"You say I'm being coy? You're the naive one, sensei."
"Obito, you—"
Swish!
Clutching the black rod embedded in his stomach, Namikaze Minato hurriedly used Flying Thunder God to distance himself from Obito.
He had thought his student had finally come to his senses, only to realize it was just a ruse for a sneak attack.
"Fourth Hokage, I released the Nine Tails for peace. You can't understand because of your limitations," Obito pressed his index and middle fingers together, activating the black rod in Minato, disrupting his chakra and simultaneously interrupting Minato's attempt to use Flying Thunder God again for a close-range attack.
"One day, I'll make you understand what the real world truly is..."
If this fight continued, he'd likely suffer. Though unwilling, Obito chose to retreat for now in the face of this unfavorable situation.
"Obito!"
Watching Obito gradually disappear within the vortex, Minato gritted through the pain as he pulled out the black rod from his body, shouting loudly.
"It's still not too late to turn back!"
"Don't be naive, Fourth Hokage."
Turn back?
From the moment Rin died at Kakashi's hands, Uchiha Obito was destined never to return.
After those final words, Obito vanished.
Minato was left with only two choices:
Either use the Flying Thunder God mark he had placed on Obito to continue pursuit or return to the village and find a way to reseal the Nine Tails.
He didn't even think for a second before turning around and heading back to Konoha.
Compared to the safety of Konoha, the fleeing Obito no longer mattered.
———
"But sensei really is amazing, just three shadow clones and he beat the Nine Tails until it couldn't even lift its head."
Back from the flashback.
Now a soul form and nearly absorbed by Uchiha Kage, Minato was inside the dream space recounting to him the final story between him and Obito.
"Of course, how else would my husband be the teacher of you, the Hokage?", Kushina, sitting nearby listening to the story, hadn't expected Obito to be so stubborn.
Despite Minato's heartfelt pleas, he didn't even consider turning back.
Instead, he sneakily ambushed Minato.
He was nothing like the sunny, kind, cheerful Obito she remembered...
"You're right, Kushina...", Minato didn't mind being interrupted by Kushina. He just scratched his head and smiled.
Thinking of Uchiha Kage's three shadow clones, using Giant Rasengan, Lightning Release Armor, and Fire Release in turns to attack the Nine Tails, Minato thought even Sarutobi Hiruzen, the "Professor" of the ninja world, probably couldn't manage that.
And if Uchiha Kage hadn't transferred so much chakra to save Kushina in the end, those three shadow clones might not have dissipated so quickly in the fight against the Nine Tails.
"So in the end, to seal the Nine Tails, you used that jutsu?"
"Yeah. I was running low on chakra, and unlike you, sensei, I don't know many jutsu, so I had to use Reaper Death Seal."
Due to his injuries, Minato no longer had the strength to suppress the Nine Tails head-on.
Luckily, the Nine Tails had already been somewhat weakened by Uchiha Kage's three shadow clones. Otherwise, even using the Reaper Death Seal might not have been enough.
"Sensei, is this the Pure Land?"
Looking at the dreamlike sky and the other drifting soul forms around, Minato felt this must be the afterlife.
'So then, sensei and Kushina must also be...'
'Obito really has committed grave sins!'
'Wait, wasn't I devoured by the Reaper? Why am I here in the Pure Land?'
"You think a mere Nine Tails could kill me?", Uchiha Kage shook his head, annoyed.
Things that should and shouldn't have happened still ended up happening.
But the only comfort was that Kushina survived. And even though Minato died, in this space, he wouldn't stay dead.
"I've said it before, even the Reaper can't kill people without going through me."
"So I'm not dead?"
Minato looked at his seemingly revived body and the unreal sky.
Not dead, but this clearly wasn't the ninja world either?
"You're dead, but not completely dead. From now on, stay in this little paradise village I've built. Help me take care of these soul forms and the revived ninja."
Strangely enough, even though Kushina wasn't dead, like Minato, she still couldn't leave this dream space.
Uchiha Kage had enthusiastically tried to take her out, but realized she couldn't pass through the barrier between the dream and real world.
However, Kushina was a bit different from the other revived ones.
For example, he couldn't control her.
Unlike Minato and the others he had revived, whom he could shape and order at will.
