CHAPTER 2: A Warm Welcome

Hokage Tower, Konohagakure

One Day After the Kyuubi Attack

The crib was uncomfortable.

No, wait. That wasn't fair. The crib was probably perfectly adequate for a normal newborn baby's needs. The problem was that Nick—now Naruto, goddammit—wasn't a normal baby, and his adult consciousness trapped in this tiny, squishy body reminded him of that fact with every passing second.

One day.

He'd been exactly one day in this world. One full day since Truck-Sama—in its giant transforming robot form—had blown his head clean off. One day since ROB had tossed him into this place without an instruction manual. One day since he'd been reborn in the middle of a ninja apocalypse. One day dealing with the reality of being a conscious infant.

And honestly? This was exhausting.

Technically, he'd cried. A lot. He'd screamed until his tiny throat hurt. But all of that had been involuntary—automatic reactions from an infant body overloaded with stimuli, not the screams of existential frustration he actually wanted to let loose.

He found himself lying in a crib inside what he assumed was a room somewhere in the Hokage Tower—though he couldn't be completely certain without external confirmation. The furnishings were spartan but functional: the crib where he lay, a small changing table, some cabinets, and a window that gave him a perfect view of Konoha's night sky. And, of course, the two small warm shapes squeezed next to him, sharing his limited space.

Much calmer than yesterday, that was for damn sure.

He, on the other hand, was far more concerned.

Turns out it takes some time—who would've guessed?—for the adult mind of a bodysnatching baby reincarnator to adapt to the transition.

Sure, he knew babies are practically blind at birth. He'd read about it. The dulled senses, the underdeveloped nervous system, all that. But knowing something academically versus experiencing it?

Two completely different things.

What had happened during his birth—that sensory hell of pressure, pain, blinding lights, distorted sounds, and the absolute terror of existing without control over his own body—had been MUCH, MUCH worse than he'd ever anticipated. And that wasn't even counting all the stress from feeling Kurama rampaging through the village while he couldn't do absolutely anything about it.

Worse than when Truck-Sama blew his head off with a plasma cannon shot. At least that had been instantaneous.

Fortunately—and here came the awesome part of this whole mess—his eyes had started working properly. Not immediately after birth, obviously. That would've been too convenient. No, he'd had to wait until after the Kyuubi sealing, after the chaos, after passing out from stress and pain. But when he finally woke up, probably a couple hours after all that hell…

Celestial Vision

That was the pretentious name he'd given his custom Dōjutsu, and he had to admit: it was absolutely glorious.

Well, after the initial migraine that almost made him pass out again. But that had progressively diminished—regeneration at work, probably, or just his brain adapting to process information no baby should be able to handle.

And now he could see.

Not just see like a normal human. He could see everything.

Chakra patterns interwoven in the walls—not in the walls themselves, but on them. Seals. Dozens of security seals woven in complex layers that his mind couldn't decipher yet but that glowed with contained energy. Made sense, he supposed. If he really was in the Hokage Tower, one of the most protected places in the village, it would be ridiculous not to have it covered in defensive seals.

The air currents moving through the room. The tiny dust particles floating in the ray of moonlight coming through the window. And most fascinating of all: his own chakra network, still underdeveloped and slowly expanding like the roots of a newly planted tree.

He'd been mesmerized watching it for what were probably hours. Each time an adult passed nearby, he could see their networks too—complex, interwoven, massive compared to his. It was like comparing a sapling to a centuries-old oak.

Fascinating.

Terrifying.

And completely useless in his current situation.

His philosophical musings about chakra systems were abruptly interrupted by a sound.

Guuu~

Nick—Naruto, shit, he had to get used to that name—turned his head with the limited range of motion his body allowed him.

It wasn't him. It was the little blonde to his right, making those noises that babies apparently make when they're awake and bored.

As soon as his eyes started working properly, he'd finally been able to see them clearly. His crib companions. The two small forms who'd been sharing his space since… well, since the beginning.

More specifically, shortly after waking up and as soon as he'd stopped crying like a little bitch —from the migraine, from having survived, from the absolute insanity of his situation, and yes, probably also because he'd literally shit himself at some point during birth since his body had not even the slightest motor control—one of the first things he'd noticed with his new vision was their presence.

To his left: a little redhead.

Hair bright red like fresh blood, delicate features even in her newborn state. She slept peacefully at the moment, breathing softly and steadily. Of the two, this one was definitely the calm one. Barely moved. Occasionally made small noises in her sleep, but generally was as peaceful as a baby could be.

To his right: a little blonde just like him.

Apparently in the Naruto world all babies were born with well-developed hair instead of the usual lanugo of babies in his own world. Because of course, why not? Anatomical logic was clearly optional in anime universes.

And this little one…

Oh, this little one was clearly going to be a problem.

Even now, barely a day old, she wouldn't stop moving. Small restless movements, random kicks, little hands grabbing at air. When she wasn't dozing—which was rarely—she was doing something.

Had to be some kind of cosmic joke. He was the one who supposedly had all the physical enhancements, and yet he could barely move his limbs without feeling exhausted after a few seconds.

This hyperactive little blonde, meanwhile, seemed to have unlimited energy. Pure determination and chaos concentrated in a baby package.

Nick watched her give another useless kick at the air.

Yeah. Definitely going to be a problem when she grew up.

Initially, the existence of these two babies hadn't puzzled him much. Sure, they were surprises —because why not? He was already here, what were two extra babies in the grand scheme of 'my life is now a Naruto fanfic'?

But he hadn't thought much about it.

Not until his tiny brain finally started processing the implications. Connecting the dots. Remembering exactly what things he'd accepted in that CYOA.

And when it did, his tranquility—that little oasis of 'well, at least I survived the first day'—began to evaporate rapidly.

Because not long after, he got information. Information he'd managed to gather in the last few hours while lying here, apparently helpless, while adults came and went.

See, after waking up from the post-sealing faint, after the migraine calmed enough not to want to rip his eyes out, one of the first things he noticed was:

He didn't understand a damn thing people were saying.

Nothing. Not a word. Everything was Japanese.

Once his senses had cleared, he'd been able to hear more clearly the conversations the adults who came in occasionally were having.

He was an avid man of culture who enjoyed anime in his previous life, thank you very much.

He could understand the occasional word—hai, nani, kawaii, sugoi, all those basic words any self-respecting otaku knows—. He could identify when someone was shouting the name of a jutsu or declaring the power of friendship.

But that didn't help him much in understanding complex conversations about village politics, military strategy, or—more relevantly—what the hell was going on with his situation.

Luckily for him, the perks that helped improve his mind were already working hard.

Genius and Prodigious were literally carrying this fight he'd already considered lost and were allowing him to learn the language in record time.

Not perfectly—there were still many words and conjugations that escaped him—but at least he'd reached a point where he was starting to understand the context of what they were saying.

His main benefactor in that regard was, to his pleasant surprise, Kushina.

Kushina Uzumaki.

The new mother who should be deader than Concord at this point in the timeline.

And by Jesus, Buddha, Superman, and even that ROB bastard, he was thankful at that moment for her survival.

Because one of the first things the redhead had done—clearly patched up, because she didn't look like she'd come out of hell after everything that happened, but rather like someone who'd had a rough week—upon seeing him awake was to pick him up and feed him.

It should be noted that he could clearly see the effect of NSFW and the general increase from Bad Tropes in the 'plot'.

The pair this woman was carrying was… generous. Very generous. And definitely not something he could easily ignore, considering his current perspective.

Well, at least breastfeeding would be… abundant.

While all this was happening, Kushina wouldn't stop talking.

And that, ironically, had been his linguistic salvation.

She talked about everything and nothing. About how Naruto—him—had eyes even more beautiful than his father's—bright, almost glowing, impossible to ignore—though he kept that distinctive blonde hair. About how his sisters were so precious. About how she hoped all three would grow up strong and happy. About how the village was in trouble but they'd recover. About how she loved her babies more than anything in the world.

Her voice was warm, melodious even. Genuine. Full of a maternal love that permeated every word.

And him? He'd absorbed every word like a sponge.

Eidetic Memory ensuring that every phrase, every inflection, every speech pattern was perfectly engraved in his mind for later analysis.

Genius accelerating the speed at which he connected patterns and deduced meanings.

Prodigious making the learning process more… natural. Intuitive.

In a few hours, he'd gone from understanding absolutely nothing to comprehending basic conversations.

It wasn't perfect. There was still much to learn. But it was absurd progress for a one-day-old baby.

Of course, nobody knew it. To everyone else, he was just a normal baby making baby noises and needing diaper changes.

Perfect.

Let them keep thinking that.

Of course, not everything could be good.

As he was able to learn later—thanks to fragmented conversations between medical personnel who assumed babies understood nothing—the village had entered some kind of emergency state after the attack ended.

That's why he hadn't seen many people yet beyond Some nurses whose attitude toward him was… suspicious. And rough. Very rough. Enough to start worrying him.

When they carried him, it was with faster and less careful movements than with his sisters. When they changed him, there was a certain… stiffness. As if they were fulfilling an unpleasant obligation instead of caring for a helpless baby.

Their looks were cold. Evaluative. Occasionally fearful.

Kushina, who so far had been nothing but attentive and loving.

Some occasional ANBU who hid in the shadows—invisible to normal eyes—, but he could see their chakra signatures perfectly. Supposedly security guards, but their gazes focused too much on him. Through the masks. With an intensity that made his survival instinct scream danger.

It was an annoying feeling. Like having a target painted on your back that only you could feel.

He even thought he saw Kakashi at some point—he couldn't remember more ANBU in the series appearing with that characteristic gravity-defying silver hair pointing upward—but he couldn't be sure.

He couldn't see through the masks. They had something—a seal? some kind of protection?— that blocked his vision. But surely he could overcome it by training his eyes.

Continuing with the topic: basically everyone was very busy.

Pulling survivors from the rubble. Assessing damage. Counting dead.

Reorganizing defense forces. Treating wounded in the hospital. Verifying that the village barriers remained functional.

All the standard post-apocalyptic chaos after a nine-tailed chakra demon decides to use your city as an amusement park.

But when the situation stabilized a bit—or at least reached a point where things weren't actively on fire—it was time to call a meeting.

An important meeting.

A meeting to which, for some reason he couldn't understand, Kushina was called.

And for an even more incomprehensible reason, he and his two little companions were included in this short trip to the super important meeting that was already taking place.

"Seriously?" Nick had thought while Kushina carried them—all three, in a feat of maternal juggling that seemed to defy physics—through the hallways of the Hokage Tower. "Why do we have to go? Is there daycare in the conference room? Is this 'bring your baby to work day'?" Maybe Kushina simply didn't want to be separated from them after the trauma of the attack.

That would make sense. Fresh maternal trauma and all that.

