"Yukina... take Naruto back to the village. Use that secret passage. As the Deputy Captain of the Defense Force, you should know why Minato chose this place."
After personally covering the two young bodies, already beginning to grow cold, with the white cloth that symbolized death, the Third Hokage looked at the bloodstained faces of the young couple who should have been joyfully welcoming their new family member. He closed his eyes tightly and slowly lowered his head.
The Nine-Tails had been sealed.
But the battle was not over yet.
Naruto had to be safely returned to the village and guarded closely. They also had to begin considering measures for his protection.
He could not be allowed to follow in his mother's footsteps! Yet his call received no response. There was not even the slightest movement from Yukina beside him. Her eyes remained wide open, as if all she could see was Kushina and Minato collapsing slowly before her after the Nine-Tails had turned into a stream of Chakra and been sealed inside Naruto—having lost both support and life.
From that moment onward, her stiffened body, wide eyes, and pale, tear-streaked face had not changed in the slightest.
Even when the Third Hokage placed that warm, soft baby into her arms, she merely hugged him tightly on instinct—the child of her teachers. Her mind was blank now, utterly incapable of any response.
The grief was too overwhelming for her to bear. It had completely robbed her of rational thought.
How... could this happen...
Teacher Kushina...
How could Teacher Kushina die? How could she possibly die?
At that moment, her heart was filled with those thoughts, surfacing over and over as though she were repeatedly questioning herself, unable to accept reality.
To be honest, Yukina had never once considered the possibility