OK. This is Kog6943, and welcome to my first fanfic, Twilight Key! I've been browsing the seas of fanfiction for nearly two years now. I've never really considered writing any before now, although a couple of people have asked me if I wanted to. Before, I never really had any ideas that I would like to write about. A couple days ago, I got this idea in my head, and I couldn't get it out. So I decided, why not try my hand at writing a story? Two of my all-time favorite series are Naruto and Kingdom Hearts, so I wrote about those. Some of my favorites have also been neglect fics, whether the MC forgives in the end or not. This fanfiction may not be the most original, or the greatest, heck it might even be trash to everybody else, but I at least wanted to try it out. So let's get this started...

The first chapter is pretty similar to the Naruto canon, but it begins to diverge the closer to the end you get.

Anyways, on with the story!

I don't own Naruto, Kingdom Hearts or anything else. I'm just a broke college student...

Normal Talking: "Insert witty remark here."

Normal Thinking: 'Insert witty remark here.'

Biju/Deity Talking: "Insert witty remark here."

Biju/Deity Thinking: 'Insert witty remark here.'

Scene Change: Insert Place Here

Jutsu/Magic/Technique: Insert Jutsu Here

Note: I toned down on the use of "-ttebayo" and the like later in the story. General writing style also improves as time goes on. (12/25/15)

Previous time I was here: 7/27/2016 (Minor revisions)

Konoha (October 10th)

It was October 10th, a day that would forever go down in the history books of Konoha. The reason for this was glaringly obvious at the moment due to the vast amount of bodies laid about on the battlefield in the aftermath of the Kyūbi no Kitsune's rampage on the village. The battle was a long and difficult one, and it only got harder as more time passed and an increasing number of shinobi were killed.

However, despite the odds, it was also a time to celebrate. After all, the Third Hokage had managed to seal away the Kyūbi into the children of the Fourth Hokage. The yin half of the beast into the daughter and middle child, while sealing the yang half into the younger son, the third child. Lastly, the soul was sealed away into the older son, and the first child.

Outside the Village (A few hours ago)

"AAAAHHHHHHHHHH! IT HURTS-TTEBANE!"

In a secured location that was located in a cliff that ran along a river, the pained screams of a woman were heard loud and clear. Although it sounded like a woman was being tortured, she was in actuality giving birth not once, not twice, but three times. While there were numerous guards stationed around the safe house, only four people were currently allowed inside the room.

In the center of the room laying down on the provided space, was the woman who was screaming her lungs out. She had long crimson colored hair that was sprayed out around her head and sticking to her face due to sweat. Her face was scrunched up due to all of the pain she was experiencing. While her bottom half was covered by a blanket, her top was a simple blue shirt provided by hospitals. The only unusual thing was that her shirt was rolled up to expose her stomach, and on her stomach was some sort of pulsating seal. The seal looked like some kind of intricate spiral with markings coming off at certain parts and surrounding it. Each time it pulsed, the woman would grip the handles protruding from the bed and scream again. Her name is Kushina Uzumaki-Namikaze.

"Are you sure that she is alright? She normally isn't fazed very much by pain." This new voice was from a blond man with striking cerulean eyes who had his hands pressed onto the pulsating seal. He wore a navy blue outfit with red swirls on the shoulders and blue open-toed sandals. He was currently shooting nervous glances to the woman every few seconds. This man is Minato Namikaze, the Fourth Hokage and Kushina's husband.

"OF COURSE I'M NOT ALRIGHT! I'VE GOT THREE KIDS COMING OUT OF ME-TTEBANE!"

"Oh, uh, of course! Anything I can do to help?"

"HOW ABOUT YOU NEVER TOUCH ME AGAIN, YOU GIRLY LOOKING SON OF A BIT-"

"ENOUGH! Minato shut up and focus on keeping the Kyūbi right where it is! Kushina, you shut up and focus on pushing these kids out!" This time the speaker was a stern looking older woman with long brown hair tied up into a high ponytail. Her face showed signs of aging due to the blatant crow's feet she sported. She was wearing a standard medical ninja outfit for the procedure. This was Biwako Sarutobi, the wife of the Third Hokage.

"DON'T YELL AT ME-TTEBANE!"

"I'LL YELL AT WHOEVER I DAMN WANT! NOW SHUT UP!"

