For a moment, stunned silence fell over the entire battlefield. A single figure appeared seemingly out of nowhere on the front line.
"Hey, Dad, good to see you too!" exclaimed Naruto enthusiastically, waving.
"I hope I'm not too late," Minato said.
"Of course you'd only show up now, while we women are toiling away!" clamoured Kushina.
Minato laughed sheepishly. "Oh dear, Kushina-chan. I'm sorry about that. But you'd all better hold on tight now. It's about to go bang."
Just at that moment, far in the distance, the Jūbi's bomb that he had teleported detonated. Even though the impact was many kilometres away, it still shook the ground and cracked the rock. Only a few heartbeats later it was suddenly raining like hell. So he had brought the sphere into the sea.
Hashirama, Tobirama and Hiruzen also took advantage of this moment to make their appearance. Mito had been too busy with the chains, otherwise she might have noticed sooner that they too had been brought back to life with Edo Tensei. But this way the joyful surprise was greater. Excited shouts rose among the Alliance shinobi when they realised who had come to their aid.
In one fell swoop, Madara had apparently forgotten about the shinobi and only had eyes for Hashirama. Of course. How could it be otherwise. Not even death seemed to change that.
"HASHIRAMA!" he roared as he leapt closer. "Back at last!"
"MADA ...! Oh," Hashirama started, but then interrupted himself as he spotted Mito. He was beaming all over. "Mito-chan! It's good to see you again. I really didn't expect that!"
Mito smiled fondly as she was finally allowed to see her beloved husband again after so many years. In return, she even forgave him for taking his time to appear. "Hello, my little bonsai tree. I missed you."
Hashirama flinched. " Not in front of the people!" he whined.
"Punishment for making us wait while Kushina-kun and I struggled with that ugly thing there," Mito shot back.
Still the chains held, but they could barely keep Jūbi at bay. Now with the imminent danger of the bomb averted, Mito could also put her chains back around the beast, supporting Kushina and Naruto again. Their chains were already noticeably weakened, some even broken. Not good. They had to find a solution quickly.
"Ha, my wife is really incredible! And so is yours, Fourth. The Uzumaki are not to be underestimated," Hashirama said proudly. Then he turned to Madara. "I'm sorry, but you'll have to wait until I have time for you."
Madara's manic grin froze on his lips. "Hashirama, what the...?! All right, whatever." And with that, he sat down on his rock as if they were having a cosy tea party here.
"Stop chattering, you wooden head, and get to work!" roared Kurama at them. "I have a score to settle with you for locking me up again right after I was finally free. But we'll settle that afterwards."
Mito let more chakra flow into her chains to strengthen them. Kushina, too, struggled to maintain control. Minato stepped up to her and put a hand on her shoulder.
"You did really great, Kushina, dear. Just incredible," he said. "But now we'll help you. Together we can do this."
And with those words, he too switched into Bijū mode. How interesting. Kushina had not mentioned that her husband was also a jinchūriki. But that could only help them.
Hashirama raised a fist. "Now then, Hokage! Let's have a go then. We can't leave our poor women to do everything on their own, can we?"
"Nidaime-sama, Sandaime-sama, please follow my lead," Minato pleaded.
"Tobirama-kun, leave one of your clones with me," Mito said. "I need your help."
"Of course." Tobirama formed a clone , who immediately joined Mito. Then Minato teleported him and Hiruzen away.
"Good to see you again, Tobirama-kun," Mito greeted Tobirama's double. "Who summoned you? Apparently that person is on our side."
"Some Orochimaru, a youngster who had once been Saru's student," Tobirama explained. "I haven't quite figured out his motives yet, but that shouldn't matter for now. What do you need my help with, Mito-kun?"
Mito put more chakra into her chains and even with Kurama's cloak it was getting tight. Hashirama had better hurry up! They could barely keep Jūbi under control.
At that moment, the four Hokage finally summoned the Four Red Yang Formation and erected the barrier around Jūbi. It also included the three Uzumaki as well as Tobirama's clone.
"Get ready to teleport Naruto out of here should the need arise," Mito told him.
Tobirama was not a man of many words. Within a moment he leapt to Naruto to mark him for his Hiraishin and then was back at Mito's side.
"Pay attention," she began her explanation. "I need to seal Jūbi, but his chakra is far too powerful overall for that. We can barely bind him, and it wasn't easy to seal Kurama in its entirety inside me back then. This one is a few sizes bigger. So any ideas on how we can make it happen are welcome."
