Kushina Wants to Learn the Yin Seal

Night had fallen over the Senju Clan Compound.

"Auntie!" Mirai Uzumaki pushed open the door and entered. Kushina and Tsunade were already seated at the dinner table.

"Mirai, go wash your hands. Then we can eat."

"Got it!"

A moment later, Mirai was seated at the table as well.

The three of them pressed their hands together. "Itadakimasu!"

Mirai picked up a huge clump of eel rice and stuffed it into his mouth, then asked curiously, "By the way, who made this? Tsunade, you can cook like this?"

Tsunade nearly snapped the chopsticks she was holding. "You sure talk a lot, brat! Eat quietly, or get away from the table!"

Could she tell Mirai that every dish on the table had been delivered from the yakitori shop on the next street?

"Got it!" Mirai immediately behaved himself.

Kushina, meanwhile, did not stop complaining throughout the meal.

"Tsunade, Medical Ninjutsu is really hard!

I have to precisely control my chakra, memorize every acupuncture point and meridian in the human body, and learn all those forbidden combinations of medicinal herbs... My head is about to explode!"

Hearing her complaints made Tsunade even more irritated.

The hand holding her bowl paused, and a cross-shaped vein popped out on her forehead.

"You only read three pages all afternoon. You daydreamed seventeen times and lost focus eight times."

Tsunade set down her bowl and tapped Kushina on the forehead. "With that attitude, you want to learn Medical Ninjutsu? Learn my ass!"

"Wah—!" Kushina covered her head and shrank toward Mirai, looking aggrieved. "Mirai, look at Tsunade! She actually hit me on the head! That's so mean!"

Mirai helplessly placed a piece of fried pork cutlet into Kushina's bowl. "All right, all right. Eat more and nourish your brain.

Tsunade is doing it for your own good. Medical Ninjutsu really can't be rushed. You have to take it slowly."

Kushina pouted and took a bite of the cutlet. "But it's really hard... And Grandma Mito used to say that my chakra control was naturally not very good..."

At the mention of Mito, the table fell silent for a moment.

Tsunade's chopsticks paused, a trace of sadness flashing through her eyes, but she quickly returned to normal.

"...All right, all right. If you really can't learn ordinary Medical Ninjutsu, I can teach you something else."

Kushina's ears perked up. "Something else?"

Tsunade took a sip of sake, her tone casual but carrying a hint of seriousness.

"I recently developed a technique called the Yin Seal.

Simply put, it stores the chakra you don't use in daily life and forms a mark on your forehead.

When you release the seal in battle, you can obtain nearly unlimited chakra."

Kushina's eyes lit up.

"And—" Tsunade gave her a sidelong glance, the corner of her mouth curling upward.

"This technique has an additional effect. As long as your chakra isn't depleted, your body's self-healing speed will greatly increase, and your aging will be suppressed.

To put it simply—it lets you stay young forever."

"Stay young forever?!" Kushina slammed her chopsticks down, her eyes shining like two stars.

"Tsunade, I want to learn! I want to learn!

This time, I'll definitely study seriously! I absolutely won't lose focus!"

Tsunade snorted. "Heh heh, who was it that just said, 'Medical Ninjutsu is too hard, my head's about to explode'?"

"That was just now! My head isn't exploding anymore!" Kushina pressed her hands together with a devout expression. "Tsunade, teach me this, and I'll serve you tea and water every day from now on!"

"That won't be necessary." Tsunade laughed at her. "But let me make this clear first. Training the Yin Seal is also very difficult, and it demands extremely high chakra control. If you give up halfway..."

"I absolutely won't!" Kushina straightened her back, her tone resolute. "For eternal youth, I can endure any hardship!"

Mirai's gaze drifted around the table, and he could not help silently adding in his heart, For eternal youth, women really can do anything.

But then again, Tsunade had developed the Yin Seal this early? No wonder she had always looked so beautiful in the original story!

After dinner, Mirai Uzumaki returned to his room. The moment Kushina put down her bowl, she cheerfully skipped in after him.

"Mirai, I barely saw you all day today!" She skillfully climbed onto Mirai's bed, hugged his arm, and rubbed her forehead against it.

"You went to school this morning to apply for early graduation, and I spent the afternoon studying with Tsunade. We barely had any time to cuddle!"

"Aren't we seeing each other tonight?" Mirai was tugged crooked by her grip, so he simply leaned back against the headboard and let her hold him.

"That's different." Kushina buried her face against his shoulder and rubbed against it. "Smell me. I still smell like medicinal herbs. I got it on me while Tsunade was making me identify herbs. It smells awful, doesn't it?"

Mirai lowered his head and sniffed. "...It is a little bitter."

"You actually said it smells bad!" Kushina raised her head and glared at him.

"Hey, hey, be reasonable, okay? You were the one who said it first!"

"Hmph. Even so, only I'm allowed to say it. You're not!"

Kushina glared at him for two seconds before puffing out a laugh. She leaned back against his shoulder and muttered softly.

"Anyway, I'm going to learn the Yin Seal, stay young forever, and always be pretty. When that happens, you're not allowed to dislike me."

"When have I ever disliked you?"

"Not now, but who knows about the future? What if some long-haired, black-haired Uchiha girl steals you away?"

Mirai's heartbeat skipped. In his mind appeared the face of a black-haired girl with a gentle smile.

Not Izumi Uchiha, but her older sister, Mikoto Uchiha.

"I just have a feeling!" Kushina seemed to sense something. She huffed and hugged him even tighter.

Mirai did not push her away. He merely raised a hand to rub her red hair and softly said, "All right. I won't."

The two of them leaned together quietly for a while. Kushina's breathing gradually steadied, like a little cat that had finally eaten her fill.

Moonlight spilled in through the window, laying a layer of silvery light across the floor.

After a while, Kushina lifted her head from his arms and looked at him with a flushed face.

Mirai's profile was sharply defined beneath the moonlight. His brows and eyes had already taken on a young man's spirit, while his smile carried a gentle warmth that made people feel at ease.

She looked at him for a long time. Her heart suddenly skipped a beat, and she could not help leaning closer—

Her lips lightly touched his cheek.

Then she sprang back as if shocked, blushing from head to toe, even the base of her neck burning red.

"I-I'm going back. You should sleep early too!" She jumped off the bed and ran out with a thump thump thump, not even remembering to close the door.

Mirai touched the spot on his cheek that she had kissed, the corner of his mouth lifting slightly.

Had this little girl finally started to understand love?

He got up and closed the door, then lay back down on the bed. Closing his eyes, his consciousness gradually sank into the depths...

The cage formed by the Five Elements Seal still stood within his sea of consciousness, golden curse markings slowly flowing across it.

The Nine-Tails lay inside the cage, its nine tails drooping weakly. Its fur was dimmer than before—the chakra that had been extracted had not yet fully recovered.

The instant it saw Mirai appear, its entire body abruptly shrank backward.

But the cage was only so large. It quickly had nowhere left to retreat and could only lower its head, letting out a low whimper.

"You evil Uzumaki brat, why are you here again?" The Nine-Tails' voice was hoarse with resignation.