Chương 137: The Night of the Nine-Tails, Part II

It was only then that Kushina realized she wasn't alone. In the shadow of death, her normally boisterous mind sharpened with a desperate clarity, recognizing this as Minato's final fail-safe.

"Zhen... it's you," she rasped, her voice a ghost of its former self.

"Thank you for watching over Naruto. But... could you give us a moment? I want to spend my final seconds in peace with him."

"I can do better than that, Kushina-senpai," Zhen replied, his voice calm but absolute.

"I'm going to ensure those 'final seconds' last a good deal longer." Kushina was a scion of the Uzumaki—a lineage defined by a terrifying, primordial vitality. Even with her Bijuu ripped from her soul, her life force was a raging river, though one currently spilling into an abyss. Where a lesser ninja would have perished instantly, she was still fighting for breath. Zhen didn't hesitate. His intent flickered, and he instantly entered Sage Mode, the markings of nature's grace blooming around his eyes.

His hands blurred through a sequence of complex seals before he slammed his palm onto the tattered remains of the seal on Kushina's abdomen. Sage Art: Sealing Jutsu—Duality Seal. The original prison was gone, but a new structure rose from the ashes. Geometric runes raced across her skin like ink spilled in water, converging at her navel. Within the outer ring of the Four Symbols, the ink coalesced into the swirling, interlocking fish of the Taiji—the Yin and the Yang.

The reconstruction of her internal equilibrium was instantaneous. The black and white of the seal were more vibrant than they had been during his initial tests, a testament to Zhen's deepening mastery over the polarities of chakra. Kushina froze. She could feel the catastrophic drain of her life force suddenly halt, held in place by an invisible, unshakable hand. The realization hit her like a physical blow: she wasn't going to die.

She pushed herself up, resting on her elbows as she stared at her stomach with the bewildered eyes of a master Melihat a miracle.

"What... what kind of seal is this?"

"The Duality Seal," Zhen said.

"A fitting name. It's damming the flow of my life force, isn't it?"

"Precisely. The extraction of the Nine-Tails shattered your internal balance. This jutsu recreates that harmony. Duality is the marriage of Yin and Yang."

"Incredible," she breathed.

"Did you design this just for me?"

"I did. Since I learned the nature of the Jinchuriki, I've been looking for a way to circumvent the inevitable. Consider this a student's tribute to his teacher. You taught me the foundations of the seal; it's only right I use them to keep you here."

"Zhen... thank you." Kushina looked down at the sleeping Naruto, her eyes brimming with a new, fragile hope.

"How long... how much time do I have? Be honest. I can still feel a trickle... a leak at the edges." The brush with death hadn't quite cured her of her verbal tics.

"With your constitution? You've got twenty years, easy. But I'm still growing, Senpai. Have a little faith in your student. By the time I've perfected the technique, you'll live to be a grandmother. I intend to see you holding Naruto's children."

"I'd like that," she whispered. Then, her eyes narrowed as she remembered her husband's behavior.

"Minato knew about this, didn't he? You two were in cahoots the whole time!" Zhen offered no defense, only a small, knowing smile.

"Go," she urged, sensing the chaos outside.

"I'm stable. Help Minato. The enemy... he's something I've never seen before."

"I'm on my way. See you soon." Outside, Konoha was a portrait of pandemonium. The sudden manifestation of the Nine-Tails in the heart of the village had turned the evening into a nightmare. The great fox was a force of nature, leveling city blocks with a single step and swatting away squads of ninja like bothersome gnats. Panicked civilians surged toward the shelters, though the primary bunker beneath the Hokage Rock was now a death trap, situated far too close to the epicenter of the beast's rage.

Shinobi coordinators desperately diverted the flow of refugees toward the peripheral safe zones. Kurama ignored the ants beneath its feet. Its eyes—spinning with the malice of the Sharingan—were fixed on a single target: the Fourth Hokage, standing defiant atop his own stone likeness. This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. Obito, hidden behind his mask, watched the scene with a cold, hollow satisfaction. In his mind, Kushina was already a corpse.

All that remained was to execute his mentor and let the Fox finish the village. At his command, the Fox unhinged its jaw. A sphere of compressed, obsidian energy began to form—the Tailed Beast Bomb. It launched with the weight of a falling mountain, a projectile of pure annihilation that threatened to erase the center of the village. Minato didn't flinch. His hands moved in a blur, manifesting the Flying Thunder God: Guiding Thunder.

A spatial rift tore open in the air, swallowing the massive bomb whole and depositing it miles away in the uninhabited mountains. The resulting detonation was a false dawn, an incandescent bloom that shook the earth and lit the sky for a hundred miles. It was a display of god-like power. And it was exactly what Obito had been waiting for. As Minato recovered from the technique, a gloved hand reached out from the void, stretching toward the Hokage's back.

Minato's reflexes were peerless; he spun, driving a three-pronged kunai toward the intruder's head. But the blade passed through the masked man as if he were made of smoke. As the kunai cleared his skull, Obito solidified, his hand clamping onto Minato's wrist.

"You're mine," he whispered through the eye-slit of his mask.

"And this... is where it ends." He began to swirl the air, the spiraling vortex of Kamui preparing to drag Minato into his private dimension. Whether Minato could teleport out of that void was a gamble Obito was willing to take; even if he could, the time lost would be enough for the Fox to finish the job. But the vortex never finished. Obito stiffened, a sharp, wet sound cutting through the roar of the wind. He looked down to see the jagged edge of a short-sword protruding from the center of his chest.

It had pierced him from behind, driven through his heart with surgical precision. He turned his head, his vision blurring. Standing behind him was a boy in an Anbu mask. Who? How? The pain was a white-hot scream. Inside Obito's body, the Hashirama cells—the biological anchor of his strength—sensing the fatal trauma, went into a violent, autonomous frenzy. Sharp, barbed wooden spikes erupted from his skin in a grotesque defense, turning the masked man into a biological hedgehog.

Minato leaped back, landing on the head of the Third Hokage's monument, his eyes wide with shock.

"Wood Release? Who are you?" Obito couldn't answer. His body slumped, and he tumbled from the heights like a broken bird. His assassin was, of course, Zhen. In the moment Obito had grasped Minato's arm, a shared spatial network had been created. Minato held the kunai marked with the Flying Thunder God; Zhen held the same mark. To Zhen, it was an invitation to an intimate conversation. He had simply stepped through the door. Zhen landed beside Minato.

"Wood Release... a dangerous trick to have up one's sleeve." Minato barely looked at the fallen intruder; his heart was still in the bedroom.

"Zhen! Kushina—is she...?"

"Stable. Her vitals are holding."

"Thank God." Minato exhaled, the tension finally breaking. He turned his focus to the Fox, which was currently preparing a second assault.

"We have to get that thing out of the village." Zhen caught his arm.

"Go after the masked man. Anyone with Wood Release won't stay dead just because their heart was skewered. He's the head of the snake. I'll handle the Fox." Minato didn't argue.

"Be careful."

"Don't take too long," Zhen called as Minato vanished.

"I can't play with a kitten this big forever." Zhen watched him go. He knew Minato had already marked Obito during their brief struggle; he also knew he had placed a mark of his own when he drove the blade home. The masked man was now the most tracked person in the world. Below, Hiruzen Sarutobi finally arrived with a vanguard of veteran shinobi. The Third had the same thought: push the beast out. But Hiruzen didn't have the luxury of space-time jutsu. He was going to have to do it the hard way.