"Infinite merit, huh...
Uchiha Chi smiled noncommittally.
Hearing Tsunade put it that way, he had indeed done a good deed. With the Nine-Tails behaving itself, he imagined Minato and his young bride would lead a much happier life.
However, compared to that, what he cared about right now was what to have for dinner.
"Then I'll be going." Uchiha Chi waved and vanished below the horizon, leaving only Tsunade standing in place alongside the still-sleeping Uzumaki Kushina.
Tsunade stood like that amidst the dusky light, quietly watching Uchiha Chi recede into the distance.
Until his figure completely vanished, she stepped forward to lean obliquely against the tree, closing her apricot eyes to catnap while she awaited Kushina's awakening.
As time ticked on, the slanting sun sank below the horizon, and Kushina's eyelids began to flutter gently.
"Mm...
Kushina propped her body up from the stone, looking around with hazy eyes.
"You're awake?" Tsunade turned her head, uttering the phrase for a second time.
"Yeah," Kushina rubbed her sleepy eyes, answering in a daze, "I slept so soundly..."
For once, the Nine-Tails hadn't made a peep in her mental space or disrupted her rest. Kushina had enjoyed a complete, uninterrupted sleep, and her body felt better than ever before.
Come to think of it... what had happened again?
Memories rushed back like a tide, and Kushina gave a violent start, her hair clip nearly falling off her forehead.
She seemed to have seen Uchiha Chi's Sharingan, and then she'd passed out cold!
"Uchiha Chi... is he trying to mutiny!?"
Although she practically never left the village for missions, as a Jonin, Kushina's sleepy gaze instantly shifted to one of vigilance. She drew a kunai, sprang upright, and scanned her surroundings warily.
Yet she didn't find Uchiha Chi's figure. Instead, beneath the