Because They Were Parents

From the treetop, Hikari watched the scene, her fingers trembling slightly around her sword.

It was an emotion she had never seen before, one that transcended life, death, and reason.

"Why... They could have dodged..."

"Because they were parents."

Yue's voice, too, carried a rare note of heaviness.

"Whether or not 'Fate' arranged it, their love is genuine."

"Urgh!" Minato spat out a large mouthful of blood. He thought the tearing sensation came from the Nine-Tails' claws and didn't notice the barely perceptible anomaly.

"Eight Trigrams Sealing Style... Seal!"

With Minato's final, desperate roar, the sealing was complete.

The Nine-Tails' massive body turned into chakra in a flash of blinding white light, all of it surging into the Eight Trigrams symbol on Naruto's abdomen.

And at that very moment, just as the Death God's Short Blade was about to swing down and sever the connection to Minato's soul—

"Now!"

Yue suddenly brought his hands together. The Yin Seal on his forehead blazed with an unprecedented violet light!

His ocular power poured into his left eye like a flood bursting through a dam!

The Mangekyō spun frantically, and blood instantly stained his mask red.

"Yagokoro Omoikane! Raise my probability of entering the Barrier to 100%!"

"Raise my probability of severing the Death God contract to 100%!"

"Raise the Dragon Vein power scroll's success rate to 100%!"

The stacking of three "absolute causalities" instantly dimmed the Yin Seal on Yue's forehead. Agonizing pain, as if his left eye were about to explode, shot through him, but he didn't hesitate for a moment. His body became a streak of black lightning as he charged straight at the absolute Barrier Minato had erected!

"Who goes there?!"

Outside the Barrier, Hiruzen Sarutobi and a group of Anbu had just arrived. Their faces were stricken and conflicted as they found themselves unable to enter, but they immediately went on alert for battle.

"Don't get in my way!"

A cool voice rang out in the night sky.

Uchiha Hikari landed boldly in front of the Third Hokage and the Anbu, like a red swift.

Facing dozens of Konoha's finest, the girl didn't draw her sword. Instead, she abruptly raised her head, and her scarlet Mangekyō Sharingan glowed with an eerie red light in the darkness.

"Yachihoko: Ward!"

A mighty mental assault became an invisible wall of sighs. It plunged several Anbu at the front into deep genjutsu in an instant and even forced the Third Hokage's descending Adamantine Staff to a dead stop!

"Two pairs of Mangekyō Sharingan?! Damn it!"

Hiruzen Sarutobi was aghast. He realized he should have believed Danzo!

If only he'd known, he wouldn't have played "I shadow, you regret."

Fugaku, who was maintaining order, sneezed just then. A sudden, ominous premonition came over him, as if some unseen malice had latched onto him.

And in the brief second Hikari took charge of the battlefield outside—

Yue had already ignored the altered Four Violet Flames Formation, a Barrier reputedly impossible to break even for someone at Kage Level. With "Yagokoro Omoikane" guiding causality, his body passed through it like a ripple in water, entering the Barrier as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

"You're... Yue?"

Minato, on the verge of death, widened his bloodshot eyes at the Masked Man who had suddenly appeared before him.

He remembered the Mangekyō's pattern.

A different mask, the same Uchiha.

But Yue had no time to explain.

He abruptly looked up, staring at the monstrous Death God apparition floating behind Minato, a Short Blade clenched in its mouth.

It was the embodiment of this world's rules, summoned into the mortal realm by the Uzumaki Clan.

The moment a mortal met the Death God's gaze, a chill from the depths of Yue's soul nearly froze his thoughts.

"Sorry, Lord Death God. I'm cutting in on this deal today!"

A blade of pure-black Yin Release Chakra formed in Yue's right hand. Guided by the absolute causality that guaranteed a 100% success rate, he slashed fiercely at the translucent chain connecting the Death God and Minato's soul!

"Clang—!"

A piercing snap, audible only on the spiritual plane, rang out.

A flash of fury crossed the Death God's indifferent eyes. Its Short Blade, already descending, stopped dead in midair.

Because the contract... had been severed!

"Urgh..." Minato groaned as the soul that had been about to be pulled away plunged back into his body. But his flesh, pierced by the Nine-Tails, was still rapidly dying.

Yue didn't pause for a moment. He turned his left hand over and quickly took out the Dragon Vein power sealing scroll he'd prepared.

This scroll wasn't meant to seal objects. It was a portable "space-shifting device."

It contained the chakra frequency of Rōran's main Dragon Vein. Once activated, it could resonate with the depths of Rōran, thousands of miles away, and forcibly tear open a Space-Time Passage!

He could travel to the Dragon Vein in the past, then use it to return to Rōran.

The moment the scroll unfurled, a dazzling purple light burst forth. A chakra vortex several meters across took shape beneath the three of them, churning wildly.

Hummm—!!!

The instant the Space-Time Passage opened, that familiar, eerie, colossal World Malice descended once more, as if it could crush everything!

The air inside the Barrier instantly grew heavier than steel, and even the full moon in the sky was veiled in blood-red for a moment.

The world's operating system had detected a severe "logical error" and was generating an erasure mechanism!

"Drip."

A drop of cold sweat trickled down Yue's forehead, but he clenched his teeth and gauged the intensity of the malice.

"As I thought... There's malice, but it doesn't have the overwhelming pressure of certain death that came when I stole the Nine-Tails' chakra!"

Yue's mind raced.

Why had stealing the Nine-Tails' chakra earned him an instant death sentence, while taking the Fourth Hokage and his wife right in front of the Death God had lowered the threat level?

"Because... 'disappearing' is basically the same as 'dying'!"

Yue grinned into the howling wind.

In this timeline's story, as long as Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki disappeared from Konoha that night, Naruto would still become an orphan, and the Nine-Tails would still be sealed.

For this timeline, being taken by the Death God or being taken by Yue to another time-space would lead to exactly the same result!

He had forcibly changed the "process," triggering a warning from the Corrective Force. But because he hadn't altered the "core outcome," the Corrective Force hadn't issued its highest-priority order: "immediate erasure"!

Probability of surviving: 5%!

"I made the right bet!"

Yue grabbed the collars of the dying Minato and Kushina and dragged them into the purple Space-Time vortex.

"Hikari! Retreat!!"

Hearing Yue's roar, Uchiha Hikari, who was fighting the Third Hokage outside the Barrier, didn't hesitate or look back.

"Boom!"

She detonated several Explosive Tags beneath her feet. Using the flames and smoke for cover, she turned into a red blur and leaped into the vortex in the final second before it closed.

"Don't let them escape!!"

Hiruzen Sarutobi roared and smashed the Barrier with his Adamantine Staff. But all that remained was a scroll burned to ashes and baby Naruto, lying on the sealing platform and wailing. Nothing else was there.

Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki, along with the two mysterious Uchiha clan members, had vanished as if they'd been wiped from existence, disappearing from this world without a trace.

"Minato... Kushina..."

The Third Hokage stared blankly at the empty ground. The Adamantine Staff slipped uselessly from his hand, and despair was written across his aged face.