Chapter 234: Tower
—
Today was the sixth day of Shizune and the Hyuga boy's promise.
That boy apparently had other plans, so he scheduled her dancing session a bit earlier than usual, and although she complained at first, she didn't have a choice but to arrive right in time.
Around the end of the session, she was breathing heavily. She and Neji were dancing together, his hands on her waist, accidentally groping places he shouldn't.
Shizune wouldn't admit it, but she was enjoying it. She was 36 years old, yet she had never had a relationship before. She wasn't a virgin, no, but since she was just moving from country to country with Tsunade most of her life, no relationship was possible. Moreover, she didn't want to find a man for herself as that'd mean she'd have to leave Tsunade. She couldn't bring herself to do that. However, that made her body not listen to her sometimes, and she craved love more than anything. So this… being touched like this by a young man, a very handsome one at that, Shizune didn't hate it.
However, their deal wasn't about this. She frowned and slapped his hands.
"Stop it." She said, her voice harsh. "You're intentionally doing this, aren't you? Continue this and I will get mad." Shizune said, biting down a soft moan as he refused to free her. Yes, that obsessive touch, she didn't hate it.
However, as if triggered by her words, instead of touching her waist softly, Neji's right arm wrapped around her belly from behind, while his left hand grabbed her chin and made her face turn back.
She blushed. "W-what are you doing?!"
Neji leaned over, his lips barely an inch away from hers as Shizune's failed to form any words. His right hand lowered slightly to touch her lower abdomen, making her shudder. Slowly, she closed her eyes, giving up any resistance and deciding to just roll on with it… Well, it's fine, they wouldn't talk much after tomorrow anyway. It's fine.
"Pfft-" her eyes snapped open as she heard a snort, watching as he released her, barely containing his laughter… before he started to laugh out loud. "Ahaha! What was that submissive expression just now, Shizune? I almost thought you wanted me to do it." He wiped happy tears from the corner of his eyes. "Good lord, you're lucky I didn't have any plan to take advantage of you."
Shizune stood in her place, her face burning as she glared at him. Controlling her shaky voice, she gritted out a growl. "Is that all for today? I happened to have some plans myself."
The boy leaned against the wall and smiled. Ugh, he's so clueless even with a charming smile like that. But at least he really didn't take advantage of her. Even though he made her wear questionable clothes, he at least had some common sense in him.
Without a word, Shizune changed out of her "street dancing outfit", as he called it, and left for her house.
"...Fuuuh." She was so turned on.
—★—
Neji wasn't lying when he said he had plans. That's why he acted dense.
With Shizune gone, it was 10 PM in the night, and so Neji grabbed a confused Toga, put her in his inventory, and made way towards the Tower in the Forest of Death.
"You are late, Papa!" Kurai complained once he reached the rendezvous spot, sitting on top of the pile of a few dozen half-beaten-to-death huge hedgehogs. "I was getting bored."
"You know, this is animal abuse, right?" Neji said while looking up at Kurai who was sitting on her paws on top of the small mountain of half-dead bodies. "What a bad girl."
"It was them who messed with me when I was just playing with some cute rabbits! They attacked my friends, of course I will take revenge for them." Kurai scoffed, looking away.
Neji used telekinesis to bring her to his chest and hugged him. "Hey, I was joking. Don't be so mad. How about I buy you some mango bars later on?"
"Hmph. There aren't any mango bars in this world." Kurai complained.
"But there is in that place." Neji pointed his finger at the tower dungeon not far from here. "Remember, Yue opened a factory just for you?"
The Tower dungeon. This was the only dungeon present in this world. According to Sisty, she had used her authority to mesh every other dungeon in the world into a single Tower of ten regions. He was thankful for that, but it also meant the difficulty was just that high.
Kurai looked at the tower and looked back up at him. "Okay. Then let's go."
Neji patted her head and walked over to the tower.
It was a round tower made of black rock with a door made of shining diamond. Neji could access the Arcane Plane anytime without the need of a tower, however, this tower would let him access another part of that world.
He pushed the door open as blinding blue light devoured him entirely.
