"Welcome to Uzushiogakure," Naruto greeted Deidara, Sasori, and Kisame.
"Didn't expect a welcome from the 'Uzukage'," Kisame commented.
"I thought it best to deliver warnings about behavior and other guests directly."
"I've got no beef with the Mizukage and she's got no beef with me. I left under Yagura and she's got an open invitation for me to return if I ever decide to."
"And since you never went after their jinchuriki you didn't blow your chances for a more peaceful existence with them."
"...yeah. How'd you know about that?"
"I'm well-informed."
"Suna is...less likely to tolerate me," Sasori admitted when Naruto turned his way. "But those who would have the most problem with me remain there and I have a...peace offering, of a sort."
Naruto held back from rolling his eyes. "A new puppet for Kankuro as you try to work out how I manage things?"
"Indeed, plus a book detailing some of my improvements and, admittedly, mocking the current puppeteer corps."
"And you?" Naruto asked as he turned to Deidara.
"Uzumaki, my man," Deidara said. "Though I parted ways with Iwa, the old fart is still family. He doesn't get my art, but still hires me to blow shitheads up every so often." He paused. "That might've changed had I gone through with a drunken desire to bomb the village a few years back. Hm. But I didn't, so the biggest threat is probably me being berated."
Well, that was...only a little bit of a surprise, given that Deidara wasn't actually listed in the Iwa bounty book. "I see."
"Let them know that I'm here when they arrive, would you?"
"I can do that. As for warnings, no debilitating poisons or explosions in the village. Save that for designated fighting areas if you're participating in a match. I won't tell Sasori to ditch the combat-grade puppet while wandering around, but do keep the weapons that are already coated in poison stored away instead of pulling them out, and keep the secondary puppets sealed away. Similarly, won't say that Samehada has to be put away, but do try to keep your temper and not pull it out of its bandages in the street."
The three nodded their agreement, then Deidara pulled out a scroll. "Wanna try some of my pocky?"
"I can't believe you actually removed the poison from your puppets," Kisame said as he contemplated finishing his snack off or saving some of it for later. "What are you going to do if you get into a proper fight?"
"Assume that the poison was useless anyway," Sasori answered. "If I get into a fight then chances are it will either be a sparring match against Naruto, in which case it will be a more friendly puppet-on-puppet match, or it will be defensive because I didn't properly anticipate the reaction from Suna to my presence. In the latter case I expect the fight to only last long enough for the locals to intervene and break it up. Ensuring that I don't waste poison that has limited exposure time to air before it starts reducing in potency is being prudent with a difficult to produce material."
"...seriously?"
"Uzumaki is no joke," Deidara offered. "He's less refined in his Art of Explosions, yet took it in new directions and showed me the error of my ways in the path I had taken."
"And his puppetry is to be envied," Sasori added. "I've made significant improvements in my puppetry, both in the construction of the puppets and controlling them, but can't figure out how he manages what he can do. By all indications, he doesn't control his puppets so much as give them life, yet still remains in control of them. This allows his puppets to use more traditional methods to take control of someone else's puppets, such as my own, and I'm confident that he's taught his technique to his teammate. I just can't figure it out for myself."
"Huh," Kisame said, thinking about it. "Do you think that he knows the homing exploding kunai and shuriken trick that the Uzu Anbu can use?"
The other two paused, then turned to him. Deidara recovered first. "The what?"
Kisame shrugged. "During the Coliseum thing the Uzu Anbu launched a wave of kunai and shuriken that ignored all logic and unerringly struck their targets, even when the targets saw them coming and tried to dodge. In one case I saw some slipping around someone that tried to get in the way to defend someone else instead of sticking into the meat shield. Then they all exploded. I've got a collection of plans for dealing with it now that I know that it's possible, but it would've gotten me good if it had been used against me without any warning."
"That sounds...problematic," Sasori said. "I suspect that I would need to sacrifice many lesser puppets to protect the more important ones, and even that sounds like it might be ineffective if getting in the way of the weapons isn't enough."
"Most of my methods admittedly involve full-coverage defenses that can't be slipped around. Samehada also wants to try to eat a couple of them, and if that works it would be another option. Not sure if that would be more or less spicy than Deidara's explosion release foods though."
"Welcome to Uzushiogakure," Naruto greeted the Raikage as he stepped off of the airship with Darui, the latter playing bodyguard.
