A few days later, Kushina Uzumaki handed over the intelligence she had gathered on Shiyu Uchiha to Kushina. Originally, she had planned to tweak it slightly just to leave her mark.
But after reading through it carefully, she realized that even a single additional word would ruin its perfection. It was like the classic saying in wuxia novels about a beautiful woman—"Add a bit and she becomes too plump; remove one and she appears too gaunt."
Though Kushina had never heard that phrase before, her own feelings at that moment mirrored its meaning perfectly.
Later, Kushina even tried to make a copy of it, but after finishing just the beginning, she discovered her handwriting paled in comparison to Minato's. Angrily, she tossed the brush aside and threw herself onto her bed, pouting.
In the end, she submitted the unaltered report to her best friend, scribbling one final note at the bottom: "Player."
Two days later, with school on break, Kushina got ready and headed toward the training grounds where Mikoto Uchiha's squad was practicing. Upon arrival, she met Mikoto and handed her the scroll.
However, Mikoto happened to be in the middle of training and couldn't spare any attention, so Kushina left alone. Nevertheless, they had already made plans to have dinner together once their next holiday came around.
Walking home alone, Kushina inevitably thought about a certain boy. But obviously, it wasn't about Shiyu Uchiha—despite his impressive performance, not a soul stood a chance at earning her special favor.
Kushina's evaluation of Shiyu was: "You can't even defeat Sarutobi Shin'nosuke completely—pfft, and you call yourself an Uchiha." Fortunately, she hadn't included that sentence in the written comments, considering it might hurt her dear friend who was also his older sister.
After all, how could the Third Hokage not take interest in Kushina, a future jinchūriki? Gaining her support would further solidify his position as Hokage, benefit Konoha greatly, and maybe even give his eldest son a shot at becoming Hokage someday. What father wouldn't want the best for his child?
Therefore, the Third Hokage once attempted to play matchmaker for his own son. He even approached Mito Uzumaki about it. Although Mito never outright agreed, she hadn't refused either, stating it should depend on Kushina's personal choice.
At the time, however, the present Kushina firmly rejected the idea. She even took chances to beat up Sarutobi Shin'nosuke a few times, leaving him too scared to approach Kushina again, which finally made Hiruzen Sarutobi abandon his delusional matchmaking.
Yet back then, Hiruzen Sarutobi still possessed great resolve and didn't hold a grudge against Kushina—as opposed to the man he'd become during the Third Great Ninja War.
Even if he held a grudge, what could he really do? The present-day Kushina Uzumaki had powerful connections behind her—she wasn't someone he could simply push around anymore.
Thus, when it came to geniuses like Shiyu Uchiha—who stood at the same level as Sarutobi Shin'nosuke—Kushina Uzumaki held absolutely no special respect. In her eyes, wasn't he just another pawn she could twist and mold however she pleased?
At this moment, the person Kushina Uzumaki had in mind was naturally Minato Namikaze, the future Fourth Hokage. Thanks to Minato's impressive performance this time, he caught her attention. And since she intended to recruit him as one of her own people, it was only natural she started learning more about him.
But when she thought back carefully, she realized that Minato—who usually had barely any presence—had quietly risen from being the laughingstock at the beginning of the academy all the way to reaching an upper-tier level in class.
The only reason he hadn't caused a sensation yet was that he simply hadn't cracked the top five—yet. Plus, he got along well with many of his classmates. Kushina then recalled Minato's performance in theory exams, hand-to-hand combat, and the Trio-body Jutsu, along with his very humble background.
The more Kushina mulled it over, the more shocked she got. Each of Minato's achievements would've been impressive on its own, yet somehow he managed to pull them all off at once. If this kept up, Minato actually had a shot at topping the class in this year's graduation exam. At the latest, he'd definitely make it by next year. By graduation, Minato could easily stand out among students from countless ninja clans.
Even with Kushina's high standards, she now couldn't help but admit Minato's excellence—even possibly surpassing her own. As a result, her interest in recruiting him skyrocketed, and she began plotting how to win him over.
