Chapter 3 (Patreon)

Kushina ignored Hiruzen Sarutobi and the ANBU who had followed him.

Roy’s words had forced her to confront something she had never seriously considered before.

Her fondness for Konoha had never truly come from the village itself. It had come from the people she loved.

When she was young, Grandma Mito had cared for her, and Tsunade had always looked after her. Later, she met Minato, the man she loved.

Because of them, she had convinced herself that everything about Konoha was wonderful.

But now that she looked back, that clearly had not been true.

When she first arrived in the village, her classmates had mocked and bullied her because of her red hair. Whenever she walked through the streets, villagers would point at her and whisper because she was an orphan from the Land of Whirlpools.

And when Uzushiogakure was invaded and destroyed, Konoha—its supposed ally—had not sent a single shinobi to help.

The village had taken her in, but had it truly been out of kindness?

The Uzumaki Clan possessed exceptional talent in fūinjutsu, making its members ideal jinchūriki for powerful Tailed Beasts.

Before Kushina, the Nine-Tails had been sealed inside Uzumaki Mito, another woman from the Land of Whirlpools. With Mito nearing the end of her life, Konoha had needed someone capable of succeeding her and containing the Nine-Tails.

Kushina had merely been the most suitable replacement.

As that thought settled in her heart, an even darker possibility crossed her mind.

Perhaps Minato had also been deliberately placed near her so that her heart would remain tied to Konoha.

Kushina immediately shook her head.

She did not want to doubt Minato’s feelings for her.

Besides, had Minato truly been nothing more than a tool prepared by the village, he likely would never have been allowed to rise high enough to become Hokage.

Minato’s love for her had been real.

However, his feelings represented Minato alone.

They did not represent Konoha.

Even Tsunade, who had been born and raised in the village—the granddaughter of the First Hokage and the princess of the Senju Clan—had eventually left because of her disappointment in Konoha.

Kushina could only blame herself.

Because of Minato, she had chosen to ignore the darkness hidden beneath the village’s peaceful surface.

Hiruzen watched the grief spread across Kushina’s face, but he did not take offence at her dismissive attitude.

Minato had sacrificed his life for the village. Considering what Kushina had just lost, Hiruzen could hardly blame her for ignoring him.

Still, something about the situation troubled him.

Someone had extracted the Nine-Tails from Kushina.

A jinchūriki was not supposed to survive the loss of their Tailed Beast, yet Kushina was still alive.

There was also a clear sealing formula on Minato’s newborn son. That meant Minato had ultimately sealed the Nine-Tails inside the child.

Then how had Kushina survived?

The circumstances surrounding her labour were another problem.

The time and location had been classified as top secret. Only a handful of people in the entire village had known about them.

To prevent any accidents, the delivery site had been placed outside Konoha. The Hokage’s personal guards had been stationed there, and the Barrier Team had surrounded the area with protective barriers.

Yet the enemy had still appeared at the exact moment Kushina was weakened by childbirth and had successfully released the Nine-Tails.

The timing had been far too precise to be a coincidence.

Hiruzen suspected that someone within Konoha had leaked the information.

However, when he considered the small number of people who had known about the delivery, he found it difficult to believe that any of them would betray the village.

Could Danzo have been involved?

He has always wanted control over the Tailed Beasts.

As Hiruzen watched Kushina silently carry Minato’s body and Naruto back toward the village, the image of a cold and ruthless man appeared in his mind.

Roy, meanwhile, noticed that none of the people who had arrived seemed capable of seeing him.

He quickly understood why.

He was now a Shinigami, which meant his body was in a spiritual state. Even in the world of Shinigami, only living humans with exceptionally high spiritual power could see spirits.

A shinobi’s chakra was created by combining physical energy with spiritual energy. In other words, a shinobi possessed far greater spiritual power than an ordinary person.

Because Minato had been able to see him, Roy had assumed that every shinobi would also be capable of seeing his spiritual form.

It seemed that assumption had been wrong.

Thinking back, Minato had only noticed Roy after the arm of the summoned Shinigami passed through his body.