"Hehehe…" The fourth and final person in the room was currently questioning if helping her teacher out was worth the headache it was causing. She has shoulder length brown hair and brown eyes. She had on the same outfit as Biwako. Her name was Taji.

After the impromptu shouting contest, Kushina stopped trying to talk and focused on getting her soon to be newborns out while Minato went back to maintaining the seal on her stomach. The reason this was so important was due to the fact that Kushina was the jinchuriki of the mightiest of the bijū, the Kyūbi no Kitsune. It was a little known fact that while in labor, the seal of the jinchuriki is extremely weakened, and if not looked after, the bijū may easily escape.

"Ugghhh…" Kushina groaned as another contraction hit her. She had been looking forward for to being a mother for a long time now, and despite all of the pain she was currently going through, she was still happy this was happening. But that didn't mean that she had to like the pain. In fact, she hated it. A lot.

"Minato, calm down. A man would have been down for the count long before now. Only a woman is able to endure such levels of pain." Biwako half reassured, half insulted.

Minato sweat dropped at this. "Right…" Judging by how much pain his wife was in at the time, he was indeed questioning if he would be able to go through the same and stay conscious the entire time. But Biwako was a renowned medical ninja and although she didn't go out into the field anymore, she still helped out frequently in the hospital. Plus, she was a mother of two herself. If anyone knew what they were talking about, it was her. So he quickly shook his head to clear it and focused back on the pulsating seal.

'The Kyūbi is really pushing! It is taking so much chakra to hold the seal together, I don't know how much longer this can go on for. Kushina is really hurting too… Come out, you three! At least wait until you are born to cause us grief!'

Outside the Safe House

Unknown to those inside in the delivery room, the last of the ANBU guards was just choked to death by a mysterious man in a black cloak. After confirming his kill, he stood up and looked up to reveal that he was wearing a mask with only a hole for his right eye. The mask was designed to have black flames coming in from the left side.

'Ok, it is almost time to start the extraction.'

Back Inside the Delivery Room

"UGGHHHH!"

"Hang in there Kushina, you're almost through with the first!" Biwako was doing her duty as the midwife by making sure the delivery went well, and that meant she also had to reassure the woman giving birth.

"THIS IS ONLY THE FIRST ONE?! WHAT THE HELL-TTEBANE!" Although Biwako's reassurance had the opposite result this time. Kushina was currently lamenting the fact she was not even a third of the way done. "Agghh…. Kami this hurts."

"Alright, the first child is almost out, one more push on the count of three!" Biwako ordered.

Kushina quickly prepared herself for one more push to get her soon to be oldest child out.

"One!" Biwako got into position.

"Two!" Kushina took a deep breath and another wave of nervousness hit Minato as he again glanced at Kushina. "Pay attention to your own job, Namikaze!" But of course such a thing wasn't allowed.

"Three! Push!" Kushina cried out again as she gave one more push to get the infant out. Soon after the pressure died down for a time and the sound of a crying baby began. Both of the new parents knew what this meant and although they both wanted nothing more than to see their new child, they also knew they needed to focus on getting the other two out and keeping the Kyūbi in. "Great job, Kushina. You just gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. Just two more two go. Taji, please take care of him for now." Biwako congratulated then requested.

"Right away." After carefully taking the newborn, Taji moved off to the prepared area for cleaning off the babies.

"Ok, now that the first is done, I know what's coming! I'm ready for the other two now-ttebane!"

Delivery Room (A Little Later)

"I was sooooo wrong-ttebane." Kushina was now recovering from giving birth to the third and last child. While initially confident after the first child was born, that confidence broke once the contractions started up again. "There was no way to brace yourself for that. Mikoto-chan should have warned me when I asked her…"

"Oh you're fine and you did fine. You gave birth to three beautiful children. Two boys and a girl." Biwako stated as she went to help Taji clean up the newborns. After being cleaned, the oldest had calmed down and stopped crying, but the other two showed no such desire to do so.

The newborns already showed signs of resembling their parents. The oldest had a small tuft of blond hair that had some red in it as well and was now looking around the room with heterochromatic cerulean and violet eyes. The middle child and only girl was sporting her own small clump of crimson hair. When she actually opened her eyes, it could be seen that they were a violet color. She would be an extremely similar in appearance to Kushina when she was older. The youngest and second son also had crimson hair and violet eyes. All three had one thing in common though. Each of them had three whisker marks on each of their cheeks, reminiscent of a fox.

