Hello there,
Finally final part.
It's a long chapter. It could be separated in two parts but it will not do this piece the justice. So I posted it whole.
Seriously guys webnovel punishes long chapters. Like seriously, all the edits i do would be erased the movement it pasted here.
And it's a pain to re-edit A big chapter.
Well next will be aftermath and clean up of the remaining forces.
Happy Reading!
*******
While Kushina was fighting for her life in the courtyard outside, an entirely different kind of battle was taking place inside the main building.
Medori was currently fighting through absolute, soul-wrenching agony.
The delivery room was completely locked down. Intricate fūinjutsu formulas plastered the walls, the ceiling, the floor—every single inch of the room was heavily layered with restrictive barriers.
"Medori-sama, please! Don't lose yourself!"
the medic-nin pleaded, her trembling hands glowing with the green light of the Mystical Palm jutsu.
The young medic wasn't in much better condition than Medori herself. She was sweating profusely, her breathing ragged and shallow as she desperately tried to stabilize Medori's fluctuating condition.
The chakra density inside the room was suffocating. If the ambient chakra outside the room felt like a heavy shroud, the atmosphere inside this sealed room was a drowning, bottomless sea of raw energy.
Honestly, it was a sheer miracle that the medic—who was only a High-Chunin—was still conscious enough to maintain her jutsu at all under this crushing pressure.
After a few agonizing minutes of struggle, the medic felt—no, she saw—the ambient chakra in the room suddenly begin to converge toward Medori's abdomen. She knew it was time.
Dropping her glowing hands, she ended the jutsu and quickly moved into position to aid the physical delivery.
"Medori-sama, it's almost over. Just push!"
the medic rasped, her breath ragged as she gripped Medori's hand with one of her own.
The shift in the room's atmosphere was visibly jarring, the chakra swirling into a miniature vortex. Outside the door, the dense energy was vibrating wildly, violently trying to force its way into the already suffocating room.
Out in the courtyard, Kushina—whose Uzumaki senses were the most sensitive to these massive chakra fluctuations—instinctively snapped her head toward the main building.
Shk!
In a battle of this caliber, a single second of distraction proved fatal. A kunai lodged itself deep into her shoulder blade, instantly crippling her arm's mobility.
"Tch!" Clicking her tongue in pain and frustration, Kushina swung her good arm back, shattering her attacker's jaw with a brutal elbow strike.
Just as she tried to break away toward the main building, an entirely new squad dropped in, completely blocking her path. Biting down hard on her own lips to activate her mutated Healing Bite, Kushina forced the torn muscle in her shoulder to rapidly mend, and fiercely charged right at them.
Back inside the room, the medic's hands flared with green light once again, hovering frantically over Medori's stomach as she tried to stabilize the mother's fluctuating network.
The sheer pressure of the room was breaking the medic down; thick streams of blood were now steadily leaking from her nose and mouth.
After several more minutes of agonizing struggle and a terrifying amount of blood...
The surrounding chakra violently snapped.
The pull of absorption multiplied tenfold, threatening to crush everything in the room. But the bleeding medic held strong, pouring every ounce of her remaining chakra into her jutsu.
And finally, following one last, soul-shattering scream from Medori...
They heard it. The piercing, wailing cries of a newborn baby.
Thud.
The medic's knees hit the floor hard as she collapsed, coughing up another mouthful of blood.
But driven by sheer willpower, her trembling legs forced her back upright. Reaching out, she gently lifted the crying newborn into her arms.
The second her bare skin touched the child, she felt completely liberated. The crushing pressure in the room lessened. A warm, soothing energy washed over her.
Relieved, she finally looked clearly. But as her eyes landed on the baby's features, she completely froze.
There was a myth within their clan regarding bloodline purity. It stated that the brighter the hair of an Uzumaki, the purer their bloodline.
It was a myth widely accepted as absolute truth, simply because every single member of the main house possessed impossibly bright red hair—some even bordering on a deep, vibrant crimson.
Why was she suddenly remembering this myth right now?
Because the newborn child's hair wasn't just red.
It was crimson. Not just any crimson, but the absolute deepest, most striking shade of vivid crimson she had ever seen in her life.
And it was floating. The delicate strands drifted and swayed effortlessly, merging with the impossibly dense chakra of the room, gently rippling as if the child were completely submerged in water.
"My child... give me..." Medori's weak, exhausted voice broke the silence as she reached out with trembling hands.
The medic quickly wrapped the newborn in soft cloths and handed him over with absolute reverence.
