Kushina's suspicions had been confirmed.
Knowing that it was Kei Yamanaka who had avenged her, Kushina took a while to calm down. Eventually, her tears stopped.
Feeling satisfied, she hugged her knees and curled up in one corner of the sofa.
Whether from drinking too much alcohol or the emotional rollercoaster, her body felt drained.
The calmed Kushina soon began feeling drowsy.
"I'll go heat up some bathwater. You can sleep in the guest room later."
Seeing Kushina nod slightly with her eyes closed, Kei Yamanaka stood up and walked toward the bathroom.
By the time he finished heating the water and returned to the living room, Kushina had already curled up into a small ball and fallen asleep on the sofa.
Looking at the little red pepper—still frowning slightly even in sleep, her eyelashes still dusted with tiny teardrops—
Kei sighed softly, picked her up, carried her into the guest room, covered her with a blanket, then turned around to wash up.
As he soaked in a warm bath,
He went over everything that had happened at the Jonin Dispatch Office earlier that morning.
After confirming once again that he hadn't revealed anything suspicious, Kei relaxed slightly.
In the original storyline, it was clearly recorded that only two people—Mito Uzumaki and Naruto Uzumaki, both jinchuriki of the Nine-Tails—could sense malicious intent directly.
Otherwise, during the Fourth Great Ninja War, White Zetsu's Transformation Jutsu wouldn't have caught the entire Allied Ninja Forces off guard.
Obviously, Kushina didn't yet possess Mito Uzumaki's ability to treat the Nine-Tails as a pet fox and manipulate it freely at will.
Nor had she reconciled with the Nine-Tails like Naruto had, evolving into a perfect jinchuriki.
Her ability to sense malice came entirely from forcing the Nine-Tails into submission through the use of the Adamantine Sealing Chains—an act that also let her siphon off a massive amount of its chakra.
Plus, although she hadn't awakened the Mind's Eye of the Kagura, her sensory abilities were naturally sharp.
Under the pressure of facing Danzo Shimura, her chakra was also in high-speed operation.
A series of coincidences overlapped, making it an incredibly rare occurrence for her to faintly sense that fleeting surge of intense hostility the moment Kei attacked Danzo.
"I really need to be more careful in the future."
Kei silently scolded himself.
Although to his knowledge there were no other methods in the ninja world for detecting malicious intent, who knew what strange techniques might exist?
Just like how the original story never mentioned Kushina having this ability at all.
Plotlines weren't always airtight.
Being cautious could never be wrong.
As he soaked in a warm bath,
Kei retrieved some plot notes he'd scribbled down early after his transmigration, written under various pseudonyms, phonetic spellings, and doodles.
Cross-referencing these with the many detailed memories resurfaced through the fusion of two skill listings inside his Memory Palace,
he meticulously pieced together every scrap of useful information.
Not until the moon hung high and exhaustion claimed him did he finally drift off, fully clothed.
The moon shone brightly against a sparse scattering of stars, and the night passed in quiet.
Early the next morning.
By the time Kei woke, Kushina had already slipped away.
Eyeing the neatly folded bedding, he lifted the note that had been tucked under the teacup.
"I'm not messy at all, you know! o(′^｀)o"
"And also, Kei-kun, your courage has gotten quite big~ You dared hug me secretly~ (*?︶?*)...:*?"
A tiny smiley face, paired with a giant heart.
It brightened Kei Yamanaka's mood for the day.
As Kushina had said, he really had become bolder than he was before activating the system.
Back then, he'd never have allowed the Nine-Tails' Jinchuriki to stay overnight.
He wouldn't have even dared to suggest whacking Danzo Shimura upside the head.
After nineteen years living in Konoha, he fully understood how to avoid drawing attention from those schemers.
If only he'd had a bit more courage back then...
"He'd have been warned by that bastard Danzo ages ago!"
Kei Yamanaka smirked.
He had a clear grasp of his identity, and also knew what Kushina meant to Konoha.
