"Kushina, you stay with the children for now."
Minato's voice was as gentle as a spring breeze in March.
He carefully placed his mother beside him, then turned and took out the Hokage robe embroidered with "Fourth Hokage" from the closet.
"Minato, thank you. Go quickly and come back soon."
His mother's weak voice was very soft.
"I'll be back very soon."
Minato looked back and smiled, then instantly vanished in a flash of golden light.
His mother's fingers gently stroked Menma's cheek, with a slight tremor.
"Menma... why aren't you crying like Naruto?"
There was a hint of worry in her voice.
Menma wanted to tell her he was fine, but he could only make faint cooing sounds.
Looking at her pale cheek and feeling the warmth of her fingertips, he suddenly clenched his tiny fists—no matter what happened, I had to protect them.
He symbolically wailed twice, which ended up waking the sleeping Naruto.
Instantly, the baby's loud cries made his eardrums ache.
"Kakarot! No... Naruto!"
Menma roared in his heart, but then he noticed his mother's breathing becoming weaker and weaker. He quickly called out in his consciousness: "System! How do I use Resurrection?"
"Ding! Just let the target bite the host."
"..."
Menma used all his strength to stretch his little arm towards his mother's mouth, his chubby fingers about to touch Kushina's pale lips, when she grabbed them.
"Is Menma hungry?"
Kushina's weak voice was full of guilt, "I'm sorry... Mama is currently..."
"No!"
Menma shrieked in his heart, frantically twisting his body, trying to break free. But the more he struggled, the louder his cries became, scaring Kushina into holding his little hand even tighter.
"Cough, cough..."
Kushina suddenly coughed violently, a trace of blood seeping from the corner of her mouth, her life force rapidly draining away.
"I'm going to save you!"
Menma cried out heartbreakingly in his consciousness. Perhaps it was the bond between mother and child, but Kushina suddenly let go of his hand, looking confusedly at this unusual child.
Uzumaki Menma finally managed to reach his little hand to his mother's mouth as he wished.
Kushina instinctively gently held her son's chubby finger in her mouth. Suddenly, a warm and immense life energy surged into her nearly depleted body like a tide.
"This is...?"
Kushina's emerald-like eyes instantly widened. She could clearly feel her cells repairing and her lost Chakra regenerating.
What shocked her even more was that this power carried the familiar life essence unique to the Uzumaki Clan.
"Menma..."
She tremblingly released his finger, looking at this newborn baby who had already awakened the clan's secret technique, and a storm raged in her heart.
But then she noticed Menma's little face turning pale, and her heart immediately twisted in pain.
"Mama is fine now..."
Kushina wept, carefully holding Menma in her arms, her forehead gently pressed against his soft cheek.
Warm tears dripped onto the baby's delicate skin, "Thank you, Menma..."
At this moment, she secretly resolved: she must raise these two children herself and never let that Jiraiya fellow get near her little Menma.
Thinking that the old man who always wrote strange novels might lead her children astray, Kushina unconsciously tightened her embrace.
"Waaah—"
Naruto, beside them, cried out in dissatisfaction.
"Alright, alright, Mama will hold Naruto too."
Kushina broke into a smile through her tears, embracing both her darlings. The Nine-Tailed's roar outside continued, but at this moment, her heart was filled only with immense happiness and determination.
Menma felt his mother's warm embrace and heard her strong heartbeat, finally letting out a sigh of relief.
Just as Uzumaki Menma was pondering what to do next, a golden flash appeared before his eyes, and his father had already teleported the entire family in front of the Nine-Tailed.
"Now the whole family is together, perfectly aligned."
Menma saw the Nine-Tailed's colossal, mountain-like body almost within reach, its crimson beast eyes swirling with towering hatred, and its violent Chakra pressing down on him, almost suffocating him.
"Waaah—"
Naruto, beside him, immediately burst into tears.
"There, there, don't be scared."
Kushina gently comforted Naruto.
Menma anxiously looked at his father—Minato's golden hair tips were already soaked with sweat, and his breathing was heavy. He seemed to be nearing his limit.
His mother's condition was no better.
"I can still hold on for a while!"