As much as he tried to ignore it, more and more details pointed to this being a Bad Tropes world. The patterns were too obvious. The coincidences too convenient. Or in this case, too inconvenient.

Upon entering the room, things started getting complicated.

The conference room was large—larger than he expected, honestly—with a long conference table in the center and seats arranged on two distinct sides.

And that's when he saw it.

The division.

On one side: the clan leaders.

He could recognize several of them thanks to his memories from the series.

Fugaku Uchiha, leader of the Uchiha clan. Serious expression, military posture, dark eyes that seemed to be constantly evaluating everything in the room. There was tension in his shoulders suggesting he'd been on the battlefield recently.

Tsume Inuzuka, leader of the Inuzuka clan. Red marks on her cheeks, wild unkempt hair, fierce presence even while seated. A large dog—Kuromaru, if his memory didn't fail him— rested at her feet. And Nick couldn't help but notice that the NSFW effect didn't discriminate— the woman had a figure that definitely didn't appear that way in the original anime. Generous curves that no active kunoichi should have naturally, especially in the chest and rear. Clearly designed to meet the "MILF ninja" standards that Bad Tropes loved so much.

Shibi Aburame with his characteristic high-collared coat covering half his face and those dark glasses that completely hid his eyes.

The Ino-Shika-Cho trio: Inoichi Yamanaka with his platinum blonde hair tied in a ponytail, Shikaku Nara with his black hair pulled back in a high ponytail and an expression that clearly preferred to be sleeping anywhere else, and Chōza Akimichi—large, normally friendly, but visibly exhausted.

Hiashi Hyūga, leader of the Hyūga clan. Pearl eyes with no visible pupils—Byakugan in passive state—and an expression that could freeze hell. Perfect posture. Impeccable traditional kimono. Everything screaming "I have a huge stick up my ass."

And representatives from various minor clans whose names Nick didn't recognize but whose faces showed the same general weariness as the others.

Almost everyone showed some sign of fatigue—visible bandages, slower movements, pronounced dark circles—but there was an iron determination in their postures.

They had defended the village. They had survived. And now they were here for the next steps.

And on the opposite side… Oh, shit.

Oh, shit.

Here was one of the main signs that things were starting to get ugly.

Coupled in such a way that showed their union—shoulder to shoulder, forming a unified front —and ready to exploit the slightest error from the other side, in all their pompous glory:

The Civilian Council

A Bad Trope so common Nick recognized it immediately.

They were exactly as he'd imagined them from every badly written fanfic he'd read: fat merchants in expensive clothes, slippery-looking politicians with fake smiles, half-rate nobles with airs of grandeur.

Each radiating that special energy of "I've never fought a day in my life but I definitely have opinions about how the military should work." Their very presence was offensive.

And in the center of this whole spectacle, but separated in their own category, were:

Danzō Shimura—the damn mummy best known as the root of at least 70% of Konoha's problems in canon—with his cane, his bandages covering half his face, and that "I'm planning something shady" expression that was apparently his natural state.

Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado—those other two vegetables who whenever they appeared in any scene in the series was to complain and give orders without doing anything useful—sitting on either side of Danzō like disapproving gargoyles.

The three elderly advisors. The Hokage's counselors. The supposed sages.

In practice, probably the biggest headaches the Hokage would have to face in the coming years.

Plus a single solitary ANBU standing in a corner, whose mask Nick didn't recognize.

He couldn't even identify what animal it was supposed to be—who really could? Just look at Kakashi, he had the Inu mask and the thing looked nothing like a dog, so clearly the ANBU mask design system was completely arbitrary.

Almost everyone in the room—on both sides—showed some sign of weariness. Expected given the situation.

But the tension…

Shit, you could cut the tension in this room with a kunai.

And of course, the main course couldn't be missing.

Instead of finding a tired Hiruzen Sarutobi leading the meeting—as he'd expect in canon—he could see a young exhausted blonde who was very much alive sitting in the Hokage's chair.

Minato Namikaze.

His new father.

Who, notably, shouldn't be here.

He should be dead. Sealed inside the Shinigami's stomach after a heroic sacrifice to save the village.

But here he was. Alive. With dark circles suggesting the pure stress of leading a Konoha in crisis. Visible bandages under his Hokage haori. But definitely, undeniably alive.

Interesting.

The meeting started formally, and Nick—held in Kushina's arms along with his two sisters in what had to be the world's most uncomfortable maternal image—did his best to follow the conversation.

His newly developed and still-improving language skills helped him follow the general topics:

Casualty count: Too many. Specific numbers Nick couldn't fully catch, but the grim expressions in the room said it all.

Estimated damage: Extensive. Entire sectors of the village destroyed. Critical infrastructure damaged. Reconstruction that would take months, if not years.

Number of wounded in the general hospital: Capacity exceeded. Tsunade had been working nonstop. Other medics too. It wasn't enough.

Active forces inside and outside Konoha: Significantly reduced. Many shinobi dead. Others wounded. The village's defense capability was compromised.

Reports of who did what during the attack: Varied. Acts of heroism. Acts of cowardice. The Uchiha clan had apparently fought on the front lines—something Fugaku mentioned with notable pride—but there were… murmurs. Whispered accusations Nick couldn't fully catch but that clearly involved the Sharingan and the Kyuubi.

Everyone's expressions were somber.

Nick could feel what was going through their minds. Empath wasn't strong enough to read specific thoughts, but the emotions were clear as day: pain, rage, fear, determination, desperation. All mixed in an emotional soup that was palpable even to a baby with adult consciousness.

But you could tell there was a clear distinction between the groups.

The shinobi side certainly showed more concern for the people—especially for people from their own clans, something Nick wouldn't judge them for, it was perfectly natural—and for the village's defense capability.

The civilian side, on the other hand… Oh, these sons of bitches.

They were more concerned about the economic aspect of things. About how it would affect their businesses. About inventory losses. About trade route interruptions. About compensation the government should pay them.

As if the village hadn't just been attacked by a chakra demon.

As if hundreds of people hadn't died.

As if the most important thing right now was the damn money.

Nick hated them instantly.

The trio of old advisors—Danzō, Koharu, and Homura—showed themselves more neutral, preferring to focus on how the incident would reflect on Konoha's reputation as a military power and how enemies would react.

Cold analysis. Strategic. No visible emotion.

Which, honestly, was almost worse than the Civilian Council's open greed. The dead hadn't even been mourned yet, but those three were already planning sabotage missions in other nations so nobody would have the opportunity or time to look toward Konoha.

It was then the breaking point arrived.

The moment when Nick, at last, obtained knowledge of what important Bad Trope had activated upon falling into this world.

With most of the meeting topics finished, both the shinobi side and the civilian side began pressing to know what had caused this incident.

"Was it a coordinated attack from another village?" asked one of the minor clan leaders.

"Do the Uchiha have something to do with this?" murmured someone from the civilian side, not even trying to be discreet.

Fugaku immediately tensed, his expression hardening. "What are you insinuating?"

"Many shinobi detected the Sharingan in the Kyuubi's gaze," said another. "It's a curious coincidence, don't you think?" Oh, shit. Here we go.

The classic "blame the Uchiha for everything" that would eventually lead to the clan massacre in canon.

Except this wasn't canon. This was Bad Tropes Naruto. Which meant everything could potentially be worse.

The tension in the room rose to critical levels. Fugaku stood up, clearly offended. Other clan leaders began murmuring among themselves. The Civilian Council looked satisfied, as if they'd achieved exactly the reaction they wanted.

And then Minato, in what Nick would recognize later as the typical Incompetent Minato from Naruto Bad Tropes move, decided it would be a good idea to spill the beans.

Everything.

"The attack was perpetrated by a masked individual with the ability to control the Kyuubi."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twenty-Four Hours Earlier

Secret Location - Outskirts of Konoha

Minato Namikaze had faced many things in his life.

He'd fought in the Third Shinobi War. He'd earned the title "Yellow Flash" by killing a thousand enemies in a single day. He'd faced the Raikage in direct combat. He'd been named Fourth Hokage of Konohagakure.

But nothing—nothing—had prepared him for this.

For standing in a secret room, protected by the most powerful barriers he could create, watching his wife give birth while simultaneously suppressing a nine-tailed demon that threatened to break free at any moment.

"Breathe, Kushina," he said in a strained voice, maintaining the suppression seal active with one hand while with the other he held his wife's hand. "It's almost over."

"Easy for you to say," Kushina gasped between contractions, her red hair stuck to her forehead with sweat. "You're not the one—agh—expelling tiny humans from your body."

Despite the situation, Minato smiled slightly. Even in the most vulnerable moment of her life, Kushina was still… Kushina.

"First baby coming out," announced Biwako, the midwife and wife of the Third Hokage, with expert hands guiding the process. "Come on, Kushina, one more push." Kushina screamed—a primal, visceral sound—and then:

Waaaaaah~

A baby's cry filled the room.

"It's a girl," Biwako said with a smile, quickly cutting the umbilical cord with surgical precision.

"Healthy and strong."

Minato felt his heart expand in a way he didn't know was possible. His daughter. His first daughter.

Bright red hair like Kushina. Small clenched fists. Crying with all the strength her tiny lungs allowed.

Perfect.

Biwako placed her hands over the baby, green medical chakra glowing as she performed the basic diagnosis—checking vital signs, lung function, circulation. All the standard procedure to ensure the newborn was completely healthy.

"All vital signs normal," Biwako reported with satisfaction, before handing the baby to Taji, her assistant. "Take her, clean her and finish the final checks. The second one is coming soon."

Taji nodded, taking the little one carefully and moving away toward the prepared area for the cleaning process.

Minato had originally considered bringing a full ANBU squad for additional security, but it so happened that his master had arrived in the village just in time. Jiraiya had been reporting after an unsuccessful attempt to gather information about his wayward ex-teammate. Apparently he'd heard rumors of strange movements in Ta no Kuni involving them, though nothing concrete had come from the investigation.

When Minato had mentioned the delivery date, Jiraiya had insisted on being present. "You think I'm going to miss the birth of my godchildren? Not even dead, Minato."

And honestly, Minato preferred having Jiraiya—one of the legendary Sannin and practically his father figure—over a possibly compromised ANBU squad and risking the information leaking more easily to a certain mummy.

Taji returned with the freshly cleaned baby wrapped in a soft blanket. But Kushina and Biwako were already preparing for the next round, and Minato was still busy containing the Kyuubi's seal.

"Give me the girl," said Jiraiya, approaching with extended arms to Taji. "Come here, little one.

Uncle Jiraiya's got you."

The legendary Sannin, writer of perverted novels and master spy, held the baby with surprising gentleness. His usual expression of carefree pervert had been replaced by something softer. More… human.

"Mito," said Kushina between gasps, her voice weak but firm. "Her name is Mito. Like Grandma Mito, dattebane."

