Supplemental Kakupai illustration: the black hair highlights what makes him different! Five hearts—so his own heart hadn't been pierced with rods!
"A descendant... of the Uzumaki Clan? You are one too?" The woman's red eyes trembled with shock.
Yet what shocked her most was not that the man sitting across from her was also from the Uzumaki Clan, but that... he could so calmly speak of being an Uzumaki, even speak of it with pride!
In her understanding, that was unimaginable...
After the Land of Whirlpools was destroyed, the Uzumaki Clan had all but vanished. The survivors scattered across the Shinobi World, concealing their names and living with utmost caution, terrified that anyone might discover they carried the bloodline of that clan...
"Madam, could you tell me your name?"
The woman's lips trembled. Under the encouraging gaze of the man across from her, she timidly spoke her name.
"Shexiang..."
Madam Shexiang, huh? Nagato marveled inwardly.
"Shexiang? That's a lovely name... Oh, right, I'm Nagato. Neither of us bears the Uzumaki surname, but the same red hair is proof that pure Uzumaki blood flows within us~!"
The same... red hair...
Those words were like a warm breeze blowing into Shexiang's heart, stirring the numb soul that had suffered so much trauma.
"Lord N-Nagato, did you... did you bring me here because we are... from the same clan?"
Nagato smiled faintly, still calling Shexiang, who was only a few years older than him, "Madam."
"Madam, if I said no, it would probably only make you more uneasy~. So let's say it was half and half."
Under Shexiang's anxious gaze, Nagato gestured with his chin. "Drink some water before it gets cold."
"Oh! O-Okay..." Shexiang picked up the cup before her and took a small sip.
Water moistened her cracked lips. Burning pain