Taking a kunai from her body, the girl lightly lifted her fair little foot, and swiftly and silently followed the footprints into the room where they extended.
"Alright, and you even dare to enter this room that Sister Tsunade has never let anyone into. You're dead now, damn thief!"
After hesitating for a moment at the door, the girl finally charged boldly into the room.
And sure enough, she saw a figure sneaking around in the room, searching for something.
"Thief?", Hearing the noise from behind and seeing the red-haired girl pouncing on him with bared fangs and brandished claws, Uchiha Kage couldn't help but chuckle.
"You are Kushina?"
He had long sensed someone approaching, but Uchiha Kage hadn't expected it to be a petite red-haired girl.
Moreover, judging by the girl's demeanor and appearance, she looked just like a young Kushina.
"You know my name?", Kushina was briefly stunned, carefully eyeing this shady guy who actually called her by name.
Unfortunately, she had never seen this boy before.
But that wasn't too strange, there weren't many surprises in Konoha. That this 'thief' might know her wasn't all that unusual.
"Aren't you going to get out right now? This is Sister Tsunade's—", Kushina originally wanted to teach the thief a lesson, but when she lunged at him with her kunai, she found that she passed right through his body as if through air. Her kunai, coincidentally, stabbed straight into the floor.
Pfft!
The wooden floor cracked open with a long split.
"Ah… crap, crap, I broke the floor… this is Sister Tsunade's most treasured room…", Kushina anxiously tried to smooth out the large hole gouged into the floor by the kunai, but it was completely useless.
Now the one who was going to be beaten to death by Sister Tsunade wasn't just this sneaky thief, but her too…
"Most treasured? You said Tsunade never let anyone else into this room?", Uchiha Kage raised an eyebrow.
No wonder the little gadgets he made before were still sitting on the table.
"You damn thief, it's all your fault!", Kushina, who hadn't cried even after all that, finally burst into angry tears after seeing the dusty footprints all over the room and the damaged floor she had caused.
'Sister Tsunade is definitely going to kick me out now!'
"Where is Tsunade now?"
With just a finger pressed to the girl's forehead, Uchiha Kage easily caused the girl's little fists, like windmill flails, to completely miss their mark.
This house, or rather this entire clan compound, used to be full of people.
There were the two Senju brothers, Hashirama and Tobirama, Uzumaki Mito, and many other Senju clan members…
But now it was desolate. In such a large mansion, only Kushina, a member of an outside clan, was left.
Truly lamentable.
However, hearing what Kushina said just now, Uchiha Kage was now interested in seeing what Tsunade looked like at this time.
"Put down the stuff on the table, you damn thief!"
"I'm not a thief," After reclaiming the little gadgets he'd made in the past along with some personal belongings into his ninja tool pouch, Uchiha Kage finally turned around again to face the red-haired girl still attacking him.
Beautiful long red hair, tear-filled yet determined large eyes glaring at him as if to tear him apart.
Puffed cheeks, short limbs, everything highlighted the girl's petite cuteness.
If possible, Uchiha Kage really wanted to abduct her and raise her alone at home.
But fortunately, he wasn't some loli-con.
"Everything here is mine. I'm just taking back what belongs to me."
Although back when the First Hokage was still alive, he had lived well here, that period was very brief.
Now he just wanted to erase all traces of himself from here.
"Stupid thief! Liar! Give it back now!"
Fuming, Kushina lunged at Uchiha Kage and reached out to snatch his ninja tool pouch.
"You…"
Uchiha Kage was just about to use his phasing technique again to distance himself from Kushina when he sensed another group of people arriving outside.
"Tsunade is back?"
"Impossible, Sister Tsunade is still on the front lines. The war isn't over yet. How could she possibly return…"
Having missed again, Kushina sat on the floor clutching her slightly bumped forehead in mock pain while continuing to glare "fiercely cute" at this damned thief.
'What kind of ninjutsu is this guy using that I can't touch him at all?'
"Tsunade is on the front lines?"
'So it is the time of the Great Ninja War?'
'Judging by the timeline, it should be the Second Great War?'
