Chapter 7 - Marani's decision

Kurenai had been teaching Sukuna about Genjutsu throughout the afternoon, into the evening and even into the night.

Kurenai was so excited to teach him about Genjutsu that he couldn't help but be absorbed in her flow, she started with the foundations and carefully explained her view on everything.

She had made things clear that her abilities were certainly not perfect and that she had a lot of room to grow. However, she could teach him her experiences which he gladly accepted.

Kurenai finally shook and looked at the moon that was standing high in the sky, she looked at Sukuna who didn't take his gaze of her as if waiting for her to continue,

''We should get some sleep, we have a whole week'' Kurenai said with a helpless smile.

Sukuna nodded and got up too, ''I guess that works, do we just wait in here until the intel arrives?''

''Yes, they know where we are. So just relax and enjoy the little vacation we got'' Kurenai said as she tried to ruffle his hair again, only to grab air and nearly stumbling over.

''Oh come on! Don't be shy!'' Kurenai grinned at Sukuna who disabled his clones and walked towards the house.

Kurenai suddenly disappeared which gave Sukuna a chill all over his body, his body hastily turned to the right and a hand appeared around his height at the place he originally stood.

''Don't run'' Kurenai smiled with a warm smile and disappeared again, Sukuna felt a chill over his body once more and hastily disappeared into the direction of the master bedroom.

As he was close to the door, his instincts gave off warning signals as a hand was approaching his hair.

He hastily made a few hand signs and a shadow clone appeared that bumped straight into Kurenai's body.

As the clone and Kurenai collided, Sukuna disappeared into the bedroom and closed the door.

''Brat! You dare use techniques whil we are just playing around!'' Kurenai's wronged voice came from the other side of the door.

''All is fair in war!'' Sukuna replied back with a shameless smile on his face.

''You even took the biggest room! You truly aren't a gentleman!'' Kurenai said while crossing her arms.

''Goodnight, Kurenai!'' Sukuna said and walked to the bed.

''You little... Fine, goodnight!'' Kurenai stomped her feet and started thinking of ways to get back at him.

Ofcourse, if she used techniques, she could easily overpower him. But she wasn't shameless enough to do so, they were just playing and she was faster than him so she should be able to easily manage to ruffle his hair.

Sukuna sat on his bed and made the usual hand seals;

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[Sukuna Senju] (11 Years old) [Genin]

[Bloodline] Senju (Partially Awakened)

[Strength] 101 > 109

[Agility] 53 > 55

[Endurance] 66 > 67

[Physical] 68 > 70

[Chakra Pool] 7.605 / 7.324 > 8.084 (High Genin)

[Chakra Control] 53 > 56 /1.000

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[Taijutsu] 65 > 69 / 1.000

[Ninjutsu] 57 > 67 / 1.000

[Genjutsu] 34 > 74 / 1.000

…

..

.

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'My Genjutsu was increased by two-fold in just one day' Sukuna had an obsessed grin on his face as he looked at his stats.

His Chakra Capacity had also reached the 8.000 benchmark, if his estimate was correct than he would have a Low-Chuunin's amount of Chakra when he reached 10.000 which he could definitely reach this week!

'Still, if I want Danzo's attention of the Senju's, I need to be way stronger' Sukuna's mood dampened as he remembered the memories about Danzo, his right eye and arm and even his hideout.

After the Third Shinobi War, Root was supposed to be disbanded... However, a lot of people knew that never happened yet the Third Hokage didn't do anything about it.

Sukuna sighed and got into his bed, he closed his eyes and it didn't take long before he dozed off.

***

''Mmm....'' Kurenai moaned lightly as she stretched herself when she woke up. The beds in the inn were truly too comfortable.

As she got out of bed, a mouthwatering smell came from the kitchen.

She quickly got dressed in a casual loose black dress that covered her until her knees and walked outside of her room, when she entered the kitchen, she saw Sukuna dressed in a wide black pants that was strapped to his waist with a white rope-like belt while his upper body was bare and his hair wet indicating that he just came out of the bath.

''Goodmorning, it's almost ready so please wait a moment'' Sukuna said without turning around. Kurenai grinned and joked, ''Look at you acting all mature, I didn't expect you to be able to cook''

''It's just something simple since we don't have many ingredients here at the moment, so don't expect too much'' Sukuna said as he grabbed several plates with rice, fish and many more things.

As Kurenai saw him walking over with several plates on his arms, she joked, ''If this is nothing much that I might as well have eaten animal food before''

What she didn't know was that cooking was his moment of rest, it was the moment where he could just.... relax. So he enjoyed it, a lot.

He cooked a lot for Merlin, Satori, Sumure, Juri, Keite and Akai in the clan compound as well. Although, Akai wasn't a fan of him stealing her job sometimes but even she had to admit his cooking was great.

Sukuna put the plates on the table and turned around, Kurenai grinned him and slapped his back, ''You should train your body less brat, you look like you want to kill someone by simple showing off your muscles''

Sukuna nearly tripped and sat down before looking at her with a weird expression, ''That is a weird way of complimenting someone's body''

''Hahaha, just take the compliment and deal with it'' Kurenai laughed and set her hungry gaze on the food and said, ''Have a nice meal!''