Minato could feel a pang of emotion from Kushina upon saying that. Mito Uzumaki had been important to her—more than just a clan relative. In all the years Kushina had spent in Konoha, Mito had been her anchor, her connection to her Uzumaki heritage. The relationship between them had been similar to grandmother and granddaughter.

Plus that closeness had also created a bond between Kushina and Tsunade simply from years of coexistence. The granddaughter of Mito and the young Uzumaki who needed guidance.

"She has your temperament, Kushina," Jiraiya observed with a smile, watching how little Mito was already waving her little arms with determination. "Look at her. Already protesting."

"Of course she is," Kushina gasped with an exhausted smile. "She's my daughter. She's going to be strong, dattebane."

"Second baby coming," warned Biwako, repositioning herself. "Get ready." The process repeated. More screams. More effort. And then:

Waaaaaah~

"This one looks like you, Minato," Biwako announced with a smile, cleaning the second newborn.

Bright blonde hair. Like Minato. But the facial features—the shape of the face, the small gestures—were definitely Kushina's.

Since their first daughter had already been named Mito—at Kushina's request—this second charm would be called Naruko, their little roaring light.

Biwako repeated the diagnostic process, her hands glowing with medical chakra as she checked vital signs. Satisfied, she handed the baby to Taji for cleaning.

"Tsunade," Biwako called, turning to where the blonde woman was standing—as far as possible from the blood. Unfortunately this was a problem they were still trying to fix. "Can you…?"

Tsunade hesitated for a moment. Minato could see the tension in her shoulders, the way her eyes avoided looking directly at the blood on the sheets.

But then she squared her shoulders, took a breath, and approached when Taji returned with clean Naruko.

"Give me the girl," she said in a firm voice, extending her arms.

When Taji placed the baby in her arms, something changed in Tsunade's expression. The tension softened slightly. Her eyes—normally so cold and calculating when entering medical mode—became warmer.

"Are you going to give your mother as much trouble as she gave me and Grandma Mito?" she murmured, almost to herself.

Kushina was too busy bringing out her third child to answer as she normally would.

Those were baby steps. The process of helping her with her trauma wouldn't be easy. The Third had done wrong in leaving her alone with all her problems. But Minato felt a spark of hope. Maybe this would help Tsunade. Maybe having something to fight for again—someone to protect—would pull her out of the spiral she'd been in since Dan and Nawaki's deaths.

Tsunade's presence at this moment was possible thanks to as soon as he assumed his position as Hokage, Minato had begun implementing important changes throughout the village structure. The Third had been very conservative in how he ran Konoha, and Minato wanted to take advantage of these moments of peace between the villages to improve everything he could. So one of the first things he did was order his master Jiraiya to go find and bring the woman with great personality back to the village, even if kicking and screaming was necessary.

Minato wasn't Hiruzen Sarutobi. While he could understand and sympathize with Tsunade's situation, he wouldn't coddle her like the Sandaime was doing. Tsunade Senju was a valuable resource for the village and he couldn't let her waste away getting drunk after losing all her money in some backwater casino somewhere in Hi no Kuni.

Under the threat of being declared a rogue ninja, a very angry Tsunade accompanied by a cheerful Shizune and a notably beaten Jiraiya arrived in Konoha. Minato had to tread carefully around her for a while, but luckily for him, Kushina—who was also the one who insisted Tsunade come to the delivery despite knowing Tsunade's problems with blood—had smoothed things over. Plus, of course, the blonde woman had already vented some of her bad mood on her dear sensei.

Nngh—!

Minato's thoughts were interrupted by a pained groan from Kushina.

"I think the last one's coming," she gasped, her face soaked with sweat.

"Rest a moment, Kushina," said Biwako, repositioning herself. "The last one is always the hardest."

Minato squeezed his wife's hand, feeling how she trembled with exhaustion.

"You're doing amazing," he told her softly. "You're the strongest woman I know."

"Damn you, Minato," she gasped, but there was a smile on her face. "This is your fault."

"I know," he admitted with a small laugh. "And it was completely worth it."

The next few minutes were more tense. The third baby seemed larger. Kushina was exhausted. And Minato could feel how the Kyuubi's suppression seal began to weaken with each contraction.

Hold on, he thought, dividing his concentration between maintaining the seal and supporting Kushina. Just a little more.

Finally:

Waaaaaah~

"A boy," announced Biwako, already starting to check him with Taji's help. Her hands glowed with medical chakra, quickly verifying vital signs. "Kushina, do you want to hold him? You already missed two chances while Minato had to hold the seal."

"Yes," Kushina whispered, extending her trembling arms. "Give him to me."

Biwako, satisfied with the initial diagnosis, carefully placed the baby in his mother's arms.

Minato watched his son—his only son among three—being cradled by Kushina. Blonde hair like him. Facial features that promised to be a perfect mix of both parents.

Complexion that, even as a newborn, seemed more robust than his sisters'. He'd definitely be bigger when he grew up.

"My Naruto," Kushina murmured, tears forming in her eyes as she hugged the baby against her chest. "My precious baby."

Minato felt something expand in his chest. A warmth he couldn't describe with words.

Three children. Three new lives. Three responsibilities he'd protect with every fiber of his being.

He momentarily diverted his gaze to where Jiraiya and Tsunade were standing a bit farther away, still saccharine with the two babies. Jiraiya making ridiculous faces trying to make Mito smile. Tsunade holding Naruko with an expression Minato hadn't seen in years— something soft, something hopeful.

They were positioned relatively close to the path Biwako and Taji would have to take to bring Naruto and clean him properly, but far enough to give Kushina and Minato space.

It was a perfect moment.

A moment of absolute peace.

"Kushina," said Biwako gently, approaching. "I need to take him to clean him properly and finish the complete check. Since there are no more babies on the way, I can do it myself." Kushina hesitated, clearly not wanting to let go of her son, but finally nodded reluctantly.

"Take care of him," she murmured, handing Naruto to the midwife.

"Of course," Biwako promised with a warm smile.

Minato watched them leave—Biwako carefully holding Naruto, Taji walking at her side— toward the cleaning area.

Right at the midpoint.

Passing close to where Jiraiya and Tsunade were with the twins.

But then, without any kind of warning.

Without sound.

Blood splattered everywhere.

A crimson spray burst in all directions, staining the walls, the floor, and—Tsunade.

Thud-Thud

Two bodies fell simultaneously.

Biwako and Taji. Both cut with surgical precision. Dead before hitting the ground.

And standing where they'd been a second before, holding a crying baby:

A figure with a mask and a robe covering his entire body.

Everything happened in less than a second.

Minato reacted on instinct, already moving, but the masked man was faster.

He retreated several meters in a single fluid movement, placing distance between himself and everyone else. A kunai appeared in his free hand, the tip pressing dangerously close to Naruto's neck.

"Back off, Hokage," said the masked man, his voice male and clear. "One more step and the child dies."

Minato froze mid-movement, every muscle in his body tense as a spring.

Jiraiya had also tensed, clearly wanting to act, but he held Mito in his arms. And Tsunade…

Tsunade was paralyzed. Completely frozen. Blood splattered on her face, on her clothes. Her eyes wide with horror. Her hemophobia activating at the worst possible moment.

"Heh," the masked man noticed the situation. "How convenient."

"Who are you?" Minato demanded, keeping his voice steady despite the panic he felt. "What do you want?"

"Who am I?" The masked man tilted his head slightly. "That doesn't matter. What matters is this:" He moved the kunai a millimeter closer to Naruto. "Step away from the jinchūriki. Now."

Kushina gasped in pain, her hand flying to her stomach. The stress of the situation was making the seal loosen even more.

"Don't you care about your son's life?" The masked man brought the kunai even closer. A drop of blood appeared where the tip touched the baby's delicate skin.

"Wait!" Minato raised his hands, trying to buy time. "Calm down. We can talk about this."

"I'm completely calm," the masked man responded with chilling coldness. "Are you?"

Jiraiya, with Mito in his arms, began slowly backing away. He grabbed Tsunade—who was still frozen—with his free hand and dragged her backward. He couldn't attack. Not with the babies so close and in danger. Not with Tsunade defenseless.

The masked man observed all this with apparent satisfaction.

And then, without further words, he threw Naruto upward.

The baby flew through the air.

And the masked man raised his hand, kunai pointing upward, positioned perfectly so that when Naruto fell—

He'd be impaled.

Minato moved.

Faster than he'd ever moved.

Pure instinct—no, more than instinct, pure desperation—he appeared in the air, grabbed his son, and landed several meters away in a defensive position.

But even as he landed, he felt it.

The unmistakable sound of explosive seals activating.

In the blanket wrapping Naruto.

There was no time to think. No time to calculate. The explosion would possibly be strong enough to catch everyone in the room.

Hiraishin

The world twisted.

And Minato appeared in a remote location—one of his multiple emergency teleportation points—throwing the blanket away and jumping in the opposite direction while:

BOOM

The explosion devastated the area where he'd appeared, but both he and Naruto were outside the blast radius.

Minato landed on one knee, holding his son against his chest, frantically checking him for injuries.

There was nothing. Not a scratch. Just a small superficial cut where the kunai had touched his skin.

"You're okay," Minato gasped, his heart beating like a war drum. "You're okay, you're okay, you're okay…"

But his mind was already processing.

The masked man's objective hadn't been to kill Naruto. It had been to separate him from Kushina.

And now Kushina was in a precarious position. Weak. Vulnerable. With the Kyuubi's seal loosening.

"Shit," Minato whispered, teleporting once more and appearing inside a house, then quickly placing Naruto in an improvised crib—a small safe room he'd prepared specifically for emergencies, sealed with protections.

He had to go back. He had to protect Kushina. He had to—

Hiraishin

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

POV Change: Jiraiya

Jiraiya didn't know what he'd done wrong in his past life.

One moment he was enjoying a small family interaction. Holding his newly born goddaughter, making ridiculous faces trying to provoke a smile on that wrinkled little face, feeling something warm and stupidly sentimental expanding in his chest. Moments like this were rare for him—extremely rare—in a life of constant movement through the elemental nations there wasn't much time for these things. Spy work was simply like that. You never stayed still. You never got attached.

And the next second, everything went straight to hell.

Now he was standing in the middle of a blood-stained room, holding a crying baby in one arm, with Tsunade paralyzed at his side—completely frozen, her eyes fixed on the blood splattered on her face and clothes—and the bodies of Biwako-sama and Taji on the floor.

Dead.

Murdered in the blink of an eye.

Jiraiya didn't know how he was going to give that news to the old man. Hiruzen had been married to Biwako for decades. He loved her. And now…

Shit.

Tsunade hadn't moved. Not an inch. She still held Naruko firmly—luckily she hadn't dropped her upon entering shock—but otherwise was completely absent and lost in her trauma.

Jiraiya had known this would come back to bite them in the ass eventually. He'd known.

