Nothing Else Matters

An Uzumaki-centric story

Chapter 4

"Prophesized Nativity and The Third War"

(In the mountains of Tsuchi no Kuni)

"Hokage-Shiki Jijun Jutsu — Kakuan Nitten Suishu"

A seal with the Kanji for 'sit' glowed in Hashirama's hands as the Yonbi continued to struggle against the innumerable trees binding it and the wooden dragon coiling around it's torso and biting down it's neck.

The Yonbi gradually slowed down it's struggling against the wooden restraints until it eventually fell asleep.

Kushina turned to Hashirama and gave him a blinding smile. "That was very well done, pet. We'll be sure to interrupt your rest again when we find a use for you."

Hashirama Senju's face was completely devoid of emotion, he didn't even flinch when a coffin rose from the ground and swallowed his body before sinking back into the unknown. Kushina unsealed the Kohaku no Johei and directed it's chakra towards the Yonbi with a half ram hand sign. As promised, she was extracting it as slow as possible, delivering the largest amount of pain the process was capable of delivering.

After a solid twenty minutes, Roshi's screaming and pleading for mercy died down when the beast was fully sealed in the amber purifying pot. "Well, that was very satisfying."

Honoka appeared next to her cousin and shook her head. "Let's just leave, someone must've sensed all the chakra that was leaking from the both of you and the Bijuu. Iwa will send investigative squads soon enough."

Kushina nodded happily. "Yes, we got what we came for. Next stop, Konoha!" She said in a cheerful voice. Just after they started walking away, Kushina seemed to remember something and ran back to Roshi's corpse. Planting a Kusagakure headband on his chest, she was satisfied.

This mission went better than expected, the second Shinobi war might've just ended, but all the villages were still strong, it was a war where individual Shinobi with extraordinary skills dictated the direction of the war, unlike the first Shinobi war where most of the fighting was done between regular Shinobi, a war of attrition where the defeated would take centuries to rebuild their military power. Compared to that, the Second Shinobi war barely dented the great village's military power.

Konoha was still going strong with the Nidaime's students, Kagami Uchiha, the Sannin and Sakumo Hatake. Iwa's old fence sitter was still quite the fighter and his two sons were fearsome as well. In Kirigakure, the new generation of the Shinobigatana Shichinin Shu was being hailed as the strongest ever. The only hidden village that truly lost something was Kumo, losing their Kage was a terrible blow, though his son was already groomed for the position, despite his terrible leadership, Unruly Ay was an excellent combatant.

The bottomline was, the Shinobi world is too strong, stirring another world conflict was the only way to weaken it indirectly. The Raikage would invade Kusa soon enough, Ohnoki had the reason and excuse to justify an invasion, but he wouldn't want to risk the status quo, he wasn't known as the fencesitter for nothing. He will quickly change his mind when he hears of Kumo invading Kusa, he'll surely be scrambling to send his own forces to secure territory for Tsuchi no Kuni.

Konoha was the next target. Kushina didn't want to reveal her trump card, Honoka's Edo Tensei, too soon. She certainly couldn't take on an entire village by herself. She needed a force of nature, hence extracting the Yonbi, it served two purposes, luring Iwa into war and providing a weapon to use against Konoha. She intended to have it attack Konoha in the middle of the day, to highlight its weakness, it'll be a huge stain on their reputation as the greatest of the big five ninja villages. This plan was hatched by Kushina when she reflected on the results of the second Shinobi war, She intended to delay it after the children were born. When she met Akahana though, it was brought to the top of the priorities list. Hopefully Kusagakure, the village that abused her cousin would be no more after this war. Being the arena for three giants of the Shinobi world to duke it out tends to turn you into dust, after all.

They would hit two birds with one stone, both weakening the Shinobi war by having the great villages participate in a pointless conflict and by destroying Kusa, just like she promised Akahana she would.

(A week later, Konohagakure no Sato)

They deserve to be destroyed in Honoka's mind, civilian cities had better security in her opinion. The old Hokage, Hiruzen, is probably the reason for the lack of security in Konoha. The fool was probably headed towards disarmament because the war just ended. How could a Shinobi live such a long life and still be so naïve? It was baffling, though he did receive training from Hashirama Senju, that man was so idealistic he would actually wanted to give his own life for a temporary peace between the Uchiha and Senju. Thinking that nobody would want to break the very fragile peace, what a joke of a leader. His people will die because of him. Their blood was on his hands.

