"Ahhh—!"
"I was never told it would hurt this much!"
"It hurts! Damn it—!"
Kushina's cries of pain echoed through the stone chamber. Lying on the delivery bed, already in labor, her face had nearly twisted from the extreme agony. With faint creaks, the bed's side rails groaned beneath her grip, her knuckles white from clutching them too tightly.
"Um... this is the first time I've ever seen Kushina scream in pain this loudly. Is she really all right?"
Amid the repeated cries of pain, Minato Namikaze, both hands pressed against the Four Symbols Seal on Kushina's stomach as he stabilized it, had broken into a cold sweat. His face was pale with helplessness as he spoke, his voice full of distress and panic.
"She'll be fine. Your top priority is keeping an eye on the Nine-Tails' seal!"
Hearing Minato Namikaze's worried words, Biwako Sarutobi, who was delivering the baby on the other side, glanced at the young Hokage. His pale face made his concern plain, and he was even sweating from anxiety. Her expression remained as stern as ever as she spoke.
"But... this..."
Yet as he heard Biwako Sarutobi's words, Kushina's increasingly agonized cries reached his ears again. Minato Namikaze could not help swallowing, his face seeming to turn even paler as sweat covered his forehead.
"As the Fourth Hokage, don't be so flustered. A man might have died from the pain already, but women are strong!"
Biwako Sarutobi's tone grew even sterner at Minato Namikaze's words.
At that moment, the Four Symbols Seal on Kushina's stomach slowly dissolved. The Sealing Jutsu Formula at its center shifted, the ink-black circles turning and merging until they became two round ink rings, shaped like pupils.
So strong. The Nine-Tails is struggling to get out! Minato Namikaze's expression instantly tightened, a