AN: Enjoy? If you somehow can.
Minato's brow was slicked with sweat as when he landed in the clearing. Moving a creature as large as the Kyubi even once took a massive amount of chakra. That along with his summoning of the Toad Boss had put him dangerously close to chakra exhaustion. Still he had to keep moving. The village was counting on him. The entire land of fire was counting on him. Kushina was counting on him. And his newborn son was counting on him. He had to do something to make sure that the Kyubi couldn't cause even more death and destruction. He couldn't let his thoughts wander to the masked man who had started this entire mess. If he did he would fail at what he was doing now. The Kyubi came first.
"Minato!" somehow his wife was now the one supporting him. Even with her chakra chains binding the Kyubi in the clearing and having just given birth she still found herself able to throw his arm over her shoulder and bring him closer to the Biju. "Don't pass out on me yet. We still need to seal him back in me."
"The shock would kill you Kushina." Minato said with labored breaths.
"Then I'll take him with me. I'll make sure he won't hurt you or Naruto again." She somehow still shook her fist at the fox who only growled and snapped its jaws at the two of them as it continued its struggles. The beast knew they wished to seal it again and would avoid it with everything in its massive power.
Kushina brought them both to their newborn son who was asleep somehow despite the noise around him. Kushina lowered them both to their knees as Minato began going through seals. He needed to summon an alter before anything else.
"No. I'll seal him. I'll use the Shiki Fujin and seal him in Naruto. Well half of him. The other half I'll take into the Shinigami's stomach with me. That man who attacked you will be back before long. He'll need that power, no the world will need that power to stop him."
"You're not sacrificing yourself Minato." Kushina grabbed him and his hands paused. "You're not putting yourself in that hell."
"The village can always find another Hokage Kushina. Maybe even you'll find someone else." He turned away from her the moment he said it, already knowing it was a lie. She, just like him, would never find someone else to give their heart to. "Don't worry about me. I'll be okay somehow." he smiled at her like he always did when things seemed impossible, but this time the smile was far from reaching his eyes. His hands had started over with the seals as he focused his mind on something other than a future without his wife by his side.
"Stop trying to be the hero Minato you can barely stand without my help." Minato's held his most recent seal as he turned to look at Kushina with too many emotions in his eyes. Resignation was the most prominent.
"What other choice do we have Kushina. The fox can't simply sit there long enough for me to get enough strength back for another seal. If Jiraiya was here we might be able to manage a temporary solution so we could plan for something else but it would barely hold the fox. This is the only solution we have. Maybe it'll be better than anything I could've come up with later. Maybe it'll be worse. This is our only option though. I'm sorry Kushina."
"You idiot." She bowed her head and Minato barely made out the tears soaking into the ground below her.
He wanted so badly to take her in his arms and promise her that everything would be okay and that they would find some way out of this together but he knew that was a lie. He always tried to keep their relationship free of lies. Creating a Jinchuriki always saw another life taken. A single life was a low cost to many for sealing a Biju for potentially decades. It was only fitting that he make the sacrifice as Hokage. How could he ask anyone else to do it? Some would call him foolish for this sense of honor but he felt it was what had led to them having a strong shinobi force. Loyalty went both ways.
His hands were wrapped in golden chains before he knew what was going on. Stuck on one of the last few seals as Kushina stood up and summoned the alter herself.
"Kushina-chan?" Minato questioned as he dumbly glanced down at the chains wrapped around his hands and fingers. He tried to move his hands and found the chains unyielding. He couldn't even twitch his fingers. Then his voice came with more force. "Kushina-chan?"
"I'm sorry Minato. I can't let you die. The village needs you. Our son needs you." she didn't turn around to look at him but he could hear the hitch in her voice.
"No!" Minato's struggles increased as he tried to break the chains around his hands. "Naruto needs his mother. His wonderful, beautiful, and smart mother! Not his stupid father who can't put on his haori without her help!"
Kushina didn't say anything though as she began to go through a series of seals completely unfamiliar to him. They both knew the other's techniques. Seeing something new was strange to him. He had shown her the Hiraishin that had earned him the Hokage's hat and she had tried in vain to teach him how to use chakra chains before Hiruzen told them it was a useless pursuit as it was a skill unique to the Uzumaki. He didn't even think there was a technique of one that the other didn't know. Seeing this made his struggles increase even more. Whatever it was must have been forbidden. Taught to her in her time in Uzu. He tried to use the Hiraishin but remained where he was. His eyes glanced down at the chains and saw the black markings on them. Kushina had somehow blocked his technique. He couldn't get free. His foot kicked the chains to no avail as he used all his strength to try and break them.
