"..."
Aoba looked at the two faces pressed together, completely identical, and for some reason felt his mind stir.
'What else is there to say?'
He naturally grabbed both of them and quickened his pace.
Unlike the previous day, when he and Tenten had stayed out until the lights at home were off and everyone had gone back to their rooms,
when the three of them returned today, although it was about time to rest, the lights were still on and no one had gone back yet.
And Inner Sakura's appearance naturally caused quite a stir among everyone.
"I-Inner Sakura?"
Karin looked at that face almost identical to Sakura's, yet with a completely different aura, and recognized her immediately.
Unlike Ayame, who had no idea, Karin and the others already knew Sakura had this ability.
After all, during the Chunin Exams, Karin had once lost to this very move, and they had actually seen it before as well.
When Inner Sakura had first been able to partially materialize, Sakura had already introduced her to everyone.
But seeing Inner Sakura fully like this was still a first.
"It's me, Karin."
Inner Sakura smiled as she answered, then cheerfully stepped forward and hugged her.
"Let me hug you first."
"Oh?"
Karin naturally hugged her back.
To her perception, the other person felt just like a real human.
"Inner Sakura, you can materialize your whole body now?"
"Mm, I prepared it specially for today."
"..."
As long as they were still in the living room, people like Yugao and Konan all gathered around to take a look, poking here and there, hugging, occasionally even touching her hair.
It felt like petting a cat.
Inner Sakura didn't mind at all. Instead, she seemed to enjoy it. For so many years, she had existed only as a spiritual body, able to watch but not touch. Now that she could interact with everyone in a physical form, it made her genuinely happy.
Tsunade came over to examine her body and was greatly surprised.
She was actually no different from a normal person.
However, her essence was still a body constructed from chakra. Once the chakra ran out, she would disappear.
It was somewhat like a shadow clone that wouldn't disappear upon taking damage.
"Inner Sakura, you said you prepared this specially for today… don't tell me you're planning to… go together with Sakura?", Karin asked in a low voice.
But even though her voice was soft, everyone was gathered around Inner Sakura, so they all heard it.
The lively atmosphere instantly went quiet.
"Is there a problem?", Inner Sakura blinked.
"Hiss!"
All the women sucked in a breath.
Looking at Sakura and Inner Sakura's identical faces, along with the Strength of a Hundred Seal marks on their foreheads.
This was a formidable rival.
Who would've thought that besides Karin of the Uzumaki clan, there would be another strong contender.
———
And things turned out exactly as they had imagined.
Sakura and Inner Sakura, who possessed the Strength of a Hundred Seal and were of one mind and body, displayed extremely formidable combat power in "actual combat."
However, as the sub-personality, Inner Sakura generously let Sakura go first.
But honestly, Aoba felt she was more nervous and wanted Sakura to take the lead for her.
And even though Sakura had already been thinking about this kind of thing not long after graduating from the ninja academy, when the moment actually came, she was just like Karin, hesitating for quite a while.
She stammered and fumbled for a long time before finally getting ready.
But once she gradually adapted and completely let go, the two of them both activated the Strength of a Hundred Seal, their combat power directly approaching Tsunade's level.
The intensity of the "battle" was definitely even more terrifying than Karin's.
And that was only because…
They eventually passed out. Otherwise, who knew how long they would have kept going.
———
Of course, what was even more outrageous was that the next day, when Aoba woke up, the two of them had clearly already recovered, just like Karin the day before.
"..."
Aoba was quite surprised.
At that level of intensity, even Tsunade would need a couple of days to recover.
It wasn't just about physical recovery, the mind had its limits too.
Maybe this was what they called being young.
Of course, he meant mentally.
———
When Yugao and the others saw Sakura and Inner Sakura acting like nothing had happened, although they had expected it, they still couldn't help but be amazed.
After all, that's what the Strength of a Hundred Seal was like.
If it wasn't "yin," could it even be called the Strength of a Hundred Seal?
As long as there was enough chakra, no matter what, the body could be restored to peak condition immediately.
And with Aoba around, there was no way they would ever lack chakra.
However, although their bodies were fine, the two of them still took a day off, planning to rest properly at home.
They weren't like Karin, who had snuck off.
And more importantly, Sakura wanted her parents to meet Inner Sakura as soon as possible.
Before, because Inner Sakura couldn't fully materialize, they had been worried that her parents would be frightened seeing just their daughter's head floating in the air.
Inner Sakura also didn't want her first meeting with her parents to be like that, so she had never brought it up.
Now, Inner Sakura was no different from a normal person. Plus, with the chakra replenished yesterday, maintaining this state for ten days or half a month wouldn't be a problem, so she could naturally be brought home.
And Inner Sakura's appearance also helped Sakura deal with some pressure from her mother.
Sakura's mother, Haruno Mebuki, was probably the most strong-willed and nagging among all the mothers.
Although she had reluctantly agreed yesterday to let Sakura stay out overnight, there would definitely be a lecture when she got back.
But when she saw Inner Sakura, who looked exactly like Sakura, call her "Mom," all the words she had prepared got stuck.
After hearing Inner Sakura's true identity, it immediately turned into a scene of a loving mother and filial daughter.
She held Inner Sakura in her arms with a pained, affectionate expression.
Seeing this, Aoba quietly slipped away after greeting Sakura.
Otherwise, if Haruno Mebuki found out that both of her daughters had been "taken" by him, even as the Hokage, he probably wouldn't escape a long lecture.
———
"You're here so early today?"
Shizune was a bit surprised to see Aoba arrive at the office so early and couldn't help teasing, "Don't tell me Sakura's mom kicked you out?"
"How could that be? Sakura's mom was so emotional seeing Inner Sakura that she didn't even have time to worry about me…"
"And then you took the chance to slip away?", Shizune cut off Aoba's explanation.
"..."
Aoba felt like Shizune was doing this on purpose, just to invite punishment.
But just as he was about to properly "teach" her a lesson, an uninvited guest suddenly barged in without knocking.
"Aoba-nii, this is bad! Something's happened to my sister!"
Early in the morning, Hanabi, still small even though she was about to graduate from the ninja academy, rushed in front of Aoba in a panic.
She seemed to have run all the way here and was still slightly out of breath.
"Something happened to Hinata?"
Aoba was startled and quickly sensed her condition, only to find that her chakra was still at home and completely normal, not looking like anything had happened at all.
"Anyway, just come with me and you'll see, Aoba-nii!"
"..."
Before Aoba could respond, Hanabi had already grabbed him and dragged him outside.
Shizune: "..."
[T/N: For me the best part of bringing you chapters everyday is reading your comments. Be it anything witty or a simple "Tftc", they all keep me motivated to keep posting chapters. So, do comment and please give a REVIEW.]
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