So-Called Loyalty

Yakushi Nonō's body trembled violently. Her hands could barely hold the weightless scroll, yet it felt heavier than a mountain.

A crushing sense of despair bore down on her like an avalanche.

Loyalty to Konoha? The children's safety? This choice was far too cruel! She shut her eyes in agony, the innocent smiling faces of the children filling her mind, every one of them painfully clear.

"And..." Seizing the moment when her thoughts were in turmoil, Minamoto Takuya softened his tone, like a devil scattering the seeds of alluring poison.

"You know that I once had a 'cooperation' with Konoha, right? Don't worry. For now, I bear no direct hostility toward Konoha, nor will I make you do anything that directly harms it." He deliberately stressed the words "cooperation" and "for now."

Yakushi Nonō abruptly opened her eyes and looked at Minamoto Takuya in shock and uncertainty.

The Cloud Village battlefield... indeed, the results of that cooperation were irrefutable evidence.

If... if he truly only wanted to gather intelligence unrelated to Konoha rather than destroy Konoha, then perhaps... perhaps...

Just as the scales in her heart, weighed down by the children and her loyalty to Konoha, began to sway violently and nearly tip over.

A triumphant curve lifted at Minamoto Takuya's lips as he cast out the final, most precise weight. "As long as you serve me, I can also help you find your adopted son—Kabuto Yakushi."

"Kabuto?!" Yakushi Nonō was instantly speechless. For the first time, intense color surged into her pale face, a complicated flush of shock, wild joy, and disbelief. "He... he... he's still alive?!"

Her voice rose so sharply that it changed pitch.

"Of course he's alive." Minamoto Takuya's voice was decisive, carrying an unquestionable certainty. After all, he had personally wiped out Root's headquarters, and