Which meant...
Uchiha Kage didn't even know where to put her.
And given her quirky personality, if he hadn't found Minato's soul and decided to revive him for a chat...
Kushina would probably still be running around the dream space, never quietly sitting by his side like now.
"Yes, sensei."
'Dead, but not completely dead?'
Minato couldn't fully understand what Uchiha Kage meant. But looking at the peaceful little village that resembled a paradise, he felt maybe the Pure Land wouldn't be better than this place.
———
"Besides Minato's soul, there seem to be many familiar faces..."
Iruka's parents, Kurenai's parents, even Yugao's relatives...
The Nine Tails really killed a lot of people in Konoha.
No wonder the mission reward this time came with so many soul forms and ninja fragments.
Uchiha Kage thought, maybe in the future, he could use the souls of these Konoha ninjas' relatives to draw some of them into his paradise project.
"Husband, where are we going now?", Kushina wasn't shocked by Uchiha Kage's "resurrection" method.
But she was really curious about this dream space.
"By the way, how's Naruto doing? Do you know, husband?"
And of course, she meant her son, he new Nine Tails Jinchuriki, whom she hadn't even seen after giving birth.
"He's fine. Living with Sasuke and me."
When morning came, Uchiha Kage would have to face Naruto, who might already know the truth about his parentage.
What a headache, he hadn't even had any real intimacy with Kushina, and yet the kid was already born...
"How old is he now?"
"A bit younger than me."
Yes, and their son was almost the same age as him.
"Sensei, no, husband, I've been meaning to ask, how old are you exactly?", Kushina looked closely at Uchiha Kage.
At first, she thought he just looked young but was actually old.
But after getting to know him better, something didn't seem right...
"I'm over fifty, physically… probably early teens."
"So you're a little brother, no, I mean, you're young in age but… very grown up!"
She instinctively covered her butt, but when Kushina blinked, she didn't feel Uchiha Kage's whip strike her.
Oh right, he wasn't familiar with "her" yet.
So he wouldn't constantly spank her.
"You..."
They already had a kid, and she still acted like a girl who liked being spanked?
Uchiha Kage did feel the urge to spank Kushina, but not strongly.
Still, based on her reflexes after speaking, she was clearly used to it.
"Husband, am I trapped in this place now?"
Leaving the soul-filled ninja village, Kushina and Uchiha Kage returned to the Konoha street in the dream space.
She looked around the unfamiliar space and gave Uchiha Kage a pitiful, puppy-eyed look.
Like a little dog afraid of being abandoned.
"If you want to see Naruto, I'll try to make it happen. But for now, you'll probably have to stay here a bit longer. In time, I'll definitely find a way to take you out."
"As long as I have you, husband, Naruto... Naruto can wait."
Having sent her child out to become the Nine Tails Jinchuriki with her own hands, Kushina felt the grown-up Naruto probably held a stomach full of resentment toward her.
"Up to you."
"Then husband, where are we sleeping tonight? There are so many houses here, can I pick one?"
"I'll build one for you."
After receiving chakra from the mission, Uchiha Kage had recovered his original strength, and even surpassed it.
Building a house with chakra in this dream space was no problem for him.
But Kushina's condition was really strange. She wasn't like an NPC bound to a scene, nor like Kaguya or Mikoto, who were tied to the dream world.
Yet compared to other wandering souls, she had much more freedom.
Uchiha Kage truly didn't know how to place her, so he might as well give her a place to stay for now.
"You can build houses yourself?"
Watching as a two-story villa with a courtyard appeared on an empty lot of the Konoha street due to Uchiha Kage's chakra, Kushina was amazed.
"But I noticed there are other buildings here. Mikoto's house, the Hokage building... but I can't enter them."
"Of course you—"
After taking Kushina into the villa and creating various household items with chakra, Uchiha Kage turned to look at his pretty "wife," who was pulling out a handkerchief to wipe his sweat.
"But it's not impossible to try, maybe..."
Even if he couldn't take her into the real world, maybe he could bring her into other scenes within the dream space.
Like Tsunade's Hokage building... or Kaguya's bamboo cottage?
In the future, duo runs would no longer be just a fantasy...
'Wait, considering my current relationship with Kushina...'
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