"Taji, help me bring them over to Kushina."

"Of course." Biwako gently picked up the oldest child while Taji took the other two. Together they carried the newborns over to the recovering mother.

"Um, can I-" Minato was quickly cut off by an irate Biwako.

"Back off! The mother gets to see the children first. The father is last!" After stating this, Biwako quickly side stepped a slightly depressed Minato and continued over to Kushina. "And shouldn't you finished up with sealing the Kyūbi away?! Get back to it!"

"*Sigh* Right, of course. But you don't have to be so aggressive about it all." Minato said. "Plus I am the Hokage, shouldn't I get a little more respect?" This last part was said under his breath to himself.

Biwako, used to dealing with her own husband, still heard it. "I wouldn't care if you were my husband's grandmother! If I yell at Hiruzen for leaving the toilet seat up while he is assigning missions to teams and talking to ambassadors back when he was still Hokage, then I sure as hell will yell at you however and whenever I feel like it!" Following this exchange, Biwako finished the short walk over to Kushina and presented her babies to her. "What will their names be?" She gently asked.

Kushina had been memorized by the sight in front of her. She was a mother! Of three! She was so happy and it showed by the glowing smile on her face and the tears leaking from her eyes. Biwako's question though quickly snapped her out of it and she then answered the question. "Minato-kun and I already decided on the names. The oldest boy would be named Naruto, the oldest girl would be named Narumi, and the second boy would be named Menma. Although now we don't need the other girl name as there is only one. We figured that out of the triplets, we were really unlikely to have all three of them be the same gender, so we didn't pick three names of either gender."

Biwako nodded along to these names but raised an eyebrow to the first. "Fishcake?"

Kushina giggled but shook her head, "No, maelstrom." She corrected.

"Of course, my mistake." Biwako smiled, but it quickly turned back into a frown. "Minato! Why isn't this seal secured yet?! Get on it!" After making sure he was on the move, she and Taji walked out of the way.

Minato sighed. But out of fear of getting yelled at again, quickly complied. Moving back over to Kushina, he lovingly gazed down at her. Even after all that screaming she did, and all that sweat and tears on her face, he still thought she was absolutely beautiful. He was sure that he would never feel any different about that. "How are you doing?" He asked her out of concern.

"As well as I could be, considering. But enough about my condition! We're Parents-ttebane!" Her face lit up at the prospect and Minato immediately mirrored the smile on her face. She was so happy she didn't even care that she used her verbal tick.

"Alright! Just give me a second to seal the Kyūbi back up, then we can get them checked up on and go home! It's the start of our family!" Minato was practically vibrating out of excitement at the prospect. He placed his hands on the seal and gathered his chakra to finish the procedure but was quickly cut off by two screams. Whirling around he immediately tensed at what he saw.

Biwako and Taji were dead, and there was a man in a black cloak and a white mask with black flames standing over them. Taji was slumped against the wall with a look of shock on her face and her arms still wrapped around the forms of Narumi and Menma. Minato tensed further when he saw the man was holding Naruto with his other hand hovering over the newborn's head ready to strike.

Once he saw that the attention of Minato and Kushina were on him, he spoke up. "Fourth Hokage, step away from the jinchuriki. Do it or your child dies."

Minato's mind was running at speeds that would rival his Flying Thunder God technique. 'How did he get in here?! What happened to the guards? And the barrier?! Who is he?' His thoughts were interrupted however by the seal pulsing again and Kushina let out a startled gasp of pain. The center of the seal blackened, covering up the previous spiral and the surrounding markings were spreading. 'And the Kyūbi is still trying to break free! I don't have time for this, the seal won't hold for much longer!'

Minato's thoughts were further interrupted by the man pulling out a kunai and pointing it at Naruto, who was starting to tear up due to the atmosphere in the room and the less than careful handling of the man. "Hurry it up! Step away from her! Don't you care what happens to your son?" The masked man wondered.

"Let's just calm down now…" Minato was ready for a fight, but couldn't risk it with his children in the room and Kushina in her current condition.

