She wasn't only worried about Kushina's condition; she was also concerned that this might create a rift between them.
In her eyes, Kushina was already the teammate she had chosen for herself, and she absolutely didn't want a rift to form between them.
Only after hearing that Uchiha Chen hadn't taken the matter to heart did she finally relax.
The night grew darker and darker, and the moon seemed to be gradually swallowed by a vast black curtain.
Inside the room, the two of them quietly discussed what they would say when they saw Kushina.
Time passed one second at a time, and an hour slipped by. Uchiha Chen silently calculated that, after all this time, Kushina should have calmed down.
So he took Mikoto's hand tightly, and the two of them stepped into the Kamui Dimension together.
As soon as they arrived, Uchiha Chen called out impatiently, "Big Sister Kushina, I brought Big Sister Mikoto to see you."
Mikoto immediately asked with concern, "Kushina, how are you feeling? Are you all right?"
They knew that Uzumaki Kushina might not have completely calmed down yet. If they provoked her by accident, she might attack them without holding back.
So they both hurried to speak, trying to soothe her with gentle words.
Perhaps Uchiha Mikoto's name would help, giving Uzumaki Kushina a little more restraint.
Meanwhile, after weathering a wave of emotions, Uzumaki Kushina had finally calmed down and quickly composed herself.
At that moment, she was sitting quietly on a patch of grass untouched by the earlier attack, silently waiting for Uchiha Chen to arrive.
When she heard Uchiha Chen's voice, she had been brimming with anger and ready to question him, but she froze in an instant.
Just then, another unexpected voice reached her ears.
It was Mikoto's uniquely gentle voice, full of concern. The sudden sound left Uzumaki Kushina rooted to the spot.
She slowly turned toward the direction of the voice and, sure enough, saw a familiar, gentle figure.
She felt an urge to rush over and hug Mikoto tightly, telling her all about her fear. But she was also afraid this was just a trick Uchiha Chen had devised, an illusion he had created to deceive her.
So, in a hopeful yet trembling voice, she said, "Wait! Are you really Mikoto? I don't believe you. You must be Uchiha Chen using the Transformation Technique to fool me. Tell me a few things only the two of us would know to prove who you are."
After speaking, she fixed her beautiful almond-shaped eyes on Uchiha Mikoto. She hoped to find a flaw that would prove this was all an elaborate scheme by Uchiha Chen, the culprit responsible for her death;
at the same time, she longed for the person before her to really be Mikoto. If that were the case, then, knowing Mikoto's personality, she could be sure that everything Uchiha Chen had said earlier was true.
He wasn't the enemy who had taken the Nine-Tails, but the benefactor who had brought her back to life.
Thinking of this, Uzumaki Kushina sincerely hoped it wasn't the second possibility!
After all, wouldn't it be ridiculous to go berserk and attack the person who had brought her back to life?
Thinking of how she had acted like a lunatic, her expression grew increasingly conflicted. She almost wanted to dig a whole Konoha village out of the ground with her toes.
Hearing what Kushina had said, Mikoto understood that Kushina was trying to determine whether she was really Mikoto.
Seeing Kushina's body trembling slightly, she knew that her nerves were stretched to the limit.
So Mikoto immediately said, "Remember the first time you tried cooking?"
"I taught you how to make sashimi, but you cut it into chunks of raw fish. No matter what you did, you couldn't get the slices right. In the end, you got so angry that you chopped the fish into mince."
"Another time, I taught you how to make sushi, but you could never get the ingredient proportions right. In the end, you got so mad that you squeezed the rice and filling into a lump."
"And then there was... Mmph..." Before she could finish, Kushina rushed over and clamped a hand over her mouth.
Mikoto looked tenderly at Kushina, trembling in her arms, and gently patted her back.
She softly pulled the hand away from her lips and whispered in Kushina's ear, "If you want to cry, then cry. Don't hold it in. I'll stay right here with you."
Kushina didn't respond, but Mikoto wasn't surprised. She knew that Kushina must be in terrible pain and feeling utterly helpless.
So she didn't stop, continuing to gently pat her, trying to comfort her.
As Kushina nestled in Mikoto's arms, she thought of how she had woken up and somehow found herself in this strange place. She had no idea how long she had been dead, whether Naruto had grown up by now, or how many parts of his life she had missed... These questions had haunted Kushina, leaving her utterly lost, confused, and full of regret.
Now, as she felt Mikoto's warm embrace, all her emotions burst apart like a dam giving way.
As time passed, Kushina trembled more and more in Mikoto's arms, and a faint whimper escaped her despite her efforts to hold it back.
At first, she tried to swallow her sobs, but in the end, she couldn't resist the grief and pain within her and began to cry out loud.
She didn't say a word, but her sobs seemed to say everything.
After a long while, Kushina finally stopped crying, her voice hoarse.
Looking at Mikoto's chest, soaked with her tears, she spoke with relief. "Mikoto, thank goodness you're here. Otherwise, I really would have fallen apart."
After all, there were very few people in all of Konoha whom she could trust, and Uchiha Mikoto was one of them.
After letting out her emotions, Kushina turned to Mikoto and asked gravely, "Mikoto, how long have I been dead? How is Naruto now? Has he grown up healthy? And what about Minato? Since I've been brought back to life, has Minato been revived too?"
An anxious Kushina fired off a string of questions. At the end, she stared solemnly at Uchiha Mikoto, gripping the hem of her clothes ever more tightly. Her gaze grew heavier and heavier, as if she could accept any answer.
"I'll answer those questions."
Just then, Uchiha Chen interrupted Mikoto.
When he saw the two of them turn to look at him, he calmly recounted everything that had happened at the meeting that day.
Finally, Uchiha Chen added, "Actually, I was able to sense the battle between Minato and his opponent because my Mangekyo Sharingan has the same kind of space-related ability as theirs. It lets me sense disturbances in space. I kept it secret during the meeting because I was afraid it would make the villagers suspicious."
Hearing this, Kushina's slightly swollen eyes flickered. She still didn't understand why their abilities were so coincidentally identical, but since he had brought Mikoto here, she decided to tentatively believe he wasn't the culprit.
Kushina's last question was how she had been brought back to life. She was about to ask...