But he never thought it would be at such a critical moment.

Minato had just disappeared—Hiraishin activated in a yellow flash—taking Naruto with him. That masked bastard had filled the baby's blanket with explosive seals, and Minato had reacted fast enough to save them all from being caught in the explosion.

Jiraiya could only hope both were alright.

But that left him in a significant predicament.

It didn't take a tactical genius to understand the situation. That damn masked man clearly wanted Kushina. He'd used the baby to get Minato out of the way. And now the only thing left between that son of a bitch and the weakened jinchūriki was Jiraiya—with a baby in his arms —and a paralyzed Tsunade at his side.

The odds weren't exactly in Jiraiya the Gallant's favor today.

His mind worked at a thousand per hour, trying to formulate some kind of plan, some strategy that didn't end with everyone dead or worse, when the enemy moved.

Fast.

Too fast.

A chain of hand seals executed with dizzying speed—professional, practiced, lethal—and then…

"Katon: Bakufu Ranbu!"

A giant wall of spiraling fire roared toward them, consuming the air itself, turning the room into an instant furnace.

Jiraiya reacted on pure instinct.

He threw himself toward Tsunade, yanking her roughly against him, and released his own jutsu without even thinking about the seals.

"Ninpō: Hari Jizō!"

His hair exploded outward hardening, extending, forming a protective dome around the four of them—him, Tsunade, and the two babies. He poured all the chakra he could into the technique, reinforcing it beyond normal, praying it could withstand the impact.

The heat was instant and intense.

Even from inside the hair barrier, he could feel the temperature skyrocket. The air became heavy, suffocating. The flames roared outside like a living beast, trying to consume everything in their path.

Even the babies could feel the danger if their cries were any indication—shrill, terrified, the kind of instinctive crying that comes when something fundamental in your lizard brain screams danger—.

Jiraiya grimaced, adjusting his grip on Mito while beginning to mentally prepare for the counterattack. As soon as the fire ceased, he needed to move. Attack. Do something.

It would be very helpful if he could pass Mito to Tsunade, but even after all this—the attack, the danger, the flames—she still wasn't reacting. She still held Naruko firmly, which was something at least. The baby was crying in her arms, but Tsunade hadn't dropped her.

Small victories.

Jiraiya managed to make a short sequence of seals with one hand—clumsy, awkward, but functional—while holding Mito against his chest with the other arm.

Kebari Senbon. Hardened hair projectiles. Fast, multiple, difficult to dodge. Perfect for creating pressure and forcing the enemy to at least retreat.

The fire ceased.

Jiraiya dropped the hair barrier and prepared to attack— And there was nothing.

The masked man was nowhere to be found.

Only the charred room remained in the direction where they'd been standing. Blackened walls. Smoking floor. Air still distorted by heat.

But the enemy had vanished.

The realization didn't take long to arrive.

"Kushina!" The shout came out before he could stop it, sharply turning his head to where— until just seconds ago—the young mother had been lying.

The ritual platform they'd used to facilitate birth while containing the Kyuubi's seal was completely empty.

No traces of the redhead.

No signs of struggle.

Simply… empty.

A scream of frustration threatened to escape his throat, but Jiraiya contained it with effort. The babies were already upset—terrified by the fire attack, crying with that intensity only newborns could achieve—. He didn't want to make them worse.

He breathed deep. Forced his mind to calm. To think tactically instead of reacting emotionally.

Minato needed to know. Hiruzen needed to know. The village needed to— Flash.

A yellow flash interrupted his thoughts.

Minato appeared in the middle of the room, his expression more serious than Jiraiya had ever seen him. Not even during the war. Not even when they'd been surrounded by fifty Iwa shinobi with no apparent escape route.

His blue eyes moved quickly—assessing the scene in less than a second—. The empty platform where Kushina had been. The charred room. Jiraiya and Tsunade standing in the middle of the disaster, some areas still smoking, Jiraiya's hair still showing burn marks in several parts.

"Minato, I'm sorry, I couldn't—"

"Sensei," Minato's voice interrupted him. Calm. Controlled. Too controlled. "I need you to return to Konoha as fast as possible."

Jiraiya blinked, disconcerted. "What? But Minato—"

"Kushina is marked." Minato began walking toward them while speaking, his movements precise and efficient. "I left a hidden Hiraishin seal on her. Months ago. Emergency protocol." Of course he had. Minato was many things, but careless wasn't one of them.

"We need to hurry," Minato continued, now close enough to start checking the girls. His hands moved over Mito first, quickly checking for any sign of injury or damage from the fire attack. "I have to go rescue her. But someone has to return to the village and warn Hiruzen-sama of the situation."

He found Mito unharmed—scared and crying, but physically fine—before gently taking her and moving to where Tsunade was still frozen, holding Naruko.

"But I don't have a seal on him," said Minato as he checked the little blonde. "And I don't have time to go get him. Every second counts."

Then, carefully but firmly, he took Tsunade by the shoulder—she didn't react, still lost in her trauma—clearly preparing to leave.

"I'll take the girls and Tsunade with Naruto," he explained, his voice maintaining that calm tone Jiraiya recognized as Minato's way of handling extreme crisis situations. "In her current state, she won't be much help to us. And the girls will be safer in the sealed location." That made a lot of sense.

But that meant…

"I'm entrusting this mission to you, sensei." Minato's eyes met Jiraiya's—and for a moment, just a moment, the mask of professional calm cracked enough for Jiraiya to see the real fear underneath. "There's no time to lose."

And without further explanation—without waiting for an answer—Minato activated the Hiraishin.

Flash.

He disappeared.

Taking the sisters, the paralyzed Tsunade, and leaving Jiraiya alone in the destroyed room with the bodies of Biwako and Taji still on the floor.

For a moment—just one—Jiraiya allowed himself to feel the weight of everything.

Then he squared his shoulders.

"Don't worry, Minato," he murmured to himself, already turning toward the exit. "You can leave this in my hands."

And without hesitating another second, he launched himself toward Konoha at maximum speed.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ROOOOAAAAAR!

The roar shook the air—primal, ancient, filled with a hate so pure you could feel it in your bones—followed immediately by a massive claw swipe that passed centimeters from where Jiraiya had been a second before.

The building on which he'd been standing didn't have such luck.

The three-story structure—probably a shop with apartments above—exploded in a rain of splintered wood and pulverized stone under the force of the blow.

"Now, boys!" Jiraiya shouted while landing on another roof, Ma and Pa already positioned on his shoulders.

"Senpō: Goemon!"

Boiling oil came from his mouth. Fukasaku's pressurized wind atomized it. And Shima's flames ignited it—creating a storm of liquid fire that roared toward the Kyuubi with an intensity that would have melted steel.

The objective wasn't to do real damage. That would be impossible. The Kyuubi no Yōko was a force of nature contained in physical form. No, the objective was simple:

Keep its damn attention.

And it worked.

The demonic fox roared again—angrier this time, if that was possible—and its nine tails whipped violently, dispersing the liquid fire before it could do more than singe its orange fur.

But it had distracted it.

That was enough.

Hiruzen appeared from the other side—fast and precise—with Enma transformed into the Kongōnyoi, the adamantine staff extended to an impossible length. The blow connected directly with the Kyuubi's side, and the pure impact—reinforced by the Sandaime's chakra and Enma's indestructible force—was enough to make the beast retreat.

Retreat.

Move away from the destroyed urban zone.

Toward an uninhabited, forested area on the outskirts.

So much effort just to achieve this.

"Jiraiya-boy," said Pa, his voice more tense than usual. "We can't keep doing this much longer. We're running out of chakra."

"I know," Jiraiya gasped, feeling exhaustion in every muscle of his body.

The situation was an absolute disaster.

When Jiraiya had rushed out from the delivery location—following Minato's orders to warn Hiruzen—he wasn't that far from Konoha. And he wasn't an S-class shinobi for nothing. He could move fast when needed.

But midway, he'd felt it.

That bloodlust. That chakra that distilled pure negativity—ancient, malevolent, wrong on a fundamental level that made every survival instinct scream flee.

The Kyuubi.

Released.

Which meant Minato hadn't managed to arrive in time where Kushina was. Or he'd arrived but hadn't been able to stop whatever the masked man was doing.

Either option was bad.

Jiraiya had forced himself to go faster. Pushing his body beyond reasonable limits. Ignoring fatigue. Ignoring the pain in his legs.

It didn't help him much.

When he finally could start seeing the village in the distance—the walls, the towers, the Hokage Monument—the feeling of oppressive chakra that had been moving away suddenly hit him with all the force of a punch from a drunk Gamabunta.

The direction? Right in the middle of the village.

Needless to say, problems had intensified as fast as an avalanche caused by those damn rock-eaters from Iwa.

Jiraiya hadn't bothered going to look for Hiruzen. The old man was probably already heading to the battlefield. They'd meet there.

And they had met.

In the middle of the most absolute chaos Jiraiya had seen in decades.

Lifeless bodies everywhere. Destroyed houses. Collapsed buildings. Critical infrastructure reduced to rubble. Separated families. Shinobi literally jumping to their deaths hoping to push back the monster that threatened with the destruction of everything they loved.

Without much success.

Chaos in its purest expression.

And Jiraiya didn't even think an hour had passed since he'd separated from Minato.

At some point during the battle—Jiraiya wasn't sure exactly when, everything had become a blur of fire, claws and destruction—the Kyuubi had focused on the Hokage Monument. And it had started charging a Bijūdama.

At that moment, Jiraiya had genuinely thought they were all dead.

That sphere of concentrated black-violet chakra—pure energy enough to erase the entire village from the map—had grown in front of the fox's open mouth until reaching an obscene size.

And then it had fired.

Straight toward Konoha's heart.

But.

The Bijūdama had stopped abruptly. Mid-flight. As if it had hit an invisible wall.

And then it had disappeared.

Teleported.

The explosion that followed—kilometers away, somewhere outside the village—was so massive they could feel the shockwaves from where they were.

Minato.

Minato had arrived at the battlefield.

Jiraiya had allowed himself a moment of optimism. With his student here, maybe they could change the course of the battle. They could suppress the beast. Get it away from the village. Minimize the damage.

But Minato hadn't joined the fight after deflecting the attack.

Something had stopped him. Something had forced him to remain where he was instead of coming to help.

Which meant the fight had dragged on.

And on.

And on.

Until this moment, but the small victory they'd had didn't help much.

Because the creature—once again—began charging another Bijūdama.

And this time there wasn't a Minato nearby to teleport it away from the village.

"Shit," Jiraiya whispered, watching how the sphere of concentrated energy grew in front of the Kyuubi's open mouth.

Too large.

Too powerful.

There was no way to—

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

The shout resonated across the battlefield—amplified by chakra, impossible to ignore—and then:

SLAM

The Kyuubi—with its Bijūdama still half-charged—was crushed downward by the absolutely massive bulk of Gamabunta, the Toad Boss of Myōbokuzan.

