Chapter 30

After quite some time, she finally returned with a large Sealing Scroll and handed it to Uchiha Yan. "Here. All the secret collections related to Sealing Jutsu that I have are in here. I'm lending them all to you."

"Remember to return it after you've finished reading."

"And don't leak this to anyone else in the Uchiha clan. Got it?"

She didn't mind that Uchiha Yan was from the Uchiha clan, but that didn't mean she had a good impression of the other Uchiha.

In fact, when it came to most members of the Uchiha clan, she disliked them far more than she liked them.

There was nothing she could do about it. Having been influenced by what she had seen and heard since childhood, she had always been surrounded by very few people who liked the Uchiha.

The moment the door to Kushina's house opened, a red-haired girl sprang out.

When she saw Tsunade, her eyes lit up, and she was just about to pounce over when her gaze suddenly swept across the figure beside her.

He was a black-haired boy with fair skin and features so delicate they seemed almost unreal.

Kushina froze on the spot and blurted out, "Tsunade, who's this handsome little guy?"

Uchiha Yan remained composed on the surface, but his mind was already racing.

The Kushina before him had yet to go through that deliberately arranged incident of "saving the beauty."

At present, her attitude toward Minato was still at the stage of, Why does that idiot keep saying such embarrassing things?

In other words, nothing had been set in stone yet.

There was still a chance.

In his previous life, he had read quite a few analysis posts on forums. They all said that the waters behind that year's incident ran deep.

Some believed that the Third Hokage and his people had deliberately set everything up so that Kushina would develop emotional ties to the village and Minato, binding her completely to Konoha.

Had Minato known about it or not?

He leaned toward the latter.

That boy had a clean background. He had grown up in Konoha, possessed excellent talent, had an upright personality, and was Jiraiya's personal disciple.

His faith in the Third Hokage and the Will of Fire came straight from his bones.

On top of that, he already knew Kushina, so arranging for him to play the "savior" was only natural.

"What are you spacing out for?"

Tsunade slapped him on the shoulder and said casually, "This is Kushina Uzumaki. She might become my junior apprentice in the future."

"Junior apprentice?"

Kushina tilted her head and looked at her, her eyes full of curiosity.

"Stop wasting time. Let's go inside first."

Tsunade pushed open the courtyard gate and walked in.

Kushina hurried after her, then glanced back at Uchiha Yan. The corners of her lips curved up. "Little brother, what's your name?"

"Uchiha Yan."

His tone was flat.

Kushina repeated his name twice, then suddenly smiled even more brightly. "Yan? What a nice name! Much easier on the eyes than that blondie!"

Seeing the look in Kushina's eyes, Tsunade smiled and reached out to pinch both their cheeks. "His name is Uchiha Yan, my boy. Look at him—isn't he adorable? Have you started to take a liking to him?"

"Hey!"

Kushina's face instantly reddened. She slapped Tsunade's hand away and protested stubbornly, "What nonsense are you spouting, Tsunade? You just love teasing me!"

After saying that, she couldn't help turning to sneak another look at Uchiha Yan. Curiosity filled her eyes. "So you're the Yan Mikoto keeps talking about? No wonder she's always praising you. You really are quite adorable!"

As she spoke, she boldly reached out and pinched Uchiha Yan's cheek as well.

The shy look from earlier had vanished without a trace. She was completely at ease, grinning as she introduced herself. "Hey! I'm Kushina, Kushina Uzumaki. Nice to meet you!"

"Uh... hello!"

Uchiha Yan blocked both Tsunade's and Kushina's hands, replying with a helpless expression.

"Heehee, you don't look like a three-year-old at all. Enough of that—let's go inside!"

Kushina beamed and led Tsunade and Uchiha Yan into the living room.

She promptly poured tea for them and even set out several plates of snacks.

Seeing the elaborate hospitality, Tsunade deliberately clicked her tongue twice. "And you said you weren't interested in him? You never treated me this warmly when I came over before. Tea and snacks, too. Kushina, you really can't hide your feelings!"

