The ANBU Base Gate Shatters and the Red-Haired Witch's Interrogation

The air was thick with the acrid scent of lime dust.

Broken pipes sprayed water, the rhythmic drip, drip echoing as it struck the debris-strewn floor.

Namikaze Minato stepped over a collapsed wall, his short, golden hair standing out starkly in the dim corridor. Though his habitually gentle face wore a smile, it looked like a mask forcibly applied, radiating a coldness that brooked no refusal.

He reached out with his right hand, attempting to touch Kushina's trembling shoulder. "Kushina, this is the core area of the ANBU. Let go of this... little brother first. We can discuss whatever is the matter once we return."

"Don't touch me!"

Kushina recoiled like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, jerking her shoulder away violently.

Clang!

Two crimson chakra chains erupted from her back without warning. Carrying a manic, searing heat, they lashed out like vipers, striking the stone floor just inches in front of Minato's feet.

Gravel sprayed, leaving a thin, bloody scratch on Minato's fair cheek.

Minato's hand froze in mid-air, a flicker of incredulous shock flashing through his azure eyes.

Adamantine Sealing Chains?

For the sake of a low-level ANBU whose name she didn't even know, she had actually used the Uzumaki Clan's secret technique for suppressing Tailed Beasts against him?!

Inside the ruined restroom, the atmosphere plummeted to freezing.

Baishi pressed his back against the cold tiles. Through the "Owl" mask, he could clearly smell the scorched scent of the Nine-Tails emanating from Kushina. It was a tyrannical chakra capable of igniting an ordinary person's soul, yet at this moment, this power was shielding him tightly, as if declaring ownership to the entire world.

Crazy woman.

Baishi cursed inwardly.

But his brain was racing at an extraordinary speed. He could feel Minato's seemingly calm gaze passing over Kushina's shoulder, scraping across his body like a scalpel.

And in the shadows further away, the thick chakra belonging to Sarutobi Hiruzen, along with the bone-deep, sinister aura of Danzo, had completely locked down the area.

If he showed even the slightest flaw, he would be stripped bare and laid out on a Root autopsy table by tomorrow, becoming one of Orochimaru's experimental materials.

I have to keep acting.

Baishi took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the S-rank Lightning Release chakra he had just fused within his body. He deliberately relaxed his muscle control, letting his legs go into a violent spasm as if overwhelmed by the Nine-Tails' pressure.

"Ku... Kushina-sama..."

Baishi's voice emerged through the mask, carrying just the right amount of stuttering and panic. He slid down the wall, eventually dropping heavily onto one knee on the water-logged floor.

"My code name is 'Owl,' just a genin from the ANBU Third Squad... I haven't even left the village a few times, let alone saved you."

He buried his head deep, his posture humble to the point of dust, his voice even tinged with a whimpering plea: "Minato-sama, I am about to go execute a bait mission for the border cleanup. I truly don't know why Kushina-sama would... would treat me like this."

A perfect speech for a low-level cannon fodder.

No dignity, cowardly, and seeking only self-preservation in the face of conflict between big shots.

Minato looked at the ANBU kneeling in the water, his slightly furrowed brows relaxing a fraction.

Too weak.

This boy's chakra reserves were pitifully small, and his body was even shaking uncontrollably from fear. Someone like this, let alone playing the hero, probably couldn't even dodge a C-rank jutsu from an enemy on the battlefield.

"Kushina." Minato softened his tone, a hint of heartache in his eyes. "Have you been having hallucinations lately because the Nine-Tails seal is unstable? Come with me to see the Third Hokage; don't make things difficult for a genin."

Hallucinations?

Hearing those two words, Kushina laughed in extreme anger.

Scalding tears rolled down her chin, drip—landing on Baishi's cold ANBU forehead protector.

The image in her mind was too real. The boy's back wrapped in lightning, the decisiveness with which he pierced the heart of the Cloud Hidden ninja, and the warmth of his blood-stained hand as he stroked her red hair while he lay in a pool of blood.

How could that bone-deep palpitation and despair be a hallucination?!

"You say it's a hallucination?"

Kushina gritted her teeth, grabbing Baishi's collar and hauling him up from the ground. She stared fixedly at the lifeless mask with her crimson eyes, her voice turning hoarse from extreme obsession.

"Baishi, do you think you can fool me by pretending to be this cowardly?"

"In that dream, you were completely pierced through the flank to block a poisoned kunai from Cloud Hidden for me."

Hearing this, the pupils of Baishi, who was kneeling on the ground, contracted sharply.

