[9] Wood-Clone!
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Chapter 9: Wood-Clone!
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The siblings woke up at the earliest to take a shower, eat breakfast, and then visit the Royal Palace to inform them about Tsunade's leave.
Hashirama learned that Tsunade had told the King and Queen about her desire to join the Marines before already, and was only waiting for him to grow 16 years old. He felt somewhat annoyed at being left out and only learning about this so suddenly, on such short notice, but he didn't complain.
The Royals wished Tsunade good luck and then permitted them to leave— along with Vivi and the royal knight, Pell, who would be coming along with Hashirama to check on Yuba.
The problem was that Nanohana city– the place from where Tsunade will be taking a ship– is located on the far south of the kingdom, while Yuba was on the west side. The two sides were cut in two by the Sandora River.
So they'd either have to go to Yuba first, taking Tsunade with them, or they should rather drop Tsunade in Nanohana first before going to Yuba.
"Or not." Hashirama rejected Vivi's offer, as they were right outside the Alubarna gate and were deciding which way to take. "Either will waste time. Perhaps the second is better since you'd want to say goodbye to Tsunade at the port too, but you can do that just here."
"Uh… yeah, he's right." Tsunade replied, smiling. "You guys go to Yuba, it seems like an emergency there. I can go to Nanohana alone?"
"Alone?" Hashirama frowned. "I am coming with you."
"But then-"
Vivi tried to say something, but she was interrupted by Hashirama who closed his eyes and clasped his hands together. Not long after, wood came out of Hashirama’s shadow, twisting and distorting to form a humanoid shape that soon looked like a replica of Hashirama, with the clothes to boot.
"What the?"
"Wood Clone." The copy of Hashirama said, even his voice was the same. "I will lead you to Yuba while the Main goes with Tsunade."
Vivi was confused and surprised, and even Tsunade looked the same. Even his sister didn't know he had such abilities.
That wasn't the end though, Vivi watched as the original Hashirama clasped his hands once more. He closed his eyes and concentrated as, not long after, a giant centipede crawled out of the ground. It was giant, easily 20 feet in length, and it was made of wood.
'Seriously, what can he not make out of wood?' Vivi couldn't help but ask herself. 'Stupid power.'
Tsunade was surprised too, but she followed Hashirama's gesture to take a seat behind him on top of the giant, wooden centipede.
"Alright, then Vivi Princess," the supposed Main body said, turning to her. "I will return to Yuba as soon as possible after seeing Tsunade off. Till then, goodbye."
Then, he left, the centipede moving at an unbelievable speed out of the forest that Hashirama had made years ago, and into the desert outside.
Vivi just sighed and looked at the copy of him that he left.
"So what now?" She asked, watching him immediately clasp his hands as if to create another of that gruesome centipede. "W-what are you doing?!"
"Huh? Oh, making one of those for us. It's faster than these Super Ducks," he pointed at the duck troops beside her. "They could take us to Yuba in around half a day's worth of time, but with that centipede, it would take much shorter."
"No! Doesn't matter! I am not riding that ugly centipede thing!" Vivi complained, quickly hiding behind Pell. "Gross."
"..." The copy of Hashirama stared at her silently before putting his hands down and shrugging his shoulders, making Vivi release a relieved sigh. "Sure. It's better to move slowly anyway, since if both the Main and I move fast towards the opposite direction, he would be late catching up to us."
In the end, they took the Super Spot-Billed Duck Troops to move.
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"So how does it work exactly?"
A few hours later, Vivi asked as they moved through the hot desert beside Pell and Hashirama. The Alabasta Kingdom had forests now, but that didn’t mean that most of the country wasn’t desert still.
"The clone thingy, I mean. Since you are a seemingly intelligent copy, don't you wanna wish to replace him? Or didn't you at least wanna leave with Tsunade, instead of the Main one?"
"You sound almost as if you are trying to set me up against myself," Hashirama laughed out at that, barely sweating under the hotness even though she herself was soaking wet.
“I am not…”
"Well, I am an extension of the Main's will. When the Main, or even I, create a clone— I need to grant it a 'goal' to fulfil, the clone will use my will and motivation to fulfil that goal. The Main created me with the will to do the Yuba part of his job, so I don’t feel ‘left-out’ for not being able to see Tsunade leave."