As Medori cradled her child in her arms, a profound sense of peace washed over her. It felt as though every heavy burden she had ever carried, every tragic loss and agonizing pain she had suffered, was entirely worth it for this single moment. For this tiny, fragile life resting safely in her arms.
"It's a healthy boy," the medic whispered softly, as if speaking any louder might wake the sleeping child.
Inside that chakra-suffocated room, amidst the horror of an ongoing war, there was a strange, beautiful peace. A true sanctuary.
Suddenly, a heavy wave of dizziness washed over the medic. The adrenaline was rapidly leaving her system. She had to leave this room; it was a blessing that she had even survived the ordeal. Plus, she desperately needed to inform her impromptu squad leader outside about her aunt's safety—and the birth of a miracle.
But the moment she opened the heavy door, she came face-to-face with the carnage of the courtyard. Her young squad leader was standing in the center of dead bodies, covered in bleeding wounds, desperately fighting off the remaining enemies.
She took a few hopeful steps forward.
From the corner of her eye, Kushina saw the door open. When she got a proper look at who was coming out, her eyes widened in sheer horror.
"Kushina-sama, it's a health—"
She never got to finish her sentence.
A kunai pierced through the back of her neck, the bloody steel tip protruding instantly from the front of her throat.
"Noooo! Asuna!" Kushina's devastated scream tore through the courtyard.
The young medic—Asuna Uzumaki, a medical prodigy who had been specifically tasked with protecting Kushina and escorting her out of the village with her squad—took her final, choking breath.
As her vision rapidly darkened, time seemed to slow to a crawl. She watched Kushina desperately abandoning her fight, running toward her with a look of devastation.
In her final, fading moment, Asuna offered Kushina a gentle, peaceful smile.
And then, there was only darkness.
All around the courtyard, the remaining Shadow Clones instantly abandoned their individual fights, throwing themselves directly into the path of multiple enemy ninja to protect their host.
Still, a few stray kunai and shuriken slipped through the defense. Kushina frantically twisted her body to dodge the fatal strikes, allowing the blades to graze and pierce her non-vital areas instead.
She finally reached Asuna, catching the young medic just before her body hit the crushed stone. But in her blind, grief-stricken hurry, Kushina completely failed to notice the shadows shifting right behind her.
A specialized Kirigakure Kekkei Genkai squad had been lurking in the perimeter for quite some time. They were an elite black-ops unit strictly tasked with one single objective: eliminating Uzushiogakure's "Eyes"—Medori Uzumaki.
And while Kushina was distracted, the assassins silently slipped past her, stepping right through the open doorway and into the room.
Inside the room, Medori looked down at her newborn son. His eyes were still closed, but the incredibly peaceful way he slept tugged at her heartstrings.
Now, she finally understood why everyone always said that being a mother was a blessing only a woman could truly comprehend.
Suddenly, she felt the baby stir in her arms, struggling slightly as he tried to open his eyes for the very first time.
She waited with bated breath. As his tiny eyelids fluttered open, Medori was mesmerized by their beauty. They possessed a brilliant, crystal-emraled green glow, as if the pure, untainted essence of nature itself rested within those innocent eyes, looking up at her with wonderment.
She smiled the warmest, most motherly smile, her voice filled with all the unconditional love she could muster.
"Welcome to this world—"
A cold, sickening shock pierced through her back.
But her warm smile didn't falter, not even for a fraction of a second. She kept her gaze locked onto her child, who was still looking up at her in pure happiness and wonder.
"—my child," she finished in a loving whisper, gently cradling him in her arms.
Only then did she feel the bloody steel of the ninja's blade fully protruding from her chest, stopping just a few inches above her baby's face.
The newborn felt the radiating warmth of her embrace. Seeing the beautiful, loving smile on the woman's face, he instinctively offered a small, childish smile in return. He felt entirely safe in her arms, deeply comforted by the profound closeness tethering him to her.
But then, suddenly, something sharp and cold appeared right in front of him.
He didn't know what it was. He had no concept of the steel hovering just inches above his face.
His brilliant emerald eyes filled with a soft, innocent confusion. He looked back up at the woman's face, blinking slowly, as if silently asking her how he was supposed to react to this strange new thing.
Looking down at her son's confused expression, Medori smiled through the fading light, a single, fleeting thought crossing her mind.
'Cute.'
