"Mei-nee, even if I haven't come to see you in so long, you don't have to punish me like this, right?"
"I'm checking your body, what nonsense are you spouting! You stayed in that ghost place Roran for three years, I have to properly see what progress you've made."
"Then let go of my hands! What's the meaning of tying me up like this?"
"Oh, then I'll tie your feet too."
"..."
Strange noises echoed in the Mizukage's office.
If an outsider overheard the conversation, they'd think some poor boy was being brutally tortured by an older sister, but in the end the one who cried out in pain was that very older sister.
Of course, not a single sound from inside could leak out.
———
Afterward, Aoba sat like a sage in the Mizukage's seat, with Mei Terumi limp in his arms, completely drained.
"Mei-nee, since you feel this awful, why didn't you contact me? I could've treated you."
Aoba's hand rubbed her smooth, pale back as he teased her.
Mei pouted, "There were too many affairs in Kirigakure lately. I was afraid that if I reached out to you, I wouldn't be able to focus on them anymore."
"How could that be?"
Aoba tapped her pouting lips lightly.
"If Mei-nee ran into problems with governance, maybe I could even help."
Mei just rolled her eyes weakly, "I'm the Mizukage of Kirigakure. And you want me to go asking the future Hokage for help on internal matters? Does that sound right to you?"
"Sooner or later, we'll all be one family anyway."
Aoba laughed.
Mei bit down on his chest in protest.
"Even if that's the ending, at least until then, I'm still Mizukage. I have to take responsibility for Kirigakure. Making the Mist great again is my biggest dream."
She didn't want Kirigakure to be buried in the dust of history. She wanted to earn the same place and achievements in the Mist as he had in Konoha.
"I see. Then I'll respect your choice, Mei-nee. But don't overwork yourself. Work too hard, and you'll age quickly."
Like Tsunade, once work hours were over, the office was empty.
As for overtime? That's what all those oxen and horses… no, all those Hokage's secretaries were for.
But Mei wasn't like that. She gave him a fake smile and jabbed right at his weak spot, "What's this? Are you saying I'm getting too old?"
"No, no, of course not. I just saw you working so late and felt bad for you."
Aoba immediately softened. Any man would in that situation.
"Hmph! That's more like it."
Mei huffed lightly, then changed the subject.
"But speaking of it, Yagura's teacher is really against us being together. He even hinted that I should cancel our engagement."
"Hm?"
Aoba's expression shifted. This old man was courting death. "Why?"
Mei chuckled, "Because he's worried you'll use me as an excuse to interfere in Kirigakure's internal politics."
"Because of that, they even split the Mizukage's authority and set up some Elders' Council. It's made it so lots of my decisions can't go through anymore."
She sighed.
"An Elders' Council?"
Aoba's look turned strange. The Mist's system was pretty advanced, already checks and balances. But if it was about interfering in Kirigakure's politics, didn't that economic zone already count?
"Aoba, your reason for approaching me at the beginning… wasn't it to control Kirigakure through me?", Mei suddenly asked.
"How could that be! To speak arrogantly, if I want to unify the shinobi world, I can do it by myself. I don't need anyone's help."
"Really?", Mei stared at him.
Aoba nodded without hesitation, "Of course."
"The reason I approached you, Mei-nee, was purely because I was lnsting after you."
He made no attempt to hide his lecherous nature.
Mei's face flushed at that, and she tugged at him again, "As I thought, you're a p*rvert!"
"Hiss—"
Aoba sucked in a cold breath.
That was a bit much to tolerate.
When his red eyes began to gleam, Mei nervously released her grip.
"Aoba, I still have work tomorrow."
Aoba rolled his eyes but let it go.
"Then don't play with fire."
Mei stuck out her tongue, jumped off him, and began putting her clothes back on.
Aoba did the same, then suddenly asked, "By the way, where am I sleeping tonight?"
Mei blinked, "You're not going back?"
Aoba's face instantly fell, "It's not easy for me to come see you. And you want me to go back?"
"Haha, then… hmm!"
Mei's smiling face suddenly froze. Aoba immediately flung the window open.
Both looked off into the distance.
A dense sphere of chakra was plummeting rapidly toward them.
At this range, Aoba's sealing barrier spread outward at once.
But the sphere was too fast. It struck before he could fully intercept it.
BOOM!
A thunderous explosion split the air.
A titanic hemispherical shockwave blasted across the outskirts of Kirigakure, swallowing all the buildings around it.
Aoba and Mei instantly understood, that chakra sphere was a Tailed Beast Bomb.
Someone was attacking the Mist with a Tailed Beast?
Though his barrier couldn't stop the first detonation, Aoba still expanded it to envelop the entire village.
From now on, whatever destruction followed, he could undo it.
But the sealing barrier wasn't almighty, against a Tailed Beast's massive chakra, it couldn't hold too long.
He had already learned that firsthand in the Dragon Vein battle.
ROAR!
A deafening bellow shook all of Kirigakure.
Just the roar made half the village tremble. The gusts from its open jaws swept across the land.
Next, three enormous tails, thick, armored, and spiked, shot into the sky.
A hulking, monstrous beast with heavy limbs and a massive shell-covered back crashed down from above.
The sight alone sent terror into countless shinobi's hearts.
Aoba hadn't frozen Kirigakure's citizens.
Otherwise, how could he show off before everyone?
That old man dared suggest Mei break off their engagement. He needed to be taught a lesson.
This was a good chance to flex before the Mist. That way, more sharp young men would recognize the times.
And when his barrier expanded earlier, Aoba's Kagura's Mind Eye sensed an unimaginably evil chakra.
There was no need to guess who it belonged to.
To suddenly summon the Three-Tails, and to carry such malevolent chakra, there was only one man in the shinobi world right now.
Uchiha Obito.
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