Namikaze Minato wasn't in a good mood. His wife, Namikaze-Uzumaki Kushina had been in labor, at least, the last he had seen her. Then, her annoying prisoner, The Kyuubi no Youko, had gotten out. Now? Now he was fighting a madman with an orange mask with an annoying ability to phase through his attacks. He would've thought a little and probably would've been able to counter it soon, but with a nine-tailed fox rampaging through his village, killing his ninja, being only held back by his retired predecessor, the Sandaime, Minato was definitely not as happy as he usually was.
With a flash of Hiraishin, a space-time ninjutsu developed by the Nidaime, Tobirama Senju, he arrived precisely where his tri-pronged kunai had been, that is, behind his masked enemy's back, and shoved a Rasengan in his back. Unfortunately, the man phased out of existence, making the attack a moot point, but it didn't stop at that. He let another one of his kunai slip out of his pocket discreetly, and flashed to the front of his enemy with the second kunai he had launched precisely 0.98 seconds ago.
To launch his own counter, his enemy phased back into existence, and he flashed back. Another Rasengan, same as before. That was the thing with more skilled enemies, they fell for a dumber tactic than a smart one. The Rasengan did get in contact with the enemy, shredding a tiny bit of his body before he phased out again. The enemy decided to escape then, and Minato did not give chase. He had bigger issues to deal with, and he had three clues to find his enemy later on.
First, the Sharingan his enemy possessed. It had unique abilities like that phasing (which Minato was guessing an ability of that particular Sharingan), and it looked just as unique.
Second, the mask itself was unique. In his ventures (war) against the foreign shinobi, he had not seen anyone wear a mask similar to that one.
Third (his personal favourite), the injury his Rasengan had left on the enemy. That would take at least a week to heal, and he didn't think he would be fighting the Kyuubi for that long. If he had to, the masked enemy would be the least of his worries by then.
With another Hiraishin, he flashed to the kunai his wife kept with her at all times. For a millisecond, a long period of time when you fought at the speed he did, he admired his beautiful wife, before looking at their son. Beautiful, beautiful Namikaze-Uzumaki Naruto. Blonde hair, same as him, and a cute face like his wife's, the baby looked at him with innocent blue eyes (same shade as his. He couldn't be happier), and right then, Minato swore, whether or not he made it out of this fight alive (he knew how strong a Biju could be, and the Kyuubi was the strongest of them), his son would have every tool to do whatever he wanted. He kissed his wife's forehead and whispered in her ear, "Take care of him, I'll be back soon."
With a seal, two shadow clones appeared. While he might not have the massive chakra reserves of his wife, he was a Kage level ninja and a couple clones were not that big of a hit to his reserved. Another flash, and he disappeared, arriving next to the Sandaime and quickly took in the situation. Injured ninja were lying on the ground, as well as some civilians. Most of the Genin and Chunin were evacuating the rest of the civilians and the injured ninja, while the Jonin were bombarding the Kyuubi with binding jutsus as well as a variety of attacks. His medic-nin were working over-time, some distance behind their current location, healing the injured, and he saw a couple Jonin getting healed from a barely non-lethal attacks before joining the fray once again.
For a second, a proud smile took over his face before his expression hardened and he turned towards to Kyuubi. It's eyes had been like that of a Sharingan earlier, same as his enemy's, but they had now changed to a normal (if malevolent) non-sharingan red. With a nod towards Sarutobi-sama, he used the summoning jutsu, summoning the Chief Toad, Gamabunta. With a grunt, the said toad appeared, and then grumbled. "What have you done now, Namikaze?" Minato grinned, and they both launched towards the Kyuubi, seamlessly falling in sync with Sarutobi-sama and his summon.
It was exhausting to fight the Kyuubi, since the Flying Thunder God did start to strain him once he got to the point that he was flashing at least ten times every second. At the rate of usage, it wasn't meant for a long, drawn-out fight, but anything less would mean his death, or at least semi-fatal injuries and he wouldn't be able to fight, and he couldn't do more.
