Integration!

Uzumaki Kushina and her younger brother settled into Uzumaki Mito's residence. Calling it Mito's residence wasn't quite accurate, though. The house was actually jointly owned by Mito and her husband, the First, Hashirama~

Thanks to the First's impressive "Build-a-Villa Jutsu," the couple had their own detached villa in Konoha's inner district. It was a grand house with entrances on both the north and south sides.

The garden alone was larger than an ordinary family's entire home. Not many people lived in the house: besides Mito herself, there was her granddaughter, Tsunade. But Tsunade was currently a Jonin in the village, and she spent far more time on missions than at home.

As a result, the enormous residence was nearly empty and felt a little eerie. But the arrival of Kushina and her younger brother, Kuming, brought it to life. To better care for the infant Kuming, Mito had found a trusted wet nurse from the Senju Clan. She would be moving into the house as well, but she hadn't started yet tonight.

Night had fallen. The stars were sparse, and the slender moon hung high in the sky, lending the dark heavens a touch of color. Moonlight streamed through the window into Kushina's room.

Electricity had yet to become commonplace in Konoha, so most of the old-fashioned residence was lit by candles. The flame in the room flickered in the night breeze. Holding Kuming in her arms, Kushina stared blankly at it. The unfamiliar surroundings and the upheaval she'd faced that morning kept her from falling asleep.

Although Mito made Kushina feel safe, once night fell and the world around her grew quiet, her thoughts began to drift. She was so young, and she didn't know what to do with the rest of her life. Children in this world matured early; they could face things that even adults in the world Kuming had come from might never experience.

After enduring such a tremendous upheaval at so young an age, Kushina had lost her way that night.

Mito was keeping watch over everything happening in the room. The old woman didn't sleep well, and when she woke in the middle of the night, she used her abilities to sense the siblings in the next room. When she felt Kushina holding the sleeping Kuming and staring at the candlelight, she knew the child had a lot on her mind.

"How pitiful. She's so young, and she's already been through so much. It's all my fault." Mito sighed, sat up from the tatami, and got dressed. She opened her bedroom door, walked down the hall, and stopped in front of Kushina's room.

"Kushina, are you still awake? Open the door for me," Mito called softly when she saw the light inside.

The door to Kushina's room slid open. The little girl standing before Mito looked downcast, no longer as lively as she'd been that morning. There were tearstains on her cheeks, and she looked so worn out that it broke Mito's heart.

"Is something the matter, child? You can tell Grandmother." Seeing Kushina like this pained Mito. Though she'd weathered countless storms as a ninja, standing before this child brought out the tender side of her.

Mito crouched and gently embraced Kushina. Warm Chakra enveloped the siblings.

"Grandma Mito..."

"I miss home."

Kushina could no longer hold back her feelings. She buried her little face in Mito's arms and sobbed uncontrollably. Mito saw how Kushina was feeling, and so did Kuming. Though his body had fallen asleep, his consciousness was still quite clear.

Kuming could feel Kushina's sorrow as if it were his own, and it was affecting him too. He understood that the world he now lived in—the world of Naruto—was real and cruel.

"Home, huh..." Seeing Kushina burst into tears made Kuming's heart ache too. He'd always thought she was strong. This girl, who could face enemies and death without fear, was now crying her heart out. The sight made him feel for her. To be precise, Kushina was his older sister now—his true family.

After crying, Kushina nestled in Mito's arms and fell into a deep sleep. She hadn't slept much while traveling, and she'd endured too many shocks that day. She was utterly exhausted. Mito didn't return to her own room. She gently laid Kushina down on the tatami, then set Kuming beside her.

After covering the children with a blanket, Mito lay down too, resting a hand on them as she drifted off. The candle in the room suddenly went out, and silence settled over the house.

After Mito lay down, the Chakra inside Kuming began to grow active. Its flow sped up. Chakra, which was supposed to be drawn from the body's trillions of cells, was now growing naturally inside him. As its flow quickened, his tiny body began to strengthen involuntarily.

Kuming could feel the Chakra moving. With nothing else to do, he began trying to control it. At the command of his consciousness, the Chakra that had been flowing along its usual pathways changed course. When he stopped consciously guiding it, it continued flowing along those pathways. And under his inward gaze, the pathways in his body seemed to be expanding rapidly.

"Maybe this is what it means to be exceptionally gifted~" Kuming knew that what was happening to him could never happen to an ordinary person. In the Naruto world he knew, everyone had to undergo grueling training to control their Chakra, and they also needed Hand Seals to use ninjutsu.

But now, he could use his consciousness to control the Chakra anywhere in his body. Performing ninjutsu involved controlling Chakra and applying Chakra Nature Transformation and shape transformation. Compared to other outsiders, Kuming had already skipped the training required to control Chakra.

Once he mastered nature transformation and shape transformation, he'd be able to use ninjutsu right away. For a ninja, that could save an enormous amount of training time. There was a special name for people with this kind of extraordinary talent: geniuses!

Kuming experimented with his condition until his consciousness began to blur, then stopped and rested. By then, dawn was already breaking.

Early the next morning, the wet nurse assigned to care for Kuming arrived. She was a woman of about thirty named Akemi Senju. She had a seven-year-old son who was learning carpentry from his father, Akemi's husband. For some reason, many ordinary members of the Senju Clan chose carpentry as their trade.

Akemi was quite beautiful, tall and curvy. With Senju blood in her veins, she looked like a young woman in her early twenties; no one would have guessed she was thirty.

"Come on, open wide. Ah~~~~" In one of the rooms in the Uzumaki residence, Akemi held Kuming in her arms and bared her breast in front of Mito. Tsunade had taken Kushina out to get familiar with the village. Kushina's enrollment still hadn't been completed. As for Kuming, Mito had insisted he stay home and wouldn't allow anyone to take him out~

Kuming was wailing and trying to go out and play with Tsunade and Kushina, but everyone thought he was hungry, which was how this scene came about. In truth, Kuming wanted to refuse. It was just that the young lady's breasts were too—scratch that... he was just too hungry. His empty stomach was making it impossible for him to control himself.