"Edo Tensei bodies are not made to become jinchūriki," Tobirama reminded. He looked impatiently in Hashirama's direction. "Anija, hurry the hell up and stop rooting," he grumbled.
As if that was his sign, Hashirama finally summoned the Myōjinmon. Ten of them bound Jūbi to the earth and an eleventh fixed Jūbi's head. Mito and Kushina could finally breathe a sigh of relief and rest. They loosened their chains.
Naruto also dissolved his jutsu and with it he dropped Kurama's form. He stepped up to Mito and his mother. "You old people are really going off, believe it! That's pretty impressive."
"Say, how dare you talk to me like that, brat!" exploded Tobirama. "You're supposed to address me as Nidaime-sama!"
Still quite the same, then, Mito noted.
Naruto didn't seem to be impressed by that. " Alright. But Kurama has something to tell you."
His eyes changed colour and were suddenly as red as Kurama's. When he spoke, even his voice had changed. "No one can seal the Jūbi in its entirety," Kurama enlightened them. "It's like that time with old Hagoromo. Even he hadn't been able to do that. So he had divided the Jūbi's chakra into nine parts and sealed its shell in the moon. That's how we Bijū came into being. To deal with that thing, you'll have to try something similar."
"How come the Jūbi exists again now anyway, if it was divided?" asked Kushina.
"This Obito and Madara were able to summon the Gedō Mazō," Kurama reported. "In it, they were able to seal the chakras of the other seven Bijū and also got parts of Gyūki and me. Apparently that was enough."
"So it should work if we snatch those chakras back from him," Tobirama mused.
"You're the one who thinks you're oh so clever," Kurama said dryly. "But I think so. We can't do more than try."
Tobirama gave Kurama one of his infamous scowls. "I'll skin you alive and make a bed rug out of you," he growled.
Kurama laughed derisively and then left the field to Naruto again.
Jūbi resisted Hashirama's sealing, but apparently it was strong enough to bind him, at least for the moment. Very good. Tobirama raised his head as if listening.
"Listen, Hashirama wants to open access points through the barrier so the shinobi can attack the Jūbi directly," he reported what his original body heard. "You had better not rely on Hashirama's sealing alone and support it with your Adamantine Chains."
"Understood," Kushina confirmed. "Naruto-chan, you can go now. Your mother is handling this. You did a really great job."
Naruto beamed all over his face. "Hey, thanks, mum. You were great too, believe it!"
Tobirama put a hand on his shoulder and teleported him out of the binding circle. That left only Mito and Kushina for the moment, who immediately bound the Jūbi again with their chains. Together with Hashirama's sealing, it should hopefully be enough.
Tobirama's clone reappeared with them.
"So, do you have any idea how we're going to wrestle the Jūbi's chakra away?", Mito asked him.
"No, I'm still working on it," he said.
Meanwhile, Hashirama had opened the entrances and let his clones lead the attack. One of them joined them accompanied by one of Minato's shadow clones. While the shinobi began the attack, Hashirama put an arm around Mito's shoulder and pressed a kiss to her cheek. She caught his lips and stole a slightly more intimate kiss.
"You look stunning, my dear," he said.
She allowed herself to lean her head against his shoulder for a moment. "At least I'm dressed in style while preventing the end of the world. Do you have your necklace with you?"
"No, I'm afraid I don't. That Orochimaru didn't think of that when he summoned us."
"Another one I have to haul over the coals," Mito grumbled. "That was my wedding present to you!"
"Hey, but Tsuna-chan should still have the original," Hashirama reminded himself. "I'd given it to her when she was a kid, remember? She's Hokage now, that's amazing!"
"Tsunade is what?" exclaimed Mito in shock. "Please tell me that's not true!"
"Unfortunately, it is," Tobirama said. "Supposedly the village is even still standing, although I can't really believe that."
"Tsunade-hime is one of the legendary sannin, it can't be that bad," Kushina interjected.
"Yes, it is. Hashirama taught her to gamble when she had been five," was Mito's whole answer. That said it all.
"She enjoyed it," Hashirama justified himself.
Mito poked a finger into his chest. "And she's as much of a legendary loser as you are!"
Hashirama raised his hands defensively. "But she should be here soon, and with my necklace we should be able to get a handle on that critter there."
Of course Mito was proud that her little granddaughter was Hokage. That was great news! Still, the rational part of her mind doubted that she was the best choice for the post. However, the same was true for Hashirama and he had still managed, together with Madara, to pull the world out of an eternal wheel of war and create something unprecedented.
