[I still do not understand why you hate Minato so much, I already explained that he was also manipulated and knew nothing]
"And what about it? Even if that is true, a person should not follow others without thinking, they should be independent"
[And are you just going to ignore his feelings forever?]
"I already made it clear that I am not interested, I even find him unpleasant. Does he need me to say it to his face to understand?
Besides, if he likes me, why does he just follow me around without doing anything? Is he waiting for me to fall in love with him just because he stays close?
I would not fall in love with someone who only follows me and everything I say"
[So you want someone who gives you orders?]
"Of course not. I have never liked anyone anyway, but someone who follows everything I say is boring. It would definitely be someone who can argue with me without always agreeing just because it is me, and even give me orders when necessary"
[You have strange tastes, are you sure you are not a masochist? I have heard that most people with strong personalities are somewhat masochistic on the inside]
"Y-you…" Kushina blushed at his words, her cheeks reaching the same color as her hair. "How can you say something like that to a girl? Sometimes I think you only see me as a subordinate instead of a girl"
[Not really, I am just very bored here, so I kill time chatting with you. If you were not a cute girl, I would probably just give you orders without talking]
Kushina blushed again, this time for a different reason.
"C-cute? I will not become your sixth wife just because of a few cheap compliments"
[Can you stop saying that? I do not have multiple wives, what do you think of me?]
"Well, with that face it makes sense. Speaking of which, do you really look like that?" Kushina asked while looking at the scroll with Kaito's portrait.
[More or less, I look like that, but the fact that it is not in color takes away quite a lot]
"How can color take anything away?"
[You will understand when we meet. You already arrived, so I will stay quiet]
"Sure, goodbye" Kushina said as she arrived at the old Senju compound.
Kushina entered her house, where she had lived since being brought to the village of Konoha.
Nawaki and Tsunade had also lived there for a time, however, after the deaths of both Nawaki and Dan Kato, and after Tsunade developed hemophobia due to the trauma, she barely spent any time there or in the village.
However, to Kushina's surprise, although she should have known ever since Hiruzen told her to pass the message to Tsunade, this time Tsunade was actually there.
"Sister Tsunade, you came," Kushina greeted her excitedly.
Tsunade observed her, paying attention to her flak jacket.
"Congratulations," she said, although her face did not show happiness.
However, Kushina knew that the reason was not that she did not want to see her advance, but that she was worried about her being in danger as a jonin, so she did not get upset and sincerely thanked her.
"Did you come for something in particular this time?" Kushina asked.
"No, I just ran out of money, so I came to ask the old man for some," Tsunade replied.
"I do not think the Third Hokage can lend you money, the Third Ninja War just started."
"The Third Ninja War, huh…" Tsunade murmured before looking at Kushina seriously. She was not surprised, since she was somewhat aware of the recent incidents. "Will you participate?"
"Of course. My dream is to become Hokage after all," Kushina replied proudly.
"There is no need for that, right? You only wanted to become Hokage to be recognized, but now you are quite popular," Tsunade said, knowing Kushina's motives since she was little.
"That was before, this is now. I want to become Hokage to change the ninja system"
"Sounds like too much pointless work"
"It is not pointless," Kushina said firmly without hesitation.
Tsunade looked into her serious and determined eyes and could not help but sigh.
"Sometimes I think you have goals beyond that when you show that look. I just hope the war does not end up changing your view of the world," she sighed again before speaking. "Where will you go?"
"The Land of Grass. According to Shikaku-san, Iwa will probably use the method of overwhelming with numbers, so someone like me, with a lot of power but no experience or control, will be deployed there"
"Tsk, sending children to war," Tsunade said as she stood up.
"Sister Tsunade, where are you going?"
"I am going to ask the old man for money"
"But I do not think he will lend you any right now"
"Where do you get the idea that he lends me money? It is just the money he owes me," Tsunade snapped angrily as she left.
"She did not even say goodbye," Kushina murmured.
---
{Author's Note: I don't know much about strategies and that kind of stuff, so I'm not even going to try.
Kushina is going to dominate the battlefield so completely that strategies won't even matter. Once Kushina approaches, if she doesn't kill everyone, it's only because they already fled after hearing her name.}
One week later, Kushina arrived at one of Konoha's ninja camps in the Land of Grass.
