There was something deeply reassuring about Aunt Kushina.
They'd only exchanged a few words, yet the warmth in her voice had already loosened something tight in Naruto's chest. His mood, which had been weighing on him all day, quietly lifted.
Her home was tucked away in a remote corner of the town—a long walk by any measure.
It was a modest place, but spotlessly kept.
Her health seemed frail. Her complexion was pale.
Yet the ice-blue tips of her hair peeking from beneath her hood, and those crimson eyes—they were strikingly beautiful.
"Heyah~"
Naruto set the last bucket of water into the cistern, brushed his hands off, and felt the rest of his gloom drain away with the effort.
"Thank you, Naruto. I live so far out that fetching water is always a chore."
"Aunt Kushina… does it hurt? Your… condition?"
He'd noticed she wasn't well. The observation brought an unbidden image to mind—a figure standing in the snow, one hand pressed to her chest.
"It's nothing. An old complaint." She said it lightly, in a tone that didn't invite follow-up. "If anything, it's proof of my existence."
"Oh. Right. Well—I should get going, Aunt Kushina."
He moved to leave, and she caught his sleeve.
Her hand was cool to the touch.
Strangely, it felt warm.
"Stay for dinner. I picked up groceries today."
"That's, um… I…" Naruto fumbled for words.
"You were with Mr. Tazuna just now. It's fine—tell him. He'll understand."
He opened his mouth—
But Kushina Yukii had already set her outer robe aside and moved to the kitchen with the energy of someone who hadn't cooked a proper meal in quite some time.
Naruto stood there, caught between leaving and staying.
She was already cooking for him. Walking out now would just be rude…
He couldn't decide.
"That kid okay?" Kakashi glanced toward Hanabi.
The earlier encounter had left him wary—someone with an eye on the Nine-Tails' power was not a comfortable thought. But Hanabi had offered to keep watch, so he'd let it go. Naruto hadn't wandered far, at any rate.
"He's fine. My Shadow Clone is on him. Naruto went next door—looks like he's staying for dinner."
When they'd entered town earlier, Hanabi had slipped away briefly, deployed a Shadow Clone, and done a quiet sweep of the area.
Kakashi trusted Hanabi's read on things.
"That kid," he muttered, pressing a hand to his mask.
He'd stopped to carry someone's water bucket. How does that end with a dinner invitation?
"Idiot," Sasuke added under his breath.
"Next door?" Tazuna turned his head. "Ah—that'd be Yukii-san. Let him stay. She's had a hard time of it."
"Something going on with her?" Kakashi asked.
"Husband and child, both gone. And she's got some illness—still gets around, but she's not in good shape."
Tazuna went quiet.
Hanabi's groundwork had begun months ago.
She could redirect certain threads, but she couldn't unravel the whole weave—so she worked in gradients, nudging things into place piece by piece.
Several months before Team 7 ever set foot in the Land of Waves, Hanabi had quietly seeded Kushina Yukii's existence here. A "chronic illness" that kept her largely housebound was the perfect cover—it explained the absences, the days when Hanabi couldn't be present in that role.
She'd built an entire social context around "Kushina Yukii" before the team arrived. A constructed life, a fabricated history—
But the feelings she'd poured into it were real.
Even the pain Kushina Yukii carried was real.
In the fight with Zabuza, Hanabi had appeared while enduring genuine agony. That wasn't performance.
Hanabi normally couldn't generate that kind of terrifying pressure on her own—except in one case.
The secret was resonance with Master Jingliu.
When the resonance activated, Hanabi threw herself into it completely—and in that state, she felt everything Jingliu's Mara-Struck body carried: the ache, the hollowness, the suffering.
Performing through that pain was what made it convincing.
A true idol never flinches from pain.
And the reason Kakashi had been shaken—the killing intent, the void—was simply because a trace of the Mara-Struck aura had briefly, intentionally, grazed him.
"Yukii would be so happy to have him over—her child, if still alive, would've been about Naruto's age."
"Sasuke, get some rest. I need to go over a few things with Tazuna-san."
Kakashi sent Sasuke off. The mission upgrade, the new compensation, the loan—all of it needed to be settled clearly.
Business was business, even between allies.
And for the Land of Waves, this was nothing but good news.
The town was hollowed out. Unemployed people squatted along the roads. Begging children haunted every street corner.
Since Gatō had arrived, this country had lost its hope—and its hero along with it.
They didn't even have the strength to push back. The weapons were all on Gatō's side.
"(╯▽╰) This smells so good~~"
It was the first time Naruto had ever eaten food that smelled this good.
The food itself was simple, honestly—the only thing that even counted as meat was the fish.
But why—
Why did someone else's cooking taste so different?
Naruto felt genuinely good.
"Is it just you here, Aunt Kushina?"
The question slipped out.
"…Yes." She smiled. "But not tonight. Because you're here."
"Ahh—stop it, now you're making me embarrassed."
Naruto rubbed the back of his head.
He'd only carried a bucket of water for a stranger…
"Well—I should go. If you ever need anything, Aunt Kushina, just come find Uzumaki Naruto!"
He puffed out his chest.
"Mm—wait just a moment."
She walked over to him and smoothed his turned-in collar back into place, then pulled his zipper straight.
"There. Good."
Strange. What even is this feeling?
"Okay. I'm going."
"Take care, Naruto."
Naruto's steps were light as he reached Tazuna's front door.
"Well," Kakashi said, stepping outside as if heading out for an evening walk, "you look like a completely different person."
"Heh—I dunno what it was, but I'd been feeling kind of weird all day. Then I went to Aunt Kushina's and had dinner, and it's like I came back to life!"
Thud—
Kakashi missed the step and nearly went headfirst into the garden basin.
"Wh—what?" His voice had a quality Naruto had never heard from him before. Something very close to panic.
"Next door. Aunt Kushina's house." Naruto stared. What was wrong with Kakashi? Was this why he was always late—he couldn't walk straight?
—Wait. Had Naruto just uncovered a secret?
"Aunt Kushina?" Kakashi hauled himself upright.
"Kushina Yukii. What's the matter?"
"Nothing—I mean—I'm checking for possible enemy infiltration. What if you ran into a disguised enemy out there?"
Kakashi could not bring himself to say it aloud: that the name "Kushina" was pronounced exactly the same as his late sensei's wife—Uzumaki Kushina.
"Hmm…"
He pulled his forehead protector down.
Since arriving in the Land of Waves, Kakashi had felt his nerves tested at every turn.
At least this time it was nothing.
"Surely nothing worse can happen," he told himself.