"Alright, alright, calm down."
Minato reached over and gently placed a hand on Kushina's arm. "Mizuki's about to arrive in Konoha. I promise you, she won't be treated the way she was in Kusa. I'll make sure of it."
Kushina took a deep breath, forcing herself to relax. The chakra flare subsided and Naruto's crying quieted to soft whimpers as she rocked him.
"Those people in Kusa are idiots," she muttered, still angry. "Instead of improving their own village's medical capabilities, they fixated on squeezing everything they could out of one woman's abilities."
"The really stupid part comes after that," Kenji added. "They didn't even care about Mizuki's child. When I sent my puppet over, I found out that the Kusa ninjas not only refused to let Mizuki bring Karin to work, they also wouldn't let her go home during the day to feed her. They made her stay until evening before releasing her. Karin's six months old. She went an entire day without eating because they couldn't be bothered to let her mother take a break."
"That's..." Even Minato was at a loss for words for a moment. He shook his head slowly. "A healing constitution is incredibly valuable to any village. The fact that they exploited it like that, with no thought to the long-term consequences... it's beyond short-sighted. It's cruel."
"Cruel and stupid," Kushina agreed darkly. "Which is a dangerous combination."
Before anyone could continue that line of conversation, the door to the private room slid open.
The Transparent Release puppet entered first. Behind it came Mizuki, clutching Karin against her chest. She looked slightly unsteady on her feet, her face still pale and a bit dazed from the repeated spatial jumps.
She stood in the doorway for a moment, blinking as her eyes adjusted to the warm lighting. Then she looked around.
The room was cozy, illuminated by soft lamplight that made everything feel welcoming. The low table in the center was already covered with dishes, steam still rising from hot food that smelled incredible. Her stomach twisted with sudden hunger that she'd been ignoring for hours. But what caught her attention more than the food were the people seated around that table.
Four of them. And two had red hair that marked them as Uzumaki. The same two women from the photograph. But they were real. They were here. And they were looking at her with expressions of warmth.
"Mizuki!" Kushina was on her feet immediately. "You're finally here! And this must be Karin!"
She leaned in to look at the baby, her entire face lighting up with delight. "Oh, she's adorable! Look at that hair! It's beautiful, just like yours."
Mizuki found herself frozen, overwhelmed by the sudden enthusiasm. After months of being treated like livestock by the Kusa ninjas, having someone look at her daughter with such affection was almost too much to process.
"H-hello," she managed, her voice coming out quieter than she'd intended. "I'm... I'm Uzumaki Mizuki."
She instinctively shifted slightly toward where the puppet stood, seeking the familiarity of the figure that had brought her here. Her hands tightened protectively around Karin even though logically she knew these people meant no harm.
"I'm Kushina," the red-haired woman said, her smile never wavering despite Mizuki's nervousness. She reached out and took Mizuki's wrist gently, guiding her toward the table. "Come on, sit down! Tonight's all about welcoming you to Konoha. I'm buying, so order whatever you want. Don't hold back!"
She positioned Mizuki between herself and the other Uzumaki woman, creating a barrier of clan members on either side. Making it clear without words that Mizuki was protected now. That she belonged.
"I'm Honoka," the other red-haired woman said with a warm smile. She shifted the baby in her arms slightly so Mizuki could see him better. "And this is my son, Daiki. He's about the same age as Karin. The two of them can play together as they grow up."
"Oh, right! And this is my precious son, Uzumaki Naruto!"
Kushina immediately lifted Naruto high into the air. The baby let out a surprised squeal but seemed to enjoy the attention. "Look how energetic he is! He's definitely going to be an amazing ninja someday!"
Mizuki felt some of her tension ease. The enthusiasm was infectious. These women weren't putting on an act or trying to manipulate her. They were just happy to meet her. She gently rocked Karin in her arms and managed a slightly steadier voice.
"I'm Uzumaki Mizuki, and this is my daughter, Uzumaki Karin. From now on... I hope we can all get along."
"Let me introduce myself properly this time," Kenji spoke up from across the table. "I'm Yamanaka Kenji."
"Kenji?" Mizuki's head snapped toward where the puppet had been standing. The wooden figure had vanished at some point without her noticing. She looked back at the man at the table. "But then earlier..."
"The one who went to Kusa to get you was a puppet I was controlling," Kenji explained, correctly guessing her confusion. "I couldn't leave Konoha for an extended period, so I had to handle the extraction that way. Sorry for the deception."
"So it was you." This gentle-looking man sitting across from her was the one who'd saved her and Karin from that nightmare. Before she could think better of it, she started to stand.
