If We’re Best Friends in the Shinobi World, Let’s Kiss

My completed works column includes Double-Five Trouble, paired with Cat Gojo.

The Girl Bound by Spiderwebs, paired with Spider-Man.

How to Raise the Third Prince of the Red Lotus and The Lotus Root I Picked Up Turned Evil, both paired with Nezha.

HP: Butterfly Effect, paired with Snape. The full text is free.

[Important: Please Read]

1. This is a strictly one-on-one romance, with no competing love interests! A pure romance! The male lead is Gaara, and neither lead has ever liked anyone else. Their love is completely devoted! A few other characters have one-sided feelings for the female lead.

There are no competing love interests when she goes to Konoha, and there never will be. This is a one-on-one pure romance from beginning to end. It is one-on-one, it is pure romance, and neither lead has ever liked anyone else! The important things bear repeating three times.

2. Don't bring up BL in a romance novel! Don't bring up BL in a romance novel! Don't bring up BL in a romance novel!

3. The female lead is a wooden sort, marinated in Konoha-style best-friendship by the System. If that's not your thing, please think carefully before reading.]

[Side A]

The day Suno realized she was a reincarnator from another world, she began frequently dreaming that some monster would swat her dead with its tail in a blood-soaked desert.

When she woke up, she was bound to a “Best Friend Lifeline System.”

“Attention: The reincarnator's memories have returned, and the world's will is about to discover and eliminate you. Please turn important people in this world into your best friends to keep extending your life, and live each day to the fullest!”

It also came with a copy of The Secret Guide to Raising a Bestie, full of helpful summaries by fangirls on the best-friendship tropes found in shonen manga.

After reading it, Suno thought: How weird. Why is everything so clingy? And why do they have to kiss? Is this what best friends are supposed to be?

The System said, “That's just how shonen manga is. You'll get used to it, boss.”

Fine.

Since surviving was what mattered most, she could accept it all.

The first important person appeared in Sunagakure: a sweet-looking, pretty, frail, soft little bean who seemed to be underdeveloped.

He was a legendary survivor, so lonely that nobody wanted him, and so hated that his own father sent people to assassinate him eight times a day.

She charged right over, shouting, “Bestie! Bestie!”

And so began her wonderful days of earning and saving money, training and leveling up, and raising her best friend.

Six years passed, and her lifespan finally reached the average for the shinobi world.

Even the little bean, who'd originally been destined to become a gloomy, creepy villain and an early boss, had turned out pretty decent. Aside from being a little too clingy with her and having separation anxiety, he seemed fine.

Even if there was a problem, a “best-friend kiss” was all it took to fix it.

If one wasn't enough, then two.

It's shonen manga, after all. Best-friendship is supposed to be super clingy.

She understood. She respected it. She was all in.

It was time to go to Konoha, raise more best friends, and live to a hundred.

Naruto: Is that why you suddenly faked your death later, lured the bad guys into the village, and whacked every one of us with your big tail? Sis!

Suno: ...No, wait, let me explain.

Naruto: No!

The blond boy grew uncharacteristically agitated, even blurting out, “Sis, don't care about other people the way you care about me! We're family, so why are you going with some stranger?!”

Suno: “?”

Why does this kid seem to have separation anxiety too?

She looked at the others.

Neji: I agree with Naruto on this.

And Sasuke, who clearly wasn't going to help her despite not wanting to say anything, was looking at her with an inexplicable expression that said, “I can't believe you've really got a girl on the side.”

What's with you Konoha people? Is your best-friend tradition free for everyone?

Suno: “I don't get it, but hey, this is great!”

[Side B]

Growing up without any normal human connection left Gaara with a severe distortion in how he saw Suno.

The girl was practically everything to him, the sole recipient of all his emotions. Whatever Suno wanted to do, he was always her accomplice without hesitation.

Then, after losing her, he met her again in Konoha at dusk.

Her face showed a vulnerability and confusion he'd never seen before. She was so dazed that she could barely get the words out: “Please, I need you...”

Gaara didn't hear anything after that.

Because in that moment, he suddenly realized that the sun, so far beyond his reach, had briefly come down right in front of him.

He could use the wind to catch her and pull her into this eternal, lightless desert, where he could watch her forever.

He could surround her life like sand, seeping into every crack, burying her alive in a gentle embrace.

Then he could make her face him, with nowhere left to run, and hear him say, “I need you too.”

Just as he had in countless lonely dreams, when he was always saying those words to her.

It didn't matter if she used him or took advantage of him.

I need you too.

A million times over.

[Reading Note]

The female lead and Naruto are only fellow members of the Uzumaki clan, not siblings. They aren't related by blood.

Theme: Always keep a resilient, positive attitude toward life.