"Minato," Kushina said, looking at her husband gratefully. Just moments ago, she had given birth to her son, Naruto. Minato looked her and smiled excitedly. "Yosh!" the blonde declared. "I know you've just gone through childbirth but I need to seal the Kyuubi away." Having said that, the Yondaime Hokage placed his hand on the seal; over Kushina's stomach.

Behind them, Minato and Kushina heard a couple of screams. The blonde turned to see a red-haired man holding their newborn baby. "Yondaime Hokage," the man rasped. "Step away from the jinchuuriki if you want to see your son live!" Minato could see the man had the Rinnegan. No way, I thought the Rinnegan was only a legend,Minato thought.

"Step away from the jinchuuriki," the man repeated. He brought a kunai close to Naruto, who had begun to cry. "Please, calm down!" Minato said, trying to stall. The man simply chuckled before saying, "I'm as calm as can be. Speak for yourself, Minato!"

Having said that, the red-haired Rinnegan-user threw Naruto in the air. With Kushina's screams echoing behind him, Minato grabbed Naruto with expert reflexes. "I must hand it to the Yellow Flash," his adversary praised. "But how will you deal with this?" Minato immediately noticed some exploding tags sizzling from Naruto's cloth, his eyes widening.

Acting quickly, he used his Flying Thunder God Jutsu to transport himself and Naruto to a warehouse he had kept one of his Flying Thunder God kunai in. Minato quickly threw away Naruto's cloth and rushed out of the warehouse, barely making it as it exploded behind the blonde Hokage. Minato held Naruto as the baby cried, his relief evident.

His target,Minato realized, was Kushina. And he succeeded in separating us. I must hurry! He quickly pulled out a piece of wood sticking to the his foot and disappeared using his Flying Thunder God Jutsu. Minato appeared in another warehouse, where he quickly set Naruto in a cradle.

Meanwhile, Nagato had made several seals around a watery clearing, which held Kushina via two black chakra ropes. "W-why are you doing this?" Kushina asked, panting heavily from the childbirth. The man lowered his black hood, revealing himself to be Nagato, the Toad Sage Jiraiya's disciple. "I intend to release the Kyuubi from you," he said, "and seal it away until the time is right."

"W-what?" Kushina's eyes widened, staring into Nagato's cold Rinnegan eyes.

"Yes," Nagato said. "Minato's Space-Time jutsu allows him to teleport to places instantly marked by his Jutsu Formulas. He has placed it on your seal as well to protect you. However, I have created a good distance between you two. Furthermore, the Kyuubi's seal has weakened considerably during the childbirth process so it makes my job much easier."

Kushina's eyes widened as she felt Nagato stare at the Kyuubi residing in her stomach. The Rinnegan's Outer Path ability allowed Nagato to place Bijuu under his control by utlizing chakra chains and receivers. He quickly thrust his hand out, causing a purple chakra chain to emerge and go into the seal.

The Kyuubi roared indignantly, as a purple chakra chain twisted itself around its neck. Kyuubi's eyes changed from their fiery red to the Rinnegan, signifying Nagato's control, before changing back to the original eye colour. Outside of the seal, Kushina had become covered in a red chakra cloak and her stomach began to glow. "Yes," Nagato said. "Come out, Kyuubi!"

A chakra-covered shape rose out of Kushina's seal, before the Kyuubi rose out of the chakra. Its nine tails shook with fury. Rapidly going through hand signs signified a poof of smoke revealing a giant, earthen-coloured humanoid entity with a decayed appearance and a number of spike-like protrusions on its back "It's time to head to Konoha so I can seal it away for later" As he began to walk away, he heard Kushina's faint voice. "Wait," she said, weakly.

Nagato smirked. "Uzumkai shinobi like us are truly exceptional," he said, shocking Kushina since he was from her clan. "Why do you think my Rinnegan doesn't kill me when I keep it active all the time? It's because our life force and chakra are so great that I do not get affected by keeping it on the entire time. To test my control over the Rinnegan, how about I Show you the power of the sage of six paths?"

Having said that, Nagato threw a black rod at the Kyuubi, who did not move. The rod impaled itself into the beast's fur. Kyuubi roared as Nagato's chakra chain re-appeared for a moment before disappearing. Then, in a blink of an eye, he rapidly started to weave through hand signs there were a poof of smoke revealing a giant, earthen-coloured entity with a decayed appearance and a number of spike like protrusions imbued into its back the Bijuu was rapidly sealed into the dark abyss of the Gedo mazo. Minato had used his Flying Thunder God Jutsu to rescue Kushina

"Minato," Kushina said, greatly weakened. "Is Naruto safe?" The blonde Hokage simply nodded and reassured, "Yeah, he's very safe, now!"

