The two Tailed Beasts charged straight at each other.
The earth trembled. Every step Kurama and the Rampaging Nine-Tails took landed like a warhammer striking a drum, making the ground within a hundred meters jump.
The clouds of dust they kicked up towered dozens of meters high, surging forward like a great ocher wall. The Konoha Ninja nearby had no choice but to raise their arms to shield themselves, peering through their fingers with narrowed eyes, afraid to miss this moment that would decide the village's fate.
BOOM—!!!
The deafening sound was no longer just an impact. It was a sonic boom.
The two giant beasts' heads slammed together. A shock wave burst outward in a ring, hurling the nearby ruins into the air all over again.
A visible wave of air swept out from the point of impact. Even Kage Rock shook, sending stones pattering down its sides.
The stalemate lasted only a second.
The Rampaging Nine-Tails' eyes rolled back, its pupils unfocused. Its enormous body went limp, as though its bones had been pulled out from under it, and collapsed to the ground.
It lay amid the ruins, all nine tails sprawled out helplessly. Its eyes rolled around like a deflating pinwheel, and it lost consciousness completely.
Kurama had also been knocked flat. Its chest heaved as it panted, and scorching white chakra smoke poured from its nostrils and mouth.
After a few breaths, it braced its forepaws against the ground and forced itself back to its feet.
Then it raised its head toward the night sky, stained red by the flames, and let out a deafening roar!
ROAR—!!!
It was the victorious beast's cry.
Lin Zi leaped down from Kurama's back and landed beside its enormous head. He patted the dusty fox's face, grinning happily.
"We won! I knew we were the real partners. Beating that stupid fox was a piece of cake!"
Kurama turned its head and snorted hot air through its nostrils, giving him a sidelong look that plainly said, "Cut the crap."
Still, it raised a paw and gave Lin Zi's shoulder a light tap.
The next moment, its enormous body turned into a flood of crimson chakra. Like a tired bird returning to its nest, it quickly shrank and condensed, then shot back inside Lin Zi.
Lin Zi rubbed his stomach. Even through his clothes, he could feel the warm afterglow of chakra inside the sealing space.
"Thanks for the effort, Kurama."
A muffled, deeply disdainful snort came from inside his stomach.
Lin Zi shrugged helplessly, though the corners of his mouth still curled up.
"That's just how tsundere it is."
Ripples in space-time spread soundlessly above the ruins of Konoha around them.
Minato Namikaze appeared beside the defeated Rampaging Nine-Tails, holding the exhausted Kushina in his arms and protecting the swaddled infant close against him.
The scene before him made the seasoned Fourth Hokage's pupils contract. The fox demon that had rampaged all night was now sprawled out like a mountain of crimson flesh, all nine tails limp among the ruins, as if its spine had been pulled out.
A boy sat lazily on the Nine-Tails' nose, dangling his legs as casually as if he were relaxing in his own backyard.
His Sage Mode had clearly worn off.
The red markings around his eyes and the horizontal pupils of his Sage Mode were gone, leaving only his natural appearance.
Golden hair, bright blue eyes, and the distinctive whisker marks on his cheeks.
Nearby, the Third Hokage and a group of Anbu had surrounded the area. Kunai and Ninja Blades gleamed coldly in the firelight, yet no one dared take a single step forward, as if an invisible barrier encircled the boy.
Minato tamped down the turmoil raging inside him and approached slowly, still carrying Kushina. He kept his voice low, as though afraid to disturb something.
"Why... did you go this far?"
The boy jumped down from the Nine-Tails' nose and brushed nonexistent dust from his pants as he landed. His tone was casual.
"Don't get the wrong idea."
He tilted his head. His gaze swept over Kushina in Minato's arms, lingering for the briefest moment on her pale face before moving away as if nothing had happened.
"I just can't stand that lousy fox. Besides..." He shrugged, the corner of his mouth lifting in a crooked smile. "It was no big deal."
Minato's arms tightened instinctively.
As the Fourth Hokage, observation had long been ingrained in his bones.
The blond hair, blue eyes, whisker marks, and the subtle resemblance in the boy's features to his own and Kushina's. The fleeting, complicated look the boy had given Kushina, so brief he himself might not have noticed it.
And the Konoha Forehead Protector at his waist, slashed through with a horizontal line—the mark of a rogue ninja, glaring in the firelight.
The famed Yellow Flash, the shinobi whose enemies could abandon their missions the moment they encountered him without being branded cowards.
For the first time, Minato Namikaze felt fear.
Not of death. Not of a powerful enemy.
He feared the very possibility represented by the person before him, who had emerged from a space-time rift.
He had a vague idea what was going on, but he didn't dare think too deeply about it, as if confirming the answer would tear an irreparable hole in the world as he knew it.
Kushina was still conscious in Minato's arms.
She tugged weakly at her husband's collar, her voice as faint as a thread. "...Put me down."
Minato found a pile of stones beside a broken wall and carefully lowered her onto it, letting her lean against the wall.
Kushina struggled to lift her upper body. Her red hair fell across her bloodstained shoulder as she looked past Minato at the blond boy.
That hair, those eyes, the whisker marks on his cheeks that symbolized a Jinchūriki...
Kushina's breathing suddenly grew ragged, her chest rising and falling sharply.
She shakily raised a hand and pointed at Lin Zi, her lips moving. "You're... you're..."
Lin Zi jerked sideways as if burned by fire, his brows knitting into a hard frown. His tone turned harsh.
"Don't touch me, old woman. You're covered in blood. You're disgusting."
But he didn't go far.
He merely retreated a few steps and sat with his back against a half-collapsed stone pillar, arms folded across his chest. His blue eyes remained fixed on Minato, as if waiting for an answer.
"Hey," he said suddenly, his voice lazy but edged with a cold question. "Are you planning to use the Reaper Death Seal?"
Minato reacted as if struck by lightning, his pupils contracting. "You... how do you know about that?"
Lin Zi gave a mocking laugh, a shadow passing through his eyes. "What, did you think I'd never snooped around? Forget it... some things in the past weren't exactly honorable."
He waved a hand as if brushing those memories away, then looked up at Minato, a mocking smile on his lips.
"You can still live, and you're thinking about dying? Fourth Hokage, don't do something stupid."
Minato fell silent for a moment. His body relaxed, and he asked, "Then... what wouldn't be stupid?"
"Work with me."
Lin Zi stood up, dusted off his backside, and walked over to Minato.
He held out his hand, palm up. A strand of chakra rose like a living thing, warm and immense, scattering glimmers of light into the night.
"My chakra will be enough. You handle the Sealing Jutsu, and I'll be the battery. Then we stuff this stupid fox back inside, and that's that."
He paused, his gaze settling on the sleeping infant in the swaddling cloth.
His expression was far too complicated for a boy of seventeen or eighteen. It was as if he were looking through the baby's face at some long and heavy future.
"And don't even think about splitting up the Nine-Tails."
Lin Zi lowered his hand and slipped back into his lazy manner. He smiled, but there was no warmth in it. "This thing... to me, right now, is practically a gift."
He tilted his head toward Naruto, his voice so soft it sounded like he was talking to himself—or delivering some cruel prophecy.
"But for him... it'll probably be the heaviest, most painful curse of all."
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