"Mm! It's Mom!" Kushina hugged Naruto back tightly, her eyes filled with love.
Naruto buried his face in Kushina's chest; the loneliness, grievances, and longing of over a decade poured out at this moment, and Kushina just gently patted his back.
After a long while, Naruto gradually calmed down. He let go embarrassedly, tears still hanging on his face, but he couldn't help but keep looking at his mother's face.
Kushina reached out and wiped the tears from Naruto's face.
"Let me take a good look... You've really grown up."
"I have so much to tell you, so much I want to ask." Naruto said, looking excited.
"Then we can take our time, but before that."
Kushina's expression turned serious, and she strengthened the Seal on the Nine-Tailed, making it unable to even stand up.
Nine-Tailed: 666, the former landlord has come to collect rent.
"Such a rough way of binding; the rope art isn't very good. The Nine-Tailed is suffering." Hinata touched her chin, looking at its pathetic state.
At this moment, the Nine-Tailed had been completely flipped over by Kushina, belly up, limbs spread apart, and even every single tail was bound.
Wet, bound, animal ears, fox tail, exposed, shameful, parents watching.
All the elements are here, nice.
Minato had been silent since just now, just looking at the mother and son with tenderness.
Kushina gently stroked Naruto's hair, her voice soft but filled with nostalgic sadness.
"...So, a part of Mom's Chakra was sealed inside your body along with Minato's, in order to protect you at a critical moment like today."
She recounted the truth of sixteen years ago in detail—the Masked Man's attack, Minato's decision, and that heavy entrustment.
However, the Naruto in her arms seemed somewhat distracted.
Kushina noticed something unusual and looked down, only to see Naruto looking up, his pair of azure eyes wide open, staring at her face without blinking.
"Naruto? Are you listening?" Kushina stopped her story and asked him.
Naruto blinked as if waking from a dream, his voice thick with nasal congestion, but he suddenly grinned, revealing a bright, tear-streaked smile, interrupting his mother's heavy memories.
"My mom is so pretty, a great beauty, this is just great!"
"Eh?" Kushina was stunned.
"Thanks for the compliment. Your hair is like your dad's, but your face is like mine." Kushina said with a smile.
She proudly pointed her finger at Naruto's nose bridge and chin line, then fiddled with his bright blonde hair with some regret.
"It's just this hair, it's all like your old man's. If it could be red like Mom's, that would be great! So vibrant! The red hair of our Uzumaki Clan is very beautiful!"
"Mm-mm! I think so too!" Naruto happily agreed.
"Hey, hey, Kushina," a gentle voice with a hint of helpless amusement interjected at the right moment.
"Blonde hair is also very good-looking. And, with Naruto like this, doesn't it combine the best of both of us?"
Minato looked at his wife and son, his eyes full of gentle smiles.
"Dattebane, do you have an objection?!" Kushina immediately turned her head and glared fiercely.
Minato immediately raised both hands, making a French salute.
Minato: I have an objection.
Kushina: Glare.
Minato: I have no objection.
Kushina was finally satisfied and gave a "humph," turned back around, and cupped Naruto's face with both hands, looking left and right, liking him more the more she looked. That little "regret" about his hair color had long since been thrown to the Ninth Heaven.
Naruto looked at his mother's vivid expressions and then at his father's gentle smile, feeling wrapped in an unprecedented, perfect happiness.
He held Kushina's hand with his left hand and reached out his right hand to Minato. Minato also smiled and reached out to hold his son's hand.
The family of three, in this brief and precious consciousness space constructed by Chakra, held hands and smiled at each other.
There was no heavy shadow of fate, no imminent sense of crisis; there was only the purest warmth of family love, regained and flowing. At this moment, they were just an ordinary family reunited after a long separation.
From the gap between the three hugging together, Hinata's figure could be seen; she was a bit embarrassed at this moment.
"...Am I, perhaps, a bit redundant?"
"...Perhaps, I should be under the car?"
Naruto was in the mental space within the mental space, and Minato had followed him in. Hinata felt a bit uncomfortable facing the Nine-Tailed alone, especially since the Nine-Tailed was bound in a strange posture and making unclear noises.
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