"Of course I'm not!"

Kushina hurriedly defended herself. "Yan is Mikoto's little brother, and I'm Mikoto's best friend. Naturally, that makes him my little brother too!"

"It's his first time visiting. Of course I have to treat him well!"

"But as for you, Tsunade..."

At that, Kushina shot Tsunade a disdainful look. "We're old acquaintances. Why bother with all that empty politeness?"

"Besides, when are you going to pay back the money you owe me?"

At those words, Tsunade shuddered violently and quickly waved her hands. "All right, all right! I won't tease you anymore, okay? Money, money... we're all family here. Why quibble over that?"

She had no money to give, only her life.

She was already buried under debt outside. Where would she find the money to repay it?

"Hmph!"

Seeing Tsunade's cowardly appearance, Kushina smugly raised her chin and muttered inwardly, Hah, you thought you could take me on? Now I've got you right where it hurts, don't I?

"So, you came to see me because you have something to discuss, right?"

Kushina sat down across from Uchiha Yan and asked directly.

As she spoke, she glanced at the large Sealing Scroll on Yan's back and wondered, Isn't that the scroll Grandma Mito gave me before? I remember it being filled with books on Sealing Jutsu.

Kushina was puzzled. She couldn't understand why Tsunade had stuffed all those things onto Uchiha Yan.

Tsunade cleared her throat, her expression turning serious. "Here's the situation. This boy has recently been researching a Medical Talisman. He wants to turn Medical Ninjutsu into something similar to a talisman, so that when he's injured, he can activate it directly and heal himself."

"But the Uchiha clan doesn't have much of a legacy in Sealing Jutsu. He's lacking knowledge in that area, so his research has hit a bottleneck."

"That's why I thought of you, Kushina."

"You're the most skilled person in Sealing Jutsu in all of Konoha—or even the entire Ninja World."

"I want you to teach Yan Sealing Jutsu. What do you think?"

After hearing this, Kushina raised her chin so high it nearly pointed at the sky. She was immensely pleased with herself. That's right. I'm the number one Sealing Jutsu expert in the Ninja World. Hehehe!

However, the Nine-Tails inside the sealed space had heard everything as well.

Sensing Kushina's smugness, it muttered with disgust, "This red-haired brat is supposed to be the number one Sealing Jutsu expert in the Ninja World? Just how weak has the Ninja World become? Tch—"

Then its attention shifted to Uchiha Yan.

The Nine-Tails was filled with questions. Who exactly is this little brat from the Uchiha clan? Why do I feel a warm yet frightening power coming from him, as if it could suppress me?

It looks like he's already awakened the Sharingan. How old is he?

Is this ocular power real? It's that strong? And why doesn't he have that dark, gloomy feeling the other Uchiha give off? Did he mutate?

And what's going on with this brat's mental power? It's absurdly strong, isn't it?

Others couldn't detect it because the boy had used a special method to hide it.

But he couldn't fool the Nine-Tails.

"Hm?"

Suddenly, the Nine-Tails noticed Uchiha Yan's gaze sweep toward it, as though he had seen it and met its eyes.

But the next second, his gaze shifted away, as if nothing had happened.

The Nine-Tails knew it hadn't been an illusion. He saw me. He truly saw me! What kind of monster is this little brat?

Outside, Uchiha Yan withdrew his mental power, the corners of his lips curling up. "The Nine-Tails? Interesting. I'll have to get some of its Chakra to study later."

He was very curious about the essence of Tailed Beast Chakra.

He was fascinated by the Tailed Beasts' ability to turn energy into a form of existence.

He was also quite interested in the way they condensed physical bodies out of Chakra energy.

Uchiha Yan focused all his attention on the Tailed Beasts—they could absorb energy from nature and transform it into inexhaustible Chakra.

Humans synthesized Chakra through cellular energy and mental power, but the Tailed Beasts followed an entirely different path. To a certain extent, their Chakra was infinite.

These secrets made Uchiha Yan itch with curiosity.