Kushina's cheeks bloomed with two clouds of red. She glared at Saiki and snapped fiercely, "Saiki, are you plotting something dirty?"
In the past, Kushina might have felt a bit embarrassed by such a request, but it wouldn't have been a big deal.
However, ever since they had bathed together in the hot springs and she had seen Saiki completely naked, a strange, lingering feeling had taken root in her heart.
Now, with Saiki suddenly asking to see the seal on her lower abdomen, the imagery instantly triggered a cascade of highly inappropriate thoughts. Her heartbeat involuntarily accelerated.
"Uh, Sensei Kushina, how am I plotting something dirty?" Saiki did indeed harbor certain "thoughts" about her, but right now, his sole intention was to examine the Nine-Tails' seal!
Looking at Saiki, Kushina wanted to argue, but the words wouldn't come out. If she didn't say anything, it felt like she was just letting him take advantage of her.
Ultimately, Kushina planted her hands on her hips and whipped her head away. Her fiery red hair nearly swatted Saiki in the face. Her voice was thick with embarrassment and irritation. "No! I'm not showing you! Idiot."
Seeing Kushina's flushed cheeks and bashful demeanor, Saiki's mouth twitched. He understood exactly what she was worried about. He felt helpless, unsure of what to say to ease her mind.
"Sensei Kushina." Saiki tried to make his voice sound as innocent and serious as possible. "You know the situation in the village is incredibly unstable right now. I have to confirm the status of the Eight Trigrams Seal. This concerns the safety of the entire village... and more importantly, your safety."
Kushina stood with her side facing him, her chest rising and falling with slightly quickened breaths.
Saiki's logic left her with no room for rebuttal. Her rational mind told her he was right; this was crucial.
But...
The thought of lifting her shirt and exposing that area to him... the heat in her cheeks spiked several degrees higher.
Silence stretched across the room, broken only by the sound of their soft breathing.
After a long moment, Kushina seemed to make up her mind. She abruptly spun around to face him. Her blush hadn't faded in the slightest, but she tried her best to force a fierce, intimidating glare. "Hmph! Fine! Look! But... but if you dare to look anywhere else, or if you get any weird ideas, I swear I'll wrap you up like a dumpling in my Adamantine Sealing Chains and hang you from the Hokage Monument!"
Saiki immediately threw his hands up in surrender. "I wouldn't dare! I promise, Sensei Kushina, I will only look at the sealing formula!"
Kushina glared at him one last time and took a deep breath, clearly trying to mentally prepare herself.
She hesitated, her fingers slowly creeping toward the hem of her shirt. Her movements were stiff with obvious reluctance and tension.
Finally, as if summoning every ounce of her courage, she gently lifted the bottom of her shirt, exposing a small section of her pale, taut waist.
Because female ninja train constantly—unless they practice a specialized jutsu—their figures are universally excellent.
Kushina's lower abdomen was perfectly flat, without an ounce of excess fat. Her skin was a flawless, milky white. Her delicate, dainty navel looked incredibly cute. Compared to the slender yet voluptuous, fleshy waists of Tsunade and the others, Kushina radiated the vibrant, athletic energy of a young maiden.
As Kushina activated her internal chakra, complex black runes materialized around her dainty navel, spreading across her lower abdomen. It was the Eight Trigrams Sealing formula, constructed by interlocking two opposing Four Symbols Seals.
The runes shimmered with a faint, ghostly light, as if they were alive. They pulsed with immense sealing power, firmly locking away the terrifying entity trapped within.
"There... t-that's it," Kushina murmured. Her voice was much lower than usual, and her eyes darted around the room, refusing to look at Saiki. Her pale skin was tinged with a soft, bashful pink.
She tried her best to keep her chest puffed out, attempting to maintain a fierce posture. But her trembling fingers and flushed cheeks completely betrayed her nervousness.
It wasn't just Kushina who was tense; Saiki's breathing had also unconsciously sped up.
Control yourself! Control yourself! he repeated silently in his head. He reined in his wandering thoughts and focused his gaze intensely on the complex sealing runes.
To get a better look, Saiki knelt down in front of her. He leaned in close, meticulously observing the lines of the runes and the subtle flow of chakra through the array.
The air in the room seemed to freeze. The only sound was their breathing, now just inches apart.
Kushina could clearly feel Saiki's warm breath ghosting across her exposed, pale skin. It sent an indescribable, electrifying shiver through her body, making her heart hammer so violently it felt like it might burst from her chest.
Compared to Kushina, Saiki might have been captivated by her natural scent and her adorable belly, but he was an experienced man who had "tasted meat" before. He wasn't as easily overwhelmed as the innocent Kushina.
