"You finally admit I came first?"
"Right now you're… you're earlier, but don't get cocky. In the future, it'll be me."
Kushina was very confident in herself.
"As long as you're happy. I actually don't care about these things...", Mikoto sighed. She and her bestie had fallen in love with the same man, just in different timelines.
She didn't even have a way to complain.
Even after experiencing so much, she no longer had the thought of blaming Uchiha Kage for being too affectionate.
"Yes, yes, our Mikoto is the most magnanimous," Kushina rolled her eyes, then forced her sore and weak body to sit up.
Although she was afraid of pain, in terms of stamina, Mikoto was definitely no match for her.
"Kushina… don't… stop it," Not yet recovered, Mikoto quickly felt the tickling on her underarms and waist.
It had to be said, Kushina knew even better than Uchiha Kage where her ticklish spots were.
"Hmph, this is what you get for stealing my man!"
'And you even had to come to my room...'
'Now you know how tough I can be, right?'
Kushina pinned Mikoto underneath her and ruthlessly teased her for a while.
"Wait… we… we should now form… form a united front… don't…", Mikoto, trying to hold back her laughter, tried to stop Kushina's retaliation.
"Say what?"
'A united front? Against who?'
Kushina felt that her biggest enemy was Mikoto.
Although they were besties, and although she didn't reject her that much…
To have a big chunk of affection taken away from her for no reason—her heart still felt a bit resentful.
"Aren't you curious if Kage has… other women?"
"This…"
Kushina instantly stopped moving.
"Also, what kind of place is the Konoha Kage is in right now? Are there other women secretly liking him? Or has he already…"
That's right. Although she had always been spending time with Uchiha Kage, Mikoto realized she never actually knew what the timeline Kage came from was like.
"Around the same age as Sasuke and them… maybe quite a few young girls already like him."
"No, husband doesn't like the young ones, and he said himself that he's already over fifty, about the same age as Tsunade… I'm guessing Lady Tsunade definitely has some unusual relationship with husband."
Kushina's intuition had always been very accurate.
"Lady Tsunade? Then we..."
If it was Tsunade, the situation might be different.
Mikoto felt that even with her and Kushina combined, they probably weren't as...
The two girls, who had just been horsing around, fell into a strange silence.
"No problem. We'll win!", Kushina broke the silence and confidently swung her fist.
"We have two women!"
"Yeah," Mikoto also smiled slightly.
Finally, Kushina had settled down.
"Right, what exactly is this place? Why does it look so much like Konoha?"
"Husband said it's an 'alternate space', and besides us, there are many other dead souls here too. But they can't enter this 'Konoha Village'. Oh right, Minato is also outside..."
Once she started talking, Kushina returned to being the bestie who talked about everything with Mikoto.
"Souls? That means the people from the Uchiha clan also..."
After listening to Kushina's explanation, Mikoto couldn't help getting curious.
"But, could it be dangerous?"
"No, no, those wandering souls. Only husband has the ability to resurrect them. Before resurrection, they don't even have self-awareness, and even after resurrection, they behave like obedient babies listening to husband's commands. So only we are the true masters of this space."
"Then this place is really..."
"Like a paradise, right? Husband named it Dreamspace. It really is like a dream," Speaking of dreams, Kushina thought again about how she hadn't been able to return to the real Konoha with Uchiha Kage before.
"But, sometimes I really want to go back to the real world. If only we could come and go freely in the future."
'Naruto is still outside, and…'
What Mikoto said before made a lot of sense. Husband's outward appearance looked only in his teens. Surely lots of young girls liked him.
Maybe in the real ninja world, rivals in love were everywhere.
"That day will come. I believe in Kage."
"Hmph, Mikoto, you're such a fox spirit," Kushina pouted.
As if saying she didn't trust Uchiha Kage.
"Kushina!"
How could she go back to picking fights again just a few minutes after calming down?
Mikoto helplessly called her bestie's name, then suddenly thought of something, and teased her right back.
"Wait, Kushina's the fox spirit, isn't she? You used to have a big fox living inside you."
"That was the Nine Tails!"
Alright then, Mikoto wasn't being honest after all.
Kushina reached out with both hands and pinned Mikoto down again.
"The Nine Tails is a fox!"
Having regained her strength, Mikoto took the initiative and grabbed Kushina's proud chest.
'So unfair!'
She didn't have any boobs left, while Kushina still did. And would for a long time.
"Ah! Mikoto, you… I'm fighting you for real now!"
Just moments ago they were talking about forming a united front. One sentence later and the good sisters turned into plastic besties.
———
"Again Konoha Village… but this place?"
[On the Other Side]
After entering the solo instance, Uchiha Kage once again saw familiar buildings.
'If I remember correctly, this should be, the Senju clan's compound?'
'And the mansion in front of me is also very, very familiar.'
Because this was the place where he once lived together with a certain Konoha princess.
———
"Is anyone home? I'm back..."
Hooking off her ninja sandals with her toes, the petite girl stepped barefoot onto the entrance floor.
"Okay then, no one."
The empty residence had no response, only the girl's murmuring echoed in the spacious and quiet house.
No one to say welcome home, no one with a cold face and rough tone to instruct her in taijutsu, and no brother always going on about becoming Hokage.
Grandma Mito was dead. Lady Tsunade was still at the frontlines. Brother Nawaki… she heard he was blown to pieces.
Only she was left in the house.
Such a large courtyard, such a big mansion, it felt just like her heart right now: empty, with nothing left.
No, not empty. Inside her now lived a terrifying big fox.
And soon after that…
As if overnight, everyone seemed to learn there was a demon fox sealed inside her.
The classmates who used to bully her for being an 'outsider', they didn't dare bully her anymore. Instead, they ran away when they saw her.
She didn't even have an excuse to pick a fight anymore.
The others were worse, civilian merchants, the gazes from around her...
Even though they tried to hide it, Kushina sensed it immediately.
It was a kind of discrimination even worse than toward outsiders.
As if she were some kind of filth...
Sniffing, recalling the bitterness of recent times, recalling Grandma Mito's face and voice, then looking again at this empty mansion, the girl suddenly shed tears.
But soon she hurriedly wiped the corners of her eyes, sniffed, and stubbornly raised her head to stop the grief rising in her chest.
"No, I can't cry. Grandma said don't fall into negative emotions… or the Nine Tails will take the chance to break free..."
'Also, tonight happens to be, the full moon.'
The evening sun outside had only a trace of glow left, and a silver disk had already hung high in the red clouds.
Ever since the Nine Tails was sealed inside her, whenever she saw the full moon, she always felt restless.
She knew it was because of the Nine Tails.
She was now an independent grown-up. She wouldn't cry in secret like other girls.
Loneliness, cold stares, so what?
She would overcome it all sooner or later.
The girl took a deep breath, calmed herself down, and continued walking inside.
"Huh? Why are there other footprints?"
Crossing the corridor, just as she was about to return to her room, the girl suddenly noticed a trail of footprints that didn't belong to her.
There was even some mud and dust on them.
There had long been no one else at home, so could it be...
"A thief!m?"
'Alright then, who is so bold as to steal from this little lady?'
'And in the Senju clan's estate no less!'
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