Hashirama turned to the Jūbi. "We're going to do it like we did when we captured the Bijū?"
"Yes, only a few sizes bigger," Mito confirmed.
"I can give you more of Kurama's chakra, should it become necessary," Minato offered.
Very good, because they would definitely need it. Even though the Jūbi was currently motionless, it defended itself against the Alliance's attacks by creating doubles from his body. Compared to his overall strength, they seemed tiny but each taken separately was still a serious opponent.
Hashirama looked at the battlefield in front of him and seemed to be considering how best to advance on the Jūbi to suppress its chakra. "Fourth, give me some of your chakra," he requested.
Minato complied and immediately Hashirama too was surrounded by a cloak of the fox charka. Enthusiastically, he looked at his hands.
"Ha! This is going to be fun!"
With that, he slapped his hands together and summoned the most powerful jungle Mito had ever seen. And she was used to a lot of things from her husband. Gigantic trees shot out of the ground and broke up the rock effortlessly. They brought chaos to the many parts of the Jūbi, impaling them, tying them up and swatting them as if they were nothing more than pesky flies. Jūbi seemed to sense that there was a serious danger coming from him and sent larger and larger parts of his body out to meet Hashirama's Mokuton, but Hashirama was able to stop them all.
"Not bad," Mito conceded.
"Oh, come on," Hashirama waved it off. "You women did a remarkable job binding Jūbi."
He summoned his wooden golem, which also immediately rushed forward. The jungle was still raging and together with the wooden golem and the dragon that was part of the jutsu, Hashirama could easily make his way. His plan was to channel his sealing jutsu through his golem to suppress Jūbis chakra. Hopefully it would help with this creature as well. It would make it easier to drain the Jūbi of its chakra.
"Ah, so that's what it was like back then," Minato observed. "Well, I can't compete with that."
"Don't talk stupid!", Kushina reprimanded him. "You're the best anyway, don't tell yourself otherwise!"
Tobirama, meanwhile, apparently had an idea of how they could tackle the sealing problem, and conjured up his Summon, a white tiger lady. Yuki didn't seem too impressed by the sight before her, as she wordlessly sat down on her rear end and began to brush her paw.
Kushina's eyes lit up. "Oh, she looks fluffy! Here, pspsps."
Yuki eyed her with her golden eyes. Then, unperturbed, she continued to groom her fur.
"Yuki, I need the scroll," Tobirama asked.
"Do you have fish for me?" replied Yuki.
"Do I look like I have fish on me in this state?" grumbled Tobirama.
"You apparently had the nerve at some point to prepare your fur to stay soft and fluffy even in Edo Tensei, you vain cock," Yuki shot back."So yes, I expect you to have fish for me now too."
Tobirama hissed at Yuki in a surprisingly feline manner. She flicked her tail, unimpressed.
"All right," she sighed, "but at least scratch my chin."
She stretched her head, revealing a collar to which was attached the scroll Tobirama needed. He did indeed scratched Yuki's chin as he took the scroll. She pinched his fingers as he tried to take his hand away again.
Minato took the scroll from him and opened it. "What is this?" he wanted to know.
"Special vessels for sealing large amounts of chakra," Tobirama explained. "I had developed these with Mito so that she could catch the Bijū together with Hashirama. They lock the chakra away safely, and I added a few extra security measures so that the vessels themselves wouldn't be so easy to find either."
"One of those is me," Yuki clarified, baring her teeth. Kushina didn't let that stop herself from still wanting to pet her.
"Those sound like useful tools to me," Minato noted.
"But more importantly, dangerous ones," Tobirama countered. "I locked them away for a reason."
Mito stifled a pointed remark in reference to Edo Tensei.
Meanwhile, the battle for the Jūbi was assuming greater and greater proportions. He was bound by the chakra chains and Hashirama's sealing, but he still knew how to fend off his attackers. Not even Hashirama had been able to reach him. The bastard was tough.
"Oh, Minato-chan, look!" exclaimed Kushina excitedly all at once. "A new Trio and our Naruto is part of it. He's a toad hermit like Ero-sennin Jiraya!"
Mito watched as three young shinobi led a joint attack against Jūbi. One of them was Naruto, who had summoned a toad from Mount Myōboku. At his side were an Uchiha on a snake from the Ryūchi Caves and a girl with pink hair who had summoned a considerable amount of Katsuyu from Shikkotsu Forest. She bore the sigil of the Strength of a Hundred Seal. So she was Tsunade's student then? Tsunade had learned this technique from Mito, after all.
