Days passed one after another. Perhaps because I was strong enough, perhaps because I was cheerful and handsome, or perhaps because my teacher was Jiraiya, quite a few small and medium-sized clans in Konoha expressed interest in arranging a marriage with me. Plenty of female ninja even pursued me behind Kushina's back. I felt helpless about it all. From birth, my family had taught me that marriage was not mine to decide; that was my parents' decision, just as it had been for my two older brothers and my older sister. Their children must have grown quite a bit by now, right?!
Although I was now alone in another world, I truly wished my parents could appear before me and tell me they had already arranged my marriage. But all of that was nothing more than wishful thinking!
Somehow, Kushina learned that Families in Konoha wanted to arrange a marriage with me. The very night I returned from a mission, she climbed into my bed and fiercely declared that I belonged to her and no one was allowed to take me away. Then she said she needed to leave her mark first, to stake her claim...
I was terrified. I genuinely had no idea what to do and froze completely. Only when Kushina had nearly stripped off all my clothes did I snap out of it and stop her from going any further.
But Kushina burst into tears. She asked whether I thought she was beneath me and wanted to marry into one of those great Families instead. I did not know whether to laugh or cry, and honestly told her what was on my mind. It was not that I was unwilling to be intimate with her, but we had made a promise: I had to become Hokage and