Or maybe he could? One of his clones dispelled, making him fumble one of his Hiraishins and landing a couple metres away from intended. Sarutobi-sama noticed this oddity, and looked at him for half a second, maybe less, with a questioning gaze. Minato met his gaze and conveys with his eyes.
Can you hold him for a few seconds?
I was doing just that before you arrived.
Minato nodded and flashed to where the medic camp was. All the medic-nin and the others looked up, and began to bow, but he dismissed them immediately and told them to get back to work. With another command, one of the chunin handed him a scroll and a brush as well as ink. Fuinjutsu was one of his specialities, and it had grown with an Uzumaki, namely his wife, helping him out, and immediately he started to make a seal in his head. It took three attempts to get something that barely worked, by no means efficient, however, it was good support.
Then he saw his wife walk into the camp with armour on. "Why are you here?" were his first words. She glared at him and then replied, "I'm a Konoha shinobi, it is my duty to be here."
"Not after you gave birth, it isn't."
"You can't stop me."
He couldn't, he would admit as much. But he could find a less risky option for her. Immediately, the seal in his head disappeared and something better came to mind.
He sighed and then said, "Fine, but I have something else for you to do."
His wife's eyes narrowed and he quickly explained to her the plan he had in mind before she could hit him. She looked at him suspiciously and then nodded. "Fine, I'll do it," she grumbled before looking at the chunin and genin looking at them sneakily.
"You lot, come here." Knowing her reputation, his shinobi immediately followed her commands and he left the camp as his wife handed out orders for the shinobi to bring Fuinjutsu equipment and anyone with semi-decent calligraphy to start mass-producing the seal he had handed her. She would put her own chakra into that seal, barely a dent to her massive reserves and the chunin would hand them out to the Jonin. While it may be barely anything to her, they would be a boon to the rest of the shinobi, refilling their chakra reserves as the seal purified his wife's and imbued them with the result.
It would let them last longer, both stamina and chakra-wise, and hopefully provide a tiny bit of a healing factor, which would be useful, no matter how little. His second clone dispelled, and a scroll appeared in his hands. With a flick of his wrist, the scroll disappeared in the storage seal he had on his wrist, and he entered the battle once more.
Gamabunta, Sarutobi-sama and his summon, all looked tired, the latter two more than the former. Maximising his combat abilities, he engaged the fox alone, flashing from one point to another and battering it with Rasengan, one in each of his hands. Minato couldn't do it for very long, but this allowed him to take the burden off the other three, giving them a short period of time to rest and gather their bearings. It would be risky to let them fight while tired against an opponent of this calibre.
Soon enough, they joined the battle once more and Minato sighed in relief before slowing down just enough to be fighting well but not exhausting himself. Even this way though, he knew they wouldn't last long, and already the Jonin were getting injured more often, lessening whatever little help the two Hokage and their summons had. The Kyuubi had to be sealed, but his options were limited. Not anyone could become a Jinchuriki (he didn't like the name, personally) and he didn't have many options. He could seal the Kyuubi within himself, but it would be too problematic and too time-consuming, and would be a temporary solution at best.
His wife had told him herself, she would die if the Kyuubi was sealed in her again, and despite her willingness to die, taking the Kyuubi with her, he wasn't willing to do that. His brain worked over-time, sorting through all the shinobi he had at his command, almost all being dismissed as soon as they were brought to mind.
It was irrational and stupid and almost impossible to seal a Biju in an adult. Reluctantly, Minato's mind wandered to children of his village. For all similar reasons, most of them were dismissed outright. Then his thoughts wandered to his own son, and Minato grimaced.
Naruto was the perfect candidate to become a Jinchuriki. He was born to two extremely powerful ninja (he was humble, but calling himself or his wife weak would be just plain dumb), had the bloodline of the Uzumaki, meaning a crazy amount of natural chakra reserves and very high life force, which would let him fight at maximum capacity even without taking help of the Kyuubi, but he still didn't wish to condemn his child.