Katsuyu disintegrated into hundreds of small pieces and immediately set about healing the injured shinobi on the battlefield. The snake shot forward and the toad performed a mighty leap over the enemy creatures. It seemed as if the two were about to launch a frontal attack against Jūbi. Still in the air, the toad fended off any attack made against it, while the Uchiha boy defended his snake with Susanoo.
"Susanoo ...", Mito murmured and a bad feeling crept over her. Nothing good ever followed when Susanoo appeared on the battlefield.
"That's the Uchiha brat who caused us to be summoned," Tobirama said. "Wanted a history lesson with Hashirama to decide if he wants to turn on Konoha. Sasuke is what he calls himself. For now, he's on our side, but he has the potential to become a second Madara. We cannot trust him."
"Sasuke? Then he is the son of my friend Mikoto," Kushina stated. "He's come a long way."
At that moment, Naruto and Sasuke launched a joint attack. They combined two jutsus of wind and fire energy to give their attack even more force, and hurled it directly at the Jūbi. If they hit, it would have devastating results. Mito was impressed with these youngsters.
Minato smiled with satisfaction as he watched his son. "He has actually developed my Rasengan. I think I'll call this technique Shakuton: Kōrin Shippū Shikkoku no Ya Zeroshiki."
"What kind of outright nonsense is that?" grumbled Tobirama. "It almost makes a man like me laugh."
Mito glanced over her shoulder at him. "Not everyone is as humourless as you."
Minato laughed nervously. "Hmm, I guess it needs a better name, true."
Naruto and Sasuke scored a hit. Jūbi cried out in pain. At the same moment, Hashirama reached the beast. His golem's hand touched Jūbi. And Jūbi ... indeed fell asleep.
Mito gave a joyful shout, and Tobirama also smiled with satisfaction.
"Very good, anija," he said to himself. "Now the beast cannot defend itself and is at the mercy of Amaterasu's flames."
But Naruto's attack was not over yet. Still in flight, he pushed himself off his toad and took Kurama's form. This put him above Jūbi and thus in the perfect position to cast another Adamantine Chain.
" Bijū-tug-of-war!" noted Kushina. "Yes, of course. Mito-sama, this is how we can withdraw the Bijū-chakras from the Jūbi."
Mito trusted Hashirama's seal. Now that he had suppressed Jūbi's chakra, it should hold. So she loosened her binding chains and threw out new ones. Kushina did the same. The chains of all three Uzumaki met and dug deep into the Jūbi's shell. They found its chakra and clawed their way in.
Kurama landed and immediately began pulling on Naruto's chain. Mito and Kushina also pulled with all their might.
"Ah, I see," Minato said. "Wait, I'll help you."
He too took Kurama's form and grabbed his wife and son's chains with chakra tendrils. Hashirama supported Mito with his Mokuton and wrapped the wood around her chains. This strengthened them and enabled her to pull even harder.
"Go, shinobi of the Alliance!" shouted Hashirama. "Pull with them! Every man counts!"
Minato shaped his Kurama chakra so that it formed long strands. The Alliance shinobi flocked over and grabbed the strands, pulling the chains together with them. Tobirama supported Mito.
"You prepare the sealing," he instructed her. "That is your task."
Mito reached for the scroll and unsealed the familiar vessels. They had been a necessity so that they could carry out Hashirama's idea of capturing all the Bijū. Kurama had already been sealed inside her, and until then, sealing in a jinchūriki had been the only way they knew of to lock away a Bijū.
With a poof, the nine vessels appeared, bulbous gourd bottles made of clay. Simple, were it not for the complicated formulas she had worked into the clay. Mito checked the formulas and renewed and strengthened them where necessary. She knew how to handle Bijū chakra and assumed it was little different with the Jūbi's chakra. After all, it was made up of the chakras of the Bijū.
"Great!" exclaimed Naruto. "Look, it's coming out! It's working!"
From the gigantic mass of the Jūbi, its chakra began to release. Mito had expected it to be roughly the shape of the Jūbi; after all, that was how it had been with Kurama when she had acquired his chakra. But in fact she could make out the shapes of the Bijū in the gigantic mass of chakra.
Kurama's tails waved and stretched towards the chakra mass. The same chakra that was in the Jūbi came forth and joined with that of the Ten-Tails. Alone with the chakras of Hachibi and Ichibi it failed and Kurama could not grab them.
