"Huh?" A confused expression washed over Minato's face on hearing Kushina's news.
"Wait…"
Minato stumbled back, his body beginning to slightly tremble as his former emotions of joy faded into obscurity.
The Hokage was slowly drowning into a sea of new found despair.
"How could it have slipped my mind?" His brows furrowed, his eyes slightly watering with tears.
Just when he thought it was finally over, just when both the masked man and the Ninetails attacks were reaching their conclusion.
He was reminded of one more disheartening fact.
One that Kagero was clearly aware of.
'Her tailed beast was extracted.
Kagero watched the scene before him with his fingers across his lip in thought.
According to the show, Jinchurikis usually died the moment their Bijus were extracted. However, as an uzumaki; Kushina was a much different case.
She wouldn't die immediately, not now at the very least.
But that didn't mean she wouldn't eventually die.
"I came here—" Kushina struggled to push her words past her throat. "To see if you were well with my own eyes."
Labouring to get up to her feet, she left her baby atop Gamasaru, before heading over to her husband.
"Minato." She held his cheeks gently, shifting his distant gaze towards her. "Don't blame yourself."
Kushina confessed, casting a reassuring smile at Minato.
Like a ray of sunshine, her grin broke through Minato's last bit of emotional barricade, causing him to clench his fist violently in regret.
His fists tightened so hard under Kushina's embrace that his palms tore open, leaving droplets of blood to stain the ground under their feet.
'If I was just a little bit faster.' Minato gritted his teeth. 'I could have stopped the extraction.'
Minato's eyes sparkled in bits of withheld tears under the peer of the moonlight, as he brought Kushina closer into his arms.
'Some Hokage I am! I couldn't even save my own students.' He remembered a painful memory, then stole a glance at his child.
'And now I can't even save your mother.'
Swallowing hard, a single recurring thought haunted Minato's mind in the midst of the chaos.
'Am I even good enough?—'
"Minato!" Kagero tapped his shoulder forcefully.
His face was stoic, but the moment he opened up his lips for his next words, it relaxed into a smile.
"Don't worry."
The screen immediately flashed before his vision, and in a haste, Kagero instantly went over to the store.
[Nissi's Healing Salve.]
'Purchase!'
Everyone stood wide eyed, as right before them. A bottle holding a bizarre purplish fluid flashed within Kagero's grasp.
"Huh?" They vocalized, staring at the bottle and then back at Kagero who only stood there with a nervous smile plastered across his face.
Sure, summoning equipment and rations from scrolls might have been normal.
But just emanating them from thin air? And a strange fluid at that?
Their shocked expressions were perfectly justified.
Dozens of questions hung on everyone's lips, but before any could be brought to light. Kushina squinted her eyes in observation, pointing out a strange fact.
"Hey— you're Reiko's kid aren't you?"
"Heh?" Kagero turned to either side, before realizing her question was directed at him.
Dilema!
A name that he hadn't come across after engrossing himself into the anime's mangas, light novels, and every possible otaku epitaph known to man.
He couldn't act as though he didn't know who that individual was, if indeed the person in question was a big part of his life.
That would just make him look too darn suspicious. And the way he was just pulling out tricks from thin air didn't help either.
So he had to think up a response, and fast.
"Uchiha Reiko right?" Kagero responded, doing his best to hide his unease.
BINGO!
Since Kagero didn't exactly know the details of the mystery person except the fact that he/she was his parent.
He had to confirm their identity using his surname.
"I— knew it was you. What are you doing out here? Shouldn't you be hiding in the leaf's bunker by now?"
Kushina tiredly added, watching the boy's clothes painted in red, and laced in the stench of blood.
"He's actually the one who stopped both the attacker and the Ninetails." Minato enlightened his wife, holding onto her to support her stance.
"Well I couldn't exactly take all the credit." Kagero added, pointing out Minato's excessive humility.
Kushina tried to express her feelings of befuddlement, but it was immediately cut short by a series of coughs.
Wasting no time, Kagero moved in desperation to change the topic.
"Here." He opened up the cork from the bottle, handing it over to Kushina. "It'll make you feel better."
Nissi's Salve.
An otherworldly panacea, stated by the system to heal damaged chakra pathways, as well as one's physical trauma.
Whenever a tailed beast was extracted from a Jinchuriki, they didn't necessarily die from physical damage.
Instead, according to Kagero's hypothesis. The cause of death was severe damage to their chakra networks.
And those very rails of life were the basis for living.
Meaning, if Kagero was right, this medication would work like a charm in healing Kushina, and prevent her from dying.
Fingers crossed.
Taking a cautious look at Minato, Kushina's mind raced with worry. But a gentle smile from Minato caused her to push forward.
'If Minato is okay with it— then I guess I'll give it a go.' She mused, pressing the bottle gently against her lip.
The fluid swayed within the transparent glass, before sliding over to the opening, and making its way into her mouth until there was not even a single drop of the liquid left.
There was a tense silence in the air as both Kagero and Minato watched Kushina with anxiety.
"…"
"YUCK!"
Kushina exclaimed, sticking out her tongue.
"That was really gross ya know?!"
Minato's face beamed with relief, and his eyes welled up with tears on seeing his wife revert back to her natural habits.
"Kushina." He lunged himself at her, squeezing her even tighter than before, and causing her to open up her arms.
"Hey, hey Minato." She mumbled under the weight of Minato's hug. "You're crushing me ya know?" She added with a gentle laugh.
"Thank you— thank you Kagero." The Hokage relaxed his hold, burying his face into her shoulders.
"Hey kiddo, whatever wonder drug that was. It really did the trick." She pointed at Kagero to get his attention.
Kushina then placed her palms together in gratitude, beaming with heartfelt thanks.
"Thanks a lot."
"Ohh, it's no problem actually." Kagero watched his Ninja points slowly take a hit, inching him a step closer to poverty once more.
Internally, he was biting his lip so hard at his NP that they could rip right out of his face.
But for some other reason, watching Minato, Kushina, and Naruto smile at each other in joy.
He couldn't help but feel a sense of satisfaction. And once again, he hadn't the slightest clue why.
Kushina turned her attention back to Naruto, eliciting her to reiterate her thanks.
"Actually, I owe my life to ya, so thanks." A tear spurred from gladness drifted through her face as she continued. "Thanks a lot!"
Brushing through his nostrils with pride, Kagero accepted her appreciation, flicking his thumb at her in response.
"You're welcom—"
"BLURT!"
Kagero cut his words short as a stream of blood came pouring through his mouth.
'Shit!'
His eyes immediately burned in a pain so intense, that they felt as though they were set on fire.
'I overexerted myself!'
He confessed, watching as crimson fluid came traveling down his eyes. They were bleeding.
And that bleeding, along with his compounding stress caused his eyes to revert back to their normal form.
Witnessing Kagero crouched on the ground in agony, they all gathered around him in worry, each trying their best to help him.
But it was at that moment, at the instant that his pain culminated so intensely that all he could see was despair. That was when a sudden realization hit him.
If his Sharingan was inactive, then—
"The Ninetails!"
Holding onto his right eye, Kagero immediately switched his gaze towards the beast.
But he was too late.
..
..
A/N: Thanks for reading. Your comments and Powerstones keep me motivated.
If you want more chapters, for every 100 powerstones I'll be posting a bonus chapter. So keep those powerstones coming.