"Mei-nee, you really like reading those novels, huh."
After hearing Terumi Mei's complaint, Aoba couldn't help teasing her.
Actually, it wasn't that Terumi Mei loved reading novels. A lot of people in the ninja world liked reading novels.
After all, entertainment options in the ninja world in the past couldn't exactly be called abundant. If anything, they were pretty lacking.
Novels counted as a way for many ninjas to relax and pass the time during brief breaks in their tense work.
Yakumo and Sakura liked reading them too.
Of course, the novels they liked to read were basically not very proper.
They completely treated them as improper teaching materials.
Aoba himself was already a seasoned veteran who had been thoroughly tested.
Looking at it from that angle, Terumi Mei was actually relatively normal.
After all, because of her longing for love and marriage, the novels she read were mostly romance or tragic romance stories.
That actually made this mature woman, who looked sexy and charming on the outside, much more innocent in these matters compared to Yakumo and Sakura, those little perverts.
After hearing what he said, Terumi Mei rolled her eyes at him irritably.
"Since you know that, then hurry up and take back that unlucky thing you just said!"
"Then does Mei-nee not want to hold the wedding anymore?"
Aoba asked back.
"I…"
Terumi Mei paused slightly, but quickly reacted again, "Those are completely two different things, okay?"
"But what if I want to hold the wedding after I unify the ninja world?"
Aoba said with an innocent look.
"Hm?"
Only now did Terumi Mei finally notice the key point in Aoba's words.
"So after staying quiet for so long, you're planning to start making moves now?"
She had known about Aoba's idea of unifying the ninja world since back when she was still in Konoha.
At the time he had said something like, as long as he unified the ninja world, no one would be able to stop the two of them from being together.
Back then she had felt quite touched after hearing those words.
'But looking at it now, this guy is just a scumbag. He probably said the same thing to other girls too.'
Aoba didn't try to hide anything and nodded rather calmly, "I'm planning to hold the final Five Kage Summit. After dragging this out for so long, this matter should finally have a result."
Terumi Mei's expression became a bit complicated, "Earlier you said you went to see Kurotsuchi first. Was it also because of this?"
"Yeah."
Aoba nodded.
"Then how did she react at the time?"
Terumi Mei grew a little curious about Kurotsuchi's situation.
She remembered that Kurotsuchi had quite a strong personality. Maybe she would have made a huge scene with this scumbag.
But the truth turned out to be somewhat unexpected.
Aoba didn't hide anything at all and repeated every single word Kurotsuchi had said to Terumi Mei.
"Kurotsuchi really said all that?"
After hearing it, Terumi Mei clearly didn't quite believe it.
That didn't sound like the Kurotsuchi she remembered at all.
Mainly because although Terumi Mei and Kurotsuchi knew each other and were technically future sisters who would share both hardship and joy, they hadn't actually spent much time together.
And most of that time had been when Kurotsuchi was still a genin.
Back then, among the young ninjas of Iwagakure, Kurotsuchi stood out with exceptional talent. She could be described as proud and sharp, determined to become the next Tsuchikage.
Especially when facing Terumi Mei, who was the acting Mizukage at the time, she naturally carried a sense of hostility.
So even in the few later occasions when they met at Aoba's home, there would always be some degree of rivalry between them.
It was normal for Terumi Mei to have that impression.
"Why would I lie to you? If Mei-nee doesn't believe it, you can just ask her yourself when the time comes."
Aoba explained somewhat helplessly, then his face showed a look of relief.
"Besides, Kurotsuchi has been Tsuchikage for quite a while now. It's normal that she's grown. She's already a qualified Tsuchikage."
Seeing him look like that made Terumi Mei feel inexplicably annoyed, so she grabbed him directly.
"Then what about me?"
"…"
Who knew where she had learned this habit of grabbing someone's weak point while talking.
"Mei-nee has been Mizukage even longer, so you're definitely more outstanding than Kurotsuchi."
"Hmph!"
Terumi Mei gave a light snort. Feeling that he seemed about to… again, she quickly let go of her hand.
Seeing this, Aoba couldn't help rolling his eyes. If she was scared, then she shouldn't make such provocative moves.
"Then what do you think about this matter, Mei-nee?"
"…"
Terumi Mei fell silent for a moment before saying, "If even Kurotsuchi can see something like this, do you really think I wouldn't?"
It wasn't only Iwagakure that had fallen out with its great nation.
In fact, the relationship between Kirigakure and the Land of Water was even worse than the relationship between Iwagakure and the Land of Earth.
However, their situation was definitely better than Iwagakure's, because Kirigakure had gotten on Konoha's development fast track earlier than they had.
"So Mei-nee also has no objections?"
Aoba looked a bit pleasantly surprised.
If that was the case, then it felt like the Five Kage Summit wasn't even necessary. But since he had already mentioned it, they could just treat it as a tea gathering when the time came.
"What Kurotsuchi said isn't wrong. A ninja village is just a slightly bigger village. If you set aside the lord-and-subject relationship with the daimyo, merging into Konoha would really just mean changing from Kirigakure of the Land of Water to Kirigakure of the Land of Fire."
Terumi Mei said quietly.
In the past, the reason the five great ninja villages kept fighting world wars was because the ninja world only had so many resources.
At the same time, they were pushed forward by the five great nations.
Winning didn't bring many benefits, but if you lost, you would lose a large number of commissions and all kinds of resources.
But now it was only about merging into Konoha and accepting Aoba's rule. It wasn't like the entire Kirigakure had to move to Konoha.
Besides, even if it was called accepting Aoba's rule, he would still let her manage Kirigakure.
In the end, Kirigakure wouldn't lose any resources. Instead, it would receive more support from Konoha.
What's more, Aoba also had the identity of the Daimyo of the Land of Fire, which meant Kirigakure could also receive funding from the Land of Fire.
Looking at it that way, it seemed like there were only benefits and no disadvantages.
After hearing this, Aoba also showed a relieved expression and said what his original plan had been.
"I didn't expect Mei-nee to be this understanding. I was actually planning to keep doing it until Mei-nee agreed."
"…"
Terumi Mei's expression instantly collapsed, and she couldn't help twitching her lips, "Can you be any less human?"
Keep doing it until she agreed. Was that something a human could say?
"Of course."
Aoba answered very decisively, then pressed against her and whispered.
"Mei-nee still hasn't shown me your Lava Release and Boil Release today."
"…"
"Heh!"
After being speechless for a moment, Terumi Mei sneered and licked the corner of her lips, "Do you believe that I might 'accidentally' melt that thing of yours when the time comes?"
Aoba's expression turned solemn, "I want to challenge my weakness."
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