...
The moment Yukie walked through the door, Sawara Kiri noticed a faint star like point appearing above her head. However, it wasn't until he had observed it for a while that corresponding text appeared on the blank panel before him. Clearly, this was the channel for obtaining [Heart Knot Points]!
As his consciousness delved deeper, the detailed content immediately unfolded.
[Sawara's Friend Notebook]
[Sawara Yukie's Heart Knot (Surface Level)]
[Inner Thoughts: Recently, it seems like Kiri is hiding something from me...?]
Almost instantly upon seeing these details, Sawara Kiri, who had just been floating on cloud nine after finally discovering how to use his cheat ability, suddenly tensed up. His previously natural-looking smile slowly and unconsciously fell away, his facial muscles slightly softening, driven by his instincts as an undercover spy.
Years of infiltration experience led him to immediately consider the most dangerous possibility.
'Have I been discovered?'
In that moment, strong survival instincts and undercover reflexes prompted him to think rapidly, constantly digging through his recent actions to figure out where he might have slipped up, for even someone as innocent as Yukie to notice his unusual behavior.
However, no matter how much he searched, he couldn't find where he had made a mistake.
The more he thought about it, the more uneasy he became, cold sweat breaking out on his back.
How could this be?
Had he really become so careless lately?
Could others have noticed something was wrong?
Was ANBU already watching him?
Sawara Kiri's heart beat got slower and slower as various contingency plans flew through his mind, tracing different possibilities and village escape routes.
Until Yukie called out in confusion "Oniichan?"
Only then did he suddenly snap back to reality.
Before he could speak, Sawara Yukie stood on her tiptoes and placed her hand on his forehead, asking worriedly, "Did you overdo with chakra training earlier?"
"Your face is as white as snow now, and your temperature is ice-cold."
"Oh no, are you catching a cold?"
The young girl grew increasingly concerned about his physical condition.
Sawara Kiri quickly stabilized his composure and, as usual, allowed her small hands to feel around his face while casually responding "Don't worry, it's nothing."
"I'll be completely fine after some sleep."
"That's perfect then," Yukie smiled upon hearing this. "Since you can't practice now anyway, come down for dinner!"
"The sukiyaki almost went to waste."
"Compared to that..." Sawara Kiri's voice paused slightly, his azure eyes staring straight at the young girl before him, speaking steadily "Yukie, you have something else you want to tell me, don't you?"
"Huh?"
Sawara Yukie was startled by his words.
Looking at his 'sister's' somewhat dazed expression, Sawara Kiri tried to soften his tone as much as possible, keeping his words vague without any specific direction, guiding the conversation "Actually, I noticed it some time ago."
"Even for Yukie, knowing about this must be quite troubling, right?"
"Or perhaps, you're at a loss about what to do?"
"..."
Hearing this, Sawara Yukie was taken aback.
Looking up, she saw Sawara Kiri watching her intently with those gleaming eyes, causing her to slightly avert her gaze.
Noticing the girl's small gesture, even Sawara Kiri couldn't help but feel his heart tighten, silently sighing.
No one is a saint.
Even raising a puppy for a few years creates emotional bonds, let alone a living, breathing person.
Although Sawara Kiri had made countless contingency plans for exposure during his ten years of living in fear, when the day actually arrived, he still couldn't help feeling somewhat unprepared.
First, try to win her over.
If that doesn't work, quickly subdue her and keep her tied up at home to buy time.
If escape becomes impossible...
Almost in a flash, his mind involuntarily conjured images of himself enduring 36 types of whipping, 72 kinds of torture, and 108 methods of interrogation.
Gulp
Just as Sawara Kiri was preparing for the worst scenario, Sawara Yukie, who had been pursing her lips, suddenly spoke softly "Kiri must have his own difficulties too."
"Is it for money? Or are you being forced?"
"..."
"Actually, I discovered it by accident..."
"When Kiri was meeting with that person."
Yukie's voice grew increasingly quiet, but her tone still carried an unmistakable tremor that she was trying hard to suppress.
Sawara Kiri's mind suddenly flashed to the scene of his shadow clone meeting with Yagura on the rooftop earlier that day.
Damn it, this shouldn't have happened!
He had checked everything so carefully.
Even while forcing himself to stay calm, his heart began beating faster and faster, his voice growing slower, yet his entire body tensed like a coiled spring, ready to strike at any moment.
"That person?"
"Yes!"
Sawara Yukie suddenly raised her head, her voice nearly indignant "That rich looking Uchiha woman!"
Sawara Kiri, who had been waiting for judgment like a defendant, suddenly felt his back go slack.
"Huh?"
"Don't pretend! I saw everything!" Yukie persisted stubbornly, her small face tense, like a housewife who had caught her husband cheating, furiously continuing, "The night before last when Kiri got off work, you met with a beautiful long haired Uchiha woman, didn't you!"
"You unfaithful cat!"
"And Kiri! To think you secretly found a girlfriend when you promised to marry me when we grew up when we were little."
"Although I understand Kiri is about that age now, but still..."
"..."
Sawara Kiri quietly listened to Miss Yukie's endless chatter, his mind gradually going blank.
His entire being abruptly shifted from extreme tension to complete relaxation, his whole body feeling like a balloon that had been pricked with a needle.
Poof - deflating all over the place.
As for who this Uchiha woman Yukie mentioned was, he couldn't remember at all, but there was no need to remember anymore.
At this moment, he suddenly felt genuinely relieved.
Thank goodness Sawara Yukie was a romance-obsessed girl.
