In these four years, Araki and Kushina had grown a lot. Not just by their height or weight, but their growth and density of their chakra. Araki also felt that the power of his physique had improved with his age.
He could heal quicker than before. And he realised he didn't even need to use hand seals to heal himself.
Araki had learnt the Senju Clan Taijutsu Style while Kushina had learnt the Uzumaki Clan's Taijutsu Style.
Their elemental training had been going great. It took Araki these 4 years to completely master his Water and Earth Elements, consequently making his Wood Style even stronger.
These days, he had started to work on the Wind Affinity. He found that the wind was the best element to enhance his Taijutsu Style significantly. It added a sense of fluidity in his Taijutsu Style. And currently, he had only succeeded in the leaf-cutting exercise of the Wind Chakra. He had a long way to go before mastering it.
Kushina had mastered her Water affinity with the use of Shadow Clones. She also had pretty good control over her Wind Chakra. However, she did prefer to use Water Chakra more…
Right now, Araki was seated in the Senju Clan Manor with a faint smile over his lips. He was reading a paper stating that some foreign Shinobi had entered Konoha as envoys to express their goodwill.
Araki threw the paper with away while saying, "Looks like they have finally come. They came quite a bit later than expected."
He then called out for 10 or so Uzumaki Clan members and ordered them to disable all seals.
The Uzumaki Clan Members were confused by this order. They wondered why their leader had given them such an order.
There was a teenager of age 16-year-old named Uzumaki Isao. He had a confused look on his face as he asked Araki, "Araki-sama, are you sure it would be alright to disable all the seals around the Manor? Wouldn't someone use this opportunity to enter the Manor?"
To which, Araki shook his head and replied, "Nobody will know whether the seals around the Manor have been disabled or not. I wonder if Danzo's men will dare to enter this Manor after their unsuccessful attempts from before. Well, I certainly hope he does send them…" He whispered the last line with a low voice, but Uzumaki Isao still heard it.
He shivered upon hearing that voice. He was well aware that Araki seemed to take immense pleasure in seeing these Shinobi die…
"Besides, we will have some more guests in these days. I want to welcome them personally…" The smile on his face made the Uzumaki Members shiver uncontrollably.
The last time Araki had handled the situation. The shinobi had ended up with multiple stakes in his body before they were burned. It was like Araki was letting them experience how melted metal felt in their body. Moreover, the smile on Araki's face was widening upon seeing the Shinobi squealing in pain.
Uzumaki Isao mentally decided to not be near Araki when he is handling the situation personally. In fact, many of the Uzumaki Clan Members decided the same.
It was far too brutal for their tastes.
With that, the Uzumaki Clan disabled the seals.
After Kushina returned from her training, she noticed that the seals around the Senju Clan Manor were disabled.
Later in the evening, Kushina asked Araki, "Did you order the Uzumaki clan members to disable the seals? Why did you ask them?"
Araki informed her with an indifferent gaze, "I am waiting for our guests. It would have been a pity if they couldn't even enter the Manor."
"Our guests? Do you mean someone from Uchiha Clan?" Kushina asked him with a surprised look on her face.
Araki though shook his head and responded, "Don't worry, you will know soon enough. They are quite near to the Manor."
Kushina showed off a puzzled look on her face. She used Kurama's Negative Emotions ability and sensed 5 unfamiliar chakra signatures of Shinobi. All these 5 seemed to have some kind of wicked thought in their heart.
However, it seemed to be nothing compared to what she felt from Araki. She could feel his negative feelings were explicitly directed at these 5 Shinobi.
They didn't need to wait for too long. It seemed that after 10 or so minutes, these Shinobi entered the Senju Clan's territory. All of them wore Dark Clothes along with a black mask which covered their face.
One of them spoke, "The Raikage ordered us to kill that Senju Clan Descendant who killed a lot of our comrades 4-years-ago. And also kidnap that Uzumaki girl who was with him. It's reported that she has unique chains which restrain a Bijuu's chakra. Alright, what will be our formation?"
"2-2-1 sounds alright. Although these two may be kids, Raikage informed us that we must not underestimate them." One of them spoke with a grim look.
They continued to remain outside the Senju Clan Manor and were running around it as if trying to find Araki and Kushina's position from the windows.
They soon found Araki and Kushina in a room west of the Senju Clan Manor. All five immediately gathered after finding them.
Araki and Kushina were seemingly sleeping from what they saw outside the window.
However, just to be cautious, they threw a smoke bomb inside the room. The smoke released from these bombs caused even a Jounin ranked Shinobi to faint…
This should be enough…
With that, they took some sort of pills which was an antidote for this smoke and 2 of these shinobi entered Araki's room.
The first thing they did was stab Araki's stomach while he was sleeping. After that, another one picked up Kushina's body and left immediately.
However, these 2 shinobi who had entered Araki's room were shocked to find that their comrades were missing.
They noticed some leaves were falling and looked up. There they saw… Their comrades tied by thick vines and raised above the ground. The vines were tightening around their body.
The two shinobi immediately moved and cut apart those vines with their swords and kunai enhanced by Lightning and Wind Chakra respectively.
Their 3 comrades gracefully landed on the ground.
"Let's leave… We have accomplished our objective." One of them spoke to his comrades. This place was far too strange. He had a bad feeling the longer he stayed here.
"Oi oi… Why are you returning so early? I have still not given you a warm welcome in the Senju Clan Manor." They heard an amused voice from above.
They unconsciously raised their heads and noticed Senju Araki seated there with a cold yet humorous look in his eyes.
The smoke inside Araki's room cleared away, and a piece of stabbed wood revealed itself in place of Araki.
Unconsciously, they all gulped down a mouthful of saliva as they realised that they had jumped into a trap.
The Kushina on the person's shoulder dispersed in a cloud of smoke.
"The Raikage really likes to court death. He probably has some sort of fetish with it by now. Don't you agree?" He gave them a pleasant smile which made them shiver unconsciously.
The Kumo Shinobi looked around and noticed there was no one around. If it was a trap, there was a possibility that other Shinobi from Konoha could be on standby before they attack!
"Are you worried about someone attacking us? Don't be so worried. If I needed help to deal with you, then I would have wasted these 4 years." Araki said with a cold tone before jumping down on the ground.
"Hmph… If it's you alone, we can take care of you quickly." One of them seemed to have quite some nerves as he said it to Araki.
"Hmm… You have some spunk. I will leave you for the last, your friends come first…" Araki said before staring at these ANBU members from Kumo.