Tsunade frowned. His flippant attitude only made her more irritated—and more wary.
He knew who she was?
And that tone…
"Enough nonsense! Answer my questions!"
Tsunade snapped.
Her chakra began to surge faintly, swelling under her skin—ready to launch the next attack at any moment.
Just then, Kushina finally pulled herself back from the chain of shocks and regained a bit of clarity.
When she saw Tsunade, her eyes lit up—like she'd spotted a familiar family member—only to immediately realize Tsunade's hostility toward Rei Ao.
"Tsunade-sama!"
She hurried forward a few steps, spreading her arms and clumsily trying to position herself slightly in front of Rei Ao (even though it wouldn't really help).
"Please don't get worked up—Rei Ao-san didn't hurt me. He… he came to help me!"
Her voice was urgent and sincere.
But Tsunade looked at her, and the suspicion in her eyes only deepened.
"Help you?"
Tsunade's voice was full of disbelief.
"Help you by letting the Nine-Tails out of your body? Kushina, do you understand what that means? If a tailed beast leaves its jinchūriki, the jinchūriki dies—no exceptions! You…"
She stared at the lively, perfectly fine Kushina—and the rest of her words caught in her throat.
No. This kid looked completely okay. Her complexion was even healthy and rosy.
"No! It's not like that!"
Kushina panicked. For a moment, she didn't know how to explain something this absurdly complicated.
Her eyes darted, and she suddenly remembered the "evidence" on her shoulder.
In a flurry, she used both hands to scoop up the orange-red little fox that was still playing dead, lifted it up in front of her, and showed it to Tsunade.
"Tsunade-sama, look! This—this little one is the Nine-Tails inside my body!"
Her words spilled out at lightning speed.
"The big golden one is Rei Ao-san's Nine-Tails! They were fighting just now—Rei Ao-san's Nine-Tails won, and then… and then it turned into this!"
Her explanation came out jumbled and all over the place.
At the same time, she silently commanded the little fox (Nine-Tails): Hurry, get bigger! Prove it!
The little fox (Nine-Tails) lying in her palms: "…"
Damn it. Pure humiliation!
But it was now completely unable to disobey any order from Kushina—even if that order was social death.
So, under Tsunade's increasingly baffled stare, the palm-sized, utterly dejected orange-red fox went poof—a huge cloud of orange-red chakra smoke burst out around it!
The smoke rapidly expanded, warped, and reshaped…
In the blink of an eye, an orange-red Nine-Tails appeared beside Kushina—scaled down by who-knows-how-many sizes, but still five or six meters tall, its chakra pressure not diminished in the slightest. Its head and tails drooped, looking utterly defeated.
It didn't even dare look at its golden counterpart. It didn't dare look at Rei Ao. It didn't want to look at Tsunade either.
It had shut down completely.
Tsunade: "??????"
Her expression froze solid.
Brain: Two Nine-Tails.
One golden, obedient, belongs to someone else.
One orange-red, smaller, looks like it's been tamed—belongs to Kushina.
Kushina is alive and well, and can give the Nine-Tails orders.
The Nine-Tails looks depressed… and even kind of wronged?
Processing error.
Common sense system: collapsing, rebooting.
She opened her mouth, wanting to say something—anything—but realized that every word would sound weak and pointless right now.
The scene in front of her had completely overturned everything she knew about tailed beasts, jinchūriki, ninjutsu—hell, even the world itself!
What the hell just happened?!
Sunlight filtered through the forest canopy, chopped into scattered fragments by the leaves, dappling the muddy ground.
When Tsunade arrived, this was the sight she saw.
Uzumaki Kushina was leaning against a thick cedar trunk. Her red hair was speckled with grass bits and mud, but there was no panic on her face.
If anything, there was a brightness in her eyes Tsunade hadn't seen in a long time—like she was holding in some secret.
"Kushina, what happened?"
Tsunade strode over, her gaze sweeping the area.
The traces of battle were obvious: strips of bark had been shaved off the trees, and the ground bore scorched marks.
"Anbu reported you were attacked outside the village."
"Yeah. Three masked ninja from another village."
Kushina scratched her head.
"But it's been dealt with."
She sneaked a glance at Rei Ao beside her.
"He saved me," Kushina said softly.
"Those guys were trying to take me. He stepped in."
Tsunade straightened, her muscles subtly tightening. Her eyes locked onto Rei Ao, and she kept her tone as steady as she could.
"Who are you, exactly?"
Rei Ao smiled. It was the kind of casual smile you'd use when greeting someone you ran into on the street.
"Rei Ao. A friend just passing by."
"Passing by Konoha and saving Kushina?"
Tsunade didn't relax her guard.
There was definitely something off about this.
Rei Ao shrugged.
Tsunade looked at Kushina, questioning her with her eyes.
The red-haired girl nodded hard.
"It's true! Rei Ao-san is really strong—he just… uh… anyway, those three guys all went down."
"And then?" Tsunade pressed.
"Why didn't you return to the village immediately?"
Kushina froze.
She opened her mouth, then shut it again, her fingers unconsciously twisting the hem of her clothes.
"It's because…"
Her voice got even smaller.
"The Nine-Tails inside me."
…
Over the next five minutes, Kushina haltingly described what happened.
The attack, Rei Ao appearing, then suppressing the Nine-Tails.
"Wait."
Tsunade cut in. "You're saying you can control the Nine-Tails now?"
"Not 'control,'" Rei Ao corrected.
"It's a master–servant relationship."
That made Tsunade almost laugh in anger.
Nine-Tails… master and servant?
Only her grandfather, the First Hokage Senju Hashirama, ever manhandled that thing into submission.
But Kushina's condition really was off.
After a jinchūriki goes berserk and then regains consciousness, they're usually extremely weak.
Yet this girl's eyes were clear, her chakra stable—way too stable.
Tsunade took a deep breath. When she turned back to Rei Ao, her expression was complicated.
"No matter what, thank you for saving Kushina. I'm Tsunade of Konoha. Please come back to the village with me—the Hokage will give you the reward you deserve."
That was standard procedure.
He'd saved the jinchūriki candidate; morally and politically, Konoha had to acknowledge it.
Of course, they also needed to verify who he really was.
But Rei Ao shook his head.
"No."
He said, "My deal with Kushina isn't finished yet."
A deal?
The nerves Tsunade had just slightly relaxed snapped tight again.
"What deal?"
"I help her tame the Nine-Tails. She helps me do something."
Rei Ao said it as if it were nothing.
"Only half is done. The Nine-Tails is obedient now, but the thing she's supposed to do for me hasn't even started."
Tsunade looked at Kushina.
The red-haired girl lowered her head in tacit admission, and…