The Raikage Invades

"Ready?"

"Yeah! Bring it on, Eiji!"

Kushina crouched into a defensive stance, her expression serious.

"Good. Then..."

Eiji shifted his weight slightly forward. The next instant, he vanished.

Kushina's eyes widened. She twisted aside, and an arm swept past, almost brushing her cheek. Her red bangs fluttered in its wake.

His first strike missed. Eiji spun and whipped a leg toward Kushina's waist!

Kushina hastily bent her arm, barely blocking the deadly blow with her elbow.

But Eiji's kick was too powerful. It sent her skidding back, and she only stopped after her ninja sandals carved a meter-long mark into the ground.

"Not bad. Next, ninja tools."

Eiji dropped his hands to his waist, pulled several wooden shuriken from his pouches, and hurled them at Kushina's blind spots.

The shuriken spun through the air. Kushina pushed off on one leg and dodged sideways; they grazed her clothes before embedding themselves in a tree trunk.

She twisted in midair, planted a palm on the ground, and sprang backward again.

It wasn't over. The next instant, Kushina burst into a cloud of white smoke!

Behind Eiji, a large rock transformed into Kushina with a pop. Rasengan in hand, she charged him!

Eiji leaned aside to evade the sudden attack. Kushina's Rasengan skimmed past him and struck the tree behind him.

The impact blasted the trunk in two. Splinters flew everywhere, and the falling tree slammed into the ground, throwing up a cloud of dirt.

Seeing how smoothly she moved, Eiji nodded in satisfaction.

Kushina finished her attack and flashed him a smug smile.

"Hehe, how was that? I did pretty well, right?"

"Pretty well. You counterattacked while dodging, but there's still room to improve. You need more practice."

Kushina puffed out her cheeks and clenched her fists in front of her chest.

"Come on! I've improved so much. This is where you're supposed to tell me I did great!"

"Mm. You did great."

"Now it just sounds like you're humoring me!"

After only a few more words, Kushina found an opening to slip behind Eiji and wrapped her arms tightly around his neck. Her bright laughter rang out behind him.

"Next time there's danger, I'll protect you, Eiji!"

"No way. Being protected by a girl would be so lame."

"What? Are you looking down on girls?"

"...I'm not."

"You are!"

Since they had met, Kushina and Eiji had grown ever closer, and Kushina had become more cheerful.

That cheerfulness often left Eiji at a loss, though.

Simply put, Kushina had grown especially affectionate. She followed him everywhere, and by now practically everyone in the Village knew there was something special between them. In their minds, the two were bound to marry one day.

Incidentally, as soon as Sayuri returned to the Daimyo's Palace, she wrote to Eiji and Kushina. According to her, the Daimyo was spending a fortune to build a lavish Chef Arena in the capital, where he would gather renowned chefs from across the land to compete.

The winner would become his personal chef and receive a huge sum of money. For a time, the contest sparked a craze for culinary competition throughout the capital.

When Eiji heard the news, the corner of his mouth twitched. If the Daimyo cared that much about cooking, would a Dark Cooking Realm spring up before long?

Kushina had been thrilled and begged Tsunade to take her to the capital to watch. Tsunade refused, saying the best chef in the Shinobi World was right here, so why bother watching a contest when none of them could cook as well as Eiji?

Eiji was rather interested, though. If the competition kept going, perhaps he would visit the capital in a few years.

He would definitely have to cover his eyes. Otherwise, everyone would recognize him, and how was he supposed to crush the rookies then?

Just imagining himself making a glowing dish among all those chefs and stunning the crowd amused him.

"Minato hasn't come to practice with us lately either. Seriously, what's that sissy up to?"

"His Rasengan is already quite refined. Honestly, without Six Eyes, I'm sure he'd use it better than I do. But that jutsu has a major weakness: having to get close is dangerous enough on its own. So he's looking for a fighting style that suits him."

Eiji suspected the bigger reason was that Kushina was always at his side. Minato was probably afraid she would beat him up, so he didn't dare come near.

The Senju Ancestral Home had the original scroll for the Flying Thunder God Technique, a forbidden jutsu developed by the Second, Tobirama Senju. Eiji could take it from the Senju Clan Compound and lend it to Minato, but that would break the rules.

Minato would have to become Jiraiya's disciple and join the Hokage's direct lineage first. That would probably happen before the Third Shinobi World War.

"Forget him. Oh, right! The Akimichi Clan's barbecue restaurant has something new on the menu. Want to go try it together?"

Kushina took Eiji's arm and tried to pull him toward the Village, but he wouldn't budge.

"No. Next is focused Rasengan practice. You still take too long to form yours. I'll watch you train here. We agreed on a training plan, and we need to follow it properly."

"Aw, fine!"

Seeing Eiji's rigid expression, Kushina felt helpless. Did he really not see how she felt about him?

Normally, when a girl asked a boy to go somewhere alone with her, wasn't that a date?

Fine, she had said they were using their day off to train in the forest, but that was obviously an excuse! Eiji really was dense.

She still had a long way to go to win Eiji over. Kushina couldn't help feeling dejected.

At the Konoha Main Gate, a muscular man approached alone.

The two Chunin on gate duty spotted someone nearing the Village and rushed out together, landing in front of him.

"Stop. Konoha is ahead. What business do you have here?"

The man wore a black cloak, with even his face hidden in shadow. They immediately grew wary.

The two exchanged a glance, and one of them demanded, "Show your face. Who are you? Answer us!"

"Want to know who I am?"

His voice was deep and powerful, sending a chill through them.

The two Chunin's hearts sank. The man gripped the cloak at his left shoulder and flung it into the air.

Before them stood a hulking man with a hostile expression and wild white hair!

Alarm bells rang in both guards' heads. An indescribable pressure bore down on them!

Most importantly, they saw the "Lightning" tattoo on his shoulder.

"This is bad! He's—"