"I'm here to join you."

Gisame could sense that Kushina was about to wake.

He would not kill her here. To do so might awaken the Nine-Tails again, for the fate of a tailed beast was tied to that of its jinchuriki. Moreover, even if he killed Kushina, he would gain nothing from it; he would only create a mortal enemy in Minato Namikaze.

For him, the most important thing now was to reach the Ghost Light City.

And obtain the Box of Ultimate Bliss.

Thinking this, Kisame threw Kushina to the riverbank and leaped into the Naka River.

He had left for no more than ten seconds.

Whoosh.

Minato Namikaze descended once more, gathered the unconscious Kushina into his arms, and carefully checked whether she had been injured.

In truth, he had been trailing far behind Kisame all along, waiting for a chance to save the woman he loved.

The moment he sensed Kisame's chakra had departed, he appeared at once.

"Mmm..."

Lying in Minato's arms, Kushina slowly woke. Her eyes were blank and dazed as she strained to recall what had happened before she lost consciousness.

"Are you all right?" Minato asked with concern, relieved at last to see that she was safe.

"I'm fine."

The moment Kushina spoke, she suddenly widened her eyes, her expression uncertain and alarmed.

"What is it?" Minato asked quickly.

"It's Kurama. It says..."

Kushina exchanged thoughts with the Nine-Tails within her, then turned to Minato with grave expression. "I was in partial tailed-beast form, and the enemy subdued me with a single move. Kurama is terrified, because it sensed the First Hokage's chakra from that man."

Since she had come to know the Nine-Tails, she had never once seen it like this—so consumed by fear.

"What?!"

Minato was stunned by the news.

At that moment, another figure rushed to the riverbank.

It was Jiraiya.

Minato hurriedly told his teacher what had happened.

After listening, Jiraiya's brow furrowed, his expression becoming more serious than ever before.

After a moment of thought, he instructed Minato:

"This is no small matter. Take Kushina back to the village at once and report everything to the Third Hokage. I will track down that enemy myself."

"Be careful, Teacher. His methods are bizarre."

Minato nodded solemnly, then described Kisame's appearance and his ability to fire energy spheres from his mouth, and pointed out that the enemy had most likely fled along the river.

Summoning Jutsu.

After forming signs, Jiraiya placed his palm on the ground and summoned a giant toad three meters tall, ordering it to leap into the river.

Then he stepped onto the toad's back and followed the current downstream.

Man and toad quickly vanished into the lower reaches of the Naka River.

Minato also carried Kushina back to Konoha using the Flying Thunder God Technique.

An hour later.

In the Hokage's office.

Hiruzen Sarutobi puffed his pipe over and over, his mind weighed down with worry.

A short while ago, he had learned the full story from Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki.

An unknown enemy had invaded Konoha, and was very likely after the Nine-Tails jinchuriki. Most shocking of all, the intruder had used the First Hokage's Wood Release sealing arts.

This had been personally confirmed by the Nine-Tails inside Kushina; having been suppressed by the First Hokage before, it knew Hashirama's chakra all too well.

The situation was dire.

Hiruzen immediately ordered Kushina to be placed under strict protection. He also dispatched all of the ANBU, together with the village's other shinobi, to search for anyone suspicious.

In an instant, the atmosphere throughout Konoha became tense as never before, as if the village had entered a state of war.

It was as though they were facing a great enemy.

Hiruzen suddenly remembered something.

Back when the Second Shinobi World War was raging without end, he had discussed with Konoha's higher-ups and issued a secret order to study the First Hokage's cells in hopes of obtaining the power of Wood Release.

But over the years of human experimentation that followed, countless innocents had died, while the research into Hashirama's cells had produced no results whatsoever.

After much deliberation, Hiruzen had no choice but to halt the project.

Even so, he had always suspected that Danzo, who had been in charge of the research, had not obeyed the Hokage's orders and had continued the cruel human experiments in secret.

Perhaps even his most prized disciple, Orochimaru, had been involved.

At the thought, Hiruzen let out a deep sigh.

He had placed Orochimaru in Root under Danzo's command precisely so that this disciple might watch Danzo and keep his power in check.

He had not expected Orochimaru to grow ever closer to Danzo, and ever farther from him as his teacher.

Hiruzen knew that Danzo had a unique standard for selecting and training Root shinobi, one he himself called "the aptitude for darkness."

Clearly, Danzo had seen through the weakness in Orochimaru's heart and gradually led him into darkness.

Perhaps it was time to have a proper "talk" with Danzo and Orochimaru.

Hiruzen had to determine who had sent the Wood Release shinobi who had invaded Konoha, and whether Root had anything to do with it.

In the end, this matter might well erupt into a storm of bloodshed.

...

While Konoha was thrown into chaos, the instigator, Hoshigaki Kisame, had already escaped into the Land of Grass.

He resumed his true appearance and entered Grass Ninja Village.

Ghost Light City Prison lay on a small island near Grass Ninja Village, surrounded on all sides by an inland sea and cut off from the world.

Kisame had never been there and did not know the way, but he had his own methods.

He waited in Grass Ninja Village for two days before a prisoner escort finally arrived.

It was a group of Rain Ninja, transporting a prisoner with a scarred face in a caged cart. The scar-faced man had resisted the rule of Hanzo, the leader of the Rain Ninja, and had been captured on his orders and exiled to Ghost Light City Prison to serve his sentence.

After resting briefly in Grass Ninja Village, the escort set out again and headed straight for Ghost Light City.

Kisame followed at a distance, neither too close nor too far behind.

The convoy disappeared around a bend at an intersection.

Just as Kisame walked past it—

Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh.

Several Rain Ninja appeared from all directions, weapons in hand, surrounding him. It was clear they had long since noticed this suspicious man.

"So the prisoner has accomplices after all. Coming alone to ambush a prison transport takes some nerve," sneered the Rain Ninja leader.

The scar-faced prisoner in the cart looked utterly confused, for he did not know Kisame at all.

"Everyone, you've misunderstood."

Kisame quickly raised both hands in surrender and offered a friendly smile. "I'm not here to rob the prisoner. I'm here to join you."

At those words, everyone was stunned.

"What do you mean?" the Rain Ninja asked with a frown.

"It's like this. I am Hoshigaki Kisame of the Hidden Mist, exiled to Ghost Light City Prison for a grave crime. But the ANBU who were escorting me had something come up and turned back halfway. They told me to report to the prison on my own, but I'm not very familiar with the route, so I was hoping to catch a ride..."

With a smile, Kisame introduced himself and calmly explained the whole story from beginning to end.