Chapter 107

The results of years of selection are never in vain, and children from such shinobi heads with clan elders prefer to keep them close. In Konoha, there were currently only two recognized representatives of the Uzumaki clan — Mito and Ryo (unfortunately, Kushina did not belong to this list despite her pure lineage — jinchuriki are primarily considered strategic assets, and then everything else). All others — even promising half-bloods among the masters' students — left the village by the order of the Hokage.

The appearance of a third could cause unnecessary excitement among the clans and a new twist of intrigue for the opportunity to gain strong blood through marriage, as they had been attempting to do with Nara-Uzumaki until now. There were no doubts in Mito's mind that Katsumi would grow up to be a strong kunoichi — even now, the little girl possessed more chakra reserves than her Senju peers.

Considering the clear advantages of Uzumaki blood, not only the Hyuga and Uchiha clans would strive to recruit her into their ranks. Therefore, by concealing the name of the baby's genius father, the kunoichi hoped to greatly reduce unwanted attention towards another Senju, albeit slightly stronger than her peers. In the shinobi world, unnecessary fame mostly increases the number of hunters after your head and does not contribute to a long life.

Mito had reaffirmed this recently during the attempted kidnapping of little Kushina by the Cloud. The idiots had not considered her training and the small secrets authored by Ryo. Thirty golden chains and the power of the Rasengan proved enough to turn the attackers into unrecognizable piles of meat even before Mito arrived in response to the distress seal specially embedded in the jinchuriki seal. Danzo and Hiruzen trembled for a week over the brainwashing inflicted on them by the wife of the first Hokage.

"In that case, while the little one is occupied, we can proceed," Linli nodded in agreement.

"Oh-ho-ho, don't worry, my dear, for a master of my level, this will only take a second or two," the ancient kunoichi laughed with arrogant superiority.

Extending her hand, she touched the tip of her index finger to the baby girl's crown, causing dark blue symbols to scatter in all directions from that spot. After a couple of moments, they literally sank into the skin of her head and disappeared from view, while her sparse hair changed to a bright red color.

"And that's it. In a few months, it'll be impossible to find anything under her hair, even with the utmost desire," Mito-sama said.

"Thank you, Mito-sama," Linli inclined her head, carefully removing the drowsy daughter from her breast during feeding and placing her in the crib.

"Don't mention it, Lin-chan. It cost me nothing, and the girl will have a quieter life among her peers," Uzumaki waved her hand, taking the young friend by the elbow and heading to the living room.

There, the clone of the hostess had just finished setting up a tray with tea and a small vase of cookies on a small table in front of the sofa. Comfortably settling down, the women acknowledged the elite strain cultivated by the clan, after which they continued their conversation.

"How is Kushina-chan doing? After everything that happened..." Linli left the sentence unfinished, but it was clear what she meant.

"To be honest, after the attempted kidnapping, Kushina hardly changed and certainly didn't lose her desire to be a kunoichi," Mito shook her head, smiling faintly. "It wasn't worth one of those idiots calling her a tomato — the last failures who tried that spent over a month in the hospital three years ago."

Senju couldn't help but laugh, knowing the village gossip from that time.

"Because of her fiery temperament, Kushina-chan barely remembers how she turned two jounin and three chunin into a bloody mess. I even had to drag her away from the corpses to allow the arriving ANBU to conduct identification," the redhead beauty snorted. "Thanks to her explosive character, she had no doubt about the necessity of killing the next idiots, especially those not from our village."

"Yeah, most genin worry about their first kill," the redhead sighed, clearly reminiscing about her childhood.

I've got more interesting stuff on patreon (+ 100 chapter)

patreon.com/Chill76