Dream

Dream

"Minato, Minato!"

Hearing Kushina call out from the living room, Minato leaned out from the kitchen, a wok in one hand and a spatula in the other, and looked toward Kushina on the sofa.

"I'm here."

"Minato, several Uchiha Clan ninja sent us their wedding blessings today."

Kushina flipped through the camera in her hands. Looking at the recorded blessings sent by those Uchiha ninja, she could not hide the smile on her face.

But why did the smiles on those Uchiha people's faces look so forced? They seemed so awkward.

It felt as though someone had stood beside them during the recording, constantly threatening them with words. "Sniff, sniff."

Suddenly catching the smell of cooking oil in the air, she looked up and saw that Minato Namikaze had somehow come to stand beside her, his head lowered as he watched the footage recorded on the camera.

Seeing oil still dripping from the spatula, Kushina patted the sofa and said with some distress, "Be careful. We just replaced this sofa."

"Huh? Sorry."

Minato came to his senses then. He jogged back to the kitchen, put away the spatula and apron, then returned to Kushina's side and watched along with her.

The camera contained not only blessings from ninja of their own village, but even blessings from ninja from other villages. Even Kumogakure, which had yet to sign a ceasefire agreement with Konoha and was still engaged in small-scale warfare, had sent its blessings.

"Minato."

At that moment, Kushina wrapped one arm around Minato's shoulder while the other stroked her gradually swelling belly, then asked, "A couple of days ago, Mikoto told me that the conflicts within her clan have been getting worse, and the clan members are becoming harder and harder to manage.

"At their last clan meeting, someone even suggested that the Clan Head divorce and pursue the Clan Head of the Senju House."

Huh? Minato Namikaze looked at his wife in confusion. Thinking of how affectionate Fugaku and his wife were, he quickly asked, "Why?"

"Ugh!" Kushina put down the camera, looking utterly speechless. "Isn't it all because of the Hokage position?

"Ever since Mikoto married Fugaku, those clan members have practically driven her mad. Every day, they drag the Clan Head over and force him to reminisce about the past.

"For example, how, when the village was founded, the First Hokage patted Uchiha Madara on the shoulder and said he would pass the position of Second Hokage to him.

"Then later, the Second Hokage patted Kagami Uchiha on the shoulder and said that he was different from the other Uchiha, that he was the Uchiha most likely to inherit the position of Third Hokage.

"And later still, that old man, the Third Hokage, patted Fugaku on the shoulder and said that if he held back the enemy's attack, his name would appear among the candidates for Hokage.

"Minato, as the Fourth Hokage, it is your responsibility to maintain the village's stability. And the Uchiha Clan is Konoha's largest clan."

Seeing that his wife seemed hesitant to speak, Minato immediately recalled the Clan Head of the Senju House she had just mentioned.

Was she asking me to act as a matchmaker?

Lady Tsunade would beat me to death for that.

Remembering how his teacher had once been punched into the hospital by Tsunade, healed by her palm, and then punched back into the hospital again, Minato shook his head vigorously and muttered to himself, "No, Lady Tsunade will slaughter Master Jiraiya."

???? Kushina stared at Minato with a face full of question marks. She truly could not understand how his mind worked. She had been telling him that if the Uchiha Clan's internal conflicts were not dealt with promptly, they would affect the village in the future. What exactly had he been thinking about? "Idiot!"

Kushina directly straddled Minato's lap, grabbed his collar with both hands, and shook him back and forth. "Why don't you transfer away the ninja who suggested Mikoto get divorced? If he can't attend clan meetings, then he can't voice his opinions."

"Transfer him where?"

Seeing Kushina's hair practically standing on end, Minato quickly raised both hands in surrender and forced out a placating smile. "All right, all right.

"Recently, a group of Anbu have applied to return to the regular ninja ranks, leaving many vacancies in the Anbu. Before long, the Anbu will send invitations to outstanding ninja throughout the village."

"What about this period? What about this period?"

"This period... this period..."

At a loss for words, Minato secretly glanced at the furious Kushina. One hand continuously patted his wife's back to calm her down, while the other rubbed his chin. With a doting expression, he said, "Recently, a batch of Ninja Academy students has applied for early graduation. If that man has no psychological problems, he can serve as a temporary teacher for a while. Kushina, what is the name of that Uchiha ninja? I'll go back and pull up his file."

