"Our Namikaze will get you justice!"
Kushina's imperious voice rang through the Hyuga courtyard.
Hearing that, Hiashi jolted and hurried a step forward, choosing each word with care, terrified of igniting this "little chili pepper" again. "Kushina-dono, this matter is weighty. The other side is, after all, the Cloud envoy's leader—his status is… special. In my view, we should detain him first and report to the Acting Hokage, then apply pressure on Kumogakure via formal diplomacy. That way—"
He was thinking of the bigger picture, handling it low-key—keeping the fallout contained so the Cloud paid a price without tearing relations wide open. It was the safest, most traditional path for a great clan head.
He didn't finish.
Kushina's glare shut him up.
"Diplomacy?" Kushina let out a cold laugh, dripping with contempt for such "rules."
"Clan Head Hiashi, have you forgotten? I was the one who suffered this filth back then—those Cloud scum used the same method to kidnap me!" Her voice surged, exploding in every ear. "And back then Konoha and the Cloud were also in a so-called 'peace.' You want to reason with thugs whose bones are carved with bandit logic? Talk rules? Do they deserve it?!"
Hiashi went speechless, color draining and returning to his face by turns.
Kushina ignored him and looked down at the groaning Cloud leader, Troy.
"To deal with thugs, you must be more thuggish than they are. Only if you hurt them once—and scare them to the marrow, brand 'fear' into their bones—will they learn Konoha isn't a place for them to run wild."
"This punch buys Konoha years of peace—so rats stop coveting what isn't theirs."
Before Hiashi could speak again, she moved.
Her Kongō Fūsa (Adamantine Sealing Chains) snapped tight at a thought. One chain curled like a spirit snake and wrapped Troy's leg.
"Ah!"
Troy screamed.
Under the Hyuga guards' stunned stares, Kushina simply turned and strode for the front gate, dragging Troy behind her.
She didn't even take the main path; she vaulted onto the perimeter wall and dropped hard onto the street outside.
Dragged by the chains, Troy's body scraped the stones like a torn sack, head and torso thudding and bouncing across the hard slab road.
Thump… thump… thump…
In the quiet of night, the dull impacts were brutal; his screams stuttered from pain and jolting.
Kushina never slowed.
Thus she dragged a man—the chief of a foreign envoy, no less—down Konoha's main thoroughfare. Where she passed, a long, shocking smear of blood and friction burned across the blue stone road—as if a dead dog were being hauled along.
The unheard-of scene drew every night-owl civilian and shinobi at once.
"What… is that?"
"It looks like… someone's dragging a person?"
"Heavens! That red hair—that's Kushina-dono!"
"Kushina-dono?!"
"Who's the one she's dragging? He looks miserable…"
"Look! A Cloud forehead protector! He's from the envoy!"
Recognition detonated the street. Eyes bulged, jaws dropped; people stared like they were witnessing a miracle—the peerless, domineering redhead striding past. Voices erupted, guesses flew.
Kushina ignored every gaze and whisper.
She had one destination: Konoha's great front gate.
Dragging the half-dead Troy, she met no resistance. Who would step in? This was the Fourth Hokage's wife—the legendary "Crimson Pepper"! Temper like dynamite and strength to match: elite jonin couldn't take a single exchange. Someone who could suppress a tailed beast wasn't to be trifled with.
Who would risk her wrath? Besides, the Hyuga clan head himself, Hiashi, followed with a bitter, helpless face.
If even the Hyuga patriarch tacitly allowed it, no one else had standing to object.
Soon, Kushina stood before the towering main gate. Even at this hour, gate guards and mission teams came and went.
Seeing Kushina dragging a blood-smeared wreck, everyone froze. The gate-nin even raised their guard by reflex.
"Kushina-dono?" A chunin who looked like the captain mustered his courage and stepped up.
Kushina halted and glanced at him.
"Watch your gate."
That was all. She looked to the massive crossbeam crowning the entrance, and her Kongō Fūsa (Adamantine Sealing Chains) snapped again.
Whip!
Like a golden lash tearing the air, the chain looped around the beam.
She yanked.
"Aaaah!"
To Troy's shrill screams—and to the gawking shock of every shinobi and civilian moving through the gate—the Cloud envoy chief was torn off the ground and hoisted skyward.
He hung inverted, trussed by Kongō Fūsa, swaying like a slab of meat left to dry—high above Konoha's main gate.
What… was this?
Minds blanked. No one had ever seen such defiant, humiliating spectacle. Hanging a great nation's envoy leader from your own village gate? Madness!
Not enough, thought Kushina.
She drew a blank Kibaku Fuda (Explosive Tag) and a pen from her pouch. She didn't ignite it; instead, on the back she scrawled in furious, untamed strokes a single line.
Then she strode beneath the gate and slapped the "note" hard against Troy's chest.
Dusting off her hands, she admired the work. Every neck craned to read.
It said:
"The Kumogakure thief who attempted to kidnap the Hyuga main-family's eldest daughter is to be displayed here for three days!"
In an instant, the gate exploded—figuratively.
"What? Kidnap the Hyuga heiress?"
"Cloud bastards! They dared this in our village?!"
"Serves him right! Hang him high!"
"As expected of Kushina-dono! Too domineering!"
Public fury ignited. Sympathy and restraint vanished, leaving only rage at the Cloud's shamelessness—and a fierce, visceral approval of Kushina's ruthless defense of her own.
Hiashi, a short distance away, could only stare, beyond words. From this moment, there would be no "quiet handling."
It was, unmistakably, a spectacle.
And through Kushina's unprecedented act, Konoha declared something to the entire shinobi world:
The Konoha of today—the Namikaze of today—don't play by your rules. Anyone who dares provoke us… we strike.
(End of Chapter)
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