Four days of celebration later…
"Raikage-sama asked me that, since you're heading there, he'd like you to deliver this scroll to the Daimyō of the Land of Snow." Mabui handed a sealed yellow scroll to her brother, who was in the garden of the compound with everything prepared.
"How did he know I was—?" Chad asked, looking at the scroll in confusion before realizing. "Sis!"
"I couldn't help it! This has been gathering dust on the Raikage's desk for weeks, and it'll be much faster if you deliver it yourself," Mabui said with slight guilt. "The Fire Daimyō is trying to restore trade with the Land of Snow, and we can't allow that."
"Weeks?" Chad raised an eyebrow. "Shouldn't it be our 'esteemed' Daimyō handling this?"
Mabui turned her head to the side.
"Uh-huh. So he tried, failed miserably, and since he didn't want to lose more prestige, he simply gave up," Chad read the unspoken information. "And since the Raikage found out, he doesn't want Konoha gaining indirect benefits from trade with the Land of Snow, and he knows about my situation—so he passed the ball to me."
No wonder the scroll had been gathering dust—they'd been waiting for him to go there in person!
"Take it as a favor for making me and the others spend four days in Mom's old apartment, okay?"
Chad clenched his jaw, realizing he might have overdone it a little.
"Anything else?" he sighed, silently resigning himself.
"Yes, this other scroll too." Mabui handed him a much more ordinary red scroll.
"Another exchange of letters?"
"I prefer to call it an intelligence exchange," Mabui countered, waving him off. "Oh, and remember to come back in time for the next hunt."
"I know, I know…" Chad stored the scrolls and moved toward the more open area of the garden.
But Mabui suddenly remembered something.
"Wait! You left everything cleaned up before you left, right?" she asked suspiciously. "At least they've regained consciousness."
Chad glanced at her from the corner of his eye.
"Tensō no Jutsu! (Heavenly Transfer Technique!)"
And he vanished in a beam of light.
Mabui pressed her lips together—more to hold back laughter than out of real annoyance.
"I taught you that technique, and now you use it to run away from me?"
The most frustrating part was that he had better mastery of it than she did!
Of course, she had only used it for emergencies during the war to transport critical supplies. Her brother, on the other hand, used it to travel enormous distances while enduring the strain with his own body.
"Even I wouldn't dare use that technique on myself," she was well aware that while she was fit, she wasn't absurdly resilient like her brother. "Probably only Raikage-sama could withstand something like that too."
She entered the compound, ready to deal with the mess, only to realize her brother had actually cleaned everything up before leaving. There were even prepared dishes that only needed reheating.
"He got me again," Mabui sighed with a smile.
Well, better for her. It would've been awkward as hell to deal with the remains of that "celebration."
…
Land of Snow, Yukigakure.
"Still as cold as ever," Chad looked around the local village, confirming everything remained the same while an imperceptible layer of chakra surrounded his body to maintain his temperature.
"Chad-sama!" several ninjas and kunoichi from Yukigakure rushed to him as soon as his figure appeared in the plaza.
"Oh, Mizore, Fubuki. How have things been lately?" he greeted them.
Yukigakure had no Kage, but among its inhabitants, Fubuki currently held the equivalent position as leader, while Mizore had become her most loyal right hand.
As for why they reacted to him like this—his position was complicated to explain.
"The village has continued to prosper, just as it has since the fall of Doto and Nadare," Fubuki reported with a smile, her green eyes radiating pride. "There's been no shortage of missions thanks to our close collaboration with Lady Daimyō Kazahana, and we've even been able to completely repair the village. If this keeps up, we might even need to expand!"
It had also helped greatly that Nadare—the man who had held the most influence in the village in the worst possible way, and her former superior—had died after the incident. He had nearly driven the village into ruin, tempted by a bit of power.
After taking control following his death, Fubuki had found the stash of money Nadare had been siphoning from the village's accounts and reinvested it all.
There were no longer children competing for food to avoid starvation or fuel to avoid freezing to death. In some ways, aside from the chakra armor, Yukigakure hadn't been very different from Suna in the past.
