April 1.
The Ninja Academy began a new school year again, and Gojo Yoru's cohort advanced to fifth year.
And starting from this day, Yoru and Uzumaki Kushina stopped attending class in person—sending only shadow clones to "handle" school for them.
Gojo Yoru stopped pretending.
The signal carried by that enormous scroll meant that certain things he'd been doing had been seen by Sarutobi Hiruzen and Uzumaki Mito all along.
Using shadow clones to replace himself and Kushina during exams had surely also entered Hiruzen's eyes.
There was no need for Yoru to hide anymore.
And he even had a very good reason to "skip class" together with Kushina:
Teaching Kushina ninjutsu, expanding her arsenal, and raising her strength.
Yoru even stopped hiding the Rasengan.
Since those big shots had decided to invest in him, he had to show them a high return.
When Hiruzen saw Yoru using a hand-signless jutsu, he became even more determined to cultivate him.
That kind of ninjutsu talent, that kind of Body Flicker talent—plus the hair color and face…
In Gojo Yoru, Hiruzen felt as if he were seeing Tobirama-sensei's reflection.
If it were Yoru, maybe he really could learn the Flying Thunder God Technique—a technique no one in Konoha had been able to master since Tobirama.
Once Yoru mastered Flying Thunder God, Konoha would gain another layer of security: even if Kushina lost control, they could transfer her out of Konoha's central district before she fully transformed into a tailed beast.
But before teaching Flying Thunder God to Yoru, Hiruzen had to brand him—ensure he was "one of us."
Otherwise, a rampaging Nine-Tails jinchūriki and a Flying Thunder God user… just imagining it was terrifying.
Meanwhile, the daily "two-person world" of training with Yoru completely healed Kushina's heart.
The girl who used to fear sleep—who often woke from nightmares reliving the fall of her clan—had, since the beginning of this year, rarely jolted awake anymore.
Instead, she often smiled sweetly while sleeping, clearly having good dreams.
Mito saw all of these changes, and the old woman felt immeasurably comforted.
She had once planned to take Kushina out and teach her—one last lesson for a clanswoman and "junior."
Now, it seemed there was no need.
…
May 10.
A piece of terrible news suddenly spread through all of Konoha—and quickly across the entire shinobi world—making countless people quietly breathe in relief.
That terrible news was: the First Hokage's wife had passed away.
In the eyes of ordinary people, it was simply that the First Hokage's wife had died of old age—another iconic figure from the Warring States era was gone.
But in the eyes of those who knew Uzumaki Mito was the Nine-Tails jinchūriki, it was like dismantling a ticking time bomb.
Especially for the countries that had destroyed the Land of Whirlpools—at last, they could relax.
They had dared to strike Uzushio because they knew Mito was old, and if she moved, it would be a final battle.
After Uzushio's destruction, they also feared Mito might choose to die taking revenge—randomly "self-destructing" against one great village.
Fortunately, the old woman had chosen Konoha's future over hatred.
Mito's death meant Konoha had successfully transferred the Nine-Tails.
So every major faction immediately mobilized their intelligence networks, trying to slip spies into Konoha to identify the Second Nine-Tails jinchūriki.
As for Hiruzen, he felt sadness at Mito's passing—but even more, he felt relief.
Not only because one "mountain" above his head was gone, but also because an elderly jinchūriki had essentially lost the ability to suppress a tailed beast.
In other villages, once a jinchūriki grew old, they either transferred the tailed beast early or moved the host into a barrier-protected zone.
Only Uzumaki Mito had been able to remain on Konoha's central street with no one daring to object.
Now that Mito had passed, Sarutobi Hiruzen formally stepped onto the peak of power.
The first thing he did—now holding authority in his own hands—was fully activate the barrier that had been laid out since the day Kushina entered Konoha.
An invisible barrier now covered the entire central district.
From this day forward, Kushina's area of activity was restricted to Konoha's central street.
And the ANBU responsible for monitoring and protecting her increased from one to two.
"Yoru… Lady Mito is gone… my last clanswoman is gone too… w-wahhh…"
Right after the grand funeral ended, Kushina found Yoru and threw herself into his arms, sobbing loudly.
"People come into this world, and sooner or later they leave it," Yoru said, holding her and speaking with a maturity completely unfitting his age. "What we can do is live happily along the way, without regrets. I believe Lady Mito left smiling."
"H-how do you know that?"
Kushina forgot to cry for a moment, staring at Yoru blankly.
"Because Lady Mito had no regrets," Yoru said softly. "She personally saw her granddaughter become an independent ninja, her grandson become an official genin, and you—a clanswoman inheriting the legacy. Her later years were complete."
"Th-then… is that why Lady Mito chose to transfer the Nine-Tails after her birthday?" Kushina murmured. She was still too young to fully understand.
Yoru asked worriedly, "How are you doing?"
"I'm fine," Kushina shook her head. She placed a hand on her abdomen and said, "Before she left, Lady Mito sealed her last chakra inside me to restrain the Nine-Tails. That chakra can last for a few years."
If Yoru could enter the mental space where Kushina communicated with the Nine-Tails, he would see that the Nine-Tails wasn't locked in an iron cage.
Instead, it was pinned to a wall by an enormous black iron spike, its whole body wrapped in chains.
If it weren't pinned to a wall but embedded into a stone sphere, it would look exactly like that "fire-worker monk" from an old movie.
"I see."
Yoru nodded as if enlightened—several mysteries from canon finally made sense.
In canon, Kushina must have become the Nine-Tails jinchūriki first, and only then been kidnapped by Cloud ninja.
If Mito were still alive, Hiruzen would never dare scheme against Kushina—he'd never dare gamble with the only Nine-Tails vessel.
Those two Cloud ninja wouldn't have even made it into the Senju household mansion; Mito's malice-and-goodwill sensing would have spotted them immediately.
But if twelve-year-old Kushina couldn't even handle two Cloud ninja, how could she possibly suppress the complete Nine-Tails?
Now, hearing Kushina's words, Yoru finally understood.
Mito had sacrificed herself early to buy Kushina a few years of growth time.
"Then for the next few years, we have to work twice as hard," Yoru said with a smile, patting Kushina's head.
"Yeah!"
Kushina nodded hard, eyes firm.
Not just for herself, but for Yoru, for Lady Mito, and for this village she was gradually starting to like—she would never allow that monster to steal control of her body.
~~~
Patreon(.)com/Bleam
— Currently You can Read 70 Chapters Ahead of Others!