Despite the agonizing pain and the rapid loss of motor control in her limbs, she weakly extended a trembling hand toward his face. With a tender graze of her thumb, she wiped away a single drop of blood that had fallen from the blade onto his soft cheek.
"Shh..." she whispered, her voice barely a breath. "Everything is alright."
A sickening slide of metal echoed through the room as she felt the blade being pulled out of her back.
'It seems my chakra chains didn't get them all,' she thought numbly. 'A few still survived.'
This time, the newborn did not smile back at her. He could feel it—the terrifying, sudden shifts in the world around him. The comforting, radiant warmth of her body was rapidly growing cold. The steady, rhythmic thud of her heartbeat in his ears—his ultimate sanctuary—was slowing to a halt.
And as if confirming his rising unease, the brilliant luster in Medori's green eyes slowly began to fade into a hollow glassiness. Her beautiful, motherly smile was still frozen on her face, but a thin, dark trail of blood now trickled slowly from the corner of her lips.
"No, no, no. Nooo!!"
Kushina's agonizing scream tore through the room. She had rushed through the door the second she felt the disturbance inside the room, only to be met with her worst nightmare.
Her aunt—her mother figure—had a tanto driven straight through her back. Medori's chakra chains were scattered all over the room, skewering several dead ninja, but two of the Kirigakure ninja had survived. One of them had just removed his blade, and blood was gushing from Medori's chest like a fountain.
Kushina hadn't felt them enter the room. She had been alert the entir—
No. She wasn't.
That horrifying realization completely broke her.
Her knees hit the floor hard. From both inside the room and outside in the courtyard, the remaining enemy ninja capitalized on her moment of weakness, instantly launching their coordinated attacks.
But Kushina's mind wasn't there anymore.
She felt freezing cold all over. Her violet eyes were wide open in sheer, unadulterated horror. Her hands came up to her face, her fingers clawing into her own skin so tightly it looked as if she wanted to rip her own flesh apart.
It was her fault. Her negligence. Her lack of focus.
IT WAS HER FAULT!!
Something deep inside of her snapped. The pupils of her eyes narrowed down to pinpoints. Tears of thick, dark blood began to stream down her cheeks, slipping through the gaps of her trembling fingers.
And then, simultaneously, both her and the newborn baby's intent blasted outward, one wave of pressure right after the other.
They had both just lost their mother.
Kushina's intent was pure, suffocating self-loathing, blinding anger, and bottomless grief. Massive, jagged chakra chains erupted from her body. But they weren't the vibrant, pure crimson of her clan—they were a dark, sickly, blood-red, visually tainted by the sheer malice and grief pouring out of her shattered soul.
But the newborn baby's cries were entirely different. They were a desperate, instinctual plea.
His pure intent carried all of his innocent confusion and his growing, primal fear at the slowing rhythm of his mother's heart and the rapid fading of her body's warmth.
He wailed aloud just as Kushina's dark, jagged red chains violently erupted, tearing through the room.
But while Kushina's suffocating, grief-stricken intent blanketed the immediate compound, the newborn's piercing cries rippled outward, carrying across the entirety of Uzushiogakure.
And the chakra answered.
The baby's eyes began to morph. Their brilliant emerald color shifted, bleeding into a piercing ruby red. Across his tiny back, intricate marks suddenly materialized, glowing as a strange, vibrant green energy began to flow through them.
Instantly, a massive gust of wind erupted from his small form. Wherever it passed, it completely obliterated everything in its path.
The remaining enemy ninja inside the room were instantly sliced apart, their bodies scattered into the wind before they could even scream.
The entire main building was cleanly reduced to dust. The heavy barrier seals placed along the walls—formulas that could have easily withstood several high-ranking jutsu—were completely useless; they simply couldn't hold the building together against this primal force.
The razor-sharp winds continued outward, mercilessly slicing through every single enemy in their path.
Throughout all of Uzushiogakure, wherever those chakra-laced cries rang out, both enemies and allies alike ground to a sudden, shocked halt.
Every eye turned toward the source—the heart of the village.
The Uzumaki clan members were the most affected. Naturally attuned to the flow of chakra, they could feel the overwhelming confusion and the desperate, innocent plea echoing within that massive wave.
Their hearts twisted in sympathetic agony. But before anyone could even react, the massive storm that had subsided earlier resurrected itself.
This time, it returned with the absolute, unbridled rage of Mother Nature herself.
The storm clouds that had been shattered earlier rapidly reformed, darkening and completely blotting out the eerie red moon.
