-1"As long as the people of Konoha are safe from you, I don't care what happens to me!" the fourth hokage said as he stood atop the giant toad Gamabunta. The nine-tailed fox was stronger than any ninja could ever be, but many of the villagers had died already and even more would die soon if he failed now. He gathered all his courage and made the seals for the only jutsu that stood a chance against the demon. He shouted, "Reaper Death Seal!"

The Death God appeared behind him, but the fox couldn't see it. The only one who could see it was the caster of the jutsu.

"I don't know what you think you're doing, Yellow Flash, but whatever you do is pointless!" the fox said. "You can't kill me!"

But Minato looked at the fox bravely. He was determined to protect the village and to protect his wife and son. The tattooed arm of the death god burst forth through his stomach, reaching for the fox. It grew much larger than a normal arm because the fox was far away. Minato looked behind him, looking at the blue shadow of his own soul in front of the death god. Soon he would die and his soul would live in the death god's stomach for the rest of eternity. He wouldn't have chosen this fate if it was not for the fox and now he would be with the damned fox in the belly of the death god forever. He definitely didn't want that to happen, but it had to.

After chasing the fox for awhile the death god's hand grabbed on one of its tails. The fox screamed at first because its tail was pulled, then laughed evilly.

"Yondaime Hokage," the fox growled. "You do not know what you're doing. You cannot seal ME!"

Minato frowned. The fox must be wrong, he thought, even though he knew what Minato was trying to do. The death god's arm retracted, pulling back the fox's soul which like its tail, but blue. The tail-soul came closer to Minato's body and soon it went into Minato's stomach. It entered for a split second as Minato thought, "I knew the fox was strong, but this?" and then the two bodies repelled each other. The fox's soul-tail went back into its body and Minato flew backwards off of Gamabunta.

"You see, Hokage?" the fox growled. "Do you see how outmatched you are?"

Minato had passed out for a few minutes. He woke up in Gamabunta's hand.

"What happened, Hokage-sama?" Gamabunta asked. "I don't know what jutsu you used, but it seems to have failed.

Minato sat up, holding his head. "I...don't know...I guess the fox is too strong..."

"Well, I've taken you away from that fox for now," Gama said. "We're going back to the Hokage faces. Lady Tsunade will heal you there."

Gamabunta set Minato down on the stairs that came from the Academy. He had a good view of the village here. He could see all the smoke billowing up from the crushed buildings. and he could see the fox who was apparently distracted by something near the village gate, which was also partially destroyed.

"I'm leaving now, Minato," Gama said.

"Yes..."

"But I'll be more than happy to come back if you need me again." Then he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Minato stood there, leaning on the stair rail, staring at the village. He forgot about going to find Tsunade. Being healed wouldn't help him fight the fox, he thought, however he was injured. He fell down on his knees and used the back of his hand to wipe some blood away from his mouth. His other hand brushed past his stomach and felt the hole torn in his shirt. There was the seal's symbol there. So the jutsu had partially worked it seemed, but what had gone wrong?

"Minato!" a voice yelled, panicky. It was the third hokage, running up the stairs in his full battle gear. "Minato! What happened?"

Minato didn't look up. He didn't even move. Sarutobi came forward and grabbed his shoulder. "Minato!"

Minato finally looked up. "I've done everything I can think of, Sarutobi... I..."

"What are you saying, Minato? The fox is still here!"

"I summoned the death god! And even that couldn't kill the fox!" Minato said, suddenly very loud.

"The death god?" Sarutobi repeated. "But... I didn't see anything."

"Look!" Minato said, pulling at the fabric around his stomach. "He left his mark on me, but he didn't help me!"

Sarutobi just looked at Minato, wondering why he was acting so strangely. Minato noticed it too. He looked down. "Only...only the one who summons him can see him."

"I see..."Sarutobi said slowly. "But what happened? Why didn't it work?"

"I don't know."