However, besides his sister who was jumping around in agitation, the system that he had just recently activated also started spouting nonsense.
["Kura-shii~!"]
["The big brother who previously promised to live together forever, now has another woman outside... this cannot be tolerated!"]
["As both a childhood friend and a destined lover who is also his sister, Sawara Yukie has an absolute battle that she cannot lose!"]
["Ya! That woman must have beaten her big brother to his knees, forcing him to submit!"]
["Kiri belongs to Yukie alone, you know?"]
Miss System was absolutely ecstatic, her tone becoming increasingly unhinged, with one outrageous comment after another. It seemed all her processing power was being used in strange directions, showing not even a hint of restraint.
Sawara Kiri gradually regained his composure and faced the fuming Miss Yukie with considerable resignation "That's not true at all."
But Sawara Yukie still maintained her stern expression, warning suspiciously "I don't believe you! A few days ago, Kiri came home so late, and still insisted on going to the training grounds to practice Ninjutsu... that was clearly a date, wasn't it!"
Sawara Kiri's expression paused for a moment.
To eliminate his previous demanding contact officer, he had indeed spent quite some time outside, and it was expected that people close to him would notice something. He just hadn't expected it to be pointed out from this angle.
However, it wasn't like there wasn't a solution.
With his cheat ability now... he could finally be a bit more daring than before when doing certain things.
"Since Yukie says so, let me show you a little bit of your big brother's training results!" Sawara Kiri put his hands on his hips, suddenly displaying a rather satisfied expression.
"Huh?" Sawara Yukie looked doubtful, "Besides the few water-style jutsu at home, has Kiri learned other Ninjutsu?"
"That's exactly right."
Sawara Kiri said as he raised one hand toward Yukie.
"Heeh~!"
Originally, Sawara Yukie thought her brother was just trying to save face by making a small boast.
But before she could look away, she saw Sawara Kiri's eyes suddenly flash with a brilliant starlike radiance, glittering brightly.
The next moment.
Whoosh--
Spiral-shaped chakra suddenly burst forth from the center of the young man's palm, rotating at high speed while continuously converging toward the center, swaying until finally forming a perfect chakra sphere.
The air currents stirred up by the surging chakra created waves in the narrow room, making the young girl's temple hair and light skirt flutter.
Everything in the room seemed to resonate with the rotation of this small sphere as the curtains in the room swayed.
However, the young girl seemed completely unaware of all these surroundings, her azure eyes firmly fixed on the chakra ball in Sawara Kiri's palm, unable to look away.
Even though she was just a newly graduated Genin, Sawara Yukie immediately recognized both the difficulty in developing this 'No hand seal' jutsu and... the terrifying destructive power contained within this chakra.
An advanced jutsu she had never seen before?!
Almost instinctively, Sawara Yukie excitedly asked "Kiri! What's the name of this jutsu?"
Sawara Kiri imitated most ordinary young people in the Konoha, speaking with a tone mixing lightness and a hint of showing off "This jutsu is called... Rasengan."
"It's a powerful jutsu developed by a super genius, you know."
Looking at this unprecedented jutsu, Yukie finally believed all of Kiri's previous explanations.
As everyone knows, the development cycle for jutsu must be measured in years at minimum.
Since that was the case, all previous suspicions naturally became groundless.
Only at this moment did the young girl completely set her mind at ease, her azure eyes revealing uncontrollable excitement as she looked up at her brother and exclaimed joyfully "Kiri! I want learn this!"
Sawara Kiri's smile remained gentle "Want to learn?"
"I'll teach you."
The moment his words fell.
Corresponding prompts appeared on the previously blank panel.
[Sawara Yukie's Surface Heart Knot (Complete)]
[Heart Knot Points +1]
[Sawara's Friend Notebook: Character 'Sawara Yukie' Collected]
[Bond Level Increased ↑]
[Sawara Yukie Bond Level: Three → Four]
[Would you like to see the 'Final Bond Path'?]
At the moment Sawara Kiri saw the prompt, the weight that had been hanging over his heart finally eased.
For a transmigrator, as long as they had a cheat system, what was there to worry about?
After being in this world for a full fifteen years, he finally had something to rely on deep within.
...
When the system panel automatically closed, Sawara Kiri didn't notice or rather, there was no way he could notice that on the fully closed panel, different path options were silently appearing, flowing rapidly like a waterfall of data.
[Final Bond Path 1: The Battle at the Valley of the End]
["Kiri, you said you would love me forever, didn't you? Because Oniichan is my one and only treasure... so don't leave me."]
[Final Bond Path 2: Rooftop]
["Hey, Oniichan, you saw everything, didn't you? This random woman, suddenly, out of nowhere, says she is carrying your child... Look! Isn't her stomach completely flat?"]
["Kiri? Why are you looking at me like that?"]
[Final Bond Path 3: Corpse and Snake]
["If from this day on, you became a snake, devouring and poisoning people, luring them with words, corrupting their minds, making them willingly become your sustenance. But when you turn away, still hissing 'love me' with that bloodthirsty mouth... will I be able to answer you? Is this heavy love genuine enough?"]
["When did it happen? Why become an undercover? Why... did it have to be Kiri?"]
["Forget it, with my Oniichan dead, I don't care to distinguish the rights and wrongs of the past anymore. Someone always has to pay for something... Don't go too fast, wait for me down below, Kiri."]
[Final Bond Path 4: ...]
[Worldline undetermined.]
[Bond calculation still in progress...]
...