After repeated testing, Roy and Kushina finally worked out what kinds of objects could form a barrier between them.
First, the object had to be movable—clothes, blankets, tables, chairs or benches would all work.
Second, one of them had to be holding or wearing it.
The bedroom door could be opened and closed, but it was attached to a track that was fixed to the wall and floor.
Whatever force bound Roy to Kushina apparently treated it as part of the building rather than a movable object.
Although they had found a way to avoid any awkwardness while Kushina bathed, the problem of using the toilet remained.
The house had a Western-style toilet installed directly against the wall.
Whenever Kushina sat on it normally, Roy was forced into the narrow space directly behind her.
There was not even enough room for him to sit on the water tank.
The only way to create some distance between them was for Kushina to sit facing either the left or right.
That created an even worse problem.
The toilet seat was oval-shaped—long from front to back and narrow from side to side.
If Kushina sat sideways, there was a real chance she would miss the seat entirely.
Even if she managed to balance herself, the possibility of making a mess was unacceptable.
“How about facing backwards?” Roy suggested quietly.
Kushina’s eyes lit up.
She immediately turned around and straddled the toilet while facing the water tank.
It was not as comfortable as sitting normally, but it was clean, practical and far less likely to end in disaster.
More importantly, Roy now had enough room to retreat several steps and hold something in front of himself to block his view.
With their most embarrassing problem finally solved, Kushina’s mood improved considerably.
As she walked over to the sink, however, she suddenly stopped.
The mirror in front of her reflected the space directly behind her.
For the first time, Kushina could clearly see Roy.
“Roy, you’re much younger than I imagined!” She stared at his reflection with wide eyes.
“And your body is transparent!
Amazing!” Kushina turned slightly to the left, then to the right.
Roy was immediately dragged back and forth behind her, his expression growing increasingly helpless.
Kushina watched with open fascination, as though she had discovered a new toy, and showed no intention of stopping.
Roy endured it for several moments before finally grabbing her shoulders.
Only then did Kushina stop, although she still appeared reluctant to end her experiment.
Some time later, Naruto woke up crying from hunger.
Kushina fed him with the same awkwardness as before, then changed his diaper.
Outside, the first rays of sunlight gradually spread across Konoha.
Kushina covered her mouth and let out a tired yawn.
In the span of a single night, she had given birth, had the Nine-Tails extracted from her body, nearly died and lost her husband.
On top of that, Naruto had been waking and crying every so often, leaving her no opportunity to rest.
After finally soothing Naruto back to sleep, Kushina could barely keep her eyes open.
She carefully placed him inside his cradle.
“Roy…
I can’t stay awake any longer.” The moment the words left her mouth, Kushina collapsed onto the side of the bed and fell asleep.
Roy had anticipated this and moved toward the bed before she fell.
When the strange force pulled him after her, he landed on the mattress as well.
There was still more than a metre between them, so they should have been able to sleep without disturbing one another.
Before Roy could relax, Kushina rolled from her side onto her back.
His vision blurred.
In the next instant, he found himself pinned directly beneath her.
This bond really doesn’t allow any exceptions.
Roy smiled bitterly.
His own intentions did not matter.
Neither did the position of the room or the objects around them.
No matter what happened, he was forced to remain directly behind Kushina without the slightest deviation.
For the first time, Roy found himself missing his otherwise useless system.
Had it still been functioning, perhaps it could have explained the cause of this strange connection and offered a solution.
However, ever since Roy had been transported to the shinobi world, the system had fallen completely silent.
He could no longer open the status screen or access the system shop.
It was as though the system had never existed.
Fortunately, Kushina was not particularly heavy.
Roy did not want to imagine what would happen if he remained trapped beneath someone much larger for several hours.
The faint scent of milk still clung to Kushina.
Roy was injured and exhausted as well.
Before long, his eyes grew heavy, and he drifted into a restless sleep.
In his dream, he had returned to a battlefield in Soul Society, trading attacks with the female Sternritter.
For some reason, however, Bambietta and Candice’s heads felt strangely soft whenever they struck him, almost as though there were no bones inside them at all.
Three days passed in the blink of an eye.
Early that morning, Kushina dressed in black mourning clothes and made her way to Konoha Cemetery with a grief-stricken expression.
Today, the village was holding a joint funeral for the shinobi who had lost their lives during the Nine-Tails’ attack.
Naturally, the dead included her husband, the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze.
Minato’s coffin contained only his clothes and one of his special kunai.
Hiruzen had not come to demand that Kushina surrender Minato’s body.
Instead, he respected her wishes and allowed the village to hold a memorial burial without his remains.
Hiruzen did not know the full reason behind Kushina’s decision.
He merely believed that she could not bear to part with her husband yet.
In any case, with the Uzumaki Clan’s mastery of fūinjutsu, preserving a body for several years would not be difficult.
Just as Roy had predicted, Kushina’s position protected her.
She was both the widow of the hero who had saved Konoha and the jinchūriki of the Nine-Tails.
Unless she openly declared that she intended to abandon the village or rise against it, no one in Konoha would dare provoke her at a time like this.
Even Danzo—the man known as the Darkness of the Shinobi—did not dare make a move against Kushina and Naruto, no matter how deeply he desired control of the Nine-Tails.
Over the previous three days, Kushina had spent most of her time caring for Naruto and speaking with Roy.
If they truly wanted to change Konoha, then the people controlling the village could not remain as they were.
In his youth, Hiruzen Sarutobi had been an exceptional shinobi.
He had mastered more than a thousand jutsu, earned the title of the Professor and had once been hailed as the strongest Hokage of his generation.
However, age had exposed his weaknesses.
He hesitated when firm decisions were needed and often allowed personal feelings to cloud his judgement.
His greatest mistake was his repeated tolerance of his old teammate, Danzo Shimura.
Because Hiruzen continually overlooked Danzo’s actions, many talented shinobi who should have supported Konoha had been ruined, driven away or killed.
Danzo had also created enemies for the village wherever he went.
He was selfish and willing to do anything to become Hokage.
He harmed Konoha’s own people and had even attempted to assassinate the Hokage, yet he continued claiming that everything he did was for the village.
Whatever unseen contributions he might have made were difficult to identify.
The damage he caused, however, was impossible to ignore.
At times, his actions had harmed Konoha almost as severely as an attack from an enemy village.
The other two advisers, Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane, were little better.
They rarely formed opinions of their own and frequently defended Danzo or helped him carry out his plans.
Without their support, many of Danzo’s actions would never have proceeded so smoothly.
If Konoha was ever going to recover, all three of them would eventually have to be removed from power.
However, Kushina could not accomplish that alone, even with the influence she currently possessed.
Uchiha Mikoto’s visit, arranged by Hiruzen, had presented them with an opportunity.
It might allow Kushina to gain the support of the Uchiha Clan.
The atmosphere at the funeral was heavy and solemn.
Roy, however, appeared unusually alert.
The cemetery was filled with dense spiritual energy.
The souls of the shinobi who had died during the Nine-Tails’ attack had already departed for the Pure Land that same night, but traces of spiritual energy still remained within their bodies.
The amount left in each corpse was small.
Gathered together, however, it was nearly equal to the spiritual pressure contained within a Menos Grande.
More importantly, this spiritual energy no longer belonged to anyone.
It was extremely easy for Roy to absorb, making it ideal for healing his injuries.
When the funeral ceremony ended and the mourners began leaving one after another, Roy called out to Kushina before she could depart.
After spending three days together, Kushina had gradually lowered her guard around him.
She did not know what Roy intended to do at the cemetery, but she trusted him enough to stop and wait.