Kushina stands on the shore letting the ocean tide wash sand over her feet. The sea breeze and sticky salt around her ankles bring up memories that make her yearn for a home that no longer exists. She's made it.

Well, she's nearly made it.

Uzushio is just a blot on the horizon, but Fire Country is now behind her, and it will take no time to dash across the choppy water to the island's shore.

She'd contemplated where she should go for several weeks, and Uzushio stood out as the most logical place. There were no people. No village. If the fox escaped, it would just ruin ruins. But even more importantly, Kushina knows of a temple in Uzushio. It is a sacred cavern beneath the city, created by her ancestors, that holds much of the Uzumaki fuuinjutsu knowledge and is painted with seals with the power to contain a tailed beast. Even if it was destroyed the day that Uzushio fell, she hopes that enough remains that she won't have to start from scratch to recreate the seals. Then, if the fox escapes, it will be contained in there forever. There's also the added bonus that while she waits, she might be able to find remains of books to help her create the seals needed for the many contingency plans that are already swirling around her head.

There is also the fact that Minato probably won't think to search for her among the abandoned remains of her childhood home. Although she misses Uzushio, she's never had the desire to see what was left of it. She prefers to remember it when it was alive with brightly-painted buildings and bustling streets, libraries that smelled of ink and parchment full of studious individuals, and the salty air that seemed to add vibrancy to all aspects of life.

Kushina steps onto the waves, preferring to think of those sparkling memories instead of the dusty ones she's sure to acquire.

When she arrives on the shores of Uzushio, Kushina is surprised that at least one of her reasons for coming to Uzushio is invalidated.

There are people on Uzushio.

Apparently in the years since its fall, a small fishing village has formed along the southwestern shore. Kushina dons a henge before walking into the town. If she's potentially putting these people in danger, she needs to understand them so she can best avoid casualties, but she is not foolish enough to assume that someone wouldn't betray her and inform Konoha of her presence.

The town itself its small, just a single dirt street with homes lining the landward side and a sliver of sand littered with beached fishing boats on the other. The homes are simple, made from uneven wood flecked with various colors of chipped paint that she guesses was salvaged from the ruins of Uzushio. Its inhabitants live heartily thanks to the abundant supply of sea life that has probably flourished since the human population disappeared. A few children play in the streets, but the population seems to be older. She wonders where the people came from. Were they opportunists looking to loot a once great city? Were they refugees hiding from another nation? Were they Uzushio civilians who had been lucky enough to avoid the attack and were unwilling to give up their home and way of life?

"Uzumaki, dear."

Without thinking, Kushina whips around in search of the source of the voice. Her eyes land on an older woman, perhaps in her early sixties. Her face is heavily lined, but there is a gentle smile on her lips that grows larger when they make eye contact.

"We thought you were all gone," the woman says, eyes bright with sudden excitement.

"I uh—" Kushina doesn't know what to say. How the heck did this lady see through her henge? She made sure she didn't look like an Uzumaki, but still, this woman somehow figured out her heritage. Finally she settles on, "Hi."

"It was the wistful look in your eyes," the woman says, reading her mind. "Come with me dear, I was just heading home for tea."


The woman's house is cozy. It's somewhat mismatched, made from various scraps from the ruins of Uzushio, but it has the feel of a seaside home. The windows are large and allow a sea breeze to swirl through the rooms. It fills the house with the tinkling of hanging pans and the fluttering of paper seeking to dislodge itself from various prisons in the cluttered living room.

As the woman boils water for tea, Kushina only has eyes for the bookshelf that covers nearly every wall of her living room. It's filled with scrolls and books filled with Uzumaki sealing secrets. Even Konoha doesn't have such a vast collection, and Kushina is itching to explore their contents.

"My husband was an Uzumaki sealmaster," the woman says from behind.

Kushina turns to see her in the doorway leading to the kitchen. Her hands hold a wooden tray laden with a teapot and two cups.

Kushina can't bring herself to respond. She knows exactly what happened to the woman's husband then. It was the same thing that happened to her mother, father, and the rest of the Uzumaki sealmasters. Instead she purses her lips together and turns back to the collection, running her fingers along the shelves.

"Do you know fuuinjutsu?" the woman continues.

Kushina nods. "My parents taught me." Her fingers stop on a particularly interesting-looking book. "Where'd ya get this collection?" she finally breathes.

