After saying goodbye to Shibuki and Fu, Aoba finally turned to look at Kurotsuchi, who had been silent the whole time.
"Let's head out now."
Hearing that, Kurotsuchi couldn't help letting out a sigh, then said, "No need. I'll walk the rest of the way myself. You can stay here and keep Fu company a bit longer."
The reason she said this was because she herself had forgotten that Aoba had never been to Iwagakure before. There were no markings of his inside the village.
Which meant he couldn't directly use Flying Thunder God to teleport to Iwagakure. It was only when he mentioned it earlier that she remembered.
"Then what about you coming back?", Aoba asked in return.
"I have your mark on me anyway. Once I get to Iwagakure, you can just calculate the time and teleport over."
Originally, Kurotsuchi had thought Flying Thunder God was convenient and wanted him to give her a lift. But now that it didn't seem all that convenient after all, she figured she might as well forget it.
Still, being able to get to Takigakure had already cut down a lot of the journey for her.
After saying that, Kurotsuchi waved at him as a farewell, then turned and hurried off in the direction of Iwagakure.
What surprised her, though, was that she had barely set off when Aoba immediately caught up from behind.
Before she could say anything, Aoba spoke first, "I'm a bit worried about you going back alone. And if there are two people together, the road won't be too boring either."
"..."
Kurotsuchi fell silent for a moment after hearing that. She pressed her lips together, then suddenly picked up her pace.
"If you like it that much, then just follow me."
Looking at Kurotsuchi, who had suddenly sped up, Aoba only smiled and shook his head, speeding up as well.
"Even though I can't use Flying Thunder God to go straight there, I do have another way to increase our travel speed. Want to try it?"
After traveling for a while, Aoba suddenly suggested.
Kurotsuchi looked puzzled and asked curiously, "How fast?"
Aoba did a quick calculation, "Starting from now, we should make it in time for lunch."
"That fast?", Kurotsuchi widened her eyes.
"Want to give it a try?", Aoba smiled and asked back.
Kurotsuchi looked at him suspiciously. She always felt that his expression right now wasn't very proper.
But thinking about how, if they traveled normally, they'd still have to run for an entire day, she hesitated for a moment before nodding.
"Alright, I'll trust you for now… wait, what are you suddenly doing?"
She had just nodded, her words not even finished, when the figure that had been hopping between tree branches suddenly stopped.
A pair of solid, powerful arms wrapped around her waist, and her whole body fell into a broad, warm embrace.
Aoba suddenly hugged her.
"You bastard, don't tell me you suddenly let your beast instincts take over? Let go of me!"
His sudden action startled Kurotsuchi at first, then immediately made her struggle in embarrassment and anger.
"Alright, don't move around."
Seeing Kurotsuchi twisting and pushing against him in his arms, Aoba didn't bother explaining. He just held her a bit tighter. Practice was the best explanation.
"I'm going to speed up!"
"W-Wait! Wait!"
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Listening to the constant roar of wind in her ears, Kurotsuchi stopped struggling like she had at the beginning. Instead, she tried her best to curl herself deeper into Aoba's embrace.
Even though she felt extremely embarrassed right now, this was winter, and they were moving through the air at this kind of speed. If she didn't bury her face in his chest, the wind hitting her face would feel like being scraped by knives.
So she could only curl up in Aoba's arms, covering her ears with her hands.
But she had to admit, Aoba was quite a bit bigger than her. Curling up in his arms like this actually felt pretty nice.
They were clearly high up in subzero air, yet it was warm, like a big heater.
And the speed at which Aoba used Swift Release to travel really was fast. Combined with his nearly inexhaustible chakra, he maintained this high speed the entire way. After only a few dozen minutes, they could already see the outline of Iwagakure in the distance.
This was a village made entirely of rock.
Even in winter, what you could see in Iwagakure was only bare rock, with no snow or ice covering it.
The humidity in the air was extremely low. There weren't even the conditions needed for snowfall.