Lightning crackled across the sky. A torrential, heavy downpour started in seconds. The winds stirred into a screeching howl, and the very earth beneath the island began to violently shake.
The enemy forces snapped out of their stupor first—mostly because thick, blinding pillars of lightning suddenly began to strike them directly from the skies.
Inside the village, Akamitsu was in the middle of a fight as the dark clouds gathered above him.
Suddenly, he felt a gust of wind wash over him. The hairs on his arms stood on end. For a fleeting second, he felt as if his very soul was being judged by nature itself. But the wind passed through him harmlessly—while the enemies standing directly in front of him were instantly diced apart, as if sliced by a storm of razor-sharp invisible blades.
He wiped the sweat from his forehead, his eyes turning toward the distant hill where he had just felt that heart-wrenching pulse of pain from both Kushina and the newborn child.
"It seems no matter how hard we try, we can never accomplish it," he murmured to himself, looking up as the heavy rain began to fall. "Is this world inherently cruel, or is it just the people living in it? To think that even our children are not spared from this cruelty..."
A few miles outside the village.
Saki was high above the skies, locked in a death match. She had already prepared to detonate her seal matrix, fully intending to take her enemies straight to the afterlife with her.
Hovering in front of her were the fully transformed Four-Tails and Two-Tails. Their massive eyes were swirling pools of pure hatred, rage, and vengeance.
But suddenly, a piercing, chakra-laced cry reached her ears.
Saki turned her head, and the second she felt that specific chakra, something deep inside of her completely broke. Every single maternal instinct she possessed was screaming, clawing at her mind to abandon this fight, leave everything behind, and go to the source.
But then, she noticed a sudden, impossible shift in the massive beasts she had been fighting for hours.
When she looked back, their hate-filled eyes were clear. They were staring in the direction of the village, their monstrous faces mirroring pure shock.
Saki instantly readied herself to intercept them if they charged the compound, but something astonishing happened. The two Bijuu looked at her, and then, completely willingly, they retracted their immense chakra and sealed themselves back inside their jinchuriki.
Saki was so shocked that, for a few seconds, she genuinely thought she was trapped in a Genjutsu.
But her hesitation didn't last. In the next second, she vanished, reappearing directly in front of the Four-Tails' falling Jinchuriki—whose skin had been entirely burned away by the beast's chakra.
Drawing back her fist, she punched him with everything she had. Half of his upper torso was instantly erased into red mist, the remaining half continuing its lifeless plummet to the earth.
She immediately pivoted mid-air, locking her eyes onto the Two-Tails' Jinchuriki, who was coated in a Version One chakra cloak.
Clutching her massive odachi in her right hand, she held it poised like a spear. Her red-hot, steaming muscles compressed, and she launched the blade with a deafening sonic boom.
It crossed the distance in a microsecond, plunging straight through his chest and erupting from his back.
BOOM.
Another massive crater formed as he crashed into the earth below.
By the time Saki landed in the crater, the torrential rain had already started. But the second the droplets touched her super-heated, red skin, they instantly vaporized into steam.
Ignoring the loud hissing sound of her own body, she walked slowly toward the struggling Jinchuriki, who was somehow still clinging to life.
"Tch... Cockroach," Saki spat, her voice dripping with disdain.
"Please... I don't want to die," he choked out, his bloody hands desperately trying to pull the heavy odachi from his chest, to no avail. "I was just... following orders."
Saki stepped up beside him. Resting one hand on the hilt of her odachi, she slowly raised her foot over his face.
"Consequences."
She drove her heel down, crushing his head like a watermelon.
Saki stood alone in the heavy downpour, slowly tilting her head back toward the weeping sky. Her eyes closed, her expression one of bone-deep exhaustion.
As the freezing rain finally began to cool her super-heated skin and soak into her drenched crimson hair, the glowing seal matrix across her body slowly dimmed. Straightening her posture, Saki Uzumaki finally began the long walk back to her ruined village.
*****
Kushina had only seen a blinding flash of white before everything around her was reduced to dust.
The next thing she knew, she was sitting on the ground. There was no trace of the wooden main building left, nor the bodies of the enemy ninja.
The entire immediate area was now encased in a swirling, localized dome of razor-sharp wind, fiercely protecting a small perimeter just a few meters around her aunt.
Kushina slowly stood up. Her dark red chakra chains floated ominously behind her, swaying as if they possessed a life of their own.
She walked forward on trembling legs, moving toward her aunt. She just wanted to feel her warmth one last time.