"I found it in the ruins. I lost my husband and all three of my children in the attack. It was—" Her breath hitches, and finally, Kushina feels brave enough to turn to her and meet her teary eyes. "It was all I could do to have a piece of them."

Kushina understands. She remembers her frantic search for something, anything, that she could grasp that seemed to hold as much meaning as her parents' lives. And she remembers her subsequent spiral into a reckless depression and avoidance of anything that made her think of them. But she also remembers the day that she was brave enough to re-enter her parents' home in Konoha and finally appreciate what they left. She and Minato had sat looking through their notes, books, and valuables, building a happy memory in all the dust.

She suddenly finds herself on the couch beside the woman, clasping her hands within her own. The is the first time since the tragedy that she has found someone who understands. She had thought that everyone with connections to Uzushio had died in the attack, but here was this woman who had lost just as much if not more than she had. To lose parents was one thing, but to lose a husband and three children was another. Children were not meant to die before their parents.

Instinctively, one hand lifts to grasp her stomach.

Maybe it's the loneliness that has set in since leaving Konoha. Maybe it's the fact that this woman is not a ninja and doesn't appear cut out to be one of Jiraiya's informants. Or maybe it's simply because the woman's Uzushio accent is just like her own and reminds her of her mother. For some reason, Kushina trusts her.

As tea is poured, they reminisce. Kushina tells the woman—Akari—about her parents. Akari knew them. Her husband was one of the highest-ranking Uzumaki sealers. He would have worked with Kushina's father. Akari's youngest child was a few years older than Kushina. Kushina can't remember him—her memories of Uzushio are a hazy utopia of sand, wind, and laughter, filled with few real people—but she can talk about the places that she and Akari's youngest had probably both loved to swim and the groves with the best climbing trees.

They eventually talk about the tragedy of the day that Uzushio fell. Kushina voices her frustration that Konoha refused to let her help protect it. Akari voices her guilt at being away for work. Even a decade later, neither have come to terms with how weak they truly are.

Kushina finds herself crying, reveling in a companionship she hadn't known she needed. She had thought Minato was enough. He listened. He held her when she was feeling particularly sad. He reminisced with her about her parents who he had also loved. But he could never truly share her pain. He couldn't understand how it felt for her to lose her home and her entire family. He knew that it hurt her, but it was a pain that could only truly be understood by those who experienced it.

And Akari had experienced it.

And Kushina can't help but love her for it.


She finds it impossible to commit to her self-imposed isolation. In her one moment of strength she had been able to leave Minato, but with Akari nearby, she finds that she can't find that same strength on a daily basis. Akari is lonely and loving, and as she learns that Kushina does not have a place to stay or any other company, she forces her hospitality on Kushina in that way that only grandmothers can do. Kushina can't refuse.

Even if she wanted to refuse, she couldn't, because all of the books and scrolls that she needs are in Akari's living room.

It only becomes worse when the old woman learns that Kushina is pregnant. She clasps her hands together with shining eyes and begins to sob.

Kushina worries that she had somehow offended the woman and rushes to her side, but she is taken aback by a sudden onslaught off affection and is pulled into a crushing embrace.

"A new Uzumaki!" Akari cries. "I didn't think it was possible!"

From that point onward, Akari insists on having a central role in Kushina's pregnancy. Kushina lets her because Akari is the type of woman to make assumptions about Kushina without verifying whether those assumptions are true. When Akari mentions a father, Kushina offhandedly replies "I needed to stay away from him throughout the pregnancy." Akari groans about how men will never understand the pain women go through during pregnancy. Akari doesn't even ask where Kushina is from. She simply asserts that all Uzumaki babies should be born in Uzushio, so of course Kushina came to Uzushio to give birth. How else would the baby know his heritage?

She insists she'll be the baby's midwife.

And this is where Kushina draws the line. She can't risk Akari's life. She'll deliver her own baby with her shadow clones, and she won't budge on that idea.

Akari stubbornly fights back. She says she's delivered all of the babies born on Uzushio since the attack. Someone needs to make sure the birth is done safely. But Kushina is equally stubborn. Akari may have been married to an Uzumaki, but Kushina is an Uzumaki.

Eventually they compromise. Kushina lies and says that Akari can be there as long as she will let Kushina help. Through this compromise, Kushina learns everything she can about birthing babies, and once a week, she seals away a shadow clone into a scroll. With any luck, she'll have at least 20 clones to help birth the baby, and none of them will have taken any of her chakra on the day she needs it the most.


