Chapter 48: Eight Trigrams Seal

Konoha, the Village Hidden in the Leaves.

Despite the constant friction between nations, Konoha, having proven its formidable strength through the First and Second Great Ninja Wars, was bustling with merchants, its streets an endless stream of traffic.

Naruto tilted his head back, gazing at the familiar village gate. He hadn't expected to see this gate again.

"Mr. Genichiro, thank you so much for your care these past few days," Mizuki's mother said gratefully.

Naruto nodded slightly. Since the mother and child were ordinary civilians, their journey had inevitably taken a little more time. Dressed in loose-fitting clothes, Naruto's current appearance didn't differ much from that of a typical traveler. The young Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, was quite bold; despite the Third Great Ninja War potentially erupting at any moment, he still permitted merchants and travelers to enter the hidden village. Although the interrogation process was somewhat tedious, judging by the reactions of nearby merchants, Konoha's procedures were already quite concise compared to other hidden villages.

Friendly, harmonious, peaceful—this was the mother and son's first impression of Konoha. Turning around to thank their benefactor once more, they found he had already vanished. The two of them looked at each other, puzzled.

"Kurama, can you contact the other Tailed Beasts?" Naruto asked internally, walking casually along Konoha's streets like any other traveler.

"I can, but no one gives me the time of day," Kurama harrumphed.

Naruto chuckled. Kurama himself was the most tsundere brat of them all, yet he had the gall to say that about others.

"In this timeline, where should I even consider living?" Naruto asked, surveying the surrounding buildings. Ever since he started living alone, the idea Hiruzen Sarutobi had consistently instilled in him was: You are an orphan, without parents. The place you live in now is something I fought the village to secure for you. Thus, he knew nothing about where his biological parents had once resided.

"Keep going straight, then turn left at the second intersection…"

Following Kurama's guidance, Naruto saw the place where his parents in this life had lived.

"Unexpectedly luxurious…" Naruto rubbed his chin and muttered. He had assumed that his mother, the previous jinchuriki of the Nine-Tails, would have been targeted and ostracized just like him.

"Minato Namikaze isn't the Hokage yet at this time, but he's still a jonin. Your mother, although unable to be promoted to jonin due to her status, couldn't be mistreated by that Hiruzen Sarutobi because of Mito Uzumaki's influence," Kurama, having experienced it firsthand, explained to him. "At this point in time, Minato Namikaze should have been assigned to the Iwagakure front."

"That may be so, but I can't get in right now either," Naruto sighed helplessly. As expected, even if his mother's status was special, she was still inevitably monitored by ANBU.

"Unlike you, your mom has a fiery temper. Those ANBU don't dare monitor her too closely," Kurama grumbled. Among all his jinchuriki, this current one had lived the most wretchedly.

Naruto rolled his eyes, too lazy to say anything more.

Click!

A woman with long red hair, carrying a vegetable basket, opened the door and stepped out.

"Hm?" Uzumaki Kushina instinctively looked towards a distant street corner. There, something seemed to cause a flutter in her heart. "ANBU? Doesn't look like it…" Kushina muttered a few words to herself but didn't dwell on it. In a place like Konoha, those who could afford to provoke her didn't want to, and those who couldn't afford to… wanted to even less. She usually dismissed such strange, prying gazes as ANBU. Past experience often proved her right.

"Minato's been sent on another mission again," Uzumaki Kushina sighed. She had been planning to make sukiyaki today. "Sukiyaki for one? Maybe I should make something else instead…"

A long while later, Naruto cautiously revealed half of his body, watching several figures disappear in the distance. "That was almost a GG."

"Hm?" Kurama looked at him, puzzled. Although he knew Naruto quite well by now, he still couldn't quite understand the new slang terms Naruto occasionally spouted.

"Means 'done for'," Naruto explained. His mother's glance just now had directly drawn the ANBU over; if he hadn't slipped away quickly, he would have been discovered.

Taking a few steps, he reached the outer wall of the courtyard and leaped over it with ease.

Gazing at the ingredients in her vegetable basket, Uzumaki Kushina nodded with satisfaction. Although she had entertained the thought of cooking other dishes, for some reason, when it came to choosing ingredients, she had still selected those for sukiyaki.

Closing the door, Uzumaki Kushina placed the vegetable basket in a relatively safe spot. She cracked her knuckles and turned on the lights.

"Are you going to come out yourself and let me give you a beating? Or do you choose for me to drag you out and then give you a beating?" Although she rarely went on missions, it didn't mean her senses had dulled to the point where she couldn't even detect another person in her own room.

From the kitchen, Naruto walked out, looking at the woman not far off—his mother, in every sense of the word.

"I've thought about it for a long time, but now that we're truly face to face, I don't know how I should address you."

"???" Uzumaki Kushina's imposing aura faltered. For him to address her so formally… that was too strange. Especially since this half-grown boy before her gave her an inexplicable sense of closeness that seemed to originate from her very bloodline.

"Perhaps I should just call you 'Mother'," Naruto sighed helplessly. This is so conflicting.

"???" At this moment, Uzumaki Kushina was completely bewildered. What on earth is going on! Minato and I are still so young; even if we had a child, he couldn't possibly be this big, right? Besides, I haven't even given birth yet?! Yet, she had an instinctive feeling, a gut certainty, that the boy standing before her was indeed her child.

"Can you… explain this to me? I'm a bit dizzy?" Uzumaki Kushina asked softly after a moment's hesitation, seemingly afraid that her usual fiery temper might scare the child before her. If any of her friends who knew her well were to witness such a scene, their jaws would undoubtedly drop to the floor. When had Konoha's Red Hot-Blooded Habanero ever used such a gentle tone with anyone other than Minato?

"I can," Naruto nodded, then proceeded to recount the events he had encountered in Rouran, one by one.

"So you're my future son? And you were accidentally brought to this era by the Dragon Vein?" After listening, Uzumaki Kushina only felt a wave of astonishment. She didn't harbor the slightest doubt about the truthfulness of his words.

"You… believe me?" Naruto asked, surprised. Didn't my mother even consider the possibility that I might be a liar?

"Oh? Then how are you going to prove yourself?" Uzumaki Kushina leaned forward, winking playfully as she asked with a smile.

Naruto couldn't help but take two steps back and cough lightly. "This might be a bit rude." Saying this, he lifted his shirt, and the chakra within his body swiftly flowed towards his abdomen. Under the stimulation of the chakra, an ink-black seal, intricate as a master's painting—the Eight Trigrams Seal—materialized on his stomach.

"This is… the Eight Trigrams Seal?!!" Uzumaki Kushina's pupils contracted violently. Her entire demeanor instantly changed. She was from the Uzumaki clan; she knew better than anyone what this seal represented.