She saw the people walking the street, talking excitedly about the latest news while children played in parks, not knowing what would soon befall them.

Honoka was currently eating some sweets and drinking green tea from a local store while Kushina goes to the top of the Hokage mountain and summons the Yonbi. Hopefully, the naive old man will stay Hokage even after this attack, it will only benefit them to have clueless men in charge of the Shinobi world.

The only way Konoha could fight a Bijuu was with pure force, they had no Sealing Masters to seal it while it's rampaging, they had no sharingan specialist to control it nor did they have anyone with Mokuton that can subdue it. They had pure force aplenty though, Konoha was home to many Shinobi who have Summoning contracts with various animal clans who can pose trouble for the four tails.

The only option they have is beating him into the ground to stop him from moving long enough for Jiraiya or the Hokage to seal him, which is perfect for her and Kushina. Since the four tails isn't being controlled, he'll eventually wizen up and try to run away from the village so he won't get sealed again, being attacked will make him retaliate which will in turn result in more loss of life in Konoha. She was still apprehensive about just turning a Bijuu over to Konoha, but the attack was necessary, hopefully some of Konoha's powerful Shinobi die in the conflict.

Ah, it seems the show's starting. Honoka got up and headed towards the gates of Konoha to make her exit from this pathetic village.

(An hour, later outskirts of Konoha)

"Come on, it took us thirty minutes to defeat the Jinchuuriki and extract it, how haven't they defeated it yet?"

Sitting on a branch and watching the fireworks, the Sannin and Sakumo Hatake fighting the four tailed ape, Kushina and Honoka were very amused. The damage to the village wasn't as extensive as they thought it would be, though a lot of districts were turned into smoldering piles of volcanic rocks.

"Well, it's probably the fact that they haven't fought an unsealed Bijuu before, standard procedure to deal with a Bijuu is to push it's power back into it's Jinchuuriki. With their plan A down the toilet, they're pretty much screwed."

"Did you leave any hints to frame Kusa?"

"Yeah, I left the bodies of Kusa Shinobi in several key places with their Hitai-ate on, that should be enough. It was enough for Kumo and Iwa, it should be enough for Konoha. After their loses here, they'll look for anything to place the blame on, especially because Konoha hasn't lost before. The old man will try to fight it, but war will come. Konoha's Shinobi will be baying for Kusa's blood by the end of the day."

Oh, there goes the monkey with his staff. They still don't understand that elemental jutsu does nothing to a Bijuu. How can a mass of coalesced chakra be burned with a fireball? The only thing they can do is have a skilled member of the Uchiha clan hypnotize it with his Sharingan and lead him away from the village. Fortunately, there were no Uchiha that were skilled enough to control the Kyuubi in Konoha.

Kushina, who was resting her chin on her palm and had half lidded eyes, finally spoke again "That does it, let's head back to Uzu before I die of boredom."

Nodding, Honoka dropped down from her branch following her cousin towards Uzu, Kushina was whistling a merry tune as Konoha burned, Konoha definitely manage to drive the beast back before the village was completely destroyed, not without losses though.

(Uzushiogakure, five months later)

"She's a bit of a pain, isn't she?"

Akahana looked at Honoka with an amused smile. "Are you talking about Kushina or Karin?"

"Both to be honest." They both watched as Kushina showed Karin several baby toys they bought from a port city in Hi no Kuni. Kushina was shoving all the toys in the confused toddler's face, hoping to coax her into playing with them. Honoka bit her lip, she was very nervous about this. Deciding to get it done with, she suddenly asked. "Does it hurt?"

Akahana nodded "It does, but it's worth it, there's nothing that brings me more joy than being with Karin."

That didn't do anything to lift Honoka's spirit. She was a seal mistress not a fighter, she wasn't used to pain and she had a very low pain tolerance. She would have to design a seal to limit the pain. "I'm going to go work on my sealwork"

Akahana gave her a curious look "What are you working on? Maybe I can help."