Kushina may have expected the six months to feel like an eternity, but instead, they gallop by. With Akari's incessant attention and the work she has to do before the birth, Kushina hardly has time to miss Minato. Those times mostly happen as she's falling asleep when her mind is wandering and she longs for the warmth of his body beside her.

During the day, Kushina works her way through Akari's library and prepares the temple that she thankfully found relatively untouched. It'd taken her over a week of searching to locate the entrance, and when she did, she'd had to blast the debris of the fallen city away from the heavy stone doors. But luckily, the inside has minimal structural damage. There are piles of fallen stone on the ground, and some of the towering pillars had cracked and crumbled. But the seals painted over the solid stone walls are largely intact.

Still, she makes sure that the cracked cavern is still strong enough to contain a tailed beast. She studies the seals on the walls and reinforces them with her own, in hopes that if any were damaged in the attack, the new ones would make the temple as impenetrable as it once was.

She also makes an army of seals on chakra paper for her to use during the birth. She makes a seal that will strengthen the Kyuubi's seal if she feels it breaking. She makes one that she thinks will be strong enough to paralyze at least part of the Kyuubi if it does break out so that she has enough time to get the baby to safety. She has one that will serve as a physical shield around the baby to protect it from any attacks, and in a worst case scenario, she has a seal that will allow her to create the next Kyuubi jinchuuriki. She hopes it won't be necessary, and based on her other failsafes, she can't imagine a situation where it could become necessary.

The likelihood that it would never be used was the only thing to encourage her to make the seal in the first place. She can't fathom condemning her child to the same lonely childhood that she'd had after the Kyuubi had been transferred to her. She would leave the Kyuubi locked in the cave before she did that, but as a final contingency plan, she wants to make sure its an option. It's a seal that she and Minato had discussed over the years, one of his ways of easing her fear of one day starting a family. Together they'd even mastered the ancient Uzumaki art of sealing away one's chakra to create an imprint of the person. With both of their brains behind it, she's confident that it'll work.

In late September, when she can feel the baby moving more often, preparing to enter the world, Kushina becomes obsessed with contingency plans. If something goes wrong and she passes away, she needs to keep the baby safely away from the fox. She entrusts most of this to Akari who she's grown to love and trust over the months. The woman has become the mother she needed during this time, so on a day when the baby is particularly active, she says to Akari, "There are a few things I need you to do in case I don't make it through the birth."

"Sweetie, don't talk like that," Akari scolds.

"No Baa-chan, I need you to listen to me, dattebane. I'm here because it is not safe for me to give birth. It's dangerous for me and everyone around me. There's a very real chance I won't survive, and I've come to terms with that." But even as she speaks, tears come to her eyes. She loves Namito—that's what she's been calling the baby since she doesn't know if it'll be Naruto or Mito yet—and she wants to be there as it grows up. She wants to experience its first word and wrap it in her arms as it tumbles from its first steps. She wants to shower it in the love she already feels for it.

She had been brave enough to say goodbye to Minato, but she can't fathom saying goodbye to this life she has yet to meet.

Still, she continues. "If that's the case, I need you to send a message to the Hokage and tell him what happened. And please take care of the baby until he arrives."

Even with Akari's word that she'll notify the Hokage, Kushina becomes more and more frantic. Kushina has never been a thinker. She's a doer. Her brain isn't meant for strategic planning. Just considering all of the possible outcomes of the birth and planning for them makes her want to punch the walls of the cavern that she's spending way too much time in.

Still, she plans for every outcome she can think of. If she doesn't and someone besides her dies, these six months away from Konoha would have been pointless.


Her water breaks as she is fretting yet again over the seals on the cavern wall and wondering whether she should ask Akari to contact Jiraiya instead of Minato. She knows Minato is a rational man, sometimes unnervingly so, but she also knows that his rationality won't accept her death unless he can see it with his own eyes which could inevitably put him in the danger she is trying to save him from.

Ignoring the pain, she directs all of her focus into closing the entrance to the temple and checking her adjustments to the seals around the cave perimeter. Akari is in the village, and Kushina considers letting her know what's happening, but Akari is safer far away from the birth.

When the contractions begin, she summons five shadow clones from her scrolls. She had too many nightmares where she accidentally kicked a clone while Namito was only half out, so she places a strengthening seal on each of the clones to reduce the likelihood that they'll pop during the birth.

