"Kushina, Minato came to see you again."
Outside the clean and tidy hospital room, the nurse's voice sounded.
Along with the door being pushed open, Minato Namikaze, handsome and sunny with a head of blond hair, walked in carrying a bag of thoroughly washed fruit and greeted Kushina Uzumaki on the hospital bed.
"Are you feeling better, Kushina?"
"No. Not at all."
"Ah, huh?"
Kushina Uzumaki wore a sour expression and raised her fist from afar at Minato Namikaze, whose expression had turned a little awkward.
"I clearly could have been discharged ages ago! Why are both Lord Hokage and you forcibly keeping me pressed down in the hospital, Minato!? Every single day, I have to lie in bed and put on an act while cooperating with the medical jonin's treatment. I'm about to die of boredom!"
"Ah, well, there's no helping that, Kushina…"
Minato sat beside Kushina's bed, took his wife's small hand, which had already recovered a healthy color, and said very seriously,
"After all, the special chakra inside your body was only completely expelled recently. To ensure your body has no hidden dangers or internal injuries left behind, continuing to stay in the hospital for observation is necessary."
"Then at least allow me to go out for a walk! Do you know how long I've been lying in this bed, Minato!?"
Kushina puffed out her cheeks unhappily and looked fiercely toward Haruto Yamanaka and Shizune Kato, who were pretending to look at the scenery outside.
"Generally speaking, even if patients still hospitalized for observation are allowed to go out for walks, they can only get some air near the hospital."
Minato kissed Kushina's forehead with a very doting amount of force, then shook his head helplessly.
"But if we allowed you to go out and relax, Kushina, you definitely wouldn't come back on your own before someone found you, right?"
"If you know I'm bored staying in the hospital, then come back and accompany me more…"
Kushina leaned her head against Minato Namikaze's shoulder and said gloomily,
"In any case, with that Rei Kaguya missing, Kirigakure, which lost the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, cannot possibly be our opponent…"
"He's back."
Minato Namikaze sighed as he spoke.
With only that simple sentence, Kushina's body instantly tensed.
Even the wound on her abdomen, which had already completely healed, began to ache faintly because of those words.
"Rei Kaguya… is back?"
"Mm."
Minato Namikaze pulled Kushina into his arms, warming her body, and said in great frustration,
"Not only did that guy make a huge mess on the front line himself, he also drove the other Kirigakure shinobi, who had originally only dared to hold their ground, into launching attacks. He caught our people on the front line off guard. Right now, Lord Third is probably suffering a headache over matters involving the Uchiha clan and Hyuga clan."
"The Uchiha and Hyuga?"
Kushina did not immediately think of anything that could make these two clans, who did not see eye to eye because they were both dojutsu users, join together in causing trouble.
"What happened to them?"
"…A very troublesome matter. The details are not convenient to reveal yet."
Hearing Minato Namikaze say that, Kushina Uzumaki gradually realized what he meant. She swallowed, widened her eyes forcefully, and stared hard at Minato Namikaze as she asked,
"You mean this?"
"Yes."
Minato Namikaze slowly nodded.
"Kirigakure generally does not recover prisoners on the battlefield, but if it is ninja from those two clans, the Kirigakure shinobi are probably willing to make an exception. Moreover, one of them was personally captured by Rei Kaguya…"
"Fugaku, Hiashi, and Lord Third are probably all going to be so worried they can't sleep."
Kushina clicked her tongue and said quietly.
"So am I, Kushina."
Minato Namikaze buried his face in Kushina Uzumaki's red hair and closed his eyes wearily.
"The more intelligence we obtain and analyze about him, the less I can see where his limits truly are…"
"Minato…"
Kushina bit her lip and once again felt regret and frustration over the fact that she had not properly developed the power of a Jinchuriki.
Just as the two leaned against each other, sharing each other's pressure and unease, a masked Anbu suddenly appeared outside the hospital room window and shouted urgently to Minato Namikaze,
"Lord Minato! Lord Third has an urgent matter to see you about! Please come with me immediately!"
"I understand."
Minato Namikaze quickly stood up. After giving Kushina, whose face was full of worry, a firm hug, he took the Anbu who had come to find him and instantly transferred to the lobby of the Hokage Building.
Then he passed through the crowd in the lobby that was accepting missions and headed straight for the Hokage's office.
"Did something happen, Lord Third?"
As soon as he pushed open the door, Minato Namikaze was startled by the lineup inside, which was so complete it was almost unbelievable.
The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi.
The Hokage advisors, Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado.
Orochimaru and Jiraiya of the Sannin.
Including himself, every Kage-level combatant Konoha openly possessed had already gathered.
"There is good news and bad news. Which one do you want to hear first, Minato?"
Jiraiya greeted his disciple and opened his mouth, breaking the somewhat overly heavy atmosphere in the room.
"I'll hear the good news first, Jiraiya-sensei."