Damn it!

In the simulation, he had indeed taken a direct hit from a Cloud Hidden jonin to force a delay. Although the system-rewarded Sage Body and Lightning Release chakra had repaired the fatal wound after returning to reality, cell regeneration took time.

On his flank right now, there was definitely a patch of newly healed, pink skin that looked different from the rest!

There was no way to explain this as a "genin who has never left the village"!

"You say you don't know me, you say you're a piece of trash..." Kushina's breathing grew rapid. One hand pressed firmly against Baishi's shoulder, while the other grabbed the hem of his ANBU uniform.

A reckless madness flickered in the depths of her eyes.

"Then do you dare let me see your waist?!"

Minato's expression changed drastically, and he finally failed to maintain that perfect smile. "Kushina! You've lost your mind! He is ANBU; you cannot humiliate a comrade of the village here!"

His figure flashed, the golden light instantly crossing a distance of five meters as his right hand reached directly for Kushina's wrist.

However, Kushina's movements were faster and far more resolute than his.

"I am tearing that mask off your face today, no matter what!"

Riiip—!!!

The durable ANBU uniform was torn apart like fragile parchment under the immense force of the Nine-Tails' chakra.

The crisp sound of fabric shredding was amplified infinitely within the deathly silent ruins.

Minato's hand froze in mid-air.

Several obscure auras hidden in the shadows also faltered at this moment.

Every gaze was instantly nailed to the flank Baishi had exposed to the air.

Inside the dim, ruined restroom, only the ticking of a burst water pipe remained.

The air was thick with the smell of lime dust and charred flesh.

On Baishi's exposed flank, a patch of newborn pink skin the size of an infant's palm looked jarring against the surrounding pale flesh. The scar was irregularly radial; anyone with experience could tell at a glance that this was the mark left after forcibly gouging out necrotic flesh to prevent the spread of poison after being pierced by a weapon coated in lethal toxins.

Kushina stared fixedly at the scar, her tears breaking like a dam.

"Look..." She reached out, her trembling fingertips hovering less than an inch above the pink flesh, the scorching chakra searing Baishi's skin. "This is the proof! You gouged this piece of meat out yourself just to block that poisoned kunai from the Cloud Hidden jonin for me! How dare you claim you weren't there?!"

Standing to the side, Namikaze Minato's gaze darkened. He could tell at a glance that the severity of the wound was something no ordinary genin could have caused.

In the darkness, the chakra belonging to Sarutobi Hiruzen and Danzo fluctuated obscurely.

Countless eyes were now fixed on Baishi.

Must not admit it. Beneath the mask, Baishi's eyes were as cold as ice, his Adam's apple bobbing with difficulty.

He shrank back violently, like a startled quail, scrambling backward until his back slammed hard against the cold tiles. The standing water soaked through his kneepads, the bone-chilling cold spreading up his shins.

"Lady Kushina, please! Don't kill me!" Baishi clutched his flank tightly, his voice filled with a thick, sobbing tone and extreme panic. "This wound... this wound wasn't caused by any Cloud Hidden jonin! Three days ago, while I was performing a C-rank reconnaissance mission on the outskirts of Tanzaku Town, I was ambushed by three rogue ninja!"

He looked up, his eyes behind the mask revealing humble supplication. "The team leader, 'Wildcat,' can testify! The ANBU archives also have my mission report and medical records! I really haven't seen any Cloud Hidden ninja!"

Perfect underlying logic, an impeccable alibi.

Kushina froze for a moment, then erupted into an even more furious roar: "You're lying! That rainy night, you collapsed in my arms covered in blood, your blood was hot! You touched my hair and said..."

"But..." Baishi shivered violently, interrupting her with a trembling voice on the verge of collapse. "A rainy night? You were kidnapped by the Cloud Hidden... wasn't that five years ago?"

The ruins fell into instant, deathly silence.

Baishi knelt in the stagnant water, looking up at the emotionally unstable red-haired girl, his tone filled with bewilderment and the fear of a subordinate toward a superior: "And... the whole village knows that it was Lord Minato who saved you that night."

A killing blow.

This sentence acted like a precision scalpel, ruthlessly slicing through the chaotic mass of memories in Kushina's mind.

Five years ago. Minato.

The timeline and logic of reality flooded back into her brain like a cold tide.

Yes, that night five years ago, it was Minato who found her by following the trail of her fallen red hair, and it was he who made that promise to her under the moonlight.

But...

