Kizuna

Though the three youngsters were curious, they saw that Yamada did not want to talk about it, so they did not ask.

After eating, Chosuke and Seiyu went off to enjoy some time alone. Yamada said he was going to meet an old friend, but Shiro guessed that old friend was a woman.

Shiro did not know what local specialties there were here either. In any case, he would just go with the flow and buy a few small things based on their preferences. It was not that important. Come to think of it, this habit had carried over from his previous life. Whenever he returned from somewhere, he would pick up something for his friends. That habit had followed him here, though this was the first time he had bought gifts for them. After all, when he left the village before, the war had been tense, and he had not been in the mood for such things.

And honestly, there were not many people he needed to buy for. He did not hang out with people his own age. Acting cute and pretending to be younger was only a means to an end; he was not actually a child. And those older than him would not play with him either, thinking he was too young.

So there were only a few people to buy for. His family went without saying; they definitely needed gifts. Then there were the Might Duy father and son. The two of them were among the few characters from the story Shiro currently knew. He had met them while going out for morning training, and even though there were differences between anime and reality, Shiro had recognized them at a glance.

After all, the father and son were absurdly recognizable. Bowl cuts, Green Spandex Suits, and people shouting slogans about burning youth and hot-bloodedness while exercising—there was only one such pair in Konoha. No, in the entire Shinobi World.

At the same time, Shiro discovered that they were terrifyingly simple-minded, even more single-celled than they had seemed in the anime. Shiro had only trained with them for one morning. Of course, his training load had been much lighter, and he had simply said that he believed in and supported them. After all, they had already proven their ninja way in the original story, and Shiro greatly admired people like them.

Yet those few simple words had moved Duy to tears and snot! From then on, whenever they and Shiro were all in the village, they would come find him every day for morning training. For quite some time, Shiro's father had looked at him rather strangely.

Fortunately, as missions increased later on, they trained together less often. Only then did Shiro gradually manage to correct his father's impression of him.

Of course, although they trained together in the mornings, their training loads were completely different. Even Might Guy, who was nearly four years younger than Shiro, was already training almost as much as he did. You had to know, he had not even been three at the time!

Shiro could only say that Might Guy truly lived up to his name. There was a reason he had achieved so much!

So he only needed to bring them something casual; there was no need to fuss over it. Shiro knew what Duy wanted, but he did not want to give it to him.

Being close with the father and son was one thing. Wearing a forgiveness-colored spandex suit was another! Never in this lifetime! As for the "true fragrance" law? Shiro could only say it could go to hell!

Gifts for the Duy father and son were easy enough to buy, but the other person's gift was difficult.

She was also a character from the story, and an extremely important one—Uzumaki Kushina! That was right, Uzumaki Kushina, the protagonist Naruto's mother.

Getting to know her had been an accident that was bound to happen. Back then, Shiro had not yet graduated from the Ninja Academy. He had run into her by chance while wandering the streets after school, and the moment he saw that red-haired girl, he made up his mind!

He was definitely going to cling to this thigh!!!

Moreover, because the war had been tense at the time, Minato had been busy with missions and had no time to keep her company. As the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, Kushina could not freely leave the village either. Shiro could only say Minato being busy was great! The village restricting her was great! Otherwise, how would Kushina have become lonely? And if Kushina had not been lonely, where would Shiro have gotten a chance? (Why did that sound so creepy? Well, close enough—that was the idea.)

So Shiro took advantage of being a child and nervously approached her. After all, Jinchuriki were closely monitored by the village, so Shiro felt a little uneasy. Of course, that was only what Shiro thought. In reality, the Third Hokage had merely looked into his family background and then left it alone. Though they were civilians, the Emiya Family had lived here since the village's founding. They could barely be considered old residents. They had no status, but at least their background was clean.

At the same time, this was the beginning of Shiro's path of acting cute.

That day, when Shiro saw Kushina walking alone on the street, he roughly guessed that Minato was not by her side. So he shamelessly went up to strike up a conversation with his current baby face.

"Big sister, why is your hair red? It's so pretty!"

Ever since Kushina had gotten together with Minato, her feelings toward her red hair had changed from dislike to love. Love really did make people blind~

So when she heard someone praise her hair, she immediately showed a smile overflowing with the sour stench of romance.

"Little brother, it's hereditary. Why are you alone on the street?"

Though Kushina's romance-stinking smile hurt Shiro, he still had to persevere. He had seen plenty of such things before his transmigration anyway.

"I'm not little! I'm a ninja! I can go out by myself!" Shiro raised his head proudly.

"Hehehe, a ninja? Then can you use ninjutsu?"

