Minato Namikaze, Time for a Multiple-Choice Question! Only One Answer Allowed

Amid Kushina Uzumaki's pained groans, a loud infant's cry rang out. Naruto was born!

Naruto Uzumaki, who had rushed back in from outside the cave, stared blankly at himself as a baby. The feelings in his heart were impossible to describe.

If this little baby knew what he would suffer in the future, would he still choose to come into this world?

What about himself now? Did he regret taking this journey through life?

At such a critical moment, he actually got lost in thought. By the time a Mysterious Masked Man appeared and snatched baby Naruto away, he had only just reacted. Minato Namikaze, however, reacted even faster, moving to shield his wife, Kushina Uzumaki.

Tonight, as a husband, Hokage, and father, Minato Namikaze had to rank these three identities in order of priority.

Which responsibility mattered most to him, and which could be abandoned if necessary?

If possible, Minato Namikaze would certainly have chosen to give everything he had to protect them all. But tonight, he could not. He had no choice but to face this brutal test of human nature...

The weight and order of importance that his wife, village, and child held in Minato Namikaze's heart would soon become crystal clear!

As for his own life? There was no need to consider it. Naturally, it ranked far below any one of those three!

At this moment, he faced the first choice of the night:

His wife Kushina, the weakened Nine-Tails Jinchuriki who had just given birth, or his newborn son Naruto—which would he save first?

"Fourth Hokage Minato Namikaze, step away from the Jinchuriki!"

The Mysterious Masked Man held his palm over baby Naruto, issuing a silent threat and presenting him with the ultimate dilemma: wife or child.

"Kill me! Kill me, kill me! Save Mom, don't worry about me..."

Naruto Uzumaki, drifting around them like a ghost in the void, once again let out a crazed roar in vain. Unfortunately, the miracle he had always hoped for still did not happen. Not a single person there heard his cries!

There was a dark humor to this scene, making one want to laugh and cry at the same time!

"Naruto!"

As his mother, Kushina Uzumaki was the first to make her choice. She cast Minato Namikaze a resolute glance, then reached out toward Naruto.

In that instant, Minato Namikaze understood his wife's decision from her eyes. Just before the Kunai could stab Naruto, he flashed forward and rescued him.

After throwing away the Explosive Tag attached to the swaddling clothes, he used the Flying Thunder God Technique to return home and settle Naruto down. By the time he reappeared in the cave—

No matter how fast Minato Namikaze was, he was already too late. His wife, Kushina Uzumaki, was indeed gone... He really could only choose one!

When he found Kushina, the Nine-Tails had already been extracted from her body. Minato Namikaze realized that even with the Uzumaki Clan's tenacious vitality, his wife's life had entered its final countdown. As her husband, all he could do now was take her home and let her look at their newborn child a little longer.

Minato Namikaze of the past and Naruto Uzumaki of the present—father and son from different times—fell silent together. It was difficult to put such emotions into words...

Naruto Uzumaki stopped roaring as well. He merely lowered his head and blankly watched his mother, Kushina Uzumaki.

Kushina's face was pale and weak. Her vivid red hair, once brimming with vibrant life, had become somewhat dull. She tilted her head, blankly looking at the newborn Naruto.

Baby Naruto, who had stopped crying, also raised his head and stared blankly into the void, as though he could sense his future self. The three of them, linked together, seemed to form a cycle of life and death!

"Click!"

From outside the scene, the "director," Daren Yi, happily captured another image with "high artistic value," planning to give them all to Naruto afterward.

At the same time, the Masked Man summoned the Nine-Tails into Konohagakure to wreak havoc, and the second question appeared:

As Hokage, he had the responsibility to protect Konohagakure. As a husband and father, he had the responsibility to care for his dying wife in bed and his newborn son. Which would he choose?

It was hard to say whether Minato Namikaze chose to protect Konohagakure over caring for his wife and child this time.

Perhaps he could no longer bear to watch the cruel sight of his wife's life slowly slipping away? Or perhaps he had been utterly enraged and intended to find the Masked Man to avenge his wife?

In any case, he put on the Hokage's battle robe and set off once more.

"I'll be right back!"

That was all he softly left his wife and newborn child. Beneath that gentle voice was a volcano on the verge of eruption, molten lava ready to burst forth.

He knew that his wife, Kushina Uzumaki, whose Nine-Tails had been extracted, was already doomed to die!

Kushina Uzumaki did not try to stop her husband. Weak and dying, she did not try to prolong her own life either. Instead, she quietly made a decision.

What she did not know was that Minato Namikaze had made a decision at the same time. The husband and wife's decisions were remarkably similar.

At this point, Naruto Uzumaki discovered that he could finally break free of the restriction that had kept him from leaving Kushina Uzumaki's side. He silently followed his father.

He watched him confront the Nine-Tails and use the Flying Thunder God Barrier to transfer the Nine-Tails' Tailed Beast Bomb. He watched the Masked Man's sneak attack. He watched the Fourth Hokage's peak battle against the Masked Man...

Had the Naruto of the past witnessed such a spectacular battle with his own eyes, he would have already been so excited and thrilled that he could not contain himself. But now, only indifference remained on his face.

Grief and pain had stripped away every other expression. The finale had not yet arrived, but he had already fallen into despair.

Those who had nothing from the start would not despair. Only after being given something, then having it ruthlessly taken away, could a person truly despair!

After the defeated Masked Man fled, Kushina Uzumaki, who had already been fated to die, revealed the decision she had made earlier.

Adamantine Sealing Chains spread across the sky, binding the Nine-Tails tightly. Against the roar of that savage beast, which terrified the entire Shinobi World—

Kushina Uzumaki, a wife who had just become a mother yet was about to die, spoke the sweetest, most cloying words of love to her husband as though no one else existed.

"I'll restrain the Nine-Tails, then die with it." "Thank you for everything you've done for me." "Don't make that face. I've always been happy because you loved me." "Besides, today is our child's birthday." "I only have one final wish... I really want to see Naruto when he grows up..."

At the end of her life, she only wanted to drag her broken body down with the Nine-Tails, doing one last thing for her husband and child!

Naruto Uzumaki, who had thought he would never cry again, could not help bursting into tears once more. He cried and laughed at the same time.

Just as expected of his mother! Even before death, she was still so free-spirited and cool! Using the Nine-Tails Fox that everyone feared as the backdrop for a confession—who else could be this romantic?

Minato Namikaze also revealed the decision he had made earlier, his final choice of the night:

He would use the forbidden technique, Reaper Death Seal, to split the Nine-Tails apart. Half, the Yang Nine-Tails, would be sealed inside his son Naruto. The other half, the Yin Nine-Tails, would be sealed within the Shinigami alongside himself. At the same time, he would seal the remaining Chakra of both himself and Kushina inside Naruto.

This would not only help the future Naruto control the Nine-Tails' Chakra, but also fulfill his wife's wish, allowing her to meet the grown-up Naruto.

In his eyes, this was perhaps the best solution.

He would leave the Nine-Tails for Konohagakure.

He would leave strength and a future for his son Naruto.

And he himself would die alongside his wife Kushina, whose Nine-Tails had been extracted...

Even if it meant sacrificing his own life, Minato Namikaze would give everything he had, finding every possible way to turn a "single-choice question" into a "multiple-choice question"!

"What a greedy man!"

Daren Yi was willing to call Minato Namikaze the Hokage's greatest master of balancing all sides!