Minato, Want a Wife?

How strong was Madara Uchiha? Most people in the ninja world today had no intuitive understanding of it.

After all, to secure his position, Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi had drastically altered the Ninja School textbooks and distorted the history of the ninja world.

He had even shamelessly called himself the strongest Hokage.

Even someone like Namikaze Minato, who had heard the true history from Yamanaka Kei, only knew a very limited part of it.

Madara Uchiha!

Even with just the Mangekyō Sharingan, he was a ruthless monster capable of taking on the Five Kage and the Ninja Alliance by himself and beating them senseless!

If the Sage of Six Paths had not secretly supported them from behind the scenes—

If Uzumaki Naruto and Sasuke had not kept getting back up like indestructible cockroaches—

And if Black Zetsu had not stabbed him in the back at the critical moment—

Madara Uchiha would absolutely have been the final winner.

With the modest builds of Yamanaka Kei and Namikaze Minato, facing Madara Uchiha head-on at this stage—even an elderly Madara—would basically be serving themselves up on a platter.

Just thinking about it makes this damn world feel dangerous as hell. First Madara Uchiha, then the Ōtsutsuki Clan. This is way too hard...

Yamanaka Kei grumbled inwardly.

If not for the System at his side, and the fact that his strength had been rapidly improving all along—

He really would have wanted to find some remote forest and give up on life!

As his thoughts wandered—

A sudden spatial fluctuation came from Namikaze Minato beside him.

"Huh? Mount Myōboku is using the Reverse Summoning Technique. I'll go take a look."

Namikaze Minato sensed the summons from the Reverse Summoning Technique.

After raising a hand and driving a Flying Thunder God Kunai into the ship's railing, he vanished amid a massive cloud of Chakra smoke.

According to the rules of the Summoning Technique—

Once the technique was released, the summoned person would return to the spatial coordinates from which they had been called.

Without the guidance of the Flying Thunder God Kunai—

By the time he returned from Mount Myōboku, this Three-Masted Sailing Ship, which was traveling at a decent speed, would likely have gone who knew where.

Namikaze Minato did not spend long at Mount Myōboku.

In less than twenty minutes—

He returned to the Three-Masted Sailing Ship via the Flying Thunder God Technique.

Yamanaka Kei was still sunbathing on the deck and enjoying the sea breeze.

When he saw the strange expression on Namikaze Minato's face after his return from Mount Myōboku, he asked in confusion.

"What's with that expression?"

"The village issued a notice. The general meaning was that Whirlpool Village has always been Konoha's steadfast ally. Due to certain reasons, Konoha had been unable to lend aid in time when the Uzumaki Clan suffered its misfortune years ago. It called on Konoha's ninja to do their utmost to help any Uzumaki Clan members they encountered outside the village..."

Namikaze Minato chose his words carefully as he roughly relayed the news he had heard from the Toad.

After hearing it, Yamanaka Kei wore an equally strange expression.

He completely understood why Namikaze Minato had looked like that just now.

To sum it up—

Their expressions meant the same thing.

What the hell had they been doing all this time?

The Whirlpool Country had been destroyed years ago, and hardly any Uzumaki Clan members were left alive.

And only now they remembered those people were allies?

"The Third Hokage is planning to gather up some Uzumaki Clan members."

Yamanaka Kei saw through the notice's purpose at a glance.

The Uzumaki Clan, huh.

The only things those old schemers in the village could still covet were their bloodline and Sealing Technique.

And for something like this to suddenly happen, something that had never occurred in the original story—

He could guess with his toes that it was definitely because his relationship with Kushina had become the talk of the village.

Were they worried something would happen to the Jinchūriki?

Or were they guarding against the Yamanaka Clan?

Or perhaps both?

"Probably. It looks like Kushina will soon have clan members settling down in Konoha."

Namikaze Minato nodded with a smile, feeling happy for Kushina as well.

Konoha was one of the Five Great Ninja Villages.

No matter what, the living conditions there were far better than in those chaotic small countries outside.

If members of the Uzumaki Clan could come to Konoha, they would surely be able to survive and carry on their legacy properly.

"Don't be too optimistic. The Uzumaki Clan might hate Konoha to the bone."

Yamanaka Kei curled his lip.

Yet inwardly, he contacted the System, wanting to ask whether there was a reward for this butterfly effect he had caused.

This counted as influencing and changing the main plot, right?

Hey, hey, System!

Where's my reward?

Dog? You damn dog System?

Damn it!

After staring at the System for a long while without getting even the slightest response—

Yamanaka Kei frowned and turned toward Namikaze Minato beside him.

"Minato! Want a wife?"

"???"

Namikaze Minato stared at his close friend with a face full of question marks.

"Long red hair draped over her shoulders, exquisitely beautiful features, a sexy, fiery figure, and a personality as gentle as water! Want one?"

Yamanaka Kei threw an arm around Minato's neck.

He vividly described the appearance of the Uzumaki Clan girl from his memories.

"As long as she isn't the type who can make me cry for a long time with one punch, then maybe, perhaps, probably... I'd want one too?"

A smile blossomed across Namikaze Minato's face.

Honestly—

He really did think red hair was beautiful.

That color always made him feel boundless passion and vitality.

Back at the Ninja School—

If Yamanaka Kei had not moved so fast, he might really have tried pursuing Kushina.

"Just wait. I'll repeat those words to Kushina."

Yamanaka Kei became even more determined to match that girl with Minato.

First, changing Minato's life trajectory might earn him a System reward.

Second—

Kushina was his!

He had to get Minato settled down early, or the guy would keep getting on his nerves!

"Hey, hey, I was just repeating what you said, okay? If Kushina wants to hit someone, she should hit you!"

Namikaze Minato argued his case.

"She can't bear to hit me, so..."

"You're going to lose me as a friend like this, seriously!"

"Hahaha!"

The two joked around for a while.

Then Yamanaka Kei directly ordered the captain to change course, setting their destination as Summoning Island in the Land of Sea!

When ninja went out on missions, all kinds of unexpected accidents could happen.

They would only be returning a few days late.

No one would say anything about it.

The Land of Sea lay north of the waters of the Water Country and south of the waters of the Land of Lightning.

Like the Grass Country, Land of Bears, Rain Country, and other nations, it was a small country wedged between two major powers, serving as a buffer zone for war.

As for Summoning Island, while it was nominally territory of the Land of Sea, its actual controller was Mist Village!

In the original story, this island was favored by numerous ninja because it housed many powerful creatures that could be used as summoning beasts.

A research institute had even been established on the island specifically to research, breed, and improve summoning beasts.

When Yamanaka Kei had previously read the memories of that Hidden Mist Ninja, he had learned that—

Most of the summoning beasts they had used against Pakura had come from there.

He simply had not paid much attention to it at the time.

But now that they were talking about the Uzumaki Clan—

Yamanaka Kei recalled the named Uzumaki Clan members from the original story.

Naturally, he thought of the girl who had stayed on Summoning Island, only to eventually die because of the so-called "Ultimate Summoning Beast."

Combined with his memories of the original story and the intelligence in the Hidden Mist Ninja's mind—

There was a high chance that the girl named Uzumaki Honoka was still alive, and that she was not much different in age from them!

Wouldn't she be far better as Minato's wife than dying pointlessly in a beast's jaws?

I'm such a damn genius!

The little figure in Yamanaka Kei's mind stood with his hands on his hips, smug beyond belief.