Minato Namikaze opened his mouth, as if he wanted to argue.
But immediately afterward, his expression turned into a bitter smile. He sighed sadly and said,
"It seems I no longer have any room to hesitate or choose, Lord Mizukage."
"A wise choice. After all, for all of you, choosing or not choosing makes no real difference."
Looking at Minato Namikaze's expression after he figured things out, Rei Kaguya smiled lightly and reached out toward Kushina Uzumaki, whose complexion had recovered slightly and whose vitality had barely been kept from rising or falling under the effects of the secret medicine, Biscuit.
He asked this research material, who did not have long left to live,
"Then, what do you yourself think, Kushina Uzumaki?"
"Kirigakure… really has a way to let me survive?"
Kushina Uzumaki could not help hugging Naruto in her arms tightly.
Her pale face was filled with unease and reluctance.
"I know my own body. It is basically… a bottomless pit that cannot be filled no matter what…"
"I only said it might be possible. After all, that method itself has not progressed to a point where it can perfectly adapt to every person."
Rei Kaguya shook his head, choosing not to speak too absolutely.
"If your luck is bad, you will still die. But as long as your luck is not especially bad, extending your life by several years to more than ten years should still be possible… Of course, even if you unfortunately die, Kirigakure will still collect the necessary compensation from Konoha."
"…You really do not seem like a shinobi, Rei Kaguya."
Kushina Uzumaki lowered her head and kissed Naruto's forehead with infinite tenderness.
Reluctantly, she placed him on the clean bed, then raised her head and looked at Minato Namikaze, whose expression was extremely complicated.
She tried hard to show him a smile that would put him at ease.
"I will do my best. Even if it is only so I can see you and Naruto again, I will fight with everything I have to survive… Until then, Naruto is in your hands, Minato."
"…You must come back, Kushina."
Minato Namikaze's gaze moved between Naruto and Kushina Uzumaki with incomparable complexity.
After staying silent for a long while, he finally forced out those words of farewell.
"All right. Then I will take Madam Kushina back to Kirigakure for treatment first…"
Rei Kaguya turned toward Shisui Uchiha.
"Shisui, you, Kisame, and Mangetsu will stay in Konoha for now to help with disaster relief. Also help Mei Terumi hold the stage and talk first with Konoha's negotiation team about the specific payment for our support of Konoha. I have already told her the general demands. After the overall direction is set, the details can be handed to the village's other teams to handle."
While explaining his temporary arrangements after returning to the village to Shisui Uchiha, who listened seriously, Rei Kaguya formed seals and used the Summoning Technique.
Amid a cloud of smoke, a graceful classical beauty dressed in palace robes appeared inside the temporary ward with a somewhat helpless expression. In a small voice, she protested to Rei Kaguya,
"Um, Lord Rei? Although you and the White Snake Sage have reached certain cooperation agreements, you still cannot treat the three of us sisters like maids whenever something happens, can you? No matter what, I am still one of Ryuchi Cave's proper sages…"
"Well, this time there is at least a proper reason. After all, transporting a critically injured patient through Ryuchi Cave to Kirigakure requires a summoned partner with more precise, stable, and gentle chakra control to act as a medium.
"I cannot ignore a reliable collaborator like you, Tagorihime, and choose someone like Manda instead, can I?"
"Even if you praise me with such insincere words, I will not feel happy…"
While quietly bickering with Rei Kaguya, Tagorihime still walked professionally to Kushina Uzumaki, who had already prepared herself, and brought her to Ryuchi Cave using Reverse Summoning.
Rei Kaguya also removed his Mizukage hat toward Minato Namikaze as a farewell, then likewise headed to Ryuchi Cave with Reverse Summoning.
Just before he disappeared, he left behind these words:
"By the way, in yesterday's battle, although the Nine-Tails was killed by me, Obito Uchiha, who has gathered a pair of Mangekyo Sharingan, did not suffer any fatal injury. Remember to add countermeasures against space-time ninjutsu when you rebuild Konoha's defensive barrier. Otherwise, he will come back again and again."
Rei Kaguya's voice faded.
But the remaining three people in the ward felt their hearts grow heavier because of that troublesome piece of information.
A silent and oppressive atmosphere spread through the ward.
After the awkward three-way standoff lasted for a while, Kakashi Hatake, who had suffered the most pain and therefore had relatively the strongest resistance to it, looked at the silent Minato Namikaze and asked in a low voice,
"Um, Minato-sensei… before you agreed to the Fourth Mizukage's proposal, you were originally very hesitant, right? Why did you suddenly feel that you could entrust Lady Kushina's life and death to Kirigakure?"
Hearing this, Minato Namikaze could not help shaking his head with a bitter smile.
Then, filled with emotion, he pointed outside the window, indicating for Kakashi Hatake to look in that direction.
Following his line of sight, what appeared in Kakashi Hatake's eye was the battlefield scarred as if heaven and earth had collapsed, the ruined Konoha Village, and Konoha shinobi moving through the wreckage, trying to save more of their companions.
"Sensei?"
"Kakashi, what Kirigakure helped us solve was the fundamental issue of whether Konoha could continue to exist in the shinobi world. For those of us who survived, the debt we owe Kirigakure was already so large that no end can be seen at a glance…"
Minato Namikaze withdrew his gaze and finger.
His expression was helpless as he looked toward Shisui Uchiha, who wore a Kirigakure forehead protector and carried a shinobi blade custom-made for him by Kirigakure.
He sighed.
"Since the debt itself is already nearly infinite, even if we add a commission for helping save Kushina, the things Konoha needs to repay will not change much overall. At most, I personally will owe an additional favor debt as Kushina Uzumaki's husband, separate from my identity as Hokage… My guess should not be too far off, should it, Shisui Uchiha?"
"That is probably indeed how the Fourth would think."
Shisui Uchiha nodded, expressing agreement with Minato Namikaze's judgment.
"Then, what would Lord Mizukage likely use that favor for… Can you tell me that information, Shisui?"
Minato Namikaze looked at Shisui Uchiha's childlike face and asked softly.
"That… I am not very sure…?"
Gradually, Shisui Uchiha's brows furrowed.
His voice also slowly quieted.
He looked at the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, who was close at hand, then recalled the task Rei Kaguya had given him before leaving and the meaningful look Rei had cast at him.
In his heart, a slightly… absurd guess slowly arose.
Did the Fourth intend to use this opportunity to have Konoha and the Uchiha clan revoke the official wanted status placed on him, an Uchiha traitor?
But… was that truly realistic?
No matter how one looked at it, he should belong to the category of a Konoha missing-nin.
Even if he had participated in the battle to protect Konoha last night and made contributions, that still could not change the fact that he was already a Kirigakure shinobi, right?
No matter how he thought about it, overlooking a traitor's past actions like that would create quite a large impact on Konoha's and the Uchiha clan's existing rules and order.
Seeing Shisui Uchiha inexplicably fall into self-entanglement and doubt, Minato Namikaze, who was not stupid, also immediately connected it to the other party's rather sensitive identity.
He somewhat helplessly touched his temples, which had been burned short in many places, then looked with emotion toward the Uchiha clan compound, where nearly half the residences were still relatively intact.
Fugaku, are you now troubled by the same problem as me?
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