"Click—"
The doorknob forged from refined steel twisted into a lump of scrap metal under the terrifying force gripping it from outside.
In the corridor, Namikaze Minato's voice remained gentle, without the slightest fluctuation. Yet the chakra seeping through the crack beneath the door was as cold as blades of ice in the dead of winter, slicing through the stagnant air in the hospital room inch by inch.
Baishi was pinned to the hospital bed, his pupils contracting sharply.
Minato had arrived.
The future Fourth Hokage, Konoha's perfect Yellow Flash, stood just beyond the door. The moment that door opened, the moment Minato saw his fiancée straddling a half-naked ANBU cannon fodder, the few trump cards he had just accumulated would certainly be ground to dust by an enraged Kage Level powerhouse.
"Lady Kushina." Baishi lowered his voice, filling it with just the right amount of fear and warning. "Lord Minato is outside. What you're doing will destroy your engagement and get me killed."
He tried to pull free his right hand, which was being held down tightly.
But with the boost from the Nine-Tails Chakra, Kushina's strength was astonishing. The scalding red flames spread down from her wrist, like red-hot shackles pinning Baishi's wrist firmly to the bedboard.
Baishi had thought Minato's appearance would at least help this out-of-control woman regain some reason.
But he had underestimated the spiritual resonance the Simulator had brought Kushina, and underestimated even more the deep-rooted possessiveness in the Uzumaki Clan's bones.
Kushina did not even turn to look at the violently shaking iron door.
Her dark-gold slit pupils remained fixed on Baishi's face. The tear stains at the corners of her eyes had evaporated, replaced by a sick possessiveness that made his scalp prickle.
"The more you try to push me away, the more tightly I'll hold on to you."
Kushina's voice was hoarse, carrying the resolve of someone staking everything on one final gamble.
The next second, she suddenly lowered her head.
"Mm!"
Baishi let out an extremely muffled groan, the veins on his neck instantly bulging.
Without the slightest hesitation or mercy, Kushina opened her mouth and bit down hard on Baishi's unharmed right shoulder.
Her sharp teeth instantly pierced his taut skin. The pain of torn muscle, accompanied by a scalding rush of heat, shot straight through his nerves and into his brain. Blood welled out and wound down the contours of Baishi's full pectoral muscles, staining the pure-white bedsheet red and smearing the corners of Kushina's lips crimson.
She was insane.
This woman had completely lost her mind!
Baishi clenched his teeth and forcibly swallowed the cry of pain rising to his lips. He was an extremely rational egoist. After probing the boundary between life and death countless times, he had long since grown accustomed to calculating the gains and losses of every fraction of chakra and maximizing the benefits of every action.
But at this moment, the agony radiating from his shoulder and the heavy softness pressing down on him caused his mind to go blank for a brief moment.
"Listen carefully..."
Kushina released him, her lips still pressed against Baishi's mangled shoulder. Her warm breath, mixed with the heavy scent of blood, rushed straight into Baishi's ears.
"No matter how despicably you describe yourself, and no matter how long you hide behind that ANBU mask, this mark will remain on you forever."
She slowly raised her head. Her red hair spilled across Baishi's chest, and her stunning face bore an eerie smear of blood as she smiled in a way that made his heart pound.
"Even if I have to descend into hell, even if I have to become enemies with all of Konoha, I will never allow you to abandon me again. Don't even think about pushing me onto Minato again. Don't even think about it!"
Boom!
The instant Kushina declared her vow, the iron door to the hospital room let out a deafening groan under the strain.
Outside the door, Namikaze Minato's patience had finally run out.
"Kushina, I'll say this one last time. Move away."
Minato's voice had lost all warmth. Along with those words, an extremely sharp spatial chakra fluctuation slammed into the barrier formed by the Adamantine Sealing Chains.
"Crack, crack, crack—"
The golden chakra chains locked around the doorframe began trembling violently, fine cracks appearing across their surfaces. The spacetime-cutting force of the Flying Thunder God was forcibly tearing apart the Uzumaki Clan's supreme sealing technique.
Baishi glanced from the corner of his eye at the tottering door, and his mind began racing.
I absolutely can't let Minato see me looking this composed.
I have to play the part of the disadvantaged party to perfection!
Baishi took a deep breath and forcibly severed the Lightning Release chakra in his body that was preparing to resist. He allowed the blood from his shoulder to continue flowing, deliberately relaxed his body, and put on a weak appearance, as if he had been completely suppressed by the Nine-Tails Chakra and exhausted all his chakra.
