Chapter 66: A Promise Broken, A Legacy Forged
Akira, from his position holding the two clone-beasts in a genjutsu trance, couldn't help but feel a surge of surprise at the conversation he overheard.
He had assumed Kushina's fate was sealed with Minato's. The tragic symmetry of the original story seemed inevitable. Yet here she was, making a promise to live. To endure.
A change. After all this struggle, a real, tangible change. The thought brought a flicker of grim satisfaction amidst the night's horrors. But how will Minato manage it? Without the Reaper Death Seal… how can he split the fox's chakra? Or will he seal the whole beast? Are these clones enough? The mechanics of the sealing, now altered, spun through his mind. The Reaper Death Seal consumed souls. Using it now would mean permanently sacrificing the Yin half of the Nine-Tails to the Shinigami's gut. It seemed a wasteful price.
Kushina looked at Minato, her expression one of pained resolve. "Minato… what is your plan?"
Minato didn't hesitate; the plan was clearly formed in his fading mind. "The main body… into Naruto. One of the clones… into you. Its chakra should be sufficient… to sustain your life."
"A clone would be enough for me," Kushina agreed with a nod. Then her voice softened, maternal worry overriding sealing logic. "But Minato… our son… the burden on him is so immense."
"There is no other path," Minato said, his voice strained but certain. "The darkness in that 'Madara's' Sharingan… it's profound. I feel it. To confront him… the Nine-Tails' power will be essential." He took a pained breath. "And Nagato… the Rinnegan. The Sage's eyes fully realized… it would be a power like a god's. Naruto… may need every advantage."
Kushina was silent for a long moment, then let out a shaky, almost laugh-like sigh. "Minato… you are such a troublesome father. He's only just been born… and you've already loaded the world onto his tiny shoulders."
"ROOOOOOOAR—!"
The bellow that erupted was not one of pain, but of vindictive, long-plotted fury. The bound Nine-Tails convulsed, not with the aim of breaking free, but with a focused, concentrated exertion. Its chakra, previously suppressed, flared in one specific, hidden point beneath the earth near Kushina.
A jagged, sword-like tentacle of pure, corrosive scarlet chakra erupted from the ground directly beneath her. It was not an attack of brute force, but of precise, malicious intent. It pierced upward, through her abdomen, exiting her back in a spray of blood before immediately dissolving back into dissipating energy.
The strike was so sudden, so unexpected from a beast supposedly completely restrained, that it froze everyone in place for a critical second.
"Kushina!" Minato's cry was a raw wound of sound.
"HAHAHAHA! HOW DOES IT TASTE?!" the Nine-Tails roared, its voice a symphony of gloating hatred. "MY PATIENCE, MY CUNNING! YOU THINK ME A MINDLESS BEAST? I AM THE NINE-TAILS! YOU DARED TO PLAN MY FATE AS IF I WERE CARCASS! THIS IS YOUR REWARD!"
It had played the helpless prisoner, gathering the dregs of its chakra, focusing it into a single, subterranean spike over long minutes. A final, cruel lesson in underestimation.
As Hiruzen, Jiraiya, Fugaku, and Akira surged forward, Kushina, bleeding profusely, acted through sheer, defiant will. With a final, monumental effort, she clenched her fists. The Adamantine Chains shrieked as they tightened further, lifting the massive fox completely off the ground, suspending it in a web of light, utterly immobilized.
"Minato… I'm sorry…" she whispered, blood bubbling at her lips. The light in her eyes was dimming fast. "I can't… keep my promise… to watch him grow…"
Minato looked at her, his heart shattering, but his mind, honed by battle, shifted to damage control. There was no time for grief. Only action. "Kushina…" His voice was a choked whisper of farewell.
His hands moved in a blur, the pain in his chest nothing compared to the agony in his soul. "Four Symbols Seal!"
Black, intricate sealing formulae exploded from his palms, not spreading slowly, but slamming onto the suspended fox like a net. In an instant, the mountainous form was covered in a crawling, constricting lattice of dark kanji.
The Nine-Tails could only twitch, a final, guttural roar of impotent rage tearing from its throat. "NAMIKAZE MINATOOOO—!"
The black seals connected, pulsed, and collapsed inward. They formed a perfect, dark sphere around the beast, within which a furious red light churned like a trapped star. As the sphere levitated away from the chains, it began to shrink, compressing the immense chakra within. From the size of a small hill, to a house, to a boulder, and finally, to a dense, fist-sized orb of absolute black, shot through with pulsating red lines.
It floated over the sleeping Naruto, hovered for two heartbeats, and then descended.
With a soft shoom and a flash of crimson light that painted the faces of the onlookers, the sphere sank into the infant's abdomen. The black seals flowed across his skin, forming the familiar spiral pattern of the Eight Trigrams Seal. The design glowed fiercely, then faded, sinking beneath the surface until only unmarked skin remained.
The deed was done. The might of the full Nine-Tails now resided within a newborn.
With the last of their strength spent, Minato and Kushina slumped to their knees beside their son. They looked at each other, a world of love, apology, and regret passing between them in that final glance. Then, together, they reached out trembling, bloodied hands to gently touch Naruto's small form—one last caress.
Kushina's hand, slick with her own blood, stroked her son's cheek, leaving a faint, tragic smear. Minato lifted his gaze to the four figures now standing over them: Hiruzen, Jiraiya, Fugaku, and Akira.
His voice was a thread, almost inaudible. "Lord Third… Teacher Jiraiya… Fugaku… Akira… Naruto… is in your care now. I am… sorry."
"We will protect him with our lives," Hiruzen vowed, his voice thick.
Jiraiya could only nod, tears streaming down his face unchecked.
Fugaku gave a slow, solemn nod of assent, his Uchiha pride bowed by the weight of the moment.
Akira nodded as well, a complex mix of sorrow and resignation in his heart. After all that… we still end up here. The path was different, the details altered, but this core tragedy remained.
"Please… keep his identity secret," Minato breathed, each word an effort. "My enemies… are many. They may come for him… Tell him… who we were… only when he is strong enough… to bear it…"
His eyes drifted to the two clone-beasts, still held motionless by the Uchiha's genjutsu. "The clones… I cannot… handle them. To you… Lord Third… Teacher… Fugaku… Akira…"
His voice trailed off into silence. His head bowed forward, and the last faint light of the Pseudo-Sage Talisman flickered and died within him. The Fourth Hokage, Namikaze Minato, was gone.
As if connected by the same fragile thread, Kushina's movements stilled completely a second later. Her hand fell from Naruto's face. Uzumaki Kushina, the last princess of her clan, joined her husband.
A heavy, suffocating silence fell over the devastated field, broken only by the crackle of distant fires. The two greatest protectors of Konoha lay dead beside their son, who slept on, innocent of the titanic power and profound loss now nestled within him.
Hiruzen seemed to age another decade in that moment. He sighed, a sound of infinite weariness, and gently, reverently, laid the two bodies down side by side.
Jiraiya stared, hollow-eyed, his vibrant spirit extinguished. He looked utterly lost.
Fugaku's face was a stoic mask, but his eyes held a deep, cold frustration. The Hokage his clan had backed, the hope for a new era, was gone, leaving only chaos and a dangerous legacy.
Akira simply watched, the events cementing his understanding of this world's cruel inertia.
After a long moment, Hiruzen straightened his back, the leader's burden forcing itself upon him once more. He looked from the grieving Jiraiya to the two Uchiha, then to the pair of snarling, genjutsu-held fox clones.
"The dead are gone," he said, his voice gravelly but firm. "We mourn them later. Now… we must decide. What is to be done with the two that remain?"
(End of Chapter)
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