"Alright, Kushina. If you notice any signs of the Nine-Tails going berserk, just summon the Wood Release puppet directly."
Kenji rolled up the scroll and handed it to the transport puppet. The round construct tucked it away in its storage compartment, then vanished in a puff of white smoke.
"Let's go find Minato."
With the summoning contract signed, Kushina's entire demeanor changed. She walked with light, confident steps, heading straight toward Training Ground Three like she didn't have a care in the world. The difference was night and day compared to her usual careful movements near the barrier.
Kenji followed a few paces behind, the Wood Release puppet walking silently beside him. After a moment, he spoke up, "You know, Kushina, you're usually stuck at home with nothing to do anyway. Why not try talking to the Nine-Tails? Maybe you could reach some kind of understanding with it."
Kushina whipped around so fast her red hair flew out behind her. Her expression shifted instantly from cheerful to furious.
"Make peace with that fox?! Are you insane?! You have no idea how awful that thing is! Every time it senses me, it looks like it wants to tear me apart! There's no way to communicate with something like that!"
"Is that really true? Or is it that you're afraid of its power? That you resent it for turning you into a caged bird?"
Kushina's mouth opened, a sharp retort clearly ready. But then she stopped. The words died on her lips. Her angry expression slowly crumbled.
After a long moment, she nodded slightly. When she spoke again, her voice was much quieter. "Maybe you're right. Because of the Nine-Tails, I was monitored by ANBU even when I was just a kid at the Academy. Then I got confined inside that barrier, having to sneak around just to leave my own house. Even when I see Minato, there are always ANBU watching from somewhere." She wrapped her arms around herself. "I do resent it. The fox ruined my life."
"But have you ever thought about this?" Kenji took a step closer. "It didn't choose to be sealed inside you. Just like you didn't choose to become a jinchūriki."
He gestured vaguely toward her stomach where the seal resided.
"Think about it from its perspective. The Nine-Tails lost its freedom too. You still have Minato. You have friends like me and Honoka. But what does it have? Ever since Lady Mito, it's been locked away and treated like a weapon. No one to talk to. Not a single friend. Nobody who sees it as anything other than a monster to be contained. You've interacted with it. You should know it's not just some mindless beast. It has emotions. Thoughts. Intelligence. It's a sentient being, not an object."
"When you put it that way," Honoka said softly from beside them, "the Nine-Tails does sound kind of lonely. I can't imagine being trapped for decades with no one to talk to."
"But its temper is terrible!" Kushina protested, though her voice lacked conviction now. "Every time I try to communicate, it just roars and threatens to kill me! How am I supposed to befriend something like that?"
"Try thinking of it as human," Kenji suggested. "Then its behavior makes perfect sense."
He crouched down and picked up a small stone, turning it over in his fingers as he spoke.
"Imagine someone captures you and locks you in a cell for decades. They change your guards regularly, rotating through different people. When you see each new guard, wouldn't you be angry? Wouldn't you want to resist? To fight back?"
He tossed the stone aside.
"To you, your body is just a vessel for containing the Nine-Tails. But to the fox, your body is its prison. And you..." He met her eyes. "You're the one guarding it. The warden of its cell."
Kushina's face went pale. Her whole worldview seemed to shift in real-time across her expression. She'd always seen herself as the victim in this situation, the hero who kept a dangerous monster suppressed. The idea that from the Nine-Tails' perspective, she might be the villain who imprisoned it... that clearly hadn't occurred to her before.
"I..." she started, then fell silent.
"Now, I'm not saying the village is wrong to be cautious," Kenji added quickly, seeing her starting to spiral. "The Nine-Tails' power is destructive. If someone malicious got control of it, the consequences would be catastrophic. But being powerful isn't a crime. And being a jinchūriki isn't wrong either. You and the Nine-Tails were bound together by circumstances neither of you controlled. It's not about good or evil. It's about how you choose to interact going forward."
Kushina touched her stomach unconsciously.
"Try to understand it," Kenji said gently. "Maybe even become its friend. If you two could work together instead of fighting each other, you could use that power to protect the people you care about. Isn't that better than spending your whole life at war with yourself?"
"Becoming friends with a tailed beast..." Kushina murmured, still touching her stomach. For the first time since they'd started this conversation, a spark of curiosity appeared in her eyes instead of fear or anger.
Kenji saw the opening and pressed his advantage.
"There's actually precedent for it. When Minato and I were at the border, we encountered Kumo's Eight-Tails jinchūriki, Killer B. He and the Eight-Tails are friends. He can fully transform into the tailed beast while staying completely conscious and in control."
"What?!" Both Kushina and Honoka exclaimed simultaneously.
Kushina's eyes went wide. "You guys fought the Eight-Tails?! And Minato never told me about this?!"
"That's... not really the point right now," Kenji said, already regretting bringing it up. "The point is that Killer B's state as a perfect jinchūriki proves it's possible. The tailed beast willingly shares its power, and the jinchūriki can fully control that power. That's the ideal state you should aim for."