"Speak for yourself, I'm as calm as possible!" With this lest statement, the man threw Naruto in the air. And leapt after him with the kunai ready to end his life. Minato saw this as if time had slowed down due to the adrenaline, and quickly got to his son before he could be killed, reappearing behind the man. But upon getting close he noticed that there were paper bombs attached to the blankets wrapped around Naruto, so he quickly pulled Naruto out of the blanket. The man still had his back turned and didn't see Minato had already saved his son. "As expected of the Fourth Hokage, but…" He raised his hand to make a hand sign to set off the bombs.

But Minato was still a step ahead of him. He knew that the masked man would soon be setting off the explosives, and assessing the situation, he knew he could only reach either his other kids, or his wife. Narumi and Menma were too close, and would definitely die in the explosion, but Kushina was far enough away to be ok, plus she was the target, the masked man would be sure to keep her safe. It tore Minato apart to be in this situation. He didn't want to have to make a decision.

"Minato, the kids!" Kushina was struggling. She wanted to help, but was in no condition to do so as the seal had immobilized her. She had seen what was happening and knew what was going through his mind. The best she could do in this situation was get him moving to save the kids. She had come to the same conclusion as Minato had. But she knew it would be hard for him to make the choice. This way, he would know she wanted him to save the kids.

Minato heard Kushina and knew what she wanted, this pushed him to move towards the kids. He made it just in time too, he got to them, and immediately had to use the Flying Thunder God to get out of there. He disappeared in a flash of yellow, leaving his wife and the man alone…

Secluded Safe House (With Minato)

Minato reappeared in one of the Uzumaki-Namikaze safe houses. They were spread out in and around the village for emergencies. This definitely qualified as one. He looked down to check on his children, and after confirming that they were each alright, he let out a sigh of relief.

"Thank Kami, you're all ok." The relieved expression on his face was quickly replaced by a serious one though. 'He forced me to leave the area. His target is Kushina, I need to hurry!' Quickly deciding upon his next course of action, Minato went over to the bed in the room, and laid them down in it. "Naruto, Narumi, Menma, please hold on for a little bit longer." Minato gently tucked each of them in before his eyes seemed to sharpen and the warm cerulean pools turned into glaciers that have seen battle. "I have to go and rescue your mother right now…" He then disappeared in another flash of yellow.

Back at the Delivery Room

He reappeared outside the delivery room, and was about to go in when he witnessed something in the distance that froze his blood.

About half a mile away there was a vast amount of red, bubbling chakra that rapidly increasing in size. It formed into the shape of a fox head. The head quickly soared into the sky and produced a body. The body was of a giant fox that was a mixture of red and orange in color. It was so huge it towered over the surrounding forest. The fox had long, rabbit-like ears. It also had the torso and upper body that was of a human shape. The most eye-catching thing was not any of this though; it was the giant nine tails swishing behind the beast. Once the shape was formed, the body quickly solidified. After the body was complete, the fox reared back and let out an earth-shattering roar. Last came the feel of the chakra. It was vile. It felt absolutely evil and dark, and his basic instincts were telling him to run in the opposite direction.

To Minato though, none of this was the scariest part. No, the thing that caused his blood to freeze was the implications of what this meant for Kushina. 'NO! I can't be too late!' With that thought, Minato pushed his speed to the limits, sprinting off towards the giant Kitsune. Within record time, he made it to the shore of a nearby lake, and he saw on the opposite side, Kushina laying down on a rock before the Kyūbi. He felt relief once again flood his system at the sight of her moving, and therefore alive. He snapped back to attention when he noticed the Kyūbi about to strike. He quickly dropped a tri-pronged kunai, before sprinting over to Kushina to get her out of the way. Once he reached her, he grabbed her, before disappearing in a yellow flash, only to reappear back at the shore with the kunai.

Kushina looked up to her savior, and relaxed once she saw who it was. But if he was here that meant… "Minato...The kids…are they…alright?" She had to take breaks in her speech due to how fatigued she was from the back-to-back child births, kidnapping, and extraction of the Kyūbi from her. If it wasn't for her Uzumaki heritage and sheer stubbornness, she would have died.

"Yes they're fine. All three of them. I've got to get you out of here." He sent a dark look back across the lake at the man next to the Kyūbi. With that, they disappeared in another flash.

