Tsunade stood with her arms crossed on the path beside the hospital, the setting sun's afterglow failing to warm her cold face.
"Is this the 'busy' police work you've been up to lately?"
A scoff curled at the corner of her lips, her gaze so sharp one dared not look directly at it. "It seems you've indeed been busy, Division Captain Namikaze."
Night sighed inwardly, lamenting his bad luck.
Why did he choose today of all days to slack off near Konoha Hospital? And why did he get caught by the Weaver-Moon Uchiha—whose thought process was bizarre and whose execution was overly strong—right here?
If he had known, he would have rather stayed in his private lab with those jars and bottles.
But since things had come to this, shrinking back or over-explaining would only make him look guilty.
His expression remained unchanged. He even walked naturally toward Tsunade, his tone flat as if the ambiguous scene just now had never happened. "Yeah, it's my day off. I came here specially to wait for you to get off work. Dinner together?"
Tsunade was visibly stunned.
Night's appearance near the hospital was indeed unusual. If it were truly a secret rendezvous, he wouldn't be so blatant as to publicly entangled with a female Uchiha near her workplace.
Reason told her there might be a misunderstanding, but the nameless fire in her heart burned fiercely, mixed with an indescribable sourness that made her chest tight.
She stared dead into Night's overly calm eyes, trying to find a trace of panic or concealment, but found nothing.
This made her even more frustrated. Either this guy's acting was too good, or he truly had a clear conscience?
Pah! It's just thick skin!
"No time."
She threw out two hard words, turned abruptly, and said with obvious anger, "I still have a backlog of patients to deal with. I just came out for some air. Go be 'busy' with your own things!"
With that, she strode back into the Konoha Hospital entrance without looking back, leaving Night alone on the spot.
Watching her decisive retreating figure, Night couldn't help but rub his nose and smile bitterly.
"Headache..." he whispered to himself.
Tsunade's reaction was even more intense than he had anticipated.
This typically bold and generous Sannin was surprisingly petty in certain aspects.
He wasn't worried that Tsunade would do anything irrational because of this.
But this cold-shoulder treatment clearly meant that the subtle relationship he had painstakingly built was facing a significant setback.
A huge loss.
Night quickly characterized this unexpected event in his mind.
Not only was his slacking time wasted, but he also provoked Tsunade's anger for no reason.
He didn't attempt to chase after her to explain. Trying to communicate forcefully when the other party was in a rage would only be counterproductive.
---
Dusk deepened, and the streetlights of Konoha lit up one by one.
Night didn't go far. Instead, he stopped at the restaurant Tsunade favored on the corner.
He carefully ordered several dishes she usually liked, specifically instructing them to add an extra portion of the shrimp tempura she had been craving recently, and packed it all up.
Returning to Konoha Hospital, he didn't go directly to Tsunade but handed the food box to a familiar medical ninja.
"Please pass this to Lady Tsunade." With that, he turned and left without dragging his feet.
An hour later, Tsunade returned to her office, rubbing her throbbing temples.
Continuous surgeries and a backlog of paperwork had exhausted her energy, and an empty stomach made her even more irritable.
As soon as she entered, she saw the familiar food box on her desk, packaging from the restaurant she loved.
She paused, hesitated for a moment, then stepped forward and opened the lid. The food was still warm.
Inside were all her favorite dishes, with a separately packed portion of shrimp tempura on the side.
She stood at the desk, staring at the box of food for a long time.
The pent-up frustration in her chest, like a balloon pricked by a needle, slowly deflated.
It was replaced by a more complex emotion—warm, but tinged with an indescribable grievance.
She naturally knew who sent it. That guy... was always like this. Never directly defending himself, but expressing his attitude in the most practical way.
Touched? A little.
But could she lower herself to go find him? Absolutely not.
Sitting at the desk, she couldn't wait to pick up a shrimp tempura and stuff it into her mouth, even forgetting to use chopsticks.
It tasted good. The frying was just right. Perhaps because it had been sitting for a while, the batter was slightly soft, but it was the most delicious meal she had eaten recently.
After eating the last bite, she stared blankly at the empty box. That guy... he could have come in to explain.
Even just a sentence like "It's not what you think."
---
For the next few days, Night maintained his "slacking" management style in the Police Force.
However, the spontaneous "Uchiha Observation Group" tailing him seemed to have grown even larger.
Moreover, he keenly sensed that the gazes some young Uchiha cast at him, besides the previous awe and curiosity, now contained a trace of... indescribable ambiguity and admiration?
Especially when he accidentally encountered Weaver-Moon Uchiha. She always deliberately avoided him.
But there were times when avoidance was impossible. The originally dashing female ninja would instantly tense up, two suspicious blushes flying onto her cheeks, her eyes flickering uncertainly.
After a hurried greeting, she would almost flee the scene.
This abnormal behavior naturally fell into the eyes of other Uchiha members. Combined with the sporadic rumors circulating near the hospital that day...
Whispers about "Captain Namikaze's charm is amazing, even the most difficult-to-handle Weaver-Moon in the clan..." began to circulate within a small circle of the Fourth Division.
Night felt speechless about this.
He just wanted to quietly use his position to conduct his research and maintain superficial harmony. How did things develop in such a weird direction?
One day, he was flipping through irrelevant files in his office, actually deducing key nodes of a certain technique in his brain.
A knock on the door interrupted his thoughts.
"Enter."
The visitor was the Captain of the Third Division, Yakumi Uchiha. Night didn't have much interaction with him, but they had met a few times in the Police Force building.
Yakumi pushed the door open and entered. He still wore the standard Uchiha poker face, but his eyes were slightly complex.
"Captain Namikaze, this is the summary and follow-up on the dispute in the South District handled by your division last week."
"Alright, thanks for the trouble."
Night took the document suspiciously and asked, "Captain Yakumi, surely you didn't come personally just for this small matter?"
Yakumi Uchiha fell silent for a moment, seeming finding it hard to speak, but finally said, "Regarding the recent rumors, I still hope Captain Namikaze can come forward to clarify and control the impact."