Minato quickly left the area with Kushina, re-appearing in the safe warehouse. He set Kushina down beside Naruto, who she hugged as she let out a few tears. Minato made a fist before rushing out and putting on his Hokage coat. "I'll be back," he promised before leaving the warehouse in a yellow flash.

The peaceful night that Konoha was enjoying was disturbed when Nagato arrived with the Gedo mazo He simply stood on the Hokage Monument and watched with perverse glee as the husk of the jubbi made short work of the denizens of Konoha no sato. Quickly composing himself, Nagato exerted some control on the statue so it could get the job done with a couple of crimson lighting bolts.

As the statue let the zig-sags of dense chakra loose, it shot straight towards the Hokage Monument. Then, it was seemingly absorbed by the Hokage Monument. Minato Namikaze,Nagato realized. This must be his Flying Thunder God Jutsu used on a larger scale.

Sure enough, quite some distance away, there was a large explosion. Nagato quickly sighed before going to meet Minato. The Yondaime Hokage simply batted aside his hand and backed away, holding out his tri-pronged kunai. "I'm your opponent...and it's all over for you," Nagato said as he charged towards Minato. The blonde tried to dodge but Nagato grabbed his arm. Using the Preta Path, Nagato began to drain Minato of his chakra.

Realizing this, Minato quickly used his Flying Thunder God to move away. Since Nagato had been holding his arm, the Rinnegan-user came with him although he was forced to let go of the blonde once they arrived at. Getting back on his feet, Nagato said, "I won't let you get away, this time!"

Minato straightened. He quickly got up and faced the red-haired Uzumaki. A shinobi who outmaneuvered the ANBU assigned by the Sandaime, who slipped through a top-secret barrier and who knew the Kyuubi's seal would weaken during childbirth. Furthermore, he undid the Kyuubi's seal, tamed it, and is a trained user of the Rinnegan, the strongest bloodline in the world. "Well," Nagato surmised. "It seems you've finished going over how strong I am."

"But why are you targeting Konoha?" Minato asked Nagato, who simply chuckled. "I could say I did it on a whim, or I had planned it, or that it's war, or that it's for peace." Having said that, his hand came out of his sleeves with two chakra rods. In any case, this is no ordinary man,Minato thought. He has the Rinnegan and its unknown jutsu and some dangerous idealogy. I need to take him down now or he will become a greater threat than the Kyuubi!

"Weren't you Jiraiya's student?" Minato asked. "That makes us sibling disciples. What would our master say if he saw you trying to destroy his village?"

"I'm not his student anymore," Nagato said. "And this is for peace; by destroying Konoha, I am only eliminating the corrupt ninja that attacked Amegakure in the war. I have absolute right!"

Minato dodged Nagato's first blow and tried to kick him. Nagato simply sidestepped it before saying, "Shinra Tensei." The gravitational force acted against Minato, repelling him and sending him flying backwards. He regained his footing and saw Nagato already coming at him. "Water Style: Wild Water Wave," he said and a large wave of water came towards Minato.

Using his Flying Thunder God Jutsu, Minato appeared on the other side of the clearing. "Fire Style: Dragon Fire Jutsu," Nagato yelled, expelling a blast of fire towards Minato. Two elements, already,Minato thought. Shinobi usually only used techniques of their elemental affinity but it seemed the Rinnegan allowed Nagato to use all five elemental affinities.

Coming up with a plan, Minato threw his kunai at Nagato. He simply dodged the blade and yelled, "Bansho Ten'nin." Minato immediately flew towards the Rinnegan user. But as he did so, he quickly brought out the Rasengan. "So that's the famous Rasengan," Nagato deduced. "I've heard of it but this is my first seeing it in action."

Nagato's hand shot towards Minato's open throat while the Yondaime thrust the Rasengan towards Nagato's hand. Whoever gets there the fastest,they both realized, will win. As Nagato's hand closed around Minato's throat, the blonde vanished. Nagato turned to see Minato having gone to the kunai he had thrown earlier. "This is my Flying Thunder God Level 2," he explained. Just as Minato's Rasengan grazed Nagato's back, the latter yelled: "Shinra Tensei."

Minato went flying back although regained his footing. Darn,he thought. I was too late.But Nagato had taken some damage as his back had become horribly burned from the Rasengan. Thank god I wasn't hit completely; I wouldn't have lived through that."So," Nagato struggled. "This is what is meant by 'elusive.' You-"

He never finished as Minato appeared right in front of him, one hand on Nagato's chest. I was marked by one of his Jutsu Formulas, Nagato realized. A seal splayed across Nagato's chest. "With this," Minato said. "The Kyuubi is no longer yours." In the distance, the Gedo mazo disintegrated its bindings as it let loose a deranged howl.