Baishi?!
Hearing that name, Baishi's body instantly stiffened, and his mind went blank.
That name was his real name before he crossed over.
In this world, aside from himself, it was absolutely impossible for anyone else to know it!
And that voice...
That familiar voice laced with violent Chakra...
It was Uzumaki Kushina!
How was that possible?!
Baishi's heart pounded wildly, and an absurdly chilling sensation shot from the soles of his feet straight to the crown of his head.
Wasn't it a simulation?
Wasn't it something that happened in a parallel spacetime, a performance staged to farm rewards?
Why... had the real Kushina come looking for him?
And even called out his real name?!
"Who's Baishi? Do we have anyone by that name in ANBU?"
"I don't know! But that Chakra... she's the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki! Has she gone mad? How dare she charge into our ANBU base!"
"Go notify the Hokage!"
The surroundings descended into chaos. Countless ANBU shinobi were stunned by Kushina's rampage, yet not one of them connected the unfamiliar name "Baishi" to him.
In ANBU, they only had code names.
Baishi forced himself to calm down, but his face beneath the Mask had already turned grim beyond measure.
He abruptly looked toward the Simulator panel on his retina.
Behind the line [Bond: Uzumaki Kushina (Life-and-Death Vow)], a line of small text had appeared at some point.
[Warning: Excessive interception of destiny will trigger "Planar Rejection" and "Reality Shura-Field Backlash." Bonds and causality from the simulation will be reflected in reality in unpredictable ways. Host, please proceed with caution.]
"..."
Baishi stared at that warning and remained speechless for a long while.
Proceed with caution?
What use was saying that now?!
He had calculated everything, schemed against people's hearts and the script, but he had never expected this cheat to have such a damnable side effect!
Boom!
Another tremendous roar rang out.
This time, the sound was closer.
Amid the noise of walls collapsing and ANBU members' screams, that violent Chakra was rapidly approaching the restroom!
"Get out of my way!!"
Kushina's voice carried a sobbing note and unquestionable madness.
Golden Chakra chains shot out from behind her like wildly dancing giant serpents, lashing away every ANBU shinobi who blocked her path.
Her dazzling red hair moved without wind. Her eyes were scarlet, and tear tracks still stained her face. She looked like a mother beast whose cubs had been thoroughly provoked.
Just moments ago, an incomparably realistic "dream" had been branded into her mind.
In the dream, an ANBU youth codenamed "Owl" had taken a fatal dose of poison for her and bled out the last drop of his blood in her arms.
He had said her hair was beautiful.
He had said that he had been guided there by that shade of red.
He had said that he was willing to die for her.
After waking from the dream, that heart-rending pain still lingered.
What she found even harder to accept was that, at the very end of the dream, the youth's face had overlapped with a vague figure in her mind.
Baishi.
A graduate of the Ninja Academy who had been in the same class as her, an ordinary boy who always sat silently in the corner, so inconspicuous that he barely stood out at all.
She did not even remember how many words she had spoken to him.
But her instincts—those beastlike instincts of the Uzumaki Clan—were frantically telling her—
The person in the dream was him!
He wasn't dead! He was still alive!
He was in ANBU!
So she had charged over like a madwoman and kicked through the ANBU's main gate.
"Baishi! Get out here!!"
Kushina's roar rang out right outside the door.
Inside the restroom, Baishi's scalp prickled.
He now faced a deadly question.
Should he go out or not?
If he went out, there was no way he could explain any of this. How could a bottom-rung ANBU cannon fodder have anything to do with the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki? How could he explain the "abandoning her" Kushina had mentioned?
That would immediately make him the most unstable factor in the eyes of Konoha's higher-ups. The Third Hokage and Danzo would pounce on him like sharks smelling blood and examine him from head to toe.
But if he didn't go out...
Listening to the increasingly violent Chakra outside, he had no doubt that Kushina would tear apart the entire restroom the next second!
By then, he would be exposed anyway.
Damn it!
Baishi cursed under his breath, and his mind raced at unprecedented speed.
His current persona was that of an utterly ordinary, even somewhat cowardly, bottom-rung ANBU member.
He had to maintain that persona!
Got it!
Baishi's eyes sharpened, and he made his decision in an instant.