"...All right. Come on. Tsunade will heal you."

Minato paused, still not seeing how being healed could help anyone, but he knew Sarutobi would just tell him off if he said anything like that. He got up and followed Sarutobi up the stairs going behind the Hokage faces, going slowly and making Sarutobi look worried.

The woman, children, and elderly were in the rooms behind the faces as well as the wounded and some medical ninja. They were all cowering and silent and when they saw Minato their eyes got wide. He wondered what they were thinking. He hoped it wasn't that he had failed, even though he had. He tried to look strong, walking a little straighter, but didn't have a plan and wasn't about to lie to them to try to make them feel better.

Tsunade came rushing over to him from the far end of the room. "What happened to you, Minato-kun?"

He just looked at her. He should have said that it was really no big deal, and that she shouldn't worry about it, but he couldn't say anything.

"Minato?"

"I...uh..."

"He took the fox head on," Sarutobi said for him.

"And?" Tsunade asked.

"Well...we'll have to regroup, but it was a good try..."

"Oh. What's that?" she asked, pointing at the seal on Minato's stomach.

He ran his hand over it absently. "It's nothing. Will you heal me please?"

"Yes. Sit down." He sat down, cross-legged on the floor as Tsunade ran her glowy hands over his wounds. Some people near him stared and some others pretended not to notice he was there while trying their hardest not to look at him. He zoned out for awhile, thinking and rethinking all the possible scenarios of a battle between him and the fox, but each time, no matter how cunning a plan he made, the fox was just too powerful.

After a few minutes of silence, a frail woman holding a small child asked timidly, "Hokage-sama?"

He blinked and looked at her. "Yes?"

"Wha-what's gonna happen?" she asked. "Is there anything we can do?"

He stared at her for a while, not even blinking. This is what he had been afraid of. He couldn't protect the villagers and they knew it. He had had many plans before. The death seal had been his last resort, but now he had nothing.

Sarutobi, seeing Minato freeze, said, "Don't worry. We'll come up with something." He smiled. "The Hokage seems stunned right now, but he'll come around." The woman smiled back at Sarutobi and squeezed her little child.

Minato looked at them, knowing he had to come up with something, that he had to protect them, but at the moment it seemed hopeless. He couldn't think of a reason why the jutsu hadn't worked. In theory, it should have. Or it would have worked on a person anyway. Exactly what was different about the fox?

"What's that sorry look for?" came a familiar voice. He decided not to look up and to just ignore her.

"Get that look off your face," Kushina said firmly, walking over to him from the entrance and grabbing his shirt, forcing him to look up. She looked angry, but unharmed. Over her shoulder he saw his student Rin carrying a small bundle.

"Hello Rin," he said. She waved.

"Don't ignore me," Kushina said, grabbing his face to make him look at her. Tsunade rolled her eyes. "I'm trying to heal here."

Minato smiled weakly. "I'm sorry, Kushina. I don't like talking to you when you're angry. Are you okay though?"

"I'm fine, and so are you. You're alive aren't you? So get that sorry look off your face and do something," she said firmly.

"Can you let go of him?" Tsunade asked, closing her eyes and trying to stay calm. "You're in the way."

"Yeah, I guess so." Kushina let go of Minato's face and stood up. He rubbed his cheeks and looked up at her.

"Don't pout, Minny," she said, with her hands on her hips and grinned. "I'm not mad at you, you're too cute." He smiled a little, but it was still pretty pathetic. She rolled her eyes. She turned and grabbed the bundle from Rin and placed it into Minato's arms. "There. Look at that and try to be sad."

She was right. He felt a little better before he even looked down, just feeling the weight in his arms. His son had blonde hair and blue eyes, just like he did. People kept telling him how Naruto looked just like him, but he kept saying that he was just a baby, how could they tell? They all expected him to be just like his father too. But he had a clean slate and his own future. He could be anything, but right now he was so young. Nothing had happened to him to shape his future yet, no aspirations, unlike Minato who had a pretty good idea of what he wanted to do, it was just this fox standing in his way-

And then an awful thought came to him. He gasped and fumbled onto his knees, pushing Naruto back at Kushina and saying, "Oh my god, get him away from me before I do something horrible."