Uchiha Kage pondered.
"Ah, yo-you tricked me into talking!"
'What a despicable guy!'
Kushina tried to unleash her turtle punches again, but the sound of the door being kicked open made her immediately realize something was wrong.
Someone else had also broken into the house?
"You have other accomplices?", She "fiercely" questioned the boy in front of her.
Uchiha Kage didn't respond to Kushina's question but instead looked toward the yard with an expression of helplessness, annoyance, and even a smile of disbelief as a group of bandits appeared.
'Why is it always these guys?'
———
"The boss was right. Konoha is at its weakest in defense right now. We really managed to sneak in and even broke into the Senju clan's territory," A tall, dark-skinned man wearing a Kumogakure forehead protector and dressed in a white ninja vest looked at the Senju clan's crest he had personally smashed and shouted excitedly.
"Keep it down! Our target is the jinchūriki!"
Another ninja dressed the same way quickly covered his comrade's mouth and signaled others to surround the room where the targets were located.
"Boss, the Nine-Tails jinchūriki from Konoha should be this red-haired girl, right? But why is there also a guy?"
"What? Another one?", Violently pushing open the door, a group of burly men stood outside, eyes locked fiercely on the "prey" inside.
The red-haired girl was holding a kunai and trembling, but her expression looked like she was ready to go all out with the bad guys, not weak at all like she appeared.
But the black-haired boy seemed a bit…
Either scared stiff or completely ignoring them, standing motionless.
"Maybe he's from the Senju clan. Tie them both up!"
Buy one, get one free, what a deal. This kidnapper from Kumogakure wasn't about to miss out.
"Damn it, how are Kumogakure people in Konoha?", Kushina immediately recognized they came with ill intent, but she also knew she wasn't a match for so many burly men.
She could only try to fight them off while casting a slightly unreasonable hopeful glance at the 'thief boy' beside her.
This guy's ninjutsu was so bizarre, maybe he could help her defeat these evil Kumogakure ninja?
But what she didn't expect at all was that the boy actually reached out his hand voluntarily.
"Take me to your boss."
Enough already, whether in instances or reality, why was it that every time he encountered Kumogakure people, they were always kidnapping someone?
Either in the middle of a kidnapping or on their way to traffick people.
Uchiha Kage was honestly annoyed, so this time he planned to wipe them all out.
He wanted to see who exactly was leading these Kumogakure traffickers, and who kept proposing these abduction "projects."
Raikage? Or someone high up in Kumogakure?
He wouldn't mind carrying out a major purge in Kumogakure.
——
"You stinking thief, coward!"
'Who surrenders without even resisting?'
Kushina had been ready to fight to the death, but the fact that this "thief" surrendered first suddenly made her lose her nerve.
Now, she could only let these Kumogakure ninjas tie up her hands, and bind her together with that damned thief.
"Stop struggling, little girl," A nearby Kumogakure ninja grinned viciously as he looked at the two boys and girls tied up by the leader.
'An orphan of the Uzumaki clan, and the Nine-Tails jinchūriki to boot. And the boy seems to be from the Senju clan.'
'What a jackpot.'
"If you don't behave like this kid, I'll beat you into submission!"
"Hands off! These are important hostages. Can you afford to pay if you damage them?", The leader of this group of Kumogakure ninja slapped the back of the ninja's head.
"Yes…", The slapped ninja could only stop his attempt to beat Kushina, quietly retreating to the side.
But in his heart, he still felt it was strange…
Normally, the leader never cared about such details.
Whoever they kidnapped was first given a beating. Only after the hostage was too weak to move would they be taken away.
Why was it different this time…
Maybe because this one was Konoha's jinchūriki, so they were being more cautious?
But it felt like ever since that boy exchanged a glance with the leader, the leader's aura and impression had completely changed…
Even the way they tied people up had become a lot more polite.
Was it just his imagination?
———
"Hmph!"
After scolding him, Kushina still seemed upset and bumped her forehead against Uchiha Kage's back as he walked in front of her.
"This is all your fault. If it weren't for you, I definitely wouldn't have been caught!"
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