Brick and stone fragments were still tumbling through the air, while the acrid smell of gunpowder mixed with the heavy stench of blood and poured madly into the cramped hospital room.
Namikaze Minato stood in the doorway, whose frame had been blasted to pieces by a Rasengan. His left hand had originally been holding a bouquet of bright cosmos flowers, Kushina's favorite. Now, the wrapping paper had been torn apart by the raging currents of air, and golden petals mixed with gray dust silently scattered across the floor.
The Yellow Flash, whose name resounded throughout the Shinobi World, and Konoha's most perfect Hokage Candidate, now stood frozen in place as if Advanced Immobilization Technique had been cast on him, unable to move even an inch.
His face, always gentle and always filled with sunshine, had stiffened like a cheap mask worn for too long. Beneath that mask, his reason was collapsing inch by inch.
His gaze pierced through the smoke and dust, locking firmly onto the hospital bed.
The red-haired woman straddled the black-haired boy's waist, both hands gripping his shoulders. Her exquisite profile was spattered with bright-red blood, and a strange red hue still lingered at the corner of her mouth. On the right shoulder of that low-ranking ANBU, a bite mark deep enough to expose bone was still spilling hot blood.
This was no simple embrace.
This was a fervent mark—a mad act only a beast guarding its food would commit when declaring ownership of its mate.
Minato's heart suddenly spasmed. Jealousy, like a poisoned Kunai, mercilessly twisted his chest to pieces. He had known Kushina for so many years. Even when he had rescued her from Cloud Hidden's kidnapping, she had never looked at him with such an intense, almost obsessive gaze.
And now, this favor that had belonged solely to him had been poured without reservation onto a lowly insect he had only just developed killing intent toward yesterday.
"Lord Minato..."
Baishi, lying on the bed, deliberately made his voice tremble. His Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed a mouthful of bloody saliva. The specially made Three-Pronged Kunai pressed against his carotid artery radiated a lethal chill. Its blade had already broken the skin, leaving a hair-thin line of blood.
"I really... don't know why Lady Kushina is acting like this... I'm only an ANBU carrying out a mission."
Baishi forced just the right amount of fear of a Kage Level powerhouse into his eyes. His chest heaved violently, making him look weak and near death from being suppressed by Nine-Tails Chakra.
However, in the absolute blind spot of Kushina and Minato's vision, Baishi's right index and middle fingers, hidden beneath the bedsheet, were clamped tightly around the fuse of a Miniature Explosive Tag. Chakra had already been quietly injected into it.
As long as Minato pressed his wrist down another half-inch, Baishi would not mind detonating a flesh-and-blood firework in this hospital room—one powerful enough to blow away half of Konoha Hospital.
Minato did not look at Baishi. He focused all his attention on Kushina, trying to find the bond they once shared in those dark-golden slit pupils.
"Kushina." Minato's voice was terrifyingly hoarse. He forcibly pulled the corners of his mouth into a curve uglier than a crying expression. "Stop fooling around. Come home with me."
He tried to use the gentlest possible tone to conceal the turmoil and frustration raging inside him.
Kushina did not move.
Red Nine-Tails Chakra churned around her, roasting the temperature in the hospital room to a terrifying heat. She lowered her head and glanced at the blood line the Kunai had pressed into Baishi's neck. Her dark-golden pupils instantly contracted to the size of needles.
Without the slightest hesitation—
Kushina suddenly thrust out her left hand and seized the blade of the Flying Thunder God Kunai.
"Shhk—"
The sharp Chakra Metal instantly sliced open her palm. Bright-red blood dripped down the blade, splashing onto Baishi's cold collarbone and blooming into a glaring blood flower.
"Are you insane?!"
Minato's pupils contracted sharply, and his heart clenched. He instinctively tried to pull back the Kunai, only to find it firmly welded in place by powerful Adamantine Sealing Chains Chakra, as immovable as if it had been cast into pig iron.
"I said, take this thing away."
Kushina spoke each word distinctly, her voice carrying bone-deep frost. The veins on the back of her hand bulged one after another. She let the blood flow freely, and instead of loosening her grip, she forcefully pushed the Kunai's blade away from Baishi's neck inch by inch.
"Minato, if you touch him, I'll tear this hospital apart today."
Not a sound could be heard.
The medical ninja and ANBU who had just arrived outside the corridor were all frozen in place by that terrifying killing intent. They did not even dare to breathe too loudly.
