· Staring at the intense grief marring Kushina’s features, Mito Uzumaki let out a soft, heavy sigh.
“Do not weep, Kushina.
This is a sequence dictated by fate, and the baseline laws of mortality cannot be altered by human will.
For the past several nights, my dreams have been entirely populated by Hashirama.
The timeline has simply arrived for us to reunite; you ought to experience a sense of joy for my sake.” Her eyes pooling with hot tears, Kushina offered a silent, trembling nod.
Turning her gaze away, Mito projected her voice across the basin toward Hiruzen Sarutobi.
“The parameters are aligned, Hiruzen.
Begin.” Hiruzen offered a grim nod before executing a rapid sequence of hand signs, summoning his signature companion, Enma.
Enma materialized in a massive swirl of smoke, his hulking, primate-like frame exuding an aura of pure physical dominance that comfortably surpassed even Hanzo’s Salamander.
More critically, Enma possessed the absolute structural versatility to transform into the Adamantine Staff—a weapon that, in the original timeline, registered the staggering feat of physically pushing the Nine-Tails out of the village perimeter.
Having likely been thoroughly briefed prior to the deployment, Enma offered zero verbal commentary.
He merely locked his eyes onto Mito’s position, his posture shifting into a state of absolute, high-alert tension.
Simultaneously, Danzo Shimura summoned his own primary variable: the colossal, otherworldly chimera known as Baku.
Hideki Sato fell into brief calculation, ultimately deciding against manifesting Charmander.
Until his partner evolved into a fully realized Charizard, introducing its current baseline metrics into a high-order engagement of this magnitude would serve zero functional purpose.
“Kushina, Hideki.
Retract your positions,” Mito instructed, a gentle, grandmotherly smile gracing her wrinkled features.
“Clear the immediate perimeter so we can isolate any unforeseen structural variables.” Kushina opened her mouth as if to protest, but the words caught behind her teeth.
Hideki silently closed his fingers around her hand, firmly guiding her back until they stood securely behind the defensive vanguard line anchored by Tsunade.
The exact microsecond they cleared the inner zone, Mito slammed her palm flat against her seal.
A massive network of intricate, obscenely complex sealing arrays violently manifested in the air above her.
Concurrently, a roaring, localized torrent of pure crimson chakra erupted from the center of the array.
Within moments, the volatile energy condensed, expanding into a colossal, multi-tailed entity that blotted out the sky—the Nine-Tails Demon Fox.
“Madara Uchiha!
Hashirama Senju!
I will tear your lineages to ash!” The moment its form stabilized, the Nine-Tails unleashed a deafening, earth-shattering roar that shook the valley floor.
Clearly, the absolute humiliation of its historical enslavement remained a burning, unhealed wound within its consciousness.
The singular detail that stood out was its primary target; rather than cursing Mito, the anchor who had locked it away for decades, its initial rage was directed entirely toward Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju.
With the apex Calamity fully unleashed, the atmospheric pressure within the basin instantaneously turned suffocatingly rigid.
Enma reacted in a microsecond, shifting into the Adamantine Staff, which Hiruzen gripped with absolute, white-knuckled force.
Though a master-tier combatant like Madara Uchiha could easily subjugate the beast with a singular glance of his Sharingan, and Hashirama Senju routinely pinned it down as if it were a common barnyard fowl, the raw, unmitigated destructive output of the Nine-Tails remained entirely beyond question.
It was the undisputed king of the Tailed Beasts.
Stepping into the eye of the storm, Mito spoke with freezing composure.
“Nine-Tails, decades have drifted past.
It is time you allowed that malice to dissolve.
Both Hashirama and Madara Uchiha have long since departed for the underworld.” Hearing her declaration, the Nine-Tails erupted into a booming, thoroughly malicious burst of laughter.
“Hahaha!
Those two wretched plagues have finally turned to dust?!
Excellent!
Since their shadows no longer anchor this world, I shall systematically reduce this entire continent to a smoldering wasteland!
Not a single one of you humans harbors a shred of value!” Seeing that the beast possessed zero capacity for strategic alignment or diplomacy, Mito shook her head slowly.
Suddenly, a massive network of thick, shimmering golden chains erupted violently from her physical frame.
Before the newly liberated Nine-Tails could even extend its massive limbs to trigger an assault, it found its entire anatomy thoroughly, brutally pinned to the valley floor by the absolute weight of the Adamantine Chains.
“Kushina, the window is open!
Now!” Mito shrieked, her voice cutting through the localized gale.
Though the sheer volume of the beast’s malice sent an involuntary tremor through Kushina’s limbs, she took a fierce, courageous stride forward into the open zone.
Under the absolute authority of Mito’s advanced sealing architecture, the crimson chakra coating the Nine-Tails was violently siphoned away, forming a massive vortex that poured directly into Kushina’s core.
