Minato Namikaze

"Sorry, Naruto."

Kushina's voice turned serious. She stepped forward, opened her arms, and gently pulled Naruto into an embrace.

She held him tightly, carrying the scent of a sun-warmed quilt and a faint trace of chakra.

"Your mom has a short temper. I couldn't help hitting you."

"That's right. I'm your mother, Kushina Uzumaki. You are my son, Naruto Uzumaki."

Naruto stiffened for a moment.

Then he raised a hand and gently patted Kushina's back.

"All right, Mom, I get it."

"Let go of me first..."

Naruto's tone was deliberately casual, but the faint nasal edge in his voice was impossible to hide.

He gently pulled free of Kushina's embrace, straightened up, and sniffed.

At thirty years old, he had only just learned what it felt like to have a mother. (Don't ask. He was an orphan!)

Kushina took half a step back and looked at Naruto, her eyes reddening as well.

She reached out to touch Naruto's face, but her hand paused in midair. The light in her eyes dimmed slightly, and beneath the smile on her face lay deep guilt and sorrow.

"Naruto, these past years... you've suffered."

"We left you alone in that kind of environment, made you bear the identity of the Nine-Tails' jinchuriki from childhood, and let so many people treat you that way..."

"I'm sorry. Mom failed to fulfill her responsibilities as a mother. I'm truly sorry."

Naruto shook his head. "This isn't your fault, Mom."

He knew exactly who should answer for this.

The Third Hokage, Danzo Shimura, Konoha's higher-ups.

He would settle those debts one by one in the future. Not a single one would be overlooked.

But unlike his previous life, he would not resort to private punishment this time. He would not pass judgment as some dark-night vigilante.

He would use Konoha's own rules, his position as Hokage, and the most open and righteous means possible to make those responsible pay the price.

That was the lesson he had bought with thirty years of his life in his previous life.

"Oh, right, Mom..."

Naruto changed the subject, and his eyes lit up. "Let me introduce you to someone."

Before Kushina could react, Naruto had already raised his right hand and snapped his fingers lightly in the air.

Snap

The light in the golden space rippled slightly the next moment.

Not far in front of Kushina, a warm yellow glow gathered from nothing, slowly outlining a tall figure.

Golden hair, blue eyes, a white Hokage haori, a youthful and handsome face, and a gentle, slightly bashful smile on his lips.

The instant he appeared, the entire golden space seemed to sense its master's return. The light within it flickered softly, becoming brighter and warmer than before.

Minato Namikaze, Konoha's Fourth Hokage—the Yellow Flash of the Shinobi World.

"How... am I here?"

Minato blinked, his face full of confusion.

According to the design of the chakra seal, he should only have been automatically activated and appeared when Naruto drew upon the Nine-Tails' chakra or when the seal had been damaged to a certain extent. Yet the seal was perfectly intact, and the Nine-Tails' cage still stood undisturbed in the sewer.

He had been sleeping peacefully within the chakra seal when he suddenly felt a gentle yet irresistible force lift his entire existence from the depths of the Flame Seal's markings and move him here.

Minato lowered his head, and the first person he saw was Kushina, standing before him with a hand over her mouth.

Then he saw the blond, blue-eyed boy standing beside Kushina, a head shorter than him, with three whisker-like marks on each cheek.

"You are..."

Minato Namikaze's pupils widened slightly.

He opened his mouth, but before he could say the name—

The next moment—

Bang!

"Gah..."

A fist drove solidly into his abdomen.

More precisely, Naruto had punched him in the stomach.

The punch was delivered with skillful force.

It precisely penetrated the gaps between the abdominal muscles and internal organs, dispersing the impact throughout the entire abdominal cavity instead of concentrating it on any specific organ. It would not cause any real injury, but it would hurt badly enough to make a person double over for quite a while.

Naruto had analyzed it with Absolute Control: how hard he should strike, where he should hit, and what force and angle would hurt to the bone without causing injury.

He had planned it long ago.

Though he understood Minato's reasons for sealing the Nine-Tails inside him, understanding was one thing. That debt could not simply be written off.

Some things required understanding, while others required reckoning.

Only after the account had been settled could everything truly begin anew.

Minato Namikaze clutched his abdomen, his entire body bent like a shrimp as a fine layer of cold sweat seeped across his forehead.

He instinctively tried to draw upon his chakra to defend himself, only to discover that he was now merely a chakra entity. The flow of chakra was entirely beyond his own control.

He could only take the punch head-on. His knees weakened, and he nearly dropped to one knee.

"Naruto?"

Minato barely raised his head, confusion and bewilderment in his blue eyes.

"This punch is to bring the past decade and more to an end."

Naruto withdrew his fist and stood upright.

With that punch, it was all over.

From then on, things would be as they should be. Neither owed the other anything.

Minato Namikaze slowly straightened up, one hand pressed against his still-aching abdomen.

He did not get angry or try to explain himself. He merely looked at Naruto's slightly reddened knuckles as he withdrew his fist, revealing a complicated smile filled with deep guilt and heartache.

"I'm sorry, Naruto."