POV Shift: Elsewhere, Konohagakure

  The Nine-Tails roared. Kurama towered above Konohagakure, tails carving trenches through buildings. A single Tailed Beast Bomb detonated within the village like the stars were falling. Wind pressure from the thrashing tails shredded rooftops. Fire consumed entire blocks of the wooden homes. Both glass and clay adoring windows and roof tops shatter at the constraint screaming of the beast.

  Minato and Hiruzen Sarutobi fought relentlessly, harrying the beast away from civilian districts. However their brute force was not enough. Minato made lighting quick strikes against the beast slowly drawing it deeper into the forest outside of Konoha. Hiruzen had command of the forces slowly combating the beast.

  It seemed the whole of Konoha was up in arms fighting against the raging Biju. Every clan, Every ninja that could be spared to fight, fought on as the world broke around them. As the civilians of the village either fled into shelters or fled the destruction for their lives.

  Within the village however there were some who had other concerns. Chaos was an opportunity. One cloaked figure stole a small shard of the Biju as it became loose in its fury against the village. They retreated back into the wilderness of the fire country. Another group watched a clan’s compound for duplicity that they had come to expect, yet it never seemed to arrive.

  The fighting continued until the beast was at the area they had decided to make their stand in. Prearranged and prepared. At a strategic clearing where the beast had been lured, four figures stood in a hexagon formation. Elder Hanagashi Jinzo, Elder Hanagashi Yuki, Elder Hanagashi Deaki. Elder Nara Shikajiro and Elder Uchiha Byakuen.

  As the elders stood awaiting their final member they spoke softly, an entire month of training and prayer by those now prescient here for a moment many aware of this plan never wanted to happen. Around them, younger shinobi struggled to hammer enormous brass nails into the earth. Each nail was inscribed with ancient Kōchikujutsu and Fuinjutsu of the Hanagashi and enhanced by additions of the Uzumaki’s Fuinjutsu.

  The ground trembled. The elders all looked at each other, many shook their heads as their final member never arrived. Shimura’s elder, was either dead or a coward. None of them said as much but they could all sense that they felt the same. Jinzo called to the other four gathered. “We will have to adjust the formation. We might die tonight but it has been an honor to call your- this village home for the little time that our clan has lived within it as one of you.

  The Nara and Uchiha clan elders bow to the Hanagashi elders. Shikajiro spoke up to those gathered here. “Whoever lives through this night should carry the words of those who have fallen back to their clan, we who are destined to die for the next generation should at least be allowed to rest once we’re dead.”

  Elder Byakuen shook his head, frowning at Nara Elder. “spoken like a Nara, lazy and depressing.”

  The four elders laugh at the Uchiha’s response to the other Elder. Elder Daeki speaks up. “I would like to speak with your craftsmen should we all survive. I have a keen eye for good work, your clan’s techniques deserve to be put to the anvil and compared to our own if your clansmen would be amenable.”

  The Uchiha bristles for a moment before his eyes detect no dishonesty in the old smith’s words or posture. A simple request for comparison of their arts. “Our clan holds scrolls from the founding of the village, Madara’s statements about your clan seem to be honest.’

  Jinzo lofts an eyebrow as he turns from the slowly approaching Biju. “ Ho? What was your clan’s ancestor’s opinion of us then.”

  “Honorable, if in a simple way. More a clan of craftsmen and samurai than shinobi… He was complicated like that.” The elderly Uchiha would say before Nara would chuckle slightly.

  “Leave it to an Uchiha to try and turn a potential insult into a compliment. What is next, you’re going to claim people saying you steal jutsu is a compliment at being good shinobi?”

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  Elder Yuki would let out a small breathy chuckle. “I would have to say it is.”

  The Uchiha elder turned from the Nara Elder’s needling at their clan’s most common accusation to give her an appeasing look, any further statements are cut off as Jinzo says. “Get to your positions. We must have the array activated before it enters or it will be able to struggle free.

