Bathing with Mito

"That's pretty much what happened."

Kyosuke sat off to the side, lounging leisurely as he peeled a chestnut to eat.

"I... I have to wait here for a year?!" Mito was stunned.

Why had her father agreed to such a request? Delaying things for a year was bound to provoke intense dissatisfaction from the Senju.

When that happened, the Uzumaki Clan would be caught in the middle, with neither side on their good side.

Kyosuke gazed at the beautiful Princess Uzumaki in silence. After a moment, he asked curiously, "You have territory of your own. Why insist on getting involved in the Land of Fire's conflict?"

At first, Mito hadn't wanted to answer him at all. But when she saw the boy starting to take off his clothes, she hurriedly explained in alarm:

"The Uzumaki Clan has a special constitution. There are plenty of people on the black market willing to pay to capture us."

"If we hadn't been forced into it, we wouldn't have chosen to establish our country on some remote island overseas."

Hearing this, Kyosuke began to understand the Uzumaki Clan's predicament.

As distant descendants of Asura, their constitution was among the best. They could fight and endure, and they could also be used in all sorts of experiments.

The Senju were much the same, but they were the foremost clan of the Warring States period. No one could simply plunder them at will.

Uzumaki Ashina was certainly strong, but Sealing Jutsu was easy to learn and hard to master. The clan's members generally fell short of their potential.

If the Uzumaki didn't seek the protection of a powerful clan, disaster would eventually befall them.

The moment their guardian deity fell would mark the start of the Uzumaki Clan's countdown to extinction.

Mito understood these problems perfectly. That was why she had thrown in her lot with the Senju without hesitation, hoping to find a suitable refuge for her people in the future.

After hearing her explanation, Kyosuke nodded, finally clearing up some of the questions in his mind.

"Why not seek the Uchiha's protection?" he asked, though he already knew the answer.

"You?" Mito gave a disdainful laugh and nodded toward the outside. "Go take a look around the camp. See if your Uchiha have ever tried to accept anyone who wasn't a prisoner."

That was certainly true. The Uchiha Clan was incredibly arrogant, believing themselves descendants of the Sage. They looked down on every clan except the Senju.

Accept other clans?

Even those who served as their slaves weren't good enough.

Even during the Konoha era, the Uchiha had remained apart from the village as a whole, practically forming a country within a country.

Forget what the Hokage faction might think. No ruler could tolerate an entity like that. The fact they had endured it for thirty or forty years before taking action was already remarkable.

Thinking about his own clan, Kyosuke couldn't help but sigh softly. He couldn't come up with a good solution—not anytime soon, at least.

The Uchiha were simply born that way. What could he do?

He removed the restraints on the girl and, as Mito watched him warily, smiled and took her hand, tearing the sleeve of her clothes.

"Ah! What are you doing?!"

"Didn't I tell you? In a year, we'll take a child to meet your father."

"You bastard! You—you need to calm down!"

Riiip!

"Calm down? I can't calm down right now!"

Two hours later, Kyosuke and Mito set out together.

To stand against the allied forces of the Senju, the Uchiha had to join forces with other clans.

Kyosuke couldn't control what others thought, but with him around, he wouldn't let the Uchiha repeat the mistakes of the past.

In short, things depended on people. Freeing the Uchiha would have to start with joining forces with other clans.

To stand against the Uzumaki Clan, they would need the support of the powerful families in the Land of Fire.

There weren't many such families, and most of them didn't think very highly of the Uchiha.

They were lucky if people didn't take advantage of their troubles. To get help when it mattered, he would have to offer benefits compelling enough to win them over.

Benefits so great that they would overlook the loss of their members.

Kyosuke glanced at the sullen Mito and couldn't help finding the whole thing amusing.

The girl really thought he meant to take advantage of her. She had even threatened to bite her tongue and kill herself—a hopelessly naive tactic.

In truth, Kyosuke had only wanted to make sure she couldn't escape. He had marked her arm with the Flying Thunder God's space-time coordinates.

The little scrawny thing would make such a bony pillow that he'd find her uncomfortable to cuddle.

He hadn't intended to bring a deadweight along on this trip. But then he reconsidered: leaving her with the Uchiha might not be a good idea.

While he was there, no one would dare act recklessly. But once he left on a long journey, someone might get a bad idea.

For instance, they could use Mito's life to force the Uzumaki Clan to withdraw. If things came to that, the most likely outcome was that everyone would lose.

Left with no choice, he had to bring the Princess along.

With the Flying Thunder God, she couldn't cause trouble with her current strength.

The Yin Seal was powerful, no doubt, but storing up Chakra took too long. If she couldn't win the first time, who knew how long she would have to wait before trying again?

Instead of spending all her time thinking up ways to make trouble, she might as well behave and spend a year with him. When that was over, he would naturally let her go home and reunite with her family.

"Why does that sound like something's not quite right?"

Beside him, Mito kept tugging at her sleeve and rubbing her arm, trying to wipe off the mark of the Flying Thunder God.

"Stop rubbing it. What if you rub off some grime? That'd be awkward." Kyosuke gave the girl a decidedly mischievous look.

"Hmph." The Princess Uzumaki snorted, but slowly stopped rubbing her arm.

Perhaps she understood that she couldn't remove the mark by hand. Perhaps his remark about rubbing off grime had hit too close to home.

In any case, the two of them didn't exchange a word for the next few hours.

That is, until they passed a remote little town.

"I want to go wash up," Mito said, making her first request.

She had expected the man to refuse, so she could bargain with him.

To her surprise, Kyosuke nodded. "We should find somewhere to rest properly. The conditions on the front lines are too rough."

"Uh." The red-haired girl blinked, a thought suddenly stirring in her mind.

Maybe this guy wasn't that difficult to get along with after all?

Unfortunately, she soon crushed that thought herself.

"Ah! Uchiha Kyosuke, what are you doing?!" Mito completely lost her temper inside the hot spring.

She had wanted to soak in the hot spring and recover from the hardships of the past few days. But before long, that Uchiha bastard came in too.

"Why are you yelling?" Kyosuke picked at his ear and said impatiently. "This is a mixed bathing hot spring. You should've checked before coming in. How is that my fault?"

"B-but..."

"Save your 'but' for later. Don't bother me while I'm resting." Kyosuke closed his eyes as he spoke, even starting to snore softly.

Seeing this, Uzumaki Mito soon calmed down. She raised a hand, looking eager to try something.

If she attacked him now, would she...

Before she could finish dreaming up her plan, Kyosuke's lips curled into a faint smile. He muttered vaguely, "Naughty kids get spanked. Uh... spanked..."

The girl with the hair buns immediately drooped. She pulled her towel over her head and fell silent.

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