"Ninjutsu? Truly first-rate ninjas don't use ninjutsu! They fight head-on!" Shiro strained to make his face flush red, only just stopping short of using Chakra.

"Haha, yes, yes, little brother is amazing. How about big sister treats you to something to eat?"

"Mm, Mom said I can't eat things from strangers." Shiro put on a reluctant expression.

"Mm, my name is Uzumaki Kushina. What about you, little brother?"

"I'm not little!" Shiro loudly retorted first, then continued, "My name is Shiro, Emiya Shiro."

"Haha, okay, okay. Shiro isn't little. Shiro is a real man. Then we know each other now, so how about big sister treats you to something to eat?"

"Mm, all right." Shiro looked conflicted on the surface, but inwardly, he was ecstatic. Not only had he successfully latched onto a powerful connection, he had even scored a free meal!

Perhaps Kushina had truly been lonely during this period when she was apart from Minato. While they ate, she told Shiro many things, including the story of her and Minato. Naturally, she omitted certain matters, such as the time she had been kidnapped by Cloud Ninja, merely glossing over it. No matter how careless Kushina could be, she was still a ninja. She knew what should and should not be said.

When they were done, seeing that it was still early, Kushina asked Shiro, "Little Shiro, are you learning ninjutsu now?"

"Yeah, but it's too hard. I haven't learned it yet." Shiro was not exactly skilled at acting cute yet, but he no longer felt even a trace of embarrassment. He naturally lowered his head and pretended to be ashamed.

"It's all right. Big sister is a ninja too. How about big sister teaches you?"

"Really? That's great!"

And so, after that, whenever Shiro got out of school and Minato had not yet returned, Kushina would guide him in ninjutsu training. This was limited to common, low-level ninjutsu. Shiro's relationship with Kushina grew better and better, and he also came to know Minato. Of course, after spending enough time together, Kushina learned what Shiro was really like. It did not go so far as cutting ties, but he could not avoid getting beaten up.

Thinking of that, Shiro stopped walking and smiled up at the sky, as if he could see Duy, Might Guy, Kushina, Minato, and of course, Yamada and the others within it.

Why did that feel a little ominous?

"So I already have so many Kizuna in this world! It looks like I need to keep working hard. This time, I won't let your plan succeed, Madara... I absolutely won't let the Nine-Tails Incident happen!"

Though Obito had launched the Nine-Tails Incident in the original story, Shiro absolutely did not believe Madara had not been involved behind the scenes. After all, there were not many opportunities to weaken Konoha after the Third Shinobi World War.

Of course, saying anything now was meaningless. Shiro could roughly calculate Madara's location, but it was useless. First, no one would believe a child's words. Also, Shiro could not sense White Zetsu. Speaking carelessly would only alert the enemy. Second, even though Madara was nearly old enough to die, he would still only need a look to kill Shiro.

Therefore, Shiro's current plan was to lie low until the Nine-Tails Incident!

Originally, Shiro had planned to lie low until that ruthless man who wiped out a village over a bag of rice came to destroy the village. After all, there would be resurrection in that battle, so he could take risks.

Unfortunately, Shiro had not been able to resist temptation.

Still, this was not bad either. Thinking of the time he had spent living in the village, the smile on Shiro's face grew wider.

"Forget it, no more thinking. I should see if there's anything good to buy first."

That was what he said, but there was actually not much worth buying. This was only a town, after all. So after walking around once, Shiro casually bought a few things before returning to the inn to continue practicing Reinforcement Magecraft. For now, there was no need to deliberately practice Projection Magecraft. His Chakra reserves were still insufficient; he could not even project the lowest-grade Noble Phantasm. So Reinforcement Magecraft was his main focus. Once he exhausted his Chakra, he would reflect on yesterday's battle, combining it with the combat experience he had gained from projecting ninja tools in the past to consider his shortcomings.

By the time Shiro was nearly done training, Yamada and Seiyu had returned as well. However—

"What is all this? I'm guessing it isn't for me." Shiro looked at the pile of gifts before him.

"Hehe, so smart! Hurry up and seal them for us." Seiyu said with a giggle.

"Doesn't Teacher Yamada know how? Why not ask him?"

"I'm out of scrolls. You're the only one who still has some, and you're the only one on the team who can use it. Who else would we ask?" Yamada said with a wicked grin.

"..." At that moment, Shiro somewhat regretted learning Sealing Jutsu from Kushina.

Come to think of it, Shiro's Sealing Jutsu had been taught directly by Kushina. When he heard that Kushina wanted to teach him Sealing Jutsu, he had been completely stunned and even suspected that something was wrong with her head. But later, Shiro realized he had been overthinking it.

What Kushina taught him was not her family's inherited Sealing Jutsu, only some very ordinary sealing techniques.