Tsunade set down her cup.
Her beautiful eyes carried a hint of sadness.
When a tailed beast is transferred, the jinchuriki will certainly die.
The day the transfer of the tailed beast succeeds.
Is the day that Tsunade's grandmother, Lady Mito, will pass away.
Chiya looked at Tsunade, then stood up and moved to sit beside her.
He gently put his arm around Tsunade's shoulder.
Tsunade looked at Chiya with a complicated expression, hesitated for a moment, and then buried herself in his chest.
Chiya only felt the front of his clothes being soaked by Tsunade's tears.
Tsunade, who appeared so strong on the surface, still had many moments of weakness behind closed doors.
Suddenly, Tsunade reached into his chest and pulled his hand out from inside her clothing.
Then a soft, reproachful voice came from within his arms.
"Behave yourself!"
Chiya's fingers shifted slightly, and he interlocked his fingers with the slender hand that was gripping his.
"About that..."
"If you just want to keep the tailed beast calm for a while, I can help you."
The tailed beast chakra was leaking out naturally because Lady Mito had gotten older, and the Nine-Tails felt it had found an opportunity.
If the task was simply to control the Nine-Tails alone, Chiya's current ocular power was enough to do it.
Tsunade pulled away from Chiya and looked at him seriously.
"You are willing to help?"
The two main factors for dealing with a tailed beast, at least in Konoha's case.
One was the Uchiha Clan's Sharingan, and the other was Senju Tobirama's Wood Release.
When Tsunade had invited Chiya to drink today, she had actually been hoping in her heart that he would help her grandmother.
Getting older, sickness and death were all natural.
But who would refuse, if their beloved grandmother could live a few more days?
"That depends on how sincere Tsunade-sama is."
Chiya's gaze drifted downward, looking at the way she was dressed right now.
She truly was stunning.
He smiled faintly and leaned close to Tsunade's ear.
"Tsunade, you look beautiful."
Tsunade's face turned a faint shade of red, and a flicker of shyness passed through her eyes.
"You, you only ever say nice things."
Chiya's voice dropped lower.
"Tsunade-sama, the night scenery is so beautiful tonight. Why don't we exchange knowledge with each other, and develop new taijutsu for the sake of Konoha's growth?"
The expression on Tsunade's face stiffened slightly.
"Tsunade-sama, just once."
Chiya held up a single finger and looked at Tsunade seriously.
Tsunade's face grew even more flushed.
Her expression became a little unnatural. She looked at Chiya, and in the end her heart softened.
"Only this once. If there is a next time, don't blame me for being rough with you."
Chiya felt a surge of delight inside, and completely ignored the way Tsunade raised her fist to threaten him.
Where there is a first time, there will be countless times after.
Developing new taijutsu, it is a duty none of us can refuse.
But he had already gone through quite a bit of effort just getting here.
He needed to replenish his energy first.
Chiya stood up.
Tsunade looked at Chiya's sudden movement and was briefly stunned.
"This is not enough to eat. Let me go order more."
After explaining, Chiya walked toward the outside.
"Boss, bring me a full table of oysters!"
"..."
At this moment.
In the central area of Konoha's barrier.
This was exactly where Lady Mito lived.
At the bedside, Uzumaki Kushina was nestled in Lady Mito's arms.
Mito stroked Kushina's hair, her expression gentle and kind.
"We must seek out love, and place it within this vessel."
"That way, even as the jinchuriki of the Nine-Tails, we can still find happiness."
Kushina lifted her head and looked at Mito with a blank expression.
"Love?"
"Yes."
Mito said with deep feeling, lifting her head to look out the window.
"That is something that cannot be obtained by simply waiting."
Seeing the confusion on Kushina's face growing even more.
"Kushina, come with me for a moment."
Mito gently patted her shoulder.
One hand leaning on her cane, and the other holding Kushina's hand.
Mito led her out of the room.
The Anbu ninja outside the room saw the two come out and quickly stepped forward.
"Lady Mito!"
"Please make sure you rest properly."
The medical ninja nearby also stepped forward with concern.
Mito nodded.
"There is something I want to show this child."
Mito led Kushina forward.
The Anbu and medical ninja nearby exchanged a glance.
They then followed at a distance behind, keeping some space and not stepping forward to disturb them.
"Our Uzumaki Clan regards that whirlpool-like sealing power as our pride."
Mito coughed as she spoke of the "whirlpool."
"We use that power, and in the same way we are used by others. In the currents of this age, one may indeed find themselves at the center of the whirlpool, drawn in and unable to break free."
The jinchuriki exists because the village needs the tailed beast's power.
But a jinchuriki, especially one from the Uzumaki Clan, is "chosen" because of their own extremely unique physical constitution.
Especially Kushina. Her country was destroyed, she came to Konoha, and she was chosen to become the next Nine-Tails jinchuriki.
She completely lost her right to choose and her right to decide for herself.
Just like the tailed beast, she was one of those being used.
"Kushina."
Mito suddenly stopped walking and looked at Kushina.
"But if we climb on our own, we will surely find love."
Without realizing it, the two had arrived at the very bottom of a spiral staircase.
Mito stopped, her gaze fixed on the "whirlpool" symbol at the very center.
In her clouded eyes, a trace of complexity appeared.
"The Uzumaki Clan has now scattered across all lands, and has lost everything."
Mito turned back and gently stroked Kushina's hair.
"But we have merged with the swirling currents of the natural world."
Kushina nodded, understanding it only partially.
Just like Kushina herself. At the very least she was still a member of the Uzumaki Clan.
She was still alive now.
The Uzumaki Clan went through great upheaval, yet in the end quite a few clan members had still survived and spread across the ninja world.
Allowing the Uzumaki Clan to continue to exist in a different form.
After Mito finished speaking, she lifted her head again and looked into the distance through the window high above.
In Mito's eyes, the core members of the Senju Clan could now be counted on one hand.
In a few more years, the Senju Clan would truly vanish from Konoha.
The deeper reason behind this.
Apart from the fact that Senju Clan members had been fighting on the front lines of Konoha's external wars.
The more important reason was the plan the Senju Clan had promoted earlier, to "integrate" into Konoha.
There were very few Senju Clan members left.
But the descendants carrying Senju Clan bloodlines existed within Konoha in a different form.
"The thing I wanted to show you is up here."
"A spiral-shaped staircase?"
Kushina looked up, and was momentarily stunned.
"A whirlpool is flat, a delicate picture. But a spiral is three-dimensional."
Mito led Kushina toward the staircase.
Almost every few steps up the staircase, one could look through the window and see the village outside.
"Although they both appear to be rotating things, as the steps keep changing, the scenery also keeps changing."
Kushina nodded sincerely.
This time she understood clearly.
The rotation of a whirlpool pulls people into its center and causes them to sink into it. But the "steps" of a spiral, every few steps, reveal a different scenery.
She did not want to sink into the "whirlpool." She wanted to climb upward along the spiral.
She had to work hard to change herself.
To carve out her own future, and make herself stronger.
If Chiya had heard this, he would have understood it even more clearly.
Because this was simply the ninja world version of taking initiative.
"We are here."
Before they realized it, the two had arrived at the very top.
"The things stored up here are a vessel to hold what I love."
A vessel?
She followed Mito's gaze.
Kushina's eyes went wide.
So this love was the First Hokage, Senju Hashirama.
Mito looked at Hashirama's face carved on the Hokage Rock for a long time, then smiled and turned back.
"Kushina, do you have someone you like?"
Kushina's heart felt as though it skipped a beat.
"Someone I like?"
The figure of Uchiha Chiya flashed through her mind.