"Such formidable power..."
Minato's thoughts raced as he felt the surge of hatred erupting within him—a malevolent force that had remained dormant for over twenty years. Though he and the Nine-Tails' yang half had coexisted within his body since that fateful night, never had he sensed such potent animosity from the fragment of the bijuu's consciousness.
The sudden intensification of this power was unsettling, but Minato couldn't afford to dwell on it. Kushina remained in immediate danger, her consciousness teetering on the brink of being overwhelmed by the Nine-Tails' influence.
"Get out of my way!" Minato commanded internally, directing the command at the restless energy stirring within his soul.
An explosion of mental force accompanied his declaration, channeled through his chakra with devastating precision. This concentrated will crashed down upon the Nine-Tails' awakening consciousness, forcing it back into submission through sheer determination.
Deep within the recesses of Minato's being, the yang half of the Nine-Tails recoiled in shock. "Is this being still even human?" it wondered, stunned by the immense mental fortitude Minato had just displayed.
The strength of will required to suppress a tailed beast's consciousness so completely exceeded normal human capabilities by an extraordinary margin. It was a power that rivaled—perhaps even surpassed—that of the legendary Sage of Six Paths himself.
Having contained the threat within, Minato redirected his focus outward. His chakra flowed without restraint into the contested space between Kushina and the Nine-Tails, creating a wedge that disrupted the bijuu's advance.
"Minato?!" Kushina's confused voice cut through the chaos, her awareness momentarily piercing through the fog of the Nine-Tails' influence as she sensed the distinctive warmth of her husband's chakra.
"Kushina, quickly suppress the Nine-Tails' chakra!" Minato's voice resonated within her consciousness, urgent and clear. "If you don't, you'll be consumed by it entirely."
His words acted as an anchor, drawing her back from the precipice. Kushina's pupils contracted sharply as realization struck—she had nearly forgotten the critical struggle taking place, so absorbed had she become in the revelations contained within the Nine-Tails' memories.
But regardless of what truths she had uncovered about the bijuu's past, she could not allow herself to be overtaken. Too many people depended on her—loved her—needed her to remain herself.
"HAAAAH!"
Kushina's battle cry echoed through the mindscape as the confusion clouding her eyes dissipated, replaced by steely resolve. A powerful surge of her own chakra erupted in response, halting the Nine-Tails' advance and beginning to push it back.
"What's happening?" Kushina murmured in surprise, noticing that the Nine-Tails' resistance had suddenly weakened considerably. Where moments ago it had been dominating their contest of wills, now it seemed almost passive in comparison.
"This is our chance!" Minato called out, also recognizing the unexpected shift in the dynamic. Despite his best efforts to aid Kushina, he had anticipated continued resistance from the Nine-Tails—not this sudden reduction in opposition. "Kushina, now! Extract its chakra while it's vulnerable!"
"Right!" Kushina responded without hesitation, her hundreds of shadow clones moving with renewed coordination to completely envelop the Nine-Tails' chakra.
"CLANK! CLANK! CLANK!"
From her back, adamantine chains shot forth once more, their golden links wrapping around the massive fox's form and constricting around its neck with uncompromising force.
"You two..." the Nine-Tails growled, fury evident in its voice despite its diminished resistance. As it spoke, it noticed Minato—who had been suppressing it from above—suddenly vanish from his position.
In the next instant, Minato reappeared directly beneath the bijuu's massive form. His right arm extended upward, palm facing the creature's underside as chakra began to swirl and concentrate above his hand.
"VRRRRM!"
A massive Rasengan formed with explosive speed, its azure glow illuminating the entire mindscape. But the technique didn't stop there—as the spiraling sphere stabilized, wind-natured chakra began to coalesce around it, extending outward in razor-sharp blades that rotated with increasing velocity.
Within seconds, the technique had transformed into an enormous shuriken composed entirely of violently rotating chakra, wind blades extending from its center like the arms of a lethal windmill.
"Massive Rasenshuriken!" Minato announced, launching the technique upward with perfect accuracy.
"BOOOOOM!"
The wind-enhanced Rasengan collided with the Nine-Tails with cataclysmic force, the explosion of chakra sending the massive fox hurtling backward. As the bijuu was thrown away by the impact, Kushina seized the opportunity to complete the extraction, pulling the entirety of the Nine-Tails' accessible chakra into herself.
"How is this possible?!" the Nine-Tails thought in disbelief as it endured Minato's devastating attack. "For a human to wield such power so perfectly..."
The bijuu could sense an unmistakable similarity between Minato's chakra and its own—an inexplicable resonance that allowed this mere human to not only manipulate its power but to execute techniques that should have been exclusive to tailed beasts or perfect jinchūriki. Moreover, the mental fortitude Minato had demonstrated earlier still reverberated through their connected chakra, a profound willpower that had momentarily subdued even the Nine-Tails' ancient consciousness.
As the chakra extraction completed, the shadow clones that had assisted in the process began to disperse, disappearing in small puffs of smoke.
