Chapter 35: The Nine-Tails Attack
"There is only the Reaper Death Seal."
Minato Namikaze's tone was calm, but to Kushina's ears, those words were like a bolt from the blue.
"I am not a Jinchuriki. Without using that technique, there is no way to completely deal with the Nine-Tails. Furthermore, I cannot Seal such a massive amount of Chakra all at once."
Minato gazed tenderly at his weakened wife in his arms, a deep pain hidden in the depths of his eyes. "I will use the Reaper Death Seal to take half of the Nine-Tails' Chakra with me, and the remaining half will be sealed within Naruto."
"No!!"
Kushina grabbed Minato's sleeve with all her strength, tears blurring her vision. "Naruto is still just a baby! Why make him shoulder such a heavy fate? We could—"
"There is no other way, Kushina," Minato interrupted her. "That Masked Man... his methods and ambitions are far beyond our imagination. I have a premonition that he will surely cause a bloodbath in the Ninja World in the future. And the person who can stop him..."
Minato turned to look at the crying baby on the altar, his eyes shining with a light called "conviction."
"I believe that the Child of Prophecy is our Naruto."
Kushina's lips trembled. As a mother, she could not accept such a grand reason for sacrificing her own child.
"But even if it's for the future of the Ninja World, for the balance of the Tailed Beasts within the Hidden Village... why sacrifice Naruto? Why must you die? Minato, I only want you to live on and watch Naruto grow up as his father! Even without the power of the Nine-Tails—"
"To abandon the country, to abandon the Village... Kushina, you were once a person of a fallen nation. You should know better than anyone what kind of tragic life those without protection face in this cruel Ninja World."
Minato's voice became heavy. It was the responsibility of a Hokage and the final foresight of a father. "If we don't want Naruto to suffer that fate, this is the only way. As the Hokage, this is my duty; as a father, this is the final protection I can give him."
With those words, Minato no longer hesitated.
Under Kushina's gaze, his hands formed Seals at lightning speed.
Snake-Boar-Ram-Rabbit-Dog-Rat-Bird-Horse-Snake
Clap!
As his hands came together for the final Seal, an extremely cold aura instantly descended upon this devastated woodland.
Behind Minato, space seemed to be torn apart as a phantom of the Shinigami, draped in a white robe with a short sword in its mouth and a hideous face, slowly emerged. At that moment, the surrounding temperature plummeted to the freezing point.
"That is..."
Outside the barrier, the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, who had just arrived, suddenly stopped in his tracks.
The golden barrier formed by the Adamantine Sealing Chains isolated everyone outside, but that didn't stop him from recognizing that hair-raising technique.
"The Reaper Death Seal... Minato, do you really intend to use your own life to deal with the Nine-Tails?!"
Hiruzen Sarutobi felt a deep sense of powerlessness. He attacked the barrier frantically, but this sealing technique, which originated from the Uzumaki Clan's highest level, could not be shaken in the slightest even by him, the Professor of Ninjutsu.
Inside the barrier, the Shinigami's ritual had already begun.
As the Shinigami's spectral hand pierced through Minato's Soul and emerged from his abdomen, it grabbed the Nine-Tails, which was pinned down by chains.
"What is this thing?! What are you trying to do?!" the Nine-Tails roared in terror, feeling its Soul being torn by some irresistible force.
"Seal!!"
Minato let out a low growl and yanked backward violently.
The short sword in the Shinigami's hand swung down, slicing straight through the Nine-Tails' Soul.
The massive body of the Nine-Tails instantly shriveled, its size shrinking by more than half. At the same time, that half of the Yin-attribute Chakra was forcibly dragged into Minato's body, forming a black spiral Seal on his abdomen.
Pant, pant...
Minato knelt on one knee, gasping for breath as his life force rapidly ebbed away with the sacrifice of his Soul.
But he did not fall.
"It's not over yet... next is the Eight Trigrams Sealing Style."
Minato forced himself up, bit his finger, and summoned an altar. He carefully placed the still-crying Naruto in the center of the altar.
Looking at the life that had just been born and hadn't even had the chance to see the world clearly, the reluctance in Minato's eyes almost overflowed.
"Damn you, Fourth Hokage!!"
The previously suppressed Nine-Tails now found the Adamantine Sealing Chains around its neck much looser due to its shrunken size.
Seeing that this man actually intended to Seal it inside that brat who hadn't even grown teeth yet, the Nine-Tails felt unprecedented humiliation and rage.
"If we're going to die, then let's go to Hell together!!"
Roar!!
The Nine-Tails let out an earth-shaking roar. Taking advantage of the moment when Kushina's control over the chains weakened as she coughed up blood from exhaustion, it suddenly raised its razor-sharp giant claw.
Its target was Naruto on the altar!
"Naruto!!"
Kushina let out a piercing scream. At this moment, her body reacted faster than her brain.
Simultaneously, a golden figure also lunged forward.
Puchi!
The cringe-inducing sound of a blade entering flesh echoed through the night sky.
Blood splattered, and hot droplets fell onto Naruto's tender cheek, stopping his crying.
Two bodies, like two insurmountable mountains, stood firmly in front of the giant claw.
The massive claw pierced through Minato and Kushina's bodies, but their hands firmly held back the Nine-Tails' attack, not allowing the claw to advance another inch.
"Is this what parents are?"
On a treetop not far away, Yahiko, who had been watching coldly, finally showed a flicker of emotion in his eyes as he witnessed this scene.
There was no mockery, nor was there pity, only a complex silence.
Before the altar.
Blood overflowed from Minato's mouth; his life had reached its end. He laboriously raised his hand and formed the Seal for the Summoning Jutsu.
Poof!
A scroll toad—Gerotora—appeared out of thin air.
"Gerotora, the key to the sealing formula on Naruto... please deliver it to Master Jiraiya."
Having done all this, Minato felt his eyelids grow as heavy as lead. He looked at his wife in front of him, who was also impaled, and gave a final wry smile.
"It seems it's time for us to say goodbye, Kushina."
Kushina was in tears, her red hair stained with blood. She gazed down at Naruto, as if she wanted to say a lifetime's worth of nagging in this single moment.
"Naruto... don't be a picky eater, eat plenty, and grow up fast... remember to bathe every day and go to bed early..."
"Make friends, even if it's just a few... as long as they are friends you can trust..."
"And... be careful of perverts like Master Jiraiya..."
The flame of life flickered in the wind; those were a mother's final instructions, every word written in blood.
"Naruto... your father wants to say the same things as your mother."
Minato's hand slowly covered Naruto's stomach, and the Eight Trigrams Sealing Style formula lit up with its final glow.
"Eight Trigrams Sealing Style!"
Hum—!
The remaining half of the Nine-Tails let out an unwilling roar, turning into a torrent of red Chakra as it was forcibly pulled into Naruto's navel.
Sealing complete.
The massive Nine-Tails disappeared, and the golden chains dissipated into points of light.
Without support, the two lifeless bodies slowly collapsed.
Their hands, even in death, were still protecting either side of the baby.
The rain had stopped at some point.
Rustle.
A man dressed in a black robe and wearing a fox mask on his face slowly stepped out from the shadows behind the trees.
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