Under the moonlight, the forest was silent.
Koyuki lay contentedly on the bed, her eyes slightly narrowed, her expression lazy. After a moment of hesitation, she reached for the mirror by the bedside, her arm as straight as a line.
Her skin was like steaming milk, every movement seeming to spill over.
"Awake?"
"Mhm."
The sound seemed to squeeze out of her throat, with a heavy nasal tone. The light in the room was dim, and her mind was foggy. When she opened her eyes, she noticed the other party seemed to be leaving.
It was the middle of the night, not yet dawn.
"Are you leaving?" Her voice was hazy, filled with exhaustion.
"Yeah, you should rest well." Naruto replied, glancing back at her for a moment, his gaze lingering on her delicate, flower-like body.
But only for a moment. As the door creaked shut, the bedroom fell into silence once more.
The dim bedside lamp illuminated a corner of the room. Koyuki’s back was tense, and she pursed her lips as she looked at the closed door in silence.
After a long while, she finally relaxed and let out a soft sigh.
Koyuki was wearing a burgundy pleated nightgown at this time. Her shoulder strap slipped down as she collapsed onto the messy, snow-white bed, like a plum blossom blooming in the snow.
…
The next day.
"Turn the steering wheel to the left! Hard left!! Damn it, Lee, you turned it too far!"
"Turn what too far?" Lee scratched his head.
"Hard left! Turn the steering wheel hard left!" Naruto was on the verge of a breakdown, clutching his head. "Good brother, we’re driving! Don’t look at me, watch the road!"
Jiraiya squatted in the snow, squinting his eyes as he watched Lee and Naruto slowly reverse the two snowmobiles in the open space, and couldn't help but smile.
The cold wind howled as Neji sat nearby, bundled in a thick white coat, watching His gaze shifted to the other empty snowmobile parked on the snow.
He suddenly turned his head and found that Jiraiya seemed to be staring at the same snowmobile, so he closed his eyes.
The moment he closed his eyes, he heard the rustling sound of Jiraiya getting up.
"I’ll give it a try too." Jiraiya laughed heartily, then walked toward the idle snowmobile.
Neji naturally had no objections. Although he wanted to try it too, he couldn’t exactly compete with a senior like Jiraiya. But just as Jiraiya approached the vehicle, a head popped out from the other circling snowmobile.
"Pervy Sage! Do you even know how to drive? Wait for me to teach you."
"What do you mean, do I know how to drive?" Jiraiya was immediately annoyed. He climbed into the snowmobile and slammed the door shut with a dull thud.
"Is this thing really that hard? I just need to figure it out."
"Haha," Naruto crossed his arms, watching with a smirk, clearly thinking, ‘Go ahead, show me what you’ve got.’
"This…" Jiraiya had spent half his life gathering intelligence, traveling far and wide, but he was completely unfamiliar with this new technology.
Staring at the confusing array of gauges and control, he felt a bit lost, but he refused to lose face in front of Naruto, so he pretended to be calm and started fiddling with the controls.
The snowmobile’s engine roared like a beast, and the headlights, which Jiraiya had accidentally turned on, lit up. The entire vehicle seemed to come alive, launching forward with a sudden burst of speed.
"Hiss~~!!" Naruto couldn't help but gasp when he saw this.
He hadn’t expected Jiraiya, at his age, to still have a need for speed. He had been ready to watch him make a fool of himself, but instead, Jiraiya pulled off a perfect launch.
"Someone, come and save me!" Jiraiya panicked.
Unfortunately, his voice was drowned out by the roar of the engine. The vehicle shot away from the open space like a gust of wind, speeding across the snow.
As he broke out in a cold sweat, Jiraiya also felt extremely excited.
The snowy scenery rushed past, the cold wind pouring in. In the distance, the snow-capped mountains and glaciers stretched out, a bright path cutting through the mountainside, breathtakingly beautiful.
The speed kept increasing, and Jiraiya frantically let go of the accelerator. After fumbling around, he slammed on the brakes.
Bang!
His head nearly hit the steering wheel.
Having fun, Pervy Sage?" Naruto caught up from behind, leaned over to the driver's window and chuckled, "I see you're quite skilled at it."
"It's okay." Jiraiya said, maintaining his composure, unwilling to admit he had no idea what he was doing.
The group spent the entire day playing with the snowmobiles, even skipping a proper lunch to keep going. It didn’t take long for them to get the hang of driving.
Naruto couldn’t help but smile at the scene, ‘As expected, there is no man who could resist the allure of driving, whether it was a real vehicle or a toy car.’
This reminded him of the hard time he had practicing driving before coming to this world. He couldn’t help but smirk, ‘Driving was just a matter of practice, and it felt great to learn without having to enroll in a driving school.’
…
At night.
The four of them gathered for dinner. They had played too much during the day and looked a little exhausted. After eating and drinking their fill, Neji and Lee left to get some sleep.
Only the master and student remained at the table. Jiraiya raised his eyelids and smiled drunkenly. He tapped his cup on the table and asked, "Is the Land of Snow your personal playground?"
"Yeah." Since Neji was not around, Naruto did not intend to hide it. "I helped Kazahana Koyuki reclaim her throne, and in return, she gave me some control. It’s my personal playground."
"The queen of the Land of Snow?" Jiraiya poured himself another drink, pointed at Naruto and said with a smile, "You’ve got some guts, kid. You’re not afraid of anything."
"Never mind, I won’t pry into your relationship." He set his cup down, "Naruto, you’re an adult now. I know you can make your own decisions."
"An old man like me talking too much might just annoy you young folks. But I still have to remind you, the heart can’t be divided into pieces."
Hearing this, Naruto fell silent for a moment, not refuting Jiraiya's words.
Jiraiya was a little surprised by this, as he knew his disciple's character very well.
He knew Naruto is a someone who could talk a dead man back to life or convince a living person they were dead.
But now, Naruto wasn’t saying a word, which was unusual.
"Pervy Sage, I understand what you mean." Naruto said, taking a sip of his drink, "But right now, I don’t have a choice. I want to get things done as quickly as possible."
"Yeah, just do what you think is best." Jiraiya smiled, "Although I don’t know what you’re planning, I just hope you don’t do anything you’ll regret."
After saying this, Jiraiya drank heavily and eventually passed out drunk on the table.