"We definitely need to talk about getting more directly onto your airship route," the Raikage said. "Needing to travel to the coast is annoying, even with the mobile house. Perhaps a location at the crossroads before you head up the mountain?"
"That's a discussion for Konoha and the Fire Daimyo. Uzushio doesn't run the airship lines, we're just a stop on them when we want to be."
"You're supposed to promise to help with negotiations, you know. Part of being a village leader and working with an allied village."
Naruto shook his head. "You're allied with Konohagakure, not Uzushiogakure. The only treaty we're both a party to is the one governing the exams, and that only because I signed Uzushio into it so that we could host them."
The Raikage blinked a couple of times. "That...huh. I hadn't considered that aspect of things."
"Shall we head to where you'll be staying? I believe your jounin are expecting to meet with you as well."
"I suppose."
A looked over the information his jounin had compiled, nodding every so often. When he was done he put the final sheet down. "So we know little to nothing about anyone's capabilities here, and their security is better than any other village's we know of."
"That's what they told me," Darui agreed. "Seal-based locking mechanisms protect almost everything, but they've also got weird code pads on more secure buildings."
"And cameras everywhere, plus those telephones that allow them to call other offices in the village. Or in one case, apparently call Konoha."
"...didn't hear about that one, sorry."
"It was a side comment and they aren't actually sure that it was real, but I caught them calling from the airship yesterday. The annoying thing is that the lack of visible training areas for the locals means that no observations were possible. There are a couple of thoughts in the stack that training is being done in underground areas the jounin couldn't get to, but that's it. Otherwise they probably use remote training areas that visitors aren't brought to, kind of like what we do."
"So we don't know how much better Uzumaki might be from your last match with him?"
"Significantly, I assume, if he's willing to openly spar to show off his strength, but there's only so much you can do at that age. Give him a couple more years and he'll probably surpass me easily, but as it stands he's likely still limited by his physical growth."
"...then why do you sound worried?"
"Because politically he's more dangerous than I expected. By entering genin into these exams we acknowledged that Uzushiogakure is a hidden village of its own. This isn't a Konoha-run exam in an unusual location, and Konoha is the only village with any form of alliance with Uzushio. Nobody's agreements with Konoha put any limitations on what Uzushio can do, but unlike pulling those games with a minor village we've instead got a contender for expanding the 'big five' to the 'big six'."
Darui frowned. "Isn't the 'big five' more 'the five largest nations' than anything else?"
"Yes and no. Largest has generally implied wealthiest and strongest. Look out the window and tell me that this isn't an incredibly wealthy hidden village, and then consider what it took to attempt to wipe the place out when it wasn't considered to be a hidden village."
Yeah, it was obvious that the kid had figured things out now. Unfortunately, it was unlikely that anyone with an agreement with Konoha was going to be able to make one with Uzushio, because that's just how you played these games.
"Welcome to Uzushiogakure," Naruto greeted Orochimaru as he and Kimimaro stepped off of the airship. "Would you like to start with visiting the hospital? Tsunade is present today, but has promised not to attempt to kill you."
"...I am curious as to why you'd think that I'd want to start there," Orochimaru admitted. "And to be honest, I was half expecting you to wish to harm me after our...previous interactions."
"Kimimaro obviously has medical issues and Isaribi spoke highly of you. She could probably be enticed away from her home on the coast to see you, actually. I did need to keep Anko from visiting though, and your...extreme reaction to what I did to you isn't exactly unique."
"Isaribi is here?"
"Yes. She's got better control over her body and chakra and is hoping to become a proper genin soon, even if we couldn't get her back to being fully human."
"Ah. I'd hoped that Tsunade could manage it."
"Unfortunately we determined that the modified clone she was stuck into is too dangerous to try to change in that manner."
"Modified clone? I suppose that would help explain her age..."
"Of course, if you get within a hundred meters of Tsunade she's likely to want to give you an examination as well."
"...you said she promised to not try to kill me?"
Naruto nodded. "Yes. She didn't promise to not punch you though, and grudgingly agreed to ensure that you'd be ready to fight."
Orochimaru nodded. "Then it's an acceptable risk. Also, as my student's student, I insist that you call me Orochimaru."
"What else would I call you? You aren't a Kage and have no other suitable titles I'm aware of."
"...fair point."
