Only after sending Sasuke to the hospital, and injecting him with a dose of medicine mixed with a small amount of his own blood, did Aoba return to the Hokage Building.
After all, Sasuke had just used his dojutsu four or five times in a row.
For someone who had only just awakened his Mangekyo Sharingan, that was already a very high number.
It was undoubtedly quite a heavy burden on eyes that had just evolved.
His pupil power needed to be replenished in time.
Now that Aoba possessed a Sage Body, his flesh and blood more or less had that kind of effect.
"Everything's taken care of?", Shizune noticed Aoba suddenly appearing in the office, glanced up, and asked casually.
"Yeah, it went very smoothly," Aoba nodded.
"Oh."
Shizune responded, then lowered her head again to continue reading the documents.
Aoba paused slightly, then said with feigned dissatisfaction, "Why does it feel like you're getting more and more perfunctory with me lately, Shizune?"
Shizune rolled her eyes at him, "Then I wonder which Hokage it was who dumped a whole pile of work on the Hokage secretary these past two days and then disappeared without a trace?"
"Uh, well…"
The expression on Aoba's face froze awkwardly, "Wasn't I busy with important matters?"
Shizune looked speechless, "You're the official Hokage, and you've barely been in office, yet you're nowhere to be seen every day. Meanwhile, I, the Hokage secretary, am doing the Hokage's work every single day."
Those few days when the two of them were together in the office, things always seemed to head in a strange direction.
'This guy really lives up to that saying perfectly.'
'When there's work, the secretary does it. When there's no work…' [T/N: Do the secretary.]
"Ahem! Mainly it's because the Land of Snow, the Land of Grass, and Sasuke's situation all happened at once. There really were a lot of things going on," Aoba couldn't help coughing lightly, then walked straight behind her and placed his hands on her shoulders.
"Thanks for your hard work, Shizune. Let me give you a massage and help ease the fatigue."
"Hm?", When Aoba's hands settled, Shizune froze slightly and let out an indistinct sound of confusion.
"What's wrong?"
Aoba asked, puzzled.
"N-no… nothing."
Shizune felt her face heating up a little.
When Aoba said he was going to massage her just now, she had thought he was about to do something improper again.
She'd almost subconsciously gone along with it.
'So it really is just a massage.'
Seeing her reaction, Aoba couldn't help smiling.
His movements became even more practiced.
Shizune had originally felt a bit disappointed, but then realized this wasn't bad either, and simply leaned back comfortably against the chair.
She felt a little drowsy.
But the knock on the door snapped her back to her senses.
She turned her head and looked at Aoba, who was still massaging her, with some confusion.
Aoba, however, spoke directly, "Come in!"
The office door was pushed open.
After Uchiha Mikoto entered and saw the two of them in their current state, she froze slightly, then reacted and asked nervously,
"Aoba, you're back. Then Sasuke should be fine too, right?"
"Yeah, Sasuke has successfully awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan."
Aoba naturally nodded with a smile, then added somewhat sheepishly, "It's just that he got beaten up again and passed out. I sent him to the hospital earlier."
"Uh… it's fine. You've worked hard, Aoba."
As a mother, Uchiha Mikoto naturally understood what kind of personality Sasuke had.
After gaining power of the Mangekyo Sharingan's level, there was no way he wouldn't get carried away for a while.
She even needed to thank Aoba for giving Sasuke a lesson and knocking some sense into him.
"It wasn't much trouble."
Aoba smiled, then returned to business, "Did you come for something, Aunt Mikoto?"
Hearing this, Uchiha Mikoto snapped back to herself. Her expression turned serious again as she said, "Aoba, the task you arranged a few days ago has been completed smoothly by the Uchiha."
For Aoba to entrust such an important matter to the Uchiha clan undoubtedly represented his complete trust in them.
To live up to that trust, the Uchiha clan had selected, as quickly as possible, those most skilled in genjutsu.
They worked through the night, sparing no effort, just to complete the mission as fast and as steadily as possible.
Aoba's eyes lit up, "Very good. In that case, our plan can proceed smoothly. Take me to see how they're doing."
"Alright."
Uchiha Mikoto naturally had no objections.
But just as Aoba lifted his hands from Shizune's shoulders, he noticed the resentful look she shot his way.
"Ahem! Shizune, the Hokage's work will have to trouble you a bit more."
Aoba said with an awkward smile.
Shizune rolled her eyes at him again, pouting, "Don't you have anything to compensate me with?"
Aoba bent down and kissed her directly.
"?"
Standing at the doorway, Uchiha Mikoto watched the two of them, her face flushing red for a moment.
While marveling at Shizune's boldness, her thoughts couldn't help drifting.
Because a few days ago, it seemed she had also been sitting on that same chair, talking with Aoba about being warm-hearted and chivalrous, as well as in-depth matters of ninjutsu explained in simple terms.
It was just that the knowledge she discussed was a bit different from what Shizune was dealing with.
"Aunt Mikoto, what are you thinking about?"
The familiar voice snapped Uchiha Mikoto out of her memories. At some point, Aoba was already standing in front of her, looking at her with a half-smile.
Shizune, still sitting in her chair and wiping the corner of her mouth, was also giving her a rather strange look.
Uchiha Mikoto's face instantly turned bright red.
"N-no… nothing. Um, Aoba, weren't you going to see those people? I'll go tell Izumi first!"
With that, she hurriedly left as if flustered, even walking a little out of step.
Seeing this, Aoba could only smile helplessly, 'Is it that the older you get, the thinner your skin becomes?'
'But that doesn't seem right either. Sensei won't care about this sort of thing at all. Sometimes she'd even deliberately have Shizune stand guard outside.'
He glanced at Shizune, who immediately shot him a coquettish glare.
Having been glared at, Aoba could only leave the office, somewhat awkwardly closing the door behind him.
Then he saw a small blond figure running toward him.
It was Naruto, who had been looking for Sasuke but couldn't find him.
After getting directions, he hurried off again.
Watching Naruto's retreating figure, Aoba felt, for some reason, a sense of a thick barrier standing between them.
Of course, it wasn't about a huge difference in status or anything like that. It was more that he had to busy himself with all kinds of Hokage work, while the other seemed carefree and free-spirited.
'So the position of Hokage is actually such an inconvenient thing?'
'Sure enough, compulsory education needs to be put on the agenda as soon as possible.'
'Otherwise, after peace comes to the ninja world, what will happen to the children in those remote and impoverished areas?'
'More importantly, Naruto and Sasuke are still young. Once the great task of unifying the ninja world is completed, maybe they can even go back to school for another couple of years.'
A slightly mischievous smile appeared on Aoba's face.
Of course, he definitely wouldn't have to go.
After all, after spending several years in Roran, he had long since passed the age for compulsory education.
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