Chapter 261: A Little Advice
Several days later, Kitahara Kaede stood outside Minato’s home carrying two mesh bags filled with freshly purchased fruit.
He raised a hand and knocked.
"Coming!"
The door creaked open, revealing Kushina’s striking red hair. The instant she saw him, her eyes visibly brightened.
"Kaede? You’re finally back! Did you finish every mission in Konoha by yourself?"
"It wasn’t that exaggerated."
Kaede handed her the fruit.
"Several important matters happened to pile up at once. Is Minato-sama home?"
Kushina stepped aside to let him in and casually took the bags, looking somewhat helpless.
"Him? How could he possibly be home? He practically lives in the Hokage Building. Those documents reproduce on their own—the more he approves, the more appear."
Still complaining, she walked to the coffee table, set the fruit aside, and poured Kaede a cup of tea.
Kaede sat on the sofa and accepted it.
"How have you been feeling lately? Any discomfort?"
"I’m all right. Sometimes my stomach feels strange, though."
Kushina sat across from him, her demeanor gentler than usual.
"It’s only been two months, so the symptoms aren’t too serious yet. Tsunade-sama said the real trouble will start in another month or two."
At that point, her tone shifted. The look she gave Kaede suddenly changed.
Kaede had been about to drink. Under that stare, his hand stopped halfway.
"What is it?"
"You’re really asking me that? Since we already mentioned Tsunade-sama..."
Kushina leaned back against the sofa and crossed her arms, assuming the posture of an interrogator.
"What exactly is going on between the two of you?"
Kaede silently returned the cup to the table and remained quiet for several seconds.
"Did Tsunade-sama... say something to you?"
"It would be easier if she were willing to talk!"
Kushina’s tone made it obvious whose side she was on.
"She came by a while ago to deliver my medical report. I casually asked about the two of you. She said nothing, but the look on her face couldn’t fool anyone."
Kaede lowered his head, his gaze settling on his knees. He didn’t answer.
Kushina leaned slightly forward.
"Now I’m asking you. Are you planning to say nothing too?"
Her eyes bored straight into him, leaving him nowhere to hide.
Kaede grew uncomfortable under her stare. After a long while, he forced a bitter smile.
"It’s not that I refuse to speak. I simply don’t know how to explain it."
Kushina didn’t rush him. She quietly waited for him to arrange his thoughts.
Kaede lowered his eyes, his voice rough.
"I forced an extremely difficult choice on her."
Kushina’s brow furrowed.
He continued more softly.
"There are things attached to me that I can’t cut away, and those things involve other people."
"But I’m not trying to avoid responsibility, nor am I saying Tsunade-sama isn’t important."
Kaede paused, carefully choosing his words.
"It’s precisely because she’s too important that I can’t hide anything from her."
He clasped his hands over his knees.
"Now she needs time to decide whether she can accept... someone like me."
Kushina looked at him. Her lips moved, but she didn’t demand to know what those "responsibilities" were as she normally would have.
She could see it clearly.
There was no evasion in his face as he spoke, only seriousness and pain buried unimaginably deep.
Kushina swallowed the question, lifted her tea, took a sip, and released a long sigh.
"Do you know something, Kaede?"
Her voice softened.
"Because of her identity and strength, Tsunade-sama has spent her entire life with other people chasing after her, flattering her, and yielding to her."
"You’re the first—and the only—person who has ever made things this difficult for her."
"And since the day she met you, this hasn’t been the first time."
Kaede’s throat moved, but no sound came out.
Seeing him like this, Kushina spoke with greater earnestness.
"She’s still struggling with it. What does that mean? It means she never intended to give up on you."
"If you haven’t given up either, then don’t make her wait too long."
She paused, her voice becoming firmer as though hammering the point into him.
"All I’m telling you is this: don’t make her think you don’t care."
Kaede suddenly raised his head.
"I know what you’re thinking," Kushina said, as if she had seen straight through him.
"You believe that not visiting her and not pressuring her is a way of respecting her, right?"
She shook her head, gaze sharp.
"But to a woman, if you never come, it means you don’t care! The longer you leave her alone with her thoughts, the further they’ll spiral, until she decides you never liked her that much in the first place!"
"That’s how women think. Don’t assume you can reason your way around it!"
Those final words struck Kaede awake.
Was that truly how it was?
What he had considered respect and calmness had looked like indifference and coldness to Tsunade?
What excuses had he been using all this time to avoid her?
After a long silence, he finally spoke.
"...Thanks, Kushina-nee."
"Don’t just thank me. Clean up the disaster you created first."
Kushina leaned back into the sofa again. Her words remained merciless, but her expression visibly relaxed when she saw his reaction.
The heavy atmosphere in the room also eased.
Kaede drew a deep breath and forcibly suppressed the emotions churning inside him.
He remembered another equally important matter.
"By the way, does Kakashi... know about your pregnancy?"
At the name, Kushina’s expression visibly dimmed.
She shook her head.
"We haven’t told him yet. That child... ever since what happened to Rin and Obito, he completely changed. After joining the ANBU, it was like he became another person. Every day is mission after mission, and his face never shows a single unnecessary emotion."
She sighed, her voice full of heartache.
"Minato plans to assign him as one of my guards once the pregnancy is further along. He thinks seeing a new life arrive with his own eyes might help him. But it’s still early, so we haven’t mentioned it."
Kaede nodded, showing nothing unusual.
"That does sound like a good idea."
Good.
Kakashi didn’t know the delivery date, which meant he wouldn’t go to Rin’s memorial on that specific day.
And Obito, hiding in the shadows and listening, naturally wouldn’t know either.
Kaede raised his tea, took a sip, and calmly swallowed this reassurance.
"Minato will be back soon. Stay for dinner if you have time today," Kushina said as she rose and walked toward the kitchen.
"He’s mentioned several times that he wants to thank you properly."
Kaede froze.
"Thank me?"
"For everything you’ve done for Konoha!"
Kushina found an apron in the kitchen, her voice carrying through the doorway.
"He said the alliance with Amegakure never could have happened so quickly without you. The same goes for Kirigakure. You’re a major contributor!"
Kaede rubbed his nose and didn’t respond.
He glanced toward the kitchen.
"Let me help. You’re pregnant, so you shouldn’t do too much."
"Stop right there!"
Kushina immediately raised her voice, the command allowing no argument.
"You’re a guest, so sit there quietly! Don’t come fight me for my own stove!"
Kaede didn’t insist. He remained seated as the rhythmic thunk of a knife chopping vegetables soon came from the kitchen.
He leaned back on the sofa, but Kushina’s earlier words replayed in his mind again and again.
Don’t make her think you don’t care.