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Chapter 182: Two Kushinas Meet, Minato Questions Himself
"Kushina, careful!"
Minato held a kunai, blocking in front of Kushina. Looking solemnly at the flying white paper.
Didn't know what the opponent meant. But relying on a piece of white paper to seal the Nine-Tails, one could imagine that if it attacked, the power would inevitably exceed imagination.
"Minato." Kushina grabbed Minato's hand. "Don't worry. Since she saved me, she shouldn't do anything superfluous to hurt us."
"But... Nine-Tails—"
Kushina shrugged, looking relaxed, even a bit gloating. "Then there's no way. Since the other party wants it, just give it to her."
"Anyway, Minato, I guess you can't beat her either, and I won't allow you to attack my savior!"
Minato felt his right hand being squeezed painfully, knowing she wasn't joking. An inexplicable thought rose in his heart: Didn't expect Kushina to be so strong even without being the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki...
He dared not say it out loud, afraid of being beaten...
"Besides, I never wanted to be some Nine-Tails Jinchuriki anyway." Kushina couldn't help but complain, "Stuffing such a big thing into the body, which also has wisdom and consciousness, always feels like someone is monitoring me. It's inconvenient to do anything!"
"I've wanted to get rid of the Nine-Tails for a long time. Now taking this opportunity to let someone else take it away is fine. It's force majeure, Minato, don't be a busybody..."
Minato sweated, cold sweat flowing in his heart. While feeling Kushina was a bit rash, deep guilt rose in his heart. As a husband, he should protect his wife and make her happy. But he was also the Hokage of Konoha Village, needing to protect the entire village and all villagers.
The Nine-Tails was Konoha's important asset, a strategic weapon to deter other ninja villages. Once lost, if learned by the other four great ninja villages, the consequences would be unimaginable...
What to do...
Minato rarely hesitated. On one side were his wife and the mysterious person who likely couldn't be defeated and had saved her life; on the other side was the village...
Swish!
Just then, the flying white paper suddenly grew larger, and a figure fell from it.
Minato suppressed his thoughts and concentrated on the person falling from mid-air. Too late to investigate why a person could pop out of a piece of white paper, the moment he saw the figure clearly, he was stunned and stupefied on the spot.
He shouted involuntarily, "Kushina!!"
Red hair, green and white robes. Exactly the same as the Kushina beside him.
He subconsciously looked at his wife beside him, then looked back at Edo Tensei Kushina.
"Two Kushinas..."
His brain found it difficult to process this bizarre scene and temporarily crashed.
Kushina's expression was no better than Minato's. Her eyes widened huge, her jaw about to drop, pointing tremblingly at Edo Tensei Kushina. Stammering, "An... another me... then who am I..."
"No." Minato calmed down immediately, looking at Edo Tensei Kushina. "Skin cracking like paper all over, cracks in the pupils."
His tone was certain. "This is not a living person, but the dead returning to life. This is the Second Hokage's Impure World Reincarnation Jutsu!!"
Minato was quick-witted and soon thought of something, his pupils contracting violently. "You are indeed Kushina!"
"But not the Kushina of this time period, but from the future!"
His face was solemn. "You traveled from the future using the Dragon Vein!"
"Then she..." Minato subconsciously looked at Konan not far away, having guessed pretty closely. She must have also traveled using the Dragon Vein. Coming from the future, not belonging to his timeline!
"As expected of Minato..." Edo Tensei Kushina looked dazed, her tone indescribably melancholic and complex. "No matter which world, your reaction is fast."
Alex had already informed her of what was happening now through the Yamanaka secret arts. Knowing she had returned to the Night of the Nine-Tails once again, only it was a parallel world's Night of the Nine-Tails.
In the original world, she died tonight. Experiencing the grief of being separated from little Naruto by death.
But now... It was also the Night of the Nine-Tails, but another self in a parallel world had new hope amidst total despair and grief. Fate changed just like that...
"It's good..." Edo Tensei Kushina looked at her other self with complex eyes. "Your fate of inevitable death has been changed. You don't have to experience the same pain as me."
Kushina stood blankly, not having reacted yet, subconsciously saying, "Wha... what do you mean, you are really the future me?"
"Understanding it like that isn't wrong. I indeed come from a future timeline, but—"
"Stop!" Minato interrupted urgently. "Don't reveal future events anymore. This will cause space-time disturbances and unforeseeable consequences."
His eyes held grief, having already taken Edo Tensei Kushina as the Kushina of his own world. Unexpectedly, she would still die in the future. But he still adhered to his philosophy, pressing down his trembling voice, "People from the future absolutely cannot interfere with what has already happened in the past."
"We people of the past also cannot know future events. Time and space move forward constantly and cannot be changed."
"Indeed the familiar Minato." Edo Tensei Kushina suddenly laughed. "Always taking responsibility so heavily, when clearly some things shouldn't be borne by you alone."
If not informed in advance, she would really think she had returned to the past. The Minato before her eyes was the Minato she knew well. Really exactly the same, no difference. Her memory was fixed at the moment after death on the Night of the Nine-Tails. Her experiences were almost identical to the parallel world's Kushina.
Even though she didn't need to breathe, Edo Tensei Kushina still exhaled lightly, shaking her head. "Minato, things aren't as serious as you think."
"Your world and my world aren't the same, just parallel worlds. It's just that your world's timeline is in the past relative to mine."
"Making any changes here won't affect my world, nor will it cause disaster to your world because of it."
She sighed, "Your world is now... Fate and future are grasped by yourselves, no need to be constrained, worrying about unfounded fears."
"Have the chance to change tragedy, not causing irreversible regrets; nor letting little Naruto lose his parents from a young age, living in a village where everyone treats him as a demon fox and hates him."
"You... everything is still in time to change..." Unknowingly, Edo Tensei Kushina's tears fell, her voice choking. "Really can... change everything... no need to experience those sorrows again... Sob sob sob..."
She burst into tears, weeping uncontrollably.
"Why are you so sad..." Kushina stepped forward, gently hugging Edo Tensei Kushina. "In the future, you must have experienced very terrible and sad things, right? Another me, you really... suffered..."
"If you... and she hadn't intervened, I probably would be like you, experiencing the same tragedy... Same separation from little Naruto by death... Same destruction of family..."
Seeing the two Kushinas hugging and crying, Minato's hand holding the kunai horizontally couldn't stop trembling. His eyes were blank and extremely self-reproachful.
Was my choice really wrong...
Without the mysterious person's help, Kushina, having the Nine-Tails extracted, would surely die. He originally planned to die sealing half of the Nine-Tails and seal the other half into little Naruto. Making him a Konoha hero while also leaving a new Nine-Tails Jinchuriki for Konoha...
But looking at it now... Seeing Edo Tensei Kushina in such agony, that grief so thick it couldn't dissolve, really proved that this choice was very wrong.
As for the parallel world explanation, being skilled in space-time ninjutsu, after a hint and expanding his thinking, he figured it out quickly. The Naruto he met in Roran back then must be the Naruto grown up in a parallel world. His memory seal at that time only sealed other people's memories; he still secretly kept his own...
This was also an important reason why he chose to let little Naruto become the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki with peace of mind. After all, he had seen the grown-up Naruto—cheerful, sunny, seemingly not grown crooked...
Only back then, he mistakenly thought it was the future of one world and worried about disturbing space-time, so he didn't ask about Naruto's upbringing and life in detail. Now looking at Edo Tensei Kushina's appearance, there must be endless bitterness and indelible grievances in it...
Looks like I was really wrong...
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