And standing on top of his head, haori billowing in the wind, was Minato.

"You were taking your time," Jiraiya murmured to himself, feeling how the tension in his chest eased slightly.

But it didn't last.

As soon as he'd appeared, Minato disappeared again—teleporting along with the Kyuubi to some distant place—and the results didn't take long.

A massive explosion—visible from kilometers away—lit up the horizon.

Sage Mode faded.

Jiraiya's eyes returned to normal as the natural chakra dissipated, leaving him simply as Jiraiya—exhausted, bruised, but alive.

"Thanks, guys," he said, and Ma and Pa disappeared in a cloud of smoke, returning to Myōbokuzan.

Hiruzen appeared at his side a moment later—also exhausted, also covered in dirt and blood —but with that iron determination Jiraiya had seen in his master for decades.

"We have to go help Minato," said Jiraiya.

"I know," Hiruzen responded simply.

And without further words, both shot off toward the direction of the explosion.

Followed by platoons of shinobi—those who could still move, those who still had chakra, those who still had will—ready to fight alongside their young Hokage.

Ready to end this.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

POV Change: TSUNADE

Tsunade Senju was a woman who had been through a lot.

From a very young age she'd known the consequences of shinobi life. During the First Ninja War, she could see how much of her clan was massacred by the village's enemies that her grandfather had founded. Without mercy. Without remorse. Without pause.

Every day someone from her family went out to fight in Konoha's name and the Will of Fire.

They almost never returned.

Her parents included.

But that hadn't dissuaded her from becoming a kunoichi. She wanted to make her grandparents proud. She wanted to be strong enough to protect the loved ones she still had.

Then she was placed under Hiruzen Sarutobi's command in Team 7, where she had to live with a dysfunctional genius with death-related trauma and a loudmouth idiot with inferiority complexes who got into trouble wherever he went.

They managed to thrive against all odds. They overcame their differences. They trained together. They faced countless problems while growing under Sarutobi-sensei's teachings.

Her goal of protecting her family led her down the path of healing. She trained day and night. Spent countless hours studying, learning everything necessary to be able to save all the lives she could.

All while trying to be the best older sister in the world.

But then the Second Shinobi War began.

She and her teammates were deployed to the front. This time she could feel firsthand the horrors of war. She ended many lives. She saved many others. And she failed to save them many times. Many more times than she would have wanted.

The entire Team 7 started carving out a great reputation as elite ninja—students of the Hokage, the best of their generation—. But not all things were good. The already reduced Senju clan kept losing more numbers. And that worried her.

It seemed everyone targeted them on the battlefield.

And her brother's graduation would happen soon.

She hoped he'd stay safe. So as a symbol of luck—when Nawaki finally graduated from the Academy—she decided to gift him the necklace her grandfather had given her as a child—. To show him her pride. Her confidence that he could fulfill his dream of becoming Hokage.

A few days later, during his first mission outside the village, Nawaki died.

His body was unrecognizable.

That was the first time Tsunade felt all her effort had been for nothing. Once again, someone she loved had gone out to fight for the village.

And they'd taken him away.

Tsunade was at one of her worst moments. But war waits for no one. With the support of her friends and the family she had left, she moved forward. Even that picky snake tried to console her in his own way—twisted, awkward, but genuine in his manner—.

The war continued. Her reputation kept growing by leaps and bounds, especially when she was sent to the Suna front to counter that old witch Chiyo and her constant new poisons.

She recovered some of her confidence.

But the war dragged on. Konoha's forces were increasingly scarce, fighting on several fronts simultaneously. That's when Sarutobi-sensei sent her and her two teammates to support the Ame front.

Where they earned their legendary status.

Frankly, people liked to romanticize that battle a lot. The simple fact is they went to Ame, ran into Hanzō of the Salamander, who dragged them across the floor like dirty rags, and let them escape for managing to impress him.

What a way to get legendary status.

After that close encounter with death, sensei gave them time off. The group separated. One of them stayed in Ame training some orphans who'd caught his attention. The other decided to lock himself in a laboratory and continue with his research.

While she decided to stay in the village, spending time with her grandmother and Kushina. Working at the hospital. Looking for new ways to improve ninja medicine.

It was during that time she met Dan.

He was a good man. He shared many of her thoughts and ideals. Both wanted to save more lives on the battlefield. That made her interested in him. And eventually, they developed a relationship.

His constant support and his dream—shared with her late brother—of becoming Hokage made Tsunade want to show him how much he meant to her.

So she decided to give him her grandfather's necklace.

Depositing her faith in someone once more.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Blood

Her hands were completely covered with it.

"STOP! STOP! I TOLD YOU TO STOP!"

Dan was lying on the floor over an ever-growing puddle of blood, the crimson liquid extending relentlessly despite everything she was doing.

"I don't want to die," she heard him say, his voice weak. Too weak. "Not in this place. There are still so many things I want to do."

Tears fell from her eyes without her being able to stop them. "You're not going to die. I'll save you. Please hold on a little longer. I'm already stopping the bleeding."

She tried to give him a smile. To show confidence. To make him believe everything would be alright.

"That… is… good," Dan told her as his eyes closed and his breathing became slower.

And slower.

And slower.

In the end, she couldn't stop the hemorrhaging.

She couldn't save Dan.

She could only stay on the ground, looking at her hands full of blood—undeniable proof of her great failure.

The chūnin accompanying her at that moment had to drag her back to base.

Tsunade returned to Konoha with her newly acquired hemophobia.

Unable to remain at the front, she definitively abandoned the battlefield when the war was still ongoing.

She'd lost everything.

Most of her family had died defending the village's ideals. She herself had given everything of herself. And either way, everything had been taken from her.

Everything was taken away by the village. So it could prosper. The great tree kept growing, watered with the blood of everything she'd once treasured.

So was it really strange she wanted to leave far away? To get away from the place that took everything from her? Was it really bad she'd abandon the place where she'd experienced so much loss?

Tsunade didn't think it was bad.

So she took her things and decided to leave far from the village. Broken. Without any motivation. With the sole desire to drown her sorrows and distract herself from the memories that tormented her.

It was a surprise to her that Shizune—Dan's niece—decided to follow her. She was a good young woman. Surely she saw her state at that moment and was afraid that if she let her go alone, they'd find her dead in some ditch.

The years passed.

The Second War ended. Only for the Third Ninja War to start shortly after. And then in the same way end.

Without her being involved in the slightest.

From time to time she'd return to the village to visit Kushina, but she wouldn't stay long. Her sensei had even tried to convince her to return and fight for Konoha once more.

She simply ignored all his attempts until he gave up.

She thought that would be it.

So she was very unpleasantly surprised when one day a certain perverted toad appeared with orders from the newly named Yondaime Hokage saying her leave period was officially over and she must return with immediate effect to the village.

Or she'd be labeled a Nukenin.

Needless to say she wasn't very happy with the news. Something the own Jiraiya could feel firsthand.

The three returned to Konoha together. Even if she'd calmed down a bit during the trip, she still planned to show that blonde brat who she was. Let's see if he still wanted to give her orders after having his balls ripped off.

Unfortunately for her, Minato was quite cunning. He managed to constantly avoid her and sent Kushina to make a dent in her bad mood.

The situation repeated until he noticed he could be in the same room as her without being attacked.

That's when he showed her the reason he'd forced her to return.

A permanent ninja medical corps.

The proposal she and Dan had tried to implement so many times. And which had always been rejected by her own sensei and his advisors.

She was tempted to refuse out of pure spite. But this was something Dan would have wanted. Something that could have saved her brother.

As much resentment as she held toward the village, she simply couldn't refuse this opportunity.

She owed it to Dan. To Nawaki. And to herself.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Damn you, Kushina!

Tsunade complained to herself.

Some time had already passed since that meeting with Minato where he'd offered her something she'd tried to achieve for years. The project itself hadn't started yet. The village had recently come out of war, so it would take time for the new Hokage to gather necessary resources and approve the laws that would help everything move forward.

But she could be patient. Minato didn't make false promises. And she could see he was really working hard to implement the program.

Which led to her current situation.

"AAAAAAGH!"

Kushina's scream resonated in the room, making Tsunade grimace.

She was in a place far from Konoha, observing—from a prudent distance—Kushina's birthing process.

The redhead woman had simply appeared one day at her house, asking—demanding—that she attend her delivery.

"You're family, dattebane," is what the future mother had told her while a curious Shizune had her hands on her notorious stomach, trying to feel the babies' kicks. The small squeals of excitement she occasionally let out were proof of her success.

"Are you an idiot?" Tsunade had asked her. "Did you forget about my hemophobia?"

"The fact they forced me to go to sessions with the Yamanaka doesn't mean I'm cured," she'd added in a firm tone.

That was something she'd agreed to after much pleading from Shizune and Kushina. Tsunade had a weakness for people who genuinely cared about her.

In the end she had no choice but to accept Kushina's request. The woman refused to leave her house without Tsunade accepting to be at that important moment for her.

And here was the result.

Tsunade standing far enough to avoid direct blood, but close enough to see everything and hear the suffering screams of childbirth.

She was tense. Very tense. She could still see the blood from here. But at least she hadn't paralyzed.

Those sessions with the Yamanaka were working.

Slowly. But working.

Time passed and the first girl was born. Kushina and Minato had already chosen names, so Tsunade already knew the first girl born would be called Mito.

In memory of her grandmother.

From what she could see before they took her away to clean her, she was even a redhead.

It wasn't long before they brought her back. Kushina was already going into labor again, so Biwako-sama was completely focused on her. And Minato was suppressing the Kyuubi, so almost everyone was busy.

Jiraiya didn't hesitate to offer to hold her.

Tsunade showed a small smile seeing the goofy face he made while looking at the baby.

She couldn't blame him. She was certainly very cute.

"AAAAAAGH!"

Another scream from Kushina.

Looks like the next baby's on the way, she thought, seeing how things intensified again.

The second baby didn't take much longer to be born either. Kushina didn't know how lucky she was getting. This one looked more like Minato. Naruko, if she remembered correctly.

The little one went through the same procedure as her older sister.

But suddenly, while watching Kushina prepare for the last round, Biwako-sama called her.

"Tsunade."

She immediately focused her attention on her.

"Can you…?"

She hesitated. Just for a moment. She didn't want to fail Kushina.

So she squared her shoulders. Took a breath. And approached when Biwako-sama's assistant brought the baby.

"Give me the girl," she said, extending her arms to take her. And as soon as she had her in her arms, she relaxed a bit.

While looking at the little one, she couldn't help old memories surfacing. She'd once held Nawaki the same way the day he was born.

"Are you going to give your mother as much trouble as she gave me and Grandma Mito?" She asked the little one half-jokingly.

