Night Raid!

Uzumaki Kushina hadn't even come through the door, but her voice had already carried across the entire courtyard. Her face was wreathed in smiles after she passed the Academy graduation test, and she couldn't wait to share her joy with her family.

"I did it! Jiuming, Grandma, Tsunade, I did it!" Her shout rang out again, loud enough to shake the whole courtyard. When no one answered, Kushina called out even louder.

"Bang!"

Just as Kushina began to think no one was home, a noise came from the dojo. She immediately ran toward it.

"Riiip!" Kushina yanked open the dojo doors. The instant they swung open, a figure shot out of the dojo and flew straight into the courtyard.

"Bang!"

"What was that?" Uzumaki Kushina caught a glimpse of something flashing past her, but couldn't make out what it was. When she turned around, she saw Uzumaki Kuming landing flat on his back in the courtyard. The force of the impact had even left a slight dent in the lawn.

"Jiuming? How did that happen? Are you okay?" Seeing her little brother in such a sorry state, Kushina's heart leaped into her throat. She hurriedly asked if he was all right.

"Rumble..."

"Damn, Grandma's getting a little too serious..."

Uzumaki Kuming struggled out of the small crater. Clumps of dirt fell from his clothes as he sat up and gave his head a slight shake. Then he got to his feet as if nothing had happened.

"I'm fine. It's nothing."

"Sis, I heard you say you passed the Academy graduation test?"

As Kuming spoke, Uzumaki Mito stepped out of the dojo. Although she'd been sparring with him, she was still wearing the same long dress. The lingering traces of chakra filled the dojo, but Mito's clothes were neat and tidy, as if she hadn't just been in a fight.

By comparison, Uzumaki Kuming looked much worse. His clothes were torn in several places, and there were a few scratches on his face and arms.

"Oh? Kushina's back? You passed the test?"

Uzumaki Mito's stern expression softened into a smile as soon as she spotted Kushina by the door. She patted Kushina's head and crouched to ask her the question. Then she beckoned Kuming over.

"Jiuming, you still need to work on your chakra control. During our spar, I noticed you were wasting too much chakra."

"That's a bad habit to have in a fight."

When Kuming came over, Uzumaki Mito placed a hand against his chest. A deep green glow shone from her palm, and his wounds healed at a visible speed.

Kuming nodded thoughtfully at Mito's advice, then promptly put it out of his mind and asked Kushina excitedly, "Sis, you passed the test, right? You got your Forehead Protector, didn't you? Can I see it?"

Kuming was clearly thrilled. As a longtime anime fan, he'd always been eager to see a Forehead Protector in person. It was such a meaningful symbol.

"Of course I passed! Here, this is my Forehead Protector!" Kushina hadn't been wearing it when she came home. As soon as she heard that her little brother was interested, she took it out of her pocket and handed it to him.

The Forehead Protector felt surprisingly heavy in Kuming's hands. He stared at it, transfixed, while Uzumaki Mito and Kushina chatted nearby.

"So this is a Forehead Protector? It's a little different from the one I bought back then."

"I wonder where I could get an Akatsuki Cloud cloak. Wearing one of those would be so cool!"

"What a great item. It'd look even cooler with a slash across it!"

As Kuming stared at the Forehead Protector, all kinds of strange ideas popped into his head.

"Now that you're home, let's have dinner first. Today is not only your birthday, but also the big day you officially became a ninja."

"I've already arranged a feast to celebrate!"

"Come on, let's go eat."

Smiling, Uzumaki Mito took Kushina by the hand and led her toward the dining room. Kuming heard her and forced himself to resist the urge to slash the Forehead Protector, then hurried after them. He'd spent the entire afternoon practicing Taijutsu with Mito and was already starving.

To celebrate Uzumaki Kushina becoming a Genin, Mito had arranged for the household staff to prepare dinner well in advance. Even Tsunade, who was usually very busy, had come home that day. Everyone enjoyed the celebratory dinner, and afterward, Kuming went alone to the hidden compartment in the study to study Fuinjutsu.

There was no denying that Kuming, a transmigrator, had shown far more patience and interest than his peers when it came to learning ninjutsu. Children were naturally restless, and few could sit quietly and read. At his age, no one else could be found who would patiently study something as complicated as Fuinjutsu.

Uzumaki Kuming's mature outlook had given him a huge advantage from the very beginning of his ninjutsu training. While other children were still playing, he'd already been studying ninjutsu for four or five years by the time they first encountered it at eight. There was no doubt that when he entered the Ninja Academy, he'd become another celebrated child prodigy.

"That kid's really interested in Fuinjutsu!" Tsunade reclined on the tatami. Full from dinner, she was picking her teeth with a bamboo toothpick. Beside her, Uzumaki Kushina was diligently refining her chakra.

"Yeah. I don't know why, but he's always been passionate about ninjutsu."

Kushina had her eyes closed as she refined her chakra, but that didn't stop her from chatting with Tsunade.

"What a strange kid."

"Well, Kushina, I'm going to bed. You should turn in early too."

Night had fallen over Konoha. There wasn't much to do in the evenings. After dinner, people either went for a walk around the village to help their food settle or headed home early to enjoy some time with their spouses. Tsunade, who liked neither going for walks nor having a partner, was already so bored after dinner that she was getting sleepy.