"A nutrient and calcium deficiency," Orochimaru said, shaking his head. Her head? Hard to say, and absorbing Tsunade's rant wasn't helping figure it out right now. Physical reality compared to mental identity might need some evaluation, if only to figure things out in others. It didn't feel pressing from a personal standpoint as he'd removed most concerns about his body already.
"I had not considered that some of my clan's eating habits were medical necessities," Kimimaro said. "And I apologize for overlooking it."
"Not your fault because I knew of them and overlooked it as well. I also didn't really consider that having taken on a female host meant that I needed to adjust some of my own habits. Obvious in hindsight, and it wouldn't have caused me truly significant problems for a decade or two, but the rant that Tsunade delivered was well-deserved."
"Some of the...less tolerant individuals under your command will need reprimanding should they learn of those details."
Orochimaru sighed. "I am well aware, but it would serve as a useful way to identify those that need dealing with. Half tempted to send a few of the children here though."
"...why would you do that?"
"I'm impressed with how they handled Isaribi, even though she primarily moved here because she needs regular exposure to salt water for her health. I also feel that there are a number of promising children that I know won't get a proper education otherwise, in part because their parents are idiots and I don't have the resources needed to set up a proper academy to overcome that. At least two may be of distant Uzumaki descent as well, though my testing was inconclusive there. None of them would be useful as spies, but I get the feeling that having a good relationship with Uzushio will be highly beneficial in the future and I've already burned a couple too many bridges with Konoha as it is."
Kimimaro nodded. "So I should be on my best behavior, above and beyond showing gratitude for the healing and information provided to keep healthy?"
"Indeed."
"Welcome to Uzushiogakure," Naruto greeted Mei as she and Ao stepped off of the airship.
"So you're actually going for the 'Uzukage' thing?" Mei replied.
"I was...pressured into choosing between it and calling myself the Daimyo of the Land of Whirlpools."
"...okay, I'd have picked similarly, but who did you get to play Daimyo?"
"We don't have one. Agreements with the Land of Fire dictated one or the other, and with only a single major settlement we don't need a 'civilian' leader."
"And all of a sudden I'm incredibly jealous."
"Don't be. I still get to attend things as though I'm a Daimyo, including having a suitable title to use when doing so. Still, we should get moving, as I'm expecting the Kazekage soon and there are warnings to deliver."
Mei shivered, then frowned. "Warnings?"
"There are Hyuga in the village and they may take offense to Ao's transplanted eye."
"Ah."
"I'm used to that aspect of things," Ao commented. "But I also intend to avoid using the eye, though I do admittedly activate it on reflex for security checks."
"We make heavy use of privacy seals to block dojutsu," Naruto said, not mentioning that most of that seal network had a 'key-in' system available for security reasons. "So it wouldn't be of much use to you anyway."
"...huh."
"Might need to negotiate for a few of those seals in Kiri," Mei commented.
"I feel that you should be made aware of one other item," Naruto said, gesturing to the door leading to the stairs. "Specifically, Kisame Hoshigaki is one of several 'missing-nin' visitors here for the finals."
"...Kisame?"
"Yes."
Mei had told her people to not bother trying to snoop while in Uzushio, but they'd decided to give it a try anyway. Their reports had been abysmal on that front, as she'd expected. The best thing she'd gotten from them was a list of decent hot spring locations in the village...and that map didn't include the one attached to the VIP hotel.
That one she was currently relaxing in, confident that Ao wasn't able to see her from the other side of the barrier. His complaint that he was only able to see the room they were in when he'd tested his byakugan in the hotel room was honestly somewhat amusing, if disturbing in hindsight regarding what it meant for security elsewhere. Then again, there was a reason why Jiraiya was welcome basically everywhere that public baths were a thing, hot spring or otherwise, applying anti-dojutsu seals to all the barriers.
Unfortunately, initial discussions regarding getting anti-dojutsu seals installed in Kiri had gotten nowhere. Kiri and Konoha had an alliance, as did Uzushio and Konoha, but not Kiri and Uzushio. Which meant that Naruto, as the 'Uzukage', wasn't willing to negotiate much of anything. He also wasn't ready to start negotiating with other nations due to wanting to 'see how other nations react to the return of Uzushiogakure' before making wider decisions.
A politically prudent, if annoying, course of action. One that was also going to factor in reactions to their sparring and his overall performance, or at least that was her best guess. The more badly he fared the more likely it was that he'd want to ensure better relations through other avenues, but the better he fared the less likely it was that he'd reach out to other nations at all for a couple of years. And given what was previously done to Uzushio it was hard to argue the point.
