Uchiha Qi left.
In the end, he had not accepted Uchiha Fugaku's goodwill.
However...
He had not exactly refused either. He had merely left things hanging.
After all, some things could go unused, but they could not be absent.
It was not just a matter of benefits; it was also a symbol of power.
And right now, Uchiha Qi needed those things—things that could earn him the Uchiha Clan's support.
"Phew... Looks like I won't be able to become a runaway anymore. Once you obtain certain things, it means you've chosen the corresponding side."
Muttering to himself, Uchiha Qi returned to his residence. After resting briefly, he headed straight for Minato Namikaze's home.
It was exactly five thirty in the afternoon.
It took Uchiha Qi only two minutes to reach Minato Namikaze's home.
Like Uchiha Qi, Minato Namikaze lived in an apartment building. This was also where Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki would live after getting married—at least, there had been a scene like that in the original manga.
Fortunately, this area was fairly far from Konoha's central district, so it had not been destroyed in the Nine-Tails Attack in the original story.
He knocked on the door, and it opened.
A beautiful young girl with long red hair, who looked to be around fifteen or sixteen, appeared in the doorway.
Her red hair was tied into a long ponytail, and her rare silver-gray eyes reflected Uchiha Qi's figure beneath the evening sun. Her pupils shone with beauty and delight.
A heartfelt, joyful smile bloomed across her delicate, lovely face.
Although she wore a somewhat boyish black jacket and long pants, it did not look unattractive at all. Instead, it accentuated her excellent figure.
Moreover, the distinctive Konoha ninja forehead protector on the girl's brow revealed her identity as a Konoha shinobi.
If Naruto fans from Uchiha Qi's previous life saw her like this, they would surely cry out, "Could this be Kushina Uzumaki? How can she be so cute?"
However, in reality...
"Brother Qi!"
With a bright and happy smile, the girl called out Uchiha Qi's special nickname.
Uchiha Qi smiled too and raised a hand to rub the girl's head. "Good evening, Kikyo."
The soft, silky sensation made Uchiha Qi sigh inwardly. As expected, it felt great. Just one touch was enough to relax both body and mind.
The girl puffed out her cheeks, looking displeased at having her head patted. "Honestly, I've already grown up. Stop rubbing my head like that..."
Although she complained, she did not swat Uchiha Qi's hand away. She was clearly used to it, with a hidden longing beneath that habit.
At that moment, another warm and forthright female voice rang out. "Qi-kun, you're here too? Kikyo, hurry and let your Brother Qi in."
As she spoke, a beautiful woman who resembled the red-haired girl somewhat emerged from the kitchen. She also had red hair, wore a green dress, and stood with her hands on her hips, smiling in a carefree manner.
She was not quite as cute, but she gave off the impression of being warm-hearted and unconcerned with minor details. She looked around eighteen or nineteen.
This was Minato Namikaze's current girlfriend, Konoha's current Nine-Tails Jinchuriki—Kushina Uzumaki!
Upon hearing Kushina Uzumaki, Kikyo immediately answered, "Yes, yes," then proactively took out the slippers reserved for Uchiha Qi, a frequent guest of the Namikaze household, from the shoe cabinet and placed them before him. She was extremely practiced at it, clearly having done it more than once, and seeming more than willing to do so.
As the one being served, Uchiha Qi accepted it all as a matter of course. After changing into the slippers, he walked into Minato Namikaze's home.
However, when he inadvertently saw Kikyo's smiling face and the completely undisguised affection and admiration in her eyes whenever she looked at him, he scratched his head.
A girl he had rescued outside had grown up and developed a crush on her savior. What a clichéd trope.
Yes, the girl named Kikyo had been rescued by Uchiha Qi. Her full name was Kikyo Uzumaki. She was a member of the Uzumaki Clan and someone who had never appeared in the original Naruto story—a butterfly effect brought about by Uchiha Qi.
After graduating from the Ninja Academy, Uchiha Qi had not immediately joined the Konoha Military Police Force. Instead, following the usual rules, he had formed a team with others as an ordinary ninja and carried out various missions.
At that time, Uchiha Qi and Minato Namikaze had been on the same team. With Minato Namikaze carrying them, their mission completion rate had naturally been extremely high. They had basically won while lying down.
However, when Uchiha Qi was fourteen, he went with his team to the Land of Grass for a mission. There, they encountered some dangerous people and ninjas from the Land of Grass. That was when they met Kikyo Uzumaki, an Uzumaki Clan member living in exile. Because of the Uzumaki Clan's special physique, the twelve-year-old girl had been discovered by those Land of Grass ninjas, who intended to use her as "human medicine."
Among the Uzumaki Clan, whose members possessed formidable vitality, some could allow others to absorb their life force and recover from injuries by biting their bodies. Kikyo Uzumaki was one of those Uzumaki Clan members with such a physique.
For an Uzumaki Clan girl who would inevitably suffer terribly if left in the Land of Grass, Minato Namikaze, as Kushina Uzumaki's boyfriend, naturally wanted to help. Uchiha Qi also chose to support him, and in the end, he personally rescued Kikyo Uzumaki at the risk of his life.
Afterward, they brought Kikyo Uzumaki back to Konoha. Through the efforts of Old Man Third, who was still very forceful at the time, they successfully freed Kikyo Uzumaki from the Land of Grass completely, allowing her to settle in Konoha and live with her clanswoman, Kushina Uzumaki.
For the Uzumaki Clan, who had lost their homeland and seen both their country and clan destroyed, encountering a fellow clanswoman in a foreign land and being able to live together was a rare warmth and blessing amid enormous disaster.
Both Kikyo Uzumaki and Kushina Uzumaki were immensely happy, even deeply moved.
It had to be said that Sarutobi, back in those days, had truly been worthy of the title of Hokage. His methods of winning people over were not especially sophisticated, but he knew how to use them at the right time and achieve the best results.
That was the full story of how Kikyo Uzumaki had come to Konoha. Afterward, because of Minato Namikaze, the contact and relationship between Uchiha Qi and Kikyo Uzumaki had never been severed.
After several years together, combined with the suspension bridge effect of being rescued, Uchiha Qi's place in Kikyo Uzumaki's heart was basically that of both a cherished first love and her destined hero. It was no wonder the girl had secretly given him her heart.
Or rather, for the naturally passionate Uzumaki Clan, after going through something like that, the only likely reason not to fall for someone would be if their savior's looks were too horrible to bear looking at. After all, even the Akimichi Clan, where everyone was fat, would be seen as reincarnations of Pan An in such circumstances.
And Uchiha Qi's looks were not bad at all. Though his talent as a ninja was lacking, he was still an Uchiha, and there were practically no ugly people among the Uchiha Clan. They were all handsome men and beautiful women.
Even Uchiha Obito, who was mocked for lowering the Uchiha Clan's average attractiveness, was actually quite handsome as long as he dressed himself up properly.
Under such circumstances, it was only natural that Kikyo would fall for Uchiha Qi, who was merely two years older than her.
As for Uchiha Qi, being liked by a proactive, kind-natured beautiful girl was naturally not something he would reject. It was not as if he were some super-dense, utterly straight man with no interest in beautiful girls.
However, Uchiha Qi had a very subtle concern in his heart, and it was this...
An important character from the original story and Second Pillar's future important companion, Karin Uzumaki, might be gone—Kikyo Uzumaki was very likely Karin Uzumaki's mother, who had already died long before the original story began!
Many thanks to the great "Passerby Says Passing By" for the alliance leader reward. I can't thank you enough!
Wuwuwu, after all these years, I finally saw you again. I'm so touched~~~
Before you continue