"Kushina don't! Let me do this! Let Naruto know his father loved him! Don't let him grow up without a mother! Without being able to be held in your arms as he grows up." He tried pulling at the chains, his exhaustion forgotten as he tried to break free. "Don't do this!" he used every ounce of strength he had left to try and break free. "Kushina please!"
She was chanting now. Her voice deeper than anything else he had ever heard. The Kyuubi howled as the chains binding him turned white and Kushina took steps towards him, her chains holding Minato still golden.
"KUSHINA!" Minato yelled, trying to rip his own arms off in a desperate attempt to get to his wife. "KUSHINA!" he was crying but didn't care. He just wanted to stop her from using whatever technique it was. He had a sense of foreboding when it came to the consequences of the technique. He threw himself towards her and was ripped from the air and to the ground by the chains holding his arms. He wish they would just come off so he could stop his wife. He would give anything right now to stop her and his arms seemed like a small price to pay.
She had stopped walking and her arms were outstretched as the Kyuubi thrashed and howled in the chains, the chains growing brighter as her voice grew louder. It seemed desperate to escape but Kushina's chains gave it no slack as they tightened and left burn marks in his fur. The voice coming from Kushina and the howls of the Kyuubi were deafening but Minato barely noticed. He tried to use the Hiraishin again but Kushina was still blocking it somehow. He didn't even know how it was possible. He couldn't move. He tried to mold chakra but the chains were stopping that too. He could do absolutely nothing but watch. Even then he still tried to free himself. He was determined to either break the chains or pull his own arms off. He couldn't let her finish. The sense of foreboding was now sheer terror. The ending of this technique wasn't something that should happen. It wasn't something he could let happen.
Then she looked back at him, her eyes meeting his desperate ones as a silent plea was in them.
"Kushina…please..." Minato begged his wife.
"I love you Minato." She smiled at him and his struggles died down, the sheer serenity on her face stopping him. "Take care of Naruto."
The chains that had been holding the Kyuubi brought it towards her and her body simply fell to the ground when the beast vanished. The chains binding Minato disappeared and he was at her side, catching her as she fell back.
"Kushina?" His voice was quiet but it sounded far too loud in the suddenly still clearing. "Please just answer me."
Minato's head bowed as he held the still form of his wife in his hands and he saw the tears from his eyes falling on her face.
"Please just say something."
His eyes flew to her hair, noticing the vibrant red was now a pale white. The red hair he had fallen in love with and woken up next to every morning was now gone. The strand of fate that had started so many years ago when she left it as a trail on the forest floor was now gone. He could only stare at her face, the same peaceful expression was on her face, the shock of the sealing hadn't even been enough to shake it from her face.
"Please." he willed the body to regain the life it had lost in its final act. "Yell at me for being idiot. Please Kushina."
He didn't see the ANBU and Hiruzen arrive and Hiruzen held a hand to get them to stay as he alone approached.
"Minato?"
"She's just resting Hiruzen. She's just resting. The sealing was a shock to her system. She just needs rest." He spoke to the others even as tears fell down his face. He knew the painful truth of reality still even as he willed the fantasy to be true.
"Minato you know that isn't true." Hiruzen placed a hand on his successor's shoulder but didn't move beyond that.
"Maybe we should go and look for Tsunade? She should be able to help her."
"Minato." Hiruzen paused, not sure if the Hokage could handle what he was about to say. "She's dead."
Minato's head turned towards Hiruzen and there might've been rage in them but he was gone before Hiruzen could properly say if it was. Naruto had started crying and Minato's head snapped to his son. Hiruzen motioned for an ANBU member to retrieve the child as he saw to the Hokage.
"Naruto needs his mother Kushina-chan. You need to wake up." The others now knew something was simply gone in their Hokage as he cradled the body of his wife.
"Minato she is gone. Uzumaki Kushina is dead. She died sealing the Kyuubi." Hiruzen spoke with authority and Minato could only stare. "I'm sorry."
"I know." Minato let the tears he had barely been holding back fall. "I know."
Hiruzen silently stood by him as he wept.
This was supposed to be the happiest day of his life. Becoming a father was something he had been anticipating for months and even through his grief there was a spark of joy. Naruto was still alive and the Kyuubi was gone.
Minato knew none of that though. He only knew the pain of loss.
Minato wished that his world didn't feel so empty and dark as he held his wife's body.
Minato cradled his wife to his chest and let out a cry of grief that left even the seasoned ANBU Hiruzen had brought with him shocked.
AN: Well now that that's over with. Hopefully it was a good read at least. Not sure if you could enjoy it.
No this won't be a neglected Naruto story, get the idea out of your head. Minato will be the exact opposite of neglectful. He loves his son.
So more to come at some point. Don't expect a very cheery Minato. Just a heads up there.
Questions, comments, concerns? Leave a review or PM me.