Chapter 87 (Patreon)

Meanwhile, Kushina met with the delegations from Kumogakure and Iwagakure.

After exchanging a few pleasantries, she received the original fūinjutsu scrolls they had brought as payment.

Just as she had expected, they contained nothing more than ordinary, low-level sealing techniques.

Once the scrolls were in her hands, Kushina began teaching them one technique at a time. She used the original scrolls as her teaching material, carefully explaining each section in order.

At first, the visiting shinobi had been worried that she might deliberately mislead them. However, they soon realized that everything Kushina taught matched the contents of the scrolls perfectly.

She neither held anything back nor glossed over any important details.

Although some suspicion still lingered in their hearts, everyone listened attentively, not daring to miss a single word.

By late afternoon, Kushina had finished going over every sealing technique they had brought.

“For now, you can follow Jōnin Shisui and look around the village. Be sure to try some of Konoha’s specialties while you’re out. If there’s anything about today’s fūinjutsu lesson you didn’t understand, I’ll explain it again tomorrow afternoon.”

Kushina rose to her feet and cast one final glance at Mabui. She then signaled for Shisui to take good care of their guests before turning and leaving.

She planned to make copies of the fūinjutsu she had collected and store them alongside Konoha’s other ninjutsu. As for the original scrolls, she intended to preserve them personally.

Every one of them was a surviving relic of Uzushiogakure, her fallen homeland. No matter how simple the techniques recorded within them might be, the scrolls held a special meaning for her.

It was thanks to Roy’s suggestion that these relics had finally returned to her hands. To show her gratitude, Kushina made sure to repay him with more than enough sincerity, leaving even Kaorui, who had gradually grown accustomed to such things, blushing with embarrassment.

Still, Kaorui was an eager student. She copied Kushina’s every movement so perfectly that Roy briefly wondered whether she secretly possessed the Sharingan.

Later, as Kushina lay nestled in the arms of a thoroughly satisfied Roy, a question suddenly occurred to her.

“Roy-kun, how can you compete with Naruto and Karin for their food, yet you can’t eat ordinary food?”

Kaorui was equally curious. Until Kushina mentioned it, she had never really considered how strange that was.

Under the curious gazes of the two women, Roy thought for a moment before offering his theory.

“It might have something to do with the amount of life force it contains.”

Ordinary food, whether meat or vegetables, still contained nutrients, but very little of its original life force remained. What Kushina and Kaorui provided him, on the other hand, still carried the powerful vitality of the Uzumaki Clan.

Within the shinobi world, life force was closely connected to Yang Release.

Roy was a being composed entirely of spiritual energy. According to the principles of the shinobi world, his existence was naturally aligned with Yin Release.

Yin and Yang were equal and opposing forces. It made sense that Yang Release could interact with his spiritual body, allowing him to absorb it instead of simply passing through him and going to waste.

“I see...” Kushina murmured thoughtfully. “Then, if we soaked ordinary food in it first, wouldn’t you be able to eat that as well?”

Roy froze for a moment.

That possibility had genuinely never occurred to him.

However, the only thing he missed about ordinary food was its taste. The small amount of nutrition it provided was completely meaningless to him.

Even if soaking it allowed him to eat it, the flavor would inevitably change. Rather than forcing himself to eat something with such a strange taste, he would prefer to enjoy what they gave him as it was.

A week passed in the blink of an eye.

The visiting students from Kumogakure and Iwagakure completed their training and prepared to return to their respective villages.

Before they were sent off, however, a serious possibility suddenly occurred to Roy.

“It would be best to send shinobi with them and escort both groups all the way to the border,” he told Kushina.

Although Kushina did not understand the reason for his sudden suggestion, she trusted his judgment and immediately made the necessary arrangements.

Neither delegation objected to having an escort. If anything, the extra protection meant they would not have to worry about the other village trying something along the way.

Once both groups had departed, Roy drew Kushina’s consciousness from the Hokage’s office into the inner world of the Nine-Tails’ seal.

“Do you remember the masked man who came after the Nine-Tails and caused Minato’s death?”

The moment Roy brought him up, both Kushina and the Nine-Tails turned their full attention toward him.

“You already know how much hostility he holds toward Konoha. There’s no way he’ll quietly stand by and watch the village recover and grow stronger. If he attacked the students from Kumogakure and Iwagakure along the way, then made it look as though Konoha was responsible...”

Before Roy could finish, Kushina understood what he meant.

If something like that happened, there would never be a second or third fūinjutsu training program. Even if Konoha offered a reasonable explanation, Kumogakure and Iwagakure would never let the matter rest.

They might even use the incident as an excuse to invade Konoha once again.

“Roy-kun, do you know who that man is?” Kushina asked. “Who exactly is he, and why is he targeting Konoha?”

“Hmph! A coward who only dares to act from behind a mask...” The Nine-Tails snorted coldly. “He must be an Uchiha.”

It still remembered that night clearly.

After being released from Kushina’s body, it had barely begun to savor its newfound freedom when it found itself staring into an all-too-familiar Sharingan.

Then its consciousness vanished.

By the time the Nine-Tails regained its senses, it was already fighting Minato. Soon afterward, its chakra was split in two, with one half sealed back inside Kushina and the other sealed within Naruto.

Roy hesitated over whether he should reveal Obito’s identity.

It was not because he wanted to protect Obito. He was simply worried that Kushina would not be able to bear the truth.

As Minato’s student, Obito had been like a younger brother to her. Kushina had genuinely cared for him and looked after him, only for that same person to destroy her family.

The truth would be unbearably cruel.

Roy had originally planned never to tell her. If the opportunity arose, he would kill Obito himself and simply let Kushina know that the enemy responsible for that night was already dead.

“Is it someone I know?”

The moment she saw his hesitation, Kushina realized that something was wrong.

If Roy did not know the masked man’s identity, he would have simply said so.

If he knew who it was but the person was a complete stranger to her, there would be no reason for him to hesitate.

For Roy to struggle over whether to answer, the masked man had to be someone Kushina knew—and someone who had once been close to her.

Among the Uchiha she knew, Fugaku and Shisui were the only ones who might have been capable of fighting Minato and controlling the Nine-Tails to some extent.

However, neither of them could have been the masked man.

Both had been under Danzō’s surveillance that night and had no opportunity to act. If there had been even the slightest evidence implicating either of them, Danzō would have moved against the Uchiha long ago.

More importantly, if Roy suspected either Fugaku or Shisui, he would have warned Kushina to remain wary of them instead of allowing her to place so much trust in them.

An Uchiha she knew, yet not one who remained among the present Uchiha Clan...

No matter how absurd the answer seemed, only one person fit.

“Why...?” Kushina’s voice trembled. “Why would he do something like this?”

Seeing that she had already reached the answer on her own, Roy sighed and pulled her into his arms.

“If he was still alive, why didn’t he come back?” Kushina whispered. “Minato and I cared about him so much...”

Her tears soon soaked the front of Roy’s clothes.

“Hey! Who exactly is that bastard?!”

Forced to listen to only half the conversation without learning the masked man’s identity, the Nine-Tails could no longer remain still. It pushed itself up from the ground and roared at the embracing pair.

“Forget it. He placed you under his control the moment you met,” Roy replied. “Even if I told you who he was, what could you do? Take revenge? Stay out of this for now.”

After silencing the Nine-Tails, Roy gently comforted Kushina.

“Neither you nor Minato did anything wrong. There was something deeply wrong with him. That’s the only reason he could do something so unforgivable.”