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"We cannot let Kushina off so easily this time!"
"Indeed. Her antics have crossed the line into recklessness."
"And what about that disciple of hers? Wasn't he supposed to be a stabilizing influence? Why are they causing chaos together?"
"The bottom line is that she must face severe disciplinary action. A Nine-Tails Jinchuriki peeking at the Scroll of Seals is a catastrophic security risk."
"But she didn't take the scroll, nor did she make copies. From a purely objective standpoint, no actual harm was done to the village's secrets."
"Hiruzen, this isn't about the damage done! It's about her attitude! The fact that she can effortlessly and brazenly bypass security to access our highest classified documents is the core issue here!"
Inside the council chambers, the Hokage and his advisors were locked in a heated debate over the "Great Heist." Opinions on the punishment were sharply divided.
Though Hiruzen was incredibly frustrated with Kushina's stunt, when push came to shove against the advisors, he still stood his ground. He played the role of the protective teacher, weaving a narrative of "youthful curiosity" to soften the blow.
The final verdict for Uzumaki Kushina and Kamishiro Hagoromo: Four months of strict confinement.
Had this four-month sentence been served in the Konoha Penitentiary, it would have been a terrifying ordeal. For context, an enemy shinobi thrown into that prison rarely lasted two weeks before their mind or body broke. Even the village's own traitors received the same "hospitality." While Kushina and Hagoromo weren't branded as traitors, a stint in the actual prison would have guaranteed immense suffering.
However, the "confinement" was to be served in their own respective homes.
For Hagoromo, this was an entirely painless punishment. To a modern soul with an introverted grind-set, being legally mandated to stay indoors for four months wasn't a sentence; it was a dream vacation.
But for the wild, free-spirited Kushina, being locked indoors was a fate worse than death.
The village advisors were deeply dissatisfied. They felt the Hokage's sentencing was far too lenient, but unfortunately for them, Hiruzen's word was law.
This highlighted a core operational principle of Konoha's bureaucracy: while the Hokage is in power, the advisors only have the right to suggest. The actual decision-making power rests entirely in the Hokage's hands. Only when the seat is vacant do the advisors get to wield true executive authority.
Of course, their greatest actual power lay in their massive influence over the selection of the next Hokage.
Regardless, on the matter of Kushina, they had to yield. They could grumble, but they couldn't overturn the decision.
And so, the shut-in life began.
For Hagoromo, his daily routine became a perfectly optimized loop: refining chakra, practicing ninjutsu, studying sealing theory, physical conditioning, eating, and sleeping. One day ended, the next began.
An ANBU operative was assigned to monitor him and deliver his daily meals.
One day, two days, three days...
A new year rolled over. While under house arrest, Hagoromo quietly celebrated his twelfth birthday.
Then, the four months were up.
After a hundred and twenty days of isolation, Kushina and Hagoromo finally reunited. Aside from their respective ANBU babysitters, they were the first living people either of them had interacted with in months.
"Kushina-sensei, I think you've gotten paler. Your skincare routine must be working wonders," Hagoromo deadpanned the moment he saw her.
Nonsense. How could she not be pale? She hadn't seen the sun in a third of a year.
"Really? You still look as pale as ever. I don't know if I'm whiter, but I do feel like I'm allergic to sunlight now." Kushina raised a hand to block the glare of the sun.
Crystal-clear skin, a sudden fear of sunlight, absurdly high combat power... Wait, is she changing her character settings? Is Kushina no longer an Uzumaki, but a member of the Yato Clan? Anyway, Kushina had finally regained her freedom. And after being suppressed for so long, her pent-up energy was reaching critical mass. She wanted out. She wanted action. She wanted the frontlines.
This time, no one could talk her out of it. She was dead set on leaving Konoha and heading to the battlefield.
Naturally, the Hokage refused.
In response, Kushina drafted fifty formal petition letters and submitted them to the Hokage's office. Every. Single. Day.
Through sheer, relentless attrition, the Hokage finally compromised. Before she could cause another catastrophic incident out of sheer boredom, he approved a short-term frontline mission for her.
Perhaps this was his way of compensating her for the long confinement.
To summarize: Years into the Third Great Ninja War, after relentless badgering, Uzumaki Kushina was finally deployed to the front.
This taught Hagoromo a valuable scientific principle: Persistence is a force multiplier. If you apply enough consistent pressure to a system, it will eventually yield a result—though whether that result is good or bad is a different variable entirely.
To ensure Kushina's safety, the Hokage assigned them a relatively "simple" task. While classified as an A-rank mission, it wasn't guaranteed to see heavy combat.
The Mission: Escort a platoon of medical ninja to the Konoha frontline command base facing the Hidden Sand.
At this point in the timeline, the war against the Sand was already tilting in Konoha's favor. The Hidden Sand was likely already trying to calculate a way to gracefully exit the conflict without losing too much face.
The official catalyst for the Third Great Ninja War was the disappearance of the Third Kazekage, but in reality, this war was merely an extension of the Second. The Kazekage incident was just a convenient spark thrown onto a deep-rooted powder keg of village conflicts.
In the early stages, the Sand had successfully invaded the Land of Fire. However, Konoha quickly stabilized the front and pushed the line back across the border. Due to fighting a multi-front war, Konoha hadn't launched a full counter-invasion into the Land of Wind yet. Currently, the meat grinder was located in the neutral buffer zone of the Land of Rivers.
The frontlines were jagged and deeply intertwined. Skirmishes could erupt at any moment, but strategically speaking, Konoha held the initiative. Because of this, the Suna front was considered the "safest" of the active warzones.
The medical platoon for this mission consisted of twenty non-combat personnel. Their direct combat effectiveness was statistically zero, meaning they required a massive escort detail. Obviously, Kushina and Hagoromo couldn't take this on alone—two people guarding twenty civilians in a warzone wasn't an escort mission; it was a suicide pact.
Alongside the master-disciple duo, the escort included four four-man squads of ANBU operatives. Sixteen elites.
That brought the total combat escort to eighteen shinobi.
However, the actual classified mission briefing the ANBU received was quite different.
Their Primary VIP Target was Uzumaki Kushina. Their Secondary Target was the medical platoon.
The orders explicitly stated that, in a worst-case scenario, all twenty medics were considered entirely expendable assets to ensure the Primary Target's safety. Thus, these sixteen ANBU weren't really there to guard the doctors; they were there to guard—and monitor—Kushina.
As for our protagonist, Student Hagoromo?
Sorry. The ANBU didn't care about him. Once they stepped onto the battlefield, he was an independent variable. He would have to fend entirely for himself.