Among several tents, there was a larger one in the center, which Kushina headed toward and entered.
Inside was a black-haired man, a little over thirty years old, with a serious expression.
"You must be Uzumaki Kushina, newly promoted jonin, with no experience. It seems Konoha keeps sending more and more inexperienced children to die"
[Translation: You are young, I hope you do not die]
"I am Uchiha Raizen. We are looking at the map, checking where Iwa's ninjas are deployed and where they are likely to appear. The sooner you learn, the fewer problems you will cause others on the battlefield"
Uchiha Raizen said every word in an authoritative and serious tone, not giving Kushina any chance to respond.
[Translation: Learn, so you do not get hurt]
'What are you doing?' Kushina finally asked.
[I am helping you understand it better. The Uchiha are necessary for my plan, so I do not want you to misunderstand them and get along badly with them]
'And how do you know he does not simply dislike me?'
[I can sense malice in people, and that person has absolutely no malice directed at you]
'I see, they are Tus...tsun… how did you say it?'
[Tsunderes]
'That!'
Stopping the fooling around, Kushina used her ability and memorized the entire map and the locations where the ninjas appeared.
In addition to that, she learned about her own camp.
The camp was only medium-sized, so there were about one hundred and fifty people in total, with one hundred being combatants. The rest were divided between scouts and support, logistics, messengers, and medical ninjas.
There were very few jonin. Besides the leader Uchiha Raizen and Kushina, there were only two other jonin in the camp. Even so, medical ninjas were even fewer, with only three, and only one was a chunin, the other two were genin.
During the following days, Kushina basically did nothing. As a jonin, her role was to fight in large-scale battles, reserving her strength for when it was necessary, but before that, the fighting was almost entirely based on small skirmishes and sabotage.
With Konoha's camp trying to surprise Iwa's when they let their guard down and retreat before they could gather their forces, and the same happening on Iwa's side.
Even so, Kushina, who disliked staying still, found something to do, using her ability to sense the surroundings and warn when enemy ninjas came to cause trouble.
Although at first they told her it was not necessary, since they already had sensory ninjas, they soon realized that Kushina could see much more.
Being able to sense enemies from much farther away and knowing exactly their numbers and strength, Konoha's camp began not only to defend against them, but also to counter the other side's ambushes every time, thus reducing their own casualties and increasing those of the enemy.
"Hahaha, good". Inside the main tent of the camp, Uchiha Raizen smiled and laughed in satisfaction. He never expected the rookie sent to him to bring such a surprise.
"Thanks to you, we have hardly lost any ninjas throughout the entire week, while the enemy has lost almost a quarter of their force.
Even if they are only small groups sent to ambush, with so many eliminated, they have already lost quite a lot," Raizen explained.
"It is nothing, it is a ninja's job" Kushina said with a satisfied smile at the praise, despite pretending to be humble in words.
Raizen saw this and laughed. 'Kids. They do not know how to hide their emotions well'
"Alright, let us talk about the future. After so much time and so many losses, a full confrontation is very likely, but we will attack instead of them, without giving them any chance. We will move out as soon as night falls, so get ready"
"Understood!" Kushina nodded and went to prepare.
---
"Is it there?" Raizen asked.
"Yes," said the ninja in charge of reconnaissance. "They are inside that cave in the mountain"
In front of them was a small mountain, with a cave at its base and torches on both sides.
"There are many traps at the entrance," Kushina said.
Raizen nodded.
"I figured as much. If we could think of it, they could too, so they defended with everything they have instead of attacking.
For now, tell the reconnaissance team to find and record all the traps. After that, we will slowly deactivate them before entering"
"Why do we not just destroy the entrance and force them out?" Kushina asked.
"They are not stupid. The traps were placed at least within a hundred meters around the entrance. That way, when we have deactivated many of them, we will be tired, and ninjutsu with such long range is usually not destructive, but piercing"
"I can do it" Kushina said.
Raizen looked at her in surprise.
"Are you sure?"
"Of course!" she nodded confidently.
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+15 chapters in advance on Patreon.
p-atreon.com/IAMME26
(just delete the hyphen)
80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)