Her pure pupils were full of her own expectation and frailty.
"I don't hate you, actually I quite like you."
"R-really?"
"Mm…"
'Hoo…'
Seeing the little Kushina forcing her tears back bit by bit, Uchiha Kage finally let out a breath of relief.
"I knew it…", Kushina wiped the corners of her eyes and her cheeks with the back of her hand.
Then, while sobbing softly, she peeked at Uchiha Kage's expression through her fingers, "You definitely like me, that's why you're helping me. Hmph… being nice to me, you definitely want to marry me when I grow up, so everything at home will be yours by then, right?"
"If you say so, then it is."
'This kid, just finished crying and now being mischievous again.'
But to already be thinking about marriage at such a young age, who knows where she learned that from.
Uchiha Kage was almost driven out of his temper by Kushina.
"I knew it was like that. But there really is a powerful monster inside me. You better… not marry me," Seeing that the "stinky thief brother" didn't get angry at her nonsense, Kushina finally relaxed her anxious heart.
'Great, he really doesn't hate me.'
But then, thinking of the Nine-Tails in her body, the instructions from Grandma Mito and the Hokage, and how everyone in the village avoided her, Kushina couldn't help but grow depressed again.
"Alright, I won't marry you."
'Nine-Tails?'
Uchiha Kage almost forgot about that big fox.
In the previous Nine-Tails Riot instance, it was one of the main culprits behind Kushina's suffering.
"You!"
'Saying you won't marry just like that, can't this guy even try to persist a little?'
Seeing Uchiha Kage respond so decisively, Kushina puffed up her cheeks again.
But in the next second, she was frozen in place by the sudden appearance of the Sharingan.
And when she opened her eyes again, in front of her was already the place where the Nine-Tails, that big fox, was sealed.
Except for the day the Nine-Tails was transferred into her by Uzumaki Mito, this was the first time Kushina had seen the Nine-Tails inside her.
"No wonder you always frowned before, this guy doesn't calm down during full moons, right?", Looking at the sealed Nine-Tails baring its teeth and claws at him and Kushina, Uchiha Kage coldly upgraded his three-tomoe Sharingan to Mangekyō.
"You… you really have been secretly watching me…"
Though she really wanted to ask where this place was and how she could see the Nine-Tails, Kushina's attention was drawn elsewhere.
If he hadn't been secretly watching, how would he know what her condition was today?
"Open the seal, I'll go in and beat it up first."
"But…"
'Is it okay to open the seal?'
Kushina hesitated, but after thinking a bit, still removed the seal on the bars locking up the Nine-Tails.
"If the Nine-Tails gets out, we'll both die. You…"
Before Kushina finished her sentence, she saw the boy beside her had already created over a hundred shadow clones, then used various types of powerful elemental ninjutsu that dazzled her eyes, even turning the furious fox's eyes into Sharingan as well.
And soon, the fierce beast Nine-Tails that looked like it was going to devour people was reduced to mere foul-mouthed muttering, then pinned to the ground by Uchiha Kage's big dango-like attacks as if he were massaging it… In the end, its consciousness was even taken by the Sharingan, completely turning into a limp fox.
"Behave from now on, or every time I see you, I'll beat you up again," After finishing off the Nine-Tails, Uchiha Kage signaled the still-dazed Kushina to close the seal again.
"You evil… hmph!", Only after returning inside the seal did the Nine-Tails regain some sense of "safety", and habitually began running its foul mouth again.
But upon seeing the Mangekyō Sharingan in Uchiha Kage's eyes, it still instinctively turned its fox head away.
'Damn Mangekyō Sharingan…', it didn't even have a chance to resist.
And the thing it hated the most was this feeling of being controlled.
"This way, it should behave for a while," After giving the big fox a good lesson, Uchiha Kage brought Kushina out of the mental space.
"You…", Opening her eyes and returning to the forest again, Kushina was still in a daze.
'This "thief" actually subdued the Nine-Tails alone…'
'And used so many ninjutsu… so he wasn't bluffing after all.'
'But, why would someone so strong sneak into my house to steal?'
