"Yue, I'm... I'm so sorry!"
After hearing Uchiha Yue's question, Kushina Uzumaki did not answer him immediately. Instead, she apologized to him with guilt-filled eyes. Moreover, after pondering for a long while, Kushina slowly met Uchiha Yue's gaze and said, "The person who truly injured me wasn't a Sunagakure ninja—it was me. It was... it was because I used the Nine-Tailed Fox's power despite Minato's repeated attempts to stop me that I was injured. Otherwise... otherwise, Minato definitely would have led our ninjas to victory instead of letting us fall into this stalemate!"
"The Nine-Tailed Fox?"
As soon as Kushina Uzumaki finished speaking, Uchiha Yue showed no sign of realization. Instead, his brows furrowed even more tightly. In his view, Kushina had been the Nine-Tailed Fox's Jinchuriki for so long that she should never have been unable to control it well enough to injure herself. Thus, Uchiha Yue felt that there had to be some other hidden reason behind Kushina's injuries, and he shifted his questioning gaze toward Minato Namikaze.
In the end, it was Minato Namikaze who cleared up Uchiha Yue's confusion. The moment Uchiha Yue's gaze fell on him, he heard Minato say, "Kushina, Yue-kun is our friend, not someone the village sent to monitor us. There's no need to lie." As he spoke, Minato turned to Uchiha Yue, a bitter smile curling across his lips. "Yue-kun, you probably thought that once you took Chiyo away, I would certainly be able to lead our ninja forces to defeat Sunagakure's ninja army, right?"
"But the truth proved that Sunagakure's ninja forces had not used all their strength either. After you left the battlefield with Chiyo, Sunagakure's ninja forces began their counterattack and even trapped our ninja forces within their ambush. At that time, I could only lead our men