He even forced himself to pant rapidly. Fine beads of cold sweat appeared on his forehead, and a carefully measured trace of fear toward death and the higher-ups' fury surfaced in his eyes.
Bang!
A deafening explosion rang out.
The heavy steel door, together with the bricks around its frame, was blasted apart by a violent spiral of air. Shards of brick mixed with the acrid smell of gunpowder and instantly poured into the cramped hospital room.
The powerful shock wave overturned the bedside table. Medicine bottles smashed onto the floor, sending glass shards flying in every direction.
Amid the billowing dust, a golden figure stepped over the wreckage covering the floor and slowly entered the hospital room.
Namikaze Minato was not wearing his iconic Hokage Haori. He had on only an ordinary Konoha Jonin Flak Jacket. But the chakra swirling around him was almost tangible in its frenzy, and even his tousled blond hair stood rigidly upward in the airflow.
His usually gentle, waterlike blue eyes were now frighteningly dark.
As the dust slowly dispersed, Minato's gaze did not fall on the rubble covering the floor or the severed golden chains. Instead, it was like a tangible sword, locking firmly onto the hospital bed.
The air froze completely at that moment.
Minato's breathing stopped.
What was he seeing?
His lofty fiancée, the Bloody Habanero whose temper was so explosive that even Konoha's higher-ups dared not provoke her lightly, was straddling a low-ranking ANBU named Baishi in an extremely intimate and protective posture.
Kushina's hands were pressing down hard on Baishi's shoulders. Her red hair was tangled with Baishi's short black hair. Most glaring of all, a smear of bright-red blood remained at the corner of Kushina's lips, while a tooth mark deep enough to expose bone stood out on Baishi's bare right shoulder.
This was not an interrogation.
It was a fervent mark—a mad act performed only by a beast proclaiming ownership of its mate.
Minato's hands, hanging at his sides, clenched abruptly. The veins on the backs of his hands bulged like writhing dragons, and his nails nearly pierced the skin of his palms.
A wisp of killing intent, exceedingly faint yet pure to the extreme, spilled from this perfect genius.
"Lord Minato..."
Baishi lay on the bed, his face pale as paper. He coughed violently twice, coughing up a mouthful of bloody spittle, then spoke in an extremely weak and frightened tone. "I...I don't know why Lady Kushina is acting like this...I'm only an ANBU carrying out a mission..."
He portrayed the fear and helplessness of a lowly cannon fodder caught between powerful figures fighting over affection with vivid perfection.
"Shut up."
Kushina abruptly turned her head and swept Minato with a cold look from her dark-gold slit pupils.
Not only did she refuse to get off Baishi, but she lowered her body even further, using her back to shield Baishi completely beneath her. Red Nine-Tails Chakra churned behind her, faintly condensing into the illusion of a crazed fox tail pointed directly at Minato by the door.
"Minato, get out." Kushina's voice was cold, carrying an unquestionable command to leave. "This has nothing to do with you."
Minato's pupils contracted sharply.
He looked at the woman he loved, who bared her fangs at him like a mother wolf protecting her cub. And beneath her was a lowly ant he had only begun to suspect yesterday—an ant he had even developed murderous intent toward.
Jealousy, fury, confusion, and an unprecedented sense of defeat gnawed at Minato's heart like venomous snakes.
"Kushina, the Nine-Tails Chakra has affected your mind."
Minato drew a deep breath and forcibly flattened his voice. He walked toward the hospital bed one step at a time, and with every step, the tiles beneath his feet silently shattered into dust.
"This man is extremely dangerous. He survived an Iwagakure ambush, yet every trace at the scene was fabricated. He isn't some low-ranking cannon fodder at all. He's deceiving you—he's deceived everyone."
Minato raised his right hand. A specially crafted Three-Pronged Kunai slid silently into his palm. Its gleaming blade passed over Kushina's shoulder and precisely locked onto the major artery in Baishi's throat.
"Now move. I'm taking him to the interrogation room. I'll pry his mouth open myself."
Minato lowered his wrist slightly. Flying Thunder God chakra compressed frenziedly at the kunai's tip, producing a faint buzzing sound.
Lying on the bed, Baishi could clearly feel that bone-chilling cold already pressed against his skin.
His eyelids drooped slightly, concealing the fleeting, icy calculation in his eyes. In the blind spot of Kushina's vision, his right index and middle fingers discreetly hooked the edge of a Miniature Explosive Tag.
The moment Minato dared to swing down that kunai—
Baishi wouldn't mind setting off a bloody firework in this hospital room capable of blowing half of Konoha Hospital into the air ahead of time.