Yet before she could come up with a plan, she had unconsciously walked into the Senju clan district. Since this was still before the Second Great Ninja War, quite a few members of the Senju clan had already followed Hashirama Senju's and Tobirama Senju's advice to abandon the Senju surname. Hashirama himself led by example, having his own descendants relinquish the name first.
Even his grandchildren and granddaughters were no longer allowed to bear the Senju surname. Even Mito Uzumaki restored her maiden name after marrying her husband.
Shiyu Uchiha even suspected that individuals like Minato Namikaze and Jiraiya might carry bloodlines originating from the Senju clan. After all, both their personalities, hair colors, talent in Sage Art, and massive chakra reserves were suspicious enough—though there was no actual evidence.
Naturally, that lack of evidence was expected. After all, this matter had been personally handled by the sinister Tobirama Senju.
Still, plenty of people refused to give up, so the Senju clan district still had a considerable population—at least roughly one-third of what it had been during the village's founding period. The rest had either died in battle or abandoned their surnames to integrate into the village.
Those Senju who integrated into the village didn't resemble Tsunade's family. After giving up the Senju surname, they took their wealth and final blessings from the clan, left the clan grounds, concealed their identities, and fully assimilated into the village.
Tsunade's family, after all, were direct descendants of the First Hokage. Even if they completely gave up their surname and integrated into the village, they would still attract public attention—especially with a Nine-Tails Jinchuriki among them. There was no way they could remain hidden.
Therefore, rather than hiding, they openly declared their abandonment of the surname. This served two purposes: protecting those Senju who gave up their names from unfair treatment and setting an example for those who hadn't, encouraging them to do the same.
When Kushina Uzumaki reached Mito Uzumaki's residence, she didn't wait for someone to announce her arrival but rushed in immediately. Because of Nawaki's recent death, the atmosphere at Mito Uzumaki's home had turned quite somber. Although Kushina disliked this kind of mood, out of consideration for comforting her beloved grandmother figure, the thoughtful girl came almost every day.
Of course, she was also very sad. After all, Nawaki had been very easygoing and truly treated her like a little sister, just like Tsunade did—always treating her as family. They were the only three family members she had left in Konoha, and now one of them was gone. How could she not feel heartbroken? However, to comfort Grandma Mito, she tried her best to hide her sorrow and cheer the older woman up.
"Grandma, I'm here! Are you home?" As soon as she entered the door, Kushina loudly called out.
"I'm here. Come on in. Haven't eaten yet, have you?" Mito had already sensed Kushina's presence through her chakra, but waited until she spoke before replying.
Hearing the word "eat," Kushina suddenly realized that she hadn't eaten anything yet—she'd been too caught up in her thoughts. At that moment, her stomach let out a loud growl. Feeling embarrassed but knowing it was just Grandma Mito, she scratched her head sheepishly and said, "Not yet."
"Then let's eat together, you little thing." Soon after, Mito had extra chopsticks and bowls prepared. Then the two generations sat down for their usual casual chat over dinner.
At the same time, Minato Namikaze had recently fallen behind on his training because he spent several days gathering intelligence about Shiyu Uchiha. So for the past few days, he'd been cramming hard. Today finally marked the completion of his self-assigned tasks, giving him a chance to take a break. Coincidentally—or maybe not—he noticed Shiyu Uchiha practicing swordsmanship nearby with two girls.
Okay, maybe "coincidental" wasn't exactly the right word. When Minato previously collected information about Shiyu, he'd already figured out that this particular Training Ground was where the guy came most frequently. So coming here for extra training lately had kind of felt like waiting under a tree for another rabbit to run into it—hoping for a repeat performance. As for his purpose, well, do I really need to say?
His eyes lit up. He decided to go over, introduce himself, and try to strike up a conversation. Maybe he could casually ask for some tips on dating while he was at it. After all, from Minato's perspective, Shiyu practically seemed like some kind of love guru who managed to charm not one but two amazing girls at the same time. Even a little advice might be enough to help Minato finally get a girlfriend of his own.
What Minato didn't realize, however, was that those two girls were just close female friends of Shiyu Uchiha's—nothing more. There was absolutely no romantic connection between them at all.
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~ Every 50 Powerstones = **4 Bonus Chapters** on the weekend!