Sukuna just looked at her wolfing down the food at a rapid pace with a small smile on his face, he loved cooking and when people enjoyed it.

''What you looking at? Eat! Or I will simply eat it all by myself if you're not hungry'' Kurenai grinned while a small piece of rice was stuck on her cheek.

Sukuna started laughing out loud which got him a confused expression, he pointed at his own cheek which made Kurenai touch her own cheek.

As she felt the rice grain, slight embarrassment took over and she glared at Sukuna who merely said with a smile on his face,

''If you're still hungry, I will make more. Just eat until you're full''

Kurenai's eyes lit up and said, ''Don't go back on your words!''

Sukuna shrugged and started eating too, when all the dishes were almost finished, he got back into the kitchen and cooked more.

As he put the food on the table, Kurenai and him continued eating once more. This continued twice more until almost all the ingredients were empty.

It wasn't just his strength that had improved, but also his appetite!

After around an hour, Kurenai finally let out a satisfied sigh as she sat back in her chair and stroked her belly.

''Brat, the one that will marry you will definitely feel blessed''

Sukuna looked at her in shock before he started laughing, ''I see, are you interested?''

Kurenai opened her eyes wide him before she laughed aswell, ''I'm an old woman brat, you should look someone your own age''

''Someone who is still training in the academy, who thinks sparring hurts, that Ninshu is all about helping people and who didn't see the cruelty of this world yet? Kurenai, do you think I would be able to date someone like that?'' Sukuna asked with a bitter smile which made Kurenai sigh aswell,

''At first, I hated big clans. They acted smug, arrogant and their inflated egos was making my skin crawl. I judged them based on their whole clan, not knowing that some of them were forced into way harder circumstances in this already broken world''

Kurenai smiled warmly as she look at him, ''Who knows, someone your age might be out there that fits you''

''Who knows, I don't care whether a woman is 12 or 80. In this world you're blessed to see the sun come up, age is really just a number from when you become a Ninja'' Sukuna said as he looked outside as he remembered Grandma Merlin and his parents.

Merlin was dying soon, his parents were also already over 40 years old. Despite his bad relationship with his father, back in the day he really used to love him.

He would play with Sukuna, tell him how his missions went (but left out the gruesome details), bring him to the academy and was a loving father.

Until a year ago when Sukuna made his intentions clear to keep his last name. Then everything changed, he became colder, verbally abusive of how stupid his decision was and began drinking.

His mother on the other hand, was a kind, loving mother who supported him regardless of his choice. She always tried to fix the relationship between the two of them but it just never seemed to work out.

Kurenai looked at him and couldn't help but nod at his statement, every mission was life-threatening. Many were killed before they finished their first year of being a Shinobi.

She, too, had seen how cruel this world had been too young, old, disabled, civilians and Shinobi....

As Sukuna saw Kurenai's downcast expression, he smiled and said, ''Should we continue training instead? The heavy talk ruins the mood after a good breakfast''

Kurenai gave him a bitter smile and said, ''Let's do that, we're on a 'vacation' so let's just enjoy ourselves''

Sukuna had already activated his Shadow Clones the moment he woke up and had put them into action.

Kurenai enthusiastically explained about Genjutsu once more. Only at lunch and dinner did they stop to eat normally. Kurenai was obsessed with Genjutsu and having someone wanting to learn above the thing you love so much was absolutely thrilling to her.

This continued for a few days, what the two didn't know however that the village was in a complete mess.

***************

''W....what did you just say?'' Hiruzen asked with trembling hands as he looked at his advisor, Nara Shikaku.

''Lord Third, several undercover Ninja's and 8 Anbu's abandoned their post'' Nara Shikaku said with trembling hands as he read the report. The Anbu was the core of the village, that 8 Anbu abandoned their post was catastrophic to the village.

''Shikaku, please tell me this is a bad joke'' Nara Shikaku gulped and continued, ''No Lord Third, it isn't. Besides that, an explosion occurred in one of the outskirts of the village. It was left completely in ruins but multiple corpses were found, including many documents regarding illegal experiments, they seem to stem from.....''

Shikaku didn't finish his sentence and merely looked away, Hiruzen looked at him and put his hand under his tired head as he looked at the documents underneath him.

''Root.... Danzo, goddammit!'' Hiruzen gritted his teeth and asked Shikaku, ''That was all right?''

Shikaku looked away which made Hiruzen want to bury himself under his desk and asked, ''What else?!''

''Of the 894 Jonins we have, atleast 6% have applied for a leave and we are expecting another 2%'' Shikaku said which made Hiruzen nearly fall of his chair but quickly composed himself and asked, ''What is their reason for their leave''

Shikaku swallowed his saliva and said, ''Their words were 'To go home'''

Hiruzen trembled and cold sweat covered his back as he looked outside and mumbled, ''Marani, is this the decision you made?....''