Chapter 22
Uzushiogakure.
Under the afternoon sun.
In the quiet hallway of the main compound, Medori was walking with Kushina, who still seemed slightly out of it. But Medori's shadow clone didn't say anything to comfort her, leaving that for the real one to handle.
As they turned the corner, Medori saw Iori waiting down the hall for them. She raised an eyebrow.
"Iori-san, do you need something?" she asked. Beside her, Kushina finally blinked, coming out of her deep thoughts.
"Medori-sama, young lady, it's good to see you both in good health," Iori greeted them with a polite bow before looking directly at Medori. "I just wanted to discuss something with you regarding Kenji-sama's recent orders."
"I am pretty sure you already have a plan to execute that order," Medori noted calmly, while Kushina quietly listened in on their conversation.
"Yes, I have one, but it is more of a brute force approach. It will shake their economy, but I want a more ruthless way, so I came to you. If you have any more creative ideas, I am all ears," Iori said seriously, pushing up her glasses.
A wide grin split Medori's face.
"Hmm… Advice, huh? Actually, I do have an idea." Medori began, "But first, tell me what your original plans were."
"I was thinking of completely closing all our trade with the Land of Lightning, Earth, and Water. It would shake their economies quite a bit. They would then have to either buy those same supplies from someone else or stop buying them altogether," Iori explained.
"Indeed, a brute force way—" Medori nodded. Kushina looked between them in confusion. Brute force? It was a good plan, wasn't it?
Medori continued, explaining her own sinister idea.
"—How about, instead, we double or triple our prices for shinobi equipment such as paper bombs, storage seals, and other military goods. But we will not touch the civilian products. We just raise their prices slightly—just enough that they wouldn't notice buying one or two, but they will bleed when buying in bulk. And we do this for the whole nation, whether they are ninja villages, samurai, or the Daimyo's court itself."
Both Iori and Kushina looked confused. How would that make them suffer more than a total embargo?
Medori, noticing their confusion, elaborated.
"Hmm… you didn't get it? Let me give you an example. Suppose a village has one hundred apples. They spend fifty apples on military expenses, and with the remaining fifty, they cover the village's other needs, such as civilian salaries and clan expenses." Both Kushina and Iori nodded. "Now picture this: what if, suddenly, their military expenses increased to sixty or seventy apples? What would they do?"
Iori's eyes widened behind her glasses as the implication finally hit her. But Kushina was still confused, not quite getting it.
"They will have to cut expenses from other sectors of the village, or demand more from the Daimyos, who are also going through the exact same situation. So they both have to empty their vaults or sell off more resources from their own lands just to keep up," Iori whispered, looking at Medori in sheer awe.
Medori's smile stretched even further.
"Exactly. And the money that would otherwise have gone to another supplier will come straight to Uzushio. Best of all, the financial strain will create massive internal friction between the Daimyos, the civilians, and the hidden villages."
Kushina was horrified by the viciousness of the plan, but inwardly she was amazed at how scary her aunt could be.
'She really needs to learn a lot to be a proper leader,' Kushina thought
"Truly, you should be the one handling the village's finances and trade instead of me," Iori said with a small, respectful smile.
"Ah, please. I already have enough on my plate looking after the village barriers. Besides, I can only provide the ideas; making them a reality is what you are best at. Ideas without execution are just thoughts. It's you who turns them into a grand strategy," Medori said with a gentle smile, continuing down the hall. "So, don't belittle yourself."
"Hmm… thank you for the advice, Medori-sama." With one last bow, Iori turned and began walking in a different direction.
As they continued walking, Kushina spoke up softly. "Aunt?"
"Hmm?"
"You are truly ruthless."
"Pfft…." Medori laughed for a few seconds before replying, her voice filled with the weight and wisdom of the universe itself. "You have to be, to survive in this world."
Kushina looked at her aunt's distant gaze and held her hand a little tighter.
"Don't leave me, okay?" Kushina whispered.
Medori's green eyes shifted down to her. She tightened her grip in return and whispered back, "I never will…"
They finally reached the room and pushed the door open. When Kushina stepped inside, she heard the same soft humming from when she was a child. A small, genuine smile appeared on her face. Suddenly, she heard a soft poof right behind her as the shadow clone dispelled.
Across the room, she saw her real aunt sitting beside the bed, rocking the crib. Inside, Haruto slept soundly, radiating a warm, peaceful aura.
Medori stopped humming as she received the memories of her clone. She looked up as Kushina stepped closer.
"Come." She extended her arms.
Kushina stepped into her embrace, hugging her back tightly. A few seconds later, they let go, and her aunt stood up.
"Do you want to hold him?" she asked.
"Ah. But he is sleeping."