As she stepped closer to the center of the dome, multiple shallow cuts instantly began to bloom across her body—slicing her face, her hands, and her legs. Her once-elegant kimono was now completely soaked in blood and shredded into tatters. But she ignored it all, her vacant, hollow eyes locked entirely on the figure of her aunt.
With every step she took, the invisible cuts began to deepen. Instinctively, her dark red chakra chains coiled around her in a thick, protective layer. But in the next instant, the wind simply shredded the dense chakra chains to pieces, scattering them like dead leaves.
Still, her steps didn't falter.
Slash.
A powerful, invisible blade of wind carved a deep diagonal gash across her torso. She just continued walking, her eyes completely dead to the physical world.
In her final few meters, she suddenly felt the heavy weight of two ruby-red eyes lock onto her. For a fleeting second, she felt as though her very existence was being weighed and measured. But even that terrifying, oppressive feeling was nothing compared to the gaping hole she felt inside her own chest.
So, she kept walking. When her vacant violet eyes finally met those glowing ruby-red ones, she paused, finally looking down at the newborn child.
A fresh stream of tears broke through the blood on her cheeks. Because she knew and felt that wave of confusion, grief and the plea for understanding. And here she was drowning in her own sorrow, forgetting there was another child who felt the loss more than her.
The baby, sensing another presence entering, had instantly zeroed his gaze onto her. But the moment he looked into her and recognized the same hollow, agonizing grief radiating from within her, he retracted his gaze and let her be.
His entire focus shifted to his current task.
Kushina, watching him look away, felt the oppressive, crushing weight lift from her shoulders. She finally stepped forward, reaching the center of the storm.
But when she looked down, she realized his ruby-red eyes were locked onto his mother with a focus that simply should not be present in a newborn.
Following his gaze, Kushina's eyes widened in shock.
Raising a trembling hand, she desperately grasped her aunt's wrist.
Ba-dum…. Ba-dum...
She was alive. Barely hanging on by a thread, but she was alive.
Kushina looked closer. At first, she only saw the wound physically knitting itself back together. But as her violet eyes narrowed in intense focus, pushing her senses to their absolute limits, she finally saw it.
A translucent, glowing hand was resting gently atop the wound.
Her eyes slowly followed the ethereal arm upward until the full apparition came into view.
Hovering over them was the translucent, breathtaking image of a woman. The spirit was smiling down at the child, one gentle hand resting lovingly on his impossibly crimson hair, while her other hand rested directly over Medori's heart—precisely where the fatal wound had been.
And the wound was literally reversing itself.
Slowly, the translucent woman lifted her head and looked at Kushina. Meeting her gaze.
Kushina felt the boundless, unconditional love of nature itself wash over her being. Instantly, the deep gashes across her own body began to rapidly mend themselves. And she felt rejuvenated, like this suffering was a nightmare.
From the barren earth below, vibrant green grass suddenly began to sprout, blooming around them like a soft, living bed.
The ethereal being returned her attention to the child, continuing to gently caress his cheek, comforting him. Answering him.
Kushina sat quietly in that peaceful sanctuary, holding her aunt's hand in both of hers, finally feeling the steady, rhythmic warmth of life returning to Medori's skin.
Slowly, the newborn's piercing ruby eyes began to turn back into their original, brilliant emerald shade. The intricate marks across his tiny back dimmed, fading seamlessly into his skin.
An overwhelming exhaustion washed over him. With one final, heavy-lidded glance at the woman caressing his cheek, he felt entirely safe, and slipped into a deep, sound sleep.
As the baby slept, the ethereal being's gentle presence caused the surrounding grass to weave itself upward, forming a soft, living blanket over the child and his mother.
Her gaze then shifted to Medori, lingering affectionately for a few seconds before finally turning to the second, older child in the crater.
The spirit smiled warmly, her hand leaving the newborn. She reached out, gently tapping her fingers against Kushina's forehead, and whispered in a voice that was simultaneously entirely unfamiliar, yet deeply, painfully familiar to Kushina's soul.
"I love you, Kushina... my child."
And with those words, the ethereal being slowly dissolved, melting back into the fabric of reality itself.
Kushina didn't know why, but she felt like she had heard that exact voice—those exact words—somewhere a long time ago. Her mind couldn't place it, but the unending stream of tears suddenly pouring from her violet eyes proved that her heart definitely remembered.
*****
Well how was it?
Good? Bad?
Now I need sleep, it was exhausting.
Good night!!
See you when the next chapter is ready.