The Final Truth

The next day, the canopy screen appeared as promised.

["Summoning Technique!"]

[On the screen, a colossal orange toad with a huge pipe in his mouth and bandages around his waist came crashing down on the Nine-Tails outside Konoha at Minato Namikaze's shout.]

[Standing atop the toad's head was Minato Namikaze.]

["Gamabunta, sorry for summoning you so suddenly!" Minato's voice was urgent but clear. "It's an emergency. Help me pin him down for a moment!"]

["Even I can't hold him down completely!" Gamabunta complained, but he moved without hesitation.]

[Clenching his pipe between his teeth, he threw all his strength into restraining the Nine-Tails.]

[Just as the Nine-Tails prepared to blast Gamabunta off him with a Tailed Beast Ball...]

["Now!" Minato seized the fleeting opening.]

["Flying Thunder God Guiding Thunder!"]

[In an instant, the Nine-Tails beneath Gamabunta, powerful enough to lay waste to everything around him, vanished completely along with the Hokage known as the Yellow Flash.]

[The next moment, an equally dazzling burst of white light erupted in a deserted valley far away. The Nine-Tails appeared there, forcibly transported, his roar shaking the heavens.]

[Minato followed, supporting Kushina as she struggled to stand.]

["Adamantite Sealing Technique!"]

[Golden chains suddenly burst from Kushina's body, binding the once-unstoppable Nine-Tails so tightly he could not move.]

["Kushina!" Minato cried, his heart aching.]

["If I... keep the Nine-Tails restrained like this... I can die in peace." Kushina looked weakly at Minato, her eyes full of reluctance to leave him.]

[She forced a pale smile, but tears kept rolling down her cheeks. "Thank you for everything you've done for me... Minato."]

[Without a moment's hesitation, Minato took her cold hand. "Don't say that, Kushina." His voice was soft but firm as stone.]

["Minato, don't look at me like that. I... I'm not going to make it."]

["I got to meet Naruto... and you've always loved me... I've been... so happy." Kushina's weak words made it clear she had accepted death.]

[Two streams of tears ran from Minato's blue eyes as grief swept through him.]

["I have... one last wish... I wish I could see... Naruto all grown up..." Kushina looked at the baby in Minato's arms, her voice full of regret.]

["Kushina, you don't have to die with the Nine-Tails! I'll use the Chakra you have left so you can see Naruto again!"]

["And I'll deal with the Nine-Tails, too!"]

["Since I'm not a Jinchuriki, I can only use the Reaper Death Seal. I'll seal half the Nine-Tails' Chakra inside me forever."]

["But if you use that technique, you'll..." Kushina stared at him in shock. She had never imagined he would choose to die with her.]

[Minato slowly knelt and carefully gathered his weakened wife and sleeping son into his arms.]

["I believe what Teacher Jiraiya said. The Shinobi World's future will undergo a great upheaval, and this child is the Child of Prophecy who can change its fate!"]

[Kushina opened her mouth to object.]

["I know what you're going to say. But the Masked Man who attacked you today, and the Nine Nether Assassin who tried to kill me afterward—these are all signs of that upheaval."]

["The one who can stop it all..." Minato looked at little Naruto asleep in his arms, his eyes full of hope. "...is this child."]

[Then he turned to Kushina with a shy smile. "I don't know why. I just believe it."]

[Minato rose and slowly brought his hands together, forming a Hand Seal Technique Kushina had never seen before, one that carried an ominous air.]

["Sealing Technique: Reaper Death Seal!"]

[A bone-chilling wind sprang up from nowhere. Behind Minato, the enormous, fearsome specter of the Reaper slowly took shape!]

["Believe in him! He's our son!"]

["I'll seal the remaining Chakra inside Naruto..."]

["It's because he's our son!" Kushina interrupted him with a shout. "That's why... I don't want Naruto to bear such a heavy burden!"]

["And why are you using the Reaper Death Seal?!"]

["I want you to live with Naruto and protect him as he grows up!!!"]

[Kushina cried out through her tears. She did not want Minato to sacrifice himself for her, or Naruto to become a sacrifice used to seal a Tailed Beast.]

["A father's love and a mother's love make a whole. If either is missing, nothing can make up for it."]

["I can't imagine Naruto growing up with only one of them."]

[Minato looked at her and gave her the same slightly shy, deeply warm smile he always did, as though they were discussing dinner rather than facing death.]

["Besides, I told you..."]

["No matter what happens, I'll always be by your side."]

["And being willing to die for our child is part of my duty as his father."]

[The Reaper's arm pierced Minato's body, took half the Nine-Tails' Chakra, and sealed it inside him.]

["Damn you, Fourth Hokage!" the Nine-Tails roared in fury, but he could do nothing except watch his Chakra being taken.]

[Minato summoned an altar and laid little Naruto on it, preparing to perform the final Eight Trigrams Sealing Style.]

[But in the next instant, something went wrong. A strange gust swept through, and the golden chains binding the Nine-Tails inexplicably loosened!]

Everyone watching beyond the canopy screen understood what had happened: Shimura Danzō's Death Paper had begun to take effect.

[Sure enough, the Nine-Tails' enormous claw shot toward little Naruto in the center of the altar.]

[Minato immediately wrapped his arms around Kushina, covering her and Naruto completely with his body.]

[That embrace was the last and strongest barrier he could give them.]

["Shhk!"]

[The muffled, sickening sound of a blade piercing flesh rang out beneath the deathly still night sky.]

[Time seemed to stop.]

[Minato's body jolted. He looked down in disbelief at the massive, vicious crimson claw tip jutting through his chest and piercing Kushina beneath him.]

["Ah!" Kushina let out a short, pained cry, her body shaking violently.]

[The same claw pinned them together, as though their fates had been threaded onto it.]

[Pain swept through every nerve in Minato's body like a tidal wave, but his arms did not loosen.]

[Instead, he spent the last of his strength pulling his wife and son closer, making sure the claw could advance no farther.]

[Kushina turned her head with difficulty. She saw the terrible wound in Minato's chest and the blood spilling from his mouth.]

["Mi... nato..." Her voice broke with anguish for him.]

[Minato's vision had begun to blur. His life was draining away with his blood.]

[Yet as he looked at his wife, he struggled to give her a tender, almost apologetic smile.]

["It's... all right now..." His voice was barely a whisper, yet it held a miraculous calm that soothed her. "...I kept you... safe..."]

[Their blood mingled, soaking their clothes and dripping onto Naruto between them. He was still asleep, unaware of everything that had happened.]