Chapter 87.5- One Thousand Hands

It took longer than it should have for me to get myself under enough control to stop laughing. And when I did, it was to find Uzume looking at me with a strange sort of smile. The kind that said she wasn’t sure whether to laugh with me or see to it that I got some help.

“Well, if you must know, I’ve been thinking.”

“Never a good thing” She said, and I couldn’t help but laugh again.

“Yes, yes. But war is easy. Ruling is going to be much harder. For war, I just had to point you all at an enemy and go kill them. But now I actually have to figure out shit. We need to get the academy back on track. The missions we’ve been rejecting need to start getting accepted, and we need to announce that we are open for business very early on. The gold and money we took from Iwa means we have money to burn for some time and I think we need to put that money to good use. Part of me wants to change how we approach paying shinobi. Another part of me wants to focus on the academy. We have so much we learned from our clans that we could include in the academy from the jump and get the genin off to a more even start. Then there is Kusa and our situation there. I annexed it on a whim but I can’t really go back on that because the country would just fall into chaos and beyond that it’s a useful buffer zone between our main border and Earth. We could even use them as a feeder for talented shinobi and a place to send those who don’t really impress here. Then there’s the fact that even with everything we’re still technically at war. I’ve sent terms to Suna, but as for Mizu and Kumo, it’s impossible to say what’s going on there one way or another and—“

“Breathe” She cut in. I snapped the genjutsu in an instant, sending her a tired look while she smiled.

“It felt like I was going to watch you talk yourself out of air. Why do you even have so much on your mind? I know I made a joke about it, but do you actually ever stop.”

“With so much to do? How could I ever?”

“Quite easily. Dance with me some more, Shorirama. And no thinking. Just focus on my movements.” She said.

“I don’t think it’s going to be that easy to prevent my brain from working.” I said, and it wasn’t.

“Really? Watch me” She said, and then in full view of what had to be then entire fucking village. She pushed her body so close to mine that there wasn’t enough space between us for air to pass. And then she leaned up and planted a kiss on my cheek.

She was right. I didn’t do any thinking after that.