Waking up at nine in the morning, Kenshin silently dressed and left the room. On the first floor he met the smiling and obliging Keiko, exchanged a few words with her, and promised to visit her personally sometime. Kenshin calmly left the brothel.
After walking around the city, he visited several shops, bought some things, had breakfast at a local eatery, and unhurriedly headed beyond its borders.
Leaving the city limits, Kenshin made his way to the rocky hills three kilometers from the city, on the opposite side from the road home. Moving along the hills, he very discreetly disappeared behind large boulders and, choosing a convenient position, began to wait.
After two and a half hours of waiting, he heard the distinctly clear cry of a cuckoo and looked out from behind the rock. Seeing Natsumi, he quietly drew her attention and beckoned her over. The girl reached him in a few movements, and he pulled her into his embrace.
"How did everything go? No one followed you?" Kenshin asked, savoring the scent of his second wife.
"Everything's fine. I got the money from that old hag and told her I needed to go shopping. I promised to return in the evening and left."
"Good, let's go then." Kenshin commanded, and together with the girl they carefully slipped through the hills, then made a wide detour to the forest and vanished into it.
"Where are we going?" Natsumi asked. In truth, she didn't care as long as she was with her beloved, but feline curiosity wouldn't leave her alone.
"We're going to my home. More accurately, 'to our home'," Kenshin smiled, glanced at Natsumi's cute face, couldn't resist, and kissed her lips.
Natsumi moaned tenderly and returned the kiss, allowing Kenshin's insistent hands to roam over her toned body. She wore the classic shinobi outfit: a thin t-shirt, a vest with many pockets, tight black pants, and sturdy boots with cutouts for the toes, providing ventilation in such hot weather.
After several minutes of passionate caresses, Kenshin released the girl and spent the entire journey back asking about her life.
Natsumi had been a disobedient and combative girl all her life, so her parents sent her to a small shinobi academy in Shukuba. She graduated without much trouble, became a Genin, and joined a three-person team led by a Chunin captain.
When she was fourteen, her father died of fever, and a year later her mother followed. After her parents' deaths, Natsumi withdrew even more and became more aggressive, immersing herself in D- and C-rank missions until, several months ago, her teammate was killed. It wasn't her fault, but against all reason she blamed herself.
The mother of the deceased teammate only fanned the flames, pressing on the girl's guilt and extorting all her saved money as compensation. Later the pressure intensified, and without realizing it, Natsumi ended up in an elite kunoichi brothel. In the two weeks she "worked" there, she never had a single client. Her aggressive nature wouldn't let anyone she disliked get close.
After Kenshin made her his, her mind suddenly cleared, and she realized that the whole time the "grieving" mother had been manipulating her with genjutsu, finding a gap in the girl's emotional defenses and amplifying her guilt.
Natsumi was furious with the old hag and wanted revenge, but that desire paled beside her need for Kenshin. She had already forgotten her old life and was ready to follow him to the ends of the earth, just to be with the man of her dreams—the only one who truly needed her.
****
Listening to her story, Kenshin hugged her and whispered:
"Everything will be all right now. We're together—that's what matters!" he declared and kissed her sweet lips.
Natsumi only moaned joyfully into Kenshin's mouth, and they continued on. Along the way Kenshin described what awaited her; she was shocked to learn she would give birth in two weeks and that Kenshin already had one wife and an adult son. The young twenty-year-old couldn't wrap her head around such miracles, but she trusted Kenshin completely and eagerly awaited their baby.
Since childhood Natsumi had secretly dreamed of a large, loving family and many children, but none of the guys she met in real life suited her. Only with Kenshin did she truly fall in love and was ready to bear him as many children as he wanted.
By five in the evening, Kenshin and Natsumi finally reached the foot of the mountain that now contained their shared home. The girl had offered several times to carry him and get there much faster, but Kenshin categorically refused, inwardly lamenting why he hadn't received a combat system—now even his wives were stronger than him.
When Kenshin led her into a dark, seemingly dead-end cave, Natsumi frowned, not understanding where he was taking her. But when glowing symbols appeared on the cave ceiling, forming a large mosaic that illuminated the entire space, she couldn't hide her shock. When, after another minute of walking, the seemingly solid wall slid aside, Natsumi was stunned. And when she stepped across the threshold of her new "home," she covered her mouth with her small hand, unable to comprehend where she had ended up.
Though as a shinobi she had seen many "wonders" and visited beautiful houses, what lay before her was unlike anything she had ever seen. It was as if she had entered another world, a dreamland to which a "wonderful prince" had brought her. She spun her head in amazement, taking in the beautiful wallpaper, marvelous parquet, magnificent interior doors with exquisite glass, and only belatedly noticed the young girl standing two steps away and the young man peeking out from another room.