With a loud cry, the baby was finally born.
Biwako washed the blood from the baby, then wrapped him in a swaddling cloth, a smile spreading across her face.
"He's here!"
Minato wiped the sweat from his forehead and glanced at his child. His eyes couldn't help but redden with emotion.
"Thank goodness... Thank goodness!"
From this day on, Namikaze Minato was a father.
It was a shame that Jiraiya-sensei wasn't there. Otherwise, Minato would have told him the news right away.
Holding Naruto, Biwako gently placed him in front of Kushina, who looked completely drained.
"It's a boy."
Kushina weakly opened her eyes. When she saw the child she had carried for ten months, a pale, heart-melting smile appeared on her face.
"My baby..."
Even the fiery pepper, who usually feared nothing, couldn't help feeling a mother's tenderness toward her child.
Biwako soon took the baby back and said softly to Kushina:
"All right. Now you need to rest."
At the same time, she gave Minato a look.
Minato immediately understood. He took Kushina's hand and spoke to her gently.
"Kushina, thank you... But please hold on a little longer. I'll reinforce the Nine-Tails' seal first."
Kushina nodded weakly.
But just as Minato placed his hand on Kushina's abdomen, preparing to apply the Eight Trigrams Seal, a scream suddenly came from behind him.
"Ahhh!"
Startled, Minato spun around, only to see Biwako lying in a pool of blood.
A Kunai had pierced her heart, and blood had already gathered in a shallow pool beneath her.
Naruto, who should have been in her arms, was now being held hostage by a man wearing an orange, spiral-patterned mask.
For some reason, when Minato looked through the mask's single eye and saw the pinwheel-shaped Mangekyō, he suddenly felt that the man before him was familiar.
He had no proof, only a feeling, but Minato was utterly certain of it.
"Who are you?"
Now wasn't the time to dwell on that. His newborn child was being held hostage, and the man had killed Biwako Sarutobi the moment he arrived. He was clearly hostile.
More importantly, how had the other man slipped past the Anbu and Sealing Squad outside without making a sound?
If they'd all been killed, Minato would have noticed something.
The Masked Man ignored Minato's question and lightly pressed the Kunai in his hand against the baby's face.
"Fourth Hokage, step away from the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki at once."
"Otherwise, I can't guarantee your child's safety."
Minato had no time to think about the strange sense of familiarity he'd felt.
His child had only just been born. He couldn't bear the thought of anything happening to him!
Minato quickly raised both hands, trying to calm the mysterious Masked Man and keep him from doing anything rash.
But at that moment, Kushina let out a pained cry behind him.
Without Minato there to assist her, the seal on her abdomen was breaking apart at a visible rate.
Black markings spread across her body like living things, and Chakra with an evil presence leaked from the seal on her abdomen, gradually taking the shape of a fox's tail.
The Nine-Tails was about to break free!
"Kushina!"
Seeing this, Minato immediately rushed toward her.
But the Masked Man gave him no chance. He tossed the baby into the air.
Tears streamed from Kushina's eyes at the sight.
A mother could always find strength for her child. Seeing her baby about to be killed, how could Kushina hold back?
She immediately tried to use Adamantine Sealing Chains to catch him, heedless of the Nine-Tails' backlash.
The Masked Man reacted by hurling his Kunai. It was about to pierce the newborn baby.
At that instant, a flash of yellow streaked across the sky.
Minato had knocked aside the incoming Kunai with a special Kunai and caught the baby securely in his arms.
But the next second, his expression changed drastically.
Several lit Explosive Tags had been stuck to the baby's swaddling cloth!
Without a moment's hesitation, Minato used Flying Thunder God to disappear with the baby.
The Masked Man watched Minato vanish and gave a cold snort.
He had known from the start that he might not be able to do anything to Namikaze Minato. Apart from lacking a Kamui Dimension and the ability to use Intangibility, Flying Thunder God was almost entirely superior to his Kamui.
But, Sensei, you were so fast. Why couldn't you save Rin?
Looking at Kushina, whose seal was about to give way, he grabbed her by the hair. Their bodies twisted in an instant.
The next moment, they appeared in Konoha.
"Come out, Nine-Tails!"
The Mangekyō in the Masked Man's Right Eye slowly spun. Kamui precisely damaged the Nine-Tails' seal, and a mass of scarlet Chakra burst faster from the seal on Kushina's abdomen.
The Chakra slowly swelled and gathered. In the blink of an eye, a gigantic fox demon appeared inside Konoha.
"Roar!!!"
The Nine-Tails threw back its head and howled, its wild Chakra immediately filling the area.
The first thing the Nine-Tails did after breaking free was take savage revenge on Konoha for sealing him away!
But before the Nine-Tails could form a Tailed Beast Bomb, a masked man appeared in front of him. The pinwheel pattern in the Mangekyō of his Right Eye began to spin rapidly.
"Mangekyō!"
Before the Nine-Tails could roar, it saw the same pattern that appeared in the Masked Man's Mangekyō.
To a Tailed Beast, both the Mangekyō and Wood Release were almost natural counters.
Even the mighty Nine-Tails could only submit to the control of a single Mangekyō.
The Masked Man was about to take the Nine-Tails away when, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Kushina slowly getting to her feet.
He paused, then said coldly, "The Uzumaki Clan's vitality really is extraordinary. Even after the Tailed Beast is extracted from your body, you don't die right away."
The Uzumaki Clan's naturally immense Chakra seemed to exist specifically to seal Tailed Beasts.
No wonder the Land of Eddies had been destroyed. Perhaps the other villages hadn't wanted anyone else to obtain such a Perfect Jinchuriki.
But although Kushina had gotten to her feet, she was only experiencing a final rally before death.
A cold glint flashed in the Masked Man's eyes. "You spent your whole life sealing the Nine-Tails. Let him give you one final send-off."
As soon as the Masked Man finished speaking, the controlled Nine-Tails raised a forepaw and slammed it down toward Kushina.
"Boom!"
Dust filled the air.
Kushina, who should have been crushed to pulp by the Nine-Tails' paw, was nowhere to be seen.
The Nine-Tails had only knocked down a building. Aside from causing civilian casualties, it had accomplished nothing.
The Masked Man looked up and saw Minato holding Kushina a short distance away.
Kushina also bore Minato's Flying Thunder God mark. After taking the baby somewhere safe, he had immediately returned to save his wife.
Unfortunately, he was still too late. The Nine-Tails had already been completely extracted, and Kushina's death was only a matter of time.