"...?"
Samui blinked.
A flicker of confusion passed through her pale blue eyes.
"What do you mean... because of me, you and Kumogakure would fall out?"
She didn't recall doing anything that would trigger such a reaction.
But Qingsi's face remained unreadable.
"This isn't the place to talk," he said calmly.
Samui hesitated, then nodded. She led him upstairs, to a quiet private room on the second floor of the sushi restaurant. The door closed behind them.
Just the two of them now.
The room was dimly lit—quiet enough for tension to settle in unnoticed.
Samui crossed her arms. Her guard was up.
"Qingsi… what are you getting at?"
Her voice was cautious, even a little defensive.
She had heard rumors—that the Uchiha were twisted. Brilliant, but emotionally unstable. That their ways were unpredictable.
Had Qingsi already become like that?
Then Qingsi dropped the bomb.
"I overheard your conversation on the third floor."
His tone was light. Too light—like he was commenting on the weather.
Samui's pupils shrank.
"What...?"
Her voice was barely above a whisper.
She had seen him leave that day—long before she and Samudo spoke. There had been no one around. And yet… he'd heard them?
A single tomoe Sharingan shouldn't be that strong. Not unless—
"You… used your Sharingan that day?" she asked slowly, calculating.
Qingsi didn't respond. Instead, he moved his lips silently—no sound.
But she instantly recognized the phrase.
"Yeyue Qingsi, you probably don't want to go back to Kumogakure."
Her own words.
Casual at the time. Offhand.
But now, they felt dangerously sharp.
"So what?" she said. "It was just a passing comment."
"A passing comment," Qingsi repeated, his voice quieter now, more deliberate. "That shook my trust in Kumogakure."
He stepped forward, just slightly.
"I wanted to go back. Truly. But if someone as important as you says something like that behind my back... then what happens after I return? Will they treat me as a brother? Or whisper that I'm Konoha's spy?"
He paused.
"Even Samudo… so confident that I'll return to Kumogakure. But you?" He looked her dead in the eye. "You cast doubt on that."
Samui paled.
She knew this was far-fetched. She knew Qingsi was stretching logic like taffy.
But that didn't matter.
Because he wasn't wrong.
She had said it. And if word got out that her comment led Qingsi—the Hidden Cloud's most valuable outside asset—to turn away from Kumogakure, the blame would fall squarely on her.
She could take the punishment.
But her younger brother, Atsui, wouldn't escape the backlash.
Her fists clenched at her sides.
Qingsi wasn't just playing politics. He was aiming straight for her weakness.
"Born in the Land of Lightning," Qingsi continued, "and yet Kumogakure sends someone who doesn't even trust me. If I go back… will I ever be anything more than a pawn?"
The silence that followed was suffocating.
Samui's voice finally broke the stillness.
"…What do you want?"
The question came out strained. She wasn't angry.
She was defeated.
Qingsi smiled faintly.
He'd won.
"Nothing unreasonable," he said gently, his voice lowered. "A ninjutsu scroll. Something for training the body. D-rank is fine."
He looked up at her.
Samui was taller than him—older, stronger. Her presence filled the small room like incense.
And in the golden lamplight, shadows framed her form, casting Qingsi's face into partial darkness.
Samui studied him.
A simple D-rank jutsu?
Her chest visibly loosened as she exhaled.
This wasn't a shakedown. Not truly.
If anything, it was a calculated warning. One scroll in exchange for silence.
"Fine," she said.
She peeled off one of her long gloves and unwrapped the thin sealing bandages around her wrist. From a hidden seal, she summoned a scroll—light yellow, tied neatly with red twine.
She tossed it to him.
"Lightning Release: Iron Block," she said. "It stimulates muscle fibers, hardens the body slightly, and enhances physical endurance."
Qingsi caught it with both hands.
He didn't open it right away.
Instead, he looked up—at Samui.
She was calm again now. But he could see the caution behind her eyes.
Her figure stood tall, casting a confident silhouette. Her striking features and full, curvaceous frame gave her the kind of presence that turned heads without effort.
She was… beautiful.
And that beauty stirred something in him.
A faint ripple in his chakra.
Uchiha didn't always awaken power through pain. It was emotional impact—trauma, joy, grief, longing—that spurred the brain to produce a unique chakra.
It didn't have to be tragedy.
Sometimes… even the awe of something beautiful was enough.
That emotional fluctuation—unfiltered and intense—could trigger the next evolution.
Sasuke awakened his Mangekyō Sharingan not from killing Itachi, but from learning the truth of his brother's sacrifice.
Sarada, when no one believed in her, not even her father.
And Qingsi?
Right now, he was testing a different trigger.
His gaze lingered—unapologetically.
Samui frowned slightly, folding her arms, pushing her curves even tighter against the fabric of her top.
"Isn't this enough proof that Kumogakure is sincere?" she asked.
"Return to us, and you'll have access to A-rank techniques. Even S-rank."
Qingsi finally looked away.
"Thank you, Miss Samui," he said, expression calm. "It seems Kumogakure truly does care."
But the unspoken part hung heavy in the air.
This is enough for today.
Just a D-rank scroll couldn't satisfy him for long.
He accepted it because it served a purpose—accelerating his physical training.
Higher-level jutsu could wait. Right now, he was laying foundations.
And slowly, methodically…
Opening his eyes.