Chapter 79: Long-Awaited Events

Going about my business, I'd also been waiting for the right moment to take the initiative in a certain delicate matter. The envious might have called it "acting on base instincts," but I saw it as a higher calling: spreading love and not making girls who'd already waited long enough wait any longer. So when the moment finally arrived, I made my way one evening to the most technically gifted woman on the planet.

The excuse to visit Sakura practically offered itself. Her work at Konoha's Research Center had always sparked genuine curiosity in me. Dozens of developments, far from always promising, came out of its halls every month, and picking them apart never failed to light a small fire of interest somewhere in my chest.

I crossed the sprawling complex, passed through the sections where over a thousand people were busy building various prototypes, and quickly made my way to the wing reserved exclusively for Sakura's personal projects.

Her lab was the embodiment of order and cutting-edge thought: gleaming equipment, holographic displays covered in intricate schematics, rows of flasks filled with colored liquids along the far wall, and several prototype devices of questionable shape scattered across workbenches. Through the wall, a supercomputer hummed steadily, thick cables running from it to a cluster of monitors and a pedestal holding a large metallic ring, sized as though meant to sit on someone's head. That device was clearly the center of Sakura's current obsession. When I appeared at the entrance, she was watching streams of data scroll across the screens.

I made no effort to hide my approach and was, naturally, noticed.

"Naruto?" she greeted me with mild surprise. "You don't usually come by this late."

"Got curious." I stepped inside, looking around with undisguised interest. "My schedule cleared up after wrapping a few projects. Figured I'd check in on our resident technical genius. And maybe offer some modest assistance, if, of course, someone of your caliber could ever need it."

Sakura normally kept a certain dignified composure in public, and even within our family circle she maintained her spine when the situation called for it. Here, though, she was relaxed. She squared her shoulders with pride, and it was plain to see the warmth spreading across her cheeks at the compliment.

The proud expression didn't last long. She cracked an almost sheepish smile.

"Actually... I wouldn't say no."

We moved to the silver-metallic ring, and she launched into her explanation with barely contained enthusiasm.

"This is my main project: the Neuro-Fūin Interface. In theory, it will allow direct linking of a shinobi's consciousness with external devices, fūinjutsu systems, and even other people, enabling instant information transfer or control of complex systems. Can you imagine the implications for medicine? Communications? Defense?"

And honestly, the implications were staggering, especially given the existence of the Empire. As it stood, not that many minds could interact with that particular intelligence: thousands, maybe tens of thousands, and only on an extremely superficial level. The local internet, while part of the Empire's domain and nominally under its influence, was only barely so; nearly the entire processing load was still handled by conventional technology. The ring she was describing, acting as a kind of conceptual scaffold, had the potential to expand the World Network to millions of users.

She placed the ring over her pink hair and began feeding a steady stream of chakra into the device. Instantly, driven by the tens of thousands of fūin etched within it and guided by the will of its wearer, multiple connections burst outward from the ring, linking with the planet's primary network and any nearby machines with sufficient processing power.

One of the prototypes, an exoskeleton, immediately picked up a dexterity puzzle from a nearby table and began assembling it with brisk, precise movements.

A remarkable application: scores of primitive fūin and techniques combined into something genuinely intricate. I said as much aloud, which made Sakura beam even brighter.

"Now, the problem," she continued, shifting to business. "The interface is incredibly sensitive to fluctuations in the user's chakra. For ordinary people, non-shinobi, with their stable if modest chakra levels, it functions nearly perfectly. But for ninja..." She nodded with irritation toward a small crate containing a stack of melted, blackened circuit boards. "...their reserves are constantly spiking. During training, stress, jutsu use. These surges just fry the sensitive components. We've tried various filters and fūin-based stabilizers, but they either slow the response too much or still can't handle the peak loads."

"Mm-hm..." Listening to her, I simultaneously used my mismatched dōjutsu to peer into the device's internals.

"We've also swapped out the materials for the sensitive components, but that only works with complex, individual calibration for each user. We tried going deeper, shifting the analysis to a more fundamental Yin component, but we lack the sensitivity. The fūin alphabet we developed hasn't fully integrated into the planet's chakra yet."

I knew exactly what she meant. About a year and a half ago, I'd organized a large-scale collaborative project with a broad group of researchers, which had produced a planetary fūin alphabet: the widest possible set of symbols, encompassing nearly everything we could conceive of. The problem was that it simply hadn't had enough time to properly mature. And none of the older, long-established fūin seemed to offer anything suitable for this application.

Sakura could brute-force the problem, bring in fūin masters to manually stamp their own seals onto each individual unit. But at an industrial scale, that would slash production numbers dramatically.