Hachibi leapt over and reached out with his tentacles for his own chakra. He wrapped his arms around it and this time he was able to grab the chakra.
"That's it for you now, let's say ciao!" shouted Hachibi. "Don't be a blockhead or else you end up dead!"
A young man took on Ichibi's chakra. Mito didn't understand how it could be, but it worked as he reached for Ichibi's chakra with sand and now pulled on it as well. But what mattered was that he could control it.
"Thought so," Tobirama remarked with a smug smile. "I've sensed it in Naruto all along, that he has some of the Bijū's chakra in him. They are now responding to the Jūbi's chakra."
"Go on, keep it up, Naruto!" roared Kurama.
Mito connected her chains to Kushina's and Naruto's so they could act as conductors for the Jūbi's chakra. That way she would be able to seal the chakras and then neither Madara nor that Obito would be able to get to it again, she already knew how to prevent that.
"Hello, grandmother. Please forgive me for being a little late."
Mito looked up. "Oh, hello, Tsuna-chan," she greeted her granddaughter. "It's nice to see you again. Have you said hello to Grandpa yet?"
"Yes, and he's ... talking to Madara," Tsunade opened, seeming somewhat taken aback by this. "And good to see you too, Tobi-ojisan."
"What did you think they were both doing?" retorted Tobirama, still tugging on Mito's chain. "Hashirama had always been a smooth talker."
"I don't know, butting heads maybe," Tsunade suggested.
Hmm, maybe Mito should have talked to her granddaughter more about Madara and Hashirama after all, she reflected. Apparently she had given Tsunade the wrong picture of her grandfather if she really thought Hashirama's only relationship with Madara was fighting. But that wasn't important for now.
"Did you give Grandpa your necklace?" she asked instead. "We could use it right now."
"There's a bit of a problem," Tsunade opened, clearing her throat. "I don't have it anymore. Gambled it away, you might say. I gave it to Naruto, but when Kyūbi almost got out of control, he had destroyed it."
Mito gave Tsunade a long look. Tsunade had the decency to look abashed.
"But I don't think that will be necessary any more," Kushina interjected. "Look, it's working!"
Kurama roared and stepped back. The chakra strand followed him. By now much of it had come out of the Jūbi and Jūbi itself was visibly losing mass the more chakra it adjusted the size of his torii to keep Jūbi under control.
"Come on, everyone!" shouted Naruto to the alliance. "Together we can do this! Together we are unsurpassable!"
The boy was truly incredible, you had to give him that. His will was at least as strong as Hashirama's, and that was something that was truly admirable.
Mito threw out another chain, right into the middle of the Jūbi's chakra mass. At the same time, she began to connect her chains to the vessels. Back then she had sealed one Bijū after the other, now she had to take them all on at the same time. Well, Kurama snatched his own chakra and Hachibi took back his. That still left seven. A challenge, but manageable.
She still remembered well the chakra signatures of each Bijū. So she adjusted the chakra paths of her Adamantine Chains accordingly to be able to channel each chakra into the intended vessel. Complicated formulas like this had always been her favourite pastime. The trick was to break down something so complex until it was no longer a tangled ball of confusing scribbles. Seals wanted clear lines.
So she created clear lines.
Like a puppeteer, she directed the gigantic mass of chakras to its new destination. She carefully picked apart the thick strand of chakra and divided it into its nine components. She left her share to Kurama and Hachibi, and took the other seven parts. She let each part flow into one of the vessels she had lined up in front of her.
With a simple hand signal, she made the final seal. With a pop, the seven vessels closed in front of her. Silence fell over the battlefield.
"That was awesome!" roared Naruto enthusiastically. "Mum, you're amazing, believe it! And you've got it too, Mito-obaasan, haha."
Cheers erupted among the Alliance shinobi as Naruto and Minato resolved their Kurama mode. But Mito wasn't done yet. It was true, the Jūbi was so enormous that its shell could still persist without all its chakra. It was motionless and seemingly without consciousness, looking more like a giant statue made of stone. But it too had to be sealed, Mito was not done here.
Once again she threw out her chains. Shackling Gedō Mazō was almost child's play compared to the full size of Jūbi. She didn't have to exert too much effort, especially since she still had some of Kurama's chakra. The chain bound the demon statue to itself and transferred it to the eighth vessel.
They had done it. They had actually done it. Jūbi was bound. Mito smiled with satisfaction.