She also slaps the strengthening seal on the fox's seal for good measure and directs two of the clones to manage it.

To her surprise, everything goes well. Sure, it hurts like hell. She's never experienced anything so painful in all of her years as a kunoichi. But Akari taught her well, and there are no complications. Thankfully, Namito's eager to enter the world, and it doesn't even take that long. She's not sure she could survive the mental strain of a long birth with all of the potential things that could go wrong. Just a few hours after her water broke, her clone is squealing excitedly about a baby boy. Kushina finally closes her eyes and just breathes. She is exhausted, but she can feel that the Kyuubi's seal, although weak, will hold.

The clone places the baby boy in her arms with a smug smile. Kushina looks down at his tuft of yellow hair, so like Minato's. "Naruto," she whispers, tears springing to her eyes. At the sound of her voice, Naruto opens big blue eyes and stares at her with unfocused curiosity. She can't help but smile warmly at the spitting image of her husband in her arms.

"Naruto," she says again with surety.

She kisses the boy on his warm forehead and smiles in excitement. She's a mother now. And she's still alive. She can finally go back to Minato. She imagines his face when he discovers he is a father. He'll be hurt at first. Perhaps she'll have to reason with him for awhile, but she also knows that the moment he sees Naruto, he'll get that expression that Kushina adores. His eyes will grow wide and sparkle before settling into a look of soft fondness.

Her heart aches with longing at the thought.

"Impressive. There aren't many who could say they've birthed their own child."

Kushina follows the unfamiliar voice to a cloaked figure. It wears a mask with black lines that are all directed towards a single hole over his right eye. He is unmoving, but Kushina can see the flash of a sharingan in the darkness of the hole.

She instinctively holds Naruto to her chest as she curses her oversight. She'd been so concerned with making sure nothing could escape the cave, she hadn't considered that something might try to enter it. "Who are you?"

"That's no matter. What does matter is the fox."

Kushina clutches Naruto closer. Her eyes narrow in a defiant scowl. She hopes she can convey a sense of I dare you to, but terror is overwhelming her ability to objectively assess the situation. She's still in pain. She's exhausted. There's no way she can fight and protect her baby. Her clones shift into a defensive stance around her, preparing to attack whenever the man makes a move, but she is not comfortable relying entirely on her clones and her seals.

Moving as fast as Minato, the man is suddenly beside her. His sharingan flashes, and she can feel the Kyuubi's seal weakening, even with the strengthening seal. Her back arches involuntarily, but somehow in the excruciating pain, she passes Naruto off to one of her clones who dashes away from the man.

Her other clones attack. Two materialize chakra chains and swing them towards the man to trap him and drag him away, but they slip right through his body. After that initial moment of surprise, they launch an onslaught on the man, a constant barrage of chains and ninjutsu. She can hear the scuffle around her, occasionally punctured by a frustrated growl from one of her clones. But her eyes are closed as she fights a battle of wills with the Kyuubi who is all too eager to take advantage of the opportunity to escape.

The chains and stakes that bind it within her are melting away. Its legs break free. Then a tail. Then another. Until all nine are swarming behind it, and a roar breaks from its throat.

It echoes throughout the cavern, and the ground shakes. Kushina can't help the tears that fill her eyes at the sight of its massive form and flowing tails. Luckily it's contained. It has the Sharingan in it's eyes, but even the Sharingan-controlled Kyuubi can't break through the seals in the cave. She made sure of that, dattebane!

Then, inexplicably, the masked man disappears, leaving her alone with the Kyuubi. All of her clones have been destroyed, so maybe the man assumed that she's as good as dead against the tailed beast. She won't deny that he's right. She's likely to die in a few minutes, but he has underestimated her.

She summons a scroll from the storage seal on her arm and unfurles it with trembling fingers. The drop in her chakra nearly kills her right then when she summons the rest of her clones. Fifteen copies of Uzumaki Kushina appear. They're horrified at the situation that they're summoned into, but they immediately take action. One pops itself to give her a burst of chakra while the others take on the Kyuubi.