Back at the Safe House

Once they reappeared, Minato quickly set Kushina down in the bed. Minato took a moment to watch his wife and kids. Kushina cuddled with all three of the babies for the first time, and some tears leaked out of her eyes. Whether they were tears of happiness at cuddling with all three of her kids for the first time, sadness for what was happening, or a mixture of the two, Minato didn't know. His eyes hardened once again as he set himself off to get ready for battle.

He strode over to the armory, and took a couple scrolls and kunai. He took both standard kunai, and his customized tri-pronged ones. After he double checked his supplies, he walked over to the dresser where his forehead protector was and secured it to his head. Last but not least, he went over to the closet where he had a haori. This haori was well known throughout the elemental nations as Minato's trademarked attire. It was short sleeved and predominately white. But along the bottom was a red flame design and on his back it read "Fourth Hokage" in kanji.

"Good luck, Minato. Be safe." Came a weakened voice. After turning around his eyes softened once again. He nodded once, and disappeared, off to do battle. Kushina tried to relax and was able to marginally succeed. Although the sounds of battle and explosions were very disconcerting, she filtered them out and only paid attention to the sounds of her children breathing. This action was much more successful in relaxing her.

"All three of you…are absolutely gorgeous…Naruto…Menma…I can already tell you…will grow up to be…handsome just like…your father. And Narumi, you will…be such a knockout like me-ttebane." She gently whispered to them as she stroked their small heads. Naruto was the only one who was awake though, the other two had fallen asleep. "Naruto-chan…you have such pretty eyes…Your blue one is a little lighter than Minato-kun's…and your violet one is a little…darker than my own."

She sighed as she heard another explosion off in the distance, this time it was a lot bigger than the others. Something that powerful, she still couldn't believe she had it sealed inside of her. She shook off her feelings of unease though, as her fatigue finally caught up to her…

A Little While Later

Kushina was jostled awake by the feeling of someone grabbing her. Her first reaction was to struggle, but once she felt the telltale pull of the Flying Thunder God, she relaxed as she knew it was her husband. They reappeared a few hundred feet away on the forest floor, in the middle of a clearing. Once she knew the technique was done and they had stopped moving, she heard a great explosion off a little ways away. Looking back fear gripped her heart at the sight of the Kyūbi no Kitsune standing tall in the fiery remains of the house she was just in. But the fear wasn't for herself, it was for…

"NARUTO! NARUMI! MENMA!" She was about to struggle to her feat in order to rush back over when she felt a pair of familiar arms wrap around her.

"It's ok! They're ok! We have them here!" Hearing this, she quickly whirled around. She was slightly surprised at what she saw. Not because her husband was there with her kids. No she expected that much after hearing what he just said. Her surprise came from seeing the familiar form of Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage, next to Minato, with his arms holding two little bundles with red and yellow hair. He was wearing his typical black shinobi jumpsuit. He seemed to be wearing mesh segments under the jumpsuit as shown by the mesh that went past the sleeves of his top and the legs of his pants. On his head he wore an armored hood with a bandana-style leaf forehead protector over that. He wore a single green gauntlet on his right arm. On his back was the kanji for "fire".

The explosion had woken the two younger babies up, and they were once again crying. The third and final bundle was in Minato's arms, with a mixture of yellow and red hair barely visible. Seeing this, Kushina allowed herself to relax, despite the daunting form of the Kyūbi less than a mile away. "Thank Kami, you're all alright…" But she tensed up again once she saw the serious expressions the men before her had on their faces. "What? What's happened?" She was growing increasingly nervous as the time went on and they seemed reluctant to speak up.

"Kushina…" her husband started. "We need to stop the Kyūbi…" She nodded at that, of course they needed to stop it! But why would that cause the two of them to act like this? "As you know, you can't kill a bijū…" She nodded again, getting impatient with all of the hesitance that Minato was showing. "We need to seal it. And we decided it would be best to split the power as well. Split the yin and yang chakra of the Kyūbi. And even better if we could separate the soul, away from the chakra halves. That way, the Kyūbi couldn't easily utilize its power. The chakra will still be volatile, and could still respond to the commands of the soul if isn't secured enough and put enough effort in, but it would be easier for a jinchuriki to learn how to control it." Kushina was starting to get an idea as to where this was going… "Because of the recent strain on you, between the child birth and the extraction, as well as you wouldn't be able to adapt to only have the yin or yang part of the chakra after your body being used to both of them, you aren't an option. So we decided…" Here, he cut himself off again with an expression of extreme distaste, as if he was cutting of his own limb. "We've decided to use the ki-"

"NO WAY IN HELL! What are you thinking?! We can't put our kids through that! There is no way I'm going to let yo-" Kushina's rant was cut off by her husband.