"Is the supercomputer running through fūin chain permutations right now?" I asked, stepping toward one of the screens.

"Correct. Since yesterday morning."

"Show me the latest." My dōjutsu flared brighter. "My sight goes deeper and wider. Let me try running through it manually."

"Ohhh..." Sakura drew out the sound before activating her own dōjutsu. "Mine never let me pull that off."

She said the last part with full understanding of what she was implying, and with quiet anticipation.

"Let's bend reality a little."

And with that, we got to work.

The local researchers, Sakura included, were far from stupid. I couldn't just waltz in, point out something obvious about this ring, and instantly solve all their problems. They'd already considered numerous approaches and knew how to think. But I had an advantage that made any research I touched move considerably faster: a titanic force that dismantled most of the universe's attempts to remain mysterious.

The calculations took roughly an hour. The result looked dubious, strangely warped and counterintuitive, and yet, against all odds, it worked.

Sakura's mind was practically melting. What we'd arrived at had no business functioning, at least not by her understanding of physics and current technological progress. But my dōjutsu allowed me to see far deeper and from entirely different angles, and the raw computational force of my energy exceeded the local Chakra Network by several orders of magnitude.

The crux of the solution was this: instead of reading the full chakra spectrum, the device now reliably read only the Yin component. It was less destructive by nature, and unlike chakra as a whole, over any brief window of time it could only decrease, that is, be spent, rather than spike unpredictably. This didn't eliminate the need for individual user calibration, but it simplified it dramatically. One caveat remained: if the user burned through too much Yin, the device would stop functioning, but that was a problem for future iterations. A constant Yang input from the network itself would also be necessary, which we addressed in the same session. As for what the solution did to your brain, the spatial distortions required to execute the described functions weren't merely three-dimensional. The geometric shapes they traced were the kind of things you could only describe by swearing.

Working side by side, we felt something almost tangible between us, an intellectual spark. Our understanding of each other deepened not only on an emotional level but on the common ground we shared: the drive to know. After finishing the core work, we sank into a discussion of the finer points, proposing ideas, arguing over nuances, finding common ground again and again.

The hunger for knowledge, and the satisfaction of feeding it together. Eyes lit up with ideas. In moments like this, Sakura wasn't just one of my girls. She was a scientist, an equal partner in the pursuit of understanding.

"Good work," I said finally, watching Sakura shrug off her lab coat. "But I think we've both had our fill of schematics and equations for one night. Feel like taking a walk? The night's beautiful, and Konoha looks especially good at this hour. We can call it a celebration of your scientific breakthrough."

"Hmm..." She turned toward me, looking pleased. Something flickered in her green eyes.

For Sakura, my invitation was about as transparent as freshly cleaned glass. The satisfaction that crossed her face made it clear she'd only been waiting for the logical continuation of all those years spent together.

"Let's go," came her answer after a brief pause, light and playful.

Sakura was dressed in a layered long tunic: a deep brown piece with fitted inner sleeves, and a red sleeveless top over it, accented with decorative brushstrokes of paint. Both pieces allowed free movement thanks to the high side slits. A red hairband in her pink hair and dark brown gloves completed the look.

Evening Konoha was breathtaking. The soft glow of street lanterns lit the narrow walkways, shop and restaurant signs flickered to life, and the air was fresh and cool.

We strolled unhurriedly through familiar places, still talking about the project but in a looser, more relaxed way. Then the conversation drifted naturally into memories: funny moments from the Academy, her time as my student. I recalled the intensely focused expression she used to wear on her face, and her almost-forgotten habit of dropping old-fashioned samurai phrases.

We climbed to the roof of a building along the way, leaned against the railing, and stood in comfortable silence looking out at the Leaf's skyline in the distance.

We might have stayed like that indefinitely, if we hadn't been interrupted in the most absurd way possible.

Down on the street below, Karin appeared, carrying a rolled-up poster tucked under her arm. The moment our eyes met, she gave it a sharp snap and held it up over her head.

"JUST DO IT ALREADY!" was written in enormous letters across the whole sheet.

"Apparently," I said quietly, stepping closer and draping an arm around Sakura's shoulders, "our 'schedule' is under strict supervision."

"So it seems." She laughed, genuinely and warmly. Despite her composure, the faintest blush crept onto her cheeks. "Karin has always had a unique approach to these things."

Noticing my gesture, Karin shot us a thumbs-up and disappeared.

That small interlude, paradoxically, brought us even closer. Sakura mentioned she'd prepared something special, and my curiosity left me no room to refuse. We reached a distant villa I hadn't even known existed via a spatial jutsu. Stepping inside, we came to a halt before the door of one of the larger rooms, and what lay beyond it stirred feelings in me that were, just slightly, contradictory, yet entirely positive. Along with a certain intrigue as to exactly how we'd be making use of it.

