Kushina's body healed faster than she expected. By the second day after the birth, she was on her feet. By the third, she was running combat drills in the training grounds while the toads watched from their lily pads with admiration.
Uzumaki vitality combined with Kurama's chakra made for rapid recovery, but she wasn't foolish enough to think she was at full strength. She could feel the limits in the slight tremor of her hands after extended jutsu use. She compensated by refining her efficiency, cutting unnecessary movents, and conserving energy where she could.
It would have to be enough. Madara wasn't going to wait for her to be ready.
---
Naruto was sleeping when she ca to say goodbye.
He lay in a bassinet woven from rushes, his red hair vivid against the pale fabric. His ears twitched occasionally, responding to sounds or dreams she couldn't know, and his tail had wrapped around his own leg in what Kurama said was a self-soothing gesture he'd developed in the womb.
Kushina stood over him and morized everything. The curve of his cheek. The way his fingers curled loosely against his palm. The quick, shallow rhythm of his breathing. She catalogued each detail with the sa intensity she brought to studying an enemy's weaknesses, because that was the only frawork she had for caring about sothing this much. Love and vigilance had always been the sa thing for her.
She reached down and touched his cheek. His skin was impossibly soft, and he stirred slightly at the contact before settling again.
"I'll co back," she said quietly. "Wait for ."
You should hold him, Kurama said from the back of her mind.
If I hold him, I won't be able to leave.
He didn't push. He understood that kind of discipline, the necessity of walking away from sothing precious because the alternative was losing it entirely.
She watched Naruto for another long mont, then turned and left without looking back.
---
The strike team assembled at the stone arches that marked the boundary of Mount Myōboku's sacred grounds.
Nagato arrived first, his Sharingan hidden beneath the cloth wrap he wore when others might see. He stood apart from the handful of toads who had gathered to watch, his posture relaxed but his chakra coiled tight beneath his skin. Ready for violence at a mont's notice.
"Honoka wanted to see you off," he said when Kushina approached. "Aina convinced her to stay with Naruto instead."
Kushina nodded. There was nothing to say to that. Honoka would understand, or she wouldn't- either way, there wasn't ti for drawn-out farewells.
"And you?" she asked. "Any second thoughts?"
"Would it matter if I did?"
"No."
The corner of his mouth twitched, though it wasn't quite a smile. "Then I don't have any."
A flash of yellow split the air, and Minato Namikaze materialized between one heartbeat and the next.
He looked worn. There were shadows beneath his eyes that hadn't been there weeks ago, and a tightness in the set of his shoulders that spoke of too many decisions made under pressure, and too many burdens carried without relief. The Hokage mantle was heavier than he'd expected, Kushina suspected, especially with most of Konoha's leadership dead by her hand.
She didn't feel guilty about that. She didn't feel much of anything about it. They had been enemies, and now Minato was an ally of convenience, and when this was over they would probably be enemies again. That was simply how the world worked.
"You found him?" she asked without preamble.
"Three possible locations. The most likely is a valley in the Land of Earth, near the old border with Wind Country." Minato's voice was steady and professional, whatever personal feelings he might have locked away behind the mask of duty. "I've placed markers within teleportation range of each site. I scouted and confird the Gedo Statue at the primary location- I couldn't get close, but I saw it on the horizon."
He t her eyes. "Eight tailed beasts, all in one place. This won't be like any fight you've had before."
"I know." Kushina held out her hand. "Before we go, Kurama has sothing for you."
Minato looked at her outstretched hand, then back at her face. He didn't move to take it.
"It's protection against the Infinite Tsukuyomi," she said. "If Madara casts it during the battle, anyone without this cloak will be caught in the genjutsu. I'm not going to drag you out if that happens, so if you want to be useful, you'll accept this."
"And the cost?"
"There isn't one. It's a thin layer of Kurama's chakra, nothing more. It won't give control over you, won't let track you, and won't do anything except keep you from becoming a liability if Madara decides to cast it mid-fight."
Minato was quiet for a mont, visibly weighing his options. Pride and suspicion warred with pragmatism behind his eyes- Kushina could see the calculation happening, the assessnt of risks against benefits.
Then he reached out and clasped her forearm.
Kurama's chakra flowed through the contact, a warmth that spread across Minato's skin before sinking beneath it and settling into sothing invisible and undetectable. The cloak was thin enough that even a sensor wouldn't notice it unless they knew exactly what to look for.
"It's done," Kushina said, and released him. "Nagato, your turn."
Nagato stepped forward without hesitation. He'd already accepted stranger things from her- a seal that punished disloyal thoughts. A protective cloak was nothing compared to that.
The transfer was faster with him. Kurama knew what he was doing now, and Nagato's chakra system had long since grown accustod to the Nine Tails chakra.
"Akinari stays with the clan," Kushina said when it was finished. "If we don't co back, he'll lead. The toads have promised sanctuary for as long as we want, they wouldn't dare take that offer back."
"And if we win?" Minato asked.
"Then we figure out what cos next."
She turned toward the path that led down from Mount Myōboku, toward the mortal world and the enemy waiting within it. The air here was thick with natural energy, heavy with the sll of moss and ancient stone. She breathed it in one last ti, letting it settle in her lungs.
Then she nodded to Minato, and yellow light swallowed them whole.
---
In the room where Naruto slept, Aina sat beside the bassinet with Karin drowsing in her lap.
The baby's ears twitched occasionally, and his tail had loosened from around his leg to curl against the woven rushes instead. He looked peaceful in a way that felt fragile, like sothing that could shatter at any mont.
Akinari found her there an hour after the strike team left. He didn't say anything at first, just leaned against the doorfra and watched her watch the children.
"She asked to raise him," Aina said eventually, her voice barely above a whisper. "If she doesn't co back. She said she wanted him to grow up with soone who understood what family ant."
Akinari crossed the room and sat on the edge of the bed, close enough to touch her if she needed it. "What did you tell her?"
"That I would. What else could I say?" Aina's hand moved in slow circles on Karin's back, an automatic soothing motion. "She's never asked for anything before. Not once, in all the years I've known her. And the one thing she asks for is this."
"She trusts you."
"I know." Aina finally looked at him, and there was sothing complicated in her expression- fear and pide.
In the bassinet, Naruto stirred in his sleep. His tail reached out blindly, searching, and when it found the edge of Aina's sleeve it curled around the fabric and held on. He settled again almost imdiately, anchored by that small connection.
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