Chapter 93 (Patreon)

“That masked bastard must be behind this. He still hasn’t given up!” the Nine-Tails growled.

Although both abilities involved space-time ninjutsu, Minato’s Flying Thunder God Technique allowed him to disappear and reappear with little more than a rush of air. It caused no noticeable distortion in the surrounding space.

Whenever the masked man appeared or vanished, however, space twisted into a spiral around him, resembling water being drawn down a drain.

The disturbance just now had been different. It was more like a stone striking the surface of a pond and sending ripples outward. Even so, the Nine-Tails remained convinced that the masked man was responsible. It refused to believe that another shinobi capable of using space-time ninjutsu had suddenly appeared.

“Obito?”

Kushina’s eyes narrowed. Several golden chains immediately burst from her body, their sharpened tips locking onto the spot indicated by the Nine-Tails’ claw.

A moment later, Kushina saw the ripple for herself.

Without hesitation, the Adamantine Sealing Chains shot forward.

They struck nothing.

On the other side, Roy pressed his hand against the mirror with greater force, only for layer after layer of ripples to spread beneath his palm.

Forget passing his entire body through it. Even the tip of his finger could no longer penetrate the surface.

The mirror had not truly turned into water. It felt more like a pool covered by an invisible membrane stretched so tightly across its surface that nothing could break through.

Perhaps the bond between him and Kushina still needed to deepen before the mirror revealed any further changes.

Just as the ripples began to fade, eight separate points suddenly appeared on the surface, each sending out ripples of its own.

Roy had not touched the mirror.

“Is that Kushina? Can she sense this?”

He immediately thought of Kushina’s Adamantine Sealing Chains. If she had attacked the same spot with all of them at once, the distance between their tips would perfectly match the eight points that had just appeared.

After a moment’s thought, Roy raised one finger and traced a single letter across the mirror—the first letter of his name.

R.

If Kushina truly was on the other side, her reaction would reveal it.

Inside the sealed space, Kushina did not relax after her chains struck nothing. If anything, she became even more vigilant.

Perhaps Obito had realized she had detected him and canceled his space-time ninjutsu before it fully activated. He might already be preparing an ambush.

Kushina decided to place a sealing formula over the area.

She could not remain on guard inside the sealed space forever. Even if she ignored her work, she still had to eat eventually.

The seal might not be powerful enough to trap Obito if he invaded again, but it should at least buy her enough time to return to the sealed space and confront him.

Just as she was about to begin, another disturbance appeared.

This time, the ripples did not spread evenly from a single point. The point itself moved across the surface, leaving a trail behind it.

Kushina and the Nine-Tails exchanged a wary glance, neither of them knowing what Obito was attempting now.

Only after the movement stopped did Kushina realize that the trail had formed a letter.

“R... Is Roy-kun on the other side?”

Her confusion only deepened.

Roy had never mentioned possessing any kind of space-time ability. Considering how close they had become, that seemed strange. He had even told her, albeit briefly, that he came from another world. There should have been no reason for him to hide an ability like this from her.

“Don’t let your guard down, Kushina!” the Nine-Tails warned her. “A single letter proves nothing! What if that masked bastard is trying to make you lower your guard?”

The Nine-Tails knew that Roy and Kushina were close, but it had no idea just how close they had truly become. Naturally, it refused to take any chances.

“Why would Obito use that letter to trick me? No one else can even perceive Roy-kun’s existence.”

“You don’t understand how treacherous the Uchiha can be. With those cursed Sharingan, there’s no telling what kind of ability they might possess.”

On the other side, Roy waited for a response.

When the mirror remained still, he began to suspect that he had overthought the entire situation. If Kushina were really on the other side, she should have understood the meaning of his initial.

He had no idea that the Nine-Tails’ deep mistrust of the Uchiha had led Kushina in the wrong direction.

A sudden commotion outside drew Roy’s attention away from the mirror. By the time he left, he failed to notice two more letters slowly appearing across its surface.

O and Y.

Roy had barely turned toward the door when Yakushi Nonō shot upright from her sleep, a kunai already clutched tightly in her hand.

She truly deserved her reputation as one of Konoha’s finest spies. Her instincts and vigilance were on an entirely different level from Naruto’s in the original story.

“Don’t worry. I’ll check what’s happening outside.”

Roy glanced at the kunai in her hand.

“Your body is still recovering. Forcing yourself to mold chakra will only slow that recovery.”

With that, he passed straight through the closed door and entered the corridor, failing to notice the faintly dazed look in Nonō’s eyes behind him.

“Is Roy-kun... worried about me?”

She could no longer remember the last time anyone had spoken to her with such genuine concern.

Perhaps it had been her parents, back when she was still a child.

At that moment, the merchant ship had fallen into complete chaos. Screams and pained cries echoed across the deck.

When Roy emerged to investigate, he found several sailors sprawled across the wooden planks, clutching their wounds and wailing in agony. Two others had already stopped breathing.

The captain rushed forward with the remaining crew members, carrying a heavy chest between them.

“My lords, this is all the money we have! Please, spare our lives!”

After the Third Shinobi World War, Kirigakure had isolated itself from the outside world. Without the village maintaining order across the surrounding waters, pirates had once again become rampant.

Generally, however, those pirates would seize control of a ship, take whatever money and valuables they could find, and leave without slaughtering the crew.

After all, if they killed so many people that no one dared to sail anymore, there would eventually be no ships left for them to rob.

The attackers today were different.

They had begun killing the moment they boarded, as though murder—not robbery—had been their true objective from the beginning.

At first, Roy assumed that the ship had simply encountered a band of pirates by chance. It did not take him long to realize that every one of the attackers was a trained shinobi.

They were not weak, either.

Their leader possessed the strength of an average jōnin. If these people were ordinary pirates, Roy would gladly eat his own shoes.

A jōnin commanding a group of chūnin could earn far more by serving a daimyō than by robbing merchant ships. They would also be spared the constant risk of having bounties placed on their heads.

Usually, only genin and mediocre chūnin who lacked both the strength and connections to secure stable work resorted to becoming bandits or pirates.

Sure enough, the attackers did not even glance at the chest the captain placed before them.

Instead, they raised their blades and slashed directly at the captain and his crew.

Just before the blades could reach them, every shinobi disguised as a pirate froze in place.

“What?! Who’s there?!”

“Damn it... My body won’t move!”

The captain and his crew were ordinary civilians. They had no idea what had just happened.

When Nonō emerged onto the deck behind Roy, however, they remembered the strange sight they had witnessed before the ship departed. Believing she had saved them, the surviving crew members immediately began thanking her.

“Roy-kun?”

Nonō looked around in confusion.

Roy noticed the chakra fluctuating around her body and sighed helplessly. She had clearly ignored his warning and forced herself to mold chakra anyway.

“Use genjutsu to find out why they attacked the ship.”

Neither Roy nor Nonō had expected the disguised shinobi to be targeting her.

When Roy purchased their tickets and carried Nonō onto the ship, none of the people around them could see him. From their perspective, Nonō had appeared to float through the air and move on her own.

They had mistaken her for a shinobi possessing some rare ability.

To people who made their living trafficking shinobi, a lone kunoichi with an unusual ability whose chakra was almost completely depleted was no different from a fortune waiting to be claimed.