Should We Clobber Danzo?

"Hey, hey! What's with that look of disdain and contempt?!"

Kushina Uzumaki put down the arm she had been guarding her chest with, clearly dissatisfied. She reeked of alcohol.

Even if she was usually carefree and boisterous, she was still a beautiful girl with both a great figure and a pretty face, okay?!

Was it really appropriate to look at her like that?

"How much did you drink?"

Yamanaka Kei completely ignored Kushina's question.

Looking at the utterly chaotic living room, he felt speechless beyond words.

The tea table, which had originally been empty, clean, and tidy, was now covered with instant ramen cups containing only a little soup and scattered liquor bottles.

Magazines lay open all over the sofa and floor, while Ninjutsu Scrolls had been left lying around haphazardly.

Several cute-looking puppet dolls that he usually used to practice Ninjutsu had also been thoroughly abused before being tossed aside.

"I-It was only a little bit~"

Kushina also noticed the filthy, disorderly living room.

Most of the haze of alcohol vanished at once. She hunched her neck and stood there, cautiously sneaking glances at Yamanaka Kei's expression.

I didn't even do anything today. How did the living room get this messy? she muttered inwardly.

"...No matter what's bothering you in the future, drink less. This stuff isn't good for your health."

Seeing Kushina's uneasy expression, Yamanaka Kei's words ultimately turned into concern.

They had known each other for many years, and he understood Kushina's personality better than anyone.

She usually never touched alcohol. For her to drink so much today, something she couldn't accept had probably happened in the afternoon after her confrontation with Danzo that morning.

Yamanaka Kei formed the "Goat" hand seal with one hand.

He cast the advanced technique, Mind Transfer Puppet Clone Technique, evolved from the Mind Transfer Clone Technique and Mind Transfer Puppet Technique.

Five humanoid puppets, each a little over a foot tall, performed backflips and sprang up from the floor together, then began cleaning up the messy living room with all hands.

The filthy tea table was quickly cleaned.

The magazines and scrolls that had been scattered everywhere were also sorted and returned to their original places.

Barefoot, Kushina pattered around as she hurriedly cleaned alongside the puppets.

With how eager she looked to please him, anyone who didn't know better would have thought she was genuinely diligent.

"All right, all right. Tell me, why did you come looking for me?"

Looking at Kushina's obsequious smile and ingratiating expression, Yamanaka Kei truly didn't know what to do with her.

"Hehehe~ Kei-kun~ Can you lend me eight million ryo~?"

Kushina's tone and manner were as docile as could be. Her coy appearance bore no resemblance to the Red Hot-Blooded Habanero she had been during the day.

"Wait, you only collected your rent in July. It hasn't even been three months. You've already spent it all?"

Yamanaka Kei looked incredulous when he heard that she wanted to borrow money.

When Mito Uzumaki had passed away, she had left Kushina an extremely substantial inheritance.

Just the rent from the dozen or so shops on Konoha's Commercial Street was enough to ensure she could live in comfort and luxury for a long time every year.

How had this girl managed to squander it all to the point of needing to borrow money?

"I-I lent it to Tsunade-sama."

"That hopeless gambler... You've really got some nerve!"

"I couldn't help it, okay? Tsunade-sama cried and said she had no food, no clothes, and was about to starve to death..."

"And you believed her?"

"Aiya~ Kei-kun~ That bastard Shimura Danzo is simply inhuman! He said the damage to the Jonin Waiting Station had nothing to do with him and made me bear all the reconstruction costs alone. Even Third Hokage took his side..."

With a sobbing tone, Kushina skipped over the matter of lending money to Tsunade-sama and began relentlessly accusing the culprit, Shimura Danzo.

Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi also received plenty of abuse along the way.

Her tone made it sound as though the collapse of the Jonin Waiting Station today had absolutely nothing to do with her.

"All right, all right. You only need eight million, right?"

"If you could give me a little more so I have something left to eat, that would be even better, okay?"

"You... After collecting your rent in the future, remember to put some aside as emergency savings. You should also plan your everyday expenses properly. And when someone asks to borrow money from you, first determine whether they're borrowing it for something legitimate..."

Yamanaka Kei rose from the sofa with an utterly helpless look.

As he spoke, he retrieved two deposit slips from the hidden compartment in his study. They were from the Fire Country Bank.

Kushina obediently knelt before the tea table.

Perhaps it was the alcohol.

As she listened to the nagging and reminders beside her ear, she unconsciously thought of Grandma Mito.

In a daze, she accepted the two deposit slips, each representing a five-million-ryo deposit.

Seeing her dazed expression, Yamanaka Kei waved a hand in front of her eyes and reminded her again.

"The extra two million is for you to eat properly and buy a few nice outfits. If you encounter a situation like today's again, don't take your anger out on yourself. As the old saying goes, rather than making things difficult for yourself, torment someone else..."

Yamanaka Kei had only nagged for a couple of sentences when he saw tears as large as beans rolling down Kushina's cheeks.

He had never been good at dealing with this sort of thing, so he hurriedly pulled a tissue from the box and handed it to her.

Looking at Kushina, who was crying like a pear blossom in the rain,

Yamanaka Kei sighed and racked his brain for a way to comfort her.

"If you really can't swallow your anger, how about we sneak up and clobber Danzo? I'm fairly familiar with Root's combat methods. If it's inconvenient for you to show yourself, I can secretly deal with him for you..."

"Waaah~~~ Kei... Sob, waaah~~~ I miss Grandma Mito~~~"

Kushina Uzumaki had originally only been shedding silent tears, but after Yamanaka Kei comforted her like that, she completely broke down.

All the grievances in her heart and her longing for her family burst out at once.

She tilted up her little face and began to wail.

Her nose ran together with her tears, turning her face into a complete mess.

Ever since Grandma Mito had left, it had been a very, very long time since she had heard such words of concern.

Because of her identity as the Nine-Tailed Jinchuriki,

she couldn't freely leave the village to carry out missions, nor could she live as freely as an ordinary ninja.

Every day, she also had to endure the disgusted and fearful gazes that were almost everywhere.

Some of the village's higher-ups, led by Shimura Danzo, would even target her from time to time.

Third Hokage would only comfort her with a few words afterward.

What he said most often was always for her to mature a little, and that they were always doing it for the sake of the village.

But they were clearly the ones constantly causing trouble for her. If it really was for the sake of the village, why couldn't they show some restraint?

"...Should I accompany you to take a look at the Senju Old Residence?"

Yamanaka Kei asked tentatively.

Kushina shook her head. As she wiped away her torrent of tears, she asked,

"Kei, did you use some kind of Ninjutsu against Danzo today?"

"Huh? No, I didn't. Why would you say that?"

Yamanaka Kei's heart tightened slightly, but his face didn't reveal a thing. He smoothly began playing dumb.

"Hmph! Liar! You might be able to fool others, but you can't fool me, okay? I sensed it! When Danzo left, there was a fleeting trace of malice coming from you."

Kushina's face was covered in tears and snot, yet her eyes curved into crescent moons as she smiled.

"...Wipe your face. Crying and laughing at the same time—you look awful."

The corner of Yamanaka Kei's eye twitched slightly. In the end, he stopped denying it, pulled out a tissue, and planted it directly on Kushina's face.

"Hehe~ Kei, it's so nice knowing you, okay~"