"Oh, don't worry, he has slept plenty. It's time for him to wake up anyway."
As if on cue, Haruto opened his emerald eyes and looked around. Kushina's violet eyes met his crystalline green ones.
Hearing a shuffling sound, Kushina turned around and saw her aunt casually standing in her underwear, changing out of her nightclothes into her normal attire.
Kushina flushed bright red and quickly turned back toward Haru, who was now staring at her red face with pure infant curiosity.
"Fufu… why so shy, Kushina? I literally bathed you naked multiple times when you were a baby," Medori teased, remembering those early days fondly.
"Aunt, I was a child then!"
After finishing changing, Medori stepped up beside her and lightly flicked her forehead.
"You still are a child to me," Medori said warmly. She looked down at the crib. "Now, do you want to hold him?"
"Umm… yes…" she replied hesitantly.
With a gentle smile, Medori scooped Haru up and carefully placed him into Kushina's small hands.
"Be careful, and be sure to support his head properly."
Medori guided Kushina on how to hold him right. Haru looked between the two of them with confused, wide eyes, looking incredibly cute.
After a few seconds, Kushina got the hang of it. Medori nodded in satisfaction as she saw the bright smile finally return to Kushina's face.
"Now, let's go," Medori said, turning and walking toward the door.
Kushina blinked, confused. "Where?"
Medori glanced back over her shoulder and grinned.
"To wake the sleeping princess, of course."
Kushina's violet eyes glistened.
"You can?" she asked hopefully.
"Hmm… I have some ideas." Her gaze landed thoughtfully on Haruto.
After a short walk, they reached the treatment room.
Medori opened the door. When she stepped inside, a wave of cold air washed over her. In the center of the room, Saki lay completely motionless in an ice-filled bed.
Beside her, Tsunade sat monitoring her condition, noting something down in her notebook with quiet, exhausted focus.
Saki's entire body was covered in strange fūinjutsu seals that pulsed rhythmically. As they stepped closer to the bed, Medori finally got a better look at the array. It wasn't a random pattern. She looked at Saki's forehead—the center of the fūinjutsu matrix—and realized it was in the shape of a flower. And not just any flower: a red spider lily. From it, seal veins extended like delicate petals, expanding all across her skin.
Tsunade looked up when she felt that strange aura enter the room again. She met the calm green eyes observing Saki's condition, and then her gaze shifted to Kushina—or more accurately, to the baby in her arms.
She felt as though the room itself had come alive just by his presence. She narrowed her eyes at the baby, who was playfully gripping the fabric of Kushina's clothes. Then he turned his head, and Tsunade was met with the most beautiful pair of emerald eyes staring right back into her honey-brown ones.
"How is her condition, Tsunade?"
Tsunade broke out of her daze at Medori's question. She rubbed her tired eyes and sighed heavily.
"It's complicated, Auntie, and I am sorry I couldn't come to you sooner," Tsunade replied, pointing at Saki's limp form. "As you can see, I am trying my best just to keep her stable."
"It's alright, Tsunade. I understand," Medori said kindly, taking in Tsunade's exhausted state before looking back down at Saki. "She is the reason this village still stands…. But her chakra is reacting very weirdly."
"Yes. After observing her condition these past two days, I think it's an amalgamation of multiple factors: pushing completely past her natural limiters, the harsh backlash of her technique, severe mental exhaustion, and—" after a tense pause, she continued, "—and I think there is some foreign chakra coursing through her chakra network. Her body is currently trying to battle it with her own chakra."
"Hmm… she fought the Two-Tails and Four-Tails' jinchūriki. Both of those beasts are known for their highly corrosive, fire-type chakra," Medori said, resting a hand thoughtfully on her chin.
"Yes, I suspected the same. But the problem remains: right now, we can't do anything besides watch it happen," Tsunade said, anxiously biting her thumbnail.
"Hmm… I have an idea, but it is a gamble," Medori said softly.
"A gamble, huh?" Tsunade looked down at Saki, speaking without looking back at Medori. "Did you discuss this with Uncle Shōto and Uncle Kenji?"
"I already informed them on my way here. They should be arriving at any moment."
Just as Medori said that, the heavy sound of approaching footsteps echoed from the hallway.
"I think they are here."
The door opened, and Kenji and the others arrived, looking visibly tense.
"What's your plan, Medori-sama?" Sakuko asked.
Medori sighed. "Well…. It's more of a hunch than an actual plan."
Then, every eye turned toward Haruto, who was currently playing with Kushina's hair and softly giggling.
"Are you sure about this?" Tsunade asked, a little worried. "Not only for Saki, but for him as well."
