The Raikage invades

"Are you ready?"

"Yeah! Bring it on, Eiji!"

Kushina lowered herself into a defensive stance, her expression serious.

"Good. Then..."

Eiji leaned his weight slightly forward. The next second, he abruptly vanished from where he stood.

Kushina's eyes widened. She quickly twisted aside as an arm passed within a hair's breadth of her cheek, sending the red hair over her forehead fluttering.

His first strike missed, so Eiji spun around and swept a leg hard at Kushina's side!

Kushina hurriedly bent her arm, barely managing to block the deadly attack with her elbow.

But Eiji's kick was too powerful and sent her flying anyway. She desperately steadied herself, her ninja sandals scraping fiercely across the ground and leaving a meter-long trail before she finally stopped.

"Not bad. Next up, ninja tools."

Eiji lowered both hands to his waist and drew several wooden shuriken from the ninja tool pouches at his sides, then swiftly hurled them at the blind spots in Kushina's defenses.

The shuriken spun through the air. Kushina pushed off with one leg and dodged sideways, letting them skim past the hem of her clothes and embed themselves in a tree trunk.

Then she twisted in midair, planted her palm on the ground, and pushed herself back up into another backward leap.

That wasn't the end. A moment later, Kushina's body burst into a cloud of white smoke!

At that instant, a large rock behind Eiji transformed into Kushina with a pop. Rasengan in hand, she charged straight at him!

Faced with the sudden attack, Eiji shifted slightly to one side. Kushina's attack swept past him and struck the tree trunk behind him.

The powerful impact blasted the trunk apart halfway up, sending splinters flying everywhere. Finally, the trunk crashed to the ground, throwing up a thick cloud of dirt and dust.

Seeing how smoothly she moved, Eiji nodded in satisfaction.

After finishing the sequence, Kushina gave Eiji a smug smile.

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

"Pretty good. You remembered to counterattack while dodging, but there's still room for improvement. You need more practice."

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

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

"Yeah, you did great."

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

A few exchanges later, Kushina found an opening to slip behind Eiji and wrap her arms snugly around his neck. Her sweet laughter rang out behind him.

"The next time there's danger, I'll be the one protecting you, Eiji!"

"No thanks. Being protected by a girl would be totally lame."

"What? You're looking down on girls!"

"...No, I'm not."

"Yes, you are!"

Since they first met, Kushina and Eiji had grown increasingly close, and Kushina had become more and more outgoing.

It was just that her outgoing nature often left Eiji struggling to keep up.

Simply put, Kushina had become incredibly affectionate, following him wherever he went. Over time, practically everyone in the village had learned of their special relationship and more or less accepted that the two would eventually marry.

Incidentally, Sayuri had written to Eiji and Kushina as soon as she returned to the Daimyo's Palace. According to her, the Daimyo was spending a fortune to build a lavish cooking arena in the capital, inviting renowned chefs from across the land to compete there.

The winner would not only become his personal chef but also receive a large sum of money, sparking a craze for cooking competitions throughout the capital.

When Eiji heard the news, the corner of his mouth twitched. With this much emphasis on cooking, would a dark culinary underworld spring up before long, too?

Kushina had been especially excited, begging Tsunade to take her to the capital to watch the competition. Tsunade flatly refused, saying that the strongest chef in the shinobi world was right here, so why bother watching a competition when none of them could match him anyway?

Eiji was actually quite interested, though. If the competition continued, perhaps he would visit the capital in a few years.

He would definitely have to cover his eyes, though. Otherwise, once his identity was exposed, how could he trounce the newbies?

Just imagining himself making glowing dishes among all those chefs and basking in their astonishment was enough to amuse him.

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

"His Rasengan is already highly refined. Honestly, without the Six Eyes, I definitely couldn't use it as skillfully as he does. But this ninjutsu has too big a weakness. Just having to get close to the enemy makes it dangerous enough, so he's looking for a fighting style that suits him."

Actually, Eiji thought the bigger reason was that Kushina was always hovering around him, leaving Minato afraid she would beat him up if he came too close.

Since the Flying Thunder God Technique was a forbidden technique developed by the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, the original ninjutsu scroll was naturally kept at the Senju Ancestral Home. Although Eiji could retrieve it from the Senju Clan Compound and lend it to Minato, that would still be against the rules.

Minato would have to wait until he became Jiraiya's apprentice and officially joined the Hokage's direct lineage, which would probably happen sometime before the Third Shinobi World War.

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

As she spoke, Kushina tugged on Eiji's arm, trying to pull him toward the village, but he refused to budge.

"No. Next is dedicated Rasengan practice. You still take too long to form it, so I'll stay here and watch you practice. We agreed on a training plan, and we have to take it seriously."

"Huh? Fine!"

Seeing how inflexible Eiji was, Kushina felt utterly helpless. Could he really not see that her feelings for him were different?

Normally, when a girl invited a boy out alone, wasn't it supposed to be a date?

Fine, her original excuse had been to use their day off for special training in the forest, but that was obviously just a pretext! Eiji really was a blockhead!

She still had a long road ahead of her before she could win Eiji over, and the thought left Kushina dejected.

At the Konoha Main Gate, a muscular man was approaching alone.

The two chunin on gate duty that day spotted someone approaching the village and immediately rushed out, landing in front of him.

"Stop. Konoha is up ahead. What's your business here?"

Seeing that the man wore a black cloak, with even his face hidden in shadow, they immediately grew wary.

The two exchanged glances, and one spoke. "Show your face. And tell us exactly who you are!"

"You want to know my name?"

The man's voice was deep and powerful, making their hearts tremble.

The two chunin's hearts sank as he reached up with one hand, seized the cloak at his left shoulder, and flung it into the air.

A burly man with a hostile expression and wild, long white hair stood revealed before them!

Alarm bells instantly rang in both guards' minds as an indescribable pressure weighed on their chests!

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

"This is bad! This guy—"