You won't condemn him. A corner of his mind whispered. Just as clans pass their Kekkei Genkai to their children, just as parents give their children the sharpest kunai so that they may have an advantage in this world, you'd just be giving him a tool. But the Kyuubi wasn't a kunai, or even a Kekkei Genkai. It was much, much stronger. Same as how you have many enemies. But a monster in sealed in Naruto wouldn't help him. With the right seal, he would have multiple times the chakra of a Jonin by the time he is Academy age. It would boost his life-force, giving him an ungodly healing factor.
But a normal seal wouldn't work. Of course, he could come up with a better seal, much better, but not in active combat. The Reaper Death Seal. That… would work. Finally, after reviewing his options, Minato reluctantly decided that yes, he would seal the Kyuubi in Naruto. Already regretting his decision and knowing his wife's reaction, Minato began to come up with a seal that would minimize the usage of the Reaper Death Seal while maximising the benefits that his son would receive.
He was three fourths done with the seal (hey! Coming up with a seal in active combat against one of, if not the, strongest entity in the world wasn't easy) when he noticed a familiar chakra signature close to the Kyuubi. Too close, in fact.
Kushina Uzumaki, his stubborn wife, stood there with chakra chains coming out of her body, holding the tails from the Kyuubi back. He sighed, and with a smile filled with love, went back to the seal. The fight continued for longer, almost an hour having passed, but progress on the seal had increased since Kushina had joined the fight. The Jonin had redoubled their efforts, and once the Chunin had escorted the Genin and civilians away, they had began to give their own chakra to their more skilled comrades through his seal. Suddenly, one of the Kyuubi's nine tails slipped past the impressive defence Kushina had put up using her chains, and headed straight for her heart. Panicked, Minato flashed in front of her, hand slipping into the storage seal on his arm and pulling out a massive chakra restriction seal his clones had been working on earlier.
The tail pierced through his shoulders, taking with it most of the right half of his chest, and the Kyuubi, maddened with hate, pussed harder, stabbing Kushina through the stomach as well. Minato's other hand came up, sticking the seal onto the fox, keeping it stationary for barely a few minutes, and in that time, his summon as well as Sarutobi-sama and his summon reached them.
He gave a regretful smile towards his predecessor, and Kushina weakly grinned, reaching out with her arms slowly to hug her husband. "Please, Sandaime-sama, bring Naruto, our son, here. I wish to give him a final Otōsan Kara no Okurimono."
The older mad, his face filled with grief nodded, and Minato slowly, with weak hands, took out the Fuinjutsu scroll in his storage seal. Using the tail stabbed through them as a table, Minato slowly wrote the seal down and let his wife look at it. With a choked cough, she whispered, "The seal is incomplete." But then, realization hit and her eyes widened a tiny bit.
"The Reaper Death Seal," she muttered. Immediately, the Uzumaki genes went to work, improving the seal he had made, and in the tiny changes she made to it, Minato realized how much more the seal could do with a tiny bit of his wife's input.
The Sandaime landed next to them with their son, little Naruto, their beautiful son, and Minato began the Reaper Death Seal. Sarutobi-sama watched them work, masters of their art, a silent promise in his eyes that their son would be cared for and loved, and any who wished to harm him shall suffer the full wrath of The Professor, the Sandaime Hokage of Konoha, for he loved the child as much as he would love his own grandson.
Finally done just as the Kyuubi was starting to free itself from his earlier countermeasure, Minato and Kushina looked lovingly at their child, and with a whispered We love you, died, sealing the Kyuubi into their beloved son.
A/N: So, uh, I'm back to life. Yay! Well, I never did say I would post regularly. Hell, I remember saying to opposite, but, well, what can you do? Anyway hope you all enjoyed the story. It wasn't beta-read, so if there are any errors, please inform me either in the review or pms. Hope you liked it, have fun!