"What? Does he smell?" she put her face into Naruto's blanket. "What? He's fine."

Minato had fallen back into a sitting position with his head in his hands, his hands in his hair.

"Fine," Tsunade said irritably. "You're done then. Sheesh." She stayed kneeling next to him though. Sarutobi looked very surprised.

Could that be it? he thought. Would the jutsu only work on the fox with a child, with a blank slate? That would explain why it didn't work on Minato. He thought he had heard of something like this before...

Suddenly, he sprang to his feet. He meant to just run off, but everyone was looking at him expectantly. Except Kushina, who was looking irritated.

"What the hell, Minato?"

"Uh- Just don't give Naruto to me, okay?" he said hurriedly and did his yellow-flash-teleport-thing out of the room.

"What the hell, Rin?" Kushina asked. Rin shrugged. Sarutobi growled, irritated, and ran out of the room.

After leaving Naruto with Rin and a good deal of running around, Kushina and Sarutobi found Minato in the hokage's office trying to read several books at once while some jonins hassled him.

"What is going on, Minato?" Sarutobi asked.

Minato didn't answer, he just kept reading with a horrified look on his face.

"Minato!" Kushina said, grabbing his shoulder.

"I knew I'd read something like this before," he said slowly. He stared at a book for a moment longer before turning to Kushina. He almost began to fully explain himself, but found he was lost for words and flopped down into a chair.

Sarutobi then told the random jonins to step outside and looked at the book on the desk for himself while Minato just stared blankly in front of him.

Long story short, the book says only babies work for Jinchuurikis.

Then Sarutobi was also amazed.

"Wait, what does that mean?" Kushina asked. "Did you already try to use the Reaper Death Seal?"

"Yes-"

"Idiot!" she yelled and slapped Minato on the back of the head. "If it worked then you would be dead!"

"I wish it had worked."

"Well, we'll just have to come up with something else now!" Kushina said determinedly. "The fox is alive so that means it can die! All we have to do is kill it."

Minato shook his head.

"No, you're wrong!" Kushina said. "We just haven't thought of the right thing yet! We just need to hit it harder!"

"Kushina," Sarutobi said gravely. "Even the death seal didn't work. I really don't think there's much else we can try."

Kushina still defiant, but couldn't think of anything else to say.

There was suddenly a loud crash from far away. Minato got up and looked out the window. The village gates had just crumbled.

"I wonder how many people just died now," he muttered. He turned back around, looking at the desk. "I could use Naruto."

"What?!"

"I don't want to! But..." He gritted his teeth. It was painful to think about.

"I agree. There's not much of a choice," Sarutobi said. "The boy will live after all. However, it seems you need a human sacrifice to make it work."

There was barely a moment of silence before Minato said, "I'll do it."

"No!" Kushina said at once.

"I have to...because he'll hate me if I live after putting that thing in him."

"I wouldn't let him! Stop feeling sorry for yourself, Minato. We can think of something else!"

"The village will be destroyed, Kushina! After that there won't be any reason to fight the fox at all!"

"Then let's leave-"

"Leave the village?! After so many people died protecting it? That would mean they died for nothing. So what's one more death?"

A different emotion came over Kushina's face now and tears welled up in her eyes. "But Minato..."

He couldn't yell anymore so he hugged her. "Let him hate me," he said. "He deserves to."

"No he doesn't," she cried.

"And while you're at it," he said, ignoring her, "change his name to Uzumaki. Don't tell him who his father is. When he finds out about the fox, just tell him the fourth hokage put it in him, not his father. I'd rather he hated the hokage instead of his father."