...maybe she could at least hire Uzushio to install hot springs in Kiri, even without an alliance?
Unfortunately, she'd also struck out with Kisame. He wasn't interested in returning to Kiri, but at least wasn't being rude about it. She couldn't actually blame him, based on the shit that caused him to defect in the first place, but also highly suspected that he'd been carefully manipulated by someone. Possibly the same person that had manipulated Yagura, given that the man had seemingly made a distinction between 'Yagura' and 'the Mizukage'.
Sadly, there wasn't much she could do about it right now, but it was something else to add to a list of observations on the sabotage of Kiri.
"Welcome to Uzushiogakure," Naruto greeted Gaara as he and Temari stepped off of the airship, before lightly tossing a scroll over. "A quick gift, information on the one poisoning Kankuro and some antidote."
"...how did you know that Kankuro was being poisoned?" Gaara asked as Temari opened the scroll.
"I have an excellent intelligence division."
"That spies on us?"
"That was made aware of the request for assistance from Konoha." And had been working on the antidote for three days before the request had been received, but they didn't need to know that. "A little extra digging was needed beyond that, of course."
"What request for assistance from Konoha?"
"The one I sent," Temari answered. "And I'm not surprised to find out that the three primary assholes giving you trouble are behind things."
Gaara frowned. "I see. We'll need to send that ahead."
"A copy was delivered to Baki this morning," Naruto said. "I just figured that you'd like a copy as well, and if the poisoning continues then you'll need the extra doses of antidote."
"Ah. Thank you. We almost canceled the trip out of concern for Kankuro, but he insisted that we come anyway."
"You should be aware that Sasori has also shown up for the finals. He indicated no animosity towards you, and in fact mentioned a 'peace offering' for your brother. I'd appreciate it if you at the very least didn't get into a fight in the streets."
The two stared at him like he'd grown an extra head as they tried to process that.
Gaara looked over the information Sasori had provided. There had been obvious surprise and disappointment that Kankuro hadn't come, only to turn to what likely approached rage at the news that political games were being played with poison back in Suna. That had turned into a declaration that the man would be swinging through 'to take out the trash'.
Having the apparent support of a legendary missing-nin from your own village was...odd, but apparently the man hadn't gotten along with either of the previous Kazekages and didn't believe in holding a grudge with someone just because of their parents. Not that Gaara didn't have a whole collection of reasons to be annoyed with his own father as well, even if he'd come to terms with some of the man's actions.
For some reason Naruto trusted that Sasori was at least good for his word though, and when they weren't going against each other in the arena it seemed that Mother approved of Naruto. She was...very much less trusting of Sasori though, even when the man was in Naruto's presence, indicating that Mother's passivity around Naruto was unlikely to be a simple reaction to someone with a stronger control over sand being present.
Naruto had also been willing to spend time talking about being unusually young leaders of their villages, even if the reasons each of them had the responsibility thrust upon them were different. Their policies and views had come up, as well as ways to leverage things that Gaara hadn't considered. Building a proper academy inside of Suna had never really come up as their training methods had traditionally been a little more family or master/apprentice style, but it made sense to standardize things a bit and make it easier for orphans to get at least the basics down.
None of that helped with the combat power disparity between the two of them though. No matter how much he'd regained his control of sand, quickly reaching levels that could very well exceed what he used to be able to control with the one-tail in him, it wasn't enough to even begin to overcome Naruto's stronger control. That removed Gaara's greatest weapon, and made sparring a non-starter.
Leadership thrust upon you or not, you didn't stay in charge by being stupidly reckless.
"I can't find any trace of unexpected traps in the puppet," Temari said as she returned to the room. "And while needing to sit in the arena to summon a weasel was annoying, I got a message to and from Suna. Baki got Naruto's letter and the antidote, and the medic-nin believe that it's the correct one."
And then there was the other side of things, Naruto ensuring that Kankuro got the antidote to the poison...though how he figured out what the poison was, let alone the antidote, was another matter entirely. None of this was how any village leaders normally did things, at least according to the records, but it seemed that Naruto thought differently.
How much of that was being confident enough in his personal strength to not need to play the normal political games was yet to be seen.
"Welcome to Uzushiogakure," Naruto greeted Nagato and Konan as they stepped off of the airship. "I see you've decided to travel without your other selves."
