Chapter 34: Nine-Tails Attack
Outside the gates of Konoha Village, the air was so heavy it felt suffocating.
The colossal Nine-Tailed Demon Fox dug its four claws into the ground, its hate-filled beast eyes fixed on the crowd of humans like ants. In its mouth, Yin and Yang Chakra was rapidly gathering, a black sphere swelling at a speed that defied the laws of physics.
"We can't stop it..."
Hiruzen Sarutobi's palm gripping the adamantine staff was slick with cold sweat. The old man hailed as the "God of Shinobi" now looked so aged and powerless before absolute violence. Behind him, the Anbu and Jonin were ashen-faced; that forming Tailed Beast Ball was enough to wipe half of Konoha off the map.
The shadow of death loomed over everyone.
At this critical moment—
"Summoning: Food Cart Destroyer!"
From high above, a voice—neither loud nor soft—cut through the clamor of the battlefield yet drilled clearly into every ear.
Immediately afterward, a massive shadow blotted out the moonlight.
BOOM!!
The earth violently shook as if a magnitude-ten quake had struck. An enormous red toad, like a mountain falling from the sky, crashed onto the Nine-Tails' back!
Dust billowed; stones flew.
The Nine-Tails, which had been charging its Tailed Beast Ball, was slammed into the dirt by this sudden Mount Tai crush, its half-formed Tailed Beast Ball forcibly interrupted.
Atop Gamabunta's head, Minato Namikaze's golden hair whipped in the gale, the characters "Fourth Hokage" on his Sacred Robe glaring under the firelight.
"It's the Fourth Hokage!"
"Hokage-sama is here!"
A cheer of survival burst from the despairing crowd; morale that had been crumbling instantly returned to its Peak.
Center of the battlefield.
Minato had no time to bask in the villagers' cheers. Underfoot, Gamabunta was barely pinning the Nine-Tails, but the might of the strongest Tailed Beast was simply too terrifying.
"Fourth Hokage! I can't hold this thing much longer!" Gamabunta clenched his massive pipe, his claws being slowly lifted by the Nine-Tails' frantic struggles.
In the Nine-Tails' maw, that despair-inducing Tailed Beast Ball began to form again—faster than before!
This time its target was no longer the Hokage Rock, but the very heart of Konoha Village right before it!
"Damn it..." Minato glanced at the brightly lit Village behind him, then at the hate-filled Nine-Tails below, a flash of resolve in his eyes.
A Chakra mass of this size...
To teleport it away will consume most of my remaining Chakra.
But it's the only way.
"Flying Thunder God Technique!"
Minato slammed both palms onto the Nine-Tails' back; a space-time barrier unfurled instantly.
Whoom—
Space distorted.
In the next second, the mountain-sized Nine-Tails and that golden figure vanished into thin air, leaving only the enormous Gamabunta and a bewildered Third Hokage with the Konoha Ninja.
"D-disappeared?" an Anbu muttered, rubbing his eyes in disbelief.
Hiruzen Sarutobi jerked his gaze toward the distant forest depths. Seconds later, a blinding white light flared, followed by an earth-shattering explosion; even tens of kilometers away the ground trembled.
"So that's where he took it..." Hiruzen murmured, knuckles white around his staff. "Minato... you have to win."
Deep in the forest far from the Village.
A terrifying shockwave leveled trees for kilometers, a towering mushroom cloud rising slowly.
When the smoke cleared, devastation stretched everywhere.
To Seal the Nine-Tails, Minato had no choice but to carry the extremely weak Kushina and the wailing baby Naruto back here.
The instant they landed, Minato dropped to one knee, clutching his stomach and gasping, face as pale as paper.
"Cough... damn it..."
He felt his Chakra as dry as a riverbed; every breath brought stabbing pain. "Not enough Chakra left... have to set the barrier quickly..."
After the fight with Obito and teleporting both the Tailed Beast Ball and the Nine-Tails itself, even the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, was on the verge of total exhaustion.
"ROAR!!"
Nearby, the Nine-Tails rose again, eyes wilder than ever, massive claws raised to smash the three tiny humans into pulp.
"Minato..."
Kushina forced her eyes open, tears streaming as she looked at her husband's faltering back. Struggling upright, her once-vibrant face was now drained of all color.
