"Reaper Death Seal!"
As Namikaze Minato completed the final hand seal, a translucent Shinigami slowly manifested behind him.
Its presence was eerie and silent.
Of course, this phantom could only be seen by the caster and the one being sealed.
At this moment, Namikaze Kirito was still facing the Nine-Tails, standing frozen in place.
Outwardly, he seemed calm.
But inside...
Violent emotions were raging uncontrollably.
The Nine-Tails…
This is the Nine-Tails.
How am I supposed to stop something like this?!
Move… move your body, damn it!
Seeing the Nine-Tails in anime was one thing.
On screen, it was terrifying but distant. Even exaggerated. Some people even found it oddly "cool."
Reality was different.
Standing before a beast as tall as a mountain—its chakra crushing the air itself—was enough to drive an ordinary person insane.
Before coming to this world, Kirito had lived in an era of peace. He had never experienced a battlefield. Never even witnessed real violence.
Now, the Nine-Tails stood before him.
He wanted to stop it.
But his body refused to respond.
It was overwhelmed—by sheer size, pressure, and instinctive fear.
"ROOOAR—!"
The thunderous roar snapped Kirito back to reality.
Minato completed his preparations, spoke his final words to Kushina, then stepped forward and placed a hand gently on Kirito's shoulder.
"Leave this bad guy to Dad," Minato said softly.
"Kirito… in the future, Naruto will be counting on you."
Those gentle words pierced straight through Kirito's heart.
His eyes burned.
When I came to this world… I finally had a family.
And now I'm about to lose it—
And I can't even move?!
Haaa—
A sudden gust of wind swept through the ruins.
Minato felt it instantly.
A strange, unfamiliar energy began surging from his eldest son.
"Move…!"
With Kirito's roar, something erupted.
A pressure—formless, invisible, yet overwhelming—burst outward from his small body.
Humm—
"…What is this?!"
The Nine-Tails' vision blurred for an instant.
The child it had dismissed as an ant suddenly made its instincts scream in warning.
Fear.
A primal, soul-deep fear.
Conqueror's Haki.
In the pirate world, only one in a million possessed it.
Though the Nine-Tails was a tailed beast, it was still a creature born of instinct and will.
Even newly awakened, even unstable—
That overwhelming dominance made it tremble.
"Kirito…?"
Minato felt it too.
A power completely unlike chakra—yet no less oppressive.
But there was no time to think.
The ritual was already in motion.
Minato's eyes hardened.
Even with the terrifying Shinigami looming behind him, his resolve never wavered.
"Nine-Tails… forgive me."
"For the sake of the village."
"For the future."
He looked back one last time—at Kushina, Kirito, and Naruto.
Swish.
The Shinigami's arm pierced through Minato's chest.
Without pause, it lunged toward the Nine-Tails.
"Damn you, Fourth Hokage!"
The Nine-Tails struggled violently, trying to break free from the Adamantine Sealing Chains—
...but Uzumaki sealing techniques were not something brute force could overcome.
"Seal."
With those two words, the Shinigami tore a blue soul from the Nine-Tails' body and sealed it into Minato.
The Nine-Tails convulsed violently.
Its eyes rolled back.
In the distance, Sarutobi Hiruzen and the others tried to intervene—
—but the sealing barrier isolated everything completely.
"No time to hesitate…"
"Next—the Eight Trigrams Seal!"
After sealing half of the Nine-Tails, Minato immediately turned, lifting his youngest son.
He summoned the altar for the sealing ritual and carefully placed Uzumaki Naruto upon it.
The Nine-Tails' eyes blazed with fury.
"The altar…?"
"You plan to seal me again—into that brat?!"
Kushina suddenly coughed violently, panic surging through her weakened body.
"Kushina!" Minato rushed to her side.
Kirito stood beside Naruto, still dazed, his body trembling.
The Nine-Tails' eyes gleamed.
Perfect.
Minato and Kushina were already half-dead.
Only the two children remained.
Kill them...
...and freedom would be absolute.
"NOW!"
The Nine-Tails raised its massive claw and slammed downward.
Without hesitation—
Minato and Kushina threw themselves forward, shielding their children with their bodies.
But—
They were shoved aside.
"Kirito?!"
"No—!"
Their screams echoed in despair.
Kirito stood alone in front of Naruto.
Facing the descending claws—
His eyes were calm.
Steady.
Something had changed inside him.
In this moment of certain death—
He didn't even think about retreat.
His small body straightened.
Black, ominous energy surged around him.
A transparent circular distortion formed around his clenched fist.
He drew his arm back—
—and punched forward.
"STOP IT!!"
The roar shook the heavens.
KRAAACK—!
A shrill, unbearable sound tore through the air.
Cracks spread across the space where fist and claw collided.
Not just physical fractures—
But fractures in space itself.
Boom—
The air screamed.
The earth roared.
The power known in another world as the Quake Fruit—the ability said to destroy the world—
Unleashed its first eruption.
"…What?!"
Shock flashed across the Nine-Tails' scarlet eyes.
The ant had stopped its attack.
But worse—
From that strange power, it felt something impossible.
Death.
In the ninja world, tailed beasts did not die.
Even if destroyed, they would eventually reform.
That certainty had never wavered.
Until now.
For the first time—
The Nine-Tails felt genuine fear.
—
From afar, Sarutobi Hiruzen and the others stared in disbelief.
Their minds went blank.
Namikaze Kirito—the Fourth Hokage's quiet, withdrawn son—
Had never once shown anything like this.
"Bloodline limit…?"
"A sealing technique?"
"But… I don't feel any chakra at all."
Even the Third Hokage, The Professor
himself...
Had no answer.
Crack!
A fracture spread across the Nine-Tails' hardened claw.
The spatial widened violently.
Panicked, it yanked its arm back.
Kirito collapsed.
His body hit the ground, utterly drained.
He had forcibly drawn out more power than his template was meant to grant, driven purely by sheer will.
Without the strength or stamina to sustain it, forcibly triggering that power left him unable to move a finger.
Minato rushed to him instantly, gently repositioning his eldest son before turning back.
"Eight Trigrams Seal!"
Boom!
Smoke billowed.
With a final, unwilling roar—
The massive form of the Nine-Tails vanished from sight.
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