"...I find it disturbing that you're aware of that detail," Nagato admitted. "But I've recently found myself able to heal long-standing injuries and travel more personally."
"Please be aware that we don't know how some of the defenses on the island will react to space-time techniques performed by those not keyed into the protections, those connected to dojutsu or otherwise. Being of Uzumaki descent does not entitle you to access to secure areas, but may allow you access to a couple of buildings most visitors can't access. I ask that you obey signs even if doors allow you access."
Nagato nodded. "Understood."
"Would you like to start with your accommodations, or a visit to the hospital for a more in-depth checkup?"
"The latter," Konan immediately answered. "He's very good at hiding pain as he moves around, but not good enough to escape my notice, and when he last disengaged his eyes they were bleeding slightly."
"Then let's go get you looked over. Jiraiya will likely pop in to see you as well, once he arrives and realizes that you're here. Probably sometime tomorrow at this point."
"I feel violated," Nagato said as he sat down to eat dinner.
"Tsunade, Karin, and Naruto were all quite professional," Konan pointed out.
"...the exam was fine. Finding out that there's a seal on the inside of my eye sockets ensuring that either the implanted eyes are 'fully on' or 'fully off' so that I wouldn't manifest a sharingan is more annoying."
"Tsunade seemed surprised that you could turn the rinnegan off at all."
"While Naruto seemed to expect it and Karin didn't seem to know what to think, yes. Bleeding because my body is fighting the seals wasn't something I'd expected to be the case though, and finding out that the eyes are apparently from Madara's brother with some wacky process from the transplant matching genetics was unexpected."
"That did strike me as odd, but they were fully aware of the process and some of what causes it. They were obviously more concerned about the third genetic profile in the mix that they think is why it went from 'sharingan' to 'rinnegan' in the first place."
"True."
"What do you think of their offer to remove the transplants and grow you fresh eyes?"
"It's sensible in some ways, but I rely on the rinnegan too much currently. Perhaps once 'Madara' is gone I'll reconsider."
"Welcome to Uzushiogakure," Naruto greeted Shisui as he and Jiraiya arrived. "I see Jiraiya convinced you to change bodyguards?"
"He was very insistent," Shisui agreed. "And you didn't have to come greet me in person."
"But he did," Jiraiya interjected. "You are, after all, an officially-visiting head of another village."
"...politics."
"Very annoying," Naruto agreed. "But appearances dictate certain things."
Shisui sighed. "True, and I should've considered that side of things. But I was here two days ago."
"And today you're officially arriving as the Hokage."
"Bah."
"As such, you get to stay in a fancier hotel room."
"...I didn't want a fancier hotel room."
"Sucks to be you, Hokage-sama."
Naruto got a light glare for the unusual-for-him formality, but simply grinned in return. After a moment he then turned to Jiraiya. "By the way, your teammate and a couple of your former students are here."
"I know Tsunade is here, and I think you're my only living student of note."
"Your other teammate, who you will need to avoid trying to kill if only for diplomatic reasons, plus Nagato and Konan."
Apparently Jiraiya was forgoing the 'bodyguard' side of bodyguard duties, given that he vanished off the airship pad at that.
"I still can't believe that all my reports said that all three of you had died," Jiraiya said as he sat in the hot spring with Nagato.
"We've learned that Danzo faked those while working with Hanzo," Nagato said with a scowl. "Out of some kind of desire to get leverage over Hanzo that had no hope of success, but at the same time 'conveniently' ensuring that Yahiko died after refusing the 'aid' of 'Madara' in running things. Far, far too many things keep lining up to benefit that man up until the 'decoy jinchuriki' was revealed in Konoha."
"Ah. That's...very likely someone or something playing an even longer game that the Uchiha were caught up in."
"...a longer game?"
Jiraiya nodded, thinking back to some of what had come out of Konoha recently. A lot of it wasn't his tale to tell in detail for how it was discovered...but he didn't need to include that at all. "A warning left by the Sage of Six Paths for his descendants with the sharingan was edited to instead directly contradict the warning and include instructions for accomplishing what had been warned against, calling it the salvation of the Uchiha clan. The original message predated the name 'Uchiha', plus at least one of the other things referenced in the edits, and the original meaning has since been restored. But given that some of what you described follows those instructions, and obtaining a rinnegan was part of them as well?"
