Gazing at Minato, whose abdomen had been skewered, Kushina's lips trembled. Two lines of clear tears traced paths down her cheeks, dripping onto the blood-soaked earth.
In that heartbeat, she was swallowed by a tidal wave of heavy sorrow, regret, and a soul-deep weariness.
Why? Why did someone like her—a monster like her—ever try to leave the cage? Was she chasing love, or was she merely indulging her own selfish whims, dragging everyone else down with her? The heavy burden of a Jinchūriki, the grief of the fallen Uzumaki clan, and now, her lover wounded by her own hand...
Everything. It was all too much.
"Hah... hah..."
Kushina's breathing became heavy and ragged. A look of near-total despair washed over her face as she murmured, "I've had enough."
"I've had enough, I've had enough, I've had enough... I'VE HAD ENOUGH!!!"
She clutched her head, her eyes wide and her pupils oscillating with agony. Suddenly, she lowered her head, sobbing with a helpless, crushing apology:
"Minato... don't worry about me anymore! Take Ren and leave this place! Get away! Get away from here now!!"
Ren Uchiha sighed deeply. Watching this scene, he felt a profound sense of helplessness.
Without a doubt, the plot of the "Minato Chronicles" had reached its climax. He had participated, rewritten so many things, yet in the end, it was because of his presence that the story had arrived at this ultimate, brutal choice. It felt absurd—a twisted manifestation of destiny and causality.
I did so much... but in the end, what did I actually change?
The Nine-Tails' voice rumbled again, cutting through the tension.
"A brat who isn't even an Uzumaki, yet strengthens the Four Symbols Seal with his own logic. And another one—"
The beast's voice dropped into a cold, menacing register.
"—An Uchiha brat who reeks of deceit, lying to others and himself, not even knowing why he lives. Lost, wandering, yet powerful as a ghost drifting through the world."
"It ends here!"
Kushina's face, half-shrouded in the Nine-Tails' chakra, turned toward Minato. The beast's cold gaze swept over the man who, despite a hole in his gut, refused to let go, his hand still pressed against Kushina's stomach to maintain the seal.
Then it looked at Ren—the "evil Uchiha" who was silently and shamelessly draining its chakra right in front of its face.
"Tch, I've been spotted," Ren clicked his tongue in annoyance.
But he didn't stop. The Zero-Tails was practically dancing with joy; even if Ren wanted to stop, the parasite wasn't listening.
If you've got a problem, Nine-Tails... feel free to stab me too.
Ren wasn't about to waste the opening Minato's desperate counter-seal had provided. The Nine-Tails watched them both, offering a cold ultimatum:
"This girl is my Jinchūriki! She has nothing to do with you! Why should elites like you tie yourselves down for a little girl? Leave now! There's still time to save your own pathetic lives!"
Ren and Minato shook their heads simultaneously.
Ren thought to himself: If I leave now, what happens to the "Prince" of the prophecy? If Minato is gone, where will I find another savior? Besides, Minato is a good man who treated me with kindness. Abandoning him isn't an option.
Minato coughed up a fresh spray of blood, his breathing ragged as he looked firmly at Kushina.
"That's... not true!"
He exhaled sharply, his gaze unwavering. "I like strong people! I like people who are even stronger than me! And that's why... I love Kushina!"
Kushina froze. She looked up at Minato, stunned. That confession, delivered in the middle of a death-trap, made her heart skip a beat.
"And I can feel it... I've always had a place in Kushina's heart!"
Minato's eyes snapped into focus. With one hand on Kushina's belly, he twisted the Four Symbols Seal, shifting it into the Eight Trigrams Seal he had practiced on Ren.
Then, he reached out his other hand and gripped Ren's shoulder. Through the link of their chakra, the world around them dissolved!
Under Minato's guidance, the three of them were pulled into Kushina's mental world—inside the Eight Trigrams cage holding the Nine-Tails!
They stood ankle-deep in water within the Uzumaki Sanctuary, standing shoulder-to-shoulder before a massive iron gate that stretched into the clouds. Behind those bars loomed the Nine-Tails—a mountain of malice and fur.
Kushina looked at the two figures standing beside her—one tall, one short, neither willing to retreat.
She remembered the words of Mito Uzumaki, the previous host, looking out over the village:
'Kushina, we were brought here to be the vessel for the Nine-Tails. But before that, we must find love and fill our vessel with it. Only then, even as a Jinchūriki, can you find happiness. If you keep climbing, you will find people worth protecting. Eventually, your whirlpool will become a spiral!'
Kushina's eyes snapped open. The hesitation was gone. She looked at the two men and gave them a brilliant, radiant smile.
"Thank you... Minato. And you too, Ren!"
Kushina stepped forward, a sharp shout echoing from her lungs as countless golden chains erupted from her body!
"HAA!!!"
The Adamantine Sealing Chains lashed around the Nine-Tails, making the entire sanctuary tremble with the beast's roar.
"GURRR!! Kushina, what are you doing?! Even I will fight back!"
Kushina gritted her teeth. "Nine-Tails! I won't let you hurt them ever again!!"
Minato smiled. He turned to Ren, his gaze resolute. "Ren! Let's go. The three of us together!"
A swirling, brilliant blue sphere appeared in Minato's palm.
Ren followed Minato's lead, a grin breaking across his face. He reached out and placed his hand over the sphere, funneling in the Sage Chakra he had refined from the Nine-Tails' own energy.
The Nine-Tails tore through the chains around its neck and roared. "DAMN BRATS!!!"
It opened its maw, gathering a massive Tailed Beast Bomb between its teeth. "PERISH!!!"
Ren interrupted the beast, his voice even louder than the fox's roar:
"Nine-Tails! Taste our hot-blooded combo technique—!"
Ren and Minato shouted in unison:
"Sage Art: Halo Cat-Claw Reverse-Inspired Swirl-Hair Uchiha Dual-Style Sphere!!!"
Kushina suddenly slapped her hand onto the sphere as well, looking at them with total exasperation. "That is so tacky! And the name is way too long!"
She funneled her own golden chakra into the mix. "From now on, this jutsu is called the Rasengan!"
"And as for this combo... it's called—"
The three of them, their hearts linked through their chakra, leapt high into the air, thrusting the glowing gold, blue, and black sphere forward.
The tiny Rasengan, small enough to fit in a palm, dove headlong into the ten-meter-wide Tailed Beast Bomb!
At its core was Minato's concentrated Great Spiral Ring: Rinne. Surrounding it was Ren's expanded Sage Rasengan. And wrapping it all together, preventing the energy from leaking, were Kushina's golden chains.
The three energies fused into a chemical-like reaction—a ultimate spiral that transcended all logic.
"SAGE ART: WHIRLPOOL GREAT SPIRAL RING: RINNE!"
The two spheres—one massive and one tiny—collided. The three-colored Rasengan tore through the Tailed Beast Bomb like a hot knife through butter. It became a solid beam of light, a peerless storm of power that slammed directly into the Nine-Tails' shocked face!
The beast took a massive "slap" of pure energy.
In the next instant, a brilliant, warm white light filled the world, drowning out all hate and all sorrow.
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