The Nine-Tails could only twist its massive head in absolute, impotent fury, letting out a final, echoing curse.
“Vile, parasitic humans!
Mark my words…
I will break these seals and return to butcher you all!” In the next microsecond, the gargantuan entity was entirely compressed, sealed securely within the deep recesses of Kushina’s soul.
Staring at the rapid closure of the sequence, Hideki couldn’t help but marvel at the staggering scale of Mito Uzumaki’s latent power.
In the standard lexicon of shinobi biology, extracting a Tailed Beast from its Jinchuriki triggered instantaneous, systemic cellular death.
Yet, operating within a body that had long since entered terminal age-based decline, Mito had comfortably manipulated a high-order seal to violently suppress the strongest Calamity in existence.
Even if one entirely stripped away her identity as a Jinchuriki, Mito Uzumaki stood as an absolute titan within the Kage-tier hierarchy.
This was the raw, unpolished standard of the Warring States period.
The exact millisecond the transfer finalized, a massive torrent of dark crimson blood erupted from Mito’s lips.
The lingering vitality animating her aura instantaneously dissolved, leaving her posture thoroughly collapsed.
Tsunade and Kushina broke formation, sprinting across the grass to collapse beside her chair, with Hideki silently maintaining a protective guard right behind them.
Hiruzen Sarutobi slowly averted his gaze, turning his head toward the valley wall as if his internal equilibrium could no longer bear to witness the passing of his master’s wife.
Conversely, Danzo Shimura remained entirely rigid, his dark eyes locked onto Kushina’s trembling back with an expression of intense, predatory ambition.
To a strategist of his alignment, the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki represented an absolute military asset that needed to be brought under the direct administrative custody of his underground network.
Mito reached out with failing strength, her left hand finding Tsunade’s fingers while her right clamped weakly around Kushina’s wrist.
“I am departing to join Hashirama…
there is zero baseline for sorrow in this transition,” she whispered, her voice fading into a thin rasp.
“Kushina…
do not allow fear to dictate your relationship with the Nine-Tails.
Beneath that mountainous malice, that creature harbors a deeply isolated, lonely existence.
Strive to reach its core…
I harbor absolute faith that you possess the quality to achieve it.” Turning her dimming gaze toward her granddaughter, a faint, maternal warmth softened her features.
“Tsunade…
you have always been the absolute pride of my heart.
If only you could manage to moderate your relationship with alcohol and the betting houses, my spirit would rest with absolute peace, though I suppose there is no one left to discipline your character now.
Ah…
my singular regret is that I will not live to see you and Nawaki establish your own lineages.” Hearing the final validation, Tsunade’s emotional defense completely fractured.
Massive, heavy tears spilled continuously down her cheeks, splashing onto the matriarch’s robes.
Finally, Mito’s amber eyes drifted onto Hideki Sato.
“Hideki…
I officially place Kushina’s security into your hands.
Safeguard her life…
do not allow my expectations to falter.” Hideki offered a sharp, deeply solemn nod, his jaw clenched tight.
Scanning the faces of her remaining family one last time, Mito Uzumaki slowly closed her eyes.
Her head tilted gently to the side as the final breath left her lungs.
The formal funerary protocols were executed that very afternoon.
In this reality, the culture lacked any architectural standard for subterranean family vaults; her final resting place was established directly adjacent to the monument of Hashirama Senju.
Throughout the burial service, both Tsunade and Nawaki were completely incapacitated by grief, their weeping echoing through the silent clearing.
Jiraiya stepped forward from the rear vanguard line, appearing intent on offering some form of emotional support to Tsunade, but after a long stretch of internal hesitation, he ultimately chose to remain anchored to his position.
Orochimaru watched Tsunade’s trembling silhouette from a distance, a cold, clinical murmur escaping his lips.
“The human blueprint…
truly remains entirely too fragile.” Kushina spent the duration of the service buried completely against Hideki’s chest, her silent, gasping tears thoroughly soaking through the entire upper half of his tactical vest.
Yet, irrespective of the weight left by the deceased, the laws of reality dictated that the living had to press forward.
Following the formal announcement of Mito Uzumaki’s passing, the geopolitical atmosphere across the entire shinobi world instantaneously turned volatile.
The Hidden Leaf had officially lost its ultimate deterrent—the passive presence of a fully stabilized Nine-Tails Jinchuriki.
Given that Kushina had only just inherited the mantle, she possessed absolute zero capacity to safely siphon or control the beast’s energy network.
Concurrently, the economic metrics of the rival hidden villages had begun to showcase severe stagnation and recession.
After all, the Land of Fire, where the Leaf was established, occupied the absolute most fertile, resource-dense geography on the continent, allowing its economic engine to vastly outpace its competitors.
With the global economy collapsing and the Leaf’s primary nuclear deterrent temporarily offline, the shadow of a continent-spanning conflagration was rapidly creeping over the horizon.
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