Chapter 113 (Patreon)

To keep Kushina from arranging something like this again, Roy had asked Kaorui and Chiyuki to help him put on a little act.

Unfortunately, neither woman was much of an actress. They stood with their heads lowered, both dangerously close to giving themselves away.

Kaorui was having an especially hard time. She had known Roy longer, and she knew that even if he lost his temper with someone else, he could never stay angry with Kushina. His stern expression simply didn't suit him when he was looking at her.

Roy wasn't doing much better. The sight of Kushina's slightly reddened eyes made him want to abandon the whole thing. With the other two about to break character as well, he decided it was time to stop.

“Alright. I know you meant well, but next time, don't use something like that to—”

He stopped.

Kushina didn't look as though she was about to cry.

Her red hair began to rise around her, despite the still air. Clenching her fists, she glared at him.

“Roy! Do you really think I'm that easy to fool?”

At first, she had genuinely thought her actions had upset him.

But the longer she watched them, the less sense their behavior made.

For one thing, something about Chiyuki's presence had changed. For another, if her plan had failed, why was Chiyuki standing there looking as though Roy had just scolded her, exactly like Kaorui?

She could only react to him so directly if she could see and hear him herself.

Even if Kaorui had repeated his words for her, Chiyuki's reactions wouldn't have matched Kaorui's so perfectly.

Even without relying on the Nine-Tails, Kushina was an elite jōnin. An act with this many obvious flaws wasn't going to fool her for long.

Besides, although she had brought up Haku when speaking to Chiyuki, she had never intended to use him to force her into anything. Once the initial shock passed, it hadn't taken her long to work out what was happening.

The more she thought about it, the angrier she became.

She had gone to all that trouble for his sake, and now this man had the nerve to stand there acting as though he had been wronged!

If he really objected so much, he could have kept his hands to himself.

Instead, after accepting everything she had arranged, he had decided to put on a show and make her feel guilty.

She loved him, but that didn't mean she couldn't get angry with him.

The moment Roy heard the way she said his name, he knew he had made a mistake.

Kushina wasn't Kaorui. Who in Konoha hadn't heard of the Red Hot Habanero's temper?

She might not have lost her temper with him since they became a couple, but that hardly meant it had disappeared.

That fiery streak was part of who she was. Without it, she wouldn't be Kushina.

Still, although her outburst caught him off guard, Roy didn't panic.

He had upset her, so he would have to make it up to her. If a few gentle words weren't enough, he would find another way to win her over—even if it took until she was too tired to keep arguing.

He stepped forward and drew her into his arms.

A few minutes later, he felt her gradually relax against him. Her clenched fists loosened, and he cupped her flushed face in his hands.

“Don't be angry,” he said earnestly. “I just don't want you to arrange something like this again.”

“Hmph.”

Kushina gave his chest a few light thumps.

“Fine. I won't worry about you anymore. You can suffer through it yourself, for all I care.”

“Still angry?”

Roy swept her into his arms and headed toward the bathroom.

In the end, Kushina couldn't stay angry in the face of his coaxing.

Back in the living room, Kaorui calmly sipped her tea.

Chiyuki's nervousness had gradually given way to envy.

She envied the closeness between Roy and Kushina. Even their quarrel had begun to sound more like flirting.

Kaorui reached over and gently patted her hand.

“Roy-sama is kind and considerate. He doesn't favor one of us at the others' expense,” she said with a smile. “He'll show us the same tenderness he shows Lady Kushina.”

Thinking back to their time together earlier, Chiyuki knew Kaorui was right. Roy had been gentle with her, too.

The uncertainty in her eyes faded, replaced by quiet resolve and anticipation.

For the first time, she could picture the future waiting for her.

Later that evening, after dinner, Chiyuki continued discovering the intimacy she had only just begun to experience.

This time, Kushina joined Kaorui in guiding her.

Their personalities were different, and so were the ways they approached even the same things. Chiyuki found that she still had much to learn from both of them.

By the time the evening was over, she had plenty to take in, and she gradually settled into the unfamiliar sensations.

The following morning, while molding chakra as part of her usual training, she noticed something impossible.

Her kekkei genkai seemed to have awakened.

The sweat on her face froze into tiny beads of ice. They slipped from her skin and shattered against the ground.

Chiyuki stared, utterly stunned.

As far as she knew, nothing like this had ever happened in the Yuki clan.

If Ice Release hadn't awakened before adulthood, it was believed that it never would.

Yet here she was, using it.

“You've awakened Ice Release?”

Roy watched the ice change shape in her palm, then quickly asked her what had happened.

Chiyuki was just as bewildered as he was. She couldn't explain it.

“Perhaps it has something to do with how she feels now,” Kaorui suggested.

For years, Chiyuki had lived in fear of anyone discovering that she belonged to the Yuki clan. Deep down, she might have been rejecting the very ability that could expose her.

Now that fear was gone. She had also begun training again.

Perhaps, with nothing holding her back, her kekkei genkai had finally manifested.

“That's possible,” Roy said. “Your state of mind can affect more than you'd think.”

He was about to tell Chiyuki to devote some time to practicing Ice Release ninjutsu when she hesitantly spoke.

“I think… it might also have something to do with you, Roy-sama.”

“Me?”

Roy scratched his head.

She nodded, her cheeks coloring.

“What you gave me yesterday… I could feel a coolness in my stomach afterward. It stayed there for a long time. When I woke up this morning, it was gone, and then my Ice Release awakened.”

“It can do that?”

Roy turned to Kaorui, looking thoroughly confused.

Both she and Kushina had shared that sort of intimacy with him many times. Yet neither had shown any change in her abilities, chakra reserves, or strength.

Was it simply because his soul body was cool to the touch, while Chiyuki already possessed the potential to use Ice Release?

Could that really have been enough to awaken it?

Even to him, the explanation sounded far too unlikely.

Kaorui shook her head.

She hadn't noticed any changes in herself.

To her, it had been much like having a cold drink: a brief chill, then nothing.

“Why don't we try once more?” she suggested. “If Roy-sama really is the reason, it might improve your Ice Release further.”

Chiyuki's face grew warmer. She glanced shyly at Roy.

“I don't mind,” he said.

An hour later, Roy and Kaorui watched as Chiyuki sat cross-legged nearby, concentrating on the unfamiliar energy within her.

As soon as she opened her eyes, they asked, “How is it?”

“My Ice Release hasn't become more powerful,” she replied. “But it's much easier to control now.”

Control.

The word brought a sudden thought to Roy's mind.

Perhaps he had finally worked it out.

At present, he existed entirely as a soul. Everything that made up his body was spiritual in nature.

Any energy he passed on in this way would therefore be spiritual power that was no longer bound to him. Once someone absorbed it, that power could become her own.

Some would probably be lost in the process, but Chiyuki had no method of training her spiritual power directly.

Suddenly receiving even a small amount might have been enough to awaken her body's dormant potential. It could also explain why her control over chakra had improved.

Kushina and Kaorui, on the other hand, both possessed the Uzumaki clan's remarkable constitution.

Their chakra reserves were enormous, which meant that the physical and spiritual energies used to produce that chakra were already abundant.

Compared with what they already possessed, the small amount of spiritual power Roy passed on simply wasn't enough to cause a noticeable change.

Whether repeated exposure might eventually add up to something more, however, remained to be seen.