A Three-Person Shuraba and a Failed Declaration of Sovereignty

The thick scent of blood mingled with the dust of shattered wall bricks, swirling violently within the cramped, stifling hospital room.

Baishi could clearly feel Kushina's palm, sliced open by a Flying Thunder God Kunai, trembling slightly as it pressed against his cheek. Hot blood spilled through her fair fingers, dripping onto Baishi's pale chin before sliding down into the deep, bone-piercing wound at his collarbone, igniting a searing, stinging pain.

It was a touch both intensely aggressive and filled with extreme tenderness.

Amidst the ruins of the doorframe, Namikaze Minato remained in the posture he had been forced into by the Adamantine Sealing Chains. His golden hair, usually kept in meticulous order, was now disheveled by the manic currents of air.

Outside in the hallway, several ANBU and Medical Ninja who had arrived at the commotion froze in place, not even daring to breathe too loudly. Everyone stared in stunned silence at Konoha's most dazzling Yellow Flash, watching his hot-tempered fiancée shield a nameless, low-ranking ANBU like a lioness protecting her kill.

"Kushina..." Minato's voice was as dry as if it had been rubbed against sandpaper. He stared fixedly at that blood-stained left hand cradling Baishi's face, the toxic fire of jealousy in his chest burning away his reason. "Do you have any idea what you're doing?"

Kushina did not look back.

Those dark-gold vertical pupils remained locked onto Baishi's face, her thumb gently stroking the blood foam bubbling from the corner of his mouth. The Nine-Tails' red chakra churned wantonly behind her, scorching the air in the room until it warped and twisted.

"I am protecting him." Kushina's tone was unnervingly calm, calm enough to make one's scalp tingle. "Just as he once... protected me without regard for his own life."

"Absurd!"

Minato could no longer suppress the rage in his heart and lunged forward. The broken bricks beneath his feet were crushed into powder, emitting a harsh, cracking sound.

"He protected you? He's just an ANBU cannon fodder who barely has the strength of a Chunin! Yesterday at the border, if I hadn't arrived, he would have died at the hands of Iwagakure long ago!" Minato pointed at Baishi on the hospital bed, the veins on his forehead throbbing violently. "Kushina, wake up! You've been deceived by his facade. The wounds on his body, the traces at the scene—they were all faked to mislead everyone!"

Minato attempted to use his pride-and-joy tactical analysis and logic to tear apart this absurd situation. He invoked his authority as a Hokage Candidate, trying to seize the moral high ground over the unreasonable woman before him.

"I am your fiancé!" Minato's voice deepened, his blue eyes filled with heartache and confusion. "We are getting married soon! And now you're raising your hand against me for the sake of a stranger full of lies? Drawing your blade against a comrade of Konoha?"

Fiancé.

As soon as that word left his lips, the ANBU in the hallway lowered their heads, wishing they could cut off their own ears. This kind of scandal between high-ranking officials was not something they were meant to hear.

Lying on the hospital bed, Baishi's eyelids drooped, concealing the mocking, cold glint in his eyes.

Namikaze Minato, oh Namikaze Minato, you are still too naive. Trying to use logic on a member of the Uzumaki Clan who has fallen into paranoia and fanaticism? Trying to play the "fiancé" card in front of a woman whose mind has been forcibly imprinted with a "bond of life and death" by the Simulator?

Utterly foolish.

Sure enough, upon hearing the word "fiancé," Kushina's shoulders stiffened slightly. But the next second, instead of letting go of Baishi, she slowly turned her head.

There was no guilt on that beautiful face, only a coldness that made Minato feel as if he had fallen into an ice cave.

"Fiancé?" A mocking curve touched the corner of Kushina's mouth. "Minato, when I was in the depths of despair in the darkness, when those Cloud Hidden blades were pressed against my throat, where were you?"

Minato was stunned. "What are you talking about? Back then, it was I who..."

"Shut up!" Kushina raised her voice sharply, her long red hair dancing behind her like the fur of an enraged fox. The tragic memories from the Simulator collided violently with her perception of reality, and in the end, her paranoid emotions completely overwhelmed her reason.

She only remembered that in that rain-lashed forest, it was the man beneath her who had descended from the sky with max-level Lightning Release. It was he who had blocked a lethal ninjutsu with his own chest, and it was he who had collapsed in a pool of blood after whispering, "To die for you is my willing choice."

"I only believe what I see." Kushina pointed to the gruesome wound on Baishi's collarbone, pierced by Iwagakure's poisoned kunai, her voice trembling from extreme suppression. "This is the wound he suffered for me! He would give his life for me, but what about you?"

Kushina's gaze was like a blade, scraping fiercely across Minato's face.

"As a commander of Konoha, as the perfect genius in the eyes of the higher-ups, you only look at him with suspicion, only point your kunai at a man on the verge of death!"

"You are not my salvation, Minato. You are merely a tool of Konoha."