"That's more like it."

Kushina picked up the camera she had tossed aside. After flipping through it for a moment, she pointed at one of the blessing videos and said, "There, it's him. Uchiha Asuka, a jōnin of the Uchiha Clan, a highly versatile ninja. They say that even when he was still a chūnin, he already possessed jōnin-level combat strength.

"Now that he's a jōnin, his exact strength is unknown."

"So it was him..."

Following Kushina's finger, he saw a somewhat familiar figure in the camera.

As Minato Namikaze stared at that familiar figure, he searched his memories. Then, like lightning flashing through his mind, a realization struck him, and he fell silent.

Seeing Minato suddenly sit there in silence, Kushina shook his shoulder, somewhat worried.

"Is there something wrong with him?"

"Not really."

Minato shook his head, recalling scenes from the Third Shinobi World War and Uchiha Asuka's records as he slowly said, "His experiences were somewhat similar to Tsunade's, but among combat-type shinobi, he was one of the few who had mastered and become proficient in Medical Ninjutsu.

Moreover, his records stated that the Third Shinobi World War took away all his companions. The Medical Ninjutsu he had spent so long learning could do nothing but let him clearly sense the life force in his companions' bodies fading away; it could not even prolong their lives.

Later, he rejected his own Medical Ninjutsu and never used it again."

Is that so? After hearing Minato's account, Kushina froze for a moment. Because of her status, she had never participated in the Third Shinobi World War.

But during that period, nearly every household in Konoha was draped in white. "Alright!"

Seeing that Kushina was somewhat upset, Minato gently stroked her belly and said, "Tomorrow, I'll assign him a squad."

At this moment.

Uchiha Asuka sat in his chair, surveying his empty room as a trace of regret rose in his heart.

Cat Granny was really ruthless.

When I bought from you, you gave me a ten-percent discount. When I sold to you, you only paid seventy percent.

Just like that, without doing anything, my assets shrank by nearly a third.

"Ugh!"

With a deep sigh, he spat the chicken bones from his roasted chicken onto the floor. Then his gaze fell on Big Orange, who was sleeping on the table. Looking at the cat, fat beyond all reason, he reached out and gave it a couple of shoves before saying, "Stop sleeping. Go deliver a letter for me."

Feeling someone repeatedly poke its butt, Big Orange slowly opened its eyes and instinctively stretched. Then it noticed that a letter seemed to be tied around its waist. Instantly, the Orange Cat froze mid-stretch.

After remaining silent for quite some time, it looked at the recipient information, then raised its head to look at Uchiha Asuka. A humanlike helplessness appeared on its face as it muttered in a girlish voice, "I don't want to deliver a letter to Widow. It's unlucky.

Besides, the Senju Clan and your clan are sworn enemies."

"Pah!"

Uchiha Asuka spat on the ground, then looked toward the Senju Clan Land and said, "They've already been wiped out, and there's only one woman left in the entire clan. What sworn enmity is there to talk about now?

Back when the Senju Clan still existed, our clans would still trade a few barbs. Now that they're all dead, kicking them while they're down would be going too far."

Hearing this, the Orange Cat glanced at Uchiha Asuka twice, then casually opened the letter. Looking at its contents, it read aloud, "To the Senju of the Forest Clan Head—Senju Tsunade.

As the Third Shinobi World War gradually draws to a close, the shinobi world has finally welcomed a temporary peace. Although all of this is only temporary, as the head of the Uchiha Clan, I wish to discuss through this letter the future of our two clans that have disputed for a thousand years—the future of the village, and the future of the shinobi world. —Uchiha Fugaku"

Plop!

Just as it finished reading, a slip of paper suddenly fell out of the envelope.

The Orange Cat picked up the slip from the table. After opening it and taking a couple of looks, it exclaimed, "Asuka, did you get rich?

Why did you stuff a 100,000-ryo banknote into the envelope???"

"If I didn't include money, Tsunade wouldn't reply to us."

"What are you working so hard for?"

Smack! Uchiha Asuka lightly slapped the Orange Cat on the head and said irritably, "I just want to live out this life safely. Fighting means danger, so if things can be settled peacefully, of course they should be settled peacefully."

I suddenly remembered that this book hasn't even been contracted yet. Posting 6,000 words a day is a bit excessive. There'll only be one chapter today; let me take my time writing first.