Bloodline Limit

"You hit well."

Minato said, his voice not loud, yet every word seemed weighted with lead.

"if there's anything else you want to hit, go ahead..."

"One punch was enough."

Naruto cut Minato off, not letting him finish in front of Kushina.

One punch meant it was over. A second would just be fooling around.

"Minato!"

Kushina hurried forward and supported Minato Namikaze by the arm.

Kushina told herself this was something that had to be settled between father and son. She should not interfere.

"I'm fine, Kushina!"

Minato Namikaze shook his head to show he was all right. Then his gaze sharpened again, the Fourth Hokage's habitual way of thinking overwhelming the emotions of their reunion within seconds.

"Naruto, wait a moment."

Minato's tone turned serious. Although his stomach still hurt badly enough to make his voice somewhat weak, his eyes already held the cool gleam of analysis.

"From what I can sense, the structure of the Eight Trigrams Sealing Style that seals the Nine-Tails inside you has not been damaged, and the Nine-Tails itself shows no signs of unrest."

"If the seal is stable, why am I here?"

"Why is your mother here too?"

"What exactly is going on?"

"That's right, Naruto."

Kushina turned to Naruto as well. Though the joy of their reunion still lingered in the tear tracks at the corners of her eyes, her curiosity had been thoroughly piqued.

"According to the sealing technique contingency plan your father and I set up, my chakra should only have been activated at the critical moment when you tried to control the Nine-Tails' power, serving as an escort mechanism to help you suppress the Nine-Tails' chakra."

"But now, the Eight Trigrams Sealing Style is clearly still intact. Even the outer seal hasn't been broken, yet the two of us were called out by you."

"This isn't just unexpected. This was never part of the plan at all."

Kushina paused and felt around her own body.

Even in her chakra form, she could still sense the rate at which her energy was being consumed. A trace of concern appeared on her face.

"And I can feel that our chakra is continuously being depleted."

"If you called us out just because you wanted us to see each other, child, then there isn't much time."

"Mom, Dad, I know you're anxious, but don't rush."

Naruto raised both hands in a calming gesture. "I called you out because I need your help with something."

"Wait..."

At that moment, Minato raised a hand to interrupt Naruto. His gaze was steady and focused. "Naruto, before we talk about helping, there's a more important question I need to ask first."

He stepped forward half a pace and bent slightly so that his eyes were level with Naruto's.

This brought his face closer to Naruto's, allowing Naruto to see more clearly the gentleness in Minato's eyes, along with the sharp probing gaze unique to the Fourth Hokage.

"Your mother's and my existence were embedded in the deeper structure of the sealing technique. Normally, unless the seal was heavily damaged or you were on the verge of death, we would only have a chance to be passively activated."

"But you just said that you found us on your own. A level of consciousness control and chakra interference like this can hardly be explained merely by saying you're talented."

"So, Naruto, can you tell me how you separated my chakra and your mother's chakra from the seal's underlying structure and summoned us?"

Silence filled the space for a full three seconds.

Naruto scratched the back of his head.

The movement carried a trace of the original owner's lingering muscle memory, but his thirty-year-old soul controlled the pace unhurriedly while his mind raced at high speed.

Naturally, he could not tell the truth.

He could not say he was a transmigrator. He could not say he knew the plot by heart. He could not say he possessed an ability called Absolute Control.

It was not that he did not trust Minato and Kushina. They were already dead, and once their chakra forms dispersed, these memories could not be read by the living.

But Naruto had formed a habit. His greatest trump card would always remain in the deepest box within his heart, and he would give the key to no one.

He had to make up a reasonable explanation.

One that fit the rules of this shinobi world, could convince a genius ninja, and would not expose him.

"It started with a mission from before."

After a moment, Naruto slowly spoke, his pace neither too fast nor too slow.

"While we were carrying out the protection mission in the Land of Waves, we fought Zabuza, a rogue ninja from the Hidden Mist, and his subordinate, Haku."

"During the battle, Haku struck several of my acupoints with senbon needles. The chakra flow in my body completely stalled for a time, and my body entered a near-death state."

Minato Namikaze and Kushina frowned at the same time, but neither interrupted him.

Naruto continued, "At that instant when I was near death, it seemed like something inside my body was activated."

"It wasn't the Nine-Tails. It was a completely different kind of power. It allowed me to sense the existence of everything inside my body, including chakra, chakra pathways, organs, and even the structural patterns of the seal."

"After I regained consciousness, I discovered that I could control this power at will and use it to see any corner of my body."

Naruto paused and glanced at Minato's expression. The latter was listening with complete focus, the analytical light in his eyes growing brighter.

Naruto continued.

"After gaining this ability, I tried exploring my chakra during my recovery. As a result, I sensed the presence of your chakra in the seal's deeper structure."

"Two forces that shared the same origin as my chakra but were subtly different, hidden very deeply, yet unable to escape my perception."

"I used this ability to separate you from the seal's structure and temporarily materialize you independently in this mental space."

"That was the entire process of how I summoned you."

"A bloodline limit?"

Minato Namikaze and Kushina voiced the same question almost in unison.

Their voices overlapped, and the confusion in their tones was exactly the same.

Minato turned to look at Kushina. His gaze clearly meant: Does the Uzumaki clan have a bloodline inheritance like this?

You're the expert in this area. You explain it.

Kushina caught his look, froze for a moment, and then her expression rapidly went through four stages: confusion → thought → realization → fury.

"You bastard, Minato!"

Kushina grabbed Minato by the ear and twisted it hard.

The ease of the motion made it obvious she had practiced it plenty of times while alive. "What was that look supposed to mean?"

"Are you suspecting Naruto isn't your son?"

Minato Namikaze: ?

Minato's head was twisted to one side, a huge question mark appearing on his face.

He had no idea how he had stepped on a landmine.

He instinctively raised both hands to explain, but with his ear being tugged, all his dignity vanished.

"No, Kushina, you misunderstood!"

Enduring the pain, Minato rapidly explained with the lightning-fast speaking ability he had developed while handling urgent affairs in the Hokage's office.

"Our family has no bloodline inheritance of a bloodline limit. I know that better than anyone."