Main World.
Konoha Year 30, summer.
British Continent, New Capital.
Imperial Palace, Garden Side Pavilion.
Kushina sat in the pavilion. The tea before her had been replaced with another pot, but it had already cooled. She had not left that spot, had not stood up once since the footage ended. She had been trying to align the beginning and end of the entire path, to find where it had started to diverge.
"Jilan, why... why didn't I see the window of opportunity?"
Toyotomi Jilan stood at the edge of the pavilion without sitting down. He seemed to have known she would ask this question, his tone as flat as if he were relaying a verified parameter. "Anyone who can see a window of opportunity for unification is no mediocrity to begin with."
Kushina kept her eyes on him. "So... I'm a mediocrity?"
"Most people in the Shinobi World are mediocrities." Jilan answered quickly, as though he needed no pause. "The window of opportunity isn't hidden. It's right there, but most people never turn their eyes toward it. They can only see what has already happened, not what is about to become achievable."
Kushina fell silent for a while, as though setting those words beside several sets of data she had already verified.
Then she asked her next question, her voice a little lower than before. "Was Minato Namikaze a mediocrity too, then? If Minato Namikaze hadn't died during the Nine-Tails' Attack, then..."
Jilan did not wait for her to finish. "It's precisely because Minato Namikaze died during the Nine-Tails' Attack that he was a mediocrity."
Kushina spoke a little faster. "Minato Namikaze died for Konoha!"
Jilan did not evade her gaze. "So what if everyone in Konoha died? As long as Minato Namikaze lived, Konoha could be rebuilt. He could