Deep within the sealing space, the gargantuan Nine-Tailed Fox lay lazily on its paws. However, its crimson, slit-pupiled eyes gleamed with malicious, mocking amusement.
It could clearly sense Kushina's violent emotional fluctuations—the embarrassment, the hesitation, and that faint, barely-concealed... flutter of desire?
"Tch. Foolish human," the Nine-Tails sneered internally. "To actually have your heartstrings plucked by a mere brat... how pathetic. And this brat... he's a bit of an enigma, I'll admit. But if he thinks he can suppress ME? Tch!"
Despite its outward disdain, the Nine-Tails prepared to continue its malicious whispering, intending to pluck at Kushina's nerves and further erode her mental defenses.
The Nine-Tails' chakra was an amalgamation of human negativity. While "lust" wasn't strictly a negative emotion, it fell well within the Fox's sphere of influence. Because of this, Kushina's heartbeat continued to accelerate, and her mind began to spiral into increasingly wild fantasies.
After studying the seal for a while, Saiki looked up at Kushina. Her head was turned slightly to the side, her fiery red hair cascading down to hide most of her flushed face. Only her delicate, dainty ear was visible, and it, too, was dyed a soft, rosy pink.
She was biting her lower lip, her breathing noticeably more rapid and shallow than before. Her chest was heaving with greater intensity. Her desperate attempt to maintain a stubborn, tough facade only made her look incredibly fragile and vulnerable in that moment.
"Sensei Kushina?" Saiki called out softly.
Hearing his voice, Kushina jolted violently, as if jolted awake from a dream. She snapped her head back toward him. Seeing Saiki staring directly at her, she realized she must have looked far too nervous. Her face, already unbelievably red, now felt like it was on fire.
"W-what!" she demanded, trying her hardest to maintain a fierce tone. But the tremor in her voice and her evasive, darting eyes completely shattered the illusion of control. "A-are you done looking?!"
Saiki, taken aback by her overreaction, instinctively replied, "Ah? Not yet..."
"Not yet?!" Kushina's voice spiked an octave, thick with a mix of shame and indignation. "You idiot! Exactly how long do you need to stare?!"
Kushina was naturally shy about this, but with the Nine-Tails maliciously amplifying her emotions, she was completely losing control.
Given Saiki's sensory abilities, he could easily detect the chaotic fluctuations in Kushina's chakra. However, because her chakra was intrinsically fused with the Fox's, Saiki genuinely had no idea the Nine-Tails was actively sabotaging her!
Seeing her acting like this, and oblivious to the Fox's interference, Saiki hurriedly tried to placate her. "Uh, Sensei Kushina, there are a lot of parts I can't quite see clearly... and honestly, parts I don't really understand!"
Since recovering his memories in this dangerous world, Saiki had poured almost all of his energy into mastering Ninjutsu and Kenjutsu. He had spent very little time studying Sealing Arts.
Saiki's talent was exceptional, but no matter how gifted he was, he couldn't effortlessly master Fuinjutsu, which was exponentially more difficult than standard Ninjutsu, without putting in the time.
In terms of Sealing Arts, Saiki only knew the basics of the Three-Pronged Seal, the Five Elements Seal, and the Four Symbols Seal. He hadn't even fully mastered the Four Symbols Seal yet. Therefore, expecting him to completely decipher the Eight Trigrams Seal—a complex array formed by interlocking two opposing Four Symbols Seals—was simply impossible.
Hearing Saiki's explanation, which served as a strange sort of comfort, Kushina let out a small breath of relief.
"W-what parts don't you understand?"
Even so, Kushina's voice still trembled. Her fingers gripped the hem of her shirt so tightly her knuckles were turning white.
She was agonizingly embarrassed to maintain this pose, but she was equally terrified that Saiki truly had no solution. This internal conflict only deepened the faint, rosy hue spreading across her pale skin.
Saiki pointed to a specific spot on her stomach. The black lines there seemed to pulse faintly, almost as if they were alive. The profound sealing theory involved in that specific node was far beyond his current grasp of the Five Elements and basic Four Symbols principles.
He tried to trace the flow of chakra through the array, but it felt like staring at a hopelessly tangled ball of yarn. He couldn't find the thread to start pulling.
His blunt honesty eased the tension in Kushina's nerves slightly. She looked down at the spot Saiki was indicating. Reaching out, she pressed her finger against the exact location. "Here?"
Her finger pressed into the soft flesh, creating a tiny, adorable indentation. Saiki answered quickly.
"Yes. Right there."
When it came to Fuinjutsu, Kushina was arguably the foremost expert currently in Konoha. Now that they were in her domain of expertise, much of her nervousness vanished. She immediately launched into an explanation. "Oh, that part works like this..."