The black snake suddenly shot forward, its massive body wrapping tightly around the Toad Boss.
The two giant toads nearby were about to rush in to help, but Gamabunta blocked their path and shouted,
"Don't move! I don't know what's going on, but all of you stay right here!"
"Out of my way!"
One of the toads raised his steel trident and thrust it forward—but before it could hit, his body turned into a puff of smoke. The toads were reverse-summoned back to Mount Myōboku.
The seal of the Red Moon Scroll had already been undone. Minato took out the scroll that Jiraiya had once sealed away.
At that moment, the Great Toad Boss took a long puff of his pipe and asked lazily,
"If I remember correctly, your name is Kiyosuke, right? What's going on?"
If Naruto were the one explaining, the toad probably wouldn't understand a word of it. Better to let Kiyosuke handle this.
But when the Great Toad Boss saw Minato walk out, he frowned in confusion.
"Minato? Weren't you already dead?"
"Are you sure you're not mistaken?" Minato asked, puzzled.
Kiyosuke explained, "Gamabunta, this world is a mirrored reflection of our own—an opposite world. That's why Minato is still alive here."
The Limited Tsukuyomi reflected the innermost desires of the one caught in its illusion. It was similar to the Infinite Tsukuyomi, but fundamentally different.
The Infinite Tsukuyomi trapped its victims in a dream world shaped entirely by their wishes—it was, at its core, a genjutsu.
But the Limited Tsukuyomi was something else entirely. It was actually a space-time ninjutsu that used the chakra of seven tailed beasts to transfer the target from their original world into its mirrored opposite.
"What do you mean by that, Kiyosuke? Are you saying you're under a genjutsu?" Guy asked, confused.
Kiyosuke explained, "It means I'm not the Asakawa Kiyosuke you know. And Naruto isn't Uzumaki Menma—he's not your son. His parents sacrificed their lives to protect him the moment he was born. I was there when it happened."
"No! I don't believe that!" Kushina shouted. "Menma is Menma! He's the son I carried for ten months and raised with my own hands! How could he be someone else's child? The Nine Tails was sealed inside him by the Fourth Hokage the night he was born! Kiyosuke, if you keep joking like this, I'm going to hit you!"
But Kiyosuke only looked at her and said quietly,
"Do as you like. You're not the Kushina I know. If I had to fight you, I wouldn't feel a thing."
Minato stepped in front of his wife.
"So this is why your personality changed so drastically?" he asked.
"Not exactly," Kiyosuke shrugged. "The me you know and I are opposites in every way."
"I don't care who you really are," Kushina said firmly. "All I know is that he's my son, and that's all that matters!"
She leapt onto Gamabunta's head and hugged Naruto tightly.
"He's my child! How could he possibly belong to someone else?!"
"I'm sorry," Naruto said, lowering his head, his voice heavy. "Even though I've only met her once—maybe even in a dream—I know you're not her. I'm sorry."
"No! Menma, you're my child!"
"Kushina…" Minato reached out his hand.
The idea of visitors from another world was hard to accept—but if this Naruto wasn't their son, then… where was their real one?
"Do you want me and that snake to use Reverse Summoning to send you back?"
Gamabunta finally realized why he and the black snake had appeared in this world. If they returned to their summoning realms, they could use Reverse Summoning from there as a bridge to go back to their own world.
Their presence here proved Kiyosuke's theory was correct.
"Not yet," Kiyosuke said. "There are still people left here. We'll wait and see how things unfold."
"Then I'll take my leave," the Great Toad Boss said, vanishing in a puff of smoke.
The black snake slithered away as well. Everyone began preparing to return to Konoha.
Because of Kiyosuke's sudden revelation, everyone's feelings were in turmoil.
Minato didn't report the incident to Tsunade—he simply told her the mission was complete.
As for the Red Moon Scroll, it was sealed away again. It would only be opened when the time was right. Supposedly, it contained a way to defeat the man with the mask, though Kiyosuke doubted it would be of much use now.
"Can you tell me about that boy?" Minato later asked Kiyosuke. He wanted to know more about Naruto.
Naruto himself had gone off for a walk, too overwhelmed to stay.
"Sure," Kiyosuke said. "Let's start from the beginning—his birth."
He told Minato about Naruto's life, from the night he was born to everything that had happened since.
When he finished, Minato said softly,
"You've all been through so much. The Fourth Hokage… that version of me sounds amazing. He sacrificed himself for the village. I don't think I could've done that—I'm afraid of dying."
"That version of you didn't just protect Konoha," Kiyosuke said. "You lost your wife too. After that, you didn't have the will to live. You could've survived, but… you chose not to."
In that man's heart, his wife mattered more than anything—classic late-stage wife obsession, no doubt about it.
"Yeah," Minato said with a bitter smile. "Losing Kushina… I really wouldn't know how to go on. That Naruto—did he hate us?"
"No. He respects you both deeply," Kiyosuke said. "Naruto admires you. He's proud to be your son. It's because of you that he found the strength to live. He just doesn't know how to face you now."
Naruto had always wished Minato and Kushina could be by his side—but he knew it was impossible. His life had been bought with theirs.
Minato eventually accepted the truth about Naruto. Still, one question remained: where was his real son, Menma?
"He's probably in my world now, with the other version of me," Kiyosuke said. "A jutsu powerful enough to bring me and Naruto here would need an anchor point. Crossing between worlds isn't easy—but swapping two people? That's much simpler. They might be there instead."
"That makes sense," Minato said thoughtfully. As a student of space-time ninjutsu himself, he understood. Still, it meant his son likely wouldn't be coming back anytime soon.
After their talk, the two parted ways.
Kiyosuke wandered home, pushed open the door and froze.
A black-haired boy around twelve or thirteen sat in the living room. His face resembled Kiyosuke's, though his smile was more like Mei's.
When he saw Kiyosuke, he grinned and said,
"Welcome home, Dad."
Dad? Did he just call me Dad? That's… my son?!
Kiyosuke's brain short-circuited on the spot.
"Daddy's home?"
A soft, adorable voice came from the kitchen.
A little girl with hair the same color as Terumī Mei's peeked out, then ran toward him and hugged his leg.
"Your little princess is here! Did you miss me?" she chirped.
These… are my son and daughter?
Kiyosuke picked up Asakawa Yuka—a girl who looked so much like Mei, though her eyes and smile carried traces of himself.
He laughed softly.
"Say it again—call me Dad."