The others nodded in agreement. Leaving a newborn child near Saki's volatile condition was reckless, to say the least.
But Kushina didn't say anything. She had seen firsthand what this boy—who was currently trying to eat her hair—could do.
"Trust me, I know firsthand about the danger. But he is our only hope in this. You all felt it, right? His chakra is special. He is special—just like Kushina, but much more potent," Medori said seriously.
Tsunade didn't say anything because she could still feel it. Her body was currently supercharged; all the fatigue and tiredness from the past two days were slowly evaporating just by being near him. Judging by the heavy silence in the room, she knew the others felt it too.
Then, Tsunade watched as Shōto pressed his hand against the wall. Another layer of barrier seals rippled out, covering the already heavily sealed room.
Kenji also felt the shift in chakra and looked behind him, watching Shōto fortify the room even further. He sighed.
"Do as you see fit, but we will monitor the process closely and make sure nobody gets seriously injured."
Medori nodded. She moved to Saki's side, clearing away some of the ice from the bed, and looked at Kushina.
Kushina nodded and tentatively placed Haruto onto the freezing bed.
Placed in the small gap between Saki's left arm and torso, Haruto looked up at Kushina with slight confusion.
Everyone held their breath, waiting for a miracle.
After a few seconds, Haru simply began playing with the ice cubes with newfound curiosity.
A minute passed. Nothing happened, except for Haruto happily playing with the ice. The others released their breath, the tension breaking, and Tsunade stepped forward to pick the child up from the freezing bed.
Then, suddenly, Haruto dropped the ice cube he was playing with. His gaze zeroed in on the rhythmically glowing seals on Saki's body.
He stared at it in a trance, drool slipping from his mouth as he extended his small hands toward Saki's exposed torso.
Suddenly, the temperature in Saki's body spiked violently, radiating heat and melting the surrounding ice into liquid. But Haru didn't pay it any mind and continued reaching forward; he had no concept of heat or being burned.
But the air itself shifted around the room, winds converging on Haru's descending hands. Slowly, a thin layer of ice began to form around them, protecting his skin.
Gasps echoed around the room from everyone except Medori and Kushina.
"Ice Release?" Tsunade murmured.
"No, it's not…." Shōto whispered in awe.
Finally, Haruto's ice-covered hands landed on Saki's exposed torso, pressing directly against the glowing fūinjutsu seals. A visible ripple coursed through them the moment his fingers touched the seals. The ink reacted violently, retracting rapidly toward Saki's forehead, only to explode outward around her body again with even greater force.
A heavy pressure descended on the room as the temperature rose sharply. Saki's skin slowly turned a feverish red.
The others reacted instantly, but before they could snatch the child from the bed, another, vastly more potent pressure descended—completely crushing Saki's aura.
The room's barrier seals flared to life, absorbing the shockwave and preventing anything from leaking outside.
Everyone except Medori and Kushina wore looks of horror. The chakra felt like the dark, crushing depths of the ocean.
Haru's emerald eyes locked onto Saki. The winds surrounding him rippled and warped around Saki's body, physically binding her and crushing her resistance. Perceiving a mortal threat, Saki's seals instantly flared red in danger. They violently discharged their contents—tantō, longswords, kunai, and exploding tags erupted outward. But before any of the weapons could even pass through the barrier of wind, they were shredded into fine dust, never coming close to touching the baby.
Slowly, Haru's eyes began to morph. Their green luster dissolved, shifting into a brilliant, crystal-ruby red. His crimson hair began to float, merging with the swirling winds. Instantly, the seals halted their frenzied assault. The red spider lily matrix slowly dimmed, retracting completely into the center of her forehead, and this time, it stayed there.
Then, the floodgates opened. Boiling, red and blue Tailed Beast chakra burst from Saki's body in violent waves, tearing through the room. Everyone threw their hands up, shielding themselves from the blistering heat and the roaring winds.
Everything around them began to burn and shatter. Deep wind-blade slashes gouged the floor. Kushina unleashed her red chakra chains with a hint of green in it, stabbing them into the stone floor to anchor herself against the gale. Her violet eyes began to glow, allowing her to see it: a small, concentrated blob of wind sat atop Haru's crimson hair, like a crown declaring its absolute superiority.
Haru ignored the destruction, the blistering heat, and the panicked adults barely holding their ground. His entire focus was on Saki. He opened his toothless little mouth, leaned down, and pressed his lips against her torso. The moment he made contact, he began to suck.
The red-hot, highly corrosive chakra that was violently erupting from Saki immediately began to funnel straight into him.
The crushing pressure in the room slowly lessened. Everyone could only stare in pure, paralyzed shock as a newborn infant literally drank the poisonous Tailed Beast chakra.
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