Chapter 111 (Patreon)

Kushina wasn’t surprised when Sunagakure sent a letter urging Konoha to begin their cooperation as soon as possible.

Roy had been right once again. Of the Five Great Shinobi Villages, Sunagakure was undoubtedly the poorest.

It wasn’t that the village had no money. Gold was plentiful in the desert. Sunagakure’s real problem was its severe lack of resources. No matter how much money it possessed, it could never secure enough of the materials it needed.

Roy’s predictions had proven accurate so many times that Kushina had long since stopped being surprised whenever another one came true.

Besides, establishing trade with Sunagakure as quickly as possible was also in Konoha’s best interests. Kushina promptly replied to the Kazekage and dispatched Konoha’s merchant caravan to Sunagakure.

Meanwhile, Roy had finally completed the introductory textbooks for every subject.

Although he hadn’t personally written them, he had been responsible for organizing the knowledge, determining the content, and guiding the entire process. By the time everything was finished, he looked even more exhausted than Yakushi Nonō.

“Tonight, I’m definitely going to have Kushina help me recover.”

Roy pursed his lips as he considered his plans for the evening.

Just then, Nonō rose from her seat, walked behind him, and gently placed both hands against his head.

“Don’t move, Roy-kun. I’ll give you a massage.”

Normally, only Kushina and Kaorui would touch his head without warning. Roy instinctively tried to pull away, but his body relaxed as soon as he heard Nonō’s voice.

“Thanks. You’ve worked hard too. I’ll massage your shoulders afterward.”

Nonō’s fingers abruptly pressed down with a third more force before quickly relaxing again.

“Can... can I really ask that of you?”

“Of course.”

After spending so much time together, Roy naturally understood what Nonō was thinking.

It wasn’t that he was completely unmoved, nor had he failed to notice the increasingly obvious invitations hidden in her words and gestures. Roy had deliberately refrained from taking their relationship any further because he wanted to conduct an experiment.

He wanted to see how much Nonō’s intimacy with him could increase without them crossing that final boundary.

The results would affect several arrangements he intended to make in the future.

For more than a month, he had barely made physical contact with her. Even so, the color surrounding her mirror had continued to change steadily. It was already showing signs of advancing to its third layer.

In other words, crossing all three boundaries wasn’t necessary. Doing so merely accelerated the process.

Speaking of the mirrors, Roy could now enter the bodies of both Kushina and Kaorui through them.

He had once asked Kaorui to travel thirty kilometers outside Konoha. Even from that distance, he had been able to pass through her mirror and instantly return to Kushina, who had remained inside the village.

The reverse was also possible. From Kushina’s side in Konoha, he could immediately return to Kaorui thirty kilometers away.

The maximum distance over which he could travel through the mirrors was still unknown.

Pulling himself away from those thoughts, Roy stood and guided Nonō onto the stool. He then moved behind her and began massaging her shoulders, helping her relax after their exhausting work.

“These textbooks will be enough for now. Arrange for them to be printed later. The new semester is about to begin, so this is the perfect opportunity to introduce the new curriculum.”

“Yes!”

After explaining the remaining arrangements, Roy hurried home.

Kushina hadn’t returned from the Hokage’s office yet, but he could always find Kaorui and borrow some energy from her first. His exhausted mind desperately needed something to help it recover.

The moment he entered the bedroom, he saw Kaorui placing freshly washed and dried clothes inside the wardrobe. Without a second thought, Roy stepped forward and embraced her from behind.

Then something unexpected happened.

The instant he touched her, his consciousness was pulled into an unfamiliar mental world.

“You? What are you doing here? And why did you transform into Kaorui and put on her clothes?”

The woman he had embraced wasn’t Kaorui at all.

It was Chiyuki, the woman Nonō had brought back from the Land of Snow.

Chiyuki had known what would happen, but seeing Roy truly appear within her mental world still left her stunned.

She quickly regained her composure, dropped to her knees, and bowed deeply.

“Roy-kun, please become Haku’s father!”

Roy froze.

He stared at Haku’s mother in disbelief before awkwardly turning his gaze aside.

“Kushina put you up to this, didn’t she? Kaorui would never do something this reckless on her own.”

Chiyuki remained visibly nervous. She didn’t know whether she should answer his question, nor did she know whether Roy would accept her request.

Compared to her life in the Land of Snow, living in Konoha was peaceful. She no longer had to live in constant fear that someone might discover her Ice Release Kekkei Genkai.

The only problem was Haku.

Her son repeatedly asked when they would return home, telling her how much he missed his father.

But returning was impossible.

Chiyuki had spent many sleepless nights wondering whether she should tell Haku the truth.

A few days earlier, just as Kushina was about to leave for the Hokage’s office, she had suddenly pulled Chiyuki into a room to discuss the matter.

“It’s best for a child to grow up with both parents,” Kushina had said. “I understand your situation. Why don’t we find Haku another father—someone who will genuinely love and protect him?”

At first, Chiyuki misunderstood what Kushina meant.

She assumed that giving Haku a new father was merely an excuse and that Konoha’s true goal was to produce more children who could inherit the Ice Release Kekkei Genkai.

She had already prepared herself for that possibility while traveling to Konoha. As long as the man—or even the men chosen for her—treated Haku kindly, she believed she could endure it.

That was why Chiyuki had agreed without much hesitation.

However, Kushina’s actual arrangement left her speechless.

It was also during that conversation that Chiyuki learned the truth about Roy, the man who had rescued her and Haku alongside Yakushi Nonō.

He was their true savior—the unseen benefactor who had set everything in motion.

If it hadn’t been for Roy, Konoha would never have learned about her and Haku’s situation. Naturally, Nonō would never have been sent to the Land of Snow to find them.

Roy wasn’t truly alive and possessed no physical body of his own. That alone proved Konoha wasn’t trying to use Chiyuki as a tool for producing more Ice Release Kekkei Genkai users.

What shocked Chiyuki even more was learning that Roy was also Naruto and Karin’s father.

Although the shinobi world was largely dominated by men, Kushina’s willingness to arrange something like this still left Chiyuki deeply confused.

Of course, whether she understood Kushina’s reasoning had little effect on what happened afterward.

Kushina instructed her to use the Transformation Jutsu to disguise herself as Kaorui and even had her wear the clothes Kaorui usually wore.

The entire purpose was to create an opportunity for Chiyuki and Roy to meet inside her mental world. If Roy continued avoiding her, their relationship would never have a chance to develop.

Chiyuki didn’t explain any of this, but Roy knew Kushina well enough to guess most of their plan.

He looked down at Chiyuki, who was still kneeling before him, and sighed helplessly.

“You don’t need to lower yourself like this. You and Haku live in Konoha now, which means you’re part of the village. No one here will ever—”

“No, Roy-kun. I don’t feel that I’m being wronged.”

Chiyuki raised her head and looked directly at the man who had saved her and her son from hell.

“If it weren’t for you and Lady Nonō, what I witnessed in that vision would have eventually happened in reality. Matsushita... that man would never have allowed Haku to live after his Kekkei Genkai awakened. He feared that power, and he was terrified that the Hidden Mist might discover the existence of another Ice Release user.”

Her voice trembled with agitation and lingering fear.

Whatever happened to her, Chiyuki believed she could endure it.

But Haku was her entire world.

“I sincerely wish to repay your kindness. I will devote myself to you with all my heart. All I ask is that you grant me this chance—and that you don’t reject me simply because I was once another man’s wife.”