"I can still hold on a little longer."
Clank-clank!
With her faint words, five golden Chakra chains shot out from the Void Realm behind her!
Adamantine Sealing Chains!
The powerful sealing art unique to the Uzumaki Clan.
Golden chains coiled like living serpents around the Nine-Tailed's limbs and neck, pinning its colossal body to the ground. The beast roared in fury, yet no matter how it struggled, it could not break those seemingly fragile chains.
"Cough—" Kushina coughed up a mouthful of blood, her body shaking violently from the toll of burning her life force.
"Kushina!" Minato's heart felt as if it were being sliced open; he started forward to support her, but she stopped him with a look.
"Waaah—"
In his swaddling clothes, Naruto seemed to sense the wavering of his mother's life-flame, and his cries grew even louder.
"I'm sorry, Naruto." Kushina gave the infant on the ground a gentle glance, then lifted her head, meeting Minato's eyes with unwavering resolve. A sorrowful, beautiful smile forced itself onto her ashen face.
"Minato, I'll use the last of my Chakra to drag the Nine-Tailed into my body—then take it with me to death."
Minato's pupils shrank; it was as if lightning had struck him.
"That way, the Nine-Tailed's revival will be postponed for many years… and the Village will be safe for a while." Kushina's voice grew softer, yet every word struck Minato's heart like a hammer. "Minato, thank you… for letting me be your wife, for giving me the happiest days of my life."
Minato—the "yellow flash" who made enemies tremble on the battlefield—now looked like a helpless child, tears bursting free in an unstoppable flood.
"It's just… one wish can never come true."
Kushina gazed at Naruto, as though trying to carve his face into her very Soul. "If only I could see him grow up…"
At that moment, a hundred meters away, atop a towering tree.
Yahiko leaned against the trunk, an apple now in hand, a crisp crunch sounding as he bit into it.
"A truly touching little love story."
Chewing the juicy flesh, Yahiko delivered his verdict without the slightest expression. "If it were the old Nagato watching this, he'd probably be bawling his eyes out by now. Too bad this sort of self-indulgent sacrifice is worthless—good for a few tears and a name on a memorial stone, nothing more."
In Yahiko's view, Kushina's plan was safe, but it would make Konoha's strategic nuke—the Nine-Tailed—temporarily vanish.
"Let's see what you choose, Minato Namikaze." His eyes reflected the distant couple.
At the center of the battlefield.
Minato dried his tears.
The once-gentle blue eyes now held only resolve and steel.
He glanced at Kushina, then at Naruto, finally at the chained Nine-Tailed. His mind raced, analyzing the present situation, the threat left by Obito, the future of the Ninja World.
Merely delaying the Nine-Tailed's revival meant the Masked Man could return at any time.
If Konoha lost the Nine-Tailed and its Jinchuriki, it would be powerless to stop the next assault.
And then…
Jiraiya-sensei's prophecy.
His own child was very likely the one destined to bring change to the world.
Minato drew a deep breath, as though making a decision that went against every instinct.
"Kushina—no."
Though his voice trembled, it carried absolute certainty. "If you die with the Nine-Tailed, Konoha will lose the deterrent power of a Tailed Beast. And that Masked Man will certainly strike again."
"To break this deadlock—"
Minato's hands slowly formed a Seal. It was not complicated, yet it exuded a chilling, sinister aura.
"I'll Seal the last of your Chakra—together with the Eight Trigrams Sealing Style—into Naruto. That way, you'll be able to see him grown up when the day comes."
Kushina froze, then realized what Minato intended; her eyes widened in horror. "Wait! Half of the Nine-Tailed is too strong—an infant can't bear it! And to Seal the other half, you'll need—"
"Exactly."
Minato looked at his wife, showing that trademark smile as warm as sunlight.
"The other half of the Nine-Tailed—I'll handle it."
"I will use the Reaper Death Seal!"
The area around the Nine-Tailed should have been sealed off by Kushina's barrier, yet someone now stood on a nearby branch.
When he heard the words "Reaper Death Seal," Yahiko's apple-biting paused for an instant.
He lowered his gaze slightly at the scroll of seals he had just seized. On its final pages, that S-rank forbidden jutsu of the Uzumaki Clan was clearly recorded.
The price: the caster's Soul.
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