He clenched his teeth and forcibly suppressed the S-Rank Lightning Release affinity talent he had just fused back into his body, making himself appear to be that same Genin with a mediocre amount of Chakra.
Then he took a deep breath, and his face instantly shifted into an expression of fear, bewilderment, and helplessness.
Just then—
Boom!!!
The restroom wall was smashed open by a tremendous force!
Amid flying rubble, Kushina appeared in the opening, her red hair billowing.
Her gaze swept across the room like the most precise radar and instantly locked onto the figure in the corner wearing the "Owl" Mask, his body trembling slightly from "fear."
Their eyes met.
Time seemed to freeze at that moment.
Kushina looked at the familiar "Owl" Mask, and her eyes instantly reddened.
It was this Mask!
In the dream, it had been the person beneath this Mask who had made a Life-and-Death Vow to her!
"How long... are you planning to hide from me?!"
Kushina's voice trembled as she walked toward Baishi one step at a time.
All the ANBU members around them had already been knocked down by her. No one dared to step forward anymore.
Baishi took half a step back in "terror," pressing his body tightly against the cold wall. His voice carried just the right amount of trembling and confusion.
"Kushina... ma'am? What... what are you talking about? I... I don't understand..."
He perfectly played the role of a bottom-rung ANBU member frightened senseless by the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki's presence.
Seeing his "strange" demeanor, Kushina's heart was pierced as if by needles.
Hiding?
He was still hiding from her!
Did he think pretending not to know her could erase everything?!
"You don't understand?" Kushina let out a miserable laugh, her scarlet eyes fixed on him. "Then tell me, why is every thought in my head filled with the sight of you dying for me whenever I close my eyes?!"
"Tell me, why did your name appear in my mind?!"
"Tell me, is there a wound that has only just healed on your flank?!"
That final sentence struck Baishi's heart like a thunderbolt from a clear sky.
His pupils contracted violently.
How could she know about the wound?!
Had the injury from the simulation also been reflected in reality?
He instinctively wanted to touch his flank, but immediately realized what he was doing and forcibly stopped himself.
Yet that tiny, almost imperceptible pause was precisely caught by Kushina.
It was him!
Kushina no longer had any doubts. All her grievances, lingering fear, and fury erupted completely at that moment.
"You bastard!"
She lunged forward, grabbed Baishi by the collar, and slammed him hard against the wall.
"Did you think I'd be able to go on living just because you died?!"
"I'm telling you, Baishi! Without my permission, you're not allowed to go anywhere! Not even to the Underworld!"
The girl's tears mixed with her fury and fell, scalding hot, onto the back of Baishi's hand.
The violent Chakra belonging to the Nine-Tails within her miraculously calmed the instant it touched Baishi, transforming instead into an intense, dependent longing.
Pinned against the wall by her, Baishi felt the girl's trembling body and that overwhelming emotion he could hardly breathe through. Stormy waves surged through his heart.
This Shura field came far too fast and fiercely!
What was worse, he sensed that at least three powerful and concealed Chakra signatures had already locked onto this place.
One of them was as warm and dazzling as the sun, yet now carried a trace of cold scrutiny.
It was Namikaze Minato.
Another was old and deep, like the roots of an ancient tree, filled with calculation and probing.
It was Third Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen.
And the last was cold and venomous, like a poisonous snake lurking in the shadows, wishing it could devour him immediately.
Shimura Danzō!
Baishi's heart sank to rock bottom.
He knew that from the moment Kushina kicked open the ANBU gate and shouted his name, he had already changed from an unnoticed cannon-fodder to the vortex at the center of the gazes of all Konoha's higher-ups!
His life's script had completely collapsed from that moment onward.
Just then, a gentle voice carrying an unquestionable authority rang out from the corridor.
"Kushina, that's enough. Let him go."
A flash of golden light appeared, and Namikaze Minato, dressed in a Jonin Flak Jacket, appeared in the shattered opening.
He looked at the girl he loved gripping the collar of an unfamiliar ANBU member, her emotions out of control. The sunny smile that was his trademark had become incredibly strained for the first time.
His gaze fell on Baishi, complicated and probing, with a trace of... imperceptible hostility.
"Baishi-kun, right?"
Namikaze Minato smiled as he asked, each word clear.
"Shouldn't we have a proper talk?"