Ch258. Plans... ?

A week after Rei and Pakura finished their business in Sunagakure, Rei alongside his girls were sitting in the dining room of his mansion in the Village on the Other Side, enjoying their breakfast. It was during the said breakfast that Tsunade finally came back, surprising them.

"Well, well, look at that. The lost lamb finally found her way home." Rei invitingly smiled at Tsunade, gesturing to an empty chair while Konan wordlessly stood up in order to prepare another set of tableware for her.

Tsunade slightly blushed, reminding herself that informing no one of her activities might not have been the best idea but these thoughts quickly perished under her excitement. She couldn't wait for Rei's reaction once she revealed her accomplishment!

"Er... sorry? I just needed to do something." Before anyone could interrupt, Tsunade quickened her talking pace, "On the other hand, I have finished and I acquired a gift for you, Rei!" She exuberantly exclaimed, widely grinning from ear to ear with a praise-me look in her vividly amber eyes.

Rei stopped his fork mid-way to his half-opened mouth and looked at Tsunade. He was incredibly curious about what she was up to. Disappearing for more than a month? That was something he would have expected from Mei, and if it happened, it would have indeed been frustrating. As for Tsunade... He trusted Tsunade to know better. Mei would most likely have caused a scene in a few days but Tsunade had no such problem. Hence, Rei let Tsunade be and waited until she came back home from whatever self-imposed quest she went on.

"A gift?" He lifted his eyebrow at her while putting his fork down.

"Yes!" Tsunade beamed.

"Did I forget some kind of anniversary?" Rei turned to Konan with an appalled look and whispered loud enough for everyone to hear, causing many of them to giggle, including Konan as she shook her head.

Turning back to Tsunade, Rei furrowed his brows at her. It was not common in their household to give each other gifts. Sure, there were birthdays but even then, while not completely dismissed, it somehow became unimportant as time went by and they lived together. Rei was aware most of his seals were perceived as gifts by the girls even though he never intended them to be such.

With Ringo and him constantly forgetting themselves in their individual research to the point of forgetting their own birthdays and having to be dragged to the parties by Tsunade or Konan… With Konan and Tsunade taking care of the Biri-Biri and Uzushio Trading Company… With Pakura taking care of the administrative village affairs while Mei was her everyday daredevil... ordinary gifts were something they simply did not exchange anymore. There were many other ways to show they cared about each other, after all.

Hence, Rei was really curious about what Tsunade was about to pull off.

Even the other women around the table started to get curious. Tsunade was never one to be extremely excitable. Not like this. From Tsunade's expression, they could all feel that whatever revelation she was about to drop on them, it will most likely be enormous.

Tsunade approached Rei and leaned closer towards him with an expectant smile upon her lips, "I..." She started only to stop herself for a second and... a small burst of smoke suddenly appeared, notifying the people in the room about the use of a low-powered storage scroll, preventing them from getting jumpy.

Rei suddenly found his vision obscured by a hem of a hat, narrowing his eyes while grabbing the hem and yanking the hat off his head... only to owlishly blink as he somehow saw the Hokage hat in his hand.

"I have used the Konoha Creation Act and became the Daimyo of Konoha!" Tsunade proudly proclaimed, causing the people in the room to incredulously gawk at her.

"Congratulations." Konan was the first who shook herself out of her bewilderment and graced Tsunade with a warm approving smile.

"Way to go!" Mei cheered. "Won't the Hokage miss it though?" She cutely tilted her head with mischief sparkling in her eyes.

"I doubt it. My new Hokage didn't notice his hat missing for three days straight." Tsunade shrugged, "As long as I return it in under a week, it can be written off as him being forgetful."

"Geeh... have fun with the paperwork." Ringo good-naturedly interrupted with a snort before returning to her cereals.

"What's that supposed to mean, you redheaded hag! She became a Princess and you snort at her? Have you no manners?" Mei indignantly defended Tsunade, only to get an annoyed and deadpan stare from Ringo.

"First, you have red hair too, you midget. Second, I am from Kiri. They did not exactly teach us manners in the Academy. Just look at yourself." Ringo scathingly clicked her tongue, getting a scowl from Mei in return.

"You...!"

Needless to say, the two bickering redheads were quickly toned out by the other occupants of the room.

"If you need help with anything, just say. I will probably have my hands full with managing Suangakure since I don't have people who will happily do my job for me like someone," Pakura gave Ringo a pointed look, her lips thinning as she noticed Ringo was too preoccupied with Mei to notice her disapproval. Giving up her endeavor, Pakura shook her head and gazed back at Tsunade, "but I will always make time for you." She promised, knowing she was the best at the pure administrative work out of all of her sister-wives.

"Thank you." Tsunade nodded, "But I really don't have many responsibilities. I made sure of it when I took over the position of the Daimyo of Konoha. I gave away a bit of my influence to other Konoha clans but with it went most of my paperwork and negotiations with people. There is not much workload for me." She explained, causing Pakura to become introspective.

'Should I do the same?' Pakura thought with a pondering look and just like that, the people in the room knew nobody sans Rei would be able to get her out of her funk anytime soon.

The only one who was not cheering was Rei who stared at the Hokage hat in shock as if somebody murdered his puppy by disemboweling it.

It didn't take long for the rest of the cheering crowd to notice him acting weird. Especially since despite answering the congratulations, Tsunade's eyes didn't leave his form. She was really not liking his far too stunned look.

'Something is not right.' Tsunade understood and slowly approached Rei, putting her hand on his shoulder. "Are you alright? Is it that... shocking?" She asked with a tone of uncertainty.

Rei blinked again and slowly looked at her, wordlessly opening his mouth only to close it with an audible click a few seconds later in a show of speechlessness. A difficult look passed through his visage before a long insufferable sigh tore from his throat.

"Yeah~," He drawled, "I have to say... this is totally my fault. I just had to jinx it, didn't I?" He chuckled helplessly. "I should have told you to let Konoha be for the time being." He gave the bewildered Tsunade a reassuring smile as he put his hand on the one she placed on his shoulder to make her understand he was not angry as he said his next words. "With this little stunt, you totally ruined my plans, Tsunade."