"Hiss… that hurts, that hurts!"
This was a one-sided beatdown.
Uzumaki Kushina was strong—her monstrous strength could swing kids her age around and slam them, and when she got angry she could even turn the tables on a freshly graduated genin.
But in front of Gojo Yoru, she was still too green.
She had brute force, but no structure—straight-line attacks that practically announced to her opponent what she was about to do.
Yoru didn't even need to crush her with speed, and he didn't need his reflexes to dodge. He simply used side blocks and force-dissolving techniques to nullify every strike, then proceeded to pummel the round-faced girl mercilessly.
Before long, Kushina—her face lightly bruised but still cute—collapsed onto the ground, sucking in cold air over and over.
"You're so weak. Didn't you say you were great at fighting?" Yoru mocked from above, though there was a faint smile on his face—one he didn't even seem to realize was there.
"Hmph! Don't get cocky! I was just careless!" Kushina shouted stubbornly, cupping her bruised cheek.
"Hope your body's as tough as your mouth."
Yoru gave a disdainful snort, then squatted in front of her and said in a hard tone, "Move your hand."
"Y-you… what are you doing?"
As the girl stared at him wide-eyed, blushing as her imagination ran wild, Yoru extended his palm. A green glow suddenly coated his hand.
He held it beside her cheek—less than two centimeters away—and a gentle warmth flowed over her face like a hot towel.
The swelling and mild pain vanished quickly.
Through the green light, Kushina's deep navy eyes stared blankly at Yoru's serious expression, and suddenly her heart started pounding.
Even though the pain was fading fast, she felt her cheeks getting even hotter.
"…Done."
As if he hadn't noticed her expression at all, Yoru used the most basic medical technique to heal her face, then stood up and walked off with his hands in his pockets.
Kushina snapped back to herself and hurriedly got up to follow.
This time, she wasn't trailing behind him—she moved up to his side, shoulder to shoulder, and gathered her courage to ask, "Does this count as 'we fought, so now we're friends'?"
"No. This was just a one-sided beating," Yoru said coolly.
Kushina's eyes shifted, and she puffed up angrily. "I told you, I was just careless! And I haven't eaten anything today—I'm starving, I've got no strength or focus. If you've got the guts, fight me again tomorrow! I definitely won't lose again!"
Yoru didn't answer. He simply tilted his head and gave her a contemptuous smirk, like: You? Really?
Kushina lifted her chin toward Yoru—who was nearly a head taller than her—and barked, "So what? You dare or not? Don't tell me you're scared!"
Her provocation worked. Yoru let out a cold laugh. "Hope you don't cry tomorrow."
"That's my line."
Kushina, just like the reckless-era Naruto in canon, didn't care whether she could win—first she had to get the swagger out.
When they left the forest, Yoru didn't go straight back to school. He stopped by a shop outside and bought a few buns.
Without saying anything, he casually tossed one to Kushina and kept walking toward the academy.
Kushina caught the bun and immediately felt her eyes heat up. Looking at Yoru's back, her goodwill skyrocketed.
This guy really was cold on the outside, warm on the inside!
Her lips kept curling upward. As she tore open the wrapper, she followed after him.
Neither of them spoke. They just ate their buns in silence.
Compared to the classmates who brought bento lunches, this meal was painfully shabby.
But Kushina ate with pure happiness.
Hidden in the shadows, secretly watching them, Namikaze Minato felt a surge of envy.
If he'd been the one to step in first… would the person beside Kushina right now have been him?
…
After the Senju clan integrated into Konoha, they had long since torn down the high walls that once enclosed their compound. After all these years, that vast territory had already become part of the village itself.
Now, the only thing that still "represented" the Senju was a single traditional building—home to Konoha's strongest living person, Tsunade and Nawaki's residence, and also the place where Kushina was temporarily staying.
Tsunade, just back from her shift at Konoha Hospital, heard the sounds of fighting coming from the courtyard as soon as she arrived home.
When she stepped onto the engawa, the first thing she saw was Uzumaki Mito sitting in a chair, a blanket draped over her legs.
At this moment, Mito didn't look like someone with only a year or two left to live.
With the Strength of a Hundred Seal, she still felt unfathomably deep.
And as a perfect jinchūriki, she truly was Konoha's—no, the shinobi world's—number one powerhouse.
After all, Uchiha Madara was also old now, and the Rinnegan wasn't even on him.
Walking over to Mito's side, Tsunade watched Kushina and Nawaki sparring in taijutsu and asked curiously, "Grandma, how did you talk Kushina around? Her change today is huge compared to yesterday."
Mito smiled. "She met a good child."
"Oh, right—she went to the Ninja Academy today. So she made a friend?" Tsunade's eyes brightened with interest. "Less than a day and she's like a different person. And she's even so proactive about sparring with Nawaki. Is her friend a boy or a girl?"
"A very good boy," Mito said, giving an unusually high evaluation.
Just as Hiruzen paid close attention to Kushina's first day at school, Mito had done the same.
She didn't have the Crystal Ball Telescope Technique—but after the Second Hokage's death, there was no one in the world whose sensing could match Uzumaki Mito, who possessed the Mind's Eye of the Kagura and had also fused with the Nine-Tails' ability to sense malice and goodwill.
Children's good and evil were the easiest things to read.
The classmates' hostility toward Kushina—the outsider—and the goodwill that Minato and Gojo Yoru had toward her… Mito saw it all.
And the one she paid the most attention to was naturally Gojo Yoru.
From that child, she sensed a very special chakra fluctuation.
It was energy that ordinary sensing couldn't catch—something even she could only barely "see."
It was somewhat similar to her husband's senjutsu chakra, yet fundamentally different—more like the nature transformations of kekkei genkai such as Lava Release or Ice Release.
But users of those bloodline limits only converted chakra into that nature transformation when they performed a technique.
The energy inside that child, like senjutsu chakra, was already separated out inside his body.
That special chakra wasn't secreted from the brain, which meant it wasn't yin chakra. So was it a special yang-release-type bloodline limit?
Mito was curious—but she didn't plan to dig deeper.
Her malice-and-goodwill sensing didn't lie. All she needed to know was that Gojo Yoru held no ill intent toward Kushina—only goodwill.
And with her time running short, Mito only wanted to spend her remaining days with her family and clan.
Of course, Tsunade didn't know her grandmother's thoughts.
Hearing that Kushina's change was because of a boy, Tsunade couldn't help smiling mischievously. She rolled up her sleeves and said, "No wonder she's training so hard—sounds like she met a strong rival. Let me give her a boost."
With that, Tsunade walked over and began guiding both Kushina and Nawaki at the same time.
~~~
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