Soon, Xuanye arrived where the Nine-Tails had been rampaging.
The Nine-Tails had been cleaved cleanly in two by that slash. Two masses of scarlet Chakra writhed across the ground, struggling to merge back together.
Tailed Beasts were creatures of Chakra with no vital points, so they could not be killed that easily.
Namikaze Minato had also returned using the Flying Thunder God Technique. Fortunately, his Flying Thunder God mark had survived.
In his arms were Uzumaki Kushina, who had already breathed her last, and a baby crying in his swaddling clothes.
Naruto really had rotten luck. He had gone through something this tragic on the day he was born.
Looking at Kushina's lifeless face, still wearing a smile, Minato looked devastated.
He was not exhausted from using too much Chakra. He had suffered a crushing emotional blow.
He had barely exchanged a few moves with the Masked Man before sensing the otherworldly power of that slash and fleeing without hesitation using Flying Thunder God.
Now the Nine-Tails, against which he had been helpless, had been cut in two by a single stroke. Minato stood speechless for a long time.
Only when a young man with an active Three-Tomoe Sharingan—clearly a member of the Uchiha Family—arrived using the Body Flicker Technique did Minato come back to himself.
"That slash just now... was it yours?" Minato asked calmly, looking at Musō Isshin in Xuanye's hand. It was identical to the blade that had seemed to stretch between heaven and earth.
But he already knew the answer.
He remembered this young man. Though he was around Kakashi's age, he had already earned Fugaku's approval and been nominated to lead the Konoha Security Division.
Nor had someone else simply lifted him into the position. He had sparked a transformation within the Uchiha Family, winning the support of many young members and even some of the older generation.
Minato could not say what he thought of Xuanye's methods. Perhaps they were a little rough.
But as for the results, Konoha's crime rate had fallen to an almost unbelievable low.
Xuanye looked at the two writhing masses of scarlet Chakra. "You already know the answer."
This Uchiha showed him, the Hokage, no respect at all... But they were not far apart in age, and Minato did not mind the slight.
Silence fell between them.
Xuanye and Minato barely knew each other and had nothing in common to talk about. The conversation stalled.
"What are you going to do now?" Xuanye asked, watching the Nine-Tails writhe as it tried to repair itself.
He was not particularly interested in the power of Tailed Beasts, but having a Jinchuriki under his control would be useful.
He had already achieved almost everything he had set out to do tonight. Anything more would be a bonus.
Minato was silent for a moment before saying to Xuanye:
"The one who abducted Kushina tonight was a Masked Man with a Mangekyō Sharingan. He used a kind of Space-Time Ninjutsu that let him slip past Konoha's barrier with ease. I couldn't catch him."
Xuanye glanced at Namikaze Minato. "You're not suspecting the Uchiha, are you?"
Minato gave a bitter smile. "Before tonight, perhaps I would have."
If he had not witnessed that devastating slash, his first thought upon seeing that Mangekyō would have been to suspect the Uchiha.
It had nothing to do with his opinion of them. Anyone who saw the Mangekyō pattern in the Nine-Tails' eyes would immediately conclude that the Uchiha Family's Kekkei Genkai had been used to control it.
But after seeing a monster as powerful as the Nine-Tails split in two by Uchiha Genya's slash—and a bottomless gorge several kilometers long carved into the earth—Minato abandoned that suspicion.
The Uchiha had no reason to unleash the Nine-Tails. To people with eyes like theirs, the power of a Tailed Beast probably meant nothing.
Just as that mysterious man had controlled a Tailed Beast with ease using his Mangekyō, the Nine-Tails was probably little more than an oversized toy in Xuanye's eyes.
Old man Third... you've been walking a tightrope all this time?
Even walking a tightrope did not begin to describe what Sarutobi Hiruzen and Shimura Danzō had been doing.
Looking back at their maddening decisions, Minato thought they had been tempting fate at every turn.
Xuanye spread his hands, realizing Minato had cooked up yet another alarming theory.
He simply changed the subject.
"What do you plan to do with the Nine-Tails? If necessary, we can kill it. It'll revive eventually anyway. When it does, we won't have to worry about causing damage to Konoha when we capture it outside the village."
As for the power of a Jinchuriki... Xuanye did not dismiss it entirely, but he came close.
Neither Tailed Beasts nor Jinchuriki had ever been what he needed to watch out for.
As if it had heard him, both halves of the Nine-Tails writhed wildly, seemingly trying to heal faster.
To Xuanye's surprise, Namikaze Minato made a startling decision.
He turned to Xuanye and suddenly bowed ninety degrees.
"Xuanye, may I ask you a favor?"
"What are you planning?"
Little Sun seemed to have made up his mind.
"I'll use the Dead Demon Consuming Seal to take half of the Nine-Tails with me to the grave. I'll seal the other half inside my child."
"Would you look after him for me?"
Xuanye's expression grew complicated.
He had already been wondering: Minato was alive and well, so why was he so determined to die?
But when Xuanye saw Namikaze Minato's eyes, he fell silent.
They held the resolve of a man who had nothing left in this world he wanted to stay for.
There was no grief deeper than a heart that had given up. Kushina's death had clearly struck Minato hard.
Otherwise, with the speed of Flying Thunder God, almost no one in the Ninja World could have killed him.
The only person who could kill this man had always been himself.
"Why not ask someone else? The Third should be here soon."
Namikaze Minato answered bluntly, "I don't trust them."
Naruto had the constitution of the Uzumaki Clan. Even if Minato did nothing, the village's leaders would surely raise him as a Jinchuriki weapon after Minato was gone.
Better to entrust him to Xuanye.
At least Xuanye had no reason to exploit the Nine-Tails' power.
"He's a hero's child, after all. Surely the Third wouldn't go that far?" Xuanye said evenly, probing for an answer.
Minato gave a bleak laugh. "A hero's child? How many heroes' children are there in the Konoha Orphanage?"
"And being the Hokage's descendant is no protection. Everyone knows what happened to Senju Nawaki."
"Becoming a Jinchuriki... at least that would keep Naruto alive."
Xuanye was genuinely surprised this time. He had underestimated Namikaze Minato.