She moved to where Jiraiya was standing—still playing with little Mito—to give them space. Kushina still had one last fight tonight, and Tsunade didn't want to be a bother to the poor woman.

At least this time she'd have mercy on her, she thought while continuing to observe the process, occasionally diverting her attention to the baby in her arms.

Little Naruko was quite restless. Especially if she compared her to her sister in Jiraiya's hands. Mito seemed to prefer dozing peacefully while ignoring the silly faces the perverted toad made to get a reaction from her.

Luckily for Kushina, in the end there were no complications. The last baby was born, and after Biwako-sama gave him to her so she could hold him for a while, she asked for him back to complete the procedures herself.

Kushina returned the baby reluctantly.

Biwako-sama began walking with her assistant in their general direction.

Tsunade was about to tell Jiraiya to approach Kushina with the babies when suddenly… She felt something hot splashing her face and clothes.

She looked down.

And saw red.

Then she simply disconnected.

…

…

…

She didn't know what was happening.

The only thing she could see was red.

And the only thing she could feel was that hot liquid covering her.

The image of Dan lying on the floor bleeding out passed through her head.

And she couldn't get it out.

Was it just her or did she suddenly feel warmer?

Was someone holding her?

She didn't know.

She thought she could feel someone near her. And the heat that was getting stronger and stronger.

But Dan's corpse remained in front of her.

Looking at her.

Judging her for not having saved him.

She could only focus on those lifeless eyes looking at her.

And nothing else.

…

…

…

Waaaaaah~

Waaaaaah~

Waaaaaah~

Some loud cries diverted her attention from Dan's empty eyes.

Wait…

Baby cries?

Where were they coming from? Where was she again?

Waaaaaah~

Waaaaaah~

Waaaaaah~

Tsunade's gaze suddenly focused.

Specifically, it focused on a crib in front of her. She could see three babies crying. And a sobbing Kushina trying to console them.

Why did Kushina look so haggard?

Tsunade focused on her violet eyes.

They no longer looked as bright as she remembered.

They looked duller.

Dull like all those fellow shinobi she couldn't save.

Dull like the eyes of disfigured Nawaki looking at her from a cold stretcher in the morgue.

Dull like Dan's eyes as he died in her hands.

Tsunade's heart skipped a beat.

No.

She didn't want it.

She refused to accept this.

She didn't want to see those eyes on Kushina.

She refused to let them take someone important from her again.

SHE WOULDN'T ALLOW IT.

"Kushina," she said in a halting voice, regaining clarity even while covered in blood.

The young mother diverted her tearful gaze from her babies with evident surprise.

Tsunade began approaching with increasingly firm steps, her hands glowing intensely in green.

"Forgive me, Kushina," she told her as she finally reached her and placed one hand on her abdomen and the other on her chest.

Kushina could only observe how the seal on Tsunade's forehead began to glow—that diamond on her forehead containing years of accumulated chakra—and seal patterns began manifesting on her skin, extending like glowing roots.

"I'm not going to fail again," Tsunade told her as the glow in her hands intensified even more, medical chakra flowing in quantities bordering on the impossible.

"This time, no matter what happens…"

Her eyes—golden like honey, fierce like fire—locked onto Kushina's with absolute intensity.

"I will save you."

The most intense and determined expression Kushina had ever seen on her.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

POV Change: Minato

Minato Namikaze was not at his best.

After leaving his daughters with the catatonic Tsunade, he'd used the Hiraishin seal hidden on Kushina to go save her. And he'd succeeded… right after the masked man finished releasing the Kyuubi.

From that followed a somewhat problematic chain of events—as Shikaku would describe it— first he saved the village from being blown to hell courtesy of a Bijūdama launched by the fox.

Unfortunately he couldn't do much more regarding that situation because he was immediately attacked by the masked shinobi—an Uchiha, if his suspicions were correct.

They fought, Minato found a weak point in his space-time technique and proceeded to defeat him after marking him with the Hiraishin. He released the masked man's control over the Kyuubi using the Keiyaku Fūin—though that hadn't helped much either considering the beast simply continued making a mess in the village.

And then with the masked man out of the picture—temporarily, because the bastard had managed to escape with that damn technique before Minato could finish him off—he returned to the village and saved it from another Bijūdama. Taking the bijū away using Hiraishin and exhausting much of his chakra in the process.

Immediately after he had to get out of the area to avoid the subsequent explosion that would have turned him to ash.

All very heroic. Very efficient. Very exhausting.

And now, while teleporting back to the safe house—mentally preparing for the fact he'd have to seal the Kyuubi in such a way the masked man couldn't release it and throw it at Konoha again—Minato felt the weight of the entire situation pressing on his shoulders like Gamabunta sitting on his back.

The yellow flash dissipated.

And Minato blinked, disconcerted.

He expected to find a dying Kushina—even worse than how he'd left her—and a paralyzed Tsunade in the same place, still lost in her trauma.

What he found was…

"What are you doing standing there wasting time, Minato?" Tsunade's voice—cheeky, firm, completely present—snapped him out of his stupor. "Your wife and your children need you and you're standing there like a statue?"

Minato observed the situation before him.

Tsunade was standing next to Kushina—still covered in dried blood, her clothes stained crimson, but her golden eyes shone with that intensity he hadn't seen in years—with the Sōzō Saisei clearly active. The seal on her forehead glowed with green light, patterns extending across her skin like living circuits, and her hands—positioned over Kushina's abdomen and chest—pulsed with medical chakra.

And Kushina…

Kushina no longer looked like she was on death's door.

Not exactly energetic—that would be ridiculous given everything that had happened—but at least she didn't look like a reanimated corpse. Her face had color. Her violet eyes—though tired—had life. And when she looked at him, she gave him a smile.

Trembling, yes. But firm.

"Minato," his wife said in a hoarse but stable voice, "what's the plan? How do we solve the problem we have on our hands?"

For a moment—just one—Minato allowed himself to feel relief.

Then he squared his shoulders and approached, his mind already working on the details.

"I had planned to take Kushina and the babies and bring them to the last point where I left the Kyuubi," he explained, trying not to alarm Kushina with his idea. "I trusted that even in your increasingly weakened state, you could suppress the beast using your Kongō Fūsa and give me enough time to execute the Shiki Fūjin."

Kushina immediately tensed. Tsunade frowned.

"The idea is to divide the fox and separate its soul from its chakra, stripping it of its power," Minato continued, ignoring their reactions for the moment.

He had to explain everything before the protests started. "And then I'd use the Hakke no Fūin Shiki to seal its parts in the babies." Tsunade grimaced.

Minato understood why. Never before had anyone attempted to separate a Bijū, his plan could well be considered an experiment, but he had no other options.

"And also a part in you, Kushina." This last bit… was a desperate attempt on Minato's part.

Kushina had endured childbirth, was wounded by the masked man, and finally her jinchūriki seal ended up completely destroyed. The odds of her surviving the re-sealing process were low.

But fortunately—with Tsunade's apparently miraculous recovery—Kushina was now in much better condition than when he'd left her.

He had more hope that she would manage to endure the process. That maybe—just maybe— tonight they wouldn't leave their children completely orphaned.

"Minato—" Kushina began, but he raised a hand.

"Let me finish." His voice was soft but firm. "The masked shinobi escaped and clearly doesn't plan to stop… as long as he breathes, our children and the entire village will always be in danger."

Minato observed Kushina starting to speak. "Turn our children into jinchūriki?" he heard her say almost in a whisper.

"With an experimental plan you don't even know will work?" her voice began rising in tone more and more.

"And on top of that you want to use the Shiki Fūjin and be tortured for eternity inside the Shinigami's stomach?!" her scream was something Minato was already expecting.

"Kushina—"

"NO!" Tears began forming in her eyes. "I won't allow you to do this! I won't allow you to turn our babies into weapons! I won't—"

"She's right," Tsunade intervened brusquely, her hands still working on Kushina but her eyes locked on Minato. "This is insane. There has to be another way—"

"There isn't." Minato's voice was calm. Too calm. "Believe me, I've been thinking about alternatives since the masked man disappeared. There's no time. There are no options." A tremor shook the ground—distant but present. Followed by a roar that made the air vibrate.

The Kyuubi was still out there. Destroying everything in its path.

"To my regret," Minato finally said, and there was a deep sadness in his voice—a resignation that hurt more than any physical wound—, "that choice is no longer in our hands." The smile he gave Kushina was small and tired.

"I can't ask for someone else's children," he began telling her.

"Demanding other parents do something I'm not willing to do is impossible." Minato held Kushina's gaze with his own.

"And I can't allow the beast to remain free, perpetuating its path of destruction." His blue eyes —normally so warm, so full of life—became hard as steel.

"I'm the Yondaime Hokage. And I have a duty to fulfill." Kushina collapsed.

Not physically—Tsunade still held her with medical chakra—but emotionally, completely.

Tears fell freely down her face as she sobbed, her body trembling with the force of her pain.

"No," she whispered, her voice breaking. "No, no, no…"

Minato approached, kneeling before her, taking her face between his hands with a gentleness that contrasted brutally with the situation.

"I'm sorry," he murmured against her forehead, his own eyes shining with unshed tears. "I'm so sorry, Kushina. If there were another way—any other way—I'd take it, but there isn't."

Tsunade watched all this with an inscrutable expression, her hands still glowing over Kushina, but there was something in her eyes—something old, something painful—that suggested she understood exactly what Minato was feeling.

The weight of choosing who lives and who dies.

The weight of having to sacrifice everything for the greater good.

The weight of the Will of Fire.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Time Skip - Location: Forest East of Konoha

The yellow flash of Hiraishin briefly illuminated the devastated zone.

Minato appeared with the three babies firmly held against his chest and accompanied by Kushina and Tsunade.

The scene before them was… apocalyptic.

Trees uprooted. Massive craters where there had once been solid ground. The air still distorted by residual heat. And in the distance, roaring with primal fury:

The Kyuubi no Yōko.

Minato had expected the beast to try to escape and that they'd have to launch into an impossible chase, spending chakra they didn't have while trying to prevent the demon from destroying another village in its path.

But surprisingly, the fox hadn't moved very far.

He could watch it destroying everything around it—ripping out trees with its tails, firing smaller Bijūdama at random, roaring with a hate so pure you could feel it in the air like physical pressure.

It seemed even now it was still affected by whatever the masked man had used to control it.

"It's time to end this," Minato said, his words directed as much to his companions as to himself.

Apparently the Kyuubi agreed.

The enormous fox had noticed them—red eyes with vertical pupils locking onto their small group—and was already heading toward them in a furious charge that made the earth tremble with each step.

None of them moved.

Kushina breathed deep, centering herself, preparing her chakra despite exhaustion. Tsunade positioned herself slightly forward, her muscles tensing like springs.