Aoba slowed down once he saw the outline of Iwagakure. After all, he was here to send Kurotsuchi home, not to raid the place.
So he landed directly at the gates of Iwagakure. However, Kurotsuchi was still curled up, so he switched to holding her in a princess carry.
Even so, his sudden appearance still caught the attention of the gate guards. Two of them cautiously walked toward him.
Aoba didn't mind. He patted Kurotsuchi, who was still curled up in his arms with her ears covered, and reminded her.
"Kurotsuchi, we've arrived at Iwagakure."
"Huh? We're already here?"
Kurotsuchi hadn't fully come back to her senses. She instinctively lifted her head and looked around, only to meet the eyes of one of the approaching guards.
She froze.
"Ku-Kurotsuchi-sama?"
As guards of Iwagakure, they naturally recognized Kurotsuchi, the Tsuchikage's granddaughter.
But the scene in front of them was clearly beyond their expectations.
From what he knew, Kurotsuchi was a very strong-willed ninja. Yet here she was, curled up in a man's arms like a little bird.
Moreover, Kurotsuchi had been absent from Iwagakure for nearly half a year. According to reliable information, she had already married that Hokage's disciple from Konoha.
Thinking this, the guard looked at Aoba again, now with a guess forming in his mind.
"May I ask who you are?"
"I'm Aoba, a disciple of the Hokage of Konoha. I came this time to escort Kurotsuchi home."
Aoba showed no arrogance at all and politely introduced himself.
The guard immediately showed an expression of understanding, and at the same time confirmed that rumor in his heart. With the New Year approaching, the husband had come to accompany his wife back to her parents' home.
"Please wait here for a moment. We need to contact Lord Tsuchikage first."
Ordinary ninja couldn't see through the twists and turns between the higher-ups of different villages.
So thanks to the friendly relationship between Konoha and Iwagakure over the past two years, there were quite a few merchants and goods from Konoha in Iwagakure now.
Combined with the relationship between Aoba and Kurotsuchi, this guard's attitude toward Aoba was quite friendly.
What's more, Aoba himself was famous far and wide, hailed as the second God of Shinobi in the ninja world.
"No problem… hiss!"
Aoba was about to follow them over when he suddenly felt someone pinching the soft flesh at his waist and twisting it a full 360 degrees.
It was Kurotsuchi, who had finally recovered from her mental crash.
"Why haven't you put me down yet?"
Kurotsuchi's face was bright red as she glared at him in embarrassment and anger, struggling again.
She had originally gone into hiding because of the rumors in the village.
Now that a fellow village ninja had seen that scene just now, there was no way she could ever clear her name.
"Weren't you the one clinging to me the whole time?"
Aoba joked with a smile, but still put her down as he spoke.
Hearing that, Kurotsuchi could only glare at him again with a red face, then turned to the stunned guard. Her expression instantly became even fiercer.
"I have nothing to do with this guy at all. Just now, holding him was purely for travel convenience. Don't go spreading nonsense in the village, got it?"
"Y-Yes, got it," Hearing the warning in her words, the guard immediately nodded.
However, by the very next day, rumors had already started circulating among the ninja of Iwagakure that the Tsuchikage's granddaughter Kurotsuchi and the Hokage's disciple Aoba had been confirmed as a couple, and that she herself was a tsundere.
Naturally, that had nothing to do with Aoba anymore.
He soon met Onoki, who was smiling like an old fox, in the conference room of the Tsuchikage Building.
As soon as Onoki walked in, he saw Aoba sitting calmly, and Kurotsuchi standing there with a sour face, arms crossed, not wanting to look at him.
His gaze lingered on Kurotsuchi for only a moment before shifting to Aoba, as he said with a smile,
"Aoba, you came in person. Don't tell me you're here to give me a great-grandson?"
"?"
Aoba felt like their roles had somehow been reversed.
Shouldn't he be the one saying, "Old man, is the fire still burning?"
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