The year had not treated Kiri well.
It was only summer, but with the ceasefire and the increased presence of Konoha—
It would have been no surprise to any of the other villages, if their spies had managed to report the massive civil war that broke out the week it had.
But they'd been delayed—it hadn't been safe—and in the meantime the war grew.
Who did it would never be known—had probably been the first killed—but the ensuing results were impossible to miss.
The destruction was total.
Whole islands completely ravaged.
Ships destroyed to the point that not even the flotsam and jetsam was recognizable.
And then landfall.
Trees ripped up in their entirety.
A length of railroad—furthest east of all of Kumo's—disappeared.
And still the destruction continued.
Even before, before the Great Nations, before Hashirama, this level of destruction was almost never so severe.
But right now the Six-Tails, released for reasons long since destroyed during the heat of the war, was angry enough that the destruction seemed only to be beginning.
Yasuo and his guard patrol hadn't even seen much—it had been far enough out that they'd only felt the slightest effects, the slightest vibration, and even their sight strained and could only see something that looked like a storm—
But the chakra was unmistakable.
Vast, untethered, untamed, and furious.
The patrol wasted no time sending up just about every warning flare they carried, even the ones that didn't quite apply, even the ones that definitely didn't—the more people that knew there was a danger the better.
They ran into fellow soldiers long before camp; those taking advantage of the okay for personal takings, those who were on their own patrol, those who had snuck off just far enough to have the illusion of alone time—
They took one look at the patrol and started running too.
"Beast!" Uchiha, their fastest runner, gasped the second he was feasibly close enough. "BEAST!"
The cry was taken up.
Anything important was shoved into seals, into backpacks and sacks and whatever could fit it—
A giant flashing seal—built specifically for the purpose—was used, its bright light likely visible for miles in any direction—
Sheer panic took over the camp, so many teenagers not waiting for orders and simply running, running away and running home and even accidentally running in the wrong direction.
Some of the older shinobi too.
No one wanted to deal with a Tails on a rampage.
When Konoha shinobi turned and ran without warning on the battlefield Kumo hesitated—
A trick?
An opportunity?
Neither.
The fear was too absolute, too real.
They'd get information from their own sensors in a few minutes, if that—
But the terror made it very clear that they couldn't wait that long.
Kumo, or at least most of them, turned and ran too.
.
Minato appeared in the tent less than half a minute after the alarm went off.
The guard patrol had just arrived, had fallen on the floor and were gasping for breath as their hands frantically signed what they saw.
Minato and Battalion Commander Uchiha made eye contact.
This wouldn't be good.
"Who do you want?" The Commander asked.
Minato considered, allowing half a second to pass as ideas raced through his head.
His team was here, unfortunately, and there was no way he could convince Kakashi to leave, which meant it was better for Kakashi to be near enough to keep an eye on… Rin as a medic backup would help too.
Kushina was here.
(He hoped that she hadn't already taken off, would at least wait for backup; an unsealed Tails was a very different animal than a Sealed one, innate power differences or no.)
And then—
"My team, Kushina, and one jounin with each elemental strength—we don't know what Tails it is."
The Commander nodded, vanishing as his second-in-command scrambled to identify the requested jounin.
Minato vanished too; he had to find Kushina.
"I can take him!" She snapped, already defensive and already on the move as he appeared before her.
Well, they were certainly on the same wavelength.
"Maybe, but it'd be better with backup."
"You come, your team will too." Then, "Oh my kami, you're letting them?"
"Not as—not to fight. To keep watch."
Kakashi, apparently also on the same wavelength, ducked into Kushina's tent, followed by his older teammate. It would be a month or two yet before Obito was used to his blindness enough to begin training again, never mind leave the village, so for now Minato was still only leading two ducklings around.
"Keep watch, got it?" Minato said and then, because Kakashi was liable to ignore orders if he thought they were just because of his age, "Anyone else interferes, things could get very messy very quickly. We want only Konoha involved. We need Rin protected too—no doubt at least a couple of us will be pretty severely injured before the end of this."
