"Another beautiful, peaceful day in the village."
Compared to his friends fighting for their lives on the various fronts, Kyosuke's current life was actually quite comfortable. Stepping outside his apartment, he noted that Konoha Village remained a relatively peaceful haven.
Although the civilian residents looked noticeably more worried, and the shinobi jumping across the rooftops moved with a tense, frantic urgency, the flames of war hadn't yet touched the streets of the capital.
With a very empty stomach, Kyosuke leisurely strolled until he arrived at Kushina Uzumaki's doorstep. Before he could even push the door open, his senses prickled. He vaguely felt several sharp, heavily concealed gazes locked onto him from the surrounding rooftops.
With the war officially starting, the Anbu surveillance on the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki has obviously become much stricter, Kyosuke noted internally.
He completely ignored the hidden Anbu guards, directly pushing open the front door and shouting loudly.
"Beautiful, elegant Teacher's Wife! I'm here to heroically help you taste-test your new recipes!"
"You shameless little rascal! If you're just here to freeload, just admit it! Don't act like you're doing me a massive favor by eating my food! Should I bow and thank you for your service?!"
Kushina emerged from the kitchen, a cute apron tied tightly around her waist. With one hand resting fiercely on her hip and the other holding a wooden spatula like a weapon, she looked entirely ready to give Kyosuke a solid whack to the head.
Kyosuke completely ignored Kushina's fiery threat. Feeling entirely at home, he saw that a massive spread of food was already prepared on the counter. He took the initiative to serve the rice, plate the dishes, set out the bowls and chopsticks, and then sat down, gesturing for her to join him.
"Teacher's Wife, hurry up and eat! It'll get cold if you just stand there yelling at me."
"You... you little brat! You're completely infuriating!"
Kushina was at a total loss, feeling both intensely annoyed and strangely warmed by his domestic familiarity. She walked over, sighed, and affectionately pressed her knuckles into the top of Kyosuke's head, grinding them down in a playful noogie.
"Teacher's Wife," Kyosuke mumbled, his mouth already stuffed with rice. "Yesterday, I saw Minato-sensei walking down the market street with a very pretty female ninja. They were chatting and laughing together."
His head didn't hurt from the noogie, and Kyosuke didn't try to dodge. He simply casually dropped the blackmail material like a live grenade.
Kushina froze instantly. She withdrew her hand, tilting her head away at a haughty, forty-five-degree angle.
"Hmph! Your cheap tricks won't work on me, Kyosuke. I trust Minato completely. I absolutely won't fall for your blatant manipulation!"
Oh? You don't believe me? Kyosuke thought, chewing happily.
"Oh, okay," Kyosuke shrugged nonchalantly. "I was just trying to keep an eye on Sensei for you. I followed them the whole way and wrote down a very detailed report of everything they did. But since you're not interested at all, I guess I'll just throw the notes away."
After dropping the bait, Kyosuke buried his face back into his bowl, not saying another word.
It had to be said, Kushina's cooking skills were... lacking. She was no master chef. However, at least there was plenty of meat. As long as his resilient ninja stomach could handle it, Kyosuke didn't care about the taste.
Although Kyosuke had recently been promoted to Chunin and his official income had increased, his operational expenses had skyrocketed. Antidotes, poisons, high-quality ninja tools, sealing scrolls, and rare books for learning new jutsu all cost a fortune. The wartime inflation was brutal, and Kyosuke simply never had enough money.
Save where you can, freeload where you can. Every ryo saved on food is a ryo earned for kunai, was Kyosuke's strict financial motto.
Seeing that Kyosuke had actually fallen silent and was just aggressively eating, Kushina felt a rapidly growing, intensely anxious discomfort in her chest. It was like a cat frantically scratching at the inside of her heart.
She picked up her chopsticks, glared at Kyosuke, and put them down. She picked them up again, glared at Kyosuke's bowl, and put them down again...
She repeated this exact, rigid motion seven or eight times, looking like a malfunctioning industrial robot.
Finally, the Red-Hot Habanero couldn't stand the suspense for another second. With a loud BANG, she slammed her chopsticks onto the table, leaned in close, and hissed, "You little brat! Spit it out! Who was he talking to?!"
The fish has taken the bait, Kyosuke smiled internally.
Seeing Kushina's incredibly irritated, jealous expression, Kyosuke set his bowl down and rubbed his hands together, looking up with a shy, highly innocent smile.
"Hehehe... my exceptionally beautiful, charming, and endlessly elegant Teacher's Wife... how about you finally teach me that Four Symbols Seal you mentioned last time, and I'll tell you everything?"
Acting cute and shameless to extort my sensei's girlfriend might be despicable, but hey, I'm technically just a kid! Kyosuke consoled himself easily.
Over the past few months, he had been diligently studying under Kushina. However, Kushina had only taught him the dry, theoretical knowledge of Sealing Jutsu and a few basic applications: how to properly store weapons in scrolls, how to form a standard blood contract with a Summoned Beast, how to temporarily seal small amounts of chakra, and so on.
Theoretical knowledge was vital, but Kyosuke desperately wanted to learn the highly complex, overpowered sealing techniques of the Uzumaki Clan.
Especially since Kushina—whether intentionally or just to brag—often mentioned terrifying, god-tier sealing techniques in passing, making Kyosuke think about them day and night, tossing and turning in his bed.
