I see...
Looks like I didn't need to worry so much.
Using the courtyard wall separating the inner room from the outer residence as cover, Kushina poked her head out to glance toward the inner room. Then she quietly turned back, a relieved smile appearing at the corner of her lips.
Still, when had Chiba made so many friends?
How long ago had it been that he was the child who was always alone?
Thinking of this, Kushina could not help recalling that child who, after school at the Ninja Academy, had always gone home alone and lonely, yet had never once shown any self-pity.
Even when everyone despised and hated him, he had never bowed his head to the fate of being the Traitor's Son. It was as if all that disdain and hatred were merely a breeze at his side, unable to move him in the slightest. It was also as if no hardship or obstacle could ever make him retreat. It was then that she had made up her mind to take this child as her disciple.
Come to think of it, it was precisely because she had made that decision that she began working so hard. She had started studying Sealing Jutsu in earnest, eventually succeeding in opening an absolutely safe gap in the Four Symbols Seal through which she could use the Chakra leaking from the Nine-Tails. At the same time, she had worked hard to improve her taijutsu and ninjutsu, eventually reaching the point where she was more than capable of protecting herself.
She had even gained a profound understanding of battle after fighting Yagura Bi. Though she still lacked actual combat experience, she was no longer someone who had experienced nothing. In a sense, that battle with Yagura Bi had already given her