If he hadn't deliberately kept their relationship at arm's length,
Danzo would've approached him already.
But now...
Now he wanted to have a sweet, fluffy relationship with that soft, fiery-haired girl!
And if those three old pests—Danzo Shimura, Koharu Utatane, and Homura Mitokado—dared cause trouble,
Well, conveniently, in his previous life he'd developed a fascination with BASE jumping.
And in this life, he learned the Mind Body Switch Technique—a secret technique that lets him take control of others' bodies.
Hmm~
Trying wingsuit flying in Hell's Valley in Bear Country, snowboarding down Snow Mountain Peak in Snow Country, or extreme wave-surfing during tsunamis in Sea Country...
And if those places feel too distant, cliff-diving off Hokage Rock without a rope could be fun too.
Besides, it's not like he can actually die—why not test his limits to the extreme?
"Why do I kind of hope they come looking for trouble sooner rather than later?"
Kei grinned and cheerfully headed out toward the Mission Assignment Office.
He grabbed two dumpling sticks and a couple rice balls on the commercial street to settle his rebellious stomach, which had started grumbling early.
He mused that maybe he should talk to his clan about opening a few breakfast stalls in Konoha.
That way, the elderly and weaker members of his clan could earn a bit extra income, while bringing a little culinary delight to the villagers.
Other than that, he wasn't sure.
Soy milk, fried dough sticks, tofu pudding, steamed buns, scallion pancakes, lamb soup—all these things...
Thanks to the memories locked in his Memory Palace from skill-list fusion, he was fairly confident he could recreate around seventy to eighty percent of the originals.
When he arrived at the Mission Assignment Office,
He handed over yesterday's mission-completion form—signed by the client—to the duty jonin, Shikaku Nara.
Then collected payment for yesterday's mission.
As he was about to browse the list of suitable low-rank missions,
Shikaku called him over and ushered him into a small office next to the mission hall.
"Kei, are you getting used to being a squad leader?"
"If I wasn't comfortable, do you think I'd still be here?"
"That's not an option. I was just asking casually; pretend you didn't hear."
"Just get to the point."
Kei Yamanaka and Shikaku Nara exchanged eye-rolls.
The Ino–Shika–Cho clans had always been as close as family.
Growing up together since childhood—from wearing split pants to everything else—and being barely a year apart in age, they'd known each other inside and out for years.
Beating around the bush or engaging in polite small talk just wasn't their style.
"The three subordinates assigned to you were personally selected by Lord Hokage. Hmm…especially Kurenai Yuhi. It would be best if you could take her as your disciple and properly train her."
Nara Shikaku carefully chose his words before giving this piece of advice.
"Kurenai Yuhi?"
"Yes. With the current situation in the ninja world being rather unstable, our Ino–Shika–Cho alliance has always been a staunch supporter of the Hokage…"
"I get it, I get it. I'll teach them well."
Kei Yamanaka waved dismissively.
Truth be told, when he saw the team's composition earlier, he'd more or less figured out Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi's intentions.
Maito Gai and Genma Shiranami both came from clean backgrounds, and were the types willing to sacrifice for their teammates.
The group's diverse skill sets complemented each other well, and they worked together without friction.
As the team's jonin instructor, Kei naturally belonged to the Hokage faction because of his Yamanaka heritage, and his expertise lay in genjutsu and the Yamanaka clan's secret Yin Release techniques, making him the ideal choice to train Kurenai Yuhi.
Hiruzen Sarutobi clearly intended to use Kurenai Yuhi to secure Kurenai Maika's loyalty and rally grassroots-level ninja in preparation for the turbulent times ahead.
As for Ebisu, who had recently been transferred to the logistics training department,
he was little more than a pawn being shifted around under the guise of utilizing his specialty.
Although Kei didn't particularly like such manipulations, since he had benefited from being part of the Yamanaka clan, there were certain things he couldn't avoid.
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