The Genjutsu Devil of Konoha

Kushina made her way back to the Senju clan compound. She had pep in her step—she was quite giddy. On her first day of school, she made a friend, and she got to enjoy some heavenly ramen. She truly was happy.

She had reached the peak of her happiness, really. Maybe school in the academy wouldn't be as bad as she thought.

As she turned around the corner, Mito could be seen eating.

"Kushina dear, you are back."

Kushina froze a bit. Hm, she didn't expect to see Miss Mito here.

"Hello, Grandma Mito," she said in a semi-happy voice.

Noticing the happiness in Kushina's voice, Mito had a thoughtful smile on her face.

"What made you so happy, my child?" Mito asked in a rather thoughtful voice.

Kushina, a bit embarrassed that her emotions could be read simply by looking at her, said,

"Today was nice."

"Come on, child, you can tell me anything," she said, giving a warm, grandmotherly vibe.

Kushina nodded her head before sitting on the grandma's lap and revealing every little thing that happened today—from how the day started (which Mito expected; kids were ruthless), to how the Kurama kid helped her. Considering how smart the kid showed himself to be, she was taken aback.

Chances were, he knew she was a refugee and didn't want to make her feel out of place. From the way Nawaki described him, and the way he acted during the tournament, he seemed genuinely gentle, even giving out helpful tips to each of his opponents.

Never coming off as too arrogant. Yet, she felt a coldness in his gaze. Those eyes were the eyes of someone who could kill and was dangerous.

Hm, the boy was gentle... for now.

Hm, maybe she should thank this child for all his help.

Maybe.

Scene Change – Kurama Compound

Seijuro exhaled, standing in the center of a cleared-out training space behind his home. His sleeves were rolled up just enough to expose both wrists—each bearing a carefully etched Fuinjutsu array.

On the right wrist: a storage seal holding ten standard kunai, compressed and sealed into the layered loops of ink.

On the left: a custom-crafted binding seal. An advanced variation of the Jutsu Encapsulation Fuin he'd worked on. This one wasn't meant to store—it was meant to trigger a chakra-binding pulse upon contact.

He smiled faintly.

"Good," he muttered. "Now to test it."

With a small hand sign and a puff of smoke, a shadow clone appeared—an exact duplicate of himself, arms crossed.

"You really like making me suffer, huh?" the clone said dryly, cracking his neck. "Alright. Come at me, genius."

He and the clone fought, and long story short, the seal worked. Hm, good.

In like six months, he would apply for early graduation. For now, it was time to grind. He needed more Wind Style Jutsu, and so on.

His clone had just gotten home and poofed, so he received all the memory needed. Well, to be fair, the events of that day were like a few weeks ago. By now, his friend group had grown a lot more, with the addition of Minato and Kushina.

Minato may or may not have joined to be with Kushina. Oh well, Seijuro didn't see the vision, but well, guess Minato did.

He did some stuff with them, hung out to get some stuff. Not once did Seijuro leave the top 1 spot. Every test that passed by, he noticed that Mikoto would blush a lot when he offered her something.

Hm, it was decided—she had a crush on him. A pretty big one at that. He found her flushed face cute, but that was about it.

He simply found it cute. And her cheeks? Very pinchable. Not like he would do anything.

He tested out some other stuff in that time. Apart from learning very high-rank jutsu and reaching like peak Chunin range of power—or being peak Chunin overall—his first year at the academy did go pretty well.

If all went well, he would graduate later this year and move on. But he did promise to help Mikoto awaken her Sharingan... so.

Time Skip

"Seijuro-kun, why did you bring me here?" Her eyes looked around the training ground.

"I will be graduating in a few weeks." She didn't seem too thrilled about that—she seemed almost ready to graduate with him.

He gave her a soft smile.

"Do not graduate early."

Her brow furrowed.

"Why? Why can't I graduate early?"

Hm, her feelings were deeper than he expected. Deciding to drop his façade-like image, he held her hands.

He listened as she spoke. She really was more attached than he thought. Hm.

"Because I don't want you to be hurt. A war is starting, and I do not want to be the reason you have to suffer. So please, just for me, don't graduate early. I promise to come by often and leave you presents."

"I want to be able to stand by your side."

Hm, were those tears in her eyes...? Hm, well, he made a promise, so—

"I don't want you being injured," He gave her a smile, even booping her nose a bit.

"....."

He gave her a gentle smile.

"Now stop crying," he said, gently wiping her tear away. He had a gentle look on his face as he looked at the one tomoe Sharingan staring back at him.

Heh?

The fuck.

What kind of shenanigans was this?