"Don't," Kenji said quickly, waving his hands in a 'sit down' gesture. "You've already thanked me multiple times. There's no need for that kind of formality."
"Oh!" Kushina jumped in, probably sensing Mizuki was about to get emotional and wanting to head that off. She pointed at the man sitting beside her. "This is my husband, Namikaze Minato. He's currently the Fourth Hokage!"
"The... the Hokage?" Mizuki's eyes went wide. She stared at Minato like he'd just announced he was secretly a tailed beast in disguise. In Kusa, she'd only ever seen their village leader once from a distance, some remote figure who'd never acknowledged her existence. And now on her very first day in Konoha, she was sitting at a table with the Hokage himself? "I... hello! I'm Uzumaki Mizuki! Please take care of me!"
Her hands were trembling again, but this time from a different kind of nervousness. Meeting the leader of an entire village was intimidating even under the best circumstances.
"No need for titles or formality," Minato said with a bright smile, completely unthreatening. "Welcome to Konoha. From today on, we stand on the same side. This is your home now."
"Home..."
The word hit Mizuki harder than she'd expected. Her eyes suddenly burned with tears that she had to blink back quickly. In all her years of drifting, desperately searching for somewhere safe, no one had ever said that.
Minato's simple sentence, delivered with such sincerity, made her feel a warmth she'd almost forgotten existed.
"Thank you. Minato-sama... no, Minato."
Watching Minato reduce Mizuki to near-tears, Kenji finally understood where Naruto would inherit his most powerful ability from. The kid's famous Talk no Jutsu didn't come from nowhere. It was genetic.
"Don't worry, Mizuki!" Kushina declared, puffing out her chest in an exaggerated protective gesture. "From now on, if anyone in Konoha even thinks about giving you or Karin trouble, you come straight to me. I'll deal with them!"
"I will," Mizuki said, nodding vigorously. For the first time since arriving in Konoha, she smiled genuinely. "Thank you, Kushina."
As everyone settled into more comfortable conversation, servers brought out additional dishes. The table quickly filled with food, the variety and quality far beyond anything Mizuki had seen in years. The smells alone were enough to make her stomach growl.
Kushina was the first to raise her glass of juice.
"Alright everyone! To welcome Mizuki to Konoha, cheers!"
"Cheers!" Everyone raised their glasses. The sound of them clinking together rang clear and bright in the private room. They ate and talked, the conversation flowing easily. Kushina and Honoka immediately started comparing notes on childcare with Mizuki, sharing horror stories about sleep schedules and feeding routines. Naruto and Daiki were apparently both champion criers when they wanted attention. Karin, thankfully, seemed to be a relatively calm baby by comparison.
After the initial rush of food and conversation had settled slightly, Kenji turned to Minato with a question that had been nagging at him.
"By the way, why does Naruto have the Uzumaki surname instead of Namikaze? Traditionally, children take their father's name, don't they?"
He remembered that in the original timeline, Naruto used the Uzumaki name to hide his connection to the Fourth Hokage. But with Minato still alive and the Nine-Tails' attack never having happened, there was no reason for that kind of secrecy.
Minato's gaze shifted to where Kushina was describing something to Mizuki and Honoka, all three women laughing at whatever story she was telling. His expression softened.
"I want Kushina's Uzumaki lineage to continue being passed down in Konoha," he said quietly. "The Uzumaki clan's sealing techniques and bloodline abilities are extremely valuable. They can't just be allowed to disappear."
"I see," Kenji nodded, understanding the logic. Then he added with a slight smile, "Are you planning to have another child later? Someone to carry on the Namikaze name?"
"Not for the foreseeable future. Before we find the whereabouts of that masked man, having Kushina go through childbirth again is far too risky. I don't want to put her through that danger a second time."
Minato paused, then his expression lightened again, smile returning.
"Besides, I already have Kushina. And Naruto is more than enough. I'm happy with my family as it is."
Kenji couldn't help but smile at that. In the shinobi world, there was indeed a custom of women taking their husband's surname after marriage. Kushina could technically be called Namikaze Kushina now, just as Honoka could be Yamanaka Honoka if she wanted. But it wasn't mandatory. If the woman's family was a prestigious clan, she could keep her original name. Uzumaki Mito, the wife of Senju Hashirama, had always retained her Uzumaki surname even after marriage. It was a mark of respect for her clan's legacy.
Looking around the table at the three Uzumaki women, all with their red hair, he felt satisfied with how things had turned out.