Today, Aoba only brought Samui and Mabui over to show their faces.
It was basically to give the scattered survivors of Kumogakure, both villagers and ninja, someone to rely on, and a bit of mental support.
So they would not end up leaving their homes and wandering everywhere.
Otherwise, with such a big group of refugees and rogue ninja unable to stay here, sending them all to the Land of Fire for resettlement would be quite troublesome.
It would be better to just rebuild the village at Kumogakure's original location.
Now that everything had been flattened anyway, it would be very suitable in the future whether for building factories or setting up plantations.
Aoba had the villagers of Kumogakure gather on an open flat ground and announced Konoha's sovereignty over Kumogakure, as well as that the Kumogakure region would be managed by Samui and Mabui from now on.
None of the surviving villagers dared to object.
Those who dared had already been dragged off to taste kunai.
After that, he used Wood Release to build a batch of wooden houses for them to stay in temporarily, and also left behind some necessary supplies.
Then he left Kumogakure with Samui and Mabui.
The two of them had already been working in Konoha for two years, so there was naturally still quite a bit of work on their hands that needed to be handed over.
But with the two of them gone, plus Nara Shikaku in charge of affairs in the Land of Grass, and Uchiha Mikoto needing to stay in the Fire Capital during this period, the Hokage Building was suddenly left with only Shizune and Konan.
Manpower instantly became stretched thin again.
The secretary team urgently needed expansion.
It was just that Konoha was indeed lacking in this kind of talent at the moment, though they could temporarily pull a batch of people up to fill in.
Aoba filtered through the talents currently still in Konoha in his mind, thinking about who could be put to use.
A plan slowly formed in his heart.
"Honestly, you took Samui and Mabui out for half a day, and all the work piled onto me. Hmm? What are you thinking about? Did you even hear what I said?"
Originally complaining because Samui and Mabui had suddenly left and a pile of extra work had appeared out of nowhere, Shizune saw that Aoba had not reacted for a long time and could not help reaching out to pinch his face.
That snapped Aoba back to his senses.
He already had a rough idea in mind.
"Wasn't I thinking about how to make it up to Shizune-nee?", Aoba replied with a smile.
"Oh? And did you think of any way to compensate me?" Shizune narrowed her eyes and asked casually.
"How about a full body massage?"
Aoba reached out and wrapped an arm around Shizune's slender, soft waist.
His gaze had already unconsciously fallen on the curves that had clearly grown fuller.
Shizune immediately rolled her eyes, "Can't you be a little more serious?"
Of course she knew what this so called full body massage meant.
But she had already guessed that this guy would not come up with any proper kind of compensation.
"I'm helping Shizune-nee relieve fatigue."
As he spoke, Aoba had already laid Shizune flat on the sofa.
Shizune did not resist. It was break time after all, and a massage to relax was acceptable.
"Don't go too far. I still have work this afternoon."
"Okay…"
Aoba nodded, then paused and said seriously, "Shizune-nee, clothes will affect the massage results."
Shizune shot him another look, then reached out and unbuttoned her clothes.
"Then start from here."
Aoba pressed his hands down.
Shizune pursed her lips, enduring the strange sensation.
"Feels like Shizune-nee, you are improving more and more," Aoba teased.
"You only know how to make fun of me."
Shizune was a little unhappy. After all, at night she was always the smallest.
"What do you mean? I like them very much."
To prove he was telling the truth, Aoba simply used his actions to show it.
Shizune's toes curled instinctively, and a clear hint of charm showed between her brows.
But she could only grit her teeth, her gaze growing unfocused.
It was not until Aoba stopped that she barely regained clarity.
"Shizune-nee, time to switch places."
Aoba looked up at her.
Shizune's eyes trembled slightly at his words, but Aoba got up and sat at the other end of the sofa.
He reached out and placed his hand on Shizune's smooth thigh wrapped in black stockings, then slowly began to massage.
Shizune let out a breath.
She stared at the office ceiling she had looked at countless times before, her eyes blinking.
But soon, she felt something poking below.
Shizune looked toward Aoba.
Aoba, however, wore a serious expression, as if he were a professional massage master.
"Every corner has to be pressed. That's the only way to achieve a relaxing effect."
Shizune felt speechless and simply wrapped her arms around Aoba's neck and kissed him.
After that, Shizune seemed to turn into a jelly.
.
.
.
Very soon, it was time to get back to work.
Shizune sat at her desk, the relaxed expression from the massage now replaced with some annoyance again.
"Mikoto going to the Fire Capital with you is one thing, but now Samui and Mabui are leaving too. You might as well just work me and Konan to death!"
"Shizune-nee, have some water and calm down."
Aoba immediately brought over a glass of water and held it to Shizune's lips, continuing, "About that, I've actually already thought of a solution. In the future, Shizune-nee, you won't be as busy as you are now."
Though still angry, Shizune took the glass and drank some water.
After moistening her somewhat dry and sore throat, she asked,
"What solution are you talking about?"
A smile appeared on Aoba's face, "Very simple. We just need to expand the secretary team!"
"Expand the secretary team? Which village's girl did you set your sights on this time?"
Shizune looked at him suspiciously. It felt like he had already gone through almost every major ninja village. She really could not think of any village left for him to target.
"… "
Now it was Aoba's turn to roll his eyes, "So that's the kind of person I am in Shizune-nee's eyes?"
"It's not just in my eyes. In everyone's eyes. This secretary team is basically the reserve harem for a scumbag like you,"Shizune said it bluntly.
"Isn't there still Uncle Shikaku?", Aoba rejected that claim.
Shizune blinked, "Didn't you already assign him to the Land of Grass?"
"Uh… I had him temporarily take charge of the Land of Grass. That's a promotion. How is that an exile?"
'Isn't that basically like transferring from being a village chief's secretary in one village to becoming the village chief in another?'
But comparing the size of the two villages, it did kind of look like a promotion on the surface but a demotion in reality.
"Fine, call it a promotion. But can you honestly say the next Hokage secretary you're picking won't be a girl?"
Shizune had long since seen through the little schemes in Aoba's heart.
"Ahem! Ahem!"
Aoba could not help coughing dryly. He really could not refute that, because the secretary candidate he had in mind was indeed a girl.
So he simply used his ultimate move of changing the subject.
"Let's not talk about that for now. In short, this time we're not just expanding the secretary team. We're also recruiting another batch of interns."
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