Enemy Attack!

The next morning, the rising sun was hidden behind thick clouds. Night had not yet fully receded, and stars still twinkled in half the sky. Uzumaki Kuming woke to a jolt. He struggled to open his eyes, only to find himself in complete darkness. His cries turned into wails, alerting Uzumaki Kushina and Hyuga Daiki as they moved.

"There, there~ Good boy~" Kuming's struggles forced Kushina to slow down. She gently lifted the thin veil covering his eyes, and a sudden burst of light flooded them.

A baby only a few weeks old shouldn't have strong light shining into his eyes. Young Kushina already knew that much, so whenever Kuming slept, she covered his eyes with a thin veil to shield them from the sun.

Kuming's cries forced the Konoha Jonin team to stop. After all, the baby was loud, and his cries could easily draw enemies. The veins around Hyuga Daiki's eyes suddenly bulged as he scanned the surroundings. Once he had checked the area, he nodded to his companions hidden in the shadows. Then, with an easygoing expression, he walked over to Kushina and looked down at Kuming.

Nestled in Kushina's arms, Kuming stopped crying as soon as she lifted the veil from his eyes. He gazed fixedly at her, then turned to Hyuga Daiki, who was using his Byakugan.

"Eeyaaya~" An infant's vocal cords were underdeveloped, so every sound came across as noise to everyone else~

No one could understand how Kuming felt at that moment. Dying suddenly was one thing, but then he'd ended up in the Naruto world. That was one thing too; if he stuck close to Naruto Uzumaki, he could live well enough in this world.

Maybe one day he'd even get to eat hamburgers, drink soda, and use a laptop.

But he'd arrived in this era. He didn't know exactly when it was, but seeing Kushina told him his life was likely to get rough. After all, Kushina had suffered her share of hardships. She'd only had a few good years before she and the Fourth Hokage died.

And as Kushina's younger brother, he probably wouldn't have an easy life either.

After waking up, Kuming clearly felt hunger gnawing at his stomach, and it made him cry out involuntarily.

"Oh, oh, oh~ There, there~" Kushina had been about to continue on with the team, but Kuming's sudden cries left her at a loss. She could only rock him gently in her arms, trying to make him comfortable enough to sleep. But her efforts were no match for the baby's hunger.

"Could he be hungry?" Hyuga Daiki was a man in his thirties with a child of his own who was over ten years old. He knew far more about raising children than the inexperienced Kushina.

"Hm? Is he hungry?" Kushina put a finger to Kuming's lips to see whether her little brother was truly hungry. Hungry babies would suck on it; it was instinct~

"..."

Do you think I'm stupid?

Kuming stared at Kushina's chubby face. At that moment, he seemed to forget his hunger, and his cries stopped all at once.

"Looks like he isn't hungry!" Kushina smiled. The moment she finished speaking, the baby in her arms started crying again.

"He really must be hungry. Let's make some rice paste."

Hyuga Daiki made a hand signal, and the shinobi accompanying them spread out to keep watch. The team had only been moving for a short while after setting out early that morning, but they had no choice but to stop again. Lighting a fire in the darkness would make them easier to spot, but they'd reached the point where they couldn't keep going.

Traveling with a baby bawling in their arms would only increase the danger. It was best to soothe him before setting out again.

Before long, Hyuga Daiki had lit a campfire. A wall of packed earth, raised with Earth Style, surrounded it to keep the light from spreading. The Konoha Ninja carried no rice in their field rations, only hardtack. But once soaked in water and heated, the bread could be turned into a paste.

Hyuga Daiki put an entire piece of hardtack into the pot. If the baby couldn't finish it, the rest could be saved as provisions.

Kushina blew on the paste to cool it, then spooned it into Kuming's mouth. The warm food settled in his stomach, soon warming his body as well.

Kuming's eyes narrowed slightly. In his mind, an image of his own body appeared. The blue Chakra flowing through him began to move faster, growing by an imperceptible amount.

An infant had very little stamina. After eating a few mouthfuls of paste unconsciously, Kuming couldn't keep his eyelids open any longer and fell asleep. His body was asleep, but his consciousness remained completely clear, trapped in a state like sleep paralysis. The meridians in his mind grew distinct, and the Chakra flowing through them was laced with faint arcs of electricity, unconsciously stimulating the child's body.

"They must be on their way to Konoha."

"Judging by Kushina's age, the Nine-Tails probably hasn't been sealed inside her yet."

"Is this when Kushina first went to Konoha?"

His body couldn't move, but his mind was perfectly clear. No one would enjoy that feeling. With nothing else to do, Kuming put the brain he hadn't used since the college entrance exams to work, analyzing his current predicament.

"Wait, did I die? Did I transmigrate in the most cliched way possible?"

"Then my parents must be heartbroken..."

"I was a perfectly happy, well-paid sign language teacher. How did I end up in this hellhole where tomorrow might never come?"

The realization came late, and Kuming sank into grief. He'd only been briefly conscious yesterday and hadn't had time to think. Now, after waking up and remembering what had happened, sorrow welled up inside him. Just as he was lost in his misery, a huge explosion sounded in the distance. The blast was so violent that his eardrums rang.

"Boom! Boom!! Boom!!!" Explosive Tags went off in rapid succession, instantly tensing Kushina, who had just begun to relax. Her arms tightened around Kuming on instinct.

"Whoosh!" Three figures leaped out of the woods almost simultaneously. The seated Hyuga Daiki sprang to his feet the moment the explosions rang out, joining the three newcomers to form a ring around Kushina and the baby in her arms.

"Captain! We're under attack. The enemy is masked, and we don't know who they are. The others are all fighting. Take the two from the Uzumaki Clan and get out of here."

A middle-aged shinobi reported quickly, tightening his grip on his Kunai. Though he tried hard to stay calm, shinobi feared sudden attacks most of all, and he was no exception. An ambush meant the unknown, and nothing was more terrifying than the unknown. In a shinobi battle, information decided who lived and died; the unknown meant grave danger.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!" The sound of something cutting through the air rang out.

"Watch out!"

Just as Hyuga Daiki was about to speak, he saw through his Byakugan that seven or eight figures were rapidly approaching. They hadn't even reached them yet, but shuriken were already flying in from every direction.

"Earth Style: Earth Style Wall!"

The earthen wall that shot up from the ground at incredible speed blocked the incoming Kunai. Hyuga Daiki steadied himself, then quickly scooped Kushina up and fled. Before leaving, he cast a meaningful glance at his teammates, his eyes filled with grief and reluctance, then hurried away.

The enemy had broken through the guards so quickly, and the only noise they'd made was that one wave of explosions. That meant the enemy's strength and numbers far exceeded those of his team. If he left, the brothers holding the line were almost certain to die.

After all, everyone on this mission was a Jonin or Chunin. There were no Konoha Genin~ Everyone knew that the higher a Konoha Ninja's rank, the worse they were.

The other three Konoha Ninja stayed behind, their eyes filled with resolve.

Relying on his Byakugan, Hyuga Daiki found the easiest route to break through and fled. Not long after he escaped with the Uzumaki siblings, the former campsite erupted in a thunderous explosion.