After thinking briefly, Minato Namikaze chose to hear the news that would not affect his mental state too greatly first.
"The good news is that Kirigakure's Third Mizukage has taken the initiative to send us an invitation for a ceasefire and peace talks."
Jiraiya unfurled a scroll.
Written on it was a letter personally written by the Third Mizukage regarding a ceasefire and peace talks between Kirigakure and Konoha, with the Kage of both sides personally appearing to discuss the specific terms.
"Kirigakure wants to cease hostilities with us? Why?"
Minato Namikaze frowned, instinctively feeling that there was an enormous problem hidden inside this matter.
"Minato-kun, I wonder if you have heard that piece of information that has been circulating in the underground black market for quite some time."
Orochimaru licked his lips with his tongue and said darkly,
"The one about Rei Kaguya planning to accumulate enough fame during the war against Konoha, then launch a coup against the Third Mizukage and seize the Mizukage position."
"I have heard some of it."
Minato Namikaze first nodded subconsciously. Then, as if he had realized something, his expression changed sharply.
"D-Don't tell me!?"
"Yes. The bad news is exactly what you are imagining."
Orochimaru took out the intelligence sent back by a Root spy hiding in Kirigakure and said in a complicated tone,
"It says Rei Kaguya launched a coup against the Third Mizukage alone. The exact process of the coup is unknown, but on the second day after the coup ended, the Third Mizukage took the initiative to contact the Daimyo of the Land of Water and met him together with Rei Kaguya, as well as Genji, the other authority holder in their village."
"Then does that mean Rei Kaguya… succeeded in his coup?"
Minato Namikaze frowned.
He found it somewhat difficult to imagine the surreal scene of two people who had been fighting to the death in a coup one day sitting harmoniously together the next day to meet the Daimyo of a nation.
"It should count as a success. After all, Kirigakure has always had a tradition of the strongest becoming Mizukage. If that Rei Kaguya's strength is enough to make the Third Mizukage's followers shut their mouths, then he can indeed inherit the position of Fourth Mizukage openly and legitimately."
Koharu Utatane spoke, explaining the reason to Minato Namikaze, who was still young and did not understand Kirigakure's customs well enough.
"Then the person proposing a ceasefire and peace talks to us is actually Rei Kaguya, who has already been internally decided as the Fourth Mizukage?"
After hearing Koharu Utatane's explanation, Minato Namikaze also did not know what kind of expression he should make.
He thought for a moment, then asked Hiruzen Sarutobi, who had not spoken the entire time,
"If it is Rei Kaguya, who is different from traditional Kirigakure ninja in every aspect, then he indeed might make this kind of decision. But if that is all, the situation should not be severe enough for Lord Third to summon everyone here, right?"
"There is another piece of information in the report Orochimaru is holding."
Hiruzen Sarutobi turned around, his expression more solemn than ever before.
"It says that the reason Rei Kaguya suddenly launched the coup was because he discovered the Third Mizukage had been controlled by someone using Sharingan genjutsu. After the coup ended, the Third Mizukage personally confirmed this information."
Boom!
Minato Namikaze felt as if he had been struck head-on by an extremely powerful Lightning Release technique. For a long while, he could not say a single word.
"That guy says on the surface that he is coming for peace talks. In reality, he is probably coming to demand accountability."
Jiraiya placed the scroll in his hand into Minato Namikaze's hands and said in a complicated tone,
"The invitation says that aside from the Kage themselves, both sides can only send two guards each to accompany them to the talks. The meeting is scheduled for one week later. As for the venue, it has been set at the same place where Lord First held the Five Kage Summit…"
"That brat actually dares to compare himself to Lord First…"
Homura Mitokado angrily struck the armrest beside him.
"How could Lord First, who pacified the chaotic era, be someone a brat who is not even old enough to drink can stand shoulder to shoulder with?"
"Minato."
Hiruzen Sarutobi walked to Minato Namikaze's side and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Lord Third…"
"Are you willing to accompany me on this trip as the Fourth Hokage?"
"I will protect Lord Third with my life."
Minato Namikaze first showed a somewhat overwhelmed expression, then nodded firmly and spoke with a voice that rang with conviction.
"There is no need for that. If something unexpected happens, you only need to leave by yourself."
Hiruzen Sarutobi looked up at Minato Namikaze's incredibly young face, his tone half filled with hope and half with emotion.
"Now, it is time for me to imitate Lord Second and protect Konoha's new sprouts."
"Old man…"
Jiraiya walked forward with complicated emotions and placed his hand together with Hiruzen Sarutobi's aged hand.
"This time, I'll go with you too."
"I will trouble you, Jiraiya."
Looking at the master-and-disciple bond before him that was almost overflowing, Orochimaru, who was likewise Hiruzen Sarutobi's disciple, had a trace of hidden resentment and dissatisfaction flash through his eyes.
As expected, there is already no place for me anymore, is there, Konoha…