REVIEWS AND POWERSTONES PLSSS!!!!!Chapter 41: A Whirlwind in the Whirlpool... (Part Two)
Back inside the apartment building under monitoring, Kushina's mood had sunk. She drifted slowly along the window by herself.
She didn't know exactly what had happened lately, but the tighter surveillance kept pulling her thoughts somewhere dark.
Can a jinchuriki really live happily...
Uzumaki Mito had taught her from a very young age to find someone to love. Kushina felt like she had found that person. But nothing about her life had actually changed.
She stood at the window for a long time. Then something steadied in her eyes. She drew on the Nine-Tails' chakra deliberately, and the moment her pupils turned to slits, golden chains appeared throughout the building.
By the time the ANBU on watch realized what was happening, they were all rooted in place. Before any of them could speak, Kushina announced at full volume.
"I'm going to watch Minato train! You don't need to follow me!"
"..."
"Her sealing technique has gotten even stronger. There's no breaking out of it."
"We can't let her keep doing whatever she wants. Someone go after her..."
The ANBU pinned to the floor called back and forth loudly, but the seal strength was extraordinary. Caught completely off guard, every single one of them had been caught.
Kushina moved from the street level to the barrier's edge and hesitated for a moment there. Then the Nine-Tails chakra surged inside her again. She pressed a hand over her eyes and ran through the barrier.
"That's the way. Don't forget to hate. Live however you please!"
The Nine-Tails, bound tight inside her by layer after layer of sealing formulae, launched into its daily routine of coaxing and corruption. Kushina ignored every word of it and kept her head down, running faster.
"Minato..."
* * *
Training Ground Three. The rock walls and the ground around them were covered in spiral-shaped craters. Namikaze Minato sat on the ground soaked in sweat, pushing himself upright to take stock.
"I can barely hold it together and it still ends up exploding. Controlling this technique is much harder than I expected."
"Maybe my chakra control isn't precise enough. Someone like Osamu, with that level of talent, might have already completed it."
Jiraiya stood with his hands on his hips, thinking it over. He leaned toward his student and offered a suggestion.
"Don't sell yourself short. Anyone who can master and use the Flying Thunder God has more talent than anyone. No exceptions."
"Maybe it's not a control problem. Refining chakra in the direction your hair spirals might make it easier. Let me have a look."
Minato immediately tilted his head forward, full of hope.
"There's a technique like that? That's exactly the kind of thing only you would know, Jiraiya-sensei!"
No response came. Minato was about to look up when Jiraiya's expression twitched, and he muttered under his breath.
"You've got two spirals going in opposite directions."
"..."
Teacher and student fell into identical silence. Nobody brought up hair spiral direction again.
After a short rest, Minato was still turning the jutsu over in his head. Jiraiya had returned to the training ground and pulled out a popsicle, holding it out with a grin.
"Which side do you want?"
Minato froze. He thought of something Furukawa Osamu had shared about doing two things at once, and immediately jumped to his feet.
"Jiraiya-sensei, I've got it!"
Jiraiya finished the popsicle and watched his student try several more times. Then a stable chakra sphere appeared in Minato's right hand, and Jiraiya's face lit up.
"Try the power!"
Boom!
The rock wall was blown open in an instant. A massive crater appeared in the stone. Minato felt the satisfaction rush through him. He gathered another chakra sphere in his right hand, sweat dripping down his face, and introduced it to Jiraiya with genuine excitement.
"I'm naming it the Halo Popsicle Osamu-Inspired Spiral-Cowlick Jiraiya Twin Style Sphere!"
"Long and awful..."
Jiraiya squinted and delivered his verdict flatly. Minato could only laugh awkwardly. He genuinely thought it was a good name.
"That'll do for today. I've got a mission to apply for. Minato, get some rest."
"Yes, Sensei."
Following Jiraiya's instructions, Minato started getting ready to head home. He was packing his bag when he suddenly turned his head. Kushina was peeking out at him from behind the tree line.
"Kushina? Is it all right for you to be out here?"
"Um... the Third Hokage gave me special permission today. I can leave the barrier for a little while."
"I'm sorry, Minato. I shouldn't have gotten angry at you before."
Kushina bowed her head in apology. Minato shook his. The Tailed Beast Ball was still fresh in his mind, and his voice dropped.
"I'm the one who didn't keep my promise. You must know the monitoring was tightened."
"I'm sorry. After seeing that kind of power, I'm genuinely terrified of you being sent into a war. This technique is something I'm building for you."
"I don't want to lose you."
Kushina's emotions surged violently. Her pupils contracted. Nine-Tails chakra flooded out and a tailed beast cloak formed around her in an instant. Minato rushed to steady her and was sent flying by a lash of the tail.
A wound opened across his chest, bleeding through. Minato didn't fall back. He drove forward to where she stood and activated the Four Symbols Seal.
In the mindscape, Kushina felt what her loved one was trying to do. She cried out and threw her strength into reinforcing the Nine-Tails' seal. The tailed beast chakra erupted in response.
"Stay together with me..."
Minato looked at Kushina and spoke softly between ragged breaths. The words were barely out when six tails rose from her body, and his abdomen was run straight through.
"Get away! Minato, get away now!"
"I'm not going anywhere!"
In the mindscape, Minato faced the Nine-Tails directly for the first time. Over the girl's desperate screaming, he drove forward with his new technique and met the Tailed Beast Ball taking shape head-on.
* * *
At noon, Namikaze Minato arrived at Konoha Hospital with his abdomen pierced through and blood covering him.
Kushina's jacket was soaked in it too. She had cried until her eyes were swollen red. When Minato was taken into the operating room, her legs gave out and she crumpled to the floor, sobbing.
The ANBU sealed off the hospital on an emergency basis. Jiraiya arrived at a run, drenched in sweat, and had no time to get the full story. He looked at Tsunade, who had gone white in the face, and asked quietly.
"Are you all right?"
Her hemophobia was flaring. Tsunade was barely keeping her body from shaking. Furukawa Osamu, summoned on an emergency basis, took hold of her pale hand without drawing attention to it, then spoke with quiet efficiency.
"Sensei, once the wound is cleaned up I'll summon Katsuyu. When the Cellular Regeneration Jutsu is active, there won't be visible bleeding."
"You take the lead on the technique and handle the cellular activation. The four of us will manage the chakra supply."
The penetrating wound was worse than initial reports had suggested. The Nine-Tails' chakra carried a corrosive quality.
After a quick briefing from the special jonin on the scene, Furukawa Osamu took the task on himself.
"I'll use a sealing technique first to contain the tailed beast chakra at the wound site."
"Don't worry. Minato-kun should have avoided anything vital. Don't underestimate him."
The warmth of the hand in hers pulled Tsunade back to herself. She looked at Jiraiya, who had opened his mouth and closed it again without speaking, and let out a long breath before answering with full composure.
"The hospital side is covered. You should go to Sensei. This loss of control came at a very bad time."
Jiraiya thought about the ongoing argument between Hiruzen and Danzo over jinchuriki deployment and felt the headache building. At least Kushina hadn't lost control inside the village proper. If she had, the situation would be far worse.
"Summoning Jutsu!"
Furukawa Osamu summoned a Katsuyu division roughly his own size, then walked directly toward the operating room. Standing inside and sensing the tailed beast chakra present in Minato's body, he transmitted a quiet thought to Katsuyu.
'Help me capture some of the tailed beast chakra from the wound site. This is a good chance to test my chakra theory.'
The small Katsuyu division shifted her antennae, and answered in her soft unhurried voice without a moment's hesitation.
'Understood, Osamu-sama.'
***
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