She vaguely made out a dark figure standing at the door.
"Araki?"
Confusion flickered in Kushina's beautiful eyes as she ventured the question. The moment she asked, she already had her answer. This person definitely wasn't Araki. Araki wasn't that tall.
Chapter 12: Shimura Danzō
"You're not Araki!"
Kushina Uzumaki immediately realized that the person before her was someone she had never seen.
In an instant.
An inexplicable fear coiled around her heart.
Her first reaction was to flee this place.
She could feel that the person before her had come for her.
"Kushina Uzumaki, come with me. I have something important to tell you."
A steady, hoarse voice slowly rang out. Coupled with its measured tone, it betrayed almost no fluctuation in emotion.
The figure remained in the shadows, seemingly blending into the darkness, his outline barely discernible.
In these surroundings, Kushina's heart filled with intense unease. She couldn't convince herself not to be afraid.
He had spoken her name outright.
Then...
Obviously...
He had come for her!
Kushina immediately began thinking. She knew few people in Konoha, and this person wasn't among them. Few people knew her name, either, and that figure didn't resemble any of the classmates she had just met at the Ninja Academy.
"Who are you?"
Kushina shifted her feet slightly, slowly backing away. Her beautiful eyes were full of wariness, and her heart pounded wildly.
At that moment, she felt deeply conflicted. She desperately hoped Araki would appear and rescue her from this crisis, yet she also hoped he wouldn't appear at all, so he wouldn't get dragged into it.
"Allow me to introduce myself."
The dark figure maintained that same measured tone as he stepped out of the darkness, a clacking sound accompanying his steps. After a few steps, she could see that he held a cane in his left hand, as though he had trouble walking.
"My name is..."
The figure emerged from the darkness, revealing a black-haired, middle-aged man in dark green robes. Unlike an ordinary man, however, the right side of his face and his body were wrapped in thick white bandages.
"Shimura Danzō!"
The middle-aged man announced his name, a name Kushina had never heard before.
Had Araki been here, he would certainly have hidden himself away with great caution.
Anyone who had watched Naruto knew perfectly well what sort of standing Danzo held in Konoha.
Araki hadn't seen Danzo once in his three years here.
He certainly hadn't expected Kushina to meet Danzo on only her second night here.
"Do you... need something?"
Kushina's beautiful eyes watched Danzo warily as he emerged from the shadows. She carefully shifted her feet backward, trying to widen the steadily shrinking distance between them as much as possible.
"I'm taking you to meet someone."
Danzo's exposed left eye looked Kushina up and down, lingering a little longer on her red hair in particular.
That gaze gave off a very strange feeling.
It was as though he wasn't looking at a living person, but a human-shaped tool, no different from looking at some object.
"I'm not going!"
Kushina shook her head almost without hesitation. She had no idea what she was about to face. When she thought about being taken away, the unknown awaiting her was simply too frightening, filling her with intense fear.
"That isn't up to you."
The moment Danzo finished speaking, his figure flashed, and he appeared before Kushina in an instant. He reached out and grabbed her wrist through her sleeve, then carried her away as though picking up a small animal.
Araki raced through the woods, beads of sweat continually sliding down his forehead. Giving his all to training every day made his life feel particularly fulfilling.
Right now, he wasn't thinking about Danzo at all.
Much less did he know that Danzo had appeared at his doorstep and taken Kushina away.
If he had known...
He would definitely have hidden even farther away!
Are you kidding? That's Danzo! If that old schemer found out I could use Wood Release, wouldn't I die a horrible death?
Leave saving the damsel in distress to someone else!
Araki would rather not get dragged into trouble himself.
Only when he felt there was little risk, and he had no choice but to save someone, would he consider whether to act.
The next morning.
When Araki returned to his doorstep, he happened to see an exhausted-looking Kushina. She held his schoolbag and sat curled up by the door, her eyes lost and unfocused, as though something weighed heavily on her mind.
"What happened?"
Araki frowned. However oblivious he might be, even he could tell something was wrong with Kushina.
What's going on?
Wasn't I only away for one night?
Why does it look like something serious happened?
Her mental state...
Doesn't something seem a little off?!
"Araki..."
Just then, Kushina abruptly raised her head, revealing the face she had buried between her knees. Her face was pale and bloodless, with heavy dark circles around her bloodshot eyes. Her former innocence and cheerfulness had vanished completely, replaced by a suffocating loneliness and heaviness.
Kushina's gaze was empty, her eyes dull, almost devoid of emotion, yet she seemed to be holding back intense feelings.
It was the feeling of wanting to cry but being unable to.
"Who bullied you?"
Araki froze for a moment. He had never seen Kushina like this. She seemed like an entirely different person, filling his mind with tangled questions.
Everything had turned upside down overnight.
That was exactly how it felt.
He couldn't imagine what could make an optimistic, cheerful girl suddenly become so despondent.
"I... I'm so scared!"
Kushina found strength from somewhere and suddenly jumped up from the ground. She hugged Araki from the front, locking her arms tightly around his neck, her body trembling uncontrollably.
"I don't know what to do..."
"I feel so hopeless!"
"Is this my life?"
"I can't accept this cruel reality!"
"Is everything fate?"
"I feel so helpless!"
"I... I can't tell you... I can't say anything..."
Kushina spoke one sentence after another. Perhaps because it was Araki, the emotions pent up inside her surged out like a flood bursting through a dam. Tears welled in her empty, dull eyes and streamed uncontrollably down, pattering onto Araki's shoulder.
Feeling Kushina's emotions nearing collapse, Araki vaguely understood what had happened.
After all.
Kushina had come to Konoha.
Not to have fun.
But for something far more important.
Chapter 13: Damn It!
Araki was a transmigrator.
His transmigration had also been completely unexpected.
Compared to other transmigrators, Araki felt he was missing some standard features.
But seemingly to make up for it, he hadn't been sent to some unfamiliar world, but to the world of Naruto.
Although it was still transmigration, this particular kind offered Araki a rare advantage: he knew everything that would happen after the current point in time.
Kushina Uzumaki hadn't come to Konoha for fun. She was there to succeed Mito Uzumaki, the wife of the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, as the next Nine-Tails Jinchuriki.
Before Kushina came here, she hadn't known any of this. It was perfectly normal for her to suffer a degree of emotional collapse after learning the truth. After all, she was only a nine-year-old child.
"It's time for class."
Araki spoke flatly, mercilessly interrupting Kushina's sobbing. At that moment, he seemed quite cold.
Of course, this was a result he had deliberately created. Kushina becoming the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki was a foregone conclusion.
Mito Uzumaki was nearing the end of her life and could no longer keep suppressing the Nine-Tails. If the transfer of the Nine-Tails couldn't be completed in the time she had left, he would regain his freedom.
When that happened, everything would spiral out of control. The Nine-Tails would inevitably take revenge on Konoha, and there was currently no one in the village who could stop him.
Araki had no ability to change Kushina's circumstances, nor did he want to. This was the best arrangement for now.