If You Want to Save Minato Namikaze, You'll Have to Do It Yourself

Ensei Uchiha's words suddenly sparked a glimmer of hope in Kushina Uzumaki's heart.

As the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze's coma was a serious matter. The entire strength of Konoha, people from the Land of Fire, and even Tsunade had examined him, but none of them had found a solution.

Kushina Uzumaki had already fallen into despair.

But now, seeing the young man who had helped her and her husband years ago and enabled them to survive, Kushina Uzumaki couldn't help getting excited.

"R-really? If you can help Minato, that would be wonderful."

Though she still bore traces of the lively, curious girl Kushina had once been, she had now begun to grow gentle and quiet.

How to put it? Perhaps it was because the future had changed. At any rate, the Kushina Uzumaki before him was nothing like the woman Ensei Uchiha remembered.

"I don't want to dampen your hopes, but I have to say... I can't guarantee anything. I can only give it a try."

"But since Minato Namikaze is still alive, there should be a day when he wakes up."

As Ensei Uchiha spoke, he stepped forward and opened his strange Sharingan.

By now, Ensei Uchiha's eyes had little in common with the Mangekyō Sharingan of the Uchiha Clan.

After being inundated with the power of the Byakugan, Ensei Uchiha's eyes had undergone an unknown change. For now, it was a good thing for him.

But Ensei Uchiha had no idea where it would ultimately lead.

Still, it seemed the Mangekyō Sharingan was probably beyond his reach.

As Ensei Uchiha opened his eyes, waves of pressure began to fill the air. The Nine-Tails inside Kushina Uzumaki stirred restlessly.

But Kushina wasn't Naruto Uzumaki. As a member of the most orthodox branch of the Uzumaki Clan, her Sealing Jutsu was exceptionally strong.

She could keep the Nine-Tails completely immobilized even when it was at full strength, let alone now, when only half of it was sealed inside her.

If the Nine-Tails was merely imprisoned inside Naruto, then inside Kushina, it was bound hand and foot, unable to move at all.

"Quiet down... Kurama!"

Ensei Uchiha seemed to notice the Nine-Tails' agitation. It had lasted only an instant before Kushina suppressed it, but he had still detected it.

However, Ensei Uchiha had no time to deal with the Nine-Tails. He used his own ocular power to examine Minato Namikaze, who was lying on the bed.

Ensei Uchiha wasn't particularly skilled at medical ninjutsu, but he could tell Minato Namikaze had no physical injuries. He didn't even have any of the minor ailments that came from spending years bedridden.

"It looks like the problem is with his soul."

As Ensei Uchiha spoke, he began forming Hand Seals. Soon, a hazy figure emerged from his body and plunged straight into Minato Namikaze.

"Spirit Transformation Technique!"

Kushina Uzumaki's eyes widened in disbelief as she watched.

The Spirit Transformation Technique was a forbidden jutsu in the Scroll of Seals, and it was extremely difficult to learn.

The only person in all of Konoha who had mastered it was Dan Katō. After Dan Katō's death, no one in Konoha had learned this forbidden jutsu.

That showed just how difficult the technique was to master.

Meanwhile, Ensei Uchiha, inside Minato Namikaze, felt as if he had entered a muddy abyss. All kinds of negative emotions surged toward him, nearly crushing him.

Fortunately, Ensei Uchiha had brought a large reserve of ocular power with him. Overwhelmed by it, he fled in a panic.

Outside, Kushina Uzumaki saw Ensei Uchiha's soul enter Minato Namikaze's body. He soon withdrew and swiftly returned to his own.

Kushina Uzumaki anxiously looked at Minato Namikaze. When she saw that he was unchanged, she turned her concerned gaze to Ensei Uchiha.

At that moment, Ensei Uchiha was panting heavily, a trace of fear still lingering in his eyes.

"Ensei, how did it go? You weren't hurt, were you?"

Looking at this child, only a few years older than her son, Kushina Uzumaki suddenly felt a pang of regret.

Perhaps she shouldn't have been so selfish.

Ensei Uchiha didn't notice the look in Kushina Uzumaki's eyes. Instead, he said thoughtfully, "I'm fine. This is a form of Yin-Yang Release, an extremely advanced technique."

"I'm still too young. It'll take me a long time to master Yin-Yang Release."

"So if you want to save Minato Namikaze, you'll have to do it yourself."

Kushina Uzumaki had already begun to despair, but when she heard this, she immediately seemed to come alive.

She only had a rudimentary understanding of Yin-Yang Release. She knew about Yin Release and Yang Release, but wasn't the combination of those two powers something only the Sage of Six Paths could accomplish?

It was the stuff of legend...

It would be difficult, but as long as there was even the slightest hope, she wouldn't give up.

"What do I need to do to save Minato?"

Without worrying about anything else, Kushina Uzumaki immediately asked, unable to wait.

"It's simple. Make peace with the Nine-Tails and enter the true Nine-Tails Mode. Then you'll be qualified to learn Yin-Yang Release."

"One more thing: all the Tailed Beasts were separated from the God Tree by the Sage of Six Paths. They originally inherited the Ninjutsu Sect's ideals."

"But people were always driven by greed, hoping to control the Tailed Beasts' immense power."

"So the Tailed Beasts, having witnessed too much darkness in people's hearts, began to distance themselves from humanity."

"You must have felt the Nine-Tails' malice before. Those feelings came from the malice it had experienced over the years."

Ensei Uchiha didn't hide anything and told her directly.

Ensei Uchiha figured that once the "good people" in this story learned the truth about the Nine-Tails and opened their hearts, they should find it easy to make peace with the Tailed Beasts.

And entering Nine-Tails Mode was actually easy once they had made peace with the Nine-Tails.

That was why, in the original story, Naruto had gone through so much hardship to cooperate with the Nine-Tails, while Minato Namikaze could enter Nine-Tails Mode as soon as he appeared.

Put simply, Minato Namikaze had Naruto to thank for it. Otherwise, the half of the Nine-Tails sealed inside him wouldn't have been so easy to control.

"What? Is that true?"

Hearing this, Kushina Uzumaki couldn't help reaching out to touch her stomach.

Then Kushina Uzumaki fell silent for a moment before turning to Ensei Uchiha with a complicated expression. "Kurama says he wants to meet you."

Clearly, in that instant, Kushina Uzumaki had spoken with the Nine-Tails inside its sealed space for quite a while.