He remembered the battle clearly. When they'd been pushing Killer B back, the Eight-Tails had severed one of its own tentacles to create a diversion. The beast had sacrificed part of itself to help its jinchūriki escape. That kind of mutual trust and cooperation between a tailed beast and its host? That was what Kushina needed.
"A perfect jinchūriki," Kushina repeated slowly, testing the words. Then her expression hardened. "If the Eight-Tails' jinchūriki can do it, then so can I! I'll definitely make that fox acknowledge me and lend me its power willingly!"
"But wait," Honoka cut in. She was looking at Kenji with concern written all over her face. "You said you fought the Eight-Tails? Were you hurt? The Nine-Tails is sealed inside Kushina and the whole village is scared of its power. The Eight-Tails must be just as dangerous. That kind of battle... how could it not be dangerous?"
"I'm fine," Kenji assured her. "We had the upper hand most of the fight. And I have the Flying Thunder God. If things had gotten too bad, I could've escaped anytime. Don't worry about it."
"But still—" Honoka started.
"Really, I'm fine," he interrupted. "Look, no injuries. Not even a scratch. Minato and I work well together, and we know when to retreat."
Honoka bit her lip. "Just... be careful, okay? We need you to come back alive."
"I will," he promised simply.
"Are you two done?" Kushina called from a few meters ahead where she'd kept walking. "Can we please go find Minato now? I want to see what kind of dangerous technique he's been working on that he couldn't even bother visiting me!"
Her tone was annoyed but playful, and there was a slight smile on her face.
"Also," she added with a mischievous glint in her eye, "I need to yell at him for not telling me about the Eight-Tails fight!"
Kenji and Honoka exchanged a glance, then both started walking faster to catch up.
"Kushina, if you're going to yell at him, maybe wait until after he finishes whatever dangerous training he's doing?" Kenji suggested. "Don't want to distract him at a bad moment."
"Fine, fine," Kushina waved her hand dismissively. "But he's definitely getting an earful later."
The three of them continued toward Training Ground.
---
"Minato!"
Kushina spotted him sitting at the edge of Training Ground Three and immediately broke into a run, waving enthusiastically. The joy on her face was impossible to miss.
Minato's head snapped up at the sound of her voice.
"Kushina? What are you doing here?" He stood quickly, glancing past her toward the treeline as if expecting ANBU to emerge. "Is it okay for you to leave the barrier? Where are your usual guards?"
"It's fine, you're here aren't you?" She gestured behind her. "Besides, Kenji and his Wood Release puppet came too. And Honoka."
"Kenji? Honoka?" Minato finally noticed the other two standing a short distance away, along with the humanoid puppet. He smiled and walked over. "When did you get back? Did something happen at the Kiri defensive line?"
"We've been standing here for a while now," Kenji said dryly. "But someone only had eyes for Kushina and didn't notice anyone else existed."
"Ah... really?" Minato scratched the back of his head with an embarrassed laugh. He didn't even try to deny it. The moment he'd seen Kushina, everything else had ceased to matter.
"The Kiri front is stable," Kenji explained. "I just ran into three of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen and confiscated one of their blades. I'm here escorting Samehada back to the village."
He paused, then tilted his head.
"Kushina mentioned you've been training some dangerous new technique with Jiraiya-sama. Where is he, anyway?" Kenji had his suspicions about what Minato was working on, but he wanted confirmation.
"Oh, that!" Minato's entire demeanor changed. Pride practically radiated from him as he raised his right hand. "I've made serious progress on it!"
Pale blue chakra began gathering in his palm. It spun rapidly, compressing into a sphere. But unlike the stable Rasengan Kenji had seen before, this one flickered and wavered. Wind chakra tried to integrate with the rotation, creating visible cutting currents on the surface that hissed.
"I'm still working on perfecting it," Minato admitted. "But I've decided to call it the Rasengan Inspired Spiral Sphere Jiraiya-Sensei Wind Style Ball!"
Kushina and Honoka both groaned simultaneously.
"That's the worst name I've ever heard," Kushina said flatly, her face scrunched up in distaste.
"It's really... not good," Honoka added.
"What? I think it has meaning!" Minato looked confused by their reactions. "It incorporates my inspiration source and pays respect to Jiraiya-sensei."
"It's way too long," Kushina insisted.
"And awkward," Honoka muttered.
"Is it really that bad?" The chakra sphere in Minato's hand dissipated as his confidence deflated along with the technique.
Kenji studied the flickering remnants of chakra with interest. "You're trying to integrate Wind Release into the Rasengan's rotation, right? That's significantly more difficult than the base technique."
"Exactly!" Minato's enthusiasm returned immediately. "I got the idea after seeing how Tailed Beast Bombs combine shape and nature manipulation. The Rasengan already handles the shape transformation, so I thought if I could add elemental nature to it..."
He trailed off, forming the technique again. This time Kenji could see the instability more clearly. The wind chakra didn't flow smoothly with the rotation. It created pockets of interference that disrupted the sphere's cohesion.
