Mind Your Girlfriend

Mind Your Girlfriend

After showering, Aokiji had just stepped out of the bathroom when he heard someone calling for him outside the door.

Aokiji opened the door and found a familiar figure standing before him: blonde hair, a pale yellow dress, and a faint scent of soap clinging to her.

Aokiji said in surprise, "Why did you come to my house?"

"Didn't you say you'd treat me to a meal to thank me for helping you catch that fish?"

Aokiji had nearly forgotten.

After they caught the fish, Aokiji had planned to make a hometown dish to reward Tsunade, which was how this scene came about.

"You know where I live?" Aokiji asked curiously. He remembered never telling Tsunade his address.

"I just asked someone." Tsunade said flatly, "I've been standing outside for so long. Aren't you going to invite me in?"

Come to think of it, this was her first time entering a boy her age's home, and she had been rather interested in everything. Yet after Aokiji invited her inside, she was greatly disappointed. Looking at the cluttered room, she frowned slightly. "Your room is really messy."

Aokiji shrugged. "Guys' rooms are all like this. Besides, no golden nest or silver nest is as comfortable as your own doghouse."

"What kind of weird comparison is that? Your room is such a mess. Don't your family scold you?"

Tsunade remembered that whenever she left her things lying around, her mother would give her a thorough scolding. Back then, it was always her grandfather who spoke up for her.

Aokiji fell silent for a moment. "It's fine. I live alone."

Although he was merely someone occupying another's nest, having inherited all of the host's memories meant that, in some matters, he truly empathized.

Living alone? Tsunade noticed the photo frame on the bedside table. In the photo was a middle-aged woman and a boy with a bright, cheerful smile.

It was not hard to see from the boy's features that he was the Aokiji standing before her. Thinking back to what he had just said, it was easy to draw certain conclusions if she thought a little deeper. "Sorry, I didn't mean to..."

Aokiji cut her off. "Hey, why are you making that face? It just makes me uncomfortable. I prefer the way you usually act, all wild and unruly. Heh heh..."

That grin was utterly shameless. Tsunade angrily threw a punch. "You're asking for a beating."

Even so, she did not put much strength into it.

Aokiji sidestepped it and teased, "You hit people at the drop of a hat. You'll never get married like that."

"Hmph. It's not like I'm marrying you."

Aokiji spread his hands. "All right, let's not talk about that. I'm going to cook. Let me show you my skills."

To win a woman's heart, one first had to win her taste buds. Aokiji understood this deeply. Though he had no plans to pursue Tsunade anytime soon, it was still necessary to maintain a certain level of goodwill.

Aokiji washed the rice clean, put it into the container for steaming rice, added an appropriate amount of water, covered it, and started steaming it.

After finishing that, he took out the fish, sliced off the flesh piece by piece, rinsed it several times to remove the blood, then placed it in a large bowl. He added starch, egg white, salt, chicken essence, cooking wine, pepper, and more, kneading it all together. From removing the fishy smell to making the fish paste, his movements were extremely practiced. Tsunade watched with interest. "Didn't expect you to be so good at this. What are you making?"

"Pickled Cabbage Fish. It's a signature dish I invented. Once you eat it, I guarantee your mouth will water."

Aokiji shamelessly took credit for inventing the dish without even blushing.

Tsunade did not believe him. "You're bragging."

She did not believe a dish invented by a five-year-old brat could possibly be that delicious.

"Just wait and see."

The fish slices needed at least another ten minutes to marinate. While waiting, Aokiji planned to go to the market to buy some seasonings. Tsunade had nothing to do at home, so she simply followed him.

The two walked side by side down the street.

"Huh? Aren't those Aokiji and Tsunade?"

A surprised voice came from behind them, and Aokiji and Tsunade turned around at the same time.

It was a white-haired boy, with a black-haired boy standing beside him.

The white-haired one looked frivolous, while the black-haired one looked composed. It was hard to imagine the two together.

Seeing them, Tsunade said in surprise, "Jiraiya, Orochimaru, I never thought I'd see you two together."

"Shouldn't I be saying that to you, Aokiji and Tsunade?" Jiraiya's gaze shifted between the two as though he had discovered something. Without thinking, he gave a mischievous grin. "Could it be... you two are on a date?"

The instant he finished speaking, a Hadouken flew straight at him. Jiraiya's grin instantly froze, and he dropped to his knees, clutching his stomach in pain.

"No one will think you're mute if you keep quiet," Tsunade said coldly.

"You old hag," Jiraiya stubbornly snapped despite his pain.

"What did you say?!"

Tsunade glared furiously, grabbed Jiraiya by the collar, and lifted him up with one hand.