Now, they couldn't call themselves a great village—but the situation was drastically better.
The Daimyō sent a generous number of missions. People began to imitate her example, and with the money earned, the village could purchase many necessities, returning the funds into circulation in a way that benefited both sides.
And the catalyst for all of this was the man standing before them.
"Any progress or issues during my absence?" Chad asked as he walked toward the village gates.
"In fact, now that the village has stabilized, morale has risen significantly, and we've been able to advance in chakra armor research," Fubuki reported, walking beside him with Mizore. "Within three years, we should be able to produce our first stable armors of our own."
"That's significant progress," Chad nodded in satisfaction.
The last time he had asked for updates, the estimate had been ten years.
Doto might have been a second-rate villain, but his ingenuity in creating the armor had been considerable. Unfortunately, the core blueprint of his creation had never left his mind, forcing Yukigakure's ninjas to reverse-engineer the black prototype armor he used.
"As for problems, there are a few, but nothing we can't handle ourselves," Fubuki shook her head. "Ah, the Daimyō received an envoy from the Land of Fire last week—and she's not happy."
Chad had expected as much. While he could travel quickly, civilians took weeks to get here—especially envoys, who made sure to enjoy both the journey there and back, adding even more time to the already long trip.
"Was security reinforced?"
"We have ten jōnin protecting her at all times," Fubuki assured him.
Fubuki and Mizore remained at the village gate, watching Chad run through the air amid a snowstorm.
"You can wipe the drool now," Mizore said in a bored tone.
Fubuki startled and instinctively wiped her sleeve across her mouth.
"Shut up!" she hissed, glancing around in relief that no one had seen her. "Why didn't you say anything earlier?"
"Are you kidding?" Mizore's deadpan gaze regarded her indifferently. "Maybe that guy warms your stomach—but he scares me! I don't want to end up like Nadare."
Things were better now, and he was living well—why risk dying?
"Chad-sama isn't like that, and you know it," Fubuki crossed her arms as she walked back into the village. "We were lucky he spared us back then, remember? And our close cooperation with the Daimyō is also thanks to him."
By the Sage, if Fubuki had to—or could—"sacrifice" herself to keep someone like that on their side, she would sacrifice herself as many times as necessary!
She was aware of certain details, and her kunoichi instincts urged her to… investigate their validity.
But she didn't have that luc—ahem, fortunately, it hadn't come to that.
"It's because I remember what he did that I'm afraid of him," Mizore muttered to himself, casting one last glance at the snowstorm before heading back as well.
…
Arriving at the capital without much effort—snowboarding across the wider, calmer areas with a wooden log—Chad headed straight to the Daimyō's palace via an alternate route.
"Ah!" a maid saw him entering through the window and froze in surprise.
"Shhh." Chad pressed a finger to his lips, recognizing her. "Where is Koyuki now, Minare?"
"Consort-sama, Lady Koyuki-sama is in the third-floor study," the maid whispered. Then she seemed to remember something, and her face flushed so deeply it began to steam. "Uh, do you need me to clear the area to 's-surprise' the Daimyō again?" she asked, nearly stammering.
Chad had to firmly suppress a laugh at the conspiratorial suggestion. Tempting—but perhaps another time.
"No, it's fine," he shook his head, preparing to head toward the study. "Though, would you be so kind as to bring some hot tea when you can? I'd like to shake off the cold from the trip."
"Of course." Minare almost seemed relieved she wouldn't have to repeat that event. "The usual tea?"
"Yes, please."
"I'll be there in fifteen minutes with two cups and a hot teapot," she assured him before hurrying toward the kitchens.
Chad waited until she left before considering his next move.
"Should I take the shortcut or walk?"
The shortcut meant climbing along the outside of the castle and entering through the window—but that might startle the jōnin assigned to Koyuki's security.
"Better to walk," he concluded. "Besides, it's not as cold inside as it is outside."
Even using chakra to fight the cold, the sensation still lingered to some extent. He liked showing off his muscles—but maybe next time he should bring a jacket.