"But he won't hate you," Kushina said again. "And you're not dying!" She grabbed his shirt and he hugged her harder.

ok blahblah blah sadness sadness TTTT (kushina gives up/loses)

later, on top of Gamabunta again

The fox snarled, "So you're back again, Hokage?"

Minato didn't answer, but clung tighter to the bundle in his arms.

"Have you heard, Hokage, about what happens when you pull a tail of the Nine-Tailed Fox?"

Minato ignored him and began performing the hand seals, holding Naruto with his upper arms.

"The one who pulls the tail is cursed, Hokage," the fox said evilly. "Do you think that I, being a very intelligent Bijuu, do not know about how Jinchuuriki's are made? Do you think I don't see that brat in your arms? I wonder whose it is?"

The death god appeared behind Minato and reached its arm through both Minato and Naruto.

"I admit, that there is not much I can do to stop a sealing jutsu," the fox said. "However, I have other powers. You intend to be the sacrifice, do you not?"

Minato just stared forward, remaining unaffected. The blue hand darted towards the fox.

"You have pulled my tail, Yondaime Hokage. Now you are cursed."

The blue soul-arm grabbed the fox's front leg.

"Since you already resigned to die, you will instead be cursed to live."

The fox's leg was pulled forward, unlike last time, when only it's soul came out.

"And since you were prepared to die for this village, you will never see it again."

The fox was pulled closer and closer and suddenly a red-haired woman came leaping up from the trees. "Minato!"

The fox grinned evilly. "It appears you were prepared to leave her as well."

The fox started entering Naruto's body and its tails started whipping around violently. One hit Kushina and knocked her in the woods.

"Kushina!"

"I'll grant her wish as well," the fox said and then the last of him was pulled into Naruto. The fox was gone.

Minato fell to his knees on top of Gamabunta's head. "Hey, it worked this time, kid!" he said. Minato nodded even though Gamabunta couldn't see it. He looked down at the crying Naruto sadly and began crying as well.

"Gama," he said. "Can you see Kushina?"

"Hmm, I'll look...Naw, I don't see her..."

Suddenly, Jiraiya landed on top of Gamabunta's head as well. He looked tired and beaten, but exhilarated. "That was amazing, Minato! You're a hero!"

"No-" He stopped and coughed up some blood. Jiraiya looked worried. "No," he said. "Naruto is a hero."

"You both are then," Jiraiya said. "Are you alright?"

"Here," Minato said, holding Naruto up towards Jiraiya. "I have to go find Kushina. Take care of him."

"Yeah- hey, hold on!" But Minato had already leapt off of Gamabunta.

He stumbled down onto the ground, his vision blurring in and out and struggling to stay upright. "Kushina," he said. "Are you here?"

He heard a sob from the right and he stumbled towards it. "What, are you still alive?" Kushina said bitterly.

"Don't be mad," he said, using all of his strength just to speak and falling on the ground near her. She crawled forward and put her arms around him. "I'm not," she said, kissing him.

"But-"

"What?"

"The fox," Minato breathed. "Did you hear what it said?"

"That you're cursed," she said, silent tears rolling down her cheeks.

"Yeah. But it feels like I'm dying. It said-" he coughed up some more blood.

"I know what it said," she cried. "It means you'll live, Minato!"

"But-"

"I'll take you out of the village," she said hurriedly. "And you'll get better!"

"Wha- I don't think-"

"THAT'S WHAT IT MEANS!" she said firmly and dragged him up onto her shoulder where he gasped for breath. "Just hang on. You'll be okay."

Gamabunta had disappeared and Jiraiya was back down on the ground, holding Naruto. Sarutobi, Tsunade, and some other important people were there. Soon Rin came, looking for her sensei. Other villagers came, too, wondering where the hokage was.

Sarutobi acted as the hokage now. He sent out a search party to look for Kushina and also Minato's body. Teams with dogs were also sent, but still no on was found. The fox's curse erased their scent.