The Battle to Classify an Attack on the Hokage's Office-and a Brazen Plan to Console the Family

The Meeting Room door slammed open from outside.

An ANBU rushed in, a faint tremor in his voice beneath his mask.

"Lord Hokage! Something's happened!"

"Lady Kushina... she... she kicked down the door to your office!"

Before he had finished, a torrent of Chakra charged with rage and grief swept up to the Meeting Room door.

Uzumaki Kushina's red hair whipped around her head though there was no wind. Her eyes were bloodshot, and Nine-Tails Chakra had stained the edges of her once-bright violet irises crimson, like smoldering embers.

She gripped half a charred Scroll so tightly her knuckles whitened.

"Baishi!"

Her voice was hoarse and sharp, like a blade scraping across rusted iron.

"How much longer... are you going to hide from me?!"

The air seemed to vanish from the Meeting Room.

Jiraiya and Tsunade, who had just risen to leave, stopped and spun around. Shikaku Nara instinctively stepped between Baishi and the door, his expression grave.

This was Konoha's strongest Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, a strategic weapon who could lose control at any moment.

She was also Namikaze Minato's widow.

Either identity alone made this situation a nightmare.

Baishi looked past Shikaku's shoulder, his gaze settling calmly on Kushina's face. He did not look at her blazing eyes or the ruined Scroll.

He looked only at her.

Several seconds of dead silence passed.

Baishi neither moved nor spoke. He seemed to be assessing the situation.

At last, instead of answering Kushina's accusation, he turned slightly toward Shikaku Nara.

His voice was soft and steady, utterly at odds with the tension around them.

"Shikaku."

"Yes." Shikaku Nara did not turn, but his body tensed further.

"Write this down."

Shikaku froze.

Write what down?

Baishi continued without a trace of emotion, as though dictating an ordinary memo.

"Door No. 1 of the