"KUSHINA!" When he was sure he had her attention, Minato continued with what he wanted to say. "Do you really think I want to do this? No! Never! And I could never ask a family to give up their children if I couldn't do the same myself. I would rather seal it away within myself using the Reaper Death Seal and then drag it with my to the Shinigami's stomach. But Hiruzen-sama got me to go with this plan. I will still use the seal, but split it up." Kushina calmed down after noticing that he himself was on the verge of tears at what was about to happen. That was when the Kyūbi decided to remind them of its presence with another roar. They each turned to look back at the rampaging bijū. It hadn't noticed them yet as it seemed slightly confused about the sudden change in surroundings.

Turning back to her husband, Kushina's mind was shifted into overdrive, thinking about other solutions. She didn't like the idea that was just presented not one bit. "But I'm worried…What if the villagers find out? After this, they will know that the Kyūbi is somewhere in the village. Before, many of them had no idea. They will know it is here now, and will demand to know where it went. And even then, using that technique would mean that you…" This was something she truly did not want for her children. The curse that came with being a jinchuriki. She was lucky, the village didn't even know that there was a jinchuriki in it. So she was spared of the hatred. Plus her husband would perish. Sentenced to spend eternity in the Shinigami's stomach.

"I will have Hiruzen-sama tell the village what happened. You can be there with him. Tell them that these three heroes were the ones to stop the Kyūbi! And they are continuing to do so using their bodies!" He still looked a little nervous about it all, but determined none the less. It was then that the Kyūbi finally seemed to notice them. After seeing them nearby, it began to make its way over.

"…fine…" Kushina finally gave her consent to the plan.

Minato nodded, and quickly erected a powerful enough barrier to hold the Kyūbi in place. It would not last that long, especially with how impromptu it was, but it was good enough for what was needed. He then did a few hand signs before slamming his hands on the ground. A large puff of smoke appeared. And when it cleared, there were three altars in place. Minato and Hiruzen set the newborns down in the altars. Narumi was set in the left altar, with Menma in the right one. Naruto was set down in the middle one. As he was set down, his heterochromatic eyes looked back up at Minato, causing the new father to smile.

"We decided to seal the yin chakra into Narumi, the yang chakra into Menma, and the soul into Naruto." Minato explained to Kushina who was simply watching with a sad expression on her face. Once in a while, she would get this pained expression on her face due to what was about to happen. And once she even began to open her mouth as if to protest, but then shut it afterwards with a resigned expression on her face. "Ok. Here goes." Minato was about to begin the hand signs for the Reaper Death Seal, but was stopped when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Looking over, he saw it was Hiruzen.

Minato was about to speak up to ask why he stopped him, but Hiruzen spoke up before he got the chance to. "Minato, Kushina-san…let me just ask you first, is it true that Biwako-chan is…" He let off what sounded like a small choked sob. "…that she is dead?" Hearing the question, Minato and Kushina adopted sad expressions and looked down. "I see…" Hiruzen closed his eyes in sorrow for a moment before they snapped back open with a determined shine in them. He then stepped forward and delivered a chakra infused punch to Minato in the gut.

Kushina, seeing this could only gasp and yell, "Minato!" Minato, who wasn't expecting such a thing, didn't have his guard up. The punch hit him straight on, and he doubled over. He could feel his consciousness slipping away as darkness creeped into his vision.

The Fourth Hokage coughed weakly. "…Why?" It was taking a great amount of effort just to stay awake this long, and it was a losing battle.

"Let this old man do this. With Biwako-chan dead, and my children already nearly grown, it will be less of a blow. Yes, I know my family would be saddened by such a thing, but still…they had their entire lives with me in it…your children haven't even had a single day yet with the both of you." With that, he then finished Minato off with a chop to the back of the neck, and he dropped to the floor, unconscious.

He looked over to Kushina, who was struggling to get up and make it to her husband's side to ensure he was ok. He walked over to her and for a moment, they simply looked at one another. "I'm sorry about this…" Hiruzen whispered before he knocked her out too. He lifted her up bridal style, and carried her over to Minato before laying her down next to him. He then looked upon the three babies and whispered, "I'm sorry it has come to his."

