Chapter 77: Removing Anko’s Seal
It took the two about half an hour to finish their… quarrel. When they reentered the room, both of them were drenched in sweat and breathing heavily. Although both of them had a few small cuts, they didn’t have any serious wounds.
“Yo! Did you two have fun?”
Anko and Hinata both gave Yuna a death glare before sitting down at the table.
“So, who won the argument?”
This question, however, only earned her another death glare before the duo averted their faces with an annoyed expression.
‘A draw, huh?’
[I am more surprised that both of them are still alive.]
‘Haha, didn’t I tell you that it wasn’t a big deal? The occasional deathmatch strengthens the bonds of a harem, so no worry.’
[…right…]
“Anyway, Yuna. The verbal innuendos aside, you still remember your promise, right?”
Yuna shrugged her shoulders and answered.
“Of course. We can do it right now if you want.”
Before Anko could answer, Hinata intervened.
“Whatever it is, I am coming too.”
“Oh? You are quite bold, Hinata.”
“To think this little girl was this bold, I am quite impressed.”
Although Hinata’s face was getting redder by the second, a fierce determination was visible in her eyes.
“I-I-I’m still c-coming.”
“Haha, calm down, Hinata. We are just joking. Anko has a similar problem as you had when I picked you up. So, just like I did for you, I will help her out.”
Anko and Hinata were both surprised by what Yuna just said. Anko was subconsciously giving the headband Hinata wore on her forehead a glance.
” Haha, guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Hiashi’s poker face will probably shatter like glass when he hears about this.”
“Yeah, but keep it a secret for now.”
“Sure, but I want to be present when it happens. There is no way I will miss such a fun event.”
“Deal.”
While Anko and Yuna were chatting with each other, Hinata was still a bit dazed.
‘To think Anko also has a cursed seal on her. Urgh, I noticed that Anko was half-joking earlier, but won’t this push her over the threshold? It’s not like I can do anything about it though. There is no way that I would prevent Yuna from helping Anko. Especially not, if it is about a curse seal.’
Yuna could more or less see what Hinata was thinking about. A smirk appeared on her face as she quietly approached her. Without any forewarning, Yuna’s face appeared in front of Hinata’s and gave her a quick kiss.
Hinata’s face immediately became crimson, especially when she saw Anko smirking at her. She looked around the living room and was relieved that at least Naruto and Haku didn’t notice what happened. She could have sworn that Naruto was blushing a little, but that must have been her imagination.
“Y-Yuna! W-Why did you do that?!”
Yuna snickered.
“So you get used to it.”
Hinata had no idea what she was supposed to say to that.
“Since when have you two been dating?”
“Since yesterday.”
“Ohh, a new couple, huh?”
Hinata immediately puffed up her chest.
“That’s right, we even spent the whole night together.”
As soon as she finished that sentence, she regretted it. Hinata blushed and, immediately, tried to change the sentence.
“N-Not like that! I-I mean we slept with each other! BESIDE EACH OTHER!!! I MEANT BESIDE!!!”
Yuna gave her a satisfied nod.
‘That was cute. I approve.’
Hinata on the other hand had steam coming out of her ears.
Yuna casually patted her head to calm her down.
“Haha, calm down, Hinata. We know what you wanted to say.”
Hinata only gave a little nod but didn’t say anything else.
After pacifying Hinata a while longer, Anko and Yuna made their way to Yuna’s room to get rid of the seal.
“Take off your overcoat and lay down on my bed belly first. Let’s get rid of this.”
For a moment Anko considered going for another joke, but the current situation was too important for her to joke about it. She took off her overcoat and laid down.
Just like with Hinata, Yuna revealed the seal’s structure, and as soon as she did, she couldn’t help but frown.
“What kind of mad man is Orochimaru to design something like this? Just receiving the seal is already close to a death sentence. You were lucky to survive that.”
“Can you remove it?”
“Yeah, but it will be ridiculously annoying. This thing is a ticking time bomb. The structure is more unstable than a house built out of cardboard. It seems like Orochimaru just tested out different configurations until something somehow worked.”
Yuna pondered a while before a serious expression appeared on her face.
“Anko, can you keep what is about to happen a secret? And I mean a secret from everyone including the Hokage.”
At first, Anko wanted to make a little joke, but after meeting Yuna’s eyes that thought quickly vanished.
‘This might be the first time I have actually seen her being serious. This isn’t the time to play around.’
Anko’s face also became serious.
“I swear I won’t tell anybody about what is going to happen.”