Honoka raised an eyebrow at her. "I didn't know you were proficient in Fuinjutsu."

"Of course I'm proficient, I'm an Uzumaki after all, even if it's not my field of expertise, I have a fairly decent knowledge of the art."

"Okay, you can come with if you want to help, Karin seems to have her hands full with Kushina giving her a tour of the island."

They both walked through the long tunnels of their hideout until they reached Honoka's study, the area she practised her Fuinjutsu pursuits. Going into the study, Akahana expected a to see paper strewn about everywhere inside the room, surprisingly, it was extremely clean and neat, with not a paper out of place.

They sat down at opposite ends of a table in the middle of two two rows of shelves stacked with books. The amount of books was fairly ridiculous, considering that the library was just across the hall from Honoka's study. Honoka picked up a scroll from one of the shelves and unraveled it on the table to reveal a whirlpool the size of pebble.

"This is the initial design of the seal, it's small and impossible to decipher now because I've hidden it behind a sealing matrix, which also binds all the parts of seal together into one comprehensive unit. The gist of it is to rewrite someone's DNA in a way that excludes all features inherited from a specific parent. This type of seal is already in existence and was sold by the Uzumaki to royals who didn't want a bastard tarnishing their family name. The problem is isolating a Kekkei Genkai and retaining it after the seal is applied. The original seal wipes all traces of a parent's DNA, I'm trying to modify it to give Kushina's children Mokuton and a part of the Senju's famous resilient body they inherited from the sage while wiping any traces of Hashirama being their father."

"That certainly poses a problem, I might have a solution to your problem though."

Honoka was extremely surprised, she knew Akahana was just trying to be useful, but she didn't really expect anything to come out of consulting her. "Oh, and what do you suggest?"

"Well, you can forget about modifying this seal, it's too rigid. Fuinjutsu has limits too. The problem is you're blurring the line between medical Ninjutsu and Fuinjutsu. This is a problem to be solved with medicine and science, not Fuinjutsu. You should try to isolate Mokuton from Hashirama's DNA and splice it into a sample of Kushina's DNA. That way you can inject it into them after you apply the blood purging seal. The Kekkei Genkai will also integrate without incident because they have had it since birth."

Honoka adopted a thinking pose. "Well, I admit to having very little theoretical knowledge of Iryo Ninjutsu, the only talents I have in the field are provided to me by my Shosaku Sen. Can I count on you to research the process of genetic splicing?"

Akahana nodded eagerly, she had been feeling like a freeloader living with her cousins without giving anything in return. This way will be useful to them. She wasn't worried about taking care of Karin, they were all fighting for play time with her, even Honoka was excited about the baby. Kushina was taking it as a sort of test run for her children's birth. She had been doting over her for the last five months, making Akahana question whether she wants to steal her daughter from her, when asked about it, Kushina said that she wasn't her mother, she was just her 'cool aunt'.

"I'd be happy to help, looking after Karin is fulfilling and all, but I want to be useful to you guys."

"I need you to perfect the process in less than a year, can you do it?"

"I'll do it, you don't happen to have a lab in this place do you?"

"Actually, there is a lab, neither I nor Kushina were ever used it so it's been collecting dust for years. I'll show it to you and help you clean it up"

(Two years and a half years later, Uzushiogakure no Sato)

"Kushina-obachan, Why is Honoka-obachan screaming? Is she hurt?"

Karin was waiting outside of the room her mother and her heavily pregnant aunt went in an hour ago. She was a bit confused as to why her younger aunt was screaming, so she decided to ask Kushina-obachan. Kushina always answered any questions she had and treated her well.

Kushina kneeled in front of Karin and placed her hand on the three year old's head. "No Karin-chan, we wanted to keep this a surprise for you, but you're going to get a new brother and sister."

Karin's eyes widened and then she slowly smiled "I've never seen a boy before, I wonder what he looks like?"

Kushina puffed up her chest. "Well he is my son, he'll definitely be the handsomest boy ever. Once they're done, we'll be going in to say hello to him."