BOOM—

This sentence struck Minato's heart like a heavy hammer. His perfect persona, which he took such pride in, and the Will of Fire he had painstakingly cultivated, were torn to shreds before his fiancée's cold, biting evaluation.

Minato's face turned deathly pale, his lips trembling, yet he could not utter a single word.

He had lost. In this contest of asserting dominance, he had lost completely and utterly. He didn't even know where he had gone wrong.

Baishi, lying on the bed, adjusted his breathing in secret. He knew the timing was just right. If he let Kushina continue to provoke him, Minato might just snap. A Kage-level powerhouse who had lost his reason was still a massive threat to him at the moment.

He had to seize the initiative back into his own hands.

"Cough, cough..."

Baishi jerked his head to the side and began to cough violently. A large amount of blood surged from his mouth, dripping down his chin onto the pristine white sheets, a shocking sight.

He weakly raised his left hand—the one not being held—and used every ounce of his strength to grab Kushina's blood-stained wrist.

"Lady Kushina... that's enough."

Baishi's voice was extremely hoarse, carrying the thread-thin sensation of someone on the brink of death. He gasped with difficulty, looking at Kushina with eyes filled with a mixture of pain, pleading, and even a hint of self-mockery.

"Lord Minato is right... the wounds on my body, I did them to myself." Baishi gritted his teeth, forcing himself through the coughing, and began to smear his own reputation bit by bit. "I'm just a coward who fears death... to escape the pursuit of Iwagakure, to steal the credit of my captain... I'm capable of anything."

Outside the hallway, the ANBU looked at each other in dismay. A flash of shock crossed Minato's eyes, followed immediately by even more intense suspicion.

But Kushina's reaction was entirely within Baishi's calculations.

"Don't speak!" Kushina gripped Baishi's cold fingers in return, tears finally spilling over. "Do you think I'll believe you just because you say that? Do you think you can push me away by painting yourself as such a wretch?"

She knew this feeling all too well. When she was first brought to Konoha as the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, she had also used this prickly, defensive exterior to push everyone away. In her eyes, Baishi's self-defilement was all to protect her, to prevent her from having a falling out with Minato and the Konoha higher-ups!

"I won't let you die." Kushina bit her lip, a flash of frantic resolve appearing in her dark-gold pupils.

Clatter—

Accompanied by the harsh sound of grinding metal, five thick Adamantine Sealing Chains erupted from Kushina's back. They didn't attack anyone; instead, they wove together like a massive golden cocoon, shielding the entire hospital bed—and Baishi upon it—firmly in the center.

Absolute defense.

The highest-level sealing technique of the Uzumaki Clan was now being used by Kushina to protect a suspect in the eyes of the village leadership.

"Minato." Through the gaps in the golden chains, Kushina stared coldly at her fiancé outside the door. "From this moment on, whoever dares to step half a foot into this ward, whoever dares to touch a single hair on his head, is a mortal enemy of me, Uzumaki Kushina."

"Even you are no exception."

A deathly silence descended.

Minato stood where he was, watching the hospital bed heavily guarded by golden chains, watching Kushina's stance of desperate protection, his hands slowly clenching at his sides.

His fingernails pierced his palms, and blood dripped onto the shattered bricks, yet he felt not a shred of pain.

After the extreme sense of frustration, a cold, unprecedented murderous intent surged into his heart. He was no fool; he absolutely did not believe that a low-level ANBU could make Kushina develop such a frantic obsession. There had to be some kind of conspiracy he was unaware of, perhaps even an illusion or mental control!

He could not delay any longer. If he dragged this out, Kushina would completely ruin herself and destroy the balance of Konoha.

"Since you have already been blinded by the Nine-Tails..." Minato slowly raised his head, the once-gentle blue eyes now holding only the cold ruthlessness of an ANBU commander. "Then as your fiancé, and as a ninja of Konoha, I have no choice but to offend you."

"Swish!"

Minato's hands instantly blurred into afterimages. It was not a standard sealing jutsu, but the setup for his most lethal killing move.

He hurled a specially crafted three-pronged Flying Thunder God Kunai with force; it did not strike at Kushina, but instead traced a bizarre arc, embedding itself directly into the crumbling ceiling above the hospital bed.

Flying Thunder God: Second Step!

In a thousandth of a second, he could bypass the defense of the Adamantine Sealing Chains and appear directly above Baishi to snap the neck of this strange ANBU.

The killing intent locked onto the center of Baishi's brow like a physical weight.

Just at this critical moment, the instant before Minato was about to trigger the Flying Thunder God, Baishi—who had been pinned beneath Kushina and appeared incredibly weak—suddenly moved.

He did not weave signs to defend, nor did he attempt to dodge that lethal killing intent.

He made a move that caught everyone present completely off guard—

Baishi flipped over violently, ignoring the tearing pain in his collarbone, and pulled Kushina, who had been shielding him, forcefully into his arms. Then... he turned his own back directly toward the Flying Thunder God Kunai glinting with cold light on the ceiling!