The duo looked into each other’s eyes for quite a while and the longer Anko kept eye contact with Yuna, the more uncomfortable she felt.
‘It feels like she can easily see through me. How can such a young girl have eyes like that?’
A few more moments passed before Yuna nodded her head.
“Good, then prepare yourself for the seal removal.”
Yuna closed her eyes and took a deep breath. The atmosphere in the room changed immediately. Before Anko could say anything, three chains shot out of Yuna’s back and started to draw seals in mid-air. Anko took another glance at Yuna and couldn’t help but be surprised by what she saw. Cold emotionless eyes and a face void of any feeling which was totally different from the vibrant facial expressions Yuna normally showed.
‘What the hell is this? I have never seen her like this before.’
Before Anko could put any more thought into it Yuna started to speak with an indifferent voice.
“Starting procedure. Paralyzing patient.”
The seals that were still flying above Anko glowed slightly and then started to lower themselves onto Anko, completely sealing away her movements.
“Paralyzing pain receptors.”
The seal glowed again, this time, however, Anko didn’t feel any different. If her movement were to be sealed away like this in a normal situation, she would probably panic, but in the few weeks she had spent with Yuna, she has gotten a pretty good understanding of her character. There is nothing Yuna hates more than betrayal. That is why Anko completely entrusted herself to Yuna like this. She doesn’t even believe for a second that Yuna would betray her trust. Yuna’s fingers started to glow blue, while the three chains hovering over her did the same.
“Starting procedure to dismantle the seal…Analyzing seal structure…analysis complete. Removing unnecessary parts…removal completed. Searching for life-threatening seal constellations… 37 cases found, starting removal…”
Although Anko barely understood what Yuna was talking about, she felt like she had just heard something rather outrageous. If her body wasn’t completely paralyzed, she probably would have started a rampage.
’37 F*ING CASES!? Just you wait, Orochimaru! If I find you I will tear out your spine and beat you to death with it. I will mount your head over my chimney… Ok, I probably wouldn’t. Having a stuffed Orochimaru head look at me every time I enter my living room would be creepy as f*.
While Anko’s thoughts were wandering in a rather strange direction, Yuna was slowly but surely unraveling the seal in front of her. It was a disgusting piece of work. It even had a small part of Orochimaru’s chakra and soul sealed into it which meant that it could actually be used to revive Orochimaru. Funny enough, that was one of the easiest parts to get rid of. Yuna simply crushed Orochimaru’s will with her own and corrupted his chakra with Kurama’s.
The real problem was to remove this unstable mess without killing Anko. It was like taking apart a card house without letting it collapse, but instead of a simple card house, she had to disassemble a whole mountain made of cards. That was why Yuna decided to go all out and reveal her emotionless self. It was much safer this way and pretty much guaranteed success. No matter how much Yuna disliked it, it was still useful on some occasions.
It took Yuna half an hour to finish the procedure.
“…Removal completed. 100% of the seal has been removed.”
Yuna took another deep breath and the atmosphere surrounding her changed again. A smirk appeared on her face.
“Whew, that was really annoying. What’s wrong Anko? You are so quiet? Aren’t you happy I removed that seal from you?”
Anko, of course, still couldn’t move due to the seals that were applied to her. She tried to say something, but couldn’t.
Yuna’s smirk grew even wider.
“Oh? Still no words of thanks, huh? Guess I have to claim my rewards myself then.”
The fingers on Yuna’s hand started to wiggle like worms as she approached Anko. Anko, however, only threw her a glare.
“Haha, okay, okay, I’ll stop playing around. It would have been more fun if you panicked though. Hehe, but I still need to cash in my payment, don’t I?”
Before Anko could understand what was going on, Yuna lifted her right hand and smacked it onto Anko’s butt. Seeing Anko’s butt jiggle around after the slap, Yuna nodded in satisfaction.
“Nice! At least 9/10. Maybe even 10/10. I approve! Indeed an adequate payment.”
Moments later, the seal binding Anko vanished, and as soon as it did Anko jumped up and pushed Yuna to the ground.
‘Oh? Is she going for revenge right away?’
Moments later, however, Yuna could hear a quiet sob coming from Anko which made it rather clear what was going on.
‘Seems like that seal put a bigger burden on her than she wanted to admit.’
Yuna didn’t say anything and simply embraced Anko to help her sort through her feelings. Although Anko didn’t cry openly, Yuna could feel the occasional teardrop fall on her clothes.
‘It will be fun teasing her about this later on~’
[Have I mentioned that you are a demon?]
‘You did~’