A few more weeks had passed since Orochimaru's death, and it was finally time for the last round of the chunin exams in Sunagakure.
Since Hinata was no longer pressuring Tsunade to get there as fast as possible, Konoha's delegation returned to their original travel schedule and arrived a few days ago.ｆ𝗿𝗲𝒆we𝚋ｎ૦𝘃𝚎𝒍. 𝒄o𝚖
Although things became somewhat hectic after Yuna defeated the monk that was trying to capture Shukkaku, things calmed down drastically after that incident was over.
In fact, Gaara managed to strengthen his position as the new Kazekage significantly over the course of the last month, and by now, very few people still had thoughts of rebelling against him.
Currently, Tsunade and Gaara were standing side by side in front of the canyon that served as the entrance towards Sunagakure while an entourage of people was standing behind them.
They were here to welcome the soon-to-arrive group from the Land of Water that Mei Terumi, the new Mizukage, was leading. Although it was strictly speaking not necessary for the two Kage to be here, they still decided to come to welcome her as a sign of friendship between the three hidden villages.
A few more minutes passed before a small group of people could be seen approaching the waiting group at high speed. At the front of that group was a beautiful woman with long auburn hair and green eyes, Mei Terumi.
Usually, a Kage would not travel to another country by foot and would instead travel in some kind of ceremonial carriage that was accompanied by a considerable entourage, but Mei couldn't care less. She had more important things to do than wasting a lot of time slowly traveling in a carriage, and from what she heard about Tsunade, the chances were high that she wasn't the only one who thought like that.
She would have been correct about that if it wasn't for Mito, who has been harassing Tsunade with lessons about etiquette and manners over the course of the last month. Since the longer. So, Tsunade decided to use the "proper" method of travel, but her actual reason for doing so had very little to do with that. She simply wanted to travel slowly so she would have more days where she would be free from Mito's nagging.
A short moment later, Mei arrived in front of Tsunade and Gaara, and a small smile appeared on her face.
"I'm happy to be finally able to meet the Kage of our two allied nations in person. I'm Mei Terumi, the current Mizukage."
Tsunade mimicked her smile and nodded her head in acknowledgment, while Gaara, who was still not used to smiling, nodded his head as well.
"Tsunade Senju, it's nice to finally meet you in person."
"Gaara of the Desert, likewise."
While the three Kage were greeting each other, one of the people standing behind Tsunade started moving without making a sound and started approaching the trio.
Before anyone could react, that person had already walked past Tsunade and stopped directly in front of Mei.
"Yo, it's been a while, Mei."
"Yun…*mmph*!"
Before Mei could fully say Yuna's name, her lips were interlocked with Yuna's as she hummed in pleasure. Just like always when she kissed Yuna, the temperature around Mei started increasing, while the temperature around Yuna started decreasing as ice and lava chakra started fighting for dominance.
A moment later, their tounges started wrestling with each other as their chakra output increased.
When Mei felt Yuna's tongue in her mouth, a tiny frown appeared on her face, but she nonetheless continued kissing.
'Weird, I am not sure, but I think Yuna's tongue is longer than it previously was.'
Meanwhile, almost every other person who was present looked at the scene in front of them in complete bewilderment. Well, a few men had to avert their gazes due to the scene of two beautiful women kissing each other being a little bit too stimulating for them. Tsunade wasn't looking at Yuna and Mei either. Her eyes were closed as she massaged her temples with her hands. She was currently trying and failing to contain a massive headache that was getting worse by the second. The last person who wasn't looking at the scene in bewilderment was a young woman who had a wry smile on their face instead. After a few more seconds of waiting, she approached the kissing duo despite the dangerous temperature fluctuations around them.
Like always, Mei immensely enjoyed kissing Yuna. Although she wanted to stop Yuna at first because there were too many bystanders, she had long forgotten that idea by now and was fully immersed in the kiss.
Moments later, powerful killing intent locked onto Mei, causing her eyes to widen in surprise. She immediately broke apart the kiss and jumped back while pulling out a kunai to defend herself. However, the killing intent vanished just as quickly as it came, which caused Mei to look around in confusion, and the moment her eyes landed on Yuna, she understood what had just happened.
A young woman with shoulder-length dark blue hair and featureless white eyes hugged Yuna's right arm and pressed it between her breasts while giving Mei a smug look.
Mei's eyebrow twitched in irritation when she saw the smug look on the woman's face and quickly concluded that that person was Hinata, one of Yuna's harem members.
When Hinata and Mei's eyes met, sparks started flying as the pressure surrounding them started increasing at a rapid rate, resulting in the bystanders quickly taking their distance from the trio. They would rather not be pulled into the inevitable scene of carnage in front of them.
*Gulp* *Gulp* *Gulp*
Loud swallowing sounds echoed through the desert, attracting the attention of quite a few people. When Konoha's shinobi saw the source of that sound, they almost keeled over.
Tsunade had taken out a massive bottle that was undoubtedly filled with alcohol and was taking giant gulps from it. After emptying about half the bottle, she burped in contentment and looked at Yuna with a smug expression on her face.
"BWAHAHAHA, SERVES YOU RIGHT, YUNA!!! LET'S SEE HOW YOU GET OUT OF THIS!!! I'M BETTING A MILLION RYO THAT THIS WILL END IN CARNAGE, HAHAHA!!!"
While Konoha's shinobi looked away in shame due to Tsunade's behavior, the shinobi from the other two countries gave her weirded-out looks and wondered what caused the legendary healer that Tsunade was considered to be to act as a random drunkard.
Meanwhile, Gaara seemed to be utterly indifferent to the current situation and nodded towards Tsunade.
"Okay, I take your bet. I think Yuna will get out of this situation without a problem."
Unlike Tsunade, Gaara knew that Yuna became friends with Kurama and a few more ridiculous things she did, so Gaara didn't believe for even a second that the current situation would pose a problem to her at all.
Although Tsunade was stunned that Gaara accepted her bet, she still laughed out loud when he did.
"Hahaha, very good! Betting is only enjoyable if there is a winner and a loser, so let's do this. Here! Drink! This is the good stuff!"
Gaara eyed the huge bottle that Tsunade was holding towards him with suspicion before shrugging his shoulders in indifference and taking the bottle.
'Well, Naruto said that something good happened to him the first time he got drunk, so it should be fine. I mean, what is the worst that could happen?'
So, under the bewildered gazes of dozen of Suna shinobi, Gaara lifted up the bottle Tsunade gave him and took a small sip.
'Mhh, the taste is excellent, and the minor burning feeling it causes in my throat gives it an interesting finish. Guess I'll take another sip.'