Kushina had also only become aware of him after experiencing abnormal contact with his spiritual form.

Otherwise, with Minato’s cautious personality, he would never have used a fatal technique like the Reaper Death Seal while an unknown presence lingered nearby.

At the very least, Minato would have dealt with the possible threat before attempting to seal the Nine-Tails.

As Roy followed Kushina toward Konoha, several thoughts passed through his mind.

Since no one else could see him, did he really need to remain in the village while recovering?

Orochimaru was still in Konoha, and that man was also highly skilled in matters involving souls.

If Orochimaru discovered Roy’s existence, he would probably become even more excited than Jiraiya after finding an opportunity to peek into the women’s bath.

As for the promise Roy had made to Minato, he could always return after recovering his strength.

He doubted that anyone in Konoha, not even Danzo, would recklessly provoke the widow of the village’s fallen hero.

Having reached a decision, Roy took one final look at Kushina’s unsteady back and prepared to leave.

However, when he tried to turn around, his body refused to obey him.

As Kushina continued walking and the distance between them increased, Roy was suddenly jerked several steps forward, as though an invisible force had dragged him after her.

“What is going on?”

Roy stared at Kushina in disbelief.

“Did she use some kind of sealing technique on me?”

He tried forcing his body to remain still, but the pulling sensation did not disappear.

He then attempted to move sideways.

He could not.

“Does a sealing technique like this even exist in the shinobi world?”

Roy took several steps toward Kushina.

The pulling force vanished immediately.

He stopped walking and allowed Kushina to move farther away.

The instant the distance between them exceeded ten metres, the invisible force returned and pulled him forward again.

Roy repeated the experiment several times before finally determining the exact conditions.

“I can only remain directly behind Kushina. I cannot deviate by even a single degree. The maximum distance is ten metres, and the minimum is negative eighteen...”

After confirming the results, Roy’s expression darkened.

“Have I been imprisoned just like the Nine-Tails?”

Anger surged through him.

He had saved Kushina from certain death out of kindness, yet she had somehow bound him to her in return.

“Kushina, stop!”

Kushina was too lost in grief to hear him.

Seeing that she continued walking, Roy rushed forward, grabbed her shoulder and shouted, “You need to explain this to me!”

Feeling pressure against her shoulder, Kushina finally stopped.

She turned around in confusion, but there was no one behind her.

Only then did she realise who had called out to her.

Despite the grief weighing on her heart, she had not forgotten that Roy’s words were what had awakened her to the truth.

Without him, she might have continued devoting herself to a village that had only ever treated her as a useful tool.

“Mr. Roy, you...”

As she spoke, Kushina turned around again, intending to face Roy while speaking.

It was the least she could do when addressing the person who had saved her.

The instant she moved, Roy’s body shot through the air at a speed comparable to Shunpo. He traced a wide arc around her before being forced to stop directly behind her once again.

Kushina looked around but still saw no one.

Assuming Roy simply did not wish to reveal himself, she abandoned the idea of speaking to him face-to-face.

“Mr. Roy, what did you say just now?”

Roy did not answer immediately.

His head was spinning, and nausea churned in his stomach.

People who suffered from motion sickness often became dizzy while sitting in a passenger seat, yet rarely experienced the same problem while driving themselves.

Roy’s current situation was similar.

Moving at high speed with Shunpo caused him no discomfort because he controlled every movement himself. Being forcibly dragged in a circle, however, left him unbearably dizzy.

To prevent Kushina from turning around again and sending him flying in another arc, Roy quickly stepped closer and wrapped his arms tightly around her.

“Mr. Roy...”

Kushina stiffened in surprise and twisted her body, trying to break free.

“Do not move!” Roy shouted.

Fortunately, because he had already been holding her when she moved, the displacement had been minimal. This time, he had avoided being thrown around and did not feel dizzy.

After steadying himself, Roy immediately demanded an explanation.

“I saved your life out of kindness, yet you used some kind of jutsu to seal me beside you like a Tailed Beast! Is this how you repay your benefactor—with hostility?”