"What do you mean by that? If I didn't come out, was I supposed to stay in there?"
Tsunade said with a straight face.
Although she felt there was a very good chance Kushina already knew, what if she was just trying to bait her? If she rushed to admit it herself, wouldn't that make her look stupid?
"Oh, come on, Tsunade-nee, stop pretending."
Kushina only rolled her eyes at Tsunade's explanation.
"I figured it out a long time ago. Tsunade-nee, you're even worse at hiding things than Mikoto."
"..."
Tsunade couldn't help twitching her mouth.
'What does she mean, worse than Mikoto at hiding things?'
'Still, if she knows, then she knows.'
'Anyway, I already agreed to marry that little brat. Sooner or later, everyone in the ninja world would know.'
At that moment, Tsunade felt completely relieved.
The stern look on her face turned into impatience. She waved her hand as if shooing away a clingy younger sister from back when they were kids.
"Alright. If there's nothing else, go back and get some rest. Stop bothering me."
"?"
Kushina had thought Tsunade would get flustered, 'So why is she acting so calm?'
"What?"
Tsunade noticed the strange look on Kushina's face and raised an eyebrow.
"You look like you still have something you want to ask."
"Nothing much. I just thought that after I found out the thing you've been keeping secret all this time, you'd be pretty shaken up."
Kushina stuck out her tongue as she spoke.
Even though she was already a mother, that playful expression didn't feel out of place at all.
Seeing her like that, Tsunade gave a huge eye roll and explained, "What's there to be shaken up about? We're planning to get married in a while anyway. By then, the whole ninja world will know. There's no point keeping it secret anymore."
"Huh? M-Married?"
Kushina's eyes widened again.
"Aoba is actually planning to marry you too, Tsunade-nee?"
Mikoto had already told her about the wedding.
When the time came, Aoba would marry all of his current girlfriends together.
But she truly hadn't expected Tsunade to be one of them.
Mikoto alone was surprising enough. If Tsunade was included too, countless people would be left speechless.
Even she had found it hard to believe when she first guessed that Tsunade and Aoba might have some kind of relationship.
It really was a combination no ordinary person would ever think of.
She had originally thought the two of them might just keep dating in secret forever. She never expected them to get married as well.
'Aoba really is a very... well, brave guy, isn't he?'
"Judging from that look, you seem to think this is something unbelievable..."
Tsunade folded her arms under her chest and narrowed her eyes unhappily.
She had expected that her relationship with that bratty disciple would cause a huge uproar.
But since she'd already made up her mind, she naturally wasn't going to change it.
Even if Kushina had objections, she wouldn't care.
"Uh... it's not that bad. It's just a little unexpected..."
Kushina avoided her gaze slightly and twisted a strand of her bright red hair around her finger.
"The main thing is that Naruto always calls you Grandma Tsunade. Now you're going to marry Aoba too. Later on, I don't even know how..."
Halfway through talking about future family relationships, Kushina suddenly seemed to feel a chill and immediately stopped speaking.
"Um... Tsunade-nee, pretend I didn't say anything. I'm leaving first!"
Kushina didn't even dare look at Tsunade's face as she turned to run.
But before she could take a step, someone grabbed the back of her neck.
"Kushina, why are you so scared? I'm not going to eat you."
Tsunade said with a smile that didn't look friendly at all.
"I... I'm not."
Kushina shrank her neck.
'Tsunade-nee, with a smile that fake, anyone would be scared, okay?'
"If you're not scared, then come sit at my place for a while. Every time you come, you visit this brat's house. You haven't been to my place in ages."
Ignoring Kushina's struggle completely, Tsunade dragged her toward her own house.
After all, Kushina had been revived for quite some time now, and she hadn't had a heart-to-heart with this good little sister of hers in a long while.
———
While Tsunade and Kushina were having their talk, Aoba's house was going through a battle of its own.
It was practically enough to erase the Great Dao.
What happened today was on a completely different level from usual.
———
In the end, he woke up in the living room.
There wasn't a room in the house big enough, so they had simply spread bedding across the living room floor.
Looking across the floor, Aoba could only feel helpless.
He had originally planned to sleep through the rest of the day, but someone kept pinging him nonstop and woke him up.
His consciousness connected to the chakra that had been continuously pinging him.
Their consciousnesses appeared together in a clean white space.
As expected, the person standing before Aoba was the shrine maiden of the Land of Demons, who had said she wanted to discuss state affairs with him face to face, Shion, dressed in proper shrine maiden robes.
"Why did you respond so late today? Don't tell me you went to sleep this early?"
Shion tilted her head and asked.
Today, Aoba had responded much more slowly than usual.
"Yawn~"
Aoba even cooperatively let out a yawn, "A lot happened today. I was already asleep."
"Huh? Then why don't you go back and keep sleeping? I'll talk to you tomorrow."
Shion said with concern all over her face.
"..."
Aoba blinked, "Then I'll go back and continue sleeping."
"Huh? You're really leaving?"
The Shion who had just been telling Aoba to get some rest immediately looked disappointed when she heard he was actually going to leave.
"..."
Aoba almost laughed, "Alright, I was joking. What do you want to talk about today?"
"What the..."
Shion puffed out her cheeks.
"Besides, Aoba, you should know very well what I want to talk about tonight, right?"
"..."