After weighing his options for a while... Chu Aotian finally chickened out...
No... this wasn't chickening out... it was following his heart...
After all... ninja were born for combat and assassination.
To them, as long as nobody died, it was no big deal.
Those punches and kicks hurt just to watch. His scrawny little body probably couldn't take more than a few.
Besides, he wasn't in a hurry anyway. Nobody was likely to compete with him for the chance to help Kushina.
After all, he remembered that the Fourth Hokage's first real intervention, when he formally became involved with Kushina,
had come when ninja from the Land of Rain abducted her.
During their time at the Ninja Academy, he had always stayed on the sidelines.
Since nobody was competing with him, he could simply wait for Kushina to get tangled up with them first.
Once Kushina had nearly beaten them to the ground,
he could appear at just the right moment! All he needed to do was land a finishing blow, right?
That way, he could help Kushina without confronting these brats head-on.
I'm a goddamn genius.
Chu Aotian couldn't help giving himself a mental thumbs-up for his cleverness.
"Tsk, tsk, that's brutal. Look at them yanking her hair."
"Those moves, those little hands... she's really going at it."
"She threw him straight to the floor. Damn."
Chu Aotian watched coldly from the sidelines, patiently enjoying the show for a while.
Every so often, he offered a mocking comment.
Seeing that the time was about right and Kushina had started fighting back,
Chu Aotian knew his chance had come.
"Hey! Let go of that girl!"
Chu Aotian steadied his breathing, summoned his courage, and shouted.
To his surprise, those brats and Kushina really did stop fighting.
*Huh? Since when did