Chapter 22: Uzumaki Kushina

Yujin quickly bid farewell to the elderly woman and left the room. Mito asked him to call Shizune to come in, and that’s what he did as he exited.

After leaving the mansion, Yujin chose a secluded place to think. It was a kind of garden on the mansion grounds, with a small lake and some flowers and plants.

He sat on a bench in the garden, lost in thought.

The cave was too bizarre of a mystery for him to unravel in just a few minutes of contemplation. To avoid disrupting Tsunade and Mito’s meeting, he left the room.

He knew that, due to the elderly woman’s imminent death, every minute, every second, was crucial for the two of them.

While silently contemplating, some birds appeared nearby and started flying around as if searching for something. Yujin noticed the movement of the birds and smiled, finally finding something he understood. He looked at the ground and, after a few seconds, with a quick arm movement, grabbed a handful of soil.

Opening his hand, the soil trickled through his fingers, and three earthworms appeared in his hand, wriggling slowly. With a lift of his hand, he presented the worms in the direction of the birds.

The birds circled the air a bit more and finally landed on Yujin’s hand. They were two small gray birds. The two birds took the worms and flew back to their nest.

The whole event was witnessed by a red-haired girl who was nearby, lost in thought.

Yujin’s actions were incomprehensible to Kushina.

She was trying to clear her mind by taking a stroll in the garden and saw all of his actions from start to finish.

How did he find where the worms were? How did he make the birds accept the worms he was offering? She had tried feeding birds before, and none had ever landed on her hand. At most, when she threw food on the ground, the birds approached cautiously.

His actions were very strange.

Driven by curiosity, she approached Yujin and asked.

“Hey, mister, how did you do that?”

Yujin looked at the red-haired girl and smiled. It wasn’t hard to deduce who she was; her red hair was more than enough.

“Mister? I’m only 24 years old.”

Kushina pouted and replied.

“Then I’ll call you Onii-san.”

“Onissan? Well ... as long as it’s not an insult.”

Kushina was confused by his reaction but decided to overlook it and asked.

“How did you do that with the birds? You picked up worms without even searching through the earth, and the birds promptly came down to get them without being afraid of you.”

The girl seemed very curious; her eyes sparkled like gems. Yujin smiled. If Tsunade saw this smile, she would say he was about to do something mischievous. Although Yujin is usually serious with adults, he can be quite playful when dealing with children.

“I knew where the worms were because I heard them. The birds approached without fear because I communicated with them and told them I wouldn’t harm them.”

“It’s impossible to hear worms; they don’t talk. And it’s also impossible to talk to animals.”

Kushina pouted again and retorted, clearly dissatisfied with his answer. Yujin smiled at the girl’s pouting, finding her reaction amusing.

“There are ninja magics capable of releasing dragons of fire from their mouths, and you tell me it’s impossible to create magic that can talk to animals?”

“Magic? Well ... there’s a girl who studied with me at the academy who can talk to a dog, so maybe it’s not impossible...”

Kushina seemed confused by Yujin’s response and began to seriously consider it. Quickly, however, she found a loophole in his answer.

“Maybe I believe the bird part, but what about the worm? I didn’t hear anything, and worms don’t talk.”

Yujin laughed loudly at her response. It took her longer than he thought to realize that.

“But of course, worms don’t talk.”

“No, wait, so you didn’t hear the worms? Then how did you find them?”

Kushina seemed genuinely confused. Yujin’s laughter made her realize that maybe he was teasing her, but the bird part made sense. Maybe he really communicated with the birds to make them accept the worms. What didn’t make sense was how he located the worms.