Slurp—
Inside Ichiraku Ramen, the three of them were burying their faces in bowls of delicious Chashu Ramen.
Even Kushina, who had been a bit reserved at first, had warmed up after a few meals together.
Two honor students sitting next to a seemingly lazy, blonde delinquent—it looked exactly like a scene of "bad influences" corrupting the youth.
"Another bowl!"
Night had just finished his fifth bowl. Kushina had already tapped out, and Minato, living up to his future title as "The Fastest in the Ninja World," had finished eating long ago.
After polishing off the sixth bowl, Night patted his half-full stomach and finally declared the meal over.
As usual, he told Minato to walk Kushina home. Night pretended to go for a post-meal stroll around the village, but in reality, he was secretly patrolling his "key interest zones."
When his Mind's Eye of the Kagura swept over Kushina's house, he sensed something wrong. There were several unfamiliar, high-level chakra signatures inside her small apartment.
"I knew it. Convenience is key for kidnappers."
He focused his sensory perception and matched the chakra signatures to the ones he had sensed from the Cloud delegation earlier.
It was indeed the Cloud envoys. The "Dark-Skinned Loot Box" passive skill had triggered. They couldn't resist stealing a bloodline, especially a high-value target like Kushina who had no powerful backers.
Konoha was surprisingly lax about this. Other villages, unless their brains were waterlogged like the Mist, treated bloodline users as strategic assets.
Just a few bloodline users could breed a whole clan. That was just how things worked.
Night smirked. He knew that kidnapping Kushina alone wouldn't cause enough chaos. He needed to add more fuel to the fire.
He ducked into an alley, created a Shadow Clone, and then had his real body use Earth Style: Underground Projection Fish to move unseen.
He arrived at the old Senju clan compound. It was much quieter now, the vast estate feeling somewhat empty.
"Redeem Basic Kaguya Bloodline."
Night closed his eyes for a moment. The boost from the basic Kaguya bloodline wasn't significant.
His bones became denser, but he certainly couldn't pull out his spine and use it as a whip like Kimimaro.
At best, he could push his chakra to force a bone spike out of his body.
"Good enough."
He didn't need combat power from this bloodline. He just needed to leave "evidence" to muddy the waters.
He navigated to Nawaki's house with ease. As a classmate and friend, Night had been here many times, though usually through the front door.
He used the Transformation Jutsu to change his appearance and put on a mask he had prepared. Then, the operation began.
He vaulted over the wall. In the courtyard, several half-dried training uniforms were hanging. Inside the house, Nawaki Senju was lounging in the living room.
Oblivious to the impending "disaster," Nawaki was lying on his side, reading a manga and giggling, occasionally muttering to himself.
Night formed hand seals, carefully controlling his chakra output.
"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough (Mini Edition)."
A sudden gust of wind blew through the house, rustling the pages of Nawaki's manga. The night air was chilly, so Nawaki pulled his clothes tighter around him.
But he was so engrossed in the manga—or maybe just that dense—that he didn't do anything else.
Night felt a vein throb in his forehead. If the timing weren't crucial, he would have rushed in and kicked him.
"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough (Lite Edition)."
Another gust hit the living room. Finally, Nawaki looked up at the open porch.
"Why is it so windy all of a sudden?" he muttered.
His face turned serious as he pondered. Then he said, "Is it going to rain?"
He put down the manga, walked to the porch, looked at the dark sky, and said, "I'll deal with it if it rains."
He reached out to close the sliding doors, intending to ignore the weird weather.
Night couldn't wait any longer. If he stalled, the opportunity would be lost. Nawaki was completely off-script.
"WATAHH!"
Night flashed out of the shadows and delivered a heavy kick straight to Nawaki's kidney, sending him flying into the courtyard.
Before Nawaki could recover, Night lunged, pulling out a kunai and stabbing down viciously.
Nawaki snapped out of his confusion. His ninja training kicked in, though his face was filled with disbelief.
I'm the heir of the Senju clan! Someone dares to assassinate me inside Konoha?! Has the village been breached? Or is Konoha purging the clans, starting with me?
"Water Style: Wild Water Wave!"
Nawaki reacted fast. As soon as he hit the ground, he spat a jet of water to intercept the attacker while shouting for help at the top of his lungs.
Being attacked in his own home was insane. He didn't know how many enemies there were, so he played it safe.
To Nawaki's surprise, the assassin seemed to panic at his shouting and threw a kunai at him in a desperate, flustered manner.
Nawaki, wearing casual clothes and lacking weapons, saw the weak throw and simply caught the kunai out of the air.
He spun the kunai in his hand and stabbed back at the now-unarmed assassin.
The assassin raised his hand to block. Nawaki was confused—blocking a kunai with a bare hand?
CLANG!
The sound of metal on bone rang out. The kunai was stopped dead.
Protruding from the assassin's palm was a long, sharp bone spike. The force of the impact caused hairline cracks to appear on the tip of the bone.
"A bone spike? You're a Kaguya clan ninja!"
"Night" (in disguise) feigned panic. He hurriedly retracted the bone spike, letting a few tiny fragments of shattered bone fall to the ground.
"Genjutsu: Sly Mind Affect Technique!"
Caught off guard, Nawaki was trapped in the genjutsu for a split second. By the time he broke free, the assassin had vanished without a trace.
Only then did the clan guards and Konoha ANBU arrive, late to the party as always.