way they did in the original story.
They'd known of each other for over a decade, technically speaking, but the two had barely exchanged a handful of words in all that time.
Yukino retained only a vague impression of the girl: wishy-washy, spineless, utterly lacking in conviction.
The kind of person who'd paste on a smile and go along with whatever the group decided, even if she hated every second of it. A textbook people-pleaser. A follower.
Even after learning ninjutsu in the world of Naruto, even after gaining power that eclipsed 99.99% of ordinary humans, Yui's personality hadn't changed one bit.
Yukino couldn't relate. Her own transformation from canon had been dramatic. The reason was straightforward: throughout the Reincarnation Game, Yukino had only ever had her older sister Haruno by her side. The two of them hadn't faced anything truly hopeless, of course. Situations that dire, like the Konoha Crush or the Gun Devil's descent, were the kind of catastrophes where Makoto Nishikado stepped in personally and kept everyone alive. But the everyday challenges of the Game, the ones that fell short of apocalyptic, Yukino and Haruno had weathered together. None of it had been earth-shattering, but it was enough to give a sheltered heiress who'd never known hardship a small taste of what ordinary people endured.
Yui, on the other hand, had led a far more cushioned existence within the Game. Shortly after being transported into the Naruto world, she'd joined Makoto's entourage alongside Yumiko Miura and the others. Over a decade later and still an innocent, she'd remained under his protection the entire time. No wonder her personality hadn't budged.
Yet when Yukino heard the voices drifting through the door, even she lost her composure.
Why was her mother in Makoto's room with Yui Yuigahama? And why was that pink-haired girl calling her mother "Mama"?
Yukino's hard-won maturity crumbled in an instant. She hammered on the door before she could think, the sound sharp enough to make Haruno flinch behind her. Her older sister lunged forward and wrapped both arms around her from behind.
"Easy, sis. Easy."
Too late. The knock had already landed.
The door swung open.
What greeted the Yukinoshita sisters made their eyes nearly fall out of their skulls. They'd occasionally imagined what Makoto got up to at night with Megumi Kato or the Akizuki sisters, sure. But the scene before them was something their imaginations could never have conjured.
Yui, the very same girl who'd just been calling Mrs. Yukinoshita "Mama," was seated on top of Makoto, teeth clenched, inching herself downward one agonizing fraction at a time.
To her left, the Akizuki sisters' mother, Kayoko, rested a gentle hand on the curve of her back, soothing the tension from her muscles. To her right, Mrs. Yukinoshita cradled Yui's head against her chest, murmuring encouragement.
And Makoto himself lay with both hands laced behind his head, eyebrows raised at the two frozen figures in the doorway. "Tch. Busy night."
"Hyaaah?!"
Yui startled, her concentration shattered. Her body dropped the rest of the way down in one graceless descent.
"Owwww!"
A pitiful wail escaped her.
"It's okay, it's okay, it's okay..."
Mrs. Yukinoshita, who'd also been startled, recovered first and began patting Yui's head in rapid consolation.
Kayoko rubbed her back. "You're fine, sweetie. Almost there."
Both women had clearly made their peace with being seen. What were the sisters going to do about it, anyway? They wouldn't dare say a word.
But what stunned Yukino and Haruno wasn't just the presence of Yui and Kayoko. It was their mother's behavior. Between the years spent in the Reincarnation Game and their real ages, the sisters were functionally sixty years old. In all that time, across every memory they possessed from birth to this moment, their mother had never once been this gentle with them.
"Yo, Yukino. Phony." Makoto grinned at the sisters from the bed. "We're throwing an amazing party in here. All the beautiful girls are invited. Guess who didn't make the list?"
Heat flooded both sisters' faces in an instant.
Yukino jabbed a finger at him. "You... you... you..."
Haruno seized her from behind and clamped a hand over her mouth.
But Makoto wasn't finished.
"Your mother doesn't seem to like you two very much." His grin widened. "She just adopted Yui as her goddaughter a few minutes ago. Or was it... well, the phrasing got a little ambiguous. Doesn't matter."
Yukino's struggles intensified.
Ordinary insults rolled off her these days. But "your mom doesn't like you" hit with the force of a four-times-super-effective move against a Nidoking. A direct strike to every weakness she had.
Haruno's hand stayed clamped over her mouth. All Yukino could manage were muffled cries. She thrashed, she bit down on her sister's palm, but Haruno refused to let go. She understood, better than anyone, that a single careless word from Yukino would mean the end of their entire family.