"Hmmm," Vivi looked at him with prying eyes. "Hey, can you tell me which girl Hashirama has a crush on?"
Hashirama gave her a dry look. "I think you missed the point. I am still Hahsirama, you aren't asking that question to somebody else. Besides, why are you so interested in that anyway?"
"A-ah, I didn't think this through!" Vivi quickly grumbled and snapped her face forward, blushing softly. "Dammit…"
Moreover, Pell was chuckling to the side, which just made her want to hide her face.
"As for your question, by the way," Hashirama looked at the dusty road behind. "Well, maybe I do have a crush…."
Vivi frowned.
* * *
On the other side of the Kingdom, Hashirama was with Tsunade, moving like wind through the desert with Tsunade tightly hugging him from the back.
"Why don't you slow down a little?!"
Tsunade cried in an exasperated voice as the centipede leapt from a sand hill, rising in the air and making her gasp.
"A-are you in so much hurry to see your sister gone?!"
It was a prude joke to make him stop, but Tsunade was surprised when he actually did stop, the centipede becoming many times slower upon landing on the sand. He turned to look at her with surprised eyes.
"I didn't mean that," he quickly said. "Sorry."
Tsunade sighed and hugged him tightly. "Idiot, I am just joking. Don't act so soft all of a sudden."
Really, since when was he so easy to apologise?
After that, the centipede moved at a moderate speed. Tsunade didn't suffer from the hyper-hot sun in the air, as a wooden rooftop had erupted from the centipede to cover Hashirama and her bodies with shade.
They travelled through the desert as cool wind blew them.
Tsunade nudged closer to him and hugged him to feel him properly from behind. She hoped he wouldn't think much of it, and would forget it as an unwilling gesture due to this scenario. Her chest was pushing against his back and her hands wrapped around his waist, squeezing it to feel the hardness.
She stayed like that, her head resting on his shoulder as she closed her eyes and enjoyed the surprisingly smooth travel.
At one point, the bit of hotness that the desert emitted had vanished as well, and upon opening her eyes to see what was happening, she found the sky darkened as a storm was brewing.
A minute later, it started raining.
"Do we stop?" Hashirama asked when the rain was still light. "I can make a house until it calms down."
The sky rumbled as lightning split it in half.
"No…" Tsunade whispered to his ears, unshaken by the sight. "I like this atmosphere. Let's keep going. The rooftop will keep us mostly dry, and I can always change my clothes before taking the ship.”
Hashirama flowed his chakra to the roof to expand a bit to every side, curving the wood like an umbrella, and then they continued their travel.
The rain grew as time passed, and soon it was as if a storm had started. Hashirama had asked her a few more times if they should stop or not, but she insisted on continuing. She liked this rain.
At one point, while feeling the rain hit her skin in multiple places, Tsunade's eyes couldn't help but lock on his neck where a drop of water was trailing down. Instinctively, or perhaps she really wanted to do it, she leaned over and licked the drop.
‘...!’
She flinched back right after that, realising what she had just done, but she calmed down when he didn't seem to react.
She gulped as an idea occurred to her head.
It was raining, droplets of water were hitting both him and her, then maybe he wouldn't notice if…
Taking a deep breath, slowly, Tsunade leaned over and kissed his nape.
He didn't react.
Her hands tightened around his waist, her chest pushing forward as she kissed again. They were soft kisses, which he probably mistook for droplets of rain hitting him, that's why he wasn't reacting.
As minutes passed, she got bolder, kissing her brother's neck and licking it, her crotch rubbing against the seat as she knew she needed to change her clothes after this.
"Sis,"
Suddenly, the centipede stopped, sliding on the sand, as a flushed Hashirama turned his head around to look at her.
"I can… feel you. You are not subtle."
"..." Tsunade looked dazed before reality sunk in. "Oh… I- uh, this is, Shira-"
Tsunade could do nothing as he shut her up by pulling her by the waist in front of him and locking her lips with his.
"You brought this upon yourself,"
She heard him say as he kissed her again, his hands hugging her curves and making her mind go numb.
"You should have told me from the beginning that you don't wanna go."
Tsunade moaned, her mind still deciding what was reality and what was not as she felt herself at the hands of her brother's mercy, making love with her tongue with a passion she didn't know he had for her.
For a moment, Tsunade seemed to feel her parents’ disgusted scornful look on her back.
Ah shit…
She had done it now.
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