"Slap."
Baishi's palm clamped tightly onto Kushina's shoulder.
The touch was scorching hot. The Nine-Tails' violent Chakra surged through his palm like countless red-hot steel needles, drilling madly into his meridians. An ordinary Genin would have had their entire arm crippled by that blow.
But Baishi did not even furrow his brow. The confusion and turmoil that had flashed through his eyes a moment ago were instantly strangled by absolute coldness and reason.
"You..." Kushina's movements were forced to a halt. Her lips parted slightly, her warm breath brushing across the back of Baishi's hand. A flicker of astonishment crossed her dark-gold vertical pupils.
"Enough."
Baishi's voice was not loud, yet it carried a chill that made it feel as though one had fallen into an icy cavern.
Before Kushina could react, he abruptly exerted strength through his wrist.
"Bang!"
Kushina was shoved down by the sudden force, landing on the edge of the hospital bed. Her long red hair spilled across the floor, and the domain condensed from Nine-Tails Chakra trembled violently along with it.
Baishi paid no attention to his split-open wounds. Two more stitches in his abdomen had torn, and warm blood quickly soaked through the white bedsheet. He casually tugged over the torn hospital gown and draped it haphazardly across his shoulders, covering the glaring bloody hole near his collarbone.
Leaning against the cold wall, he looked down at the woman sitting on the edge of the bed.
"Lady Kushina, you've let your sympathy run rampant in the wrong place." Baishi pulled up the corner of his mouth, forming an intensely mocking curve.
The temperature in the hospital room seemed to plunge by more than ten degrees.
Kushina stared blankly at him, the tear tracks at the corners of her eyes not yet dry. She seemed completely unable to understand why the man before her had suddenly become an entirely different person.
"W-What did you say?"
"I said, stop flattering yourself." Baishi let out a cold laugh, his tone filled with undisguised utilitarianism and contempt. "Those so-called 'sacrificing myself to save you' and 'protecting you in silence' ideas in your head are laughable to the extreme. Do you really think I'd die for a woman I've only met a few times?"
Every word he spoke was like a rusty Kunai, forcefully stabbing into Kushina's heart before viciously twisting a few times.
"I'm ANBU." Baishi pointed at the bloodstained Fox Mask on the bedside table. "ANBU's first principle is completing the mission. What's your identity? You're Konoha's Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, the village's most vital weapon of war. I saved you only because your body has enormous value to Konoha!"
"If a valuable summon beast that was useful to the higher-ups were in danger, I'd rush up to take the hit without hesitation. That's called an investment. That's called doing my duty. Understand?"
Baishi's eyes regarded her as though she were a piece of merchandise with a clearly marked price.
He had to make his words cruel enough.
Namikaze Minato, that smiling tiger, might return at any moment, while Danzo's dogs were watching outside. If he let this madwoman keep pestering him, his "account," which had only just begun to improve, would definitely be crushed into dust by Konoha's Meat Grinder!
Love? Bonds?
Those were luxuries reserved for protagonists. As a cannon fodder character, all he wanted was to survive, to gain Chakra, and to drag every person who had stepped on his head down from their lofty altar!
"You're lying..." Kushina's face instantly turned deathly pale. She gripped the edge of the bed tightly, her fingernails gouging deep scratches into the wood. "If it was only for the mission, why did you give the credit to Minato? Why did you remain a bottom-rung member of ANBU, where you could be used as bait at any moment?!"
"Because he, Namikaze Minato, is the Hokage Candidate!"
Baishi interrupted her without hesitation, his voice rising eight octaves with an almost frenzied greed. "I gave him the enormous credit for rescuing a Jinchuriki so he'd owe me an enormous favor. Once he became Hokage, the rewards I could receive would be a hundred times greater than a mere Jonin title!"
"As for going to the border as bait..." Baishi deliberately paused, his gaze turning extremely cold. "Fortune comes from danger. If I don't force myself into a desperate situation, how can I prove to the higher-ups that I'm a useful dog? How can I exchange that for more ninjutsu and resources?"
The hospital room was utterly silent.
