A flash of gold.
Minato, holding Naruto, appeared at his own doorstep.
This was Konoha's residential district—a standalone two-story house. New, freshly arranged by him and Kushina to welcome their child.
Inside, it still felt as if the laughter from when Kushina picked the curtains lingered in the air.
But now the home that should have brimmed with joy was shrouded in a deathly hush.
Minato's heart went cold.
He pushed the door open and hurried up to the second-floor bedroom.
The room was dim.
Medical equipment beeped weakly, as if it could stop at any moment.
A woman with blazing crimson hair lay quietly on the bed.
Kushina.
Her face was paper-pale, lips cracked and bloodless. The vibrant violet eyes that had once brimmed with life were shut tight.
After the Nine-Tails was torn from her, her life force had all but drained away.
The toll of childbirth, the tailed-beast extraction, and the piercing wounds left her guttering on the edge of life.
Even Konoha's finest medics could only use machines to barely sustain her last breath.
Minato set Naruto gently in the cradle, then hurried to the bedside, dropping to one knee to clasp Kushina's cold hand.
"Kushina…"
His voice was thick with grief and guilt, tears burning his eyes. Even the strongest men have a weakness.
Moments ago in the plaza, he had been a god of judgment who decided Konoha's fate with a flick of his fingers.
But here, before the wife slipping away from him, he found himself powerless.
He could return from death, instant-kill Danzo, remake Konoha's order—
Yet he couldn't save her.
The plunge from divine height to helpless man stabbed him like a blade.
He pressed Kushina's hand to his cheek. The chill cut straight to his heart.
"I'm sorry… Kushina… I'm sorry…"
He said it again and again.
If not for sealing the Nine-Tails—if not for the village—if not for being Hokage—
Kushina would never have died.
The grief threatened to drag this newly reborn man back into the abyss.
Then—
A calm but slightly childlike voice sounded behind him.
"She can be saved."
Minato's body snapped taut.
He whirled, blue eyes flashing with killing intent.
Someone was there.
Someone had approached his back without a sound—and he hadn't sensed it.
Impossible.
His Hiraishin (Flying Thunder God) sensing covered all of Konoha. No hostile chakra should escape him.
But when he saw who it was, he froze.
Only a child stood at the doorway.
Five or six years old, thin, a little pale.
Plain clothes. Standing quietly. Eyes far too old for that face.
Black eyes deep as a night sky, as if they could see through anything.
Minato knew this child.
Shinju—of the Namikaze.
A branch scion abandoned by the clan.
Why was he here?
How did he get in?
A storm of questions flashed through Minato's mind.
More shocking than any of them was what the child had said.
"What did you say?" Minato's voice trembled with the force of his hope.
Shinju didn't answer. He simply stepped toward the bed.
There was no chakra rippling from him.
Yet from that slim frame Minato felt a composure and certainty that stood above all things.
Minato didn't move.
He stared at the child, stunned beyond words.
A wild thought struck him.
His own return from death—
Was it tied to this child?
Once born, the thought would not be caged.
Shinju reached the bedside. He ignored Minato's shocked stare and gazed calmly at the woman on the verge of death.
Pity and regret flickered in his eyes.
So this is a mother… he thought quietly.
Shinju spoke, still looking at Kushina. "I told you—I would remake this clan."
"A whole family is the beginning of 'Namikaze.'"
He lifted his pale, slender hand—
And laid it gently on Kushina's cold brow.
Minato held his breath.
His heart pounded in his chest.
It has to be him.
Only he could explain the miracle of my return.
Shinju closed his eyes.
In his mind, he issued a command.
"System."
[Ding! Awaiting the host's command.]
"Revive Uzumaki Kushina."
"State: peak."
"And perfectly suppress the Nine-Tails within her."
[Ding! Command confirmed!]
[Reviving Legendary Heroic Spirit 'Crimson Pepper—Uzumaki Kushina' (Peak State) with the additional status 'Perfect Jinchūriki' will consume 200,000,000,000 correction points.]
[Confirm?]
"Confirm."
He did not hesitate.
At the instant he confirmed—
A warm, surging gold radiance—brimming with life—burst from his small palm.
It was pure and vast, beyond any medical ninjutsu in this world.
Reverse death. Remake life.
The golden energy poured into Kushina's guttering body.
A miracle began.
Before Minato's disbelieving eyes—
Kushina's paper-white cheeks flushed with color at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Her cracked lips became full and dewy again.
Her crimson hair, dulled by the loss of life force, drank in the gold and blazed anew like living flame, lustrous with life.
All the internal injuries from the extraction, the piercing wounds, and the deficit from childbirth were erased beneath that godlike power—leaving her not merely healed but perfected, stronger than at any moment Minato remembered.
The monitors that had been barely beeping suddenly quickened, steady and strong.
Heartbeat, blood pressure, every vital sign spiked at a pace that mocked medicine—
Then stabilized at numbers that meant "absolute health" and "peak vitality."
Minato watched it all.
He felt Kushina's chakra returning.
No—rising.
The boundless vitality and chakra of the Uzumaki surged within her again—
Even greater than in her prime.
Is this the power of a god?
Minato looked at the child once more.
What sort of sacred being was this boy abandoned by the Namikaze?
Shinju slowly withdrew his hand.
He felt energy fed back through the system nourish his own body; the congenital frailty he carried was being quietly remade.
His heart was calm.
Having finished, he stepped aside—
Leaving the stage to the husband and wife about to reunite.
On the bed—
Kushina's lashes trembled.
The next second—
Her lively violet eyes flew open.
(End of Chapter)
[Check Out My P@treon For 20+ Extra Chapters On All My Fanfics!!]
[[email protected]/Draumel]
[Thank You For Your Support!]