Chapter 105: Something's Not Right
In a vast, dark sewer, the sound of dripping water echoed.
Kushina opened her eyes and found herself standing in water.
"Where am I?"
She couldn't remember how she had gotten here. She walked deeper into the sewer, and after what felt like an eternity, she came to a huge chamber.
A massive creature was imprisoned behind a cage of ridiculously large metal bars.
A terrifying eye opened and stared at her.
"Hmph. A new brat, eh?" a deep voice rumbled, echoing through the chamber. "After that old woman, now it's a little girl."
Kushina stumbled back in fear, then realized where she was. This must be the Nine-Tails, sealed inside her.
She calmed herself. "Am I here," she asked, "because my real self is unconscious?"
"That's right," the deep voice sneered. "Beaten unconscious without a fight, and now you're being carried around like a corpse."
She was silent for a moment, then looked at the Nine-Tails' fur, which was the color of molten lava. "Such a hateful power," she said. "As I thought. To have you sealed inside me is to be cursed with misfortune. Both Grandma Mito and I..."
"You think I want to be locked up in here?!" the Nine-Tails roared. "It's all your fault, you damn humans!"
"I'm not the one who locked you up," she said, her face a blank mask. "We're both just prisoners."
With that, she disappeared from the sealing space.
The furious Nine-Tails slowly calmed down and coiled up again.
Prisoners, are we?
Kushina slowly opened her eyes. As the Nine-Tails had said, she was being carried on someone's shoulder, in an unfamiliar forest.
"If you're awake, you can walk yourself," Samui said, putting her down. It was then that she realized her hands were tied behind her back, and the other end of the rope was in someone's hand.
She followed the rope with her eyes. It was held by a female ninja. But then a jolt of fear shot through her.
That woman's smile is terrifying!
"Keep moving," Samui ordered.
Kushina tried to access her chakra, but she felt nothing. She couldn't break the ropes. She had no choice but to obey.
She had likely been captured by enemy ninja. Though she didn't know how they had managed to sneak into Konoha, that wasn't the priority now. They were clearly heading away from the village, so she feigned weakness and dizziness, walking as slowly as she could to buy time.
Strangely, the female ninja in the lead didn't seem to be in a hurry.
"Senpai," Hiroto whispered, "shouldn't we be moving faster?"
Though they were outside the village walls, they were still a long way from the agreed-upon rendezvous point. At their current pace, he was worried they would be discovered. But with his "smirking god of war" expression, it looked less like he was worried and more like he was taunting the Konoha ninja, eager for a fight.
Samui was in no hurry. She let Kushina walk as slowly as she wanted and gave Hiroto a reassuring look.
Kushina quickly tried to think of a plan. She didn't know why they weren't in a hurry to escape, but it was to her advantage. She had to find a way to save herself. But her hands were tied, and her chakra was sealed.
Suddenly, an idea came to her. She secretly pulled out a few strands of her hair and dropped them on the ground. Her hair color was so unique; it would be a guide for anyone who came to rescue her.
She continued to do this every so often. Seeing that her captors didn't stop her, she assumed they hadn't noticed.
But what she didn't know was that Kayo, who was holding the rope behind her, had a special sensory ability. She could feel her every move.
Kayo thought for a moment, then an idea sparked in her mind.
It's not like she's the only one with red hair.
She secretly pulled out a few strands of her own hair. The moment they left her body, the transformation jutsu was dispelled, and they returned to their bright red color.
And so, at every fork in the road, after Kushina had dropped her hair, Kayo would drop her own, but in a different direction.
After returning to his small apartment, Minato Namikaze couldn't shake the feeling of unease. The image of Kushina's sad face was stuck in his mind. With his personality, he couldn't just sit back and do nothing.
In the end, he got up, got dressed, and went to her house.
He knocked for a long time, but there was no answer. Worried, he muttered, "I'm sorry for the intrusion," and went into her courtyard. With his keen intuition, he immediately felt that it was too quiet. But from the tracks, she had clearly come home.
He began to search for clues and finally found something by her bed.
"From the looks of it," he murmured to himself, "someone jumped down from the ceiling beam and attacked her. And it's been a while. She's in danger!"
He wanted to go and get help, but he was afraid of losing their trail. He wrote a note, tied it to a kunai, and threw it through the window of a nearby house. The sound of breaking glass would attract the owner's attention. As long as they were a citizen of Konoha, they wouldn't ignore it. They would go and report it to the Military Police Force.
After confirming that the window was broken and the owner had turned on the lights to investigate, he immediately set out on the trail.
But what he didn't know was that the neighbor, after confirming the contents of the note, had been about to go to the police when he had opened his door to find a masked ninja standing there.
"Lord ANBU?" he said. "Good timing. Someone just broke my window with a kunai. They said someone kidnapped their friend and asked me to report it."
"I know," the masked ninja said. "Give me the note. I'll look into it."
The man hesitated for a moment, then thought, What am I worried about? I'm just a common citizen. He handed the note to the masked ninja.
Minato, who was in hot pursuit, knew nothing of what had just happened. He was following the trail out of the village.
"The village and its surroundings are protected by a barrier," he thought. "If someone entered through a place other than the main gate, it would have triggered an alarm. How did they get in? Unless... the ones who took her were from inside the village?"
The village's barrier had been impenetrable for years. He didn't believe there was such an obvious flaw. But if it was someone from inside the village... his heart sank.
He didn't know that Kushina was a Jinchuriki. To him, she was just a girl with a difficult personality. If there was anything special about her, it was her Uzumaki blood.
He followed the trail outside the village walls. A short while later, at a fork in the road, he noticed a few strands of red hair on the ground. He picked them up. It was Kushina's unique red hair.
"She must have left this to guide her rescuers!"
He unhesitatingly followed the direction the hair was pointing. But after a while, he lost the trail and had to go back. He then went in the other direction and found more red hair.
And so, he went back and forth, sometimes right, sometimes wrong, taking many detours, until he had a large handful of red hair and a growing sense of unease.
He stared at the handful of hair, his expression stiff.
(＞_＜)
"...So she just has a serious shedding problem?"