Main World.
Year thirty of Konoha, summer.
British Continent, New Capital.
Imperial Palace, a side pavilion in the garden.
The wind was still blowing. The tea in front of Kushina had gone completely cold. She neither added water nor changed cups, simply leaving it there, as though it were an object whose temperature no longer needed checking.
She sat for a while, her gaze resting neither on the table nor on the vines outside the pavilion that the wind was tossing. She was merely looking for somewhere her eyes did not need to focus.
Jin Zhiyin had already left, and the remaining time was hers to spend alone. She was thinking of a name. Mito Uzumaki.
She had thought she had already set that framework in place. But afterward, she found herself still looking back at that spot. Not because she still doubted the framework, but because she had yet to decide what materials the new framework should use. She was searching for a replacement position she could use.
Footsteps came from the corridor, unhurried, but each step landed firmly. Kushina did not turn her head. She had already recognized who it was, and did not adjust her posture.
Only when he stopped at the edge of the pavilion did she speak, her tone a little more level than before, as though stating something she had already verified. "Why was the person I admired when I was young like this?" She offered no further explanation afterward, nor did she look back to check whether he had heard her clearly.
Toyotomi Jilan did not answer immediately. He entered the pavilion and sat on the other side, not too close, stopping just at the edge of the table's opposite end. He neither closed the distance nor widened it, simply settling into that