Play Naruto OST-Despair

Turning back to the Kyūbi, who was nearly free of the confines Minato placed him in, his eyes hardened. He briefly reflected back on his life, from his time learning under both the first and second Hokages, to meeting the love of his life, Biwako. The reminder that he would never again see her brought a fresh batch of tears to his eyes. His thought then turned to his own team, who have each grown greatly to be splendid shinobi. They even managed to become feared throughout the elemental nations. Whenever he heard the title, "The Legendary Sanin," a proud smile was brought to his face. He reflected back on both the good and bad times with his team, from formation to dissolution. The biggest regret surrounding his team brought a fresh wave of sadness to him.

'Orochimaru…I have failed you. If only I had paid better attention…been more diligent in my teachings…maybe it all could have been avoided…'

His thoughts then turned to the three children he was potentially condemning to a life of bitterness and hatred. But quickly shook these

thoughts off.

'I must have faith in Minato and Kushina! They will protect their children! I know it! The will of fire may be dimmed right now…but it will burn again! And brighter than ever before!'

End Music

With his resolve reaffirmed, Hiruzen turned back to the Kyūbi with more determination than ever before. He quickly performed the needed hand sings, and called out, "Reaper Death Seal!" He felt a great drain on his remaining chakra, and a dark chill crawl down his spine. That was when he felt it, there was an overbearing presence behind him. Looking back he assessed the situation, his eyes widening at the sight before him.

Floating behind him was a chilling sight. It was a specter that was much larger than the average human, with purple skin and long shaggy white hair. Out from his hair, two red horns were visible. It was dressed in white garments, which only added to the ghostly look. In the being's mouth was a tantō. Extending from his own back, Hiruzen could see what he assumed to be his soul. It had taken the likeness to his shape, and was being held up by the Shinigami's long hair.

After he got a good look at what was about to consume his soul, Hiruzen nodded once, before looking back to the Kyūbi. Only to see that it was now looking at the children in the altars.

'Those are sealing altars! This human is about to seal me into those brats! Not if I kill them first!' With those thoughts, the Kyūbi struck out, ready to impale each of the children.

Seeing this Hiruzen quickly activated the seal. Unseen to him, seal markings were now spreading across the arms of the Shinigami. After the marks had finished spreading, the Shinigami struck out and grabbed onto the Kyūbi, instantly stopping it in its tracks. The Shinigami then began to tug, harder and harder, and little by little, the Kyūbi began to split in two.

'NO, NO, NO! I REFUSE TO BE SEALED AGAIN!' The Kyūbi fought against the Shinigami harder and harder, but to no avail. It was pulled apart into two chakra constructs, one a lighter shade of the Kyūbi, the other a darker shade. Both were about half the original size of the Kyūbi. Left in between them was a heart. It was an unnerving sight, as it was just floating there. It seemed to have some crystal like looks, and was a mix of a few colors. The easily seen ones were purple, red, and blue. Hiruzen determined that must have been the manifestation of the soul.

Pushing on with the ritual, Hiruzen prompted the Shinigami to seal away first the yin and yang chakras, then the soul. The darker Kyūbi was dragged towards Narumi, while the lighter one was dragged towards Menma. Once they made contact, they were sucked into their stomachs where a seal was formed. The seal was similar to the one Kushina had, where it was spiral at the center, and had markings surrounding it. Lastly, the heart was dragged towards Naruto.

After confirming that everything had gone as intended, Hiruzen then finalized the ritual. "Seal!" After calling this, Hiruzen could feel his soul get cut off from his body, as if it was a physical part of him, causing a great amount of pain. He soon collapsed. Feeling his life ebb away and darkness creep into his vision, he let a small, satisfied smile bloom onto his face before his eyes closed for the last time.

After consuming the soul of the latest human to call upon him, the Shinigami prepared to leave this realm to return to his own, only to pause when he got a better sense of what he just sealed the bijū heart into. Looking upon Naruto, he assessed the newborn with a critical gaze.

'This human child…I sense great power within him…he is blessed by her…he shall be the key to bringing about great change to this era.'

With that last thought, the Shinigami left, returning to his realm until the time he is called upon once more.

