Demonstration

"But Naruto has half of the Uzumaki bloodline—your Uzumaki bloodline."

"So what I want to ask is, does your Uzumaki clan have any bloodline limit that awakens when someone is near death?"

"I don't mean anything else by it, I swear!"

Kushina's hand stopped, though she still had Minato's ear twisted in her grip. She held that pose as she fell into thought.

A few seconds later, she let go, turned her head away, and raised her chin slightly.

"Hmph... Even if your explanation barely makes sense, I'm still annoyed."

Minato rubbed his bright-red ear and shot Naruto a wry smile that said, "Your mom's always like this. I'm used to it."

Naruto stood there, watching one of the couple rub his ear while the other looked away. His mouth twitched, and ten thousand complaints clogged his throat.

You two, the important issue right now isn't what bloodline limit I have. This was just an excuse I made up on the spot! Don't take something like this so seriously!

Of course, he did not say it aloud.

It took Minato several more minutes to soothe Kushina.

Kushina turned back around and stood beside Minato before Naruto. The two of them finally returned to the main topic.

"All right, Naruto..."

Minato cleared his throat, trying to hide his reddened ear behind his blond hair as he resumed the professional tone of the Fourth Hokage.

"Back to what we were discussing. What exactly is this ability you said you possess like?"

"This ability of mine?"

Naruto raised his right hand and spread his fingers slightly. "It lets my consciousness become like a hand that can touch, sense, and control everything inside my body."

"Every strand of chakra, every muscle—I can control them directly."

"Dad, try moving."

Minato instinctively tried to raise his right hand.

Then his expression changed.

His right hand did not move an inch.

It was not as simple as being unable to lift it. Even the signal to "lift" it had not been transmitted.

He could not feel his chakra flowing, nor could he feel the existence of his limbs. His whole body seemed frozen inside a piece of transparent amber.

The Fourth Hokage's battle instincts activated instantly, and he tried to force his chakra into motion to break free.

His chakra did move, surging toward his right hand. But midway through, that force lost its shape, like a high-pressure water cannon spraying into a black hole. It was absorbed completely, without even a trace of recoil returning to him.

Minato gave a bitter smile and gave up trying, his eyes filled with both shock and amazement. "I can't move at all."

"Control on this level has likely reached the fundamental level of chakra itself!"

"This isn't physical restraint, nor is it a confrontation with ordinary chakra. It has fundamentally taken over the connection between my existence and my chakra."

"Exactly."

Naruto nodded. "Because you two exist inside my body right now. Even though you're in chakra form, that form still relies on my body to remain intact."

"And my ability happens to control all energy and matter within my body, so naturally, you're under my control too."

"As for why I awakened this ability..."

Naruto blinked and calmly delivered the explanation he had prepared in advance. "My guess is that Mom is from the Uzumaki clan and was born with powerful vitality and control that can suppress tailed beast chakra, while Dad is a genius at the pinnacle of the shinobi world with exceptional chakra talent."

"With two such powerful bloodlines combined, and with me also being the Nine-Tails' jinchuriki, perhaps living under the constant pressure of those three forces mixing together pushed me past some critical point at the moment of near-death and awakened a talent that has never appeared in the clan's history."

Naruto's words were half true and half false.

The mixed bloodlines were real. The near-death trigger was made up. But in a shinobi world where genetic mutations happened faster than turning pages, the explanation sounded unexpectedly plausible.

Minato and Kushina exchanged a glance.

"Though I've never heard of such a precedent..."

Kushina nodded slowly, her gaze carrying the Uzumaki clan's sensitivity toward sealing techniques born of their long history. "There truly are many ancient secret scrolls in the Uzumaki clan's sealing arts heritage that deal with techniques applied to oneself."

"Though most of those scrolls were burned when Whirlpool Country was destroyed, if Naruto's bloodline has truly undergone atavism, then it isn't impossible for him to awaken something similar, yet stronger."

Minato added, "My Rasengan is itself a technique that pushes shape transformation to its limit."

"In a sense, it is a cultivation process of constantly refining one's control over chakra's form."

"If that trait were inherited as a talent, then merged and mutated with Kushina's bloodline..."

Minato nodded faintly, a thoughtful look flashing through his eyes. "Then there is at least some basis for an ability like this to appear."

"All right!"

Minato finally made the decision, his expression brightening once more. "Although the specific mechanism of this bloodline limit is beyond your mother's and my understanding, the shinobi world is full of strange things."

"Naruto, now that you possess it, it is your power."

"Your mother and I accept this explanation."

Kushina nodded in agreement.

She reached out and ruffled Naruto's hair.

This time, it was gentle, unlike the fist from earlier.

Then she smiled. "Besides, no matter what ability Naruto awakened, I'm still Naruto's mother."

"This doesn't need an explanation."

Minato smiled too, but then his expression returned to the sharp efficiency expected of a Hokage.

He lowered his crossed arms and straightened his shoulders slightly.

"All right, then let's get to the point."

"Naruto, you said you needed our help just now?"

"You mean you need us to help you suppress the Nine-Tails' chakra, then use your ability to take control of the Nine-Tails?"

Before Naruto could respond, Kushina spoke first.

She stepped forward and stood before Naruto. There was no humor in her expression, only deep seriousness and concern.

"Naruto, you can't."

"Even if your bloodline limit can control the power within your body, the Nine-Tails isn't like your father and me."

"The difference between two masses of chakra and chakra on the Nine-Tails' level is three or four orders of magnitude."

"The Nine-Tails' chakra isn't merely energy. It also contains the will of hatred it has accumulated over hundreds and thousands of years."

"Do you know how many jinchuriki were backlashed while trying to control the Nine-Tails' power, until even their minds were consumed?"

"Even I spent most of my life forcibly suppressing it back then. I could never truly control it."

"You're still too young. Let's take this one step at a time. When you're older and stronger, we'll discuss it properly, all right?"

Kushina's voice gradually shifted from urgency to earnest pleading.

As she spoke, the fingers gripping Naruto's shoulders unconsciously tightened.

Naruto quietly waited for Kushina to finish, then shook his head.