Only the heart monitor emitted its monotonous "beep... beep..." sound.
Baishi looked at Kushina. He knew that his words had carved the image of a refined egoist, a despicable petty man who would stop at nothing to climb upward, deep into her mind.
Any normal woman, upon hearing the feelings she treasured being trampled like this, upon hearing that she was merely a "weapon" in someone else's eyes, a "bargaining chip for promotion and wealth," would feel disgusted and despair, then lose all hope completely.
Get lost.
Go back to that perfect Yellow Flash. I still have to keep this life of mine and upend the heavens of the Shinobi World.
Baishi thought coldly to himself.
However, the next second, the cold smile on his face froze.
Kushina did not rush out the door, nor did she slap him.
She lowered her head, her red hair concealing her face. Her shoulders trembled faintly.
"Heh... hehehe..."
A low laugh, carrying even a hint of hysteria, came from her lips.
Baishi's brow jerked upward. This wasn't how the script was supposed to go!
Kushina slowly raised her head. There was no anger or disgust in her dark-gold vertical pupils, only an intense heartache and obsession so overwhelming it left one breathless.
"Baishi, you're really terrible at lying."
Kushina stood up and slowly pressed toward the head of the bed again. The Nine-Tails' Chakra fluctuated violently with her emotions, twisting the surrounding air into clumps of red waves.
"Do you think that by making yourself out to be a despicable person, I'll believe you?"
She extended a trembling hand and abruptly seized the garment Baishi had just draped over his shoulders, yanking him forcefully toward her.
"If you were really doing it for Minato's favor, you wouldn't have rejected my plea for help at Ichiraku Ramen this morning with such a cold look!"
"If you were really trying to climb upward, then in the interrogation room just now, when facing Danzo and the Third Hokage, you wouldn't have disguised yourself as a good-for-nothing who couldn't even control his Chakra!"
Kushina's breathing quickened, and tears spilled from her eyes once more. But this time, her gaze held an unwavering certainty, as though she had seen through everything.
"You're afraid... aren't you?"
She leaned close to Baishi's ear, her voice as soft as a sigh, yet every word hammered against his nerves.
"You're afraid Minato will discover the truth. You're afraid the higher-ups will treat you as a threat. So you'd rather hide in the shadows, rather accept missions that mean certain death, and rather use such vicious words to hurt me..."
"Do you think that by covering yourself in mud, you can push me toward the clean light?"
She was crazy.
This woman had gone completely crazy!
Turbulent waves surged through Baishi's heart. He had never imagined that his practically perfect "self-destruction" would not only fail to push Kushina away, but instead perfectly fit the logical loop of her imagination!
In her eyes, the more heartless and self-deprecating Baishi was, the more it proved that his love ran deep, proving that he was enduring humiliation and hardship to protect her!
"Let go..." Baishi finally felt a trace of genuine panic. He tried to break free of Kushina's restraint, but his heavily injured body could not summon any strength under the suppression of the Nine-Tails' Chakra.
"I won't!"
Like a maddened lioness, Kushina suddenly forced Baishi down onto the hospital bed.
Her eyes were bloodshot, and the obsession in their depths had already burned to its limits.
"Since you don't dare take this credit, since you don't dare admit what you've done..."
Kushina seized Baishi's blood-covered right hand and pressed it firmly against her heaving chest.
Through the thin fabric, Baishi could clearly feel the frantic rhythm of her beating heart, as well as its astonishing softness and heat.
"Then I'll use my own way to make sure you never forget!"
Kushina suddenly lowered her head, opened her mouth, and viciously bit down on Baishi's uninjured right shoulder.
Just as her teeth were about to pierce his skin—
"Buzz—"
Within the corridor outside the hospital room, whose space had been completely sealed by Adamantine Sealing Chains, an extremely sharp Chakra fluctuation that seemed to tear space suddenly rang out.
Immediately afterward, a gentle voice came from outside the door, carrying an icy killing intent suppressed to the extreme.
"Kushina, open the barrier."
The doorknob emitted a harsh sound of twisting metal.