"The problem is maintaining stability," Minato continued, his brow furrowing as he watched his own chakra. "Every time I try to increase the wind element's intensity, the whole structure wants to tear itself apart. I've been working on it for weeks now with Jiraiya-sensei's help, but I still can't get it to hold together long enough to actually use in combat."
"That's a high-level problem," Kenji said. "You're essentially trying to do two things at once that normally require full concentration individually. Most ninjas spend years mastering either shape manipulation or nature transformation. Combining them..." He shook his head appreciatively. "No wonder it's taking time."
"Wait," Kushina cut in suddenly. She'd been quiet during the technical discussion, but now she looked directly at Minato with guilt written across her face. "Before we talk more about that... I need to apologize."
Minato blinked. "What?"
"Earlier today. When you said you couldn't practice sealing techniques with me because you wanted to work on this jutsu instead." Kushina looked down, her hands fidgeting. "I got angry and yelled at you. But I shouldn't have. I'm sorry."
Kenji glanced at Honoka, who leaned closer and whispered a quick explanation. Apparently, Minato and Kushina had plans to train together today. When Minato canceled last minute to focus on his new technique, Kushina had gotten furious and they'd fought. She'd felt so bad afterward that she'd trapped her ANBU guards with Adamantine Sealing Chains and snuck out of the barrier to come find him.
"You trapped ANBU to get here?" Kenji asked with raised eyebrows.
"They're fine," Kushina said defensively. "Just immobilized. Temporarily."
"Kushina," Minato said seriously, drawing her attention back to him. "I'm the one who should apologize. I'm the one who broke our promise. But..." He paused, seeming to search for the right words. "The reason I've been so focused on completing this technique is because I made it for you."
"For me?" Kushina's eyes widened.
"We're at war. Any day now, you might be ordered to the battlefield." Minato's expression was earnest. "I know you're strong, but jinchūriki are always priority targets. I wanted to create something that could fight other tailed beasts and jinchūriki. Something I could teach you. You could even power it with the Nine-Tails' chakra inside you. That way, even when I'm not there to protect you, you'd have a way to protect yourself."
Kushina stared at him for a long moment. Then her eyes got watery and she stepped forward, wrapping her arms around him in a tight hug.
"You're an idiot," she said, her voice muffled against his shoulder.
Kenji turned away, giving them privacy. He caught Honoka's eye and they both moved a few meters away to let the couple have their moment.
"That was sweet of him," Honoka said quietly. "Creating a whole technique just to keep her safe."
"Yeah," Kenji agreed. "Though the execution still needs work. If he can't stabilize the wind integration, the technique's useless."
---
A few minutes later, the atmosphere at Training Ground Three had shifted completely.
Minato, Kenji, and Honoka formed a loose triangle around Kushina, with the Wood Release puppet standing slightly behind Kenji. Everyone's expression had gone serious, alert, ready to react to any sign of trouble.
"Is everyone ready?" Kenji asked.
"Ready," Minato confirmed. Chakra was already gathering in his hands, prepared to activate Flying Thunder God at a moment's notice. If the Nine-Tails' chakra went berserk, he could teleport Kushina to safety before anyone else could blink.
"I'm ready too," Honoka said, her hands pressed together in a seal. "I can deploy sealing techniques immediately if needed."
"Then I'm starting," Kushina said. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and let her consciousness sink inward toward the seal space within her body.
She was going to talk to the Nine-Tails.
The whole situation had developed from a suggestion Kenji made just minutes ago. After Minato and Kushina had reconciled and were preparing to head back to the village together, he'd stopped them with a proposal.
"Since we're all here anyway," he'd said, "and since this location is far from the village center, why not let Kushina try communicating with the Nine-Tails? If she can reach an understanding with it, she might become a perfect jinchūriki."
"A perfect jinchūriki?" Minato had understood immediately. "Like the Eight-Tails' host. But that's dangerous. Kushina still can't fully suppress the Nine-Tails' power."
"I want to try," Kushina had interrupted. She'd looked at Minato. "If other people can do it, so can I. I don't want to spend my whole life locked inside a barrier. And I don't want the only thing I feel when I think about the Nine-Tails to be hatred and fear."
"We've got four people here who are skilled with sealing techniques," Kenji had pointed out. "Plus the Wood Release puppet to suppress tailed beast chakra if things go wrong. And Samehada, if needed. The Hokage won't miss what he hasn't gotten yet, right? And honestly, opportunities like this don't come often during wartime. When's the next time we'll have this many seal specialists gathered in one place?"
Minato had hesitated, clearly torn between wanting to protect Kushina and understanding this might be her best chance at freedom. Finally, he'd nodded.
"If you feel anything going wrong," he'd told Kushina seriously, "pull out immediately. Don't push yourself."
So now they stood watch while Kushina's consciousness descended fully into the seal space, preparing to face the most dangerous entity in the elemental nations.