Kushina's consciousness rose slowly from an endless dark.
Her final memories were the rending agony of a body torn apart, the hollow weakness of the Kyūbi (Nine-Tails) being ripped away, and… the bottomless grief and unwillingness as she watched her newborn son and her husband about to die.
Did I… die?
Is this the Pure Land?
Minato… Naruto… where are you?
Her thoughts were a blur.
Then she opened her eyes.
Overhead was the familiar ceiling of the bedroom she had arranged with her own hands.
She froze.
This wasn't the Pure Land.
This was… her home.
What was happening?
By instinct she tried to push herself up—and stared in astonishment as explosive strength flooded her body like never before.
It felt as if a dry lakebed had been filled in an instant by a boundless sea.
She steadied her mind and sensed inward.
What she felt struck her like lightning and left her utterly stunned.
The Kyūbi!
The raging, all-hating Nine-Tailed Fox was… still inside her!
No—something was different.
Though the Kyūbi's chakra remained vast and terrifying, the malice and will to destroy had vanished. In its place was a gentle current—almost… affectionate.
The Kyūbi now curled quietly in her seal-space like a tamed cat.
And her body—
The immense vitality of the Uzumaki not only had returned; it was several times stronger than at her former peak!
W-what is this…?
She sat bolt upright, her flame-red hair cascading like a waterfall.
Then she saw him.
The figure that haunted her dreams, standing at the bedside.
"Mi… Minato?"
Her voice trembled with doubt and hope.
Minato looked at her—and the tears he'd been holding back burst from his blue eyes.
He didn't speak. He simply opened his arms and pulled the newly awakened Kushina into a fierce embrace.
"Kushina… thank goodness… you're okay… thank goodness…"
He held her as if the moment he loosened his grip, everything before him would dissolve into a mirage.
Feeling his warmth, hearing that familiar voice, Kushina's body began to shake as well.
Not an illusion.
It's real!
Minato was alive.
And so was she!
"Minato! Minato!" She wrapped her arms around him in return, burying her face in his shoulder. The long-suppressed fear of death and longing for her family burst into a flood of tears.
"I thought… I thought I'd never see you again…"
"So did I… so did I…"
After the wrench of death and separation, husband and wife clung to each other, pouring out the wild joy of being reunited.
Only after a long cry did Kushina's emotions settle.
Suddenly remembering, she jerked her head up, anxious. "Naruto! Where's our baby? Is Naruto okay?!"
"He's fine—he's perfect." Minato smiled, released her, and carefully lifted Naruto from the nearby cradle.
Looking at the tiny life asleep in swaddling, golden fuzz on his head, Kushina's heart melted completely.
With a trembling hand she stroked Naruto's cheek.
"Thank goodness… Naruto… my baby…"
A gentle radiance of motherhood seemed to glow from her.
Then questions surged up all at once.
"Minato, what is going on?" She looked from Minato to her own hands, brimming with power. "Weren't we supposed to be dead? Why is the Kyūbi like this? Why do I feel even stronger than before?"
Minato's expression turned complicated, tinged with guilt.
Instead of answering directly, he turned his gaze toward the corner of the room.
"This wasn't our power."
"He saved us."
Kushina followed his eyes—
And realized, to her surprise, that a third person had been there all along.
A thin child, only five or six years old.
He stood quietly, black eyes watching them in calm silence.
Kushina blinked. Who was this child? Why was he here?
"Minato, he is—?"
Minato drew a steadying breath. "Kushina, from now on… he's our eldest son."
"Eldest—son?" Her mind went blank.
"His name is Shinju," Minato said, guilt deep in his eyes. "He's from a branch line of the Namikaze. Because of… certain clan matters, he was sent to an orphanage."
"It was me—it was all of us in the clan—who failed him. But that ends now. He will be the Namikaze's eldest."
"After we died—when I thought everything was over—he used a power I can't explain. He pulled me back from the Pure Land… and then brought you back from the brink of death."
Kushina stared wide-eyed at the slight child.
Shinju.
The orphan abandoned by the clan.
Their eldest?
He saved Minato and her?
In that instant, a flood—guilt, self-reproach, gratitude, and irrepressible maternal love—rushed through Kushina's heart.
She could imagine how much hardship this child had suffered in the orphanage.
And she and Minato—heads of the clan, the Hokage's family—had never spared him a thought.
Yet after they died, when the family was at its darkest hour, the child they had abandoned stood up and saved everything.
"Child…"
Kushina's voice caught.
She looked at Shinju, tears blurring her eyes again.
She loosened her hold on Minato and reached out a trembling hand toward Shinju.
"C-come… come to Mama…"
Shinju looked at her outstretched hand, at the guilt and kindness in her eyes—and for the first time, ripples moved across the calm of his heart.
He didn't move.
Seeing this, Kushina slid off the bed, walked to him, and crouched so their eyes were level.
She opened her arms and gently drew the frail boy into her warm embrace.
"I'm sorry… child… I'm truly sorry…"
"From now on, never again… Mama promises—I won't let you be wronged, not even a little…"
Feeling that warmth, hearing the soft, tear-threaded apology—
The hardest place in Shinju's heart, tempered by two lifetimes, was touched.
His tense body slowly relaxed.
Minato watched with shining eyes.
He stepped forward and wrapped his arms around his wife and his two sons.
A family of four.
After the agony of life and death—
At this moment, they finally tasted the happiest, most perfect reunion.
From today on, this home will never be missing anyone.
And from today, the Namikaze—the strongest clan destined to shake the ninja world—declares its rebirth.
(End of Chapter)
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