Sealing the Nine-Tails

At that moment, Toru cursed his bad luck inwardly and immediately took Kurenai and fled.

His Six Eyes caught that the Nine-Tails had already leaked most of its power. With his current strength, staying in the Training Ground would be suicidal.

Seeing that Kurenai had yet to realize the severity of the situation and could not move her legs, Toru scooped her up in a princess carry and poured Cursed Energy into his legs, fleeing at an unprecedented speed.

"The Tailed Beast's power is actually this terrifying?!"

The chakra leaking from the Nine-Tails truly gave Toru a fright. Only then did he understand why everyone in the village feared Jinchuriki.

Such violent, uncontrollable power could often only be used for destruction.

Within Kushina's spiritual world, the Nine-Tails struggled desperately against the seal while continuing to tempt Kushina's heart. "Hurry up and undo this seal completely! Then you can be freed from this suffering! If you refuse, I'll possess you and kill you!!"

At that critical moment, Minato disregarded his own injuries and rushed before Kushina. Gathering chakra in his right hand, he slammed his palm against her abdomen. "Kushina! Hang on!"

Minato was using his own chakra to reinforce the Four-Symbols Seal restraining the Nine-Tails. Within the seal, the Nine-Tails was secretly alarmed, even comparing Minato's talent to that of the First Hokage.

After all, sealing techniques were universally acknowledged as among the most difficult of all techniques, let alone a high-level sealing technique like the Four-Symbols Seal, passed down through generations of the Uzumaki Clan.

Toru sensed that the Nine-Tails' power had been restrained, so he slowed his escape and wanted to watch the scene from the edge.

Speaking through Kushina, the Nine-Tails asked, "Why would a ninja like you be so hung up on this little girl?!" Clearly, it held a deep grudge against Minato for ruining its plans.

With one arm around Kushina's shoulders, Minato said, "I like strong people... people stronger than me. That's why I like Kushina so much. I can't bear to lose her."

Kushina, within her spiritual world, heard every word of Minato's heartfelt confession. It made her recall the teachings of the First Hokage's wife, the previous Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, Uzumaki Mito. "Kushina, we may indeed be at the center of a whirlpool, but if we choose to climb upward, we will surely find 'love.'"

Kushina's gaze instantly became resolute, because she had already found her love.

Kushina rose up against the Nine-Tails, using Adamantine Attacking Chains in an attempt to seal it once more.

The Nine-Tails had long since flown into a rage. It had never expected that its actions would instead bring Minato and Kushina closer together. It practically seemed to have become a matchmaker.

Enraged, the Nine-Tails condensed an astonishingly powerful Tailed Beast Ball within the spiritual world and used chains to viciously slam Kushina to the ground. At the same time, in the real world, the leaking Tailed Beast chakra covered Kushina's body in a savage, terrifying crimson chakra cloak, with seven tails trailing behind her.

Rampaging in her seven-tailed state, Kushina pierced Minato's body with a single blow. Within the spiritual world, Kushina cried out tearfully, "Minato, don't worry about me! Leave! Get out of here!!"

But Minato did not leave. Instead, he looked at Kushina resolutely and said, "I won't... leave... I absolutely won't... leave..."

Ignoring his injuries, Minato placed one hand on Kushina's abdomen to reinforce the seal while tightly embracing her body, entering Kushina's spiritual world through it.

"I can feel it... I've always been in Kushina's heart!!"

Minato leaped high into the air within Kushina's spiritual world, raising the ninjutsu he had developed to protect Kushina.

Kushina took the opportunity to reinforce the Adamantine Attacking Chains, restricting the Nine-Tails' movements.

Left with no choice, the Nine-Tails could only use the Tailed Beast Ball it had just condensed in its mouth to clash head-on with Minato's Spiraling Flash Popsicle-Inspired Whorl Jiraiya Dual-Style Sphere.

"I will never hand Kushina over to you!!"

The two spheres, each condensed with enormous amounts of chakra, collided violently with astonishing force.

The resulting explosion instantly knocked Minato unconscious at point-blank range.

When Minato regained consciousness, the first thing he saw was the hospital ceiling.

Kushina stood at the bedside, anxiously checking on the newly awakened Minato. Minato sat up somewhat dazedly. "Huh...?"

Kushina immediately threw herself into his arms. She refused to let go for a long while, squeezing Minato until he repeatedly cried out in pain, though he enjoyed it all the same.

Jiraiya and Tsunade stood beside the hospital bed, watching the young couple with gratified expressions.

Once the two had finished being affectionate, Minato thanked Jiraiya and Tsunade from his hospital bed. "Thank you, Sensei, and Lady Tsunade, for saving me."

Yet Jiraiya and Tsunade both waved their hands, indicating that he did not need to thank them.

"The two children from the Training Ground were the ones who found you. If you want to thank someone, thank them." Jiraiya smiled.

Tsunade added, "I wasn't the one who healed your injuries. I merely provided the treatment plan. Shizune was the one who performed the operation."

Minato still thanked them respectfully, while recalling the two children Jiraiya had mentioned.

A white-haired, blue-eyed boy, and a black-haired, Red Eye girl. I must thank them someday, Minato reminded himself inwardly.

A week later, at the Yuhi Household, Toru and Kurenai were about to have dinner when the doorbell rang.

Through the obstruction of the front door, Toru's Six Eyes had already identified the visitor: Namikaze Minato.

Toru and Kurenai came to the door together and opened it. Dressed in casual sportswear, Minato appeared to have fully recovered from his injuries. He greeted them with a smile. "Hello. I have the two of you to thank for taking me to the hospital after what happened at the Third Training Ground. Thank you."

With such a huge commotion, someone else would have come even if we hadn't, Toru thought. Still, he and Kurenai bowed to Minato.

"It was only what we should have done."

Minato hurriedly waved his hands. "No, no, I have to thank you properly. You're students at the Ninja Academy, right? As it happens, I invented a brand-new ninjutsu that I can teach you."

Toru and Kurenai exchanged a glance, already understanding what this new technique was.

"Is it the Spiraling Flash Popsicle-Inspired Whorl Jiraiya Dual-Style Sphere?" Toru asked tentatively. If it was that technique, it would neatly explain how he had copied it.

Minato smiled faintly and nodded. "That's right, but it has a new name now. My girlfriend came up with it. It's called the Rasengan."

"Rasengan. That's a good name," Toru praised.

In truth, both Toru and Kurenai thought the shortened new name was much better, perhaps because it had the ridiculously long former name as a comparison.

Minato wore a somewhat airheaded smile, as though he had come up with the name himself.

And so, Minato taught them the Rasengan's training method without holding anything back.

Toru had actually already mastered it, but he still pretended to learn for a week before mastering it. Even so, such talent was enough to leave Minato clicking his tongue in amazement. After all, it had taken him three years to master it after developing it. Though developing and learning were not the same thing, he still felt somewhat unbalanced inside.

Kurenai was not skilled in ninjutsu, but an attributeless technique like the Rasengan happened to suit someone like her, who had little foundation in ninjutsu. With Toru's help, she spent more than two months on it and only barely mastered the Rasengan by the start of the next term.