Ok, so this story is the first chapter (Well prologue but still) of my new story which is a response to Dragon Wolf-Tamer's challenge. It's basically what would happen if instead of the whole nine-tails being sealed into Naruto, it's split into fragments and sealed into eleven other babies as well (no points for guessing which ones). Hope you enjoy it!
Disclaimer No Jutsu – I do not own Naruto or anything related.
Prologue
There were few who knew of the hidden room underneath the Hokage's tower, Kushina Uzamaki herself had not known of its existence until a few minutes before. It was more of a cavern than a room, built out of aged yellow stone that threatened to crumble into pieces at the slightest touch. For Kushina, who already knew she was dying, it was the least comforting idea she could have possibly contemplated at that moment in time, it must have been even worse for the other women in the room, all of whom had a good chance of surviving provided what they were about to attempt worked and/or the ceiling didn't fall in on them. There were twelve statues around the edge of the room, statues Kushina now knew as the Twelve Guardian Shinobi who had once protected the Land of Fire before even the Leaf Village was created. Sosui Namikaze, Kagami Uchiha, Yakuzai Haruno, Inu Inuzuka, Konchuu Abuarme, Taiyou Hyuuga. Ganjou Akimichi, Kage Nara, Kokoro Yamanaka, Sumiyaka, Irai and Hinoiri Hyuuga. Before that night, those names had all been something from a fairytale, now, it was more like a nightmare.
The women were standing in a circle around the room, one under every statue , each clutching their babies as if they were lifelines. Looking around , Kushina sent a silent prayer to whoever was listening that Minato would be successful. Looking down at her own baby, she attempted to smooth down his unruly blonde hair, before admitting defeat, he was too much like his father to ever have tidy hair. A single tear ran down Kushina's face when she suddenly realized that unlike the other mothers in the room, she was never going to see her child grow up. 'But at least he won't have to go through what I went through.' She thought to herself. Outside the village, the Kyuubi was slaughtering thousands of Leaf-Village shinobi, the same Kyuubi that had once been sealed inside of her. She remembered well the terrifying sensation of having the Kyuubi take over, the pain its anger caused, she didn't know how she could stand herself for inflicting the same thing on her son. They'd explained to her, Minato and Jiraiya, how this time would be different, how the nine-tails was being sealed into twelve children, not just one, in the same way it had been sealed inside the twelve guardian shinobi centuries ago. How, even though Naruto would still carry the largest portion of the Nine Tails' power, once the Kyuubi was split into tiny pieces, it became gentler and less malevolent. Kushina for one, didn't believe them. For a second she contemplated running away before the worst happened but then two things happened. The first thing was that every baby in the room simultaneously started crying as dark red spirals appeared briefly on their stomachs before fading again. That was the last thing Kushina saw before she died. As she slipped further into the blackness her mind was filled with the most incredible sense of relief. Yes her son would have to carry the nine-tails, but he would not have to do it alone.