"Okay." Kushina smiled sweetly at Tsunade and watched as she left the room.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the courtyard, Uzumaki Kuming was in the hidden room of the study, poring over the Fuinjutsu scrolls passed down through the Uzumaki Clan.

"I've hit a bottleneck in my Fuinjutsu studies. If I want to get stronger quickly, I can't put all my eggs in one basket."

"With Uzumaki Mito's help, I'm making decent progress in Taijutsu. But I've never fought anyone my own age, so I have no idea how strong I am."

"Judging by Kushina's current abilities, she can't be far from reaching Genin level."

"In times like these, you need strength just to survive!"

Uzumaki Kuming had been in this world for four whole years. He'd spent those years keeping to himself and making the most of every opportunity to grow stronger, but a vague sense of danger still lingered in his mind. As Kushina grew older, he could feel the threat drawing closer with every passing day.

Night had fallen over Konoha, and the streets were nearly deserted. Only a few streetlamps on the main roads were still lit. The entire village had grown quiet.

Kushina had already gone to bed, and Kuming had been asleep for a while too, slumped over his desk in the hidden room.

"Whoosh!" Under the moonlight, a shadow appeared. After a few leaps, it landed lightly in the Uzumaki family courtyard. The figure seemed very familiar with the layout of the estate. After a few quick dashes, it reached the door of Uzumaki Kushina's room.

"This is the place." A man's low voice came from the shadow. He quietly opened the door, then rushed up to Kushina and subdued her in an instant.

"Wh—" Kushina jolted awake. The moment she opened her eyes, the man struck the back of her neck with the edge of his hand, knocking her unconscious. Kuming, who'd been asleep in the study's hidden room, had sensed the intruder as soon as he entered the estate.

The intruder moved quietly and was extremely stealthy, but within the range of Kuming's Mind's Eye, he stood out like the moon in the night sky.

"An intruder?" Kuming jolted awake. He sensed the intruder reach Kushina's room, then swiftly leave with her.

"How is this possible? This is Uzumaki Mito's estate. Who could get past the barrier around it?"

Though panic surged through him, Kuming quickly forced himself to calm down. At first he'd rushed toward Kushina's room, but halfway there, a few things that didn't add up occurred to him. He immediately changed direction and ran toward Uzumaki Mito's room.

"Riiip!"

"Grandma Mito! Someone's taken Sis!" Kuming hurriedly pulled open Uzumaki Mito's door. But when he opened it, he found the room empty. The bedding had been neatly spread across the tatami, but no one was sleeping there.

"She's not here? How is that possible?" Kuming stared at the room in disbelief. Then he clenched his teeth, steeled himself, and leaped onto the roof. After carefully sensing the enemy's lingering chakra, he took off in pursuit. He might still have been young, but he was already very skilled at using chakra.

Using chakra to move across rooftops was child's play for him.

Uzumaki Kuming raced across the rooftops, faint streaks of lightning encircling him as he moved. He might have been a child, but he was surprisingly fast. Before long, he sensed Uzumaki Kushina's chakra.

"I caught up! There are so many of them?" Kuming's Mind's Eye now had a range of forty meters, and his sensory field was so subtle that those within it wouldn't notice they were being sensed. There'd only been one intruder, but he'd now met up with the others.

It was a four-man ninja squad, and their leader was the very same Kumogakure envoy who'd visited the Konoha Ninja Academy that morning.

Kuming stopped some distance away. The enemy outnumbered him, and he knew he couldn't win. All he could do was keep his distance, follow them, and leave marks along the way.

"This scene... why do I remember it happening in the original story? How did they get out of this crisis again?" After the enemy regrouped, they began resting and discussing how to leave the village. That gave Kuming just enough time to think. Everything about tonight's abduction felt strange.

The enemy had managed to pull off a kidnapping in heavily guarded Konoha. They'd also bypassed the barrier around the Uzumaki estate with ease. That alone was suspicious. And Mito had happened to be away from home that day, even though she normally couldn't leave the estate lightly.

It was already the middle of the night. No matter how busy Mito was, she wouldn't stay up all night. It wasn't as if the Third Hokage would send a ninja of her caliber out of the village on a mission.

"The Third Hokage?" At the thought, a sudden flash of insight crossed Kuming's mind. He seemed to understand why tonight's strange events were unfolding.

"Could it be...?" While Kuming was thinking, the enemy moved. The four-man squad carried the unconscious Uzumaki Kushina and quickly headed toward the village gates. Kuming sensed them preparing to leave and immediately set off after them, but the instant he took a step, someone grabbed him from behind.

The newcomer had appeared without a sound. They'd somehow come up behind Kuming and grabbed him just as he was about to leave. His Mind's Eye hadn't sensed them at all.

"Who's there?" The sudden attack put Kuming on edge. Without even looking behind him, he aimed a kick at the person's groin.

"Smack!" The person blocked his kick. Kuming used the momentum to roll forward, putting some distance between himself and the spot where he'd been standing. In that brief opening, he got a clear look at the newcomer.

"Grandma Mito? It's you!"