The tiny Kushina stood with her hands on her hips, wearing a "I've totally seen through your little scheme" expression, glaring fiercely at the boy in front of her.
"Hey! Don't ignore me! Where are you going?"
But when she saw him completely disregard her and turn to leave directly, she hurriedly chased after him.
"Go back to the village. There are no other enemies around here."
Uchiha Kage glanced speechlessly at the red-haired girl in front of him.
'Still a little brat, yet always fantasizing that others like her… and acting so spoiled and unreasonable.'
Completely different from the future Kushina, who kept calling him husband and always wrapped those long legs around him.
The contrast was just too much.
"Aren't you going back to the village? You broke the room that Tsunade-neechan cherishes most. Wait with me until she comes back. I'll help plead with her for you," Kushina tugged at the hem of Uchiha Kage's clothes.
'Such a gloomy and scary forest, and he actually wnats a delicate, soft girl like me to return alone?'
'Is his heart made of iron?'
'He praised my hair before too… was it really just insincere flattery to get something out of me?'
"You're the one who broke it. What does it have to do with me? Besides…", Uchiha Kage seemed to be talking to Kushina, or maybe to Tsunade, "The woman who lived in that room is already dead. What's the point of keeping the house?"
"I don't care. When Tsunade-neechan comes back to the village, you have to explain it for me, you stupid thief," Kushina decided to cling to this guy first. That way, when Tsunade returned to punish them, she'd have someone to share the blame.
"Come out, you've been following for so long, aren't you tired?"
Once again ignoring Kushina's sharp tongue, Uchiha Kage glanced at the bushes behind them.
"S-sorry, I think I came too late. The bad guys have already been defeated by you, right?", He was indeed quite tired. Noticing something strange in the forest, Namikaze Minato, who was practicing Body Flicker Technique, had tracked the disturbance all the way here.
Then, just as he caught up to the group and mistakenly assumed the ninjas surrounding Kushina were enemies and was about to help, he ran into the scene of Uchiha Kage slaughtering enemies with various secret techniques of Konoha.
Since he didn't know whether the other was friend or foe, he had to hide and observe.
But now, it seemed this person wasn't an enemy.
After all, he could talk and laugh with the class's "Blood Red Pepper"...
"Your Body Flicker Technique earlier was so fast. Can you teach me?", Facing the gazes from Uchiha Kage and Kushina, Minato scratched his head and climbed out of the bushes looking travel-worn.
"Sure, as long as you acknowledge me as your master, I'll teach you," Compared to the little drama queen Kushina, Uchiha Kage now felt that this blond kid might be cuter.
His smile was like a little sun.
And his tone and manners were particularly polite.
Obvious good kid.
"I-I also want to learn powerful jutsu! Teach me first!"
'Don't you know about coming first? I was here first!'
Kushina recognized this blond kid. He always secretly peeked at her in class. Definitely had a crush on her.
But unfortunately, she didn't like this timid type.
She liked the kind that…
Kushina glanced at the heap of fainted ninjas on the ground, her pretty little face reddening slightly.
She quietly put the toy in her hand behind her back.
"Then call me teacher first, let's hear it."
Actually…
He really did kind of miss it… the future Kushina who always affectionately called him husband.
But even the current Kushina could be cultivated.
Let's start with calling him teacher.
"T-thief!", Kushina opened her mouth, but for some reason, she just couldn't call him teacher. Then, as if to cover her embarrassment, she suddenly shouted "thief!" and stuck her tongue out at Uchiha Kage.
Crap!
After making the face, Kushina lowered her head in frustration. What was she even doing just now?
"Teacher!", Next to her, Minato's call was clear and proper, and very respectful.
He had seen the jutsu this teacher used earlier, way more impressive than their school teachers.
Acknowledging him as a master was definitely a good deal.
"Let's go. I'll teach you the Flying Thunder God Technique," Patting the blond kid's head, Uchiha Kage decided to properly teach this destined disciple.
Giving up one's life just to seal a mere Nine Tails in the future? That's too weak.
He needed strengthening.
