Well, I don't want to dive too deeply into real-world politics, but as most of you have undoubtedly heard, Russia attacked Ukraine, which is pretty f*cked up.
I won't say anything superficial about thoughts and prayers and only hope that those affected by this can overcome the situation as well as possible.
Additionally, a little reminder not to post videos of Ukrainian troop movements online, since that could be used to gather information about them.
*End of Author Note*
Kakuzu slowly opened his eyes and immediately started surveying his surrounding. The more he looked around, the deeper the bewilderment in his facial expression got. The last thing he remembered was putting the seal Hinata gave him on himself. He assumed it would seal away his chakra, but that assumption was clearly wrong. He glanced at the shadows in the room to verify that he had spent some time being unconscious and continued looking around.
When he started looking around, the first thing he noticed was the two people sitting in front of him. Yuna was leisurely sitting on a couch while flirting with Hinata, who was sitting on her lap. Additionally, Hinata would occasionally throw a smug glance at one of the room's corners.
Kakuzu noticed that and followed Hinata's glances, seeing another woman kneeling on the ground with her nose in the corner of the room. She had violet hair with a tinge of red in it, wore an oversized trenchcoat, and had a sign on her back that read: "I caused a lot of property damage, so I'm getting punished."
Kakuzu ignored the weird picture and continued surveying, noticing another woman kneeling in another corner in the same position. She had long crimson hair and was wearing a maid uniform. Just like the first woman, there was a sign on her back, but this one read: I lost control, so I'm getting punished. Unlike the first woman, she constantly fidgeted around while occasionally suppressing a moan.
Kakuzu decided that he wanted to have nothing to do with whatever was going on and continued looking around while completely ignoring the suspicious buzzing noise coming from that corner.
When he woke up, he noticed two additional people sitting together with him. One of them was Konan, who he obviously knew, but the other one was a shriveled up old man with a blindfold, who Kakuzu had never seen before.
Additionally, there was a meek and uncertain expression on Konan's face which was rather uncharacteristic for her, while the old man seemed to be drowning in regret and despair.
'What kind of torture did Yuna put that old man through for him to look like this? What's with all those black rods sticking out of him? It seems she is even more ruthless than I anticipated.'
While Kakuzu was coming to his own conclusions regarding the current situation, which weren't really correct, but not entirely wrong either, Konan had no idea what she was supposed to do now.
Before she could understand what was going on, Yuna had appeared between Nagato and her and teleported them out of their previous hideout and into a building that was undoubtedly part of the Uzumaki compound.
Then, Yuna allowed them to clean themself and change clothes since Konan's clothes were partially burned from her own explosions, while Nagato was covered in his own blood.
Then they were led towards the room they were currently in by a random Uzumaki and found the current situation in front of them. Considering the person escorting them only had the strength of a weak Jonin, Konan considered knocking him out and fleeing, but in the end, she didn't dare to.
Yuna's facial expression while threatening her with a spanking was burned into her mind, and she would rather not anger Yuna right now. She had entirely accepted that she and Nagato were now at Yuna's mercy and had to wait for her judgment.
Although Kakuzu's presence here surprised her a little, she decided not to care about his supposed betrayal. After all, considering he was unconscious when they arrived, he might very well be in the same situation as herself and Nagato.
"You did really well, my little Hinata. Such a good girl~"
Konan's eyebrow twitched in irritation when she heard Yuna praising Hinata while furiously petting her head, almost causing her to melt on Yuna's lap. This has been going on for five minutes now, and at first, Konan thought Yuna would stop after Kakuzu woke up. Apparently, her guess was wrong, and Yuna happily continued spoiling Hinata even after Kakuzu regained consciousness.
Konan glanced to her right and saw Nagato incoherently mumbling to himself about getting betrayed and his dream getting crushed. Although she would really like to have a proper conversation with him and help him improve his mood, there was no time for that right now. Additionally, he was in no condition to break through the awkward air, so she glanced towards her left instead.
Kakuzu noticed Konan's glance and completely ignored it, while intensely staring at a random point on the wall and erasing his presence. Although he didn't say anything, his thoughts about the current situation were relatively clear.
'You want me to interrupt that monster's flirting? Good luck with that. I'm an old man and have the patience to endure this awkwardness for hours. Let's see who cracks first, a little girl like you or an old man like me.'
Konan could more or less guess what Kakuzu was thinking and gritted her teeth in anger.
'You want to outlast my patience? Very well, let's see who cracks first.'
A few minutes later, Konan's face was twitching like crazy, while she had to constantly clench and unclench her fist to not burst into anger.
She threw a hate-filled gaze at Kakuzu, who seemed to have found a spot on the wall that was even more interesting than the previous one and was currently scrutinizing it with interest.
"Hehe, how about a little smooch, Hinata~"
"No, not in front of other people, hehe~"
By now, the duo wasn't just cuddling, and Yuna slowly but surely started attacking Hinata while Hinata was 'resisting' Yuna's advances.
When Konan saw that Yuna's hand slowly started roaming, she no longer could endure the situation and started speaking with a slightly flushed face.
"*Cough* Could you..."
"Oh? You want a little smooch as well?"
The moment that question left Yuna's mouth, Hinata's gaze snapped towards Konan, causing a shiver to go through her spine.
"N-No, I just wanted to know why you brought us here."
Only now did Yuna seem to remember the presence of the other people in the room as her gaze wandered from Hinata to the three people sitting in front of her.
At first, her gaze lingered on Kakuzu for a short moment before seemingly thinking of something and shrugging her shoulders and then wandered to Konan and Nagato.
"Well, what can I say? You two were so much fun to bully; I just had to take you home."