Karin nodded. It was very boring being the only child here on this island. Her mother was always busy in her lab and Honoka-obachan was always busy reading. Although, Kushina-obachan always played with her and kept her company, she wasn't her age. She needed someone her age to play or she might go insane!

Kushina was looking at Karin's eyes from the moment they first started their conversation. She had grown attached to the girl the last few years, she was a sweet girl and she reminded her of herself in her youth, energetic and disrespectful, a typical Uzumaki child, though she has been very quiet since her aunt's water broke. Akahana was birthing the child, she wanted to go in and hold her cousin's hand through this ordeal, but Akahana didn't allow her, ordering her to stay with Karin so she wouldn't get worried.

Kushina had been delighted with Karin's reaction to the baby news. It had been radically different to Kushina's reaction when her parents announced that they were having another baby. She had cried herself to sleep thinking that the new baby will take all the attention away from her. Now she would kill to see her little sister again.

She couldn't fault Karin for her reaction though, she had been the only child on the island, hell, she hasn't even met anyone else her age. Everyone needed a few friends, god knows what she would do without Honoka and Akahana.

For the year and a half prior to Honoka's impregnation surgery, her two cousins had looking for a way to complete the blood purging seal. She was extremely surprised when they came to her with a hybrid between Fuinjutsu and Iryojutsu that would theoretically solve the problem. It would be applied four months after the birth to ensure that they could handle the strain of a complete rewrite of their DNA. She hadn't thought that Akahana would be this useful when she rescued her from Kusa. Apparently, she was an accomplished medic-nin who occasionally dabbled in the sciences.

Because they were so busy with their research, she was unofficially assigned Karin's caretaker. It had been a joy taking care of her cute little niece, to be honest, she always thought that kids were annoying, but her time with the cute redhead had been very enjoyable. The only time she left Uzushiogakure was to go to the coastal cities of Hi no Kuni and check up on the happenings around the world and the status of her 'gift' to the Shinobi world.

The third Shinobi war was still raging on, apparently people predict that it wouldn't draw to close for a couple of years. Akahana had been amused to hear that Kusagakure had been turned into a pile of rubble after the Jinchuuriki of the Hachibi let loose there. Most Kusagakure Shinobi were killed by the poor management of their Jonin commander, who Honoka controlled with the sealing matrix they place on him years ago. Kumo and Iwa have both claimed Kusa no Kuni as their own and have been battling for territory for a few years now, Konoha had been content in guarding and maintaining their borders, though she had heard that Danzo's root have been sabotaging both sides to prepare for their entrance into the conflict.

Sunagakure had been awfully silent for the last few years, probably because they didn't want to interfere in a war that didn't concern them. They were the weakest of the great Shinobi villages and couldn't afford to participate in a war they can't finish. Kirigakure was the most surprising one though, Kiri had a leading role in every war, known for their bloodlust and savagery, it had been a surprise when they abstained from the conflict. Apparently, the new Kage, Yagura, had been adamantly against the war, seeing it as a pointless conflict they wouldn't gain anything from, which was partially true.

She didn't feel that guilty about it, she had only quickened the inevitable. The third Shinobi war would have been waged if she had instigated it or not.

But now all her plans were coming to their climax. Her children are the key pieces for her ambition. She would give the sage's power to whoever has the most potential of the two.

The door opened and out came Akahana wiping her hands clean with a towel. "You can come in now, both babies are completely healthy, they should see their mother."

Kushina almost ran into the room, not even sparing a glance at the bedridden Honoka who was glaring daggers at her. Rushing to the baby crib, her heart almost stopped when she saw their faces, they were both wrapped in blankets. They were beautiful, both having vibrant red hair. It appears the girl, Kimiko, she decided to call her, had fallen asleep already, while Naruto, the boy, was testing out his new pair of lungs by screaming as loud as he can. Picking up her baby boy from his spot next his sister, she nuzzled him gently and affectionately to her chest calming him almost immediately. His crying turned into whimpers as she continued lightly bouncing on the soles of her feet.

Her little Naru-chan fell asleep in his mother's arms. She placed him in the crib next to his sister. She was taken out of her trance when she felt someone tug on her pants. Looking down, she saw Karin looking at her with her big crimson eyes. "Can I see them?"