Minutes passed. Yukino's resistance finally ebbed.
She did her best to ignore Yui, whose face had gone scarlet as she began to move again, and turned tear-brimming eyes toward Mrs. Yukinoshita.
The meaning in that gaze was unmistakable: Mama, are you really abandoning us?
Behind her, Haruno couldn't help looking too, her expression a mirror of her sister's.
You don't like me. Is that it?
Faced with the rare sight of both daughters on the verge of tears, Mrs. Yukinoshita showed nothing. Not cruelty, exactly. Something closer to calm resolution, the quiet certainty of someone who'd simply moved on. It's not personal. I just don't want you.
"Perfect timing, actually. I've had enough of you two. From now on, we go our separate ways."
The words struck like lightning.
The sisters had long since accepted their mother's severity, even her harshness. But the possibility that she might sever ties entirely had never once crossed their minds.
Mrs. Yukinoshita rested a hand on the slight swell of her belly, eyes soft with a tenderness neither daughter had ever seen directed at them. "I'll have a new child soon. One born from someone I truly love, and who truly loves me."
Yukino and Haruno nearly fainted on the spot. Their physical ages might have been sixteen and nineteen, but mentally they were bona fide spinsters. They understood perfectly well what it meant when a woman chose to bear a man's child.
She's been poisoned, Yukino thought, reeling. Mama's been infected with the disease called Makoto Nishikado.
"Want to join in?" Makoto's voice cut through the spiral. "If not, get lost. I never liked performing for an audience."
"Who would ever..."
Yukino's breathing grew ragged, her modest chest heaving.
She barely got two words out before Makoto interrupted.
"Oh, never mind. My little friend down here says he doesn't want to deal with you. Scram."
A wave of force swept outward, shoving both sisters clear of the bedroom. The door slammed shut behind them.
Moments later, a high-pitched trio echoed from behind the closed doors.
When Mrs. Yukinoshita's voice finally crested above the others, Yukino bowed her head and let bitter tears fall.
She looked every bit the wronged party in an NTR doujin.
Morning light slipped through the curtains of the luxury apartment where the Nakano quintuplets lived.
A lone figure crept out of her room, careful not to wake her sisters. The ribbon bobbing atop her head like a pair of rabbit ears gave her away at once: Yotsuba Nakano.
She moved through the apartment with all the caution of an actual rabbit, glancing around to confirm none of her sisters were up before tiptoeing downstairs toward the front door.
"Yotsuba, where are you going?"
A voice from behind, right as she finished lacing her shoes in the entryway.
"Waaaaaah!"
Yotsuba yelped and toppled backward onto the floor.
She looked up, clutching her chest. "Nino! You scared me half to death!"
"Got a guilty conscience or something? What's there to be scared of?"
Nino had only just woken up herself. Without her contacts in, she was squinting hard enough to look vaguely menacing.
"O-Of course not! I'm just going for a run."
Yotsuba's gaze drifted sideways as she spoke.
She was going to exercise, that much was true. But not at the park like usual. She was heading to the Suzuki Estate, where Makoto lived. When he'd invited her a few days ago, she'd said she needed to check with her sisters first. But when the time came to actually bring it up, she'd chickened out. She knew that if she told them, every last one of them would want to tag along.
Yotsuba didn't want that. Even knowing how many women already surrounded Makoto.
Fortunately, Nino's blurred vision missed the way her younger sister's eyes were darting around.
"So, Nino, want to come with me?" Yotsuba asked, keeping her tone carefully casual.
"No thanks. I'm going back to sleep. Stayed up way too late binging a show." Nino fanned a hand near her lips, yawned, and padded back upstairs.
"Oh, and I'm planning to work out for a while, so don't bother making me breakfast," Yotsuba called after her.
Nino flashed an okay sign over her shoulder without turning around.
The moment her sister's bedroom door clicked shut, Yotsuba's face broke into its usual sunny grin. She bounced out the door.
What she didn't know was that the entire exchange had been witnessed from the second floor by Ichika Nakano, the eldest of the five. On any normal day, Ichika was the laziest sister and the last to rise. The only reason she was awake now wasn't an early start. She'd been up all night.
Something's off with you, Yotsuba.
The Nakano apartment sat in one of Tokyo's wealthiest districts, and the Suzuki Estate occupied the same neighborhood. The trip didn't take long.
