Extracting the Nine-Tails

With a resounding cry, the child was finally born.

Biwako wiped the blood from the infant, wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and a smile appeared on her face.

"He's born!"

Namikaze Minato wiped the sweat from his forehead and glanced at his child, his eyes turning red with uncontrollable emotion.

"It's great... it's just great!"

From this day forward, he, Namikaze Minato, was a father.

It was a pity that Jiraiya was not here; otherwise, he would have wanted to share this news with him immediately.

Biwako held Naruto and gently placed him in front of the exhausted Kushina.

"It's a boy."

Kushina opened her eyes weakly. Seeing the child she had carried for ten months, a heartbreakingly pale smile appeared on her face.

"My child..."

Even the usually fearless "Red Hot Habanero" could not help but feel a mother's tenderness when facing her own child.

Biwako soon took the child back and whispered to Kushina:

"Alright, you should rest now."

At the same time, she gave Namikaze Minato a look.

Namikaze Minato understood immediately; he took Kushina's hand and said to her gently:

"Kushina, thank you... but please hold on a little longer. I need to reinforce the Nine-Tails seal first."

Kushina nodded weakly.

But just as Namikaze Minato placed his hand on Kushina's abdomen to apply the Eight Trigrams Seal, a scream suddenly came from behind him.

"Ah--!"

Startled, Namikaze Minato turned around instantly, only to see Biwako lying in a pool of blood.

Her heart had been pierced by a kunai, and blood had already pooled into a shallow puddle beneath her.

And Naruto, who should have been in her arms, was now being held hostage by a man wearing an orange, swirl-patterned mask.

For some reason, as he looked through the single eye hole of that mask and saw the pinwheel-shaped Mangekyō, Namikaze Minato felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity with the man before him.

Although he had no evidence and it was merely a feeling, Namikaze Minato was absolutely certain of it.

"Who are you?"

Now was not the time to ponder such questions; his child was being held hostage, and the intruder had killed Biwako the moment he arrived—he was clearly here with malicious intent.

More importantly, how had the intruder passed through the Anbu and the Sealing Squad outside without making a sound?

If they had all been killed, it would have been impossible for him not to notice a single thing.

The Masked Man ignored Namikaze Minato's question entirely, instead pressing the kunai in his hand gently against the infant's face.

"Fourth Hokage, step away from the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki immediately."

"Otherwise, I cannot guarantee the safety of your child."

At this moment, Namikaze Minato had no time to dwell on that earlier feeling of familiarity.

His child had just been born, and he absolutely did not want to see anything happen to him!

Namikaze Minato quickly raised his hands, trying to calm the mysterious Masked Man and urging him not to act rashly.

But at that moment, Kushina let out a painful wail from behind.

Without Namikaze Minato there to assist her, the seal on her abdomen was disintegrating at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Pitch-black markings instantly crawled over her entire body like living creatures, and chakra exuding an Evil aura leaked from the seal, gradually taking the shape of a fox's tail.

The Nine-Tails was about to break free!

"Kushina!"

Seeing this, Namikaze Minato immediately moved to rush forward.

The Masked Man, however, gave him no opportunity, tossing the infant directly into the air.

Seeing this, tears instantly welled up in Kushina's eyes.

A mother's strength is fierce; seeing her child about to meet a cruel fate, how could Kushina possibly hold back?

She immediately tried to ignore the backlash of the Nine-Tails and use the Adamantine Sealing Chains to catch the child.

Seeing this, the Masked Man threw the kunai in his hand, and it looked as though it would pierce the newborn infant.

In that very instant, a flash of yellow streaked across the sky.

Namikaze Minato had used a special kunai to deflect the incoming blade, catching the infant firmly in his arms.

But the next second, his expression changed drastically.

Attached to the swaddling clothes of the infant in his arms were several burning explosive tags!

Without a moment's hesitation, Namikaze Minato vanished from the spot with the baby, utilizing the Flying Thunder God.

The masked man watched Namikaze Minato disappear and let out a cold snort.

In truth, he had long known that he might not be able to do anything to Namikaze Minato; aside from lacking a Kamui dimension and the ability to turn intangible, the Flying Thunder God crushed his Kamui in almost every other aspect.

But Teacher, if your speed is so fast, why didn't you make it in time to save Rin?

Watching Kushina, whose Nine-Tails was on the verge of breaking its seal, he reached out and grabbed her hair, their bodies instantly twisting.

The next moment, the two appeared within Konoha.

"Nine-Tails, come forth!"

The Mangekyō in the masked man's right eye rotated slowly, and Kamui precisely disrupted the seal of the Nine-Tails, causing a mass of crimson chakra to accelerate its escape from the seal in Kushina's abdomen.

The chakra expanded and condensed rapidly; in the blink of an eye, a massive fox demon appeared inside Konoha.

"ROAR!!!"

The Nine-Tails let out a heaven-shaking howl, and violent chakra immediately flooded the surroundings.

The first thing the Nine-Tails did after breaking free was to seek frenzied revenge against the Konoha that had sealed it away!

Yet, before the Nine-Tails could even condense a Tailed Beast Bomb, it saw a masked man appear before it, the pinwheel shape within his right Mangekyō spinning rapidly.

"Mangekyō!"

Before the Nine-Tails could even let out a roar of rage, the same pattern from the masked man's Mangekyō appeared within its own eyes.

The Mangekyō and Wood Release were both near-perfect counters to the Tailed Beasts.

Even one as powerful as the Nine-Tails could only be obediently controlled when faced with a Mangekyō.

Just as the masked man prepared to take the Nine-Tails away, he caught a glimpse of Kushina lying on the ground, who was now slowly crawling to her feet.

He paused for a moment and said coldly, "The vitality of the Uzumaki clan is truly remarkable; even after having a Tailed Beast extracted from within, one does not die immediately."

The naturally massive chakra of the Uzumaki clan seemed to exist specifically for the purpose of sealing Tailed Beasts.

It was no wonder the Land of Eddies had been destroyed back then; they likely didn't want other villages to obtain such perfect Jinchuriki.

However, although Kushina had stood up, it was merely a final flash of life before the end.

A cold glint flashed in the masked man's eyes: "Let the Nine-Tails, which you have sealed for a lifetime, send you on your final journey."

As the masked man finished speaking, the controlled Nine-Tails immediately raised its front claw and slammed it down fiercely toward Kushina.

"BANG!"

Dust and smoke billowed into the air.

Kushina, who should have been crushed into pulp by the Nine-Tails' paw, was nowhere to be seen.

The Nine-Tails had merely flattened a building, and aside from causing civilian casualties, it had achieved no other results.

The masked man looked up to see Namikaze Minato holding Kushina, standing not far away.

There was a Flying Thunder God mark on Kushina as well; after placing the child in a safe location, he had immediately returned to save his wife.

Unfortunately, he had still been a step too late; the Nine-Tails had already been completely extracted, and Kushina's death was now only a matter of time.