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15 Advanced Chapters @ patreon.com/aizenDuchiha0
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Training began the next day.
The old Uzumaki compound was half-ruined, abandoned for years after the clan's scattering. Seals still etched into the walls hummed faintly with dormant chakra. It was there Hiruzen arranged for their practice—far enough from civilians, strong enough in foundation to withstand chakra surges.
Kushina stood in the center, scowling at the empty air. "I don't see why I gotta talk to that furball. If he wanted to, he could've spoken up years ago."
Minato knelt nearby, unfurling a scroll of complex seal diagrams. "Sometimes silence hides more than words. The seal that binds him isn't just a lock. It's a barrier, and it muffles both ways. If we adjust it—carefully—you might hear him. Or he might hear you."
She gave him a sidelong glance. "You sound way too calm about poking the biggest, angriest chakra monster alive."
"I've always believed even the strongest walls can have doors," Minato said lightly, though his fingers moved with precision and sweat dotted his brow.
Kushina tilted her head, curious despite herself. "You really believe that fox will talk? That he'll just say hello like a friendly neighbor?"
"I don't know," Minato admitted. His blue eyes met hers, unwavering. "But I believe in you."
Kushina blinked. Heat crept into her cheeks, which she masked with an exaggerated scoff. "Tch. You're smooth with words, y'know that? Dattebane."
The first attempt was clumsy. Kushina sat cross-legged, Minato's adjusted seal glowing faintly on her stomach. She reached inward, into that vast dark where the Kyūbi slumbered. The cage loomed, massive bars glinting with faint light. Behind them, twin red eyes opened, vast and burning.
Her breath caught.
"Oi, fox!" Her voice echoed in the void. "You gonna say something or keep pretending you're a statue?"
The eyes narrowed. A low growl rumbled, reverberating through her very bones. But no words.
Kushina snapped her eyes open back in the training hall, panting. "He's there. Watching. But still silent. Damn stubborn beast."
Minato scribbled notes. "That's more than before. He stirred. That means the seal shift worked."
Kushina flopped back onto the mat, hair splaying around her. "If stirring's all we get, we'll be dead before he ever talks."
Days became weeks.
Sometimes Kushina came out of meditation fuming, stomping around the compound, shouting that the fox was mocking her in silence. Sometimes she emerged pale, shaken by the sheer killing intent that radiated from behind those bars.
Minato was constant. Always calm, always adjusting, refining seals, guiding her breathing, reminding her to focus. His patience never seemed to waver, no matter how harsh her temper.
Once, after she stormed out, she found him still kneeling by the scrolls, candlelight flickering over his face. "Why do you even put up with me?" she muttered.
He looked up, smiling softly. "Because I know how much strength you carry. Even if you don't see it yet."
Her chest tightened. She turned away quickly. "Idiot. Dattebane."
By the second month, progress came.
When Kushina entered the inner world, the fox sometimes rumbled in low words. Not sentences, but fragments. Threats. Curses. Yet it was speech.
"You will never control me…"
"You are just a jinchuriki. Nothing more."
Her fists clenched, but Minato's voice echoed in her mind: Don't fight fire with fire. Listen first.
So she listened. And slowly, the rumbles shifted. Mockery, but less venom. Curiosity edged in.
"Why do you persist, girl?"
One evening, she stumbled back to the real world, face pale. "He finally… said something. Asked why I keep trying."
Minato's smile was proud, but his voice was quiet. "And what did you say?"
She bit her lip. "That I won't let Kumo win. That if I have to drag that fox with me, I will. Dattebane."
In the third month, breakthroughs quickened.
Minato's refinements allowed her to project chakra tendrils into the cage, brushing against the Kyūbi's. At first, the contact nearly overwhelmed her—its malice, its burning hatred for humans. She collapsed, coughing blood. Minato caught her, hands steady despite his worry.
"Never again without me here," he said firmly, surprising her with rare sharpness.
She swallowed, nodding.
But little by little, the contact steadied. Where before she recoiled in fear, now she endured. Where the Kyūbi sneered, she stared back.
"Stubborn girl…" the fox muttered one day, voice low like thunder.
"Better stubborn than weak," she shot back.
For the first time, there was a pause. A flicker in its eyes.
As the deadline approached, Kushina and Minato stood side by side in the compound, exhausted but stronger.
Hiruzen arrived quietly, watching them from the doorway. He saw the way Minato placed a reassuring hand on Kushina's shoulder, the way her scowl softened for just a heartbeat. He saw the determination that had been forged between them.
"Three months," Hiruzen said finally, stepping forward. "Are you ready?"
Kushina smirked, fierce as ever. "That fox still hates my guts. But he knows I won't quit. That's enough. Dattebane."
Minato bowed. "We're ready, Lord Hokage."
Hiruzen's gaze lingered on them both. For a moment, his old heart felt lighter. Perhaps, just perhaps, they stood a chance.
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A/N: They are getting ready for war.