Reunion

Minato looked at the ferocious Tailed Beast in the cage. There truly wasn't a trace of malice in his eyes.

Instead, there was something like... the easy familiarity of old friends?

Then Minato looked at Naruto, whose face was calm and composed.

Minato was about to ask more, but the Nine-Tails had already grown impatient. It slammed its massive claws against the cage, making a dull, heavy thud. "Hurry up and let me out! This cage is so uncomfortable. I can't stand being in here another moment!"

At the sight of this, Minato's expression finally wavered completely. He stared at Naruto, his voice filled with deep confusion. "Naruto, what... is going on?"

"Anyway, I've been through a lot." Naruto remained calm. "Let's explain everything together once Mother comes out, too."

Naruto knew there were two reserves of Chakra inside him.

The first was Minato Namikaze. It would appear when Naruto "tried" to undo the Nine-Tails' seal, to prevent the Nine-Tails from running wild.

The second safeguard had been set up by his father so his mother could see what he looked like all grown up.

It would appear when Naruto undid the seal and tried to control the Nine-Tails' Chakra, then engage him in a tug-of-war.

With that, Naruto didn't hesitate any longer. He reached out and touched the sealing tag.

"Wait! Without the key Jiraiya-sensei has, if you force it open, you'll—"

Minato instinctively stepped forward to stop him, but by the time the words left his mouth, it was too late.

To his surprise, Naruto had already mastered Fuinjutsu.

Through sheer understanding and power, he effortlessly dismantled the Eight Trigrams Seal Minato had placed.

Bang!

As Naruto pulled off the sealing tag, the cage door swung open.

The Nine-Tails took a deep breath. Although nothing about the surroundings had changed, its massive body seemed to relax considerably.

"At last, I'm rid of this annoying cage."

Minato stood still, watching Naruto's remarkably skilled Fuinjutsu.

Then he looked at the Nine-Tails, which had walked out of the cage but, oddly, hadn't gone on a rampage. Instead, it seemed quite at ease. His eyes were full of unanswered questions.

As Minato tried to make sense of things, another Chakra he knew all too well sensed that the seal had been completely undone and emerged on its own.

Then a red figure instantly took shape beside Minato.

It was Kushina Uzumaki.

The moment she appeared, before she could even take in her surroundings, her green eyes immediately fixed on Naruto.

For Kushina, those thirteen years had felt like the difference between closing and opening her eyes.

The last time she'd seen Naruto, he was still a baby.

Now he had grown up, with the same brilliant blond hair as Minato, though his features still faintly resembled hers.

Yet his face carried a kind of... calmness far beyond his years.

It made Kushina's heart tighten.

After all, she knew all too well what it meant to become a Jinchuriki and how hard life without parents could be.

"Naruto..."

Tears fell silently from Kushina's eyes. She pulled Naruto into her arms, her voice choked with emotion. "I'm sorry... for making you bear all this alone..."

Though Naruto wasn't overwhelmed with excitement at seeing his parents for the first time, he still raised a hand and gently returned his mother's embrace. "It's all right... I'm used to it."

Kushina was so caught up in the joy of their reunion that it took several seconds for her to suddenly come back to her senses and remember what was going on.

She abruptly let go of Naruto and looked at Minato beside her.

Then she looked at the Nine-Tails, which seemed to be enjoying the show.

The expression on Kushina's face instantly shifted from excitement to utter confusion.

After the seal was undone, the evil Nine-Tails hadn't gone berserk or tried to attack.

It was simply lying at ease on the spot where the cage had stood, its massive tails even swaying slightly, as if it were quite content.

Its crimson eyes were fixed on the three of them. There was no hatred or fury in them—just a kind of... amusement at watching a show, along with a hint of the familiarity shared by good friends?

Meanwhile, her husband, Minato Namikaze, stood off to the side, scratching the back of his head. He wore an awkward, helpless smile that seemed to say, "I know this looks completely ridiculous, but I have no idea what's going on either, and I'm just as confused."

"Um... Kushina, welcome out." Minato scratched his cheek. "Things... don't seem to have gone quite as we expected."

Kushina looked at the bizarrely friendly Nine-Tails, then at the helpless Minato, and finally at her strangely calm son, Naruto.

Her brain was completely overloaded. Her pretty face was full of question marks and confusion.

"W-what is going on?! Can someone explain this to me? Why is the Nine-Tails making that face? Minato, explain! And Naruto, why are you so calm?"

Kushina pointed first at the Nine-Tails, then Minato, and finally Naruto. Her voice was full of intense confusion. "I must be dreaming..."

"Pfft..."

The Nine-Tails made a sound like a snicker. "You're still as noisy as ever, Kushina Uzumaki."

Minato sighed and went over to Kushina, gently resting a hand on her shoulder to comfort her.

Though Minato could use some comforting himself.

"Kushina, calm down. It seems... some things have happened that we don't know about."

Minato looked at Naruto, his expression growing utterly serious. "Naruto, you said we could all talk once Kushina came out."

"Now, can you tell us? What did you mean when you said you'd 'been through a lot'? How are you so skilled at undoing the seal?"

"Why is the Nine-Tails... acting like this? And you... seem to have known we were here all along?"

Naruto looked at his puzzled parents and Kurama, who was watching with amusement. Then he took a deep breath, knowing it was time to explain.

"Father, Mother." Naruto looked from one to the other. "What I'm about to tell you might be hard to believe, but please trust me. Everything I'm telling you really happened to me."

Naruto gave a general account of how he had become trapped in a cycle of reincarnation and tried to escape it.

He also explained what he planned to do in this cycle.

When he finished, Naruto looked at the Nine-Tails.

The Nine-Tails gave a quiet snort, which served as confirmation. Its tails began swaying even more cheerfully.

"You were trapped like that for all those years?"

Kushina couldn't imagine how lonely and agonizing that must have been.

Minato's expression shifted from shock to profound complexity. He understood where Naruto's extraordinary calm had come from.

He finally understood why Naruto hadn't seemed so excited to see him and Kushina.

They had already spent a long time together before, so naturally his emotions weren't as intense.

After a brief silence in the sealed space,

Kushina clenched her fist, her gaze growing utterly resolute. "Naruto! Whatever you're going to do, I'll support you."

Minato glanced at his resolute wife, then turned his gaze back to Naruto.

Some of Naruto's methods were a little extreme, but Minato had no reason to stop him.

Minato took a deep breath, as if making up his mind, and smiled gently. "Kushina and I are only a mass of Chakra, so there's not much we can do to help. But whatever you do, we'll support you."

There was little help Minato and Kushina could offer someone as close to omniscient and omnipotent as Naruto.

The most they could do was support him quietly from behind.

Hearing his parents' unwavering support, the tightly stretched string in Naruto's heart loosened a little.

He nodded, without saying anything overly sentimental, and brought the conversation back to the matter at hand. "Right. I have to go now. You haven't used up too much Chakra this time, so you won't disappear right away. You can have a good chat with the Nine-Tails, too."

Kushina seemed to want to say more, perhaps ask a few more questions about his everyday life. In the end, though, she turned a thousand unspoken words into a tearful smile. "All right! Go on. Do what you have to do!"

Minato was calmer. He stepped forward and looked at Naruto with blue eyes. "Kushina and I can't give you any useful advice right now, so all I can say is: go for it, and don't regret it."

"Yeah, I know." Naruto turned to the Nine-Tails, which was lying nearby. "Let's go, Kurama."

The Nine-Tails gave a lazy snort. "Hmph. Hurry up and go. Don't keep me from sleeping."