"Hmph!" Kushina tilted her head back, looking immensely smug. "I finally got you to show your true colors! I knew you'd use this as leverage to make that exact request!"
In truth, both Kushina and Minato thought incredibly highly of Kyosuke's raw talent and were more than willing to pass on their ultimate techniques to him, looking forward to his future growth. Otherwise, Kushina wouldn't have wasted her precious time tutoring him on the basics, much less dangling the names of forbidden sealing techniques in front of him.
However, Kyosuke was always trying to be entirely too clever for his own good. Kushina, having been tricked into giving him free meals a dozen times, wanted some petty revenge. She planned to use the jutsu to tease him a bit longer.
"Oh, what a shame," Kushina sighed dramatically, leaning back in her chair and giving him a smug look. "I'm just not in a good mood right now. I really don't feel like teaching you such a complex jutsu today."
"Teacher's Wife, please sit and rest! I'll wash the dishes, sweep the floors, and clean all the windows!"
Hearing her tone, Kyosuke immediately jumped up from his seat, bustling around the kitchen like a highly motivated, busy little bee, eagerly preparing to completely sell out Minato for a jutsu.
"Teacher's Wife, do you want to know who that female ninja was? Let me tell you, she is actually—"
Kushina leaned forward, pricking up her ears, listening intently for the scandalous gossip.
Suddenly, there was a firm, polite knock at the front door.
Kushina's temper instantly flared up. It was like spending hours painting a masterpiece, only for someone to bump your elbow at the final stroke. Her mood was utterly ruined!
"NO ONE IS HOME!" Kushina shrieked at the door.
No matter who was standing outside, Kushina was absolutely determined to go out there and give them a violent piece of her mind for interrupting the gossip.
Outside the door, Minato Namikaze awkwardly scratched his blonde head, wondering why his girlfriend was so incredibly angry today.
Could it be that she somehow found out about Jiraiya-sensei trying to teach me his 'foolproof' methods for picking up women? Minato sweated nervously.
"Um... Kushina, it's me," Minato called out gently.
Hearing Minato's familiar, warm voice, Kushina's dark mood instantly vanished. She unconsciously smiled, her cheeks dusting pink, and then immediately turned around to scold Kyosuke.
"Look at how perfectly polite Minato is! He actually knows to knock before entering a lady's home! Unlike you, always barging in here demanding food without a single knock!"
Hmph! Kyosuke grumbled in his heart. Last time Minato and Jiraiya were secretly chatting about perverted things, I came here to report it to you. You literally gave me a spare key to your house and told me to 'come in anytime to report his movements'! Now you're blaming me for not knocking?! Women are so unreasonable!
Kyosuke kept his complaints internal, maintaining a perfectly polite smile on the outside.
"You are my Teacher's Wife, which makes you practically like a mother to me," Kyosuke reasoned smoothly. "So, this is basically my own home. Who needs to knock to enter their own home? Minato-sensei, on the other hand, isn't officially married to you yet, so he can't just casually enter a maiden's house unannounced! That would be highly indecent!"
Um...
Kushina felt a bit dizzy. Kyosuke's words seemed to make absolute, flawless logical sense, and being called a mother figure was very flattering, but something about his argument felt incredibly off.
"Kushina? Can I come in?" Minato's voice brought her back to her senses.
She hurried over to open the door for him, smoothing her apron. "Minato! What brings you here today? Is something urgent the matter?"
Minato looked inside the house and, exactly as he expected, saw Kyosuke diligently sweeping the floor. He smiled warmly. "I actually came looking for Kyosuke. When I didn't find him at his apartment, I figured there was a ninety percent chance he was freeloading here."
Huh? What do you need me for? Kyosuke thought, leaning on the broom. With the war just starting, the Hokage wouldn't be sending a newly promoted Chunin like me straight to the meat grinder frontline, would he? I hate fighting. Staying in the capital to develop my skills safely is much better. I want to lie low for another ten years, become an untouchable big shot, and only then leave the village!
While Kyosuke was internally panicking about being drafted, Kushina and Minato walked into the living room.
"Kyosuke, I'm here to officially deliver the Hokage's orders," Minato said, his expression becoming serious and professional as he explained his purpose.
It turned out that with the recent graduation of Uchiha Obito's class, there was a massive influx of green Genin. Additionally, due to the outbreak of the war, the military command was drastically reorganizing the village's active team rosters to optimize combat efficiency.
Minato's team was among those being heavily restructured.
Due to the remarkable, rapid growth of both Kakashi and Kyosuke—who were both fully qualified Chunin now—the Third Hokage believed that Minato possessed a unique, exceptional ability to train rookies. Therefore, Hiruzen had assigned two brand-new Genin directly to his squad: Uchiha Obito and Nohara Rin.
Hyuga Noriko, because she possessed the Byakugan and had shown exceptional aptitude for Medical Ninjutsu, was permanently reassigned to work in the Konoha General Hospital. With the war producing horrific daily casualties, the hospital was under immense, crushing pressure and urgently needed every medic it could get.
As for Kyosuke's fate...
Minato walked over, placed a proud hand on Kyosuke's shoulder, and smiled brightly.
"Congratulations, Kyosuke. Due to your outstanding performance, the Hokage has officially promoted you. You are now a Team Leader!"