Kushina suddenly gritted her teeth and exclaimed.
Several dark golden Adamantine Sealing Chains shot out from her back, coiling around the Nine-Tailed's limbs like dragons. But each chain trembled violently, as if it would break at any moment.
"No!"
Menma cried out in some despair, watching helplessly as blood seeped from his mother's lips again. Kushina, however, gave him a blood-stained smile, a smile so gentle it was heartbreaking.
"Damn masked man!"
Menma cursed in his heart, "Don't let me catch you, or I'll scatter your ashes!"
Then, seeing his father's eyes, already showing a resolve to die, he completely erupted—
"I don't want to be an orphan!"
The baby's cries actually drowned out the Nine-Tailed's roar.
In an instant! Dozens of brilliant golden chains burst forth from Menma's tiny body, like ten thousand golden rays at sunrise.
These chains were thicker than Kushina's, and they were also entwined with mysterious spiral patterns. In the blink of an eye, they bound the struggling Nine-Tailed into a giant zongzi.
For the first time, terror appeared in the Nine-Tailed's beast eyes—this familiar power was clearly the power of Uzumaki Mito from back then!
"This..."
Kushina was dumbfounded, even forgetting to wipe the blood from the corner of her mouth.
Minato maintained his hand sign, his mouth wide enough to fit an entire kunai.
The tardy Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, stumbled and almost fell from the tree, his staff dropping directly to the ground: "I... I've lived most of my life..."
His trembling finger pointed at the little baby crying with a red face, "Is this really a human infant?!"
Kushina looked at her son's red little face, her voice trembling with heartache: "Minato! Menma is still too young, he won't last long!"
Minato then snapped out of his daze.
He took a deep breath, quickly forming hand signs: "Eight Trigrams Sealing Style: Modified!"
The Nine-Tailed's massive body began to twist and split under the effect of the sealing jutsu, but its crimson beast eyes still stared fixedly at Menma, filled with disbelief—this baby's Adamantine Sealing Chains were even stronger than Uzumaki Mito's!
"Minato!"
Kushina saw Minato about to seal the Nine-Tailed inside their two children, and she struggled to grab her husband's sleeve, tears sparkling in the moonlight, "You know what kind of pain it is to become a Jinchuriki..."
"Precisely because of that,"
Minato's voice was as soft as a sigh, yet as heavy as a thousand pounds, "that masked man will never give up. The only one who can stop him..."
He turned to look at Menma, his clear blue eyes filled with apology and resolve, "is this child."
Menma's eyes widened, and he ranted furiously in his mind: "Is this something a biological father would do?!"
Unfortunately, he could only make "wah wah" crying sounds now, and he made a mental note of this: "Old man! I'll definitely pull your oxygen tube later!"
Kushina's nails dug deep into her palms, her voice hoarse: "For the balance of the Tailed Beasts... for the Village... must our children be sacrifices?!"
"Abandoning the Village is no different from abandoning our children."
Minato's voice suddenly became exceptionally clear, each word like a nail hammered into everyone's hearts, "The pain of a fallen nation, the hardship of displacement... Kushina, you know better than anyone."
He said softly: "What's more... we are Ninja."
The Third Hokage stood outside the barrier, looking at Minato's straight back, tears welling up in his cloudy eyes—this was the true Will of Fire!
"You guys hurry up!"
Menma roared in his heart, his little face turning purple.
Minato's gaze sharpened, and the sealing jutsu pattern suddenly glowed with dazzling light: "Now!"
With an earth-shattering roar, the Nine-Tailed was forcibly torn in half, transforming into two streams of light and dark Chakra, surging respectively into the abdomens of the two infants.
His hand signs were so fast that they almost left afterimages. The Yang Nine-Tailed's Chakra, as if guided by an invisible hand, slowly flowed into Naruto's body.
"Eight Trigrams Sealing Style: Complete!"
As the last hand seal fell, spiral sealing patterns appeared around Naruto's navel.
Minato's forehead was covered in fine beads of sweat, but he dared not stop for a moment, immediately turning to Menma to begin the same sealing ritual.
However, just as the Yin Nine-Tailed's Chakra was about to enter Menma's body—