Kushina sighed, her chance for a one-on-one encounter gone, and shoved the last of her seals into her belt.
"Who else is coming with?"
"Five jounin—one for each elemental type. Everyone ready?"
Rin had a smear of blood across her cheek—probably not her own; Kakashi's outfit could use a wash or three but he was good too.
Both were close enough to full strength, their youth and capabilities leading them to mostly be used as backup, as a quick recall team to pick up a dying shinobi and get them back to the hospital without further injury.
"Hai." They said as one.
"Alright, let's move out—the other five will catch up."
It was the Six-Tails.
Minato'd never seen it, of course, but one of Kushina's books had a fairly accurate description.
The Six-Tails…
That was supposed to be held by Kiri.
Which brought up multiple questions, but none were quite important enough to answer in the immediate.
More crucially: how was he going to stop it?
Minato swallowed.
The beast roared.
Kushina roared back.
They had to move quickly.
His hands flashed—fast, but fast enough?—and the first of what would no doubt be many jutsus exploded out.
Kakashi and Rin were staying well back, as they should. They signed to the new jounin as they arrived, though, and the various elemental masters began spreading out—
Smart.
Good.
Okay.
Minato tried to ignore how completely unfazed the beast so far seemed by both his and Kushina's attacks, and blasted out another heavily powered jutsu.
Kushina's chains were out, now, powered by the Kyuubi as they wrapped around the rampant Tailed Beast and tried to hold it in place, stop its inexorable progress forward.
The Six-Tails broke free seemingly without effort every time she managed some sort of grip.
Minato swallowed, appeared behind the beast just in time to miss a horrifying blow aimed at his last position.
The thing was furious, spitting pure chakra and throwing its body in every location, but it's focus on them at least slowed its movement, gave the camp a few more precious seconds.
Minato wondered if he could manipulate the direction it went—send it north, towards the enemy, or south, so that Minato could try to seal it without worry of external threats.
He kind of doubted the Six-Tails was that amenable to being pushed around, though.
He would need something to seal it in, too.
He glanced at the other jounin, but he already knew they wouldn't work—
Everyone was too old, and the younger the jinchuuriki the greater chance of survival.
Minato grimaced.
Better try for north, then.
Then the beast was throwing chakra at him, and he was away again.
Two of the jounin worked together, attempting to hurt the beast through lightning conducted through water, but it seemed to do nothing.
Another—the earth user—was setting up giant stone slabs between the beast and the camp, attempting to create a physical sort of deterrence.
The Six-Tails roared again.
Minato flinched as part of the Beast seemed to lob off—the Six-Tails was most known for being literally corrosive, and the blob burned a hole through the foliage where the Fire expert—an Uchiha, of course—had just been standing.
This wasn't going well.
The Six-Tails was water-natured, he knew, was corrosive and durable and, of course, powerful.
But there had to be some way to—
Kushina's chains wrapped, once more, around the Beast, and the Beast once again extricated himself.
Extricated.
That was interesting.
Minato lobbed several kunai at the Beast and, as expected, the Six-Tails just let the weapons dissolve in acid.
He threw another jutsu—a slice of wind that could cut through a mountain—and the beast absorbed its power.
Kushina's chains came up again and, again, the Tails dodged out of the way.
"Kushina!" Minato screamed. "More chains!"
Kushina, glanced at him, then nodded—she'd had the same idea.
She looked—
Well, she looked like the Kyuubi wasn't just beneath the surface anymore. The Kyuubi was out, now, was trying to play.
Minato grinned.
If Kushina was still able to hear him, respond as normal—
Then this was only a positive.
Rapid signing to the rest of the jounin—keep the Beast distracted, use overpowered enough attacks to get his attention—and another short and rapid message to his students—about to get messy, be prepared—and then Kushina/Kyuubi struck.
The chains fairly glowed of pure chakra, doubling and tripling in number before everyone's eyes.
Kushina was the jinchuuriki of the Nine-Tails, after all, and there was a reason that the fox was the most feared of all.
Power, pure power, surged through the chains, and they began to wrap.
