The storm over Konohagakure did not belong to the season.
No clouds rolled in from the sea, no fronts shifted across the Land of Fire. The air was still, heavy, wrong — as if the world itself were holding its breath.
Lanterns burned along the main streets, warm and soft. Shops were closing, doors sliding shut, children being called inside. A dog barked once at nothing and then hid beneath a porch, tail wedged tight between its legs.
Unknown to almost everyone, hidden beyond their sight, the seal around the jinchūriki strained.
…
Far outside the village, hidden behind layered barriers and cloaking seals, a small, windowless building stood alone in a clearing. It might as well not have existed; to most, it didn't.
Inside, Kushina Uzumaki screamed.
Her voice tore through the air, raw and ragged, shaking dust from the beams. Chakra flared wild and bloody under her skin, human blue and Kyūbi crimson mixing into a violent, thrashing storm. Golden chains of sealing chakra threatened to burst from her back.
"Breathe, Kushina!" Biwako ordered, wiping sweat from her brow with a sleeve. "You've done this before. Focus!"
Kushina's fingers dug into the sheets, knuckles bone white. Her hair was plastered to her skin, her face pale with effort, eyes half-wild from pain and chakra strain. Each contraction threatened to crack her apart; each wave tugged at the beast sealed inside her.
"I– I am breathing!" she snapped between gasps. "This—this hurts more than anything else, dattebane—!"
Minato knelt at her side, one hand in hers, the other steady on her shoulder. His Hokage cloak lay folded in the corner, forgotten; right now he was just a husband, a man watching the person he loved being ripped apart and knowing there was nothing he could do to lessen it.
"You're doing great," he said, even though his voice trembled. "You're almost there. Just a little more."
Taji, the younger attendant beside Biwako, checked the positioning, her expression tight with professional focus. "Head is engaged. One more big push, Kushina-sama."
"Big push," Kushina muttered. "I'll show you… big push…"
She screamed again, chakra flaring brighter, shaking the walls. The barrier outside hummed in response, adjusting to contain the flare.
For a moment, the Nine-Tails pressed against the seal — a monstrous, suffocating pressure that clawed at the edges of her consciousness.
I'll tear free.
No.
Kushina's will slammed down, chakra chains tightening, forcing the beast back into the cage. She gritted her teeth, tears streaming down her face, and pushed.
The air split with the wail of a newborn.
Everything stopped.
The pain, the roaring chakra, the world itself seemed to narrow down to that thin, high cry — raw, indignant, alive. Kushina sagged back against the bedding, chest heaving. Biwako's expression softened as she lifted the tiny, blood-slicked infant gently into her arms.
"A boy," Biwako said quietly. "Healthy. Strong lungs."
Minato's breath hitched.
Kushina's head turned weakly. "Let me… see… him…"
Biwako had done this many times already, so she didn't waste a lot of time; she was cleaning little Naruto while Minato was helping his wife reinforce the seal that had nearly shattered during the birth.
It had been close, but in the end, they had done it. Now the worst was over, and they both looked forward to holding little Naruto in their arms.
While everything calmed down inside the small shack, the same couldn't be said for outside the place.
Outside, the barrier guard never saw it coming. One heartbeat he stood, watching the seals hum quietly in the gloom.
The next, a hand emerged from his shadow and crushed his throat in a single, precise motion.
No alarm.
No flash.
One by one, the remaining guards died in silence — dragged into nothingness by unseen hands, throats slit by a kunai that vanished as quickly as it appeared. Blood steamed on the cold ground.
Elite ANBU units just disappeared. No trace, no sign, no warning.
Inside, Biwako was just getting ready to hand Naruto to his waiting parents, having cleaned and wrapped him in some cloths so he wouldn't get cold. She had no idea what was happening behind her.
Space warped in the dark doorway, twisting like a black whirlpool. Reality folded, turned inside-out, and a man stepped through — cloaked in black, mask orange and swirling with a single eye-hole.
Obito.
But no one here knew that name.
He appeared between one breath and the next — behind Biwako, hands already moving.
Biwako had time to widen her eyes.
That was all.
The kunai flashed once.
Her head fell a second later.
Blood sprayed across the bedding, hot and sudden. Taji turned, mouth opening in a scream that never fully formed — cut short by another strike, clean and clinical.
Naruto tumbled from Biwako's arms.
The masked man caught him.
Kushina's world went white.
"Don't move," the masked man said calmly, as Naruto let out a fresh, confused wail. The blade in his hand hovered just a breath from the infant's throat. "Fourth Hokage."
Minato froze.
Kushina tried to sit up, but pain and chakra shock slammed her back against the mattress, chains rattling violently.
