Chapter 283: I Saw Her

Kitahara Kaede didn't move, nor did he look away from the direction Tsunade had gone.

"When are you coming to see me?"

"There's a loose thread on your collar. Remember to cut it."

Those two sentences repeated endlessly through his mind.

Mei said something beside him.

He didn't hear a word.

Receiving no response, Mei watched his distracted expression.

The smile she had just forced back onto her face slowly vanished again.

She raised a hand, pinched his sleeve, and tugged downward with her fingertips.

Kaede still didn't react.

"What's wrong? Your Lady Tsunade has already disappeared, and you're still staring?"

That sentence finally pulled his attention back.

He blinked.

His gaze withdrew from the street corner and turned toward her.

"I saw her."

He made no attempt to hide that he had been distracted and offered no unnecessary explanation.

Mei's lips instantly stiffened.

Yesterday, she had only tested him by mentioning "your Lady Tsunade."

How had Kaede reacted then?

He immediately darkened his face and warned her not to spread rumors about Tsunade-sama.

Mei remembered his eagerness to distance himself perfectly.

But today?

Tsunade had merely passed by, greeted him, and handed over a report.

Now, directly in front of Mei, he wasn't even pretending anymore.

The enormous difference struck her all at once.

The suffocating pressure in Mei's chest grew heavier, leaving a bitter taste in her mouth.

She wanted to ask him directly.

'Weren't you so concerned about proper behavior yesterday?'

'Why did all those rules vanish the moment Tsunade appeared?'

The words reached her lips, but she forcibly swallowed them.

Looking at Kaede's absent expression, she understood that throwing a tantrum now and arguing like a jealous shrew in the middle of the street would only push him farther away.

Mei inhaled softly and slowly erased the stiffness from her face.

"Let's go."

Her tone was light, as though nothing had happened.

"It's getting late. We should discuss official business with Hokage-sama."

Kaede nodded.

He put the document away and headed toward the Hokage Building.

The atmosphere between them was completely different from before.

Mei now walked half a step behind him.

She noticed that Kaede's pace had become much faster.

He clearly wanted to finish the official handover as soon as possible.

Unwilling to accept this, Mei deliberately started a conversation.

"Kaede, I reviewed yesterday's duty roster."

She quickened her steps to match him.

"Kirigakure personnel will guard the outer perimeter during the day, while mixed Kirigakure and Konoha ANBU squads will patrol at night. There are no problems with that joint defense arrangement."

"Mm."

Kaede acknowledged her without turning his head, his gaze fixed on the road ahead.

Mei refused to give up.

"But integrating our intelligence networks will be more complicated."

She looked at his profile.

"We need a permanent liaison responsible for transferring intelligence between our villages. Hokage-sama is obviously too busy, while an ordinary ANBU officer lacks the authority to oversee the arrangement."

She paused and waited for Kaede to respond.

Several seconds passed.

All she received was another distracted "Mm."

Mei fell completely silent.

She studied Kaede's eyes.

They were pointed forward, but their focus rested nowhere on the road.

He was still thinking about something else.

He hadn't heard even half a word of her lengthy explanation.

His reaction felt almost like deliberate emotional neglect.

Neither of them spoke for the rest of the journey.

They entered the Hokage Building.

As they climbed, Kaede's pace gradually slowed instead.

He continued replaying the encounter on the street.

Tsunade's tone and attitude when she stood before him...

Kaede couldn't understand them.

It was neither the decisiveness of anger and cold war nor the intimacy of reconciliation.

Her response completely contradicted the stage their relationship should currently have reached.

The inability to understand scratched at his heart like a cat's claws.

He desperately wanted an answer. He nearly wanted to turn around and go directly to the hospital right now.

The Hokage's Office appeared at the end of the corridor.

Kaede stopped.

He turned toward Mei, who remained a step behind.

"The Hokage's Office is here."

He pointed toward the door.

"Go in."

Mei thought she had misheard him.

"You're not coming with me?"

"You understand the documents, and you arranged the defensive details yourself," Kaede said directly. "Discuss them with Hokage-sama. He's already familiar with the situation."

Mei gripped the side of her dress.

She understood immediately.

The sentence Tsunade had spoken downstairs—"When are you coming to see me?"—was already taking effect.

Kaede no longer wanted to handle even official business. His entire mind was set on finding that woman.

Mei stepped half a pace forward and instinctively began raising her hand.

She wanted to grab his arm, lean close, soften her voice, and tell him she was afraid to enter alone.

She wanted to remind him that this concerned the alliance between their villages. As Konoha's intermediary, how could he simply leave?

In Kirigakure, she had used exactly those methods to keep him at her home day after day.

Her fingers had barely risen when she remembered the look Tsunade had given her from head to toe.

And that exceptionally courteous greeting: "Good morning, Representative Terumi."

Mei immediately came to her senses.

This was Tsunade's trap.

She had done nothing and said nothing on the street.

Instead, that show of generosity had completely sealed off every opportunity Mei might use to create an issue.

If Mei stubbornly clung to Kaede now and insisted that he remain for the negotiation, what would she become in his eyes?

A troublesome woman who ignored the alliance between two villages merely because she was jealous.

Meanwhile, Tsunade would remain securely seated in the role of the generous and understanding one.

'Impressive, Tsunade.'

'You set me up beautifully.'

Mei suppressed every thought.

Her expression changed in a single second.

Gentle, considerate, and completely flawless.

"Kaede, are you going to see Tsunade-sama?"

Without waiting for his answer, she voluntarily stepped aside.

"Then go. I'll be fine on my own."

Kaede's expression shifted slightly.

He looked at Mei, apparently surprised that she was letting him leave so readily.

Mei caught the subtle reaction.

Her smile became even softer, her voice entirely free of anger.

"Tsunade-sama didn't say anything directly, but she must be hoping you'll go."

She looked into his eyes.

"What she meant was that she resents how long you've been back without visiting her."

After a brief pause, Mei lowered her voice further.

"I can explain Kirigakure's defensive arrangements to Hokage-sama myself. You don't need to worry about this side."

"My matters are important, but what happens between you and her is important too."

"I don't want you to miss something because of me."

As she spoke, Mei felt bitterness spread all the way to the root of her tongue.

She wanted to pinch herself.

She was personally pushing the man she loved toward another woman's arms while pretending to be understanding.

Kaede studied her seriously for two seconds.

Had she suddenly become this capable of distinguishing priorities?

But he genuinely wanted to understand Tsunade's current state, so he didn't think too deeply about it.

"Then handle the discussion first. Give this document to Hokage-sama for me as well."

He passed her the report.

Then he turned and headed toward the stairs.

Mei accepted the document and silently watched Kaede's back flicker past the corner of the stairwell.

Then he disappeared.

Silence returned to the corridor.

The considerate facade she had forced herself to maintain collapsed.

It felt as though someone had brutally torn a large piece out of her heart.

The pain was unbearable.