"Was this your doing?" Kazuki gently stroked the Nine-Tails' fur, eyeing the now-berserk Kushina with amused curiosity.
The Nine-Tails shuddered violently, exhaling two heavy streams of white breath from its nostrils as it shook its head repeatedly.
"Not you, huh?"
Kazuki nodded slightly, falling into thought.
For jinchūriki, this kind of phenomenon wasn't unheard of… Even in an Edo Tensei body, or as a puppet fashioned for the Rinnegan, it was still possible to enter a tailed beast transformation.
And Kushina—who had never truly mastered the Nine-Tails' power to begin with—was now witnessing her beloved son's tragic reality. Her heart seethed with fury, and even the residual Nine-Tails chakra within her spiraled out of control...
"Kushina! Calm down—calm down!"
Minato's face suddenly changed. A bad memory flashed across his mind—
There was a time, long ago, when Kushina misunderstood him. He had been training the Rasengan alone, and she had thought he was ignoring her. Her emotions surged, and she lost control of the tailed beast chakra…
The result had been disastrous—Minato had taken a strike straight through the chest.
And now, standing beside her, was little Naruto…
Minato rushed toward Kushina without a second thought.
Beside them, young Naruto looked on, worried about the mother he had just met. As that dense, bubbling Nine-Tails chakra began to spread, filled with a foreboding aura, he instinctively took a step back.
Then, in that split second—
"Ahem..."
A man's crisp cough echoed across the spiritual space.
The sound wasn't loud, but it carried the weight of an unspoken authority—one that demanded obedience and silence. As the sound waves passed over Kushina, the Nine-Tails chakra radiating from her skin vanished in an instant!
Kushina's eyes cleared immediately. She glanced at Naruto with concern—then turned toward Kazuki, stunned.
She had never heard of such a thing…
In her understanding, suppressing tailed beast chakra required precise sealing techniques—like the Four Symbols Seal or Adamantine Sealing Chains.
Even the legendary Uchiha Madara had to rely on his dōjutsu to suppress it.
But this man—Kazuki—had expelled the Nine-Tails' chakra with nothing more than a soft cough?
Just who was this so-called friend of Naruto?
Minato stood frozen. Until now, he had always harbored some degree of wariness toward Kazuki.
But in that moment, he found himself unable to summon even the will to fight.
Because—
When Minato looked into Kazuki's eyes, their gazes met…
And within Kazuki's gentle, tranquil expression, Minato felt as though eons had passed. It was as if he had come face-to-face with a being beyond the limits of comprehension—his very soul swallowed by emptiness and silence, leaving him unable to think at all.
It wasn't until Kazuki finally looked away that Minato felt as though he were waking from a long dream—his consciousness slowly returning.
'Was that a genjutsu? No... it didn't feel like genjutsu at all!'
Minato rapidly analyzed the strange state he had just experienced. That overwhelming sense of insignificance, seemingly etched into his very blood, was something completely alien to him—something he had never once felt before.
And that was the natural pressure Kazuki now exerted on ordinary shinobi...
If he so desired, the pressure Minato felt from simply meeting Kazuki's gaze could be likened to staring down an entire planet.
That feeling of void and weightlessness experienced by the Yellow Flash wasn't due to illusion—but a natural suppression arising from the difference in the very hierarchy of life.
"Kazuki-nii-san!"
Naruto waved excitedly at him, eyes full of admiration and gratitude.
"You were amazing! Thank you so much, Kazuki-nii-san!"
Though young Naruto didn't quite understand what had happened to Kushina, he could sense she had been in a terrible state—
And it was Kazuki who had brought her back.
"It was nothing, Naruto. We're friends, after all."
Once again affirming their bond, Kazuki stood slowly atop the Nine-Tails' head.
From the beast's body, chakra began to rise—forming solid slabs like bricks, assembling into a staircase that extended directly beneath Kazuki's feet.
Step by step, he began to descend.
Transported forward by the Nine-Tails' chakra, Kazuki came to stand before Kushina and Minato.
The two exchanged a glance—each seeing confusion and unease mirrored in the other's eyes.
Kazuki's presence and power had far exceeded anything they could have imagined.
Just who is this man?
"Namikaze Minato... Uzumaki Kushina..."
Kazuki gently recited their names, then said calmly: "Your son, Naruto, is the one I've chosen in this world."
"I plan to explore the curiosities of this era... and for that, I need a vessel."
"As compensation, I will pass on to him the entirety of this planet's power system—and help him become the person he wishes to be."
Kazuki added quietly, with serene indifference: "And since the two of you are his parents... whether this bond between Naruto and me is allowed to exist—shall be yours to decide."