Since the attacker knows the location of the cave and can control the Kyuubi, she can't just leave the fox here. She's not naïve enough to assume that he won't return with some method to bypass her seals and let the Kyuubi free. It's gotta be sealed

She still can't get up from the table where she birthed Naruto, so when the Kyuubi snaps at her, her clones send out chakra chains, wrapping them around its muzzle and pulling its face away from her. As her clones seek to ensnare the Kyuubi with chains, she considers the best option. She will try to seal it in herself. With any luck, her body will be able to re-adapt to the Kyuubi's presence, and she will survive. She places her new seal on her stomach and gathers all of her chakra to pull it back in.

But as the Kyuubi realizes what she's planning, its focus pulls away from the battle with her clones. One leg slips through her clones' guard and swipes at her. She's able to send chains out herself to stop it from slicing her in half, but a claw rips through her abdomen, and blood begins to flow.

She can feel it immediately, her body's sudden inability to fight the death creeping up on her. Her body and her chakra coils are too ruined. Even if she survives the sealing, she won't be able to find someone to heal her wound in time. She considers sealing the Kyuubi in her anyway, but if she pulls it into death with her it will just be roaming the earth again within the decade, and that masked man will just take advantage of it then instead.

But Naruto is strong enough. He's probably the only person on earth strong enough to hold the Kyuubi at bay.

But he's just a baby. She doesn't know what all of the malicious Kyuubi chakra will do to him, and she never ever wanted to condemn her child to the lonely life that she had. Plus, she doesn't want to make him a target for the masked man.

She makes a decision.

The yang half of the Kyuubi will be sealed inside Naruto. She'll take the yin half with her, using a seal that won't fade on her skin. It will serve as a distraction and protection. Then she'll hope that when the Kyuubi returns to the world of the living, Naruto will be strong enough to enough adapt to it or fight it. Little is known about how bijuu reform, and even less is known about how bijuu re-coalesce when half of their chakra already exists on the earth. But she imagines it must be like shadow clones and how their experiences return to the sender when they pop. She trusts Minato will recognize what happened and prepare Naruto to deal with it when the time comes. But as a failsafe, she decides she'll seal some of her own chakra into the seal to help Naruto in case the Kyuubi's chakra begins to overwhelm the seal.

Eight of her clones remain, and they have finally been able to hold down the Kyuubi with a web of adamantine chains. It growls through its muzzle, but she ignores it.

She starts with herself.

"Fuuin." With a pained roar, the chakra of the Kyuubi splits apart and half of it disappears into her abdomen. The chakra struggles against her ruined body, but she is determined to hold it until her death. However small the win, she will relish in her ability to drag the Kyuubi to death with her.

Then she turns to her son.

The clone that had been holding him brings him over, and hands him to Kushina. Despite the blood covering her chest, she holds him close and kisses his soft head.

"I'm sorry," she whispers, tears streaming down her cheeks. "This is not the life I want for you, Naruto. But your dad brought love and joy into my life, and I trust him to do the same for you."

She places the seal on Naruto's stomach. "Fuuin."

As the Kyuubi grows smaller and smaller, she begins directing all but one of the clones' chakra into the seal as well. She also puts a small amount of her own lifeforce into it. She diverts the mass of her chakra to allow for two failsafes: one in case the seal breaks, the other to help him tame the beast when he is strong enough. She directs a third pool, the largest pool, of her chakra to nowhere in particular. She hopes, selfishly, that it will just give her the opportunity to get to know her son.

In the sudden silence that falls after it's all over, she can't hold back the tears. She squeezes Naruto to her and sobs into him.

"I love you,"she cries. "I love you so much it hurts." Its true. Her love for this tiny baby is stronger even than her love for Minato, and Naruto has only been in this world for less than an hour. "I wish I could watch you grow up. But Naruto, remember this, you have a dad who loves you as much as I do. He'll tell you all about me, and he'll make sure that you grow up strong, healthy, and safe. And although you'll have your dad, also make sure to make a few friends that you trust with your life. And when you find a woman that you love, introduce her to your dad, and he'll make sure that she's just like me. Treat her well. And Naruto, remember that love, friendship, and happiness are the most important things in life. Find them and cherish them."

Her limbs are growing cold and her senses are becoming fuzzy. Death will soon claim her, and as much as she wants to, she can't die with Naruto in her arms. It is a guarantee of his own death. So she reluctantly hands the baby to her last remaining clone, and reminds it to take him to Akari. Tears fill her eyes, blurring her vision so that she can hardly commit Naruto to memory as he's taken away.

