Morning mist still clung to the streets of Konoha.
In front of Ichiraku Ramen, the rich aroma of pork-bone broth drifted on the cool morning breeze. Usually, it was one of the village's most comforting smells. Now, a stifling tension seemed to smother it, making even the bubbling soup sound grating.
Crack!
A pair of wooden chopsticks snapped inside the narrow shop.
Uzumaki Kushina stared at the figure outside. His stark white, unmarked Owl mask was like a red-hot nail driven into her eyes. She paid no attention to the bead of blood seeping from the splinter in her fingertip. Her chest heaved, and she breathed like someone drowning.
Outside, Baishi stopped.
Through the translucent plastic curtain, he could feel the heat of Kushina's gaze. Obsession, fear, and fierce possessiveness burned in it, almost enough to set his black ANBU coat alight.
Behind his mask, Baishi's eyes remained calm. He discreetly drew his Lightning Release Chakra into the soles of his feet, suppressed his body's instinctive defensive response, and stood as still as dead wood.
"Kushina?"
Namikaze Minato's gentle voice came from inside. His smile faltered for a second. Following his fiancée's gaze, he looked through a gap in the curtain and fixed his eyes on Baishi at the street corner.
Minato's pupils contracted slightly.
He stood, the hem of his coat cutting a sharp arc through the air.
"Teuchi, I've left the money on the counter." Minato set down a few coins, lifted the curtain, and stepped outside.
His tousled blond hair shone in the morning light, and his smile had returned to flawless perfection. He stopped two meters from Baishi, just beyond the limit at which an ANBU ninja would go on guard.
"Owl." Minato's tone was mild, but it carried the invisible pressure of a Kage Level fighter. "Off on a mission this early?"
Without hesitation, Baishi drew his right leg back half a step and dropped to one knee on the cool stone paving.
"Jonin Namikaze." He lowered his head. Filtered through the mask's voice changer, his voice sounded dry and mechanical. "Under ANBU regulations, I can't disclose the mission details."
It was exactly how a low-ranking expendable operative should respond. There was nothing to fault.
Minato looked down at the kneeling ANBU ninja. His smile held, but his nose twitched almost imperceptibly.
Nitric acid.
A strong, acrid smell of nitric acid, mingled with the scent of cheap sealing ink from the Underground Black Market, leaked from beneath Baishi's loose coat and rode the morning breeze.
Minato's gaze swept discreetly over Baishi's lower back, both thighs, and the inside of his coat. Each had an unnatural bulge.
Three hundred thousand ryō worth of Explosive Tags. However carefully Baishi hid them, he could not entirely conceal enough destructive force to flatten half a street.
Minato's smile cooled. Why would an ANBU scout on a routine border-clearing mission strap on so many Explosive Tags? He was not going to scout. He was going to take someone down with him.
Recalling Danzo's strange behavior in the Hokage's Office last night, Minato ran through countless tactical possibilities. He had a feeling this Genin codenamed Owl was not nearly as simple as he appeared.
"The border's been unsettled lately. Iwagakure has been making a lot of small moves." Minato spoke evenly, like a senior offering advice. "If it's a classified mission, I won't pry. But as a fellow Konoha ninja, I hope you come back safely."
It was perfectly phrased, leaving no opening.
"I would gladly die for Konoha." Baishi answered with his head bowed, like an emotionless recording.
He knew Minato was testing him. The blond genius had sharp instincts. If Baishi showed the slightest weakness, Minato would seize on it and detain him.
Just as Baishi was about to rise and take his leave, hurried footsteps sounded inside the ramen shop.
Kushina rushed out.
She had not even put her shoes on properly. Her bare heel came down on the rough stone paving, while her vivid red hair whipped wildly in the morning breeze like a blazing fire.
"Kushina, Owl has a mission. Don't hold him up." Minato turned halfway toward her and reached for her shoulder with practiced ease, trying both to assert his claim and to keep her apart from Baishi.
"Don't touch me!"
Kushina swung her arm and knocked Minato's hand away.
Smack!
The sharp slap rang down the street.
Minato's hand froze in midair. His smile vanished. Deep in his blue eyes flashed a trace of humiliation and darkness he could not hide.