The Six-Tails moved to extricate himself again, lobbing multiple corrosive attacks at everyone in the vicinity as it did, but Minato jumped out of the way and Kushina's chains made a great barrier.
Someone got hit, at least by the spray—the Water-user, it felt like—but Minato didn't have time to deal with that.
He raced forward as the chains began, for the first time, to successfully pull the Six-Tails down, hold it in place.
The Beast was still a broiling mess of water, chakra, and acid—
Minato came next to Kushina—
"Hour, maybe two. No more. Constant struggle." She gritted out. "Six-Tails unusually weak, can't damage as much as usual."
A wave of corrosive acid washed toward them, and Minato jumped Kushina and himself into the air.
Kushina wrestled for a second, but managed to keep control.
This wasn't good.
He couldn't—
If they let the Six-Tails go free, it would keep on rampaging, growing in power.
But they didn't have any way to—
"Sensei."
Minato glanced down, glanced at Kakashi.
"I'm the youngest, by far, and qualified. You know how to seal jinchuuriki—Kushina taught you—and it needs to be done."
Minato stared at the eight-year-old, then began shaking his head. "No, no—it's too great a risk."
"I'm volunteering." Kakashi said. "And you're a good seal master. Do you really have another option?"
Minato's mind raced. There was Rin, of course, but she wouldn't work for all the same reasons as Kakashi and, besides that, she was already hard at work keeping those hit alive.
Beyond that—
There weren't any children anywhere near the front.
Kakashi was, by at least half a decade, the youngest kid within twenty minutes of the battlefield right now, and Minato needed at least ninety, one hundred minutes to—
"Sensei." Kakashi stared at him, his eyes steady even as the Six-Tails raged in the background and those still up blocked its attacks with Wind and Fire and Earth. "You know I'm strong enough to handle this."
It wasn't that Minato was worried about.
He was eight.
There was a non-zero chance this would kill him.
Could Minato live with himself if that happened?
No.
And yet.
"Sensei." Kakashi said again. "We're running out of time."
A rampaging Six-Tails—
A ticking clock—
Even if they did manage, by minor miracle, to wait for a better-suited candidate to arrive, there wouldn't be one.
Kushina and he had spent hours talking about her education, talking about what she had been taught.
Minato knew what would make a good candidate, and Kakashi ticked every mark.
If he could send a message to the Hokage, asking who else—out of everyone in the country—should be made jinchuuriki…
It would be Kakashi.
"Fine." Minato tried to swallow, but his throat was too dry to follow through. "Fine. Let's—let's get started."
.
The messages started coming in rapid fire, one after the other after the other after the other—
Tailed Beast.
Camp abandoned.
Namikaze Minato in pursuit.
Uzumaki Kushina in pursuit.
Uchiha Ko in pursuit.
And on.
And on.
And on.
The civilians who had just left the walled village mere months before arrived back in droves, beginning less than half an hour after the first alarms rang.
It was too big an event to keep secret, and the danger was large enough to incite immediate action.
The best shinobi in the country began racing towards the location, on orders to fan out—corral the Beast if whatever Minato's group was doing failed.
They couldn't get too close—too many allies and you spent more time trying to keep from hitting friends then actually aiming at the Beast—but even miles away they could feel its chakra as they neared.
They'd just taken position two to three hours after the Beast had been spotted when—
It disappeared.
The Konoha shinobi inched forward, then jogged forward, then ran forward.
There, in a clearing completely corroded and desolate, stood Minato.
He carried a boy, his shock of white hair visible from a distance, and Kushina lay beside them.
The other jounin had collapsed around a circle that must have previously held the Beast, and one girl—a chuunin—raced between them, tear streaks covering her face.
Minato looked up as the fastest of the group—Inuzuka Suji—arrived.
He looked dead on his feet, as if everything he was had drained out of him.
"He needs to get to the Hospital quickly." Minato said. "I've just sealed the Six-Tails in Hatake Kakashi."
The Inuzuka nodded, then gently lifted the boy from the future Kage's arms. "I will keep him safe."
Minato nodded, then collapsed.