In her sudden, unbearable loneliness, she lays her head back down and thinks of all the wonderful things that had happened in her life. She thinks of all the love that Minato gave her, all of the sunny days they spent training and laughing together, his sweet smile and the way his eyes looked at her with such fondness. The happy memories keep the small amount of blood she has left pumping through her veins.

Eventually, a flood of memories inundates her brain. Akari is waiting outside outside the entrance to the temple under a full moon. Kushina imagines she must have figured out what was happening when Kushina didn't return home for dinner, and she's grateful for the woman's concern. The old woman beams when she sees the bundle in Kushina's arms. But her expression quickly falls when she sees the frantic and haunted eyes of Kushina's clone.

The clone runs to her and places the bundle in her arms. Tears are running down her face as she soaks in the sight of her son, but she is talking to Akari.

"This is Naruto. Take him. Please contact the Hokage immediately and let him know what happened. Tell him that a man who wore a black and white mask with just one eyehole attacked me. He almost succeeded in stealing my partner. The Hokage will understand and be able to take care of everything, but he needs to know."

With those words, she places her hands on Naruto's stomach and closes her eyes. A light appears as she transfers nearly all of her chakra into the seal.

When Kushina withdraws her hands, she is panting.

"I love you, my baby," she sobs to Naruto. "I'll see you when you're ready." Then, after a final kiss on his forehead, she disappears in a cloud of smoke.

The real Kushina sighs. Naruto is safe.

As if it had simply been waiting for her permission, death quickly takes her. The last thing she sees before darkness claims her is a a swirling void in the corner of her eye.


Obito had arrived in Konoha at the base of the Hokage mountain. The village was peaceful. Warm light emanated from the nearby homes, and he could hear the distant chatter of a gathering of people who were enjoying one of the last warm evenings of the year.

He pushed away the surge of longing that built in his chest, reminding himself that Rin wasn't in Konoha—she wasn't anywhere. If Rin wasn't here, then he shouldn't want to be here. He wouldn't allow himself to feel guilt over the fact that the voices in that nearby house would soon be silent. He placed his hand on the ground and cried, "Kuchiyose!"

Nothing happened.

Perplexed, he said it again, "Kuchiyose!" But again, nothing happened. The summoning seal crawled over the ground, but the Kyuubi didn't appear.

The people at the gathering burst into laughter. It felt like they were mocking him.

He hadn't failed at a summoning jutsu in years. But being back in Konoha made him feel like the failure of a shinobi that he once was. Perhaps the Uchiha's hatred for him was so strong that it still lingered in the air here.

One last time he shouted, "Kuchiyose!" This time, he analyzed the seal as it appeared. He knew that he had prepared the jutsu properly and that he had used the right amount of chakra. There weren't any mistakes within the seal itself. He was certain that he was capable of summoning the Kyuubi.

So why wasn't it working?

The only explanation was that the Kyuubi couldn't be summoned for some reason. Something was holding it back.

He swore and disappeared into his pocket dimension to return to the cave and the Kyuubi. But now, as he arrives, the world is too quiet. The Kyuubi should be roaring and shaking the ground. But there is just silence.

Obito looks around.

The cavern is nearly empty. There is no Kyuubi. There is no baby. There is just the body of a dead woman lying on a table.

In the silence, he finally takes in the seals that are painted on the walls. He's no seal expert, but he knows enough about Kushina to realize that she must have come to this place away from Konoha and Minato-sensei because it would contain the Kyuubi in an emergency. And because he wasn't summoning the Kyuubi to another dimension, it couldn't bypass the seals like he could.

While he was in Konoha, Kushina must have taken advantage of the situation to re-seal the beast.

He swears again. He had spent months trailing Kushina. As soon as he'd heard of the disappearance of his sensei's wife, he'd sent Zetsu to find her. He couldn't afford to lose one of the only bijuu he knew the location of. It had been months of work that was now falling to pieces.

He slowly approaches her. The tendrils of a seal are wrapped around her body. They snake along her arms and legs and crawl up her neck to her face. A new seal. Not a jinchuuriki seal but rather a generic containment seal, strong enough to hold the Kyuubi's chakra just long enough for her to drag it to death with her. Her body is still warm, but he senses no chakra. She's succeeded.

Obito curses himself for underestimating the woman. He shouldn't have forgotten how frustratingly stubborn and tenacious she could be. Now he'll have to wait years for it to reform.

Months of work wasted.

With a final curse, he teleports away, resigning himself to years of searching for the Kyuubi once again.