A few passing civilians sensed something was wrong and hurried away. Inside Ichiraku Ramen, Teuchi tactfully pulled a shutter halfway down and pretended he had seen nothing.
The entire street seemed to turn ice-cold.
Kushina paid no attention to Minato's feelings. Every scrap of her attention, every nerve ending, was fixed on Baishi as he knelt before her.
As the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, her sensitivity to Chakra and her sense for malice were ten times sharper than Minato's.
When their eyes had met just now, she had sensed a sickening air of death around Baishi. It was the smell of despair: someone surrounded by malice and sent to the altar as a sacrifice.
She did not know what mission Baishi had been given, but every instinct screamed that if he went, he would never return.
In the simulated world, he had shoved her out of the Barrier and faced the Nine-Tails' Tailed Beast Bomb alone. That image of his retreating back now merged cruelly with the ANBU pawn kneeling before her, a man the village's leaders had plotted against.
"You..." Kushina bit through her lower lip, filling her mouth with the rusty taste of blood. She stepped forward, crossing the safe distance Minato had established, and stood directly before Baishi.
Less than half a meter separated them.
Baishi could clearly smell the faint scent of grass and trees in Kushina's Chakra, a scent distinctive to the Uzumaki Clan.
"Look up." Kushina's voice trembled. It was a command that allowed no refusal, yet beneath it lay an almost desperate plea.
Baishi did not move. He remained on one knee, his gaze fixed on Kushina's dust-streaked toes.
"I said, look up!" Kushina's voice rose sharply. Her eyes turned red, and a wisp of turbulent, dark crimson Nine-Tails Chakra began gathering at the ends of her hair.
Minato frowned. His thumb discreetly brushed the grip of the Flying Thunder God Kunai in the Ninja Tool Pouch against his thigh. He was ready to suppress the Nine-Tails Chakra at any moment. At the same time, his urge to kill Baishi reached its peak.
Baishi slowly raised his head.
The stark white mask faced a pair of bloodshot eyes.
The instant their gazes met, Kushina's red lips moved ever so slightly. No sound came out, but the shape of her words was unmistakable.
Two words.
Don't go.
For once, Baishi's heart skipped a beat. He looked at Kushina's face, drawn tight by the emotions she was struggling to suppress, and frowned beneath his mask.
This crazy woman.
She knew nothing of the Venom Fang Squad's scheme or Danzo's plot. Yet on nothing but an irrational instinct, she was trying to stop an ANBU ninja on a classified mission in the middle of the street. She was not only humiliating Minato; she was challenging the Hokage's authority.
Baishi assessed the situation with cold reason. His first priority was to leave the village, use the terrain and his Explosive Tags to kill Venom Fang and Wildcat, and tear Danzo's layered scheme apart.
Any emotional attachment was a deadly burden right now.
"Lady Kushina." Baishi's voice was flat and cold as ice. "Please don't interfere with ANBU duties."
Kushina went rigid. She stared at the emotionless mask, tears welling in her eyes, but clenched her teeth and refused to let them fall.
Minato stepped forward at just the right moment, firmly placing himself between them.
"Owl, it's getting late. Go meet your team at the gate." Minato looked down at Baishi, a warning in his eyes.
"Yes."
Baishi rose at once. Without giving Kushina another glance, he turned and walked away, the hem of his black coat sweeping a cold arc through the air.
The moment he turned, Kushina used Minato's body to hide her hands within her wide sleeves and formed a hand sign, swiftly and discreetly.
Index fingers crossed, thumbs tucked inward.
It was an obscure sign, one belonging to no ninjutsu system in the Five Great Nations.
As he turned, Baishi caught the tiny movement at the edge of his vision.
His nerves, heightened by Max-Level Lightning Release, lit up all at once.
It was the distress signal he had taught Kushina himself in the simulated world, to keep her from being abducted by Cloud Hidden again. If she made that sign, he would come to her side no matter where he was or what it cost him.
In reality, he had never taught it to her.
Baishi stopped dead.
Behind him, Minato noticed the abrupt, unnatural pause. His thumb instantly released the clasp securing his Flying Thunder God Kunai, and his eyes went cold.
Baishi stood with his back to them, his right hand moving very slowly toward the Ninja Tool Pouch at his waist.