70 Chapter 70

- If I win a second time, then you will allow me to touch you anytime and anywhere. – Kenshin said with a sly smile.

- WHAT?! Never! No no and one more time no! Do you even understand what you are offering to the daughter of the Nara clan?! It will not happen! – Kasumi refused point blank.

- Okay, I'll raise the rate. If you win, then tomorrow morning you can be free. – Kenshin suggested, spurring the excitement of the young kunoichi.

Hearing about such a generous offer, Kasumi thought silently for several seconds, and then said: "No, it won't." Nobody should touch me "there". Even if you offer to let me go right away, I will not agree to that. I just can not. – Kasumi sighed and shook her head.

- Fine. I can touch you everywhere except your private holes. Fine? – Kenshin said with a smile. He enjoyed embarrassing the proud daughter of the Nara clan and had a great time.

Hearing about "private holes," Kasumi blushed and called Kenshin a "fool." Then she plunged into thought. She remembered the first game, and upon careful reflection, she became more and more convinced that Kenshin was simply lucky. Either that, or he memorized every move from the very beginning, and in five seconds managed to go through hundreds of combinations and turn everything in his favor. Even a great elder didn't have that kind of intelligence, so she decided that Kenshin was definitely lucky.

- Uuuuff... Okay, but besides the fact that you won't be able to touch me "there", you are prohibited from taking off or getting under my clothes in any way. If you break this rule, I will immediately bite off my tongue and die, understand?! – Kasumi said in a serious voice.

- Okay, okay, you don't need to do anything to yourself, honey. I don't want anything to happen to you more than anything. – Kenshin said and stroked the girl's hand.

Kasumi calmed down a little, and for some reason, from Kenshin's words, her soul felt so warm and soft that the prospect of letting him kiss and touch her body did not seem so terrible to her, but it was still far from pleasant.

The second game went almost the same way as the first. Except Kenshin had to put in a little more effort and concentration. Kasumi fully justified the prestige of her clan.

This time, Kenshin began to outplay Kasumi not at the end, but in the middle. With every move, driving her into a dead end. It was very difficult for him to maintain x100 concentration in order to think through each next move, but in the end he checked checkmate again, and Kasumi almost cried from resentment. She was a very proud girl, and she really didn't like to lose, especially to such an impudent and scoundrel, who was just waiting to once again press her to the wall and grope her entire young body with impunity.

- How did you do this?! You couldn't be lucky the second time! – Kasumi blurted out.

- Everyone has their own secrets. Let's assume that my mind is stronger than the vaunted mind of the Nara clan. "Kenshin answered with a smile, planning to stroke her pride and arrange another round.

- You scoundrel! If even my uncle Shikaku were here, you would have lost in twenty moves! – Kasumi exclaimed. Everything related to the clan, especially the intellect, which everyone was so proud of, was an absolute taboo. Each clan was incredibly proud of its own characteristics, and did not tolerate being ridiculed.

- Eh... If your uncle Shikaku were here, then an indicator of his great intelligence would be that if he lost to such a "nonentity" in your understanding as me, he would kill me with one blow, and no one would ever know about his loss did not recognize.

Kasumi had nothing to answer. She was no longer little, and she perfectly understood how everything related to achieving her goals worked. Even in the clan, she was taught manipulation, cunning, and deception, explaining that sometimes it is much easier to kill an enemy with poison, or take hostage someone who is dear to him, than to fight him head-on. This was practiced always and everywhere, and noble righteous people ended their lives in a ditch.

Shikaku several times cited little Kasumi as an example of a great man, and no less great shinobi - Minato Namikaze, who was one of the decisive figures who ended the Third Shinobi World War, and he was also a great benefactor of Konoha, who saved it from the most powerful bijuu, the nine-tailed demon fox.

However, at the very moment when he was fighting off the most terrible attack of the nine-tails, Shimura Danzo, a Kage-level shinobi who had a lot of aces up his sleeve, never made his move. And after Minato and his wife repelled the attack of the nine-tails at the cost of their lives, Konoha repaid its benefactor by all of Minato's personal assets being registered as the assets of the Hokage and written off to the treasury, and the newborn son of this hero was left an orphan in a cheap orphanage.

Shikaku himself did not like this situation, but all this was beyond his authority. He did not tell his little niece many secret details, but after the birth of little Naruto, his father's teacher, the Great Toad Hermit - Jiraiya, almost caused a real bloodbath in Konoha, being furious with Danzo and the high council.

The heads of all clans and all council members who had the power of an Elite Jonin arrived at the site of a possible battle. Jiraiya did not want to fight with his comrades, many of whom he fought shoulder to shoulder in two previous wars, so Hiruzen put an end to this conflict, promising his student to take care of the little son of the fourth Hokage to the best of his ability, and not allow him to be turned into a weapon , or an object for experimentation.

After this incident, Jiraiya was forced to leave Konoha almost forever, carrying out complex reconnaissance missions for the benefit of the village for years, occasionally returning back and checking how little Naruto was doing. He clearly threatened Danzō that if he dared to drag the kid into his nefarious plans, he would lay down his life to organize a "second attack of the nine-tails" on Konoha, and they would have to decide which of the Kage was willing to give their life to eliminate the threat.

Shikaku, like many leaders of other clans, did not have sufficient qualifications to resolve issues of this level. If all the clans had stood their ground, they could have canceled any decision of the village council, but most of the clans frankly did not care about the fate of some nine-tailed jinchuriki. They respected his father's feat, and were not against taking him in as an upbringer, but only if this did not imply a quarrel with Danzo, and a good half of the village council.

For Kasumi, the incident with Minato was more than a clear example of the fact that it is worth dying only for loved ones, or your own clan, but not for the whole village. She could imagine the consequences of the death of "Great Grandfather" and the current head of the clan. After this, nothing good would await the Nara clan, just like the Uchiha clan, after it had not produced geniuses with the potential to become Kage for a long time.

She, of course, could not know that this was a systematic policy of first Senju Tobirama, and then Shimura Danzo, who tried with all their might to destroy the geniuses of the Uchiha clan in the bud. As a result, the last head of the clan, Uchiha Fugaku, could hardly be considered an Elite Jonin, and was even weaker than Hatake Kakashi, after which their clan "quite by accident" was completely destroyed.

Kasumi was sure of only one thing, that there was nothing more valuable than the needs of the clan, and if for the prosperity of the clan it was necessary to give herself, then she needed to do it without delay. After meeting this mysterious guy, this belief began to come apart at the seams. Kenshin told her what no one had dared to say before him. That she does not have to live for the sake of the clan, and can do whatever she wants, and can finally be that little girl who loves sweets and beautiful outfits. But so far this thought was only in the corner of the young kunoichi's consciousness, and the principles implanted in her mind since childhood were still strong.