Yugito shook her head, then nodded, and finally whispered, "They ran so fast."
"You'll be able to run faster than them in the future, too." Mirai bent down and picked her up, supporting her with one hand while forming a hand seal with the other. "Let's go."
Flying Thunder God activated.
The three of them appeared in the mountain forest on the border of the Land of Lightning, with the Tree-Shaped Flying Thunder God Mark he had carved earlier beneath their feet.
Kushina was sitting on a rock, plucking blades of grass, while Minato stood beside a tree and Naori leaned against a boulder.
When the three of them saw Mirai appear with a little girl in his arms, they all froze.
The blade of grass in Kushina's hand fell to the ground. "...Huh? Mirai, how come you brought a child back with you after going out?"
"It's a long story."
Mirai set Yugito down. She stood on the grass, timidly sweeping her gaze over the three unfamiliar faces around her before edging closer to Mirai's leg and clutching the hem of his clothes with her little hand.
Kushina crouched down. "Little girl, what's your name?"
"Yugito..." Her voice was very soft.
"Yugito?" Kushina tilted her head and glanced at Mirai. "Did you kidnap her?"
"Yugito is the Jinchuriki of the Two-Tails from Kumogakure." Mirai kept his explanation brief. "I saw that people were constantly bullying her in the village and no one was doing anything about it, so I simply brought her back."
Minato's brows furrowed.
"...Won't this start a war? After the Two-Tails Jinchuriki was kidnapped, Hidden Cloud definitely won't let this go.
"And she's still so young..."
"A war?" Mirai smiled. "They were planning to start one anyway. That bunch from Hidden Cloud even dared to capture