October 10th…
For Naruto, this day was his birthday.
But for Konoha, it was the day the village lost its Fourth Hokage.
"It's the Nine-Tails!" Adult Kakashi's face tightened. "Today's the day the Nine-Tails attacks Konoha!"
Minato's expression shifted instantly. No wonder that sense of unease had gnawed at him.
After arriving in the future's Land of Waves with his three students, he'd gathered every bit of information he could on Konoha's past decade, chasing leads on the 'Masked Man' from the SSS-rank mission. Among all the intel he and Kakashi collected, the Nine-Tails Incident was the most crucial. And buried within it were countless details that felt painfully wrong.
"What do we do now?!"
Naruto's voice snapped Minato back. Today was Naruto's birthday; Kushina had to be somewhere hidden, waiting to give birth.
At that moment, Sasuke, Sakura, Obito, Rin, and Young Kakashi—who already knew Naruto was the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki—turned toward him. Naruto looked more desperate than he ever had before, yet his mind was clearer than usual.
"Today's my birthday! The Nine-Tails hasn't attacked yet! My parents should still be alive!" He grabbed Minato's cloak, voice trembling with urgency and a hidden plea. "I want to see them. This time travel is part of my mission reward, right?! Just once—please, just let me see them!!"
"Naruto…"
Sakura and Sasuke exchanged uneasy looks, feeling a dull ache in their chests.
Minato didn't answer him directly. He only ruffled his hair gently.
"Let's go."
A faint smile touched hte young man's face. Even changing the future of one parallel world was worth it. Let Minato-sensei's family have a different fate.
Minato formed a shadow clone to alert the Third Hokage.
When Hiruzen Sarutobi saw Minato, he rushed over in shock.
"Minato?! Weren't you at the Sealing Grounds helping Kushina contain the Nine-Tails?!"
"The full story will take too long. Please begin evacuation immediately!"
"What? Did the Nine-Tails break through the barrier?!"
"I'm afraid so."
After delivering the message, the clone dissipated. Minato's real body and the others were already hurrying toward the Sealing Grounds.
The Sealing Grounds lay far from Konoha, ringed by flowing rivers. Kushina's birthing chamber was hidden inside a stone mountain at the center.
And when they saw the bodies of the ANBU who had been guarding the area, Minato's suspicions were confirmed.
The Nine-Tails Incident…
The Nine-Tails breaking through Kushina's seal wasn't an accident—it was orchestrated.
As the host of the Nine-Tails, the timing of Kushina's labor was a top secret. So who leaked it?
The instant he saw the ANBU corpses, Minato was sure: the leak had come from inside Konoha.
His face darkened. He tried to hide his fury and killing intent, but the frigid aura around him was unmistakable.
Then a piercing newborn cry cut through the air—the first greeting of a life entering the world.
Minato and the others rushed into the sealed chamber without hesitation.
Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Obito, and Young Kakashi had no idea this was where Kushina would give birth. Their information only said that on this date—October 10th—a child would be born.
But that child's parents would die in the chaos of the Nine-Tails' Rampage, leaving him to grow up alone.
The first time Naruto met the Fourth Hokage, he'd refused to ask about his parents. Ever since he was small, whenever he asked the Hokage Grandpa who his father and mother were, he was scolded harshly. He feared being hated by the few people who still interacted with him. Bit by bit, the desire to know his parents' identities had been buried away.
But now, standing in the night of the Nine-Tails' Incident—on the day he was born—he couldn't hold it back anymore. Even if his parents had been traitors, he still wanted to know. He wanted the faceless figures in his imagination to become real.
After all... he didn't even have a single photograph of them.
Naruto's pounding heartbeat slowed his steps, but he still followed closely behind Minato, rushing into the delivery chamber layered with seal after seal. Even though the seals had been placed by Minato of this era, undoing them would still take time.
Naruto paced anxiously like an ant on a hot pan. Meanwhile, Minato and Kakashi wondered: if the enemy killed the ANBU guards, why hadn't they triggered a single seal?
Had he never entered?
Or could he move like a ghost?
Just then, a man's voice broke through—filled with joy and tears.
"Starting today, I'm a father too!"
Due to the cave's unique structure, with rock walls all around, the echo carried easily to the entrance where Naruto and the others could hear it. But this voice... why did it sound so familiar?
"Minato-sensei?!" Obito and Young Kakashi's eyes widened in shock. They had recognized it—the young man declaring, "Starting today, I'm a father too!" was none other than their teacher, Minato Namikaze.
"Congratulations, Minato-sensei!"
"Congratulations! So Minato-sensei will have a son someday too! Ouch! Stupid Kakashi, why'd you hit me?"
"How could Minato-sensei not have a son? Idiot!"
Noticing their voices growing louder than the whispers they'd started with, Rin hushed them with a quiet "Shh—" to remind them to lower their volume.
Meanwhile, Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura exchanged puzzled looks. They'd never heard that the Fourth Hokage had a child. Could he have also died in the Nine-Tails Incident?
Only two more seals remained. Minato Namikaze didn't even stop to wipe the sweat from his forehead.
"He's a lively little boy," came a middle-aged woman's voice. "Don't touch him! A child's first gaze should be for his mother! You men have no idea how painful childbirth is!"
He recognized the voice immediately. It belonged to Biwako Sarutobi, the Third Hokage's wife.
"Finally meeting you…"
The woman's faint voice drifted into Naruto's ears.
Learning this wasn't where his own parents had given birth to him, Naruto's heartbeat—which had only just calmed—started racing again. But after hearing that voice… he felt it pound even harder than before.
Sasuke noticed the way Naruto pressed a hand to his chest.
"Feeling sick?" He was genuinely concerned, though he couldn't help adding with his usual tsundere edge, "Don't drop the ball if we run into enemies later, you dead weight."
Naruto shook his head, unusually not rising to the bait at being called "dead weight."
The infant's cries softened but never stopped.
The middle-aged man urged the exhausted mother to rest while he moved to place the baby somewhere safe.
"Kushina, how are you feeling?" Inside the sealing chamber, Minato Namikaze placed a hand over his wife's. His eyes were full of tenderness, admiration, and a gratitude too deep for words.
All of it condensed into a simple comfort and a single phrase.
"Thank you," Minato Namikaze said.
Kushina: "Minato…"
Her weak voice, filled with love and trust, made Minato's fingers tremble slightly as he worked on the seal. But the deeper tremor hit his heart. Knowing his future self had failed to protect her crushed him with guilt.
Voices continued from within. "You're exhausted, but hold on a little longer! I need to reinforce the Nine-Tails' seal!"
The Nine-Tails?! A seal?!!
Outside, Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Obito, Young Kakashi, and Rin all reacted with surprise. Not only the newcomers—because Minato Namikaze had hidden Kushina's identity so well, even Obito and the others had never known their sensei's wife was the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki.
"Ah! Speaking of Kushina, her surname is—"
Obito's words cut off abruptly.
A piercing scream erupted from the inner chamber.
At that moment, Minato finished breaking the final seal. Leading everyone from both Minato Team and Kakashi Team, he charged into the chamber.
And the person they saw was—
The Masked Man!!!