The Nine-Tailed lay listlessly behind the massive iron bars that had reappeared. Its previously world-destroying aura had been completely shattered by Hinata's punch, and with a large amount of its Chakra forcibly taken by Naruto, it now struggled even to maintain its glare.
Golden light swirled around Naruto, and a brand-new sense of power filled his body, but he couldn't spare the time to fully process it right now. He walked quickly to the Seal gate.
"I need to Seal this back up," he muttered to himself. Although he had seized its power, he knew very well that the Nine-Tailed itself remained dangerous, and a complete Seal was indispensable.
He injected Chakra into the core of the Seal.
The phantom of Minato watched quietly from the side, his eyes filled with gratification.
As the final rune stabilized, the massive cage slowly closed, cutting off the Nine-Tailed's massive body and gaze from the outside.
After finishing all this, Naruto let out a sigh of relief, then turned to look at his parents.
Kushina looked at Naruto tenderly, recounting the truth of that year: the attack by the Masked Man, and how, as she was ten months pregnant, she had sealed half of the Nine-Tailed into Naruto.
"I'm sorry... for making you the container for the Nine-Tailed... for not being able to live with you... for not being able to give you more love..."
Kushina shed tears, and Minato gently put his arm around her shoulders.
"There's no need to apologize..."
Naruto said in a low voice.
"Being a Jinchuriki has indeed made me suffer quite a bit, and I didn't understand what fatherly or motherly love was. But now I understand. Father and Mother were willing to give up your lives for me. I also understand that before I became the Nine-Tailed's container, you first filled me with fatherly and motherly love. So, I am very happy now!"
Kushina's tears welled up, and she hugged Naruto as her form began to dissipate...
Her warm smile remained, but her form had become nearly illusory.
"Mom?!" Naruto's heart tightened.
"It seems... Mom's time has come."
Kushina's voice remained gentle, her eyes filled with reluctance as she looked up.
"Being able to see you like this again and helping Naruto overcome his most important hurdle—Mom has no regrets."
"But..." Naruto's voice choked up. Having just reunited with his mother, he was about to be parted again in the blink of an eye. Overwhelming sorrow engulfed him.
Minato's phantom drifted closer, gently embracing his wife's increasingly transparent shoulders. His own figure was also fading, though slightly less than Kushina's. He looked at Naruto, his eyes filled with a father's love.
"Naruto, we are, after all, only residual Chakra consciousness. With our mission accomplished, it is naturally time for us to dissipate. Seeing you as you are now makes us happier than anything else."
Kushina snuggled into her husband's arms, her gaze landing gently on Naruto's face.
"Naruto, you must live happily and brilliantly, for both your father and me!"
"Mom! Dad!" Naruto's tears burst forth. He wanted to reach out and grab something, but he knew there was no turning back.
Just at this deeply touching and incredibly sorrowful moment of farewell, no one noticed Hinata on the side.
She watched this heartwarming scene—a family full of love about to dissipate before her eyes. They should have lived out a happy and complete life.
A warm dinner table, the laughter of a child, sunsets watched side by side—that was the life that should have belonged to Minato Namikaze and Kushina. Naruto, too, should have had a happy childhood.
Instead of sacrifice, Seals, separation by life and death, and the cruel reality where even their Souls could not reunite freely after death.
Next, I am going to tell a story where Kamui cannot hide tears; Obito has scanned the code.
Watching Kushina's figure become increasingly transparent, warm specks of Chakra began to drift away uncontrollably.
"Sigh, I'm getting old. I can't watch this; my eyes are getting misty."
Hinata's mind stirred. A strand of spiritual power, containing life and stability from a higher dimension, quietly separated from Hinata—two wisps, thinner than a hair—and merged into the body of Kushina, who was about to completely dissipate, and into Minato beside her.
All of this happened very quickly.
Consequently, under the sorrowful gazes of Minato and Naruto, Kushina's figure, which should have completely dissipated into specks of light, suddenly solidified at the very limit of becoming nearly transparent.
It wasn't just solidification; the previously illusory outline even became clearer and more stable than before.
"Eh?" Kushina was the first to notice the anomaly. She looked down at her hands, which had become clear again, and felt the power inside her—weak, but stably circulating and no longer draining away—with a look of astonishment on her face.
"Minato? I seem to..."
Minato also immediately noticed the changes in himself and the stable state of his wife in his arms.
He was more sensitive than Kushina and instantly cast his gaze toward the only possible "variable" in the consciousness space—Hinata, who stood quietly on the side, as if she had done nothing at all.
Meeting Minato's shocked and probing gaze, Hinata merely turned her head away, as if to say: "You're welcome, it was just a casual act."
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