Rasa sat in the living room on the first floor, silently observing the surrounding house layout.
He originally thought that for a woman with Pakura's personality, the house should be decorated very simply.
Unexpectedly, it was surprisingly warm.
Although the outside of the house was no different from the surrounding houses...
The interior decoration gave a sense of home at a glance.
This feeling was wonderful. There were some houses where Rasa wouldn't feel at home even after living there for more than ten years.
But here, listening to the constant busy sounds coming from the kitchen, Rasa felt a sense of home.
Rasa quietly felt the warmth rising in his heart.
But he suddenly realized that he had developed deep feelings for Pakura in his heart.
Although Rasa dared not be sure if this feeling was love...
He was very sure that he craved Pakura's beauty.
Rasa inexplicably thought about the type of Pakura's feelings for him.
How did she see him?
Although Rasa really wanted to say it was love because of Pakura's affection score approaching fifty...
Rasa, who didn't have much relationship experience, had now come into contact with several women with high affection scores.
He discovered that high affection didn't necessarily mean love.
People with high affection would view their thoughts and attitudes toward him based on their own childhood experiences and personalities.
For example, Akatsuki and Karuman.
In Rasa's view, their feelings for him were frantic worship.
They fanatically regarded him as a savior and wouldn't refuse any of his orders.
This was definitely not love, just reverence.
For another example, Yasha Lian.
In Rasa's view, she had no close male elders since childhood.
After he raised her affection, she naturally treated him like a big brother.
Relying on him, acting coquettishly toward him.
This wasn't love either, but family affection.
Now, the only one most like love was Karura.
Thinking of Karura, Rasa's heart warmed.
Her performance perfectly matched Rasa's, this single old bachelor's, idea of a lover.
Rasa lay entirely on the chair, resting his head on the backrest, looking at the ceiling.
As for Pakura, judging from her current performance toward him...
She was just an "opposite-sex good brother" who was completely defenseless against him and had no guard against him at all.
Just like a female bro who could joke around casually and didn't mind physical contact at all.
Rasa, a novice in relationships, felt more and more that his guess was correct the more he thought about it.
Pakura had a cool, irritable personality toward others, and adopted a strict teacher style toward her female disciple Maki in the original work.
For someone with such a personality, treating him as a good brother was perfectly normal.
Moreover, she had never hinted at anything.
Even the dullest woman should realize what her behavior of frequently holding an immense intimacy with an opposite sex meant, right?
But Pakura showed no sign of realizing it.
Rasa, who thought he had figured everything out, suddenly felt his heart darken.
He had always known very well that he was a lustful man.
Naturally, he had always had ideas about Pakura, a top-tier beauty in both figure and appearance.
If he could have a harem, he definitely would.
Moreover, the ninja world didn't limit how many wives a man could marry.
It was just that most famous ninjas were monogamous.
However, even if he wanted to start a harem...
If Pakura herself had no feelings for him, should he force himself on her?
Leaving aside that Rasa himself strongly disliked the act of forcing women...
As for that time with Tsunade, he thought it was just a dream, and he had that kind of fantasy about Tsunade.
In a dream, he could naturally do whatever he wanted; after all, things in a dream were just constructed by his brain.
It wouldn't cause harm or psychological trauma to others in reality.
But reality was different. And after he made a move on her...
Would she never treat him with this attitude again from now on?
Rasa liked the current mode of getting along with Pakura very much, the feeling of not having to consider anything and saying whatever he wanted.
"Hey, Rasa, do you really plan to sit there dazing? Come over and help me!"
Hearing this, Rasa smiled bitterly. But on second thought, he hadn't been in love much; perhaps these were all his wrong guesses?
To verify the thoughts in his heart, Rasa decided to do something.
Rasa hurriedly ran into the kitchen and started helping.
"Pakura, what do you want me to help with?"
"Radishes. Peel the skin off these dozen radishes, then cut them into pieces."
The Sand Village was very poor.
If it were in other ninja villages, radishes would just be a common dish for civilians.
But here in the Sand Village, vegetables were extremely precious.
Even the most common radishes became precious; even Jonin couldn't eat them every day.
But correspondingly, meat wasn't lacking in the Sand Village.
Rasa saw the radishes next to Pakura, while Pakura was busy chopping minced meat.
He instantly felt this was a good testing opportunity.
Rasa walked to Pakura, picked up a radish, and pretended to inadvertently put his hand on her perky buttocks, giving it a hard squeeze.
Instantly, Rasa felt a bouncy and excellently soft touch in his hand.
Then Rasa looked at Pakura.
As long as she flew into a rage out of humiliation or blushed without saying a word, it would prove his guess was wrong.
However, Rasa was disappointed.
"Really, where is your hand touching? Hurry up and work, stop playing."
Pakura glared at Rasa with a normal expression, no shyness visible on her face.
It was as if, in her view, this behavior was just Rasa playing with her, completely unaware of what it represented.
Rasa's heart twitched fiercely. He nodded, took the basket of radishes to a spot not far away, and started cutting with his head down.
However, a few seconds after Rasa lowered his head to start cutting radishes...
A blush slowly rose on Pakura's face, making her face look like a cooked crab.
She touched her face, only feeling it was incredibly hot.
At the same time, her heart seemed very happy, with a faint expectation—expecting what, she herself wasn't clear.
Pakura shook her head strangely, took a few deep breaths, and only started to continue chopping meat after feeling the blush on her face almost disappear.
After a dozen seconds, Rasa looked up at Pakura again, only to find her expression was still very normal.
Seeing this, Rasa completely confirmed in his heart that Pakura just had pure good brotherly feelings for him.
Even if Pakura's affection rose to one hundred in a few days...
It would still be good brotherly feelings, just to the extent of how much she could sacrifice.
Rasa mocked himself secretly in his heart. A good brother is a good brother; anyway, there were still many female ninjas in the ninja world.
And having such an opposite-sex good brother...
Then in the future, if he had things inconvenient to say to his women, he could say them to her.
His harem, which hadn't officially opened yet, wouldn't miss this one.
Pakura chopped the meat quickly while quietly feeling the tranquility and the unfamiliar emotion she had never experienced before in her heart.
These feelings only arose when she was with Rasa.
Usually, when she thought of Rasa, this strange emotion would also appear.
Pakura, as she had done many times before, began to ponder:
"What exactly is this emotion? Calling it the feeling of a best friend feels different, although I don't have a second opposite-sex friend besides Rasa."
Two emotional idiots gathered together.
One misunderstood internally.
The other hadn't figured out this emotion at all, still ignorantly thinking it was friendship.
After Rasa "figured it out" internally, he let go completely.
Treating Pakura as a pure opposite-sex good brother he could chat and brag with, he started putting his arm around her shoulders.
From time to time, he leaned close to Pakura's head to whisper.
With such close contact, he could naturally smell the fragrance on Pakura.
Bro, you smell so good.