Minato's hand trembled slightly around the Kunai. He looked at Kushina's bleeding palm and at the way she bared her fangs at him like a mother wolf protecting her cub. His perfect Dao Heart developed a massive crack at that moment.
Why?
Just because of this low-ranking ANBU, a liar who had forged the traces at the battlefield?
"Kushina, Nine-Tails Chakra has affected your mind!" Minato forcefully suppressed his surging anger, his voice suddenly rising. "This man is extremely dangerous! He survived an Iwagakure ambush, and every trace at the scene was forged. He isn't some low-ranking cannon fodder at all. He's deceiving you!"
"Cough, cough... cough!"
Just as Minato tried to expose the truth, Baishi, pinned beneath her, began coughing violently at exactly the right moment.
He deliberately forced up a mouthful of blood. It spilled from the corner of his mouth, staining his pale chin red. He looked toward Minato with an extremely weak yet somewhat humble gaze.
"Lord Minato is right..." Baishi panted, his voice broken and halting. "Lady Kushina... you have mistaken me for someone else. I'm only a worthless life that the higher-ups can sacrifice at any time... How could I possibly have saved you?"
Baishi tremblingly raised his left hand and gently pushed Kushina's arm, putting on an appearance of wanting to draw a clear line between them.
"Please, go back with Lord Minato... He's the future Hokage, the hero of Konoha. Turning against Lord Minato for cannon fodder like me, rotting in the mud... isn't worth it."
Every word stabbed directly into Minato's lungs.
Baishi knew exactly how to deal with geniuses who had built themselves a perfect image. The more humble and yielding he appeared, the more it would prove, in Kushina's eyes, that he had suffered injustice and endured humiliation.
Sure enough.
The instant Baishi finished speaking, the obsession in Kushina's eyes burned to its absolute peak.
"Shut up!" Kushina suddenly turned her head and growled at Baishi. But there was no anger in that roar, only heartache so intense it was suffocating.
When she turned back to Minato, her gaze had gone completely cold.
"Minato, did you hear him?" Kushina gritted her teeth. Tears swirled in her eyes, but she forcibly held them back. "He's practically about to lose his life, and he's still worrying about the reputation of you, the Hokage Candidate! And what about you? You actually pointed a Kunai at an injured comrade from Konoha!"
Minato stood frozen in place as if struck by lightning.
He looked at Baishi's pale, frightened face as countless thoughts flashed wildly through his mind. Could I really have been overthinking this? Could this man truly be nothing more than an ordinary ANBU?
No, that wasn't right! The restrained scent of Lightning Release scorch marks at the scene was absolutely unmistakable!
"Kushina, move aside!" Minato inhaled deeply, a trace of resolve flashing through his eyes. He knew he could not let Kushina continue this foolishness today. This concerned not only the village's safety, but also his dignity as a man.
He released the hand gripping the Kunai, and both hands instantly formed a seal before his chest.
"Four Symbols Seal: Release!"
Blue Chakra light flared from Minato's fingertips. His figure surged forward like a streak of golden lightning, closing in instantly. He planned to use a sealing technique to forcibly suppress Kushina's rampaging Nine-Tails Chakra first, then take this suspicious ANBU back to the interrogation room.
The light of the Sealing Formula shone from his fingertip as it shot straight toward the seal on Kushina's abdomen.
"Don't touch me!"
Just as Minato's fingertip was about to touch Kushina, she suddenly straightened. She did not form any hand seals, nor did she defend herself.
She merely swung her hand back. Five dark-golden Chakra chains shot out like venomous snakes from their lair, tearing through the air with shrill whistling sounds as they lashed viciously toward Minato's wrist.
Minato's expression changed drastically. Relying on his extreme reflexes, he forcibly twisted his body and completed a difficult backward somersault in midair, narrowly avoiding the chains' strike.
"Crack!"
The chains lashed against the wall beside them, carving a deep, bottomless crack into the load-bearing wall.
Minato landed three meters away, staring at his fiancée in utter disbelief.
"You... attacked me?" Minato's voice trembled.
Kushina stood before the hospital bed, her red hair whipping behind her like blazing flames. She watched Minato with the icy gaze one would give a stranger. Then, in front of everyone, she did something that completely shredded Minato's dignity.
She turned around, bent down, and with the left hand that was still bleeding, gently lifted Baishi's bloodstained face.