With the dense accumulation of Ōtsutsuki bloodline coursing through him, Kazuki—with his silver hair and ethereal bearing—already appeared more like a god than a mere mortal. And now, after what he had just said, he seemed even more like a mysterious being from beyond the heavens…
Minato and Kushina stared blankly, their eyes spinning with confusion, their minds completely overwhelmed.
'Power system', 'young friend Naruto', 'this timeline', 'opportunity'...
Kazuki's choice of words made the couple feel as if he didn't belong to this world—no, perhaps not even to this reality.
"Dad, Mom! I want to learn from Kazuki-nii!"
Naruto looked up at Kazuki's calm, gentle smile, and something trembled deep within his heart. He took a bold step forward and grabbed both of his parents' hands.
"Kazuki-nii is a traveler! He's here sightseeing in the shinobi world, and he picked my body to stay in like it's his house! So he promised to pay me rent!"
"We've already agreed on everything!"
Naruto spoke hurriedly. In his short life, the coolest, most amazing, and the only friend he had ever made—and desperately wanted to keep—was Kazuki.
And clearly, Kazuki wasn't going to remain his only friend for long…
This rare opportunity—Naruto couldn't let it slip away, no matter what!
"Th-this... Kazuki-sama," Minato finally exhaled a long breath, then cautiously asked, "May I ask, how exactly do you plan to teach Naruto?"
Kazuki didn't respond with words.
He simply raised a single finger.
At the tip of that finger, a wisp of high-speed rotating chakra slowly began to condense into a sphere.
Minato and Kushina focused intently on the chakra ball.
It started as a brilliant blue, neutral chakra—but then quickly shifted, cycling through the five elemental natures: wind, lightning, fire, water, and earth...
In an instant, it changed again—becoming the brilliant red and pure white of Yang Release and the eerie darkness of Yin Release.
Then, with a snap of Kazuki's fingers—
The single large orb split into seven smaller chakra spheres, each representing a distinct chakra nature.
But it didn't end there.
Two chakra spheres at a time began merging—
Forming new combinations, each one representing a kekkei genkai.
Lava Release, Storm Release, Ice Release, Magnet Release, Explosion Release...
Minato and Kushina stood speechless, eyes wide in disbelief.
Never had they seen anyone who could control so many chakra nature combinations—so many kekkei genkai!
And still, it continued—this time, fusions of three or more chakra types began to form, evolving into kekkei tōta.
Even Minato, with all his knowledge and experience, could only recognize one of them: Dust Release.
As for the others… they were completely beyond his understanding.
Without a sound, Kazuki raised his finger again. The swirling chakra spheres—like instruments in a symphony—suddenly synchronized, harmonizing in both frequency and rhythm.
Then, hovering just above his fingertip—
A jet-black orb emerged.
Truth-Seeking Ball.
But this wasn't an ordinary one.
It was a rapidly expanding Expansive Truth-Seeking Ball—a terrifying variant.
The sheer, oppressive aura it emitted was suffocating.
Minato and Kushina instinctively shielded Naruto behind them—only to gasp aloud in unison the next moment.
Because they saw what lay within Kazuki's eyes—
That awe-inspiring gaze of the Rinne Sharingan, adorned with nine tomoe.
The moment Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina saw Kazuki's pair of Rinnegan with nine tomoe, it felt as though a heavy hammer had struck their hearts. Their entire bodies began trembling uncontrollably, and they hurriedly averted their gazes.
Oppression—
An overwhelming sense of pressure, arising from the depths of their souls!
To these two beings, whose current existence was merely residual chakra consciousness, the sheer might of the nine-tomoe Rinnegan could only be described as: "Look one more second, and you might explode on the spot."
"The so-called kekkei genkai… are, in essence, remnants of Ōtsutsuki power. As long as you grasp even one trace of it and follow the bloodline's trajectory, the entire system can be deduced naturally."
As Kazuki spoke, the pitch-black Truth-Seeking Orbs behind him instantly disintegrated and morphed into a pair of blood-red eyes—
Mangekyō Sharingan.
But that wasn't the end. After manifesting the Sharingan, those eyes transformed once again—into the clear Byakugan, into crimson-and-white bone protrusions, into golden chains so familiar to Kushina, and finally into wooden branches brimming with life.
Uchiha, Senju, Hyūga, Uzumaki, Kaguya—these names of bloodlines famed throughout the shinobi world…
This man could conjure them effortlessly, each one in its most pristine and authentic form!
The Adamantine Sealing Chains released by Kazuki stirred something within Kushina—reminding her inexplicably of Uzumaki Mito, once the strongest sealing-style kunoichi of the Uzumaki Clan.
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