The guards at the gate greeted Yotsuba by name the moment she appeared. She'd clearly been here before.
"Makoto!"
She spotted him on the training grounds and broke into a sprint, waving as she ran.
He turned toward the approaching rabbit-eared girl, the corner of his mouth lifting. He raised a hand in greeting.
"You're early. Airi and the others aren't even up yet."
His own internal clock had long since adjusted to dawn training, but he never forced his companions to match his schedule. He didn't even push them to train at all. That said, most of the women in his life chose to practice on their own, with varying degrees of enthusiasm. Utaha Kasumigaoka, for instance, technically trained every day, but her sessions looked more like light cardio compared to the brutal regimens Ran Mouri put herself through. Utaha spent the bulk of her time holed up in the study, writing.
The only ones exempt were people like Sonoko Suzuki, who had no real potential to develop.
"I-I just love working out!" Yotsuba laughed, rubbing the back of her head.
There was another reason she hadn't voiced: arriving early meant the training grounds would be empty except for the two of them. These quiet moments alone with Makoto were rare, and they reminded her of middle school, when they used to be 'running buddies'.
But the solitude didn't last.
"Senpai, sorry I'm late!"
"All hail Chainsaw Man! All hail Chainsaw Man!"
Yotsuba watched Yu Ishigami and Beam bouncing around Makoto like a pair of overexcited puppies, and her expression shifted.
Maybe it's not the women I should be worried about. Maybe it's the men.
Over the following days, Makoto's inner circle skipped school entirely. For them, school had never been more than a diversion. But during the idle hours between casual conversation and relaxation, the topic of the coming invasion of America kept surfacing. These discussions were inevitably overheard by the Totsuki Elite Ten, who came daily to cook for the household, and by the maids standing ready at every turn.
Every last one of them trembled. Were they even allowed to hear this?
Through Erina Nakiri and Alice Nakiri, who held the ninth and tenth seats respectively, word inevitably reached Senzaemon Nakiri.
"Lord Nishikado, I hear you intend to move against America?"
Senzaemon arrived one evening alongside the Elite Ten during their regular dinner preparation.
"What, you have a problem with that?"
"No, no, not at all!" The old man waved his hands hastily. "I merely wished to host a send-off banquet for you and your ladies. To wish you victory."
Alice, the current tenth seat, chimed in with a bright smile. "The Moon Banquet Festival is coming up in a few days. Every Totsuki student will be running a food stall on campus, serving visitors from all over the country. Anyone who fails to turn a profit faces expulsion." She turned to Makoto. "Grandpa wants to make this year's festival your send-off banquet."
Several members of the Elite Ten frowned at the way Alice addressed Makoto. They'd heard the rumors about the new tenth seat and Nishikado being involved, and apparently those rumors were true.
More than a few glanced toward Erina. The Nakiri family's original candidate for earning Makoto's favor had always been the second candidate, not Alice.
Erina kept her head down over her cooking. Whatever she was feeling, her expression gave nothing away.
"America? Hardly warrants a send-off." Makoto waved a dismissive hand. "Pour a flask of sake before I march out. It will still be warm when I return."
The Elite Ten, heads already bowed over their dishes, froze.
Holy shit, is he really flexing this hard?
Alice's eyes lit up like fireworks. "That's my man!"
She launched herself at him, arms hooking around his waist, and peppered his face with kisses.
The Elite Ten collectively buried their heads deeper into their work.
For the love of God, have some restraint.
Their fear was genuine. If they witnessed something they shouldn't, Makoto might silence them permanently.
Senzaemon sighed. He strongly suspected his granddaughter was doing this on purpose, putting on a show for Erina's benefit. He glanced over at his other granddaughter.
Sure enough, Erina's head had sunk even lower.
Alice's offensive continued. She pressed her lips to Makoto's ear and whispered, "Hey, Makoto. Let's stay at the Nakiri mansion tonight."
"Why the sudden urge to go back?"
He tilted his head. Ever since the incident, Alice had been living at the Suzuki Estate rather than returning home.
"Daddy's funeral was yesterday. Mama's staying at his grave for three days, so she won't be home. We could use her bedroom..."
Makoto stared.
Your mother is in mourning and you want to use that window for this?
Confronted with such brazen filial impiety, only one thought crossed his mind: What man alive could resist a temptation like that?