"How long of a game do you think this might be part of?"
"At least nine centuries, to revive the 'rabbit goddess' that sought to reclaim all chakra as her own. I'm reliably informed that said revival has been made impossible now though and she should be fully dead instead of only mostly dead."
"Welcome to Uzushiogakure," Naruto greeted the Tsuchikage and his granddaughter Kurotsuchi as they stepped off the airship. "You two are the last to arrive."
"We've been a bit busy," the Tsuchikage said.
"Indeed. Are you aiming to bankrupt the Earth Daimyo?"
"Just make him obviously look like the fool he is. Of course, you're also a bit of a fool, claiming to be a Kage at your age."
"Age doesn't mean everything, and you're getting old enough for age to start catching up to you."
"I do keep telling him that," Kurotsuchi agreed.
"You just want to take the hat before you're ready for it," the Tsuchikage retorted. "Assuming you ever are."
"I'd like to warn you that Deidara showed up a couple of days ago and you need to be careful around his cooking."
"Deidara-nii is here?" Kurotsuchi asked, obviously surprised.
"He's always disliked cooking," the Tsuchikage said. "No surprise that we need to be wary of it."
"Oh, he's gotten much better," Naruto insisted. "You just have to be careful not to prime any of it to explode before consuming it."
"...he figured out how to make his cooking explode?"
"Yes, though he needs to learn to balance what he pushes into different things. Explosion release isn't the best choice for all dishes and he seems to realize it, but he's got a habit of pushing it into everything he makes."
"Where did he learn that?" Kurotsuchi asked.
Naruto shrugged. "I gave him some of my cooking and challenged him to figure it out. Took him less time than I expected, honestly. Your 'forbidden technique' was partially of Uzumaki origin and usable for a lot more than he uses it for."
"Did we create any of our forbidden techniques?" the Tsuchikage half-grumbled.
In lieu of answering, Naruto just led them to where they were staying, pointing out the hot springs in the back of the hotel as they arrived.
Onoki sighed as he watched his granddaughter berate his grand-nephew for 'running off like that'. She seemed to have taken more offense at him doing so without saying goodbye to her than anything else, but they had been quite close before he'd run off. Would've been nice if he'd asked for access to the forbidden technique and gotten the warnings instead of stealing a copy of the instructions and then blowing up the rest too...
"I couldn't stick around after it was discovered that I'd grabbed the instructions," Deidara insisted. "Even if it was unfair that I was only caught trying to put the original back."
"That technique was forbidden for a reason," Onoki interrupted. "Namely, the number of shinobi that died trying to use it."
"They were weaklings," Deidara insisted, barely escaping from his little cousin.
"More like you were incredibly lucky that you didn't screw up a hand seal."
"...I practiced the things for a month before even considering putting chakra into any of them, hm."
Onoki blinked a couple of times. "You had the original scroll for a month before anyone found out?"
"Yes? Nobody paid attention to the scrolls so long as there were the right number in the safe, and that's assuming anyone other than me had opened it in the year or so before then."
"Huh. The other dozen or so people that stole that one over the years tended to try to complete it within a day of getting a copy."
"...so they were idiots, hm."
"And then you blew up the entire safe and everything in it on your way out."
Deidara was obviously surprised about that. "The safe should've been able to handle twice what I threw at the room?"
"Only when closed and the seals active."
"...seals?"
Onoki sighed. "You got into the safe without even noticing the seals?"
"Or someone else got past the seals but not the physical lock," Kurotsuchi suggested. "Deidara-nii was always good with physical things."
"This would've been nice to know years ago, though we still lost all the copies of the technique."
"I kept my personal copy," Deidara said, digging into a pouch and pulling out a scroll case. "Not like I need it anymore anyway, hm. Gave Uzumaki a copy too, but he didn't go all the way to the end. You don't need the extra mouths to make working chakra into materials easier if you're cooking instead, but I've not had time to try to learn how to make kunai to see if I can pull the trick with metalworking."
"It works for cooking?" Kurotsuchi asked, apparently having forgotten some of the comments from when they'd arrived. Or not made the connection, perhaps?
"That's how I made my pocky, hm."
"How about you two work on making a couple more copies," Onoki said. "At least one without the final set of instructions, as that's generally seen as the most dangerous portion anyway. Then perhaps you can provide tips for how Kurotsuchi can perform things safely after a couple weeks to a month of practicing the hand seals herself."