Kurotsuchi walked in somewhat awkwardly and grabbed the corner of Deidara's clothes, "Deidara-nii."
That familiar feeling came rushing back, and the strange feelings Deidara had felt before quickly disappeared.
After all, Kurotsuchi had been following him like this ever since she was old enough to remember things.
Seeing the uneasiness in Kurotsuchi's expression, Deidara reached out and rubbed her head.
"Are you willing to marry me?"
Kurotsuchi nodded with a flushed face.
Seeing how smoothly things were going between the two of them, Onoki also felt somewhat relieved.
"All right. You two have lived together for so many years."
"What is there to be embarrassed about?"
"I'll register your marriage in a couple of days. Deidara, you'll have to call me Grandpa too."
It would have been fine if Onoki hadn't said that, but now Kurotsuchi became even more embarrassed and hid behind Deidara.
Deidara had also returned to his usual carefree personality by now.
"Hmph! Old man, don't even think about it. I'm not calling you Grandpa."
"Kurotsuchi, let's go."
Kurotsuchi followed behind Deidara like a little wife and left with him.
"You brat!"
Onoki snorted lightly.
As long as he achieved his goal, that was enough.
Although Deidara could be unreliable at times, he wasn't a heartless person.
Dust Release, a Kekkei Tota secret technique that had remained unchanged in Onoki's hands for decades, had been innovated and developed further by Deidara within just a few years.
His achievements in the future would definitely surpass Onoki's by far.
Onoki had held power in Iwagakure for so many years, and at his core, he was an extremely conservative person.
Ever since his previous conversation with Rengoku, he had noticed that Deidara had no sense of wariness toward Uchiha Rengoku.
There wasn't even the slightest hostility.
This made Onoki very wary. After all, when Uchiha Rengoku had just risen to prominence, what made him stand out was his clever mind.
Now, Deidara was his only hope. He absolutely couldn't let Uchiha Rengoku lure him away.
In any case, Kurotsuchi had liked Deidara for so many years. Having her marry Deidara early would also allow their family ties to bind Deidara to them.
———
[Land of Wind]
[Demon Desert]
After the sandstorm raged for ten hours, it finally stopped.
With the Hyuga clan's Byakugan keeping watch, they immediately discovered the situation outside.
Under Gekigan's command, a group of Iwagakure shinobi formed hand seals together and pressed their hands against the ground.
"Earth Release: Earth Flow Core!"
As a large amount of chakra was poured in, the entire ground began to rumble and shake.
The opening above them, which had been sealed by rocks, suddenly opened, and this section of ground also began to rise.
It quickly rose all the way to the surface.
The sandstorm outside had stopped, but there was still quite a bit of wind and sand.
When Nawaki saw that the trees he had accelerated to more than twenty meters tall had been buried seven or eight meters deep, he was somewhat shocked.
"It buried them this deep in such a short time?"
"Then this Demon Desert really isn't easy to deal with."
They had only established a strip of greenery here along the edge of the Demon Desert.
The trees had been blown around until they were leaning in all directions, and seven or eight meters of their lower sections had been buried.
The houses they had been living in before had basically been buried more than halfway in sand as well, making them completely uninhabitable.
Most of the work they had spent several days on had been destroyed.
Fortunately, all the original water channels had been turned into completely enclosed underground passages using Earth Release, so they hadn't been affected much.
At this time, Tsunade asked Chiyo beside her, "Elder Chiyo, how often do sandstorms like this occur in the Demon Desert?"
Chiyo shook her head, "These kinds of sandstorms are very frequent. Sometimes they happen once every few days. On average, they can occur anywhere from every few hours to every few days."
Seeing the situation, Tsunade gave Nawaki a look.
"Ask Rengoku."
Nawaki immediately called out toward his shadow.
After a while, Rengoku's pupil-technique clone finally stood up from the shadow.
His main body had used up almost all of his senjutsu chakra and his own chakra during Kumogakure's attack, leaving him utterly exhausted.
To prevent anything from happening here without his knowledge, he had left his pupil-technique clone on standby inside Nawaki's shadow.
"What is it?"
Seeing Rengoku come out, Tsunade stepped forward as well.
"A single sandstorm in this Demon Desert basically destroyed several days of our work. Are we still going to continue greening the Demon Desert?"
Rengoku looked at Tsunade somewhat strangely.
"Then just go around it. There aren't any living people in this desert anyway. We can deal with the Demon Desert last."
Tsunade was immediately irritated, "What kind of look is that? Weren't you the one who said we were going to green the entire desert?"
"Hahahaha...", Rengoku burst out laughing.
"That was because we needed to see how Kumogakure would react before. I didn't want our people to fight them head-on."
"Now that I've already dealt with Kumogakure, there's naturally no need to bother with this Demon Desert."
Tsunade excitedly clenched her fist, "Are you planning to take the main force over there directly?"
Rengoku gave a sly smile, "I already said we shouldn't fight them head-on."
"The Demon Desert is a very good barrier for them, but what if we directly teleport across it from here?"
Tsunade understood, "Are you planning another elite surprise attack like Minato's last time?"
Rengoku waved a hand, "I already said this is for training troops. This time, we'll let the younger generation take the lead while we provide support."
———
[Land of Snow]
After sending some elites to assist Koyuki Kazahana, they quickly wiped out all the political factions.
With the support of the Uchiha clan, she took over as the Queen of the Land of Snow.
The Land of Snow was relatively poor. Apart from making some money from snow iron and fishing, there wasn't much else of value.
Rengoku's goal was only the Rainbow Crystal Wall.
Koyuki Kazahana directly gave this area to Konoha, so Rengoku naturally returned the favor by promising that Koyuki Kazahana could hire Uchiha clan members at a low price in the future.
The area around the Rainbow Crystal Wall had already changed completely. Minato had deliberately brought Tenzo here once.
They built some wooden houses here and turned the place into a base.
Of course, the rooms were mainly for Orochimaru to use. He had also been here recently, modifying the markings on Anko's body.
In other words, he was improving the Sage Mode.
Rengoku had left an pupil-technique clone here, whose daily task was to absorb natural energy, convert it into senjutsu chakra, and send it to his main body.
After receiving the news from the Land of Wind, this Rengoku also opened his eyes.
He looked at Kimimaro, Haku, Sasuke, Anko, and the others beside him.
The markings on Sasuke's body had already stabilized completely. Sasuke was now letting his body adapt as much as possible to the senjutsu chakra.
He was trying to make the senjutsu chakra disperse more slowly so that each time he entered Sage Mode in the future, he could maintain it for longer.
"Sasuke," Rengoku called out.
Hearing the voice, Sasuke came out of his training state.
"Shishou," After experiencing so many things, Sasuke had become much more composed.
"We're about to clash with Sunagakure. This time, you need to lead the charge."
Sasuke only froze for a moment before immediately agreeing.
"I understand, Shishou. I definitely won't let you down."
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