  Nodding all of the Elders Shunshin away from Jinzo’s position as he takes up his spot in front of the giant nail. Breathing a few times slowly he plants his cane into the soft soil of the forest. Breathing in once more he begins chanting the mantra while going through the hand seals.

  Only a half minute later before a faint shimmer of chakra lifts into the air as the nail’s seals become active. The nails each seem to reach out to each other as the verbal and hand seal mantra continue. Each repetition ending in the Elder tapping the nail.

  Soon the giant writhing fox is harried by Minato into the clearing. As the fourth crosses the invisible barrier his Thunder God Technique stops taking him as far as it should, throwing him off slightly. The beast swipes at him but he adjusts to the change just in time. As those who follow the beast behind lead by the Shinobi of the village and the Third Hokage the Biju is fully within the sealing array. It lights up, walls of light stretching between each nail forming a wall. The energy of the nine tails immediately begins to leak from it to flow into the earth.

  Minato appeared briefly beside Jinzo, his physical body allowing him to leave the array while the Biju’s chakra body could not. “How long can you hold it?”

  Jinzo did not stop his hand signs, sweat streamed down his face. “It is not truly sealed, It will only lack energy to continue its rampage. It was already explained this is not a sealing technique. This will simply buy us time to reseal the beast.”

  The nails ignited with a brighter light, the seals carve into glowing as they take the backlash of the Nine tails every moment.A pentacle-gram seal pattern blazed outward. The earth roared in its response, the ground around the nails began to smoke, sand melting to glass around their bases. The Nine-Tails faltered, Its chakra bled downward through invisible channels into the ground itself. Shinobi within the sealing radius staggered as their chakra was siphoned as collateral.

  “Retreat!” someone shouted. The younger ninja both from clans or clanless scrambled out of range of the sealing array.

  The beast shuddered, its limbs quaking with the effort it took to remain standing. Then one leg thumped against the ground, a minute passed then another, then another and finally. It collapsed. Simply contained, as a giant red eye with a slitted pupil looked from the clearing directly towards Minato and Jinzo both of them knew, It was contained - for now.

  Minato’s made to dissipate his shadow clone beside Jinzo, The Elder spoke. “You have ten minutes, one of us will die every ten.”

  “And when you fall?”

  “The seal weakens and that time will lessen.”

  The beast would rise again, this time with less energy but even more fury. The clone dissipates into a puff of smoke. With a flicker Minato was at the entrance of the cave, throwing his anchor Kunai down the hall he flashed from the cave mouth to the entrance of the room. Throwing it again between the two people standing guard still around Kushina. Minato reappeared beside Kushina.

  The Red headed woman was pale. Far too pale. His son, their son, Naruto cried softly beside his mother. The seal that once bound the Nine-Tails to Kushina was shattered beyond a full restoration. She could not contain it alone again with the amount of life force remaining. She would need someone young and who shared the Uzumaki blood to take part of it.

  Minato looked at his son, then at his wife. Closing his eyes Minato remembered the burning horizon. There was only one path left if both Kushina, Naruto and the village where to live. He whispered softly: “I will split it.”

  Half into Kushina,

  Half into Naruto,

  This sealing nearly no one would even know how to attempt. The Biju normally required a young host to get used to them. He could give Kushina just enough time with an adjustment of the seal to allow her to heal and regain her lost life span. So she could be there to raise their son. Naruto would be a perfect host to the Nine-tails, he was young and Uzumaki but containing the whole beast as a baby would be far too much.

  Minato on the spot came up with his plan. Cutting open his wife’s robes, he quickly scrippled changes to the seal already on her stomach. Then to his son he created the seal that most Jinchuriki held with some minor additions. Then he removed a sealing scroll and opened it. The contents made Arata standing guard near the bed step forward to speak, Kurogane’s hand stopped him.

  Minato nipped his thumb and wrote the changes into the mask. Then with a poof of smoke another Minato appeared and then the five of them were gone. With Arata and Kurogane following slowly behind.

  Soon the Nine Tails would be resealed, however many would have to pay for the cost.