Time passed quickly.
Before long, more than an hour had gone by. A large Konoha army advancing from the direction of the village finally arrived outside Kikyō Mountain Fortress.
"You finally made it!"
Seeing Namikaze Minato and Shikaku Nara leading the force, Uchiha Ren finally felt the tension in his chest ease.
But when Minato saw Ren, his expression turned strangely serious. He began frantically winking and making subtle gestures, clearly trying to signal something.
Ren froze.
For the first time, he felt that the tacit understanding between him and Minato might not be as strong as he had thought.
He had absolutely no idea what Minato was trying to convey.
However, only a moment later—
A furious roar exploded beside his ear.
"UCHIHA JIN!!!"
Four golden chains shot through the air, instantly sealing off every escape route around him.
Adamantine Sealing Chains!
"Kushina?!"
Seeing the red-haired figure walking out from the crowd—and Obito Uchiha trailing behind her while desperately pretending he had nothing to do with any of this—Ren instantly understood what had happened.
Kushina Uzumaki had always treated Minato's three students extremely well.
She practically regarded them as her own students.
Back then, when Kushina had learned of the supposed deaths of Obito Uchiha and Rin Nohara , she had been heartbroken and absent-minded for a long time before recovering.
Now that she suddenly learned Obito wasn't dead after all…
Didn't that mean all the grief she'd gone through had been completely pointless?
Naturally, Kushina needed someone to vent her anger on.
As for who…
Judging from Obito's guilty expression, Ren knew immediately.
That brat had definitely pushed all the blame onto him.
"Uchiha Ren," Kushina said, her red hair whipping wildly in the air as her knuckles cracked loudly.
"You really kept me in the dark."
Step by step, she advanced toward him.
"Kushina, listen to my explanation…"
A drop of cold sweat rolled down Ren's temple.
He was already preparing to activate his Mangekyō Sharingan technique — Ama-no-Iwato.
He wasn't exaggerating.
His body simply couldn't withstand more than a few hits from Kushina.
After all—
Kushina could use monstrous strength too.
Her chakra control was actually not much worse than Tsunade's.
Although she didn't specialize in medical ninjutsu or taijutsu like Tsunade, when it came to superhuman strength, she could still knock someone out with a single punch.
"Explain? Sure!"
"I'd love to hear what kind of excuse you can come up with!"
"You knew Obito was alive and still didn't tell me! You let me cry like that—were you just enjoying the show?!"
Kushina stopped directly in front of him.
Her eyes locked onto Ren as she raised her fists.
If his explanation didn't satisfy her—
She looked ready to punch him straight into the ground.
Ren sighed helplessly.
"The situation back then was extremely sensitive. The fewer people who knew, the better."
"Look—I didn't even tell Minato."
The moment he said that, Minato shot him a deeply resentful look.
Truthfully, Minato also wanted an explanation.
But he was rational enough to know this wasn't the time to ask.
As for Kushina Uzumaki…
Unfortunately, when Kushina was angry, even Minato had no authority to intervene.
"Not good enough!"
"Kushina is Kushina, and Minato is Minato!"
"You not telling him has nothing to do with me—but you not telling me is unacceptable!"
Kushina shook her head, clearly dissatisfied with Ren's reasoning.
Ren felt even more helpless.
Trying to reason with a woman like Kushina Uzumaki was impossible.
Compared to her, Yakushi Nono was far easier to deal with.
Feeling Kushina's increasingly threatening gaze, Ren suddenly had an idea.
"Kushina… how about this?"
"I'll tell you another secret that concerns you personally."
"If I do, can we call this even?"
"A secret about me?"
Kushina blinked in surprise, then narrowed her eyes suspiciously.
"What kind of secret could you possibly know about me?"
Ren nodded confidently.
"It absolutely concerns you—and it's very important."
Kushina hesitated for a moment before lowering her fists slightly.
"Fine. Tell me."
"If it really is important, then we'll call it even."
Minato also turned his attention over curiously.
He had no idea what kind of secret Ren might know about Kushina.
After receiving Kushina's promise, Ren spoke calmly.
"Actually… Rin is still alive."
"She's been living in the village this whole time."
"—!"
Kushina and Minato both froze.
Their eyes widened in complete disbelief.
Then—
"KONO YARŌ!!!"
Joy and shock mixed with rage as Kushina's anger meter instantly skyrocketed.
Her fist slammed directly into Ren.
BOOM!
Ren's body exploded into fragments of wood.
A Substitution Jutsu.
Meanwhile, the real Ren had already escaped the range of the Adamantine Sealing Chains and appeared beside a late-arriving Kakashi Hatake .
Before Kushina could pursue him, Ren immediately shoved the utterly confused Kakashi forward.
"And I'm not the only one who kept it from you!"
"Kakashi and Obito both knew too—and they've already met Rin!"
"If even those two hid it from you, you can't blame just me!"
"Damn it…"
Kushina ground her teeth in fury.
Her golden chains immediately lashed toward Kakashi and Obito.
"You two bastards!"
But Obito had clearly learned from experience.
The Adamantine Chains passed straight through his body.
While retreating, he hurriedly explained,
"Big Sister Kushina, you can't blame me! I was supposed to be dead—I couldn't exactly come tell you!"
Kushina paused.
Strangely enough, that actually sounded reasonable.
So instead of chasing Obito further, she turned her attention toward Kakashi, who was still completely stunned.
The chains instantly wrapped him up tightly.
Until now, Kakashi's attention had been entirely focused on the very-much-alive Obito.
He still hadn't fully processed what was happening.
Although Obito had met Kakashi several times since returning from the dead—
For Kakashi, this was the first time seeing Obito alive again.
The emotional shock was enormous.
He hadn't even noticed what was happening around him.
Kushina stared at Kakashi and asked through clenched teeth:
"Kakashi… have you really already seen Rin?"
"Rin? Yeah, I saw her. She's currently—"
Kakashi answered instinctively.
Halfway through the sentence, he suddenly realized something was terribly wrong.
But it was already too late to take it back.
"Very good."
Kushina nodded slowly.
Her expression turned dark.
"It seems we need to have a nice little talk."
Dragging the bound Kakashi behind her—
She marched toward a quiet corner.
◇ BONUS & SUPPORT ◇
◇ 1 bonus chapter for every 10 reviews — drop a comment!
◇ 1 bonus chapter for every 100 Power Stones.
◇ Read 70 chapters ahead on P@treon → patreon.com/Sagamaster789