Chapter 89 (Patreon)

“Uh... somewhere around that far. I wasn’t paying much attention. Is there a problem?”

Seeing that Kushina still had not realized what was wrong, Roy explained it directly.

“My movement range only extends a little over five kilometers from you. But today, you went at least six or seven kilometers away, and nothing unusual happened to me. Don’t you see what’s strange about that?”

“Eh? You’re right.” Kushina blinked in surprise. “Could your range have expanded again?”

“Impossible.”

Roy immediately rejected that possibility.

After all, he and Kushina had not taken their relationship any further over the past two days.

“Then what else could it be?”

“That’s what I’d like to know.”

Roy was just as confused as she was.

To test it, he had Kushina remain at home while he ran in the opposite direction. He soon confirmed that the maximum straight-line distance between them was still only a little over five kilometers.

Yet Kushina had definitely left the village during the day, putting far more than five kilometers between them.

Roy suddenly turned toward Kaorui, who was holding and feeding the two children, as a possibility occurred to him.

Could Kaorui have become another anchor for his movement range?

The Hokage Office was not far from their house. Whether Roy accompanied Kushina to work or remained at home with Kaorui, he was always within his normal range. That would explain why he had never noticed the change before.

Roy’s theory immediately made Kushina’s chest tighten.

She had never objected to Roy being with other women because she had always believed that he could never leave her.

But if his theory was correct, other women could now serve as anchors for him as well. That meant he could eventually leave Konoha with one of them.

Kaorui was not a problem. She had little reason to leave Konoha.

But what about someone else?

Someone like Yugito, whom Kushina had previously tried to bring closer to him.

If Roy followed Yugito back to Kumogakure, would he still return?

Roy noticed Kushina’s sudden silence and the uncertainty on her face.

“What’s wrong?”

“Roy-kun...” Kushina took a deep breath before asking, “Will you ever leave me?”

“What brought this on?” Roy smiled. “How could I leave someone as cute as you? Even if you tried to drive me away, I’d refuse to go.”

Only after saying it did Roy realize why Kushina had asked him such a question.

So that was what she was afraid of.

Even if his theory was correct and other people could serve as anchors for his movement range, he had no intention of leaving Kushina.

They were lovers, and he would never abandon the responsibility that came with that relationship. Besides, Kushina accepted nearly everything he wanted and had even encouraged him to pursue other women.

Where else would he ever find someone who accepted him so completely?

He would have to lose his mind to abandon a woman who was so devoted to him.

Whether every word Roy said came straight from his heart or not, Kushina chose to believe him.

She did not dare imagine whether she could keep going if Roy ever abandoned her.

The more she learned about the shinobi world, the more helpless she felt.

So what if she was the Hokage?

So what if she was the Nine-Tails’ jinchūriki?

If she faced someone truly powerful, or an enemy skilled at manipulating others from the shadows, she could still be killed just as easily as anyone else.

Without Roy, she might not even be able to handle Danzō, much less Obito, who had fallen into darkness and killed Minato, or Madara, who had finally died of old age but still left unknown schemes behind.

Kushina could accept being harmed herself.

But what about Naruto?

Would he eventually become another victim of those schemes?

Besides, Roy had already become irreplaceable to her. His gentleness and thoughtfulness, along with the commanding side he showed when they were alone, had drawn her in completely.

Kaorui had been focused on the children and did not know what had caused the sudden change in mood.

She only heard Kushina ask Roy a strange question, followed by the two of them embracing.

Were they really starting this early today?

She had not even managed to put the children to sleep yet.

After reassuring Kushina, Roy returned to the subject of the anchors.

He did not want to leave her, but if other people could act as anchors for his movement range, he would finally be able to leave Konoha and cause trouble elsewhere.

Because it was inconvenient for Kushina to travel, Roy had effectively been confined to Konoha alongside her.

There were plenty of people within the village he could act through, but certain matters would be far easier to handle personally.

For example, he could cause enough trouble for Obito that the man would no longer have time to interfere with Konoha’s development.

The next morning, Kushina left for work in a noticeably better mood.

The villagers she passed quickly noticed that the warm and approachable Fifth Hokage they knew had finally returned.

After feeding the children, Kaorui carried both of them to Konoha’s main gate.

She remained there for more than ten minutes before turning around and heading home, leaving the two shinobi guarding the gate staring after her in confusion.

“Roy-sama...”

“It’s confirmed,” Roy said. “You really can serve as an anchor for my movement range. At the farthest point just now, I was nearly eight or nine kilometers away from Kushina while she was at work.”

The next step was discovering exactly what allowed someone to become an anchor.

Could anyone serve as one, or were there certain requirements?

Roy asked Kaorui to return home while he left Konoha through another side of the village.

This time, he selected a random resident from that part of the village as his anchor.

However, before he had even gone another kilometer, he felt as though he had struck an invisible wall.

The resident he had chosen clearly had not become an anchor.

With unrelated strangers ruled out, the next people Roy needed to test were Nonō Yakushi and Yugito.

Both of them shared something in common with Kushina and Kaorui.

All four women had come into contact with his Zanpakutō, but the circumstances were different.

Kushina and Kaorui were both intimate with him. Nonō did not share that kind of relationship with Roy, but she had successfully released the Zanpakutō’s Shikai. Yugito, meanwhile, had only touched the blade and had never performed Shikai.

Four people, but three different circumstances.

That should be enough for Roy to work out the rules behind the anchors.

After testing them, Roy discovered that Nonō could serve as an anchor just like Kushina and Kaorui, but Yugito could not.

This meant that anyone who could see Roy—or had touched his Zanpakutō and successfully released its Shikai—met the necessary requirements.

Unfortunately, the conditions were far more restrictive than Roy had hoped.

He no longer dared to go directly after Obito. With only a five-kilometer range around each anchor, Obito and Zetsu would easily discover his presence.

If any random person could have served as an anchor, Roy could have run Obito and Zetsu in circles until they began questioning reality itself.

On his way home, Roy passed one of Konoha’s training grounds and noticed an unfamiliar shinobi practicing the Summoning Jutsu.

Come to think of it, Kushina had not summoned anything since signing a contract with Mount Myōboku.

If she wanted to travel there and learn Sage Mode in the future, should she not start building a good relationship with the toads first?

Roy suddenly stopped.

“Kushina... summoning animals... the Uzumaki clan... Summoning Island!”

The moment the connection formed in his mind, Roy abandoned his plan to return home and headed straight for the Hokage Office.

Kushina saw Roy pass through the wall of her office. From the corner of her eye, she glanced at Shikaku and Fugaku, who were helping process documents nearby, before sending her consciousness into the space within her seal.

Roy followed her inside moments later.

“Kushina, how much do you know about Summoning Island near the Land of the Sea?”

“It’s home to countless summoning animals, almost like a kingdom of its own,” Kushina answered. “Why? What made you suddenly ask about that place?”

“There might be another Uzumaki survivor on the island. What I don’t know is whether she is currently working there or if she has already died.”

In the original story, Honoka—the Uzumaki girl Naruto and the others encountered—had already been reduced to a lingering fragment of consciousness.

There had been no indication of when she died. It was also unclear where the other researchers studying summoning animals on the island had come from.

Because of that, Roy could not be certain whether Honoka was still alive on Summoning Island.