"Of course you can sweetie." Kneeling down and putting her hand on each side of her waist, Kushina picked her up and balanced her on the crib's wooden edge to give her a good look at her newly born cousins.

Karin furrowed her eyebrows. "Why are they so small?"

Kushina seemed amused by her reaction. "That's because they were just born. They'll grow up eventually. Look, the one in the blue blanket is Naruto, the boy, and the one in the red blanket is Kimiko, the girl."

Karin nodded her head and continued to inspect the two babies. To be honest, they looked exactly the same, the same eyes, the same face and same red hair. Without the blankets, she wouldn't be able to tell who was who.

"Well Karin, since you're their older sister, you need to protect them right? They're your family and Uzumaki always protect their family."

Karin nodded without question. She had always been told to only trust her family. It's a mantra that she had heard repeated ever since she was born. It was firmly engraved in her mind.

Akahana seemed to chuckle in mirth. "Kushina, stop brainwashing my child, she'll learn with experience."

Kushina very maturely stuck out her tongue and blew a raspberry at her older cousin. "Why should she learn from her experience when all of have gone through the exact same thing? Learning from the mistakes of others is better than learning from your own."

"I guess you do have a point, come on Karin-chan let's leave your cousins to rest, they must be very tired."

Karin had a horrified look on her face. "But I want to see them grow up!"

Muffling her mouth with her hand to hide her laugh, Karin's mother answered her. "Karin-chan, dear, they're not going to grow up in a day. It'll take them years to grow up, so they need a lot of sleep. Let's go play with the animals in the forest, how do you like that idea?"

Karin's mood brightened and she nodded. Dropping from her perch on the edge of the babies' crib, she latched on to her mother's hand and started heading towards the door.

Honoka gave Kushina a look that meant business. Sighing, Kushina sat on a chair on the side of Honoka's bed and looked at her. "Aren't women supposed to be completely worn out after childbirth?"

Honoka snorted "It's nice to know you care. I may have just given birth, but I'm an Uzumaki, They don't call us the clan of longevity for nothing."

Kushina chuckled. "Of course I care, dear cousin."

Kushina gave Honoka a look and after a moment, got up and gave her a big hug. "Thank you Honoka, I know child birth was hard, so thank you for giving me my babies."

Honoka seemed overwhelmed by the emotion in Kushina's voice, being a natural introvert, she didn't know how to deal with this situation. Deciding to keep it simple, she gave a "you're welcome" and slowly pushed her cousin away.

Kushina edged away from her cousin's bed and sat back on her chair. "So, what do you want to talk about?"

"Who do you think is more qualified for holding the power of the sage?" She said while looking at the newly borns.

"Well, we don't know anything about their abilities for now, but Naruto should be more qualified, if only because men have bigger chakra reserves. The sage was also a man, maybe his true power only manifest in males."

Honoka nodded, seeing the logic in her cousin's thinking. "When will the next stage of our plans begin?"

"When the kids are old enough to start training, hopefully a good pair of eyes will emerge by then. That way we can leave Uzu to advance the plan while the children train and grow. The three pieces of the sage's must be reunited if we are to accomplish our goals. Until then, we can only train and improve on our skill sets and abilities for the challenges to come."

Honoka nodded. Looking at the crib, she decided to change the subject."I'm not going to feed them, they're you're children."

"I knew you would say that, that's why I developed a seal that releases hormones that force lactation. Akahana said it was that breastfeeding strengthens the bond between a mother and her child, I don't want to miss on that."

Honoka honestly wasn't surprised by how serious Kushina considered motherhood to be. She hadn't been old enough to remember her family when Uzu was destroyed, but Kushina remembered everything. Perhaps having children might bring her some measure of true joy, she seemed to radiate when she held her son a few minutes ago.

(Border between Kusagakure no Sato and Kumogakure no Sato)

It had been three weeks since Danzo-sama assigned him this mission, apparently, this operation signaled Konoha's entry in to the third great Shinobi war, they had been in several skirmishes with Kusa Shinobi, who strangely attacked, as if goading them into retaliating. Konoha hadn't really placed her military might into this was, until now that is.