—-
Neji found himself on the edge of a mountain, looking down on the sandy world below.
"A desert?" Kurai asked.
"It seems so."
He closed his eyes and tried to feel the Arcane Plane. Arcane Plane was the continent he conquered, and he had changed its previous name to this. The entire world's name was different, though it's more accurate to say they didn't have a name for the world at all. They just called it The World. In any case, Neji could feel the Arcane Plane in the far far distance from this place, so this means this desert really existed within the world of Arcane Plane.
'Sisty, is the clearing pattern the same as before? Kill bosses, unlock regions?' Neji asked in his mind, curious.
[Yes, master. But rather than Save Stones, you'd have to find Save Flags. Though be careful, this part of the world is harder than the Arcane plane since it counts not only your Level, but also your other abilities.]
Neji found that better. This means the monsters will be of higher levels and he will grow faster.
But that's for some other time.
"Anyway, let's move away from here."
Neji channelled his authority and opened a portal to [Arcane Plane]. He wasn't planning to hunt the tower today, and the only reason he entered it in the first place was to register its coordinates in his "Dungeon Master" authority so that he could open a portal to this side of the tower anytime, even if he wasn't in the Naruto World at all. Because he wasn't sure if he wanted to complete this tower while being in Naruto world.
He walked through the portal with Kurai and appeared on the rooftop of his palace in the great forest.
"..."
On this side of the world, it was nighttime. Yet, there were two people on the rooftop.
Two green-skinned women, one was larger than Neji and one was smaller. The two monster girls, an Ogre and an Orc, were playing a board game while chatting amongst themselves. They didn't notice Neji because of his [Blank] skill, but once he cleared his throat, their heads snapped at him with caution.
"..."
"It's…"
Their caution, once they saw Neji, vanished as they stood up, walking over to Neji.
"My Liege…?" Mursha, looking a bit older than he remembered, said in disbelief. "Is that you?"
"I- it is him, I think. His Mana is sensible now, though I still can't gauge its depths, but it… really him." The other girl, the Witch Slaassee, confirmed as she strode towards Neji. She also looked a bit older.
Neji didn't smile, he looked at them with nervousness. "So… how long has it been?"
Their change wasn't much, but given one was a part Viking and one was a Witch, any change could mean a long time has passed.
"Uh… 15 years." Mursha said. "It's been… 15 years, my liege. We all through you perished. Though Empress Yue said she'll notice if you were to die."
15 years. Time passed 10x slower than the outside world when Neji is outside, and 10x faster than outside when Neji is inside. Meaning, the 153 years he spent unconscious, the time here had still flowed the usual 10x slower, because the time of this world was connected with his personal time.
Shit.
He had expected it, but hoped his theory was incorrect. But… it really happened.
-Fwoosh!
Something moved through the wind at a fast speed, and in the next second, a huge blue-and-white-haired woman with wolf ears and a tail dropped on the roof in front of him.
"I was right…" the woman, Andrius, said. "That scent… I couldn't have mistaken it."
The three girls exchanged glances, staying silent for a whole minute before they all jumped to hug him.
"You are finally back!"
"You have no idea how much I missed up!"
"Glad to see you again!"
Kurai had jumped off Neji's shoulders, as he was pushed to the floor, and being licked, bitten, and hugged by the three girls.
"Hey, hey, don't eat me! I am not going anywhere!"
As they continued their hug battle, another portal opened on the rooftop and… a small blonde vampire walked out, followed by a pale-skinned girl in her teens.
"Neji…" Yue said. "You're finally back."
"Congrats." Raven said, her tone not at all emotional as Yue's. "You got your Mana back."
Neji smiled and used «Big Show» to have enough space in his chest to hug all five of ths girls here. Yue came flying on his chest, and although Raven looked annoyed, she didn't fight back either.
Kurai growled once, but before she could turn around and leave, Neji grabbed her too.
He had 12 hours in the outside world, meaning 5 days in this world. He should use these five days to catch up with everyone and also learn some spells from Kurai, Yue, and Raven.
Neji suddenly felt relieved to be back at home.
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