Standing there, a comfortable silence settled between us, the kind that doesn't need filling.

At the door, Sakura stopped and looked up at me. Her eyes held anticipation, a faint flutter of nerves, and something older and deeper. I closed the distance.

Our lips found each other as if drawn by something magnetic.

A deep, unhurried kiss. It held tenderness, the long-accumulated weight of waiting, and an understanding that needed no words.

On my tongue, her unique taste bloomed: cool, crisp peppermint, a light tartness of green apple, and a refined, barely-there whisper of white tea.

This is what Sakura tastes like, the thought drifted through my mind. Freshness and clarity, like a mountain stream after a storm. Strength and refinement, all in one.

When we finally pulled apart, both breathing unevenly, I met her eyes.

"Shall we... go in?" I asked softly, though I already knew the answer.

Sakura smiled, and that smile said everything.

"I've been waiting for nothing else."

She took my hand and pulled me inside. The door closed quietly behind us.

I woke to find that a certain girl draped across me had already woken up first and was now staring at my face with a flushed, deeply embarrassed expression.

"Good morning, Sakura." I opened my eyes and was met immediately with a matching pair, just green.

"Morning..."

"You look like you're overthinking something." I buried my hand in her pink hair, which made her tilt her head into my palm.

"It's just... I'd like to ask you not to say anything about what happened last night. Don't take it the wrong way, everything was absolutely wonderful... But there's no need for anyone else to know."

"That's fine. I wouldn't share our private life with outsiders anyway."

"No... I didn't finish. Don't tell Karin, please. She'll bring it up, well, forever."

"Ah, that's what you mean... I can promise I'll hold the line. But something tells me she'll find out regardless."

"Let her find out later, when I won't be as mortified," the girl murmured, and then leaned forward.

Our lips came together and didn't part for a good half minute.

"Breakfast in bed?" I offered.

"I won't say no," confirmed Sakura, her skin now back to its normal color.

After enjoying each other's company a little longer, we went our separate ways. Sakura wasn't as delicate as Hinata, and she bounced back fairly quickly.

That freed up more time for me, which I then devoted to the other girls and my mother.

That same night, I was taking in the view from one of the mansion's balconies, leaning on the railing. From that height, the beauty of Konoha, growing more striking every year, was impossible to ignore.

I'd always had a thing for observation, I think. That quiet communion with the world.

But I was pulled out of my trance by a figure who thought she was being stealthy. She was not.

I didn't shift my position, just waited to see how things developed.

Grab. A pair of feminine hands suddenly appeared at my sides and pressed themselves firmly against my torso.

"Got you..."

"Couldn't wait until tomorrow?" I asked with a smile.

"That would've been boring... Besides, why wait when I can kidnap you right now?"

"Oh? Full-on kidnapping?"

"Exactly..." She bit my earlobe.

Well. Asking this particular girl whether she was sure would be entirely superfluous.

A pulse of chakra, and suddenly Karin was perched on the railing in front of me, wide-eyed with surprise, her glasses helpfully relocated to the top of her head for what was to come.

My hands pressed against her, and my lips met hers, which she opened immediately with a burst of eager enthusiasm.

A vivid combination exploded on my tongue: pomegranate, blood orange, and a sharp kick of pink pepper. Mixing with my own saliva's notes of warm honey and ginger, something intoxicating and electric swept through my mind all at once.

"Look at you, taking initiative!" she said brightly, kicking her legs and starting to breathe harder. "You ignored me for so long... I decided I'd just have to take matters into my own hands! Did I finally manage to wake the beast in you? Heh."

"Only in your little fantasies," I said. I tried to put some reproach in my voice but only managed a warm smirk. "And what exactly do you mean by 'take matters into your own hands'?"

She licked her lips.

"Something I'm pretty sure you haven't tried yet!"

"Now I'm intrigued. Of all of us, you're probably the most... open-minded."

"Open-minded is right. And coming from someone who wants to sleep with his own mother, I'll take that as a compliment," she tried to turn it back on me, though the tone she was going for came out sounding more like fond admiration than any kind of accusation.

"Oh... So you caught our little glances?"

"Obviously! It's literally part of my job. And for the record, I won't be turning down a threesome later."

Kushina, thanks to her unusually young apparent age, had found common ground with the girls remarkably fast.

"You're getting ahead of yourself."

"And you're dragging your feet!" Karin grabbed my face and pulled me in.

We savored the taste of each other again.

"Mmph," she got fully on top of me, locked her legs in place, and started moving with impatient purpose. "Come on, my Emperor... Take me."

"As you wish, my faithful Herald. You've earned your reward."