The assassination of the Nibi Jinchuuriki, a 13 genin by the name of Nii Yugito would be a crippling blow to Kumo. Although she had very little control over her beast, Kuno had deployed her to the front lines, foolishly thinking that no one would know her identity. Root spies identified her within a couple of days.

He had trained hard over the years under his master's tutelage. Although he was a prodigy, his master seemed intent on curbing his potential, not wanting his subordinate to get too strong. His master hadn't been very successful in his effort, considering he had already surpassed him. His control over wind was unmatched, even in Suna, and his Fuinjutsu skills were only second to Jiraiya of the Sannin.

He was supposed to assassinate her and flee, leaving his squad mates as cover for his escape. He was apparently 'too valuable' for Danzo-sama to lose. He himself didn't think so. He was trash, no, he was lower than trash, that's why she left him.

Thoughts of the mission brought his heart with unimaginable pain. A female Jinchuuriki, that only filled his heart with pure pain. He remembered Kushina's betrayal of him, he even remembered the remorseful look on her eyes before she knocked him out. She had probably assumed that he wouldn't allow her defection and would attack her as a traitor, which he probably would have at the time. But now, he would give anything to see her again. Only when she left did he realize how empty his life was without her.

He tried to fill the hole in his heart, he really did, doing nothing but training and sleeping with a few of the girls who had affections for him, hoping to get is mind over the redhead, but unfortunately he still couldn't get over his beloved Kushi-chan. If asked now to choose between the village and Kushina, he wouldn't even think about it.

In his desperation to get away from the pain and heartache, he sold his soul to the devil, he offered his services to Danzo Shimura, the Shinobi no Yami, but even his harsh mental conditioning couldn't spare him of the dreams he would have of Kushina, her smiles and her beautiful red hair. He often imagined what could have been had Kushina not defected, or even if she had taken him with her.

He could just imagine it, him and his beautiful wife on a beach, playing with blonde haired kids, living far away from the Shinobi world and its misery. The only reason hadn't killed himself was the minuscule possibility of that dream coming true.

Engrossing himself in missions was the only thing he could do. Living life one day at a time and hoping someone would kill him and save him from his misery. His dream of becoming Hokage was worthless now that he had nobody to share it with.

Minato Namikaze was truly a lost man.

(Kumogakure military camp)

Minato signaled to his squad mates to hide in the woods and provide ranged support while he went in close and completed the mission. He was using his limited sensing skills to identify the chakra signature of the Bijuu among the hundreds in the camp. The Nibi's chakra signature was huge, he hadn't sensed the Kyuubi in Kushina but he was sure it was bigger than this. It was actually kind of frightening, just like Kushina was. Giving a sad smile, he headed towards his objective. She was in a remote part of the camp with another signature, perfect for picking her silently.

Arriving near the clearing, he saw his target and another genin, a boy, locking lips in a heated exchange. The girl was a blonde, like him, she seemed fairly tall for her age and a lithe body that had obviously seen its fair share of training. They were in their own world, which made him think this mission was strangely easy. He would have to dispose of her Connection to her Bijuu before he could kill her, so the beast's chakra wouldn't flare wildly while it exited her body. Cutting her connection with her Bijuu was fairly easy. Kumo outfitted their Bijuu with a Tekko Fuin, which was an odd numbered seal. Putting a Nigyo Fuin on top of it would disrupt her chakra flow.

Taking the strip of chakra paper out of his weapons pouch, he readied it while holding two kunai in his other hand. He prepared himself to quickly dispose of them both and escape without having to sacrifice his team. Kushina always believed in teamwork and team mates helping each other, she wouldn't approve of willingly sacrificing your team mates for the sake of the mission.

He quickly flicked a Kunai towards the boy's throat and lunged towards the girl, hoping to end it by applying the seal and slitting her throat. He simultaneously killed both and sealed off her chakra. Sighing at the ease in which the mission finished, he was flabbergasted by the two puffs of smoke that his enemies disappeared in. He jumped away and called his squad to stand next to him. This was bad, they had been baited masterfully. Putting his finger to the ground to check their surroundings, he was shocked to find an uncountable number of chakra signatures surrounding the woods around them.

