Chapter 436: Acceptance
The air was so heavy one could almost hear dust hitting the ground. Kushina's furious roar scorched Minato's nerves.
After a long while, Minato slowly raised his head. He didn't attempt to defend himself.
"...I know. I'm not a good father. I've wronged Naruto... wronged everything he lost."
"Then why did you have to die with me?!"
Kushina's tears surged forth again. "It was just one fox! Why didn't you choose to live?! You had so many options! Why did you choose the stupidest one?!"
She shot to her feet, glaring down at Minato who remained seated.
"That place called the Pure Land—you can't feel anything there! Cold and empty! What use was dying with me?! Besides preventing me from avoiding you even in the afterlife, what good did it do?!"
"What Hokage?!! Why did you throw all that responsibility... onto a newborn infant who couldn't even speak yet?!!!"
This was the core she couldn't understand, couldn't forgive. Her husband's choice equated to cruelly heaping their parental responsibilities, along with the entire village's expectations and future burdens, all at once onto their child's tender shoulders.
"I'm sorry..." Minato repeated. "I can say those words as many times as you need. But..."
He took a deep breath, looking directly into Kushina's eyes burning with rage and tears.
"I couldn't do it."
"What?!"
"I'm your husband. I... had no way to watch you leave alone. To watch you disappear before me while I remained behind... I couldn't do that."
His reason struck directly at the most vulnerable place deep in Kushina's heart. This wasn't the Hokage's calculation, not a ninja's choice, only a husband unable to bear the pain of losing his beloved, preferring to fall into darkness together with her.
"You... you're such a..."
Kushina's fury deflated like a punctured balloon, instantly collapsing. In its place came complex emotions mixing heartache, anger, helplessness and deeper sorrow, becoming a tearful curse without any real force. "...smooth-talking bastard!"
She collapsed back onto the sofa, shoulders trembling lightly. The most intense outburst seemed to have passed.
The living room fell silent again.
Minato maintained that waiting posture, tension undiminished. He'd long prepared himself—if Kushina was too angry and wanted to beat him up, he absolutely wouldn't dodge.
He only hoped that after venting, she wouldn't completely drive him from this doorway, from her and Naruto's world.
"I..." Kushina's voice came muffled from between her fingers. "I really want to drag you right now to apologize to Naruto... let him curse you, hit you... but..."
She lowered her hands, revealing reddened eyes, her gaze bewildered.
"If Naruto... personally resurrected you..."
If Naruto chose to resurrect Minato, it definitely wasn't so his father could bear condemnation. That child's heart was too big, too soft.
"Yes..." Minato smiled bitterly. "I also wish... that child could thoroughly beat me, curse me... That way I'd feel slightly better. But he just... forgave me. Even comforted me..."
"Damn it..." Kushina pounded the armrest forcefully, grinding her teeth. "Who... raised that child to be so kind..."
Rather than a question, this was more a sigh mixing pride and heartache.
"Yes..." Minato echoed quietly. "I haven't even forgiven myself... That child Naruto... is exactly like me."
They both habitually shouldered responsibility themselves, habitually prioritized others, habitually... swallowed pain and forced out smiles.
"..."
"..."
Oppressive silence descended once more. This time, Minato broke it.
"Kushina..." he called softly, his voice carrying a kind of determination. "I know everything. Naruto's... childhood memories, that loneliness, those cold stares, that bullying... Thanks to the Nine-Tails, I 'saw' it all..."
"...I truly... have some regret now."
"That's what I'm saying!" Kushina's tears burst forth again. "Our child! He was the child of a hero! The son of the Hokage who sacrificed himself to protect the village! I... I want to beat up everyone who bullied him, neglected him!"
"But I hate myself more! Hate us as parents even more! That we couldn't give him anything! Couldn't even give him an ordinary childhood with mom and dad!!"
"You're right... This is my sin. As Hokage, I perhaps made the 'correct' choice at that time. But as a father... I chose to protect the village's 'future,' yet completely and utterly betrayed our son's 'present.'"
"As a father... I lost everything."
Seeing him like this, some of the fury and sorrow in Kushina's heart receded like the tide. She wiped her tears, voice hoarse as she asked.
"You... saying all this now, do you want me to forgive you right away?"
"No no no! Absolutely not!"
Minato waved his hands repeatedly. "I don't dare hope for forgiveness now! I know that requires time, requires me to make a thousand, ten thousand times the effort to make amends!"
"Please give me this chance! I'll use all my remaining time to slowly compensate you and Naruto! I've already met Jiraiya-sensei, and I told him clearly—I won't resume the position of Hokage!"
"The current Namikaze Minato is just an ordinary jonin in the village who needs to relearn how to be a husband and father!"
He looked at Kushina almost pleadingly.
"Please... Kushina. Give me this... chance to make amends!"
"..."
Kushina looked at his eyes filled with utterly genuine regret, pain, and that careful hope, terrified of rejection.
If she truly hated him to the bone, wished he would disappear forever, she probably would have used Adamantine Sealing Chains to wrap him up like a dumpling and throw him out of the Uchiha compound the instant she opened the door, or punched him straight back to the Pure Land.
But she hadn't.
She'd let him in, listened to all this, vented all this herself.
The silence continued for a long time, so long that Minato's heart sank bit by bit, almost to the point of despair.
Finally, Kushina spoke, her voice still stiff.
"...You sleep in the living room."
"Eh?" Minato didn't immediately process this.
"'Eh' what 'eh'?!" Kushina glared at him fiercely, her tone growing fierce again. "I'm warning you! Namikaze Minato! I still don't want to forgive you! This isn't over! So! You're not allowed in the bedroom!"
She pointed toward the other side of the living room. "Sofa or sleeping on the floor—I don't care! You're sleeping here tonight! If you dare sneak into the room at night... I'll use sealing jutsu to hang you from the rafters and beat you! Understand?!"
Minato froze for two seconds, then joy surged through his entire body like electric current!
"Oh! Of course! Of course that's fine!" He nodded frantically. "I'll work hard! I'll definitely perform well! Kushina! Thank you!"
Seeing him looking like he'd received a precious treasure, Kushina spun around abruptly, turning her back to Minato.
She didn't want him to see the equally surging gratitude in her eyes that couldn't be completely hidden, and that deeply buried longing from years past. She only tossed out stiffly:
"Mm."
Then she strode rapidly toward the bedroom, preparing to hide inside alone and properly digest this earth-shattering, emotional roller coaster of a morning.
Minato watched her somewhat hurried retreating figure until the bedroom door gently closed, then released a long, long breath, his entire body collapsing against the sofa back as though drained.
Thank goodness...
Though the road ahead was long, though his wife hadn't forgiven him yet, though the guilt toward Naruto still pressed heavily on his heart...
At least he'd come home. Hadn't been driven out. Hadn't been completely rejected.
This was enough. The rest—he could spend a lifetime making amends, earning acceptance.
As his taut nerves slightly relaxed, he noticed a gaze still resting on him in the living room.
He turned his head, meeting a pair of calm vertical pupils.
A large blue dog had raised its head, quietly observing this "uninvited guest" who'd arrived and immediately made its master's mother cry and shout.
Minato paused, then his face showed a somewhat awkward smile trying to appear friendly.
"...Hello?"
*****
...so underwhelming...they should have stayed dead tbh.
seeing every1 get a "happy" ending, even Itachi/Yuu...
and obito.. it's unfair man. really unfair...now I'm sad just thinking about it....
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