Time really flies. Before they knew it, the wedding was just around the corner.
Everything for the wedding had already been prepared. The few small things that remained no longer required Aoba to worry about.
But because of this grand wedding, quite a few people who had been working elsewhere or carrying out missions had come back.
It also gave many old friends who hadn't seen each other in a long time a rare chance to get together.
After a long time, Aoba also headed to Yakiniku(BBQ) again.
After finishing today's work, he had originally planned to walk there. After all, it wasn't far from the Hokage Building, and he could take the chance to enjoy the atmosphere of the village as it was now.
But after walking only a short distance and experiencing the villagers' enthusiasm, he used the Transformation Jutsu.
Only after entering the private room at Yakiniku did he undo the transformation.
"Aoba, you took so long."
Inside the room, Sasuke, Naruto, Shikamaru, Choji, Kiba Inuzuka, Sai, and Shino had all already arrived.
Seeing Aoba arrive, Naruto immediately smiled and waved.
"You guys just came too early. I came over as soon as I finished my work at the Hokage Building."
Aoba sat down beside him, indicating that he had already come as fast as he could.
Besides, there were still fifteen minutes before the meeting time.
Today was a long-overdue gathering of friends.
Or maybe it counted as a bachelor party, since none of the girls had come.
Offering congratulations at the wedding was one thing, but as friends, they naturally had to celebrate properly in private as well.
"Looks like being Hokage isn't easy. You're so popular that you have to use the Transformation Jutsu just to go out."
Kiba couldn't help teasing him.
"It's mainly because of the wedding. The whole village knows about it now. I'd only walked a few steps before a bunch of villagers came over to congratulate me. If I responded to every one of them, we'd end up blocking the road, so I just used a Transformation Jutsu," Aoba spread his hands helplessly.
Under the current circumstances, the villagers might not all recognize the brides, but they definitely recognized him, the groom.
But when his gaze shifted to the large dog squatting obediently nearby with its tongue hanging out at him, he froze for a moment.
"By the way... was Akamaru this big a year ago?"
"Haha! I guess he hit his growth period. He got a little bigger this year."
Kiba laughed as he rubbed Akamaru's head.
"Woof~ Woof~"
Akamaru immediately barked twice in a spoiled manner.
Aoba: "..."
'Is this what you call getting a little bigger?'
He remembered that at last year's gathering before the New Year, Akamaru had still been sitting on top of Kiba's head.
Now Kiba could ride on Akamaru's back.
'Maybe that's just how dogs grow.'
"Getting married really is troublesome..."
Shikamaru sighed. Just thinking about having to prepare so many things for a wedding already felt like too much trouble.
Then he looked at Aoba and said in disbelief, "Still, I never expected you to decide to get married this early."
He had originally thought that, given Aoba's situation, he'd put off something like marriage for as long as possible.
After all, with so many people involved, just deciding the order would be a huge headache. If he couldn't treat everyone equally, the whole family would probably be thrown into chaos.
But he had never imagined that Aoba would come up with something as outrageous as having everyone marry at once.
He could only say he wanted to learn from it. He already found dealing with just one troublesome enough.
"Yeah, yeah. Aoba, you're getting married way too early. Lately, every time I go home, my mom nags me about getting married. I've been hiding out at Sasuke's house for days."
Naruto nodded repeatedly, saying Aoba's wedding had come far too early and far too suddenly.
"..."
Sasuke merely rolled his eyes at Naruto's words.
Aoba, however, suddenly understood.
No wonder Kushina had kept saying these past few days that Naruto never came home at night and kept staying over at his house.
Now Aoba finally knew the reason.
Still, he felt that Kushina had already started taking things as they came. She only nagged Naruto and Sasuke about it once in a while now.
She had even started trying to convince Kurenai to let her help take care of her future child.
Aoba felt that definitely wouldn't end well.
As for Shikamaru's comment, he narrowed his eyes.
"Speaking of that, it actually has a little to do with you and Choji."
"Hm?"
Shikamaru and Choji, who was already getting ready to grill the meat, were both stunned.
"It has something to do with us too?"
"Yeah. I heard from Ino that you and Choji have both started thinking about getting married."
It did have something to do with it. At the very least, it made Aoba realize that he had actually reached the age to get married.
Before that, he hadn't thought about marriage at all.
That was why, when Mei Terumi brought it up afterward, he agreed without hesitation.
"I knew Ino would tell you... But we only just confirmed our relationship. We're not getting married that soon..."
Shikamaru rubbed his nose helplessly.
"Huh?"
At that moment, Naruto and Kiba both slapped the table and stood up at the same time, crying out in surprise.
Sasuke, Sai, and Shino were also somewhat taken aback.
Then Naruto and Kiba immediately turned on Shikamaru and Choji.
They complained that the two of them hadn't even told them something like this.
Shikamaru and Choji could only smile helplessly.
[T/N: Wtf?]
In the end, they each punished themselves by drinking three large glasses of cola before the matter was finally let go.
Naruto, however, really didn't care much about girlfriends. He was just surprised and joined in the teasing a little.
Sai was also quite open-minded about this sort of thing.
As for Sasuke, he felt that a girlfriend would only affect his sword drawing speed.
Kiba, meanwhile, hugged Akamaru's head and muttered complaints for quite a while.
Throughout it all, the quiet Shino looked at the bugs in his hand and said that having his insects with him was enough.
"..."
Aoba couldn't help smiling sincerely at the scene.
A lot had changed in the ninja world over the past year, but some things would never change.
None of them really liked drinking alcohol, so they ate grilled meat with cola while chatting about things to watch out for when getting married.
Originally, Shikamaru and Choji wanted to learn from Aoba's experience, but once they started asking, they realized his experience was completely useless.
After all, Aoba had barely been involved in the wedding preparations.
There wasn't the slightest reference value.
They didn't have that many girlfriends to help out.
So, Shikamaru changed the subject.
The meal quickly came to an end.
The setting sun slowly disappeared, and darkness gradually enveloped Konoha's long streets.
The group also parted ways outside the yakiniku restaurant.
There was nothing to feel sentimental about. They would all meet again at the wedding the next day.
Before leaving, however, Sasuke punched Aoba lightly in the chest.
"Take good care of my mother!"
After saying that, he turned and left without giving Aoba a chance to answer.
Seeing Sasuke disappear after only a few steps, Naruto hurriedly said to Aoba, "Aoba, and my mom too. She's definitely gone to your house again. Help me look after her too. I've gotta go."
"?"