If reality was that Minato saved her, then who was the ANBU boy codenamed "Owl" in her mind? Why was that soul-piercing grief, that desperate roar of "Live on, even for my sake," a hundred times clearer than the memories of reality?!

"No... that's not right..." Kushina clutched her head in agony, her fingers digging deep into her brilliant red hair. Two diametrically opposed memories collided and tore at each other in her mind.

Minato's warm, smiling face in reality constantly overlapped with the resolute back of Baishi, shrouded in lightning, from her dreams.

"Aaaah—!!"

Kushina let out a shrill, miserable scream, and the Nine-Tails' chakra within her lost all control due to the violent turmoil of its host's spirit. The crimson chakra cloak boiled instantly, the violent heat evaporating the standing water on the ground into thick white mist.

"Kushina!" Minato's expression changed drastically. He could no longer afford to test Baishi; his figure turned into a flash of golden light, appearing behind Kushina in an instant.

He formed a complex seal with his hands and slammed them onto the back of Kushina's neck.

"Evil Sealing Method!"

Black runes spread from Minato's palms, forcibly suppressing the rampaging Nine-Tails chakra. Kushina's eyes rolled back, and she collapsed limply into Minato's arms.

Minato held his unconscious fiancée tightly, a trace of undisguised pain and gloom flashing in his azure eyes. He looked up, his gaze scraping toward Baishi, who was huddled in the corner, like a blade.

This genin's performance was too perfect.

Fear, stuttering, trembling—every action matched the reaction of a low-level cannon fodder facing a life-or-death crisis.

But Minato was a top-tier powerhouse who had experienced countless life-or-death battles. He keenly sensed that this boy codenamed "Owl" had a momentary pause in the trembling of his voice when he threw out the key time point of "Minato saving her five years ago."

That wasn't fear; that was precise calculation under extreme composure.

Whoosh—

Without warning, a Flying Thunder God Kunai held between Minato's fingertips was released, turning into a bolt of black lightning aimed straight at Baishi's face!

This was an extremely insidious feint.

There was no chakra attached to the kunai, but its speed was immense. If Baishi were truly a mediocre genin, he would never be able to dodge it; if he were hiding his strength, his combat instincts would inevitably drive him to take evasive action.

The corner of Baishi's eye caught that black shadow.

The simulator panel on his retina flickered slightly; the neural reaction speed granted by his max-level Lightning Release gave him more than enough time to tilt his head and dodge.

However, he bit down hard on the tip of his tongue, using the sharp pain to suppress his muscle's conditioned reflex.

Don't dodge! Absolutely must not dodge!

"Puchi!"

The sharp kunai grazed Baishi's cheek, slicing half of his Owl mask to pieces and carving a bloody gash into his skin before embedding itself into the wall behind him with a dull thud.

Baishi acted as if he had been scared witless. He froze for a full two seconds before letting out a blood-curdling scream, clutching his bleeding cheek as he scrambled backward through the muddy water until he hit a wall, curling into a ball.

"M-Minato-sama! Spare me! This subordinate truly knows nothing!"

Minato watched Baishi's pathetic, disheveled state, his brows knitting tighter and tighter.

Could I really be overthinking this? If he can't even dodge a feint devoid of killing intent, how could he possibly have provoked Kushina?

"My apologies, Owl." Minato withdrew his gaze, his tone returning to its usual gentleness, though his eyes remained chillingly cold. "Kushina hasn't been in a good mental state lately. I do not wish for anyone outside of the ANBU to know about today's events."

With that, he scooped up Kushina, preparing to activate the Flying Thunder God to depart.

Just then, a rhythmic, synchronized sound of footsteps suddenly emerged from the shadows at the perimeter of the ruins.

Four ANBU ninjas wearing animal masks and black trench coats appeared like ghosts, completely sealing off every exit to the washroom. The chakra fluctuations radiating from them were far colder and bloodier than those of a standard ANBU squad.

Minato paused, his expression shifting slightly.

The lead ANBU with a dog mask ignored Minato, walking straight up to the cowering Baishi in the corner and pulling out a scroll stamped with the Hokage's official seal.

"ANBU Third Squad genin, codename 'Owl'."

The dog-masked ANBU's voice was devoid of emotion, echoing through the empty corridor.

"Lord Third Hokage has issued an order: your border bait mission is canceled. Now, surrender your ninja tools immediately and accompany us to the Hokage Building Underground Interrogation Room 1."

Baishi clutched his bleeding cheek, peering through his half-shattered mask at the bright red Hokage seal.

He knew that the real game of life and death was only just beginning.