A large table full of dishes was soon laid out.
Aoba also took advantage of the preparation time to go and bring Terumi Mei and the others over.
However, when they first arrived, it still caused a small bit of commotion.
After all, there were quite a few more people at this year's New Year's Eve dinner.
It was not that there were any conflicts or anything, just that some of it was unexpected.
Take Kurotsuchi, for example. The last time Terumi Mei had come to Konoha was last New Year.
Although she had vaguely heard Aoba mention that she was temporarily staying at the Senju clan grounds, Kurotsuchi clearly had not expected her to appear at an occasion like New Year's Eve dinner.
Terumi Mei still clearly remembered that back when she was carrying out her plan to seduce Aoba and abduct him back to Kirigakure, that girl had caused her no small amount of trouble.
Naturally, she could not help teasing her a couple of times.
As for the other newly appeared girls, she just curled her lips, planning to properly grab hold of Aoba's weak points later in the evening.
And with Terumi Mei's teasing, given Kurotsuchi's personality, there was no way she would just ignore it.
That said, it was only some minor bickering. On such a special day, it did not escalate too much.
Instead, Fu squeezed herself right between the two of them, eager to make friends with Terumi Mei.
Because the Seven-Tails inside her had sensed the Three-Tails inside the other.
New Year's Eve dinner ultimately passed in a lively and cheerful atmosphere.
After that came the festival at Hokage Rock and the New Year's countdown fireworks show.
However, Aoba did not go out together with the girls.
Instead, he left the house first to meet up with Hinata, Ino, and the other girls he had already arranged to see.
After all, Aoba was only one person, and the girls had very tacitly divided up the time.
They tried to distribute him as evenly as possible before the fireworks show.
After all, they had already experienced this kind of thing several times and had gained experience.
So there was no longer a repeat of the jealousy-filled scenes from the first time they watched the fireworks together.
The girls walked together, all looking lively and harmonious.
Except for Hanabi, who was constantly clinging to Aoba, making Sara somewhat unhappy and forcing him to spend quite a bit of effort explaining.
As the time approached eleven o'clock, the sky shifted from a bluish-gray haze to a deep, inky black. Even so, the roads remained brightly lit, with rows of lampposts illuminating the sides.
From halfway up Hokage Rock all the way to the pedestrian steps at the top, the area was filled with people. Many girls had changed into beautiful yukata.
Mats prepared in advance were spread out, with groups clustered together.
The slope of the Hokage Rock steps eliminated the need to fight for viewing spots. In fact, most places that held fireworks festivals chose this kind of natural stepped incline.
Aside from children still running around, both young people and elders were already sitting comfortably on their mats, chatting while waiting for the fireworks to begin.
Finding someone among so many people was very difficult.
But Tsunade's group was quite large. After Aoba and the girls climbed up Hokage Rock and stood on a high spot, they only needed a few seconds of looking around to find their place.
"You're so slow."
Aoba had barely arrived when Yugito's complaining voice immediately rang out.
Yugito was sitting cross-legged on a clean mat, wearing a golden-yellow kimono she had just bought. It was the same style as the ones Samui and Mabui were wearing.
After all, the kimono Aoba had given her back then, which looked like it had been designed to satisfy some strange fetish, was completely impossible to wear out.
If someone did not understand Yugito, they might think she was genuinely angry from the tone of her complaint.
But after living together for so long, Aoba had his own understanding.
That complaint was not anger, but impatience to see him.
So Aoba neither explained nor apologized, because there was not much anger in her words to begin with.
He took off his shoes, lightly kicked her small butt, then placed the food box he had been carrying in front of her, "I bought a lot of snacks. There's dorayaki and takoyaki you like. Want some?"
"..."
Yugito rubbed the spot where she had just been kicked, pouted a little, and still said, "I do!"
Even though she had already gone around the festival with her good sisters Samui and Mabui earlier and eaten quite a bit, eating with her boyfriend was a different matter altogether.
Samui and Mabui both looked like they had seen a ghost.
They knew Yugito had long since become Aoba's girlfriend, and that a change in personality was normal.
But being kicked on the butt in public and not being angry at all, was this really the Yugito they knew?
What had she been tuned into?
Aoba just smiled, then also sat down cross-legged and opened the food box.
There was not a lot, but it was all things each girl liked.
Without another word, he took a still-warm dorayaki and stuffed it straight into Yugito's mouth.
Yugito immediately started eating happily.
"Aoba, you really dote on this little kitty. Don't tell me you actually treat her like a pet cat?", Seeing this, Terumi Mei also leaned over and complained with a hint of jealousy.
Uzuki Yugao and the others were already used to scenes like this, but Terumi Mei had not seen Yugito many times, so she was naturally quite dissatisfied with Aoba's behavior.
"Who are you calling a little kitty?"
Yugito, who had been eating her dorayaki, immediately got upset when she heard the nickname "little kitty." After finishing it in two or three bites, she bared her teeth at Terumi Mei.
Terumi Mei, however, held up her chest with both hands and said with a charming yet disdainful expression, "You look even more like a little kitty this way."
"You bastard!"
Yugito had already arched her back, about to enter her porcupine form.
Just as the two were about to erupt.
Aoba was not in a hurry at all. Calmly, he used a pair of chopsticks to split open two takoyaki balls, blew on them a couple of times, then immediately stuffed them into the mouths of both women.
Whenever the two found a gap to speak, he fed them again.
At this point, the other girls could no longer stand it.
Seeing that he had bought so many snacks and that they were all going into the stomachs of those two, and being fed by Aoba at that.
Even though everyone was not hungry, the atmosphere was already there, so they all gathered around and sat down.
Aoba's originally calm movements immediately turned flustered.
Tsunade did not join in. She simply took out a bottle of sake and several sake cups from the food box, then sat together with Yhi Kurenai, Anko, Seramu, and Uchiha Mikoto, starting to drink lightly.
"Kurenai, when are you and Anko and Isaribi planning to move over?"
Kurenai's expression became a little unnatural. She gave an awkward smile and replied, "Let's wait a bit longer. I'm still not quite used to it yet."
"Then when Kurenai moves over, I'll come along too."
Anko said bluntly, and Isaribi nodded in agreement.
"As for me, I'll wait until Sara becomes queen before moving over," Seramu said calmly.
Anko and Isaribi both looked at her in surprise, clearly not expecting her to be one as well.
After all, Sara was still over there with Aoba.
Anko felt that her way of thinking was still a bit too conservative.
"I see. Then you can decide when you're ready. I've still got plenty of empty houses."
As she spoke, Tsunade's gaze drifted intentionally or unintentionally toward Uchiha Mikoto, though she did not ask her anything.
Uchiha Mikoto's hand holding the sake cup trembled slightly as she silently took a sip.
"It's starting!"
Someone suddenly shouted loudly. The previously lively scene atop Hokage Rock instantly fell silent.
In the next moment, a massive firework nearly a hundred meters in diameter exploded brilliantly in the sky.
Brief, yet dazzling.
Everyone widened their eyes and watched quietly.
The blooming of this firework also marked the passing of another year.
The flow of time was made tangible at this moment, played out through the explosion and fading of the fireworks.
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