Those few words alone made her concern plain.
Hearing them, Kitsuchi felt a lump rise in his throat.
Finally, he took a deep breath and spoke bluntly.
"Father and the Raikage failed to take down Uchiha Yin together. Uchiha Yin demanded that we send Kurotsuchi to Konoha as a hostage before he would spare Iwagakure!"
After forcing those words out in one breath, Kitsuchi slumped back in defeat.
He leaned against the sofa as though every ounce of strength had been drained from his body.
When his wife heard what he said, the cleaning rag slipped from her hand.
"Is that true?" she asked, her face filled with disbelief.
Although she phrased it as a question, she knew perfectly well that Kitsuchi was not joking.
She scrambled up in desperation, then dropped to her knees on the floor and shook Kitsuchi's legs hard.
"Why does it have to be Kurotsuchi? Aren't there other people?"
Kitsuchi looked at his wife's devastated face, his own expression equally despairing.
"Because Kurotsuchi is Father's granddaughter, of course!"
At those words, his wife sank helplessly onto the floor and began sobbing without another word.
Seeing his wife cry, Kitsuchi wrapped his arms around her shoulders, his heart aching, and pressed his face to the top of her head.
"There's nothing we can do. We can't abandon Iwagakure!"
His wife sobbed quietly. "I understand, but she's my daughter!"
Those words were like a sharp knife slicing over and over at Kitsuchi's heart.
Kurotsuchi, who had been opening something upstairs, hurried down when she heard the commotion.
Seeing her parents holding each other and crying, she even used the Body Flicker Technique to appear beside them in an instant.
She hugged her parents in a panic and asked, "Mom, Dad, what's wrong? Are you arguing?"
Seeing Kurotsuchi