Jiraiya's pupils shrank as fear filled his face. "Aokiji, control your girlfriend!"

Ignoring Jiraiya's plea for help, Aokiji turned to Orochimaru and asked curiously, "Why are you two together?"

Orochimaru said helplessly, "We happened to run into each other on the road. Then this guy started pestering me, wanting to compete with Shuriken."

Aokiji nodded, showing that he understood.

"What about you?"

Orochimaru looked toward Tsunade, who was currently beating Jiraiya up.

"Tsunade helped me catch a big fish. To thank her, I'm making her a dish. We're heading out to buy some ingredients now."

Orochimaru nodded in understanding.

But another question arose. How had Aokiji and Tsunade ended up fishing together? When had their relationship become this close?

Could it really be like Jiraiya said? Were the two of them together...

Though he had his doubts, Orochimaru had little interest in this kind of gossip.

Compared to that, he was more interested in other things. "Aokiji, are you free tomorrow? I've had some questions lately that I want to discuss with you."

The two had officially met at the library. At first, Orochimaru had not wanted to pay any attention to Aokiji's initiative in approaching him.

But after a few short exchanges, Orochimaru discovered that Aokiji was a very interesting person who often raised perspectives that opened his eyes. As they talked more and more, the two became familiar with each other and often discussed various matters in private.

"No problem."

Aokiji agreed readily.

Seeing the two chatting so happily, Tsunade released Jiraiya's collar in surprise. Orochimaru, who had always been a loner, actually had close dealings with Aokiji, who slept all day. Moreover, Aokiji was clearly the dominant one between them.

"You're close with Orochimaru?"

"Not bad." Aokiji said lightly, "We often discuss interesting questions."

"What kind of questions?"

Tsunade was curious. What could someone like Orochimaru possibly discuss with Aokiji?

Aokiji smiled faintly and held out both hands, touching his fingertips together to form a circle. "For example, the world we live in might be round."

Huh? Hearing that, Tsunade was completely dumbfounded.

What was he even talking about? She understood every word individually, but when they were put together, she had no idea what Aokiji meant.

Orochimaru silently watched Tsunade's reaction. When he first heard those words, he had been no better than Tsunade and had thought Aokiji was spouting nonsense. Yet afterward, Aokiji had analyzed it with solid reasoning, causing Orochimaru's impression of Aokiji as someone who loved sleeping to take a complete turn. He had been utterly astonished.

"Interesting topic, isn't it?" Orochimaru said with a smile.

"You two spend all day studying things like that?" Tsunade looked at them strangely.

"Not entirely. Sometimes we discuss other interesting things too, like what humanity's earliest ancestor was."

Tsunade asked in confusion, "Isn't humanity's ancestor human? What is there to discuss?"

"No, I mean even earlier—before humans had fully evolved into humans."

When it came to this subject, Orochimaru seemed to open a floodgate, speaking endlessly. "Living creatures constantly evolve as time and the environment change, and humans came about in the same way. Through my conversations with Aokiji, I reached the conclusion that humans may have evolved from some kind of ape. Isn't that an interesting idea...?"

Tsunade: ...

Compared to discussing such things, she cared much more about eating.

Seeing that Tsunade was uninterested, Orochimaru did not continue the topic.

Those who followed different paths could not plan together.

Sure enough, only Aokiji could truly reach the depths of his soul.

Aokiji asked, "Orochimaru, have you eaten yet?"

"No."

"If not, come eat at my house. The fish is so big that Tsunade and I can't finish it anyway, and it won't stay fresh if we leave it too long."

Orochimaru did not stand on ceremony after being invited and nodded directly. He also wanted to taste what Aokiji's cooking was like.

After his parents died, there had been a period when he suffered intensely. Afraid of ever experiencing such pain again, he had taken the initiative to close off his heart and become unwilling to communicate with others.

The reason he was now able to communicate normally with people was all because of Aokiji's appearance.

At first, he had spoken with Aokiji because he found him amusing. But as their conversations continued, that closed door had gradually begun to open, allowing him to emerge from the shadows in his heart.

Thinking of this, a smile appeared at the corner of Orochimaru's lips, one so subtle that even he barely noticed it.

Aokiji noticed Orochimaru's expression. It seemed that under his influence, Orochimaru was slowly beginning to emerge from the darkness.

In the original story, Orochimaru had later become so cold and ruthless, treating human lives as worthless largely because of external influences.

Now that Orochimaru had only begun to show the signs, Aokiji had extinguished them in time. That could be considered a good deed.

Jiraiya, beaten into a pig-headed mess by Tsunade, watched the three leave him behind and shouted, "Hey, hey! Did you forget about me?"