Minato simply watched, calculating distances, times, the perfect moment…

"NOW, KUSHINA!"

His order cut through the air just as the Kyuubi was about to reach them.

Tsunade shot upward—a chakra-enhanced jump that launched her several meters in the air— while Kushina reacted immediately.

Hundreds of golden chains exploded from her back.

The Kongō Fūsa—a characteristic jutsu of the Uzumaki clan—fired directly toward the fox like living serpents, wrapping around its legs, its torso, its neck.

The Kyuubi roared—a sound of pure rage—but the chains didn't yield.

More and more emerged, entangling it, restraining it, stopping its advance dead. Other chains began surrounding the area, rising toward the sky and interweaving until they formed an enormous containment dome that enclosed them all.

The beast still hadn't been brought down. It kept fighting against the bindings, its nine tails lashing violently, trying to break the chains with pure brute force.

But that's what Tsunade was for.

"GET DOWN ALREADY, DAMMIT!"

Minato heard her shout as she descended with an axe kick directly on the bijū's head— reinforced with chakra to the point the air itself distorted around her leg—and the impact

was…

Catastrophic

The shockwave shook everything inside the dome. The ground cracked forming a massive crater. And the Kyuubi—the nine-tailed demon, the living calamity, the force of nature—was crushed downward like a puppy being disciplined.

I expected nothing less from her, Minato thought with something like pride as he watched the fox fall.

Kushina didn't waste time. More chains exploded from her back—dozens, hundreds— completely entangling the fallen beast, making sure it couldn't move an inch.

The Kyuubi was completely immobilized.

Minato began approaching where the downed creature was, his steps firm despite fatigue. Tsunade landed near him with an impact that cracked the ground, and without saying a word, she took the three babies from his arms—with a care that contrasted brutally with the violence she'd just displayed.

Everyone knew what came next.

Once near the Kyuubi—close enough to feel the heat emanating from its fur, close enough to see the pure hatred in those crimson eyes—Minato performed a quick sequence of seals and slammed his hands against the ground.

Chakra flowed into the earth.

Three small altars surrounded by complex seals appeared in triangular formation—fuinjutsu patterns so intricate they seemed to glow with their own light.

Minato stood and approached even closer to the beast.

Tsunade, following the plan they'd briefly discussed during the trip, placed the three sobbing babies on the altars. Naruto in the middle—their only son—and his sisters on the sides.

Mito to the left, red hair like Kushina.

Naruko to the right, blonde hair like him.

For a moment—just one—Minato allowed himself to really look at them. Memorize their faces. Engrave this moment in his mind because maybe—probably—it would be one of the last he'd have.

Then he breathed deep.

And began.

His hands moved with a precision born of years of practice—hand seals he'd studied in the forbidden texts, that he'd memorized knowing someday he might need them, praying never to have to use them.

Mi

The air changed. Became heavier. Colder.

Ne

Something unnatural began manifesting—a presence that shouldn't exist in the world of the living.

Hitsuji

Inu

Tori

Uma

Mi

Minato could feel Kushina's gaze burning his back—pain, desperation, resignation, all mixed in a silent plea for him not to do it.

But there were no more options.

He had to do this.

His hands were about to come together—the final seal, the one that would summon the Shinigami and seal his soul for all eternity—when:

"MINATO!"

The loud simultaneous shout from Jiraiya and the Third Hokage stopped him cold.

Minato sharply turned his head, disconcerted.

Kushina had let them into the dome—an opening in the golden chains large enough to allow passage—and there they were: his master and his predecessor, both exhausted, both covered in dirt and blood, but alive.

And behind them, outside the dome, Minato could see hundreds of Konoha shinobi—all observing the situation, all ready to enter combat if necessary, all waiting for orders.

"Sensei," Minato began, keeping his hands in position but not completing the seal, "there's no time for—"

"Undo those seals immediately!" Hiruzen's voice cut through the air like a kunai—hard, authoritative, making it clear this wasn't a request. "I recognize that sequence very well, Minato. What the hell are you doing?"

"Sarutobi-sama, please understand—"

"Explain the plan to us!" Jiraiya demanded, approaching with long strides, his expression more serious than Minato had ever seen him. "The whole plan. Now." Minato hesitated.

Then, seeing he had no choice—and that every second they spent arguing was a second the Kyuubi could try to break free—he quickly explained his strategy.

The Shiki Fūjin to strip the beast of its soul and power. The separation of Yin and Yang chakra. The sealing in his three children. The small portion for Kushina. Everything.

The silence that followed was absolute.

And then Jiraiya violently shook his head.

"No." His voice was firm. Inflexible. "You're not doing this."

"Sensei—"

"NO!" Jiraiya's shout resonated inside the dome.

"Kushina just gave you three beautiful children!" he continued shouting at him.

"Those children need a father! Kushina needs her husband!" He told him while looking at him like he was an idiot.

"And you—you want to condemn yourself to an eternity of torture in the Shinigami's stomach as if that were an acceptable solution?!"

"There's no other way—"

"There's always another way!" Jiraiya moved closer.

"We'll look for one! We'll find someone else to do the sealing! I'll do it myself if necessary! But I won't allow you to throw away your life when you've barely begun living it!"

"Jiraiya." Hiruzen's voice cut through his former student's rising hysteria—calm, measured, but loaded with the weight of decades of leadership. "Enough."

The Sannin turned to his master, clearly prepared to continue protesting, but Hiruzen raised a hand.

"The plan will be executed," declared the Sandaime, and there was a finality in his tone that admitted no discussion.

"Sarutobi-sensei, you can't—" Jiraiya began, but was interrupted.

"The plan will be executed," Hiruzen repeated, his eyes moving from Jiraiya to Minato. "But Minato won't be the one to carry it out." The world seemed to stop.

"What?" The word came out of Minato before he could stop it.

Hiruzen Sarutobi—the Professor, the God of Shinobi, the Sandaime Hokage—walked forward with measured steps. Despite his age, despite the visible exhaustion in every line of his face, there was a dignity in his bearing that reminded why he'd been called the strongest shinobi of his generation.

"I've lived a long life," he began, his voice soft but clear. "I've seen war. I've seen peace. I've trained the next generation. I've made mistakes—too many mistakes—and I've tried to mend them as best I could."

He stopped in front of Minato, looking him directly in the eyes.

"But you, Minato. You are the future. You are what this village needs—not an old man who should have already retired, but a young leader with the strength and vision to guide Konoha toward a new era."

"Sarutobi-sensei—"

"The Will of Fire," Hiruzen continued, ignoring the interruption, "teaches us that those who came before must protect and nurture those who come after. Old trees protect new sprouts from wind and rain, allowing them to grow strong and tall."

His eyes—normally so tired, so full of the weight of his decisions—shone with something like peace.

"I can protect the future," Hiruzen said simply. "I can ensure the next generation has the opportunity my generation almost destroyed with our endless wars."

"No," Minato whispered, feeling something break inside his chest. "You can't—I should—"

"Jiraiya already told you, your children need a father," Hiruzen interrupted gently. "Kushina needs you. And Konoha needs its Yondaime Hokage."

He turned his gaze to where Jiraiya was standing—his student, who had traveled the world seeking the peace he never found, who had lost so much and still kept fighting—and smiled.

"Jiraiya. Take care of them. Make sure they don't make the same mistakes we made." "Sensei…" Jiraiya's voice broke.

"And Tsunade—" Hiruzen sought the blonde woman with his gaze. Her expression inscrutable but her eyes shining with something that might have been respect. "Thank you for returning when the village needed you most. Your grandfather would be proud."

Then, before anyone could protest more—before Minato could stop him, before Jiraiya could throw himself to intercept him—Hiruzen Sarutobi positioned himself in front of the immobilized Kyuubi.

His hands began to move.

Mi—Ne—Hitsuji—Inu—Tori—Uma—Mi

Hiruzen Sarutobi brought his hands together.

The air became icy.

And then it appeared.

The Shinigami—God of Death, guardian of the afterlife, the entity that had existed since before the first chakra—materialized behind Hiruzen as a presence impossible to ignore.

Massive. Ethereal. With a white robe that floated without wind and a grim face, something no mortal eye should see. In its hand: a ceremonial knife that dripped with something that could have been blood or could have been the very essence of death.

Everyone in the dome—even the Kyuubi—became completely still.

The Shinigami's spectral hand passed through Hiruzen's chest—leaving no wound, spilling no blood, but ripping out something infinitely more important.

His soul.

The Sandaime grimaced in pain—a pain that went beyond the physical, beyond anything the body could experience—but his hands didn't stop.

The Shinigami's hand extended.

And reached for the Kyuubi.

The beast roared—a sound of pure terror that shook everything inside the dome—as the spectral hand sank into its massive form and began to pull.

Tear.

Separate.

The Kyuubi's soul—that ancient and malevolent presence that had terrorized the shinobi world for millennia—was ripped from its body with a violence that made reality itself tremble.

And the process began.

Hiruzen, with precise movements despite the unimaginable pain, directed the soul toward Naruto—the baby on the central altar, who had started crying with an intensity suggesting he could feel what was happening.

The Hakke no Fūin Shiki activated.

Complex seals appeared on the baby's stomach—eight trigrams interwoven with Uzumaki patterns, glowing with blue-white light—as the Kyuubi's soul was forced inside.

Then came the chakra.

Hiruzen separated the Yin from the Yang with surgical precision—decades of experience in fuinjutsu being put into practice—and directed each half toward the side altars.

Mito received the Yin—cold, dark, potent chakra—. The seals appeared on her stomach, adapting to her small body.

Naruko received the Yang—warm, vibrant, equally potent chakra—. The same seals manifested, perfectly synchronized with her sister's.

And finally, a small fraction—barely a fragment of the total power—was directed toward Kushina.

She gasped when the chakra entered, her body convulsing momentarily, but Tsunade was there—her hands glowing with Sōzō Saisei, stabilizing her, making sure the process wouldn't kill her.

And then everything ended.

The Shinigami—its work complete—began to retreat, taking Hiruzen Sarutobi's soul with it.

The Sandaime fell to his knees, his face pale, his breathing shallow. Blood began dripping from his mouth—not much, barely a trickle—but enough to know this was the end.

"Sensei!" Jiraiya was at his side in an instant, holding him before he could fall completely.

Hiruzen smiled—a small, tired, but genuinely peaceful smile.

"Jiraiya," he murmured, his voice barely a whisper. "You were always… the most sentimental… of my students."

"Shut up," Jiraiya told him, holding him with a gentleness that contrasted with his size. "I'm not sentimental… just expressive." The sadness in his tone was undeniable.

His eyes then moved to Minato, who had approached—stunned, processing what he'd just witnessed.

"Minato… Yondaime Hokage…" Each word seemed to cost him immense effort.

"Protect… the village. Protect… the future. Don't make… my mistakes."