"We've done it!" Minato exclaimed, his expression brightening as he turned to Kushina with a relieved smile.
Even as he spoke, his form began to fade from the mindscape, becoming increasingly transparent with each passing second. His time within Kushina's inner world had reached its limit—the technique that allowed his consciousness to manifest within her seal could no longer be maintained.
"Minato..." Kushina began, but before she could continue, his presence had completely vanished, returning to the physical world outside.
In the immediate aftermath of his departure, the extracted Nine-Tails' chakra—now fully under Kushina's control—surged through her being with unprecedented intensity. Dark golden energy suffused with threads of black light enveloped her completely, transforming her appearance as she accessed the bijuu's power for the first time.
"So this is the Nine-Tails' chakra," she murmured in wonder, looking down at her transformed body now radiating with golden light. Her eyes, too, had changed—shifting from their natural violet to a luminous gold that reflected the power now flowing through her. "It truly is extraordinary."
The raw potency of this chakra far exceeded her own, vast as her Uzumaki reserves were. It felt simultaneously foreign and familiar—a paradoxical sensation that hinted at the complex relationship between jinchūriki and bijuu.
"Fourth Hokage! Kushina!"
The Nine-Tails' voice drew her attention back to the beast. It lay some distance away, its expression contorted with impotent rage that had reached its absolute zenith. As it attempted to rise, intent on launching a final desperate attack, the environment around them began to shift dramatically.
"THOOM! THOOM!"
The ground trembled as a massive sealing cage descended from above, encompassing the original containment structure that had housed the Nine-Tails. The bars of this secondary cage slammed into place with finality, its door swinging shut with a resounding clang. At the center of this reinforced barrier, a new sealing tag manifested, the character for "seal" glowing with increased intensity.
"Such swift action..." Kushina observed, recognizing that this additional security measure must have been implemented by Minato immediately upon his return to the physical world. Even in retreat, the Fourth Hokage had left nothing to chance.
Within its doubly secured prison, the Nine-Tails' expression shifted subtly. Though still clearly enraged, the raw ferocity that had characterized its countenance throughout their confrontation had somewhat diminished. Instead, its crimson eyes now regarded Kushina with a cold, calculating intensity that felt somehow more profound than mere anger.
Slowly, deliberately, Kushina approached the sealed cage. As she neared it, the chains extending from her back gradually retracted, no longer necessary now that the extraction was complete and the bijuu secured.
"Don't grow complacent," the Nine-Tails warned, its gaze piercing through the narrow gaps between the cage's bars. "This changes nothing in the end."
Kushina remained silent, her expression uncharacteristically somber as she stood before the imprisoned bijuu. The usual fire in her personality had been temporarily dampened by the weight of what she had witnessed within the Fox's memories.
After a prolonged silence, she released a soft sigh and, to the Nine-Tails' visible astonishment, executed a formal bow toward the caged beast.
"Nine-Tails... I'm sorry," she said, her voice carrying genuine remorse.
The bijuu's eyes widened fractionally, clearly caught off-guard by this unprecedented gesture of respect from its jinchūriki.
Before the Nine-Tails could form a response, Kushina closed her eyes and withdrew from the mindscape, her consciousness returning to the physical world.
When Kushina's eyes opened, she found herself back in her living room, sitting across from Minato whose concerned gaze immediately sought hers. Despite having successfully mastered the Nine-Tails' chakra—an achievement that should have elicited celebration—her expression remained troubled, devoid of the triumph one might have expected.
Minato, ever attuned to her emotional state, immediately sensed that something significant had transpired beyond the mere technical success of their endeavor. He reached out, gently placing his hand against her cheek.
"What happened?" he asked softly, his voice filled with gentle concern.
Kushina would never conceal anything from him—least of all something of such profound importance. She raised her eyes to meet his, her normally vibrant expression subdued by the weight of her new understanding.
"When my chakra connected with the Nine-Tails," she began slowly, "I experienced its memories. I saw moments from its past—pivotal events that shaped its perception of humanity."
She paused, gathering her thoughts before continuing, "I've been wrong all this time, Minato. We've all been wrong. The Nine-Tails isn't the source of the misfortune that has befallen us and our world."
Her voice grew firmer, conviction strengthening her words despite their difficult implications. "The true source of that misfortune lies within ourselves—within humanity's treatment of the tailed beasts throughout history."
As she spoke these words, Kushina knew that they marked not just the successful completion of their immediate goal, but the beginning of a fundamental shift in how she—and perhaps one day, the entire shinobi world—would understand the complex relationship between humans and the ancient, powerful beings they had for so long regarded as mere weapons or tools.
The chakra of the Nine-Tails now flowed through her veins, its power at her command. But more significant than this physical mastery was the moral clarity she had gained—a recognition of the bijuu not as a mindless force of destruction, but as a sentient being with its own painful history of exploitation and subjugation.
This understanding would change everything moving forward, though precisely how remained to be seen.
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