Ino (3)

I picked Ino, and we walked toward my house. She wore different attire today, consisted of a sleeveless white blouse with several purple strips and purple skirt that reached out slightly above her knees, the cut on her chest part also a little low thus allowing me to see a glimpse of her breast, she didn't have deep cleavage like Tsunade, but still charming nonetheless.

Along the way, she had been talking while I merely listened, sometimes she mentioned about her teammates, Shikamaru Nara and Chouji Akimichi. Sometimes she mentioned her parents and family, in short, compared to yesterday, she was far more eager to get closer to me now.

But I didn't give her the same enthusiasm, my face was solemn, On several occasions I would have walked in front of her a few steps, making her had to chase me to keep on my side. My strange behavior naturally hinted her something was not right, therefore she couldn't help but ask.

"Abe, is everything alright?" I could hear the genuine worried her tone, perhaps she thought I had some kind of difficult situation.

Actually, I did, I was wondering how should I convince her to be part of my harem, while love was what I wanted as the foundation of this relationship, I knew it's not enough to make a woman said 'Yes' to share their man with other women, it must be something practical, something that must have also benefitted them, a reasonable excuse that logically a little accepted by them.

This also held true for Tenten, no, not just her, all my potential women should have been treated the same, with enough chip on my side that they would agree to enter my house and became my lifetime companions.

If I had to consider what I could give them, it's actually my own body was the biggest prize, and no, I was not being narcissistic, my body harbored three different kinds of power; Qi, Mana, and Yang, and if I was to marry the girl of this world, my descendant possibly held the 4th power; Chakra.

If I married one girl from a single household, I had no doubt this family can become the strongest in the future, even if any of my descendants only inherited Mana from me, he or she could do some crazy things with the power of Magic. Let alone if they could possess all the four power, what kind of peerless master in the future would exist I had no idea.

So, marrying more than one household naturally gave the balance of power in Konoha, in fact, these households could have rallied under the protection of my family or my own clan, so the most practical excuse to idealize my harem was because I wanted to raise my own clan.

But in order to do that, I must raise my own fame first, the fact I defeated two Akatsuki's members were no doubt contributed a lot, but it still not enough, first, I must establish myself the strongest in the Konoha, it means I had to defeat several people that had been considered to be most powerful; the three legendary Sannin, Tsunade Senju, Jiraiya, and Orochimaru, naturally the latter was a little impossible since he was not in the village. Then Kakashi, this famous Shinobi with the title 'Copy Ninja Kakashi', said he had copied 1,000 techniques from his enemy. Then there was Naruto... the Jinchuriki of nine tail beast, it was said to be the strongest among the beast.

Right, my first step to establish my own clan was to make myself famous... wait no, I must think about the name of the clan first, Stu clan was just... awful.

"Abe?"

Ino must have noticed my lack of response, this time I no longer ignored her, I took a deep breath, said, "Ino, there is something I must tell you."

"Okay..." Ino said after a brief of pause, from her eyes, I could see the hint of anxiety, perhaps due to the seriousness in my face.

"I already have a girlfriend."

After I said that, my eyes didn't stop staring at her expression, first she was dumbfounded, then her eyes widened, her mouth gaped several times, it's like she wanted to ask something, maybe she thought I was joking, maybe she wanted clarification, but she couldn't say anything, only the trace of hurt that appeared in her eyes.

"That... what you said to me yesterday... all of it is..."

"It's true," I said quickly, looking at her eyes, "all I said it's true."

"Then why... why are you saying that? What are you trying to accomplish?" her tone was a little excited, there were quite of people walking on our sides at the moment, her voice drew some of their attention.

"Because I have ambition, and I want you to be part of it," I said.

"Ambition..." Ino suddenly a little wary, perhaps she thought I planned for something bad, like a rebellion or anything.

"If I have thought of that, I wouldn't say it here, don't you agree?" I said with a smile that never left my face, come on, I had better things to do than planning something that troublesome.

Ino looked around a bit, people were whispering as they looked at our direction, probably they thought a couple was having a fight, it's a kind of drama with top-rated viewers most of the time. Anyway, there was the truth in my words, if I had planned something bad, I would have not tried to talk it here, in fact, I wouldn't have started the conversation with 'I have my girlfriend' if my ambition was any sinister.

Seeing her calmed down a bit, I said, "Let's come to my house first, okay? Don't we have a painting session to finish?"

She didn't respond, only looking at me and seemingly tried to find the answer on my face, but there was none. I smiled, then turned around and walked, she had no obligation to follow me now, but after a slight hesitation, she decided to do so.

The road crowded with people, but in this noisy buzzing and lively area, two people walked in silence, one at the front, and one at the back, it's like they were strangers to one another.

Arriving at my house, I offered her if she wanted to drink anything, of course, I already knew she would have not wanted anything, right now, she wanted to hear the explanation from me. What ambition? Why I wanted her as a part of it?

But I didn't say anything, through the whole drawing session, I remained silent about my ambition, and she didn't start open her mouth to ask, although she still posed, which was just formal sitting manner, as my subject, she wasn't smiling like yesterday, in fact, her expression settled cold.

"Who is it?"

It was the first time in this few hours she finally had spoken, I glanced away from the sketch to look at her with a slight raising eyebrow.

"I mean who is your girlfriend?" she hesitated for a bit, then said, "don't tell me it's Sakura."

I wondered why she thought of Sakura? Was it because I mentioned her name yesterday? Then I thought again, Ino and Sakura was a rival in sexual favor for Sasuke, but Sakura's progress was much better due to her being Sakura's teammate, Ino knew she had probably no longer stood a chance, even though she was more beautiful than Sakura, physical appearance was after all the most shallow reason for love. One could easily abandon their partner for more beautiful people if their love solely based on this.

If Sakura was my girlfriend, then Ino was defeated by her for the second time, even a confident flower like her would lost their beauty once suffered defeats time and time again.

"You know her," I merely said and continued drawing, naturally it was an unsatisfactory answer, even I would be less happy hearing it.

"How long you have been together?" Ino didn't give.

"Short times," I said without looking at her.

"How do you meet?"

"Stumble on the road."

"Is she younger or older than me?"

"Same age."

"Is she... prettier than me?"

This time, I moved my eyes toward her, when asking this question, she bit her lips, and the muscle on her body seemed tight, I could see the invisible pressure weighted on her shoulder. I grinned, responded with, "Well... I don't know."

"How can you don't know?!" she said with a frustrated voice, her self-esteem probably lowered again; if a man didn't know which was more beautiful between two women, it was either they were equal, or one was more beautiful than the other, but the man hesitated to answer it.

"Because your beauty always deludes me from comparing it with others."

Hearing these words of mine, Ino immediately went silent, the hands above her tights clenched, gritting her teeth, she said, "I am not falling for your sweet words again."

"Then don't fall, cause it hurts," I said while accompanying with a small laugh.

"Humph!" Ino looked to the side, seemingly convinced herself to ignore me for the rest of the session.

Afterward, neither of us talked again, but she seemed to soften at me a bit, she would take a peek from time to time, and when our gaze met, she would immediately shift her attention. I only shook my head while loudly chuckled, earning a soft snort came from her.