On the first day of November in Konoha Year 50, Kirigakure's official negotiation team set foot on Konoha's soil amid a heavy snowfall.
Mei Terumi, who had already completed most of the preliminary negotiations, let out a long breath. With swift efficiency, she handed over all the negotiation materials she had accumulated, along with every demand their side had already gotten approved, to the newly arrived negotiation team.
Then, together with Mangetsu Hozuki, who had completely transformed into the shape of a medical-nin, she escorted Iwagakure's Four-Tails Jinchuriki, Roshi, onto the road back to Kirigakure.
As both sides quickly finalized the detailed clauses, some conditions that had originally been temporarily protected as confidential also began to gradually be declassified, becoming a topic of conversation among Konoha's residents that would remain hot for quite some time.
Setting aside Konoha's uproar over the alliance conditions Kirigakure had proposed—conditions covering nearly every field imaginable—Mei Terumi, who only wanted to return home and rest, finally arrived back at her loyal and reliable Kirigakure Village after a journey that had not been particularly pleasant.
And there, she saw the figure personally waiting for her at Kirigakure's gate.
"Leaving me alone over there to negotiate with Konoha's think tank… you really do know how to squeeze value out of people, Lord Mizukage."
Mei first tossed Roshi, whose face had turned purple from the cold, to the Three-Tails Jinchuriki, Yagura Karatachi, who had come to greet them as well.
Then she walked up to Rei Kaguya, puffed out her cheeks slightly, and spoke to him in a voice that did not actually sound that angry.
"There was no helping it. Mei, you are the only person under me I can fully rely on when it comes to intelligence."
Rei Kaguya took a neatly folded water-blue coat from beneath his godly robe and draped it over Mei Terumi's shoulders, speaking with helplessness written all over his face.
"It's not like you don't know what the others in the village are like. If I had held an emergency meeting before the operation to decide who would negotiate Konoha's payment for our support mission, Konoha's corpses would have been scattered into the air dozens of times over by now…"
"If your comfort only reaches this level, then there's no way I'll… hm, no way I'll be satisfied, Rei."
Mei tightened the coat around herself. It still carried a faint warmth. Her tone rose slightly, sounding playful.
"Yes, yes. I'll give you another week off after this as a reward for our great negotiator—not only successfully making Konoha accept every objective I set in advance, but even performing beyond expectations and fishing up quite a few promising benefits from their side."
Rei Kaguya first praised Mei Terumi's achievements without the slightest stinginess.
Then his expression immediately changed, and he continued in a slightly ingratiating tone.
"But after your vacation is over, remember to come back early and help me handle all kinds of documents… During the days you were gone, I was nearly driven out of the Mizukage's office by piles of materials and intelligence reports that I didn't know where to put."
"Wouldn't it be enough to train a few more secretary officers good at paperwork?"
Mei Terumi poked Rei Kaguya's chest in amusement.
"There are plenty of shinobi in the village willing to do that kind of work for you. If you threw a shuriken randomly into the street, you'd hit a dozen of them, wouldn't you?"
"You think capable secretary officers are that easy to train?"
Rei Kaguya rolled his eyes and said irritably, "People who know how to classify, rank, and store intelligence by importance, while also understanding most intelligence reports and political orders, are high-end talents no matter which village you put them in, all right? The village's atmosphere was maliciously castrated and poisoned by Madara Uchiha for so long. There really aren't that many people left who still know how to use their brains."
"That is a problem you, the Mizukage, need to solve through educational reform. It has nothing to do with a little secretary officer like me~"
Mei Terumi stretched forcefully, showing off her graceful curves that remained clearly defined even beneath thick winter clothing.
Then she raised her hand, touched Rei Kaguya's cheek, and stared into his brand-new Byakugan.
"This is… another new pair of eyes?"
"There was no helping it. The last pair had a slightly low purity. After one battle, they started developing small problems."
Rei Kaguya shrugged and spoke without much reluctance.
"Fortunately, with the last pair as a foundation, Orochimaru managed to cultivate a new pair of Byakugan with even higher purity this time. Once I obtain the Hyuga clan's collection of books and retrieve what I want from the moon, I should be able to completely resolve the bloodline disease that comes with the Dead Bone Pulse."
"You clearly could have told me about something like this earlier… couldn't you?"
"At the time, I wasn't even sure whether Orochimaru would cooperate with me sincerely, nor did I know how long he would need to produce the results I needed. If I told you, wouldn't that only have made you worry for nothing?"
Faced with Rei Kaguya's frank shifting of blame, Mei Terumi bit her full lips and said in a somewhat downcast voice,
"As expected, I've still been left behind by you…"
"Listen to what you're saying. Count up all the seniors, peers, and juniors in the shinobi world I've left behind. There are already so many of them, but I haven't seen every single one of them become too depressed to function over it."
Rei Kaguya reached out and rubbed Mei Terumi's smooth, long reddish-brown hair. His tone carried little seriousness.
"There will always be people who, for one reason or another, cannot keep up with the first echelon. At a time like that, what they need to do has never been to chase after it desperately, even at any cost. Instead, they should properly think about what value they still possess after falling behind that can make those in the first echelon value them."
"Mei, your strength really isn't that impressive, but your brain works very well, and you're also very good-looking. Even if your strength can no longer keep up with mine, you're still perfectly suited to being an external brain that helps me handle daily affairs and a secretary responsible for pleasing the eyes~"
"Then you should communicate more with me about your thoughts on the shinobi world, Rei."
Mei Terumi leaned her head against Rei Kaguya's chest. While listening to his powerful heartbeat, she drew circles over his clearly defined abdominal muscles with her finger and complained unhappily.
"Putting everything else aside, at the very least, explain and discuss with me the topics you talked about with Shisui Uchiha and that Nagato, all right? I don't like hearing from them about ideas supposedly obtained from you, but which I've never heard before."
"Fine. No problem. After our negotiation team returns fully loaded, when we compare the historical records compiled by each family and clan and conveniently add all kinds of private material into them, I'll definitely call you over too."
"Really? You're not lying?"
"Why would I lie? For work without any precedent like that, who knows when I'd be finished if I did it alone? If you join in and help me, I'd be happy beyond words."
Rei Kaguya made promises without hesitation, coaxing and deceiving the dazed Mei Terumi into joining the team that would help him write.
Although it did feel a little like selling his looks, if the buyer was Mei Terumi, then so be it.
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