14 Pain

The ladies around Kushina sucked a breath of cold air. They couldn't believe what they just heard. Kurama? What the fuck was that?

He had a talk with the overbearing Nine-Tails to not hurt Kushina? Did he think of them as idiots? How would the nine-tails keep such a promise?!

However, Kushina did believe Araki. She had no reason to not believe him. He always helped her out since the time she met him. There was no way he would lie about this, right?

She was right about this fact. And soon enough, Mito also regained her consciousness. She looked around and narrowed her eyes when she saw a shocked look on the faces of the ladies with Kushina.

Then she noticed how Kushina seemed to have a hopeful look on her face. It didn't take long for someone of Mito's intellect to realise what had transpired.

She stared at the ladies with a serious look, "Can you please go outside. I wish to talk with my grandson. I am sure you know the reason."

"Yes, Mito-sama!" They obediently left the room. They didn't think much about Araki's earlier words. Now that they thought about it, it was probably Mito-sama consoling Araki that Kushina-chan would be fine. There was no way Mito-sama would take Araki to confront that demonic fox, right?

They didn't realise how wrong they were in their hypothesis, but they couldn't be blamed for these thoughts.

Anyway, Mito waited for the door to close before she closed her eyes and used her chakra to lay a sound-suppression seal in the room. It startled Araki, but he didn't interrupt Mito.

After the sound-suppression seal was placed in the room. Araki asked Mito first, "Grandma, why did you do this?"

"Grandson, you shouldn't have said anything about Kurama to them." These words drew a confused look from Araki. Mito started explaining her words, "I am pleased to know that you have managed to somehow befriend Kurama. However, this news must not be leaked to anyone else. They would try to use you to control Kurama." She said in a solemn voice.

Araki wondered if she was talking about the Hokage.

"Those ladies work for the Hokage. If they knew that you have somehow befriended Kurama and I have designed a weak seal for him. They would surely check the seal, and if they figure out that it's a weak seal, they could place Pentagram Seal on top of Eight Trigram Seal Formation. That would place a huge restraining effect on Kurama…" Mito said solemnly.

Araki lowered his head as he didn't know what to say, he hadn't thought about this fact at all. He was far too excited for his own good.

"I am sorry, grandma." He apologised while lowering his head.

"Don't worry, even though it's an issue, it's not a huge one considering your grandma's skill in seals. There is not a single person in the world whose understanding of seals surpass mine. I can easily fool the monkey and his disciples. What you must be more careful is about the monkey and his teammate Danzo. They had both been taught by your granduncle Tobirama. The monkey was taught by your grandpa as well, so they have a different way of doing things."

"The monkey believes in peace so much he would go to any lengths to ensure this stalemate between the villages. He avoids the rigorous path and just repeats the little quarrels over and over. While the Danzo wants to have a war to destroy all the villages and make them pledge loyalty to Hidden Leaf. His ambition is to become the Hokage but in reality, he is just a coward who runs away when the situation turns dire."

Araki was getting a bad feeling as he continued to hear his grandma speak. It was similar to the feeling when his father said he must go to Konoha after his death.

"Grandma… Why are you telling me all this? Are you going somewhere?" Even though he felt like he knew the answer, he still asked her.

A helpless and gentle look appeared over Mito's face as she glanced at Araki, "Grandson, grandma is really unfair to you. Even though we have spent only a single year together, I have to leave you alone to fend for yourself from now."

"No! No! That can't be! Grandma must not leave me! I won't let you leave me!" He shouted with a loud voice as tears started leaking from his eyes.

"Poor child. My time has already come. It's time to let go of me." Her voice was incomparably gentle as she pats her grandson's head.

Araki though didn't seem to be listening to her. He tried to inject his chakra in her body. He remembered it could heal him when he was hurt. Maybe his grandmother would be alright. Maybe she wouldn't die if he did this.

Sensing what Araki was doing, Mito was touched. She continued to caress her grandson's dark hairs while saying, "You can't heal me with your chakra, child. It's my lifeforce. It's almost extinguished. Now, before leaving, I guess I must give you a gift as well."

"NO! I don't want a gift! No! I don't want anything! Nothing compares to grandma! Nothing at all!" He shouted while crying his heart out. To him, no amount of gold, or any great Jutsu, or power could compare to Mito.

Facing his shouts, Mito shook her head gently, "In your room, I have already placed all the Jutsus personally written by Hashi. It was in the hope someone would come to inherit his Bloodline in the future. Make sure to learn them and become strong enough in the future. I will give Kurama to Kushina, and he would protect the two of you until you can protect yourself. It's a bit of pity that Tsuna-chan isn't here. I can only hope she gets out of her depression soon enough."

She then said to him in a little more decisive tone, "Now, clear away your tears. Those ladies would laugh at you if they saw you crying like this."

Did Araki care about it? Absolutely not. He didn't want his grandmother to leave him.

"Grandmother loves you the most… Now go out. Ask Kushina and the other ladies to enter. I will transfer Kurama into her. And remember, be careful from now on. I can't protect you from your enemies." After saying that, she asked him to go outside.

"Grandma…" Araki honestly didn't want to leave his grandmother now.

"You must leave now. Your grandfather is growing lonely in afterlife. I have already made him wait for very long. It's time for me to leave…" Mito kindly says this to Araki before asking him to leave.

With tears in his eyes, Araki turned around to leave the room. He never expected this would be a day he would lose his grandmother. He was far too disheartened to do anything.

After leaving the room, he met up with the ladies and Kushina waiting outside. He told them to go inside. After having informed them of this, he continued to move, feeling extremely melancholic in his heart.

He didn't even realise when he left the mansion and was once again in the forest. Typically, when he entered the forest, he could quickly calm down, no matter what had happened to him. However, this time, as he continued to walk, the flowers or plants near him started to wither, dry up, and soon perish. It was like his emotions were affecting the state of his surroundings.

At some point, he stopped. It was in front of a giant tree. A tree so thick and gigantic in height that it would take nearly 10 times of his chakra to raise this tree. However, he didn't care about this tree.

Frustration had filled his heart, so he punched the tree to vent out some of his frustration. The only thing he managed to do was create a crack of the size of his fist on the tree. Once again, he punched the tree firmly, creating another crack of the size of his fist.

He hadn't even used chakra to boost his strength or anything. He was punching with his raw physical strength.

He continued to punch the tree over and over as if taking his anger on it while muttering 'WHY?! WHY?! WHY?! WHY?!' in his head. This was the same... The same thing he felt when his father died that day.

After 3 or so punches of his full power, his hands started bleeding, but he didn't mind the pain. Slowly, he felt like his mind was numb to this physical pain…