But after glancing at the face-making Kushina and then at the obedient Minato, Uchiha Kage felt like he'd accidentally turned a solo mission into a multiplayer one again.
Oh well, take it one step at a time.
"Yes, teacher!"
'I really managed to become an apprentice that easily?'
Minato felt like he'd been hit by a golden egg tonight.
As a child born to a civilian family, no matter how well he performed, it was hard to receive elite training.
But now…
"I was the one who came first…"
'That damn thief, after flirting with this lady, he goes off chasing someone else?'
Looking at Uchiha Kage only interacting with Minato and ignoring her, Kushina pouted gloomily and sadly.
———
"Hey, they really might be Konoha ninjas. Aren't you afraid…"
Helpless, to lure a certain someone who was ignoring her while teaching jutsu to the blond, Kushina could only bring up the ninjas on the ground.
"I'm not a Konoha ninja. What should I be afraid of?"
"But you clearly are an Uchiha…"
"I also have Byakugan, does that make me a Hyuga?"
"You…", Kushina originally wanted to say that when they got back to the village, she could use her status to plead to the Hokage for him, but didn't expect he completely didn't care about Konoha.
'Just what is this guy's background?'
"But teacher used all Konoha-style jutsu earlier…", Minato, who had already started grasping the Flying Thunder God Technique in no time, was both impressed and curious about his new teacher's identity.
'If not a Konoha ninja, then who?'
"Not just Konoha's. I can also use jutsu from Cloud, Mist, even Sand," Once he finishes clearing the Iwa village dungeon in the future, he'll have basically "learned" all the signature jutsu of the Five Great Ninja Villages.
"Bragging…", Kushina pouted.
'If you are that strong, why sneak into my… Tsunade-neechan's house to steal?'
"Then you're even stronger than the Hokage?"
"Minato, once you finish learning Flying Thunder God, I'll teach you offensive techniques," Deliberately ignoring the tsundere little girl in front of him, Uchiha Kage turned to the boy behind him.
"Yes, teacher!", This Flying Thunder God Technique was way stronger than the Body Flicker he practiced before. Minato was now completely immersed in the sea of jutsu knowledge.
Though he was also curious about this "wild" teacher's identity, after seeing that the Konoha ninjas knocked out on the ground hadn't been killed, he relaxed.
No matter who he was, he probably wasn't an enemy.
And…
To teach a stranger like him so thoroughly, the man must have a good heart.
"Hey, aren't you going to teach me?", Watching Uchiha Kage and the blond happily train in ninjutsu again, Kushina couldn't hold it in anymore.
"You didn't call me teacher. Why should I teach you?"
"I… I didn't even blame you for stealing from Tsunade-neechan's house… Wait, don't go! I…", Kushina pitifully grabbed Uchiha Kage's sleeve.
"I'll call you teacher too… teacher…", She lowered her head, letting her red hair hide her face, and softly said "teacher."
She didn't know why, but even though it wasn't a difficult word, saying it made her blush shyly.
"Too late, I only planned to take one disciple. No more spots."
Looking at the shy girl calling him teacher, Uchiha Kage couldn't help but want to tease her.
Although she was completely different from the future Kushina, she was… still kind of cute.
"You!"
She thought that by lowering herself, she could earn his forgiveness, but…
'Did he really start to hate me because of what I said earlier?'
Thinking that she had no one else to rely on, and that the only one willing to help her now hated her, Kushina's heart ached, her nose wrinkled, and tears fell from her eyes one after another.
"Waaah… do you hate me too? Just like everyone else, because I'm the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki…"
"Kushina…", Uchiha Kage almost forgot that the Kushina in front of him was just about ten years old, or maybe not even ten yet.
Seeing the little girl tilt her head and cry her heart out, he started to feel a little guilty.
"Alright, alright, don't cry. I'll teach you."
"...", The girl stopped wailing, but still sobbed and hiccupped, with tears still hanging at the corners of her eyes.
"Y-you don't hate me anymore?", The girl's tear-filled eyes stared intently at the boy before her.
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