"Huh?"
Tsunade looked puzzled. Even Shiki turned his gaze to Jiraiya at that moment.
"I heard that over in the Land of Rain, a group called the Akatsuki has appeared," Jiraiya said.
So those days he was away weren't for nothing after all.
Tsunade was still a little confused. She had never heard of any "Akatsuki," after all.
But Shiki's expression grew a bit more serious.
Right now, the Akatsuki had more or less taken shape… but their current leader should still be Yahiko, not Nagato.
Only after some time, when Yahiko died and Nagato took over, would the Akatsuki become the "true" Akatsuki.
"In the next period, I'll investigate this Akatsuki organization," Jiraiya continued. "If I find anything, I'll contact you through a messenger toad."
"Okay! Do whatever you want," Tsunade replied with a lazy wave of her hand.
Whether he investigated it or not, she didn't really care.
"Hey, what's with that attitude? I'm doing this for Konoha, you know!"
Jiraiya was a little dissatisfied. He was going out of his way to investigate something for the village, yet Tsunade's reaction was so perfunctory.
"Hehe. Turn around and look," Tsunade said.
"Huh?"
Hearing that, Jiraiya turned around in confusion—
—and saw Shiki, hands behind his back, staring at him expressionlessly.
"Uh…"
Jiraiya was instantly at a loss.
He understood perfectly well what Tsunade meant.
As long as Shiki was here, even if the Akatsuki organization turned out to be some extremely dangerous force… so what?
It was a completely unreasonable way of thinking but Jiraiya couldn't think of a single argument to refute it.
"…Fine, fine," he muttered.
After a brief silence, Jiraiya could only wave his hand weakly. In any case, since he was going out, he wanted to find something to do.
Wandering around the ninja world with absolutely nothing on his plate would just be boring.
"Alright, I'm off. Later!"
He waved casually, then jumped straight out the window.
"You bastard! If you go out through the window again, I'll hammer you to death next time!" Tsunade yelled.
"Hahaha! Don't be so petty!"
Jiraiya's voice grew smaller and smaller as his figure disappeared from Tsunade's sight.
"Forget it."
Waving her hand, Tsunade decided she didn't want to think about Jiraiya anymore.
She turned her head, looked in Shiki's direction, and smiled softly.
"Come on. Let's go home."
"Go home?"
"What's wrong?"
Seeing Shiki smiling like that, Tsunade suddenly felt a little uneasy.
A few minutes later, looking at the mountain of documents piled on the desk waiting for her review, Tsunade was on the verge of tears.
"What! This isn't what I imagined at all!"
Wasn't being Hokage supposed to be easy? This was not easy at all!
Shiki had long known about this situation, which was exactly why he'd never had any intention of becoming Hokage.
What a joke—endless paperwork all day long?
With that time, he'd rather go out and have barbecue.
"Anata…"
Tsunade looked at Shiki with teary eyes, putting on her most pitiful expression.
"If you're not afraid of the hassle, you can just use Shadow Clones," Shiki suggested.
Shadow Clones could indeed help process documents…
But a clone was still just a clone. There was no way it could handle everything with the same reliability as Tsunade herself.
"Forget it, I'll do it myself for now…"
It was only her first day as Hokage. If she relied on Shadow Clones from the very start, Tsunade herself wouldn't feel at ease.
But when she looked again at the towering stacks of paperwork on the desk, she wanted to cry all over again.
"Shiki-kun! Stay with me!"
"Alright, alright."
What else could he do? She was his woman, after all.
Shiki found a place to sit, quietly keeping her company.
They stayed like that until midnight, when Tsunade finally finished processing everything.
"It's finally done!"
The exhausted Tsunade was instantly revived, stretching as she stood up, full of energy again.
"Don't get too happy. There's still tomorrow," Shiki reminded her.
He stood as well, leaving the Hokage's office together with Tsunade.
"You're kidding… There's that much tomorrow too?"
The moment she relaxed, Tsunade immediately fell into despair again.
Today's stack of documents was already exaggerated enough. And there would be even more tomorrow?
Unfortunately, when faced with Tsunade's hopeful, pleading eyes, Shiki only nodded seriously.
"There'll probably be more than today."
After all, the war had just ended, and Tsunade had only just become Hokage. There were a lot of things that needed her to handle personally.
"I want to die…"
Tsunade cried miserably and leaned against Shiki's side as he slowly walked her home.
At this hour, there were still a few people wandering the streets.
When they saw Shiki and Tsunade together, they all smiled warmly.
This was what people called a perfect match. No one had any objections at all.
"No way! I have to find an assistant tomorrow. I'll grab Shizune— that girl's pretty good at this!"
If she didn't find an assistant to help her, Tsunade felt she would literally die halfway through dealing with the paperwork.
Shiki gave her a strange look but didn't say anything.
It seemed Shizune becoming the Hokage's assistant was something that just couldn't be changed.
But Shizune was careful and serious in her work—someone definitely worth trusting.
"After Nara Shikaku and the others finish handling the war reparations, you can have them help you too," Shiki added casually.
Those offhand words made Tsunade's eyes light up.
"Really?"
"In that case, I don't need to make them elders just to decorate the council like Homura and Koharu used to be."
Shiki shrugged.
He'd made them elders precisely so they could assist Tsunade.
With the Nara clan's high intelligence, handling some of the more trivial matters would be nothing to them.
"Great! I knew you were looking out for me. I love you!"
Realizing Shiki had already thought of a way to help her, Tsunade smiled in delight.
Shiki just smiled back and didn't say anything more.
The two of them simply walked on like that, leaning against each other all the way home.
…
The next day, when Shiki arrived at the Hokage's office—
In addition to Tsunade's desperate expression, he saw Shizune's equally despairing face.
The poor girl clearly looked defeated.
At first, when she'd learned she could become Hokage's assistant, she'd been really happy.
But only half a day had passed, and she was already in despair.
Endless documents. Just looking at them made her head spin.
"Yo, Shiki, you're here," Tsunade greeted him first when she noticed him, then lowered her head again and continued working through the paperwork.
"Lord Shiki," Shizune called out politely from the side, before returning to her own stack of documents.
"Mm."
Shiki could only smile helplessly.
Right now, Nara Shikaku and the others still had matters to deal with and had no time to help Tsunade yet.
At that moment, Orochimaru walked in from outside the door.
Obviously, he had been waiting for Shiki for a while.
"Shiki-kun," Orochimaru said with his usual smile, though his golden eyes were eager, "you haven't forgotten what we agreed on before… have you?"
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