"Sarutobi-sama—"

"Kushina…" Hiruzen slightly turned his head—barely a movement—toward where the redhead was being held by Tsunade while processing having the Kyuubi sealed inside her again. "Your children… will be… strong. Like you. Teach them… to be… more than… vessels."

"I will," Kushina whispered, tears falling freely down her face. "I promise, Hokage-sama."

"And the children…" A ghostly smile crossed Hiruzen's face. "Mito… Naruko… Naruto… Live… well. Protect… this village… that your parents… love so much." His breathing became more shallow.

Slower.

"The Will of Fire…" he murmured, his eyes beginning to close. "Never… goes out… as long as there's… someone… to feed it…" One last exhale.

And then Hiruzen Sarutobi—the Sandaime Hokage, the Professor, the God of Shinobi, the man who had guided Konoha through three wars and countless crises—became still.

The silence inside the dome was absolute.

Jiraiya held his master's body, tears falling uncontrollably as he trembled with silent sobs. Tsunade had closed her eyes, her expression somber but respectful. Kushina cried openly, her body shaken by emotion and exhaustion.

And Minato…

Minato simply stood, looking at the man who had been his predecessor, who had just sacrificed himself so he could live.

So he could be with his family.

So he could protect the future Hiruzen had valued so much.

"Rest in peace, Sandaime-sama," he finally murmured, his voice breaking slightly. "Your sacrifice won't be forgotten."

A movement caught his peripheral attention.

The three babies.

Minato turned sharply—his father's instinct overriding everything else—and what he saw made his blood freeze.

Naruto—his son, lying on the central altar between his sisters—had begun showing alarming signs.

The whisker marks on his cheeks thickened. Became more pronounced, darker, and his eyes suddenly opened.

Red

Completely red, with vertical pupils that shouldn't be there.

The seals on Mito and Naruko also began to glow—responding to the proximity of the Kyuubi's soul in their brother, resonating with the Yin and Yang chakra sealed inside them.

"Shit!" Minato moved without thinking—pure parental instinct—and grabbed Naruto from the altar, physically separating him from his sisters.

Immediately all effects disappeared.

The marks on Naruto's cheeks returned to normal. His eyes closed again. His sisters' seals stopped glowing.

Everything returned to calm.

But the damage was done.

Minato slowly turned his head—with a horrible premonition sinking into his stomach like lead —toward where there was an opening in the dome of golden chains.

Toward where hundreds of Konoha shinobi had been observing the entire process.

And each one of them—every damn one—had seen what just happened.

They'd seen the marks thicken.

They'd seen the red eyes.

They'd seen the seals' reaction.

The silence outside the dome was deafening.

Minato could see the expressions—shock, fear, understanding, and in some cases… something darker. Something that promised future problems.

I just hope this doesn't cause us trouble, he thought with a bitterness threatening to consume him.

But deep in his soul—in that place where he kept his most honest fears—he knew the truth.

This would cause them problems.

A lot of problems.

And they were just beginning.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Present Time - Hokage Tower

POV: Our Incredibly Handsome Protagonist

Nick—NARUTO GODDAMMIT—could only sulk inside the crib, very annoyed with the situation.

And when he said "sulk," he technically meant his tiny baby hands flailed uselessly in the air while his chubby little face scrunched up in what probably looked adorable to any external observer, but in his mind was an expression of pure indignation.

His father's genius simply went and told everything.

EVERYTHING.

Sure, he was certain there were many details Minato had kept to himself, but the truth was that wouldn't help his little baby ass get saved.

Once Minato finished telling the events of the previous night, the room erupted in total chaos.

Shouting everywhere. "Demon!" "Filthy creature!" "Abomination!" and many other stupidities started coming out—especially from the civilian side, those useless fatsos—as if they had any right to have an opinion in what was a damn military dictatorship.

And who were all those shouts aimed at?

At me.

Only me.

Not my sisters.

Exclusively and uniquely at me. At the one-day-old baby who couldn't even control when he shit his diapers.

Impeccable logic, really.

In an attempt to smooth things over—because apparently Minato had too much faith in the idiots living in this place—Minato had tried to pass off all three of them as the "little heroes" who prevented the big bad fox from crushing them all like ants.

And that worked for him.

Partially.

Very partially.

Mito and Naruko—who at that moment were dozing peacefully at his side, completely oblivious to the political drama unfolding—had the fox's power. For the conference room, the two little babies would be Konoha's future protectors. The ones who'd use the beast's power that almost destroyed them to lead the village to a new era of prosperity.

What the hell were they talking about? What new era?

I could see Naruko sucking her foot right next to me! The girl didn't even know feet were hers yet!

But him—oh, he was a special case.

Apparently that last incident where "the fox possessed his body"—and which had been seen by the Konoha forces present at the sealing—was already spreading like an uncontrolled rumor throughout the entire village.

Which perfectly explained why the nurses kept watching him with that cold look, or why the ANBU tensed every time he cried. Why every person who entered the room averted their gaze from him as if he were a bomb about to explode.

And his blonde idiot of a father had just confirmed those rumors during the meeting.

So now half of Konoha—probably all of Konoha within a few hours, knowing how gossip worked in ninja villages—believed he was some kind of reincarnation of Kurama. Or that the fox had devoured his soul and now inhabited this body, waiting for the perfect moment to regain its powers and finish last night's job.

And Danzō—that damn old bastard with more bandages than common sense—was looking at him suspiciously during the entire meeting. Surely the mummy would be helping spread the rumors. He probably already had plans to "eliminate the threat" or "recruit the weapon" or some other morally questionable shit that would make Orochimaru look like a saint in comparison.

BULLSHIT

Pure and simple bullshit, I tell you.

Nic…Naruto—waved his little arms harder—something that only made him look more adorable —while processing the entire disaster.

Jiraiya and Tsunade present at the birth? I'll buy it. It was possible, nothing far-fetched.

But two damn S-rank ninja and they can't prevent the pink-eyed bastard from taking Kushina? Seriously?

And what the hell with Tsunade? The useless woman spends half the kidnapping paralyzed— completely frozen by her hemophobia, unable to do anything—but decides to grow some ovaries at just the right moment so Kushina doesn't kick the bucket.

How convenient.

How absolutely, ridiculously convenient.

And that's not even counting Hiruzen. The old monkey always—ALWAYS—arrived after Minato already had the Shinigami's hands stuck inside him—yes, I said that totally intentionally.

But today—just today—he decided to move his old ass and arrive two minutes early. Just in time to make the heroic sacrifice. Just in time for the emotional Will of Fire speech. Just in time for everything.

Nick would have growled in frustration if his baby throat were capable of producing anything more threatening than an adorable coo.

First day in this world and it was already showing its teeth.

Everyone else might not notice—blinded by emotion, trauma, or simply being too stupid to connect the dots—but to him it was more than obvious.

Those were too many coincidences.

The Bad Tropes were already showing. And right now it was crystal clear to him what kind of story he was living:

"Naruto is Betrayed and Neglected in Favor of His Sisters."

A genre classic. One of the most common tropes and—in his personal opinion—one of the most lazily written in the Naruto fandom. But here it was. Living the damn cliché in his own flesh.

The truth is at this point the only thing missing was for Jiraiya to fall in with his stupid prophecy brought by the hand of a senile toad who clearly stuck weird herbs in his pipe.

Now that he thought about it…

Tsunade was at the hospital during the meeting—working on the wounded, being useful for once in her recent life—but Jiraiya was nowhere to be found.

Where had the old pervert gone…?

His mental rants—accompanied by physical movements that probably made him look like a baby playing with his own hands—were interrupted when the room door opened.

Nick… —whatever at this point—observed attentively as Minato, Kushina and Jiraiya entered.

His father looked exhausted. Pronounced dark circles. Slightly hunched posture. The Hokage haori wrinkled in several parts. He'd clearly been working nonstop since the sealing.

Kushina on the other hand already looked much better—those Uzumaki genes were really good.

And Jiraiya…

Jiraiya looked somber. Unusually serious. Without his typical perverted smile or carefree attitude.

Which was worrying.

"So what was that urgent thing you needed, Jiraiya-sensei?" Minato asked as he approached the crib, his eyes automatically moving toward the three babies. "I haven't had time for anything and I want to take advantage of the little I get to be with the children."

Kushina nodded at his side, placing a hand on her husband's arm. "You haven't even eaten or slept. If you keep this up you're going to burn out, Minato."

Her husband only gave her a tired smile—the kind of smile that said "I know but I have no choice"—before turning his attention back to Jiraiya.

The Sannin hesitated.

For the first time since Nick had seen him, Jiraiya—Jiraiya the Gallant, one of the legendary Sannin, the man who had traveled the entire world without fear—looked genuinely uncertain about something.

And then he spoke.

"Minato…" Pause.

"The prophecy has changed." Absolute silence.

Minato blinked. "What?"

"The Great Toad Sage's prophecy," Jiraiya repeated, his voice tense. "The one he gave me years ago. The reason I've been traveling, searching for the Child of Prophecy. It's… changed." At these words, the little MC could only do one thing.

FUCK!

"WAAAAAAAAAH!"

The cry that came from Naruto was instant, shrill, and completely full of genuine frustration disguised as baby discomfort.

Everyone in the room immediately turned toward the crib.

Minato and Kushina approached right away—parental instincts activating—while Jiraiya followed them with a worried expression.

"What's wrong, little one?" Kushina murmured, carefully lifting Naruto and cradling him against her chest. "Are you hungry? Does something hurt?"

No, idiot! Let's see how you'd be if everyone was looking to screw you over! "Waaaaaah!"

His sisters didn't take long to join the chorus.

Mito began with soft cries that quickly escalated to full sobs. Naruko—true to her apparent hyperactive personality—jumped straight to screams at full volume while waving her little arms and legs as if having a tantrum.

The chaos was absolute.

And while Minato and Kushina desperately tried to calm the three babies—Jiraiya offering useless help from the side, clearly with no idea how to handle infants—Nick could only think one thing:

This world is already trying to kill me.

Actively.

With malice.

Bad Tropes, I hate you with every fiber of my chubby baby being.

"Shhhh, calm down, calm down," Kushina whispered, gently rocking him. "Everything's fine, Naruto. Mommy's here. Daddy's here. You're safe."

I'm not safe! None of this is fine! I've just been born and everyone already wants to screw me over!

But all that came out was:

"Waaaah… hic… waaaaaah…"

And while he cried—genuinely frustrated, genuinely terrified, but unable to express it in any way the adults could understand—Nick could only think:

I'm going to survive this.

I'm going to dominate this damn Bad Tropes world.

I'm going to get my harem.

And I'm going to make every person who tries to fuck me over regret it.

But first…

First I need to learn to control my sphincters.

Because I just shit myself again.

Goddammit.

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[END OF CHAPTER 2]