'Wait, could it be he already knew the Cloud Village ninjas would come to kidnap me, so he had come early to guard her, and the stealing was just to cover it up or a misunderstanding?'
After filling in the blanks in her mind, Kushina finally gave herself a reasonable "explanation".
'But those explanations don't matter anymore. Since this guy is so strong, he probably won't care too much about me having the Nine-Tails inside me, right?'
'What a reassuring person.'
"You… you really plan to go to the Cloud Village?", After a while, seeing Uchiha Kage preparing to head off again, Kushina couldn't help but ask.
'This guy said he isn't from Konoha. Does that mean we'll part ways?'
'I already call him teacher; he can't just abandon us like that, right?'
"What's wrong with that?"
To eliminate the human traffickers of Cloud Village in advance, that was Uchiha Kage's plan.
"Don't tell me there really is a beautiful blonde big sister waiting for you in Cloud Village?", Kushina obviously didn't know Uchiha Kage's intentions; she just remembered his earlier joke.
"Maybe," There was one, but not in that Cloud Village, rather, lying on a bed in his house in Konoha.
"You! You really aren't a good person!"
'Blonde big sister?'
'Once I grow up, I definitely won't lose to that so-called blonde big sister,' Kushina grumbled inwardly.
"Do you want to learn ninjutsu?"
Kushina carried the blood of the Uzumaki clan. With a bit of training, her future power would not be below that of an average Kage.
"Yes!"
'I have cried in front of this guy already, something so embarrassing, so of course I have to get something in return.'
'Besides, if I train properly, maybe one day I can surpass this thief teacher. Then…'
'Hmph, let's see if he still dares to ditch me for some Cloud Village big sister.'
———
[Hidden Mission: Make Kushina completely forget loneliness once – Complete]
[Mission Rewards: Nine-Tails Fragment x1, Ninja Fragment x29, Soul Body x13]
"Didn't expect Cloud Village to be such a sloppy troupe. Assigning such an important kidnapping mission to just a regular elite jōnin."
After taking Kushina and Namikaze Minato through the single-player instance to the Cloud Village to kill off the remaining traffickers, Uchiha Kage received the mission completion message while leading the two back to Konoha.
And finally returned from the instance to the Dream Space.
"Didn't expect a single-player instance to require me to explore the mission on my own…"
Thinking back to all the bits and pieces of the journey with Kushina and Minato, while relaxing, Uchiha Kage couldn't help but feel a bit emotional.
This was the first time in his life he took on disciples. Although it was destined long ago… it was still a good experience.
Especially teaching them the ninjutsu they were fated to learn in the future, always gave him a strange sense of being out of sync with time.
Also…
"So this is how I met Kushina…"
Finally understanding how he and Kushina first met, the last bit of hesitation in Uchiha Kage's heart disappeared.
And, whether it was a reward from the instance or the result of increased chakra, Uchiha Kage found that the Dream Space had changed again.
With just a single thought, a round hole appeared in front of him in the Dream Space, and through that lens-like opening, real-world images could be seen, for example, now Uchiha Kage could see the blonde, big-breasted Samui flipping back and forth on the bed in the Anbu hideout.
That was the last place he had been before entering the Dream Space.
With this, even if he entered the Dream Space in the future, he could still monitor the outside world in real time.
And apparently, not just that…
Uchiha Kage focused his thoughts, and soon returned from the Dream Space to reality.
"Just as I thought. In the real world, I can also sense what's happening in the Dream Space," for example, he could now sense Kushina and Mikoto playing around with each other in the bathroom…
He could even immerse his consciousness and hear their voices, even see their fair-skinned bodies in the bath.
'Truly a wondrous… ability.'
———
"I see…", After playing and comparing each other's figures in the bath for a while, Mikoto listened to Kushina talk about her first encounter with Uchiha Kage.
"And then?", When Kushina said Uchiha Kage suddenly disappeared, and she and Minato returned to the village only to meet a furious Third Hokage, Mikoto grew more curious about what happened after.
"Then… I don't really remember clearly…", Kushina furrowed her brow.
She remembered that other than meeting Uchiha Kage, nothing good happened during that time.
"Did Lady Tsunade say anything after she came back?"
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