"Give him back," she rasped, voice shredded. "Give my son back—!"
The masked man ignored her.
His eye — a single crimson Sharingan behind the mask — locked on Minato.
"You will step away from the jinchūriki," he said. "Slowly. Or the child dies."
Minato's heart hammered against his ribs, harder than it had in any battle. Every instinct screamed at him to move, to flash, to strike — but one wrong twitch, one miscalculation…
Naruto's crying trembled on the edge of a blade.
Minato lifted his hands slowly, palms empty, stepping away from the bed. "If you hurt him," he said, voice deadly quiet, "I will kill you."
The masked man chuckled softly. "I believe you. Which is why you won't risk it."
Naruto squirmed in his grip, wailing. The masked man shifted his hold almost absently, the blade never straying far from the child's skin.
"Now," he said. "Step away from the jinchūriki."
Minato's mind raced.
The masked man's Sharingan never blinked.
"Step away from the jinchūriki," he repeated, tone cold and unhurried, the knife hovering millimeters from Naruto's tiny throat.
Minato raised both hands slightly, showing he held nothing, forcing himself to keep breathing evenly. "If you hurt him," he said, voice trembling at the edges, "I will kill you."
"Oh, I know," the masked man answered. "Which is why you won't risk a thing."
Naruto whimpered, kicking weakly in the man's grip.
Kushina strained against her chains, tears streaming down her face. "Please… please don't… don't touch him— Minato—!"
Her seal flickered violently.
Minato made his choice.
He moved.
A micro-shift of weight. A tightening of muscle. Nothing visible — just the smallest preparation for a teleport—
And the masked man reacted instantly.
His hand jerked.
He threw Naruto.
Straight into the air.
"No!" Kushina screamed.
Minato didn't think.
He vanished in a flash of gold, reappearing beneath the falling infant with arms outstretched—
His hands closed around Naruto's tiny form—
—and instantly he felt it.
Paper.
Crackling chakra.
Explosive tags wrapped inside the blanket.
Minato's blood ran cold.
He planned this—!
Flying Raijin.
Minato had no time to think, he had to both ensure Naruto wasn't hurt and make sure the explosion didn't hit Kushina while she was still weak from childbirth.
And so, he showed why he was known as the fastest ninja alive. In a single movement, he unwrapped the blankets from around Naruto and, while moving out of the cabin, threw them into the air, even as the cabin exploded behind him, caught in the blast.
As he came to a stop, Naruto now naked, cold and scared in his arms, he looked back. Neither the masked man nor Kushina was there.
"Hiss," Minato hissed in pain, a wooden fragment lodged in his lower leg, not too deep but still painful.
Still, he ignored it. He had a job to do — as a father, as a husband, and as the Hokage.
With another yellow flash, he was gone, leaving only the ruined building and cooling bodies behind as he went to get Naruto somewhere safe, somewhere warm.
Minato had multiple safe houses around Konoha, places he had protected with seals and where his Flying Raijin could take him at a moment's notice, stocked with everything he needed.
And now, he needed it.
He quickly wrapped Naruto up again. "Be strong, Naruto, I'm going to get your mom," he told his son, before gently placing him down and disappearing with another yellow flash.
It wasn't hard to find Kushina; she had long since been marked by his sealing formula, and with the chakra she was currently giving off, no barrier could block it.
Even from Konoha, that dark chakra could be felt, before they saw it: in the forest outside the village, a massive beast, red as blood and with nine massive tails the size of mountains swaying behind it.
Obito took a moment to steady himself after taking control of the Nine-Tailed Fox. It was far harder to do than it had been to handle the Three-Tailed beast. That beast had been lazy, barely putting up any resistance as he forced it to sleep.
The Nine-Tails, however, wasn't that docile. It was pure hate and anger, and it was very, very angry right now.
Which suited Obito just fine. He didn't intend to make the beast sleep — instead, he figured he might help it vent some of its anger.
With barely a thought, the fox turned toward the weakened Kushina, still alive. For a moment Obito remembered how kind she had been to him. To all of them.
But he remembered Rin, and his anger rose, his pain covering the sweet memories of his youth.
Yet, before the massive paw of the fox could land, Minato appeared and saved his wife, before they both disappeared in a yellow flash.
"Fast when it comes to saving your wife and child… but when it was me? Or Rin? Where was your speed then," Obito cursed silently before he ordered the fox to vent its rage.
On Konoha.
(End of chapter)
I tried to do this one mostly by memory, and well… I didn't do that for the rest of these, and damn, having to rewatch this, and repeat the same sad lines again and again… poor Minato and Kushina…