He and his squad stood their ground for a couple of minutes waiting for the enemy to attack, though it seemed as if they were waiting for someone. After a few more minutes, he heard the sound of lightning approaching the clearing. He started to sweat, he might've been the best Root had to offer, but he couldn't take on Unruly Ay, the Yondaime Raikage. The sound kept getting closer until a mountain of a man jumped into the clearing, beside him were the two genin that had been making out earlier, the Jinchuuriki and the boy whose tongue she was sucking.

"Good job, Shee. Your sensory skills are very useful."

Well, that wasn't fair. How was he supposed to know Kumo had such skilled sensors? Nobody but the very best should be able to detect him and his squad, yet this genin had done so.

The blonde haired genin smirked. "You honor me, Raikage-sama."

The Raikage looked at Minato with contempt. "You're the one who's been hitting our supply lines for the last few months aren't you? To think that Ohnoki would be bold enough to attempt a direct assassination of our Jinchuuriki, I have to give him credit, without Shee, Yugito would have definitely died."

Minato didn't say anything in return, Root were taught to not give anything away. They were in an unenviable position, facing against a Kage who was surrounded by hundreds of his men. 'Fight to the very end', that's what Kushina would always say, that's would he would do. He signaled to his three squad mates to take care of the genin while he attempted to hold back the Raikage. Hopefully Killing the Jinchuuriki and the sensor would be worth their sacrifice.

Minato went through several hand seals before finishing his jutsu "Futon: Shinkugyoku" he blew several dozens of blasts of wind over a large area, hoping to separate the genin from their Kage. The Raikage flared his infamous Raiton no Yoroi and dodged the blasts, seeing his wind was stronger than lightning, those blasts would have surely hurt him.

Minato knew from the get go that Ninjutsu was his only option. He was better off sticking a kunai in his own throat then trying to challenge Ay in Taijutsu. He prepared another attack, hoping that his team would kill the assassination objective before he died. "Futon: Shinkuuha" He blew out two waves of cutting wind right after another. Surprisingly the Raikage just endured the damage and ran through Minato's jutsu, the jutsu cut him, but it didn't do any real damage. Seeing no other option but close combat, he brought out a kunai and amplified its cutting power with Futon: Shinkujin and ran forward, hoping to surprise his enemy and score a lucky hit. Just as Minato's blade was about to cut into the Raikage's lightning covered fist, the Raikage disappeared and appeared behind him. 'His speed! It's unreal' the Raikage gave him a bear hug from behind and dropped back, smashing Minato's head into the ground below, creating a giant crater. "Raiga Bomu" screamed the Raikage.

Minato had never felt this much pain before, he was pretty sure his spine snapped from his head's impact with the ground. His body was in the bottom of a crater with rocks falling down on his crushed body, the last thing he saw before he was completely buried beneath rocks was was his team mates having their throats slit by a smirking Ay.

A/N: Another Chapter! This story has been very easy to write. I know where it wants to go and how I want it to go there, I only hope people enjoy it.

What do you guys think of Minato's appearance? Like the fight scene with Ay? Some people have PMed me complaining that the fighting scenes were too short. Sorry guys, but I just can't read a fighting scene that takes more than a few hundred words. Making a fighting scene too long forces people to skim through it, I like fighting scenes that are short and to the point. Leave your opinion in reviews if you feel like it.

On a side note, am I the only person that couldn't give a fuck about Boruto and his generation? Seriously, there;s been a recent influx of stories about the 'new generation'. The 'new generation' is literally the old generation with more boring packaging. I don' get why people are so interested in that.

Here are the translations :

Hokage-Shiki Jijun Jutsu — Kakuan Nitten Suishu- Hokage-Style Sixty-Year-Old Technique — Enclosed Hermitage Entering Society with Bliss-Bringing Hands

Tekko Fuin - Iron Shell Seal

Nigyo Fuin - Two Pronged Seal

Futon: Shinkugyoku - Wind Release: Vacuum Bullets

Futon: Shinkuha - Wind Release: Vacuum Wave

Futon: Shinkujin - Wind Release: Vaccum Blade