Konoha Hospital (1 Hour Later)

Kushina was lying in a hospital bed, still unconscious from earlier events, but she soon began to stir awake. After a moment, she weakly opened her eyes, her vision still foggy. All she could determine was a sea of white and the smell of antiseptics. She was confused on her whereabouts and what caused her to lose consciousness. Reviewing her recent memories, she remembered talking to Mikoto, and asking her about the birthing process. Then she and Biwako headed to the predetermined location for delivery. The process was hell, but she pulled through. She assumed she fell asleep afterwards, due to fatigue, but then she began to remember more.

With a startled gasp, the rest of the night's memories began to return to her, from the mysterious man attacking, to the extraction of the Kyūbi, Minato rescued her, again, to resting with her kids. Then they were going to seal the Kyūbi into-

Kushina bolted up into a sitting position, ignored the pain, and frantically looked around for her family, and felt slightly relieved at seeing her husband in the bed next to her. But her panic raised to new levels when she didn't see any of her kids in the room as well. Becoming frantic, Kushina began to head over Minato.

"MINATO NAMIKAZE! GET YOUR ASS UP RIGHT NOW AND TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED TO MY CHILDREN-TTEBANE!" With her hair taking the infamous "Red Hot-Blooded Habanero" form where it seems to float in tails behind her due to her anger. For the people who knew about the Kyūbi, they assumed that was the Kyūbi's influence. It actually wasn't, that was all Kushina subconsciously using chakra to become more intimidating. It helps her get better results in scaring the hell out of people she was angry with. She grabbed the collar of Minato's shirt and began to violently shake him in an attempt to get him to wake up.

Minato soon woke up only to pale at the sight that greeted him. An irate Kushina was something to be feared, no matter who you were. Wracking his brain for what could have caused her to be angry with him, he began to remember the events that transpired. His eyes widening in realization, he quickly sat up and scanned the room.

Kushina, upon observing his reaction, and remembering that he was knocked out before her, realized he would be just as clueless as she was. Deciding that her priority should be finding her missing kids, she got his attention. "Minato, we need to find our children!" Seeing him nod his head and try to get up, she moved in to help him. That was when the hospital door opened.

"Both of you get back in bed right now! You're brats are right here!" Looking over to the speaker, both Minato and Kushina had their eyes widen at who was standing there. In the doorway was a beautiful blond woman with an impressive bust. Her hair was done in two loose ponytails with the bangs framing her face. She wore a sleeveless grey kimono-style blouse, held together with a blue/grey obi. It showed off a generous amount of cleavage. Over that she wore a green haori with "gamble" on the back in kanji surrounded by a red circle. She wore pants that match her obi that only went halfway from her knees to her feet. Her choice of shoes were open-toed, black sandals with high heels. Her hands were well manicured and he wore pink lipstick. On her forehead was a strange diamond. Lastly, around her neck was a blue crystal like necklace.

A step behind her was a younger woman. She had black hair and black eyes. Her hair was straight and at shoulder length that covers her ears and frames her face. She wore a blueish-black kimono that had white trimmings that was held together by a white obi. She wore open-toed low heeled sandals. Trotting after her was a young pig that was oddly enough wearing a pearl necklace and red jacket.

Kushina only glanced once at the newcomers before her sight zeroed in on the bundles in the arms of the women. "Naruto! Narumi! Menma!" She made to move over to them, but was quickly stopped by the blond woman.

"Didn't I just say get back in bed?!" The woman snapped. Quickly complying more so for the reason she wanted her kids, Kushina moved back over to her bed. Minato doing the same.

"Tsunade-sama, Shizune-san, you're back in Konoha!" Minato couldn't hide the surprise that was on his face. Tsunade's dislike of being in the village was well known.

The blonde woman, Tsunade, moved over to Kushina, and gently handed her the bundle in her arms. Shizune did the same with the two in her arms. Kushina didn't care about the conversation after that point, only that her children were back in her arms. Tears of happiness began to leak from her eyes. Minato decided to risk the wrath of Tsunade and moved over to gently embrace his family. Luckily, Tsunade decided to allow this much, as shown by the small smile on her face.

"Shizune and I were in the area when we saw and heard the explosions. I may not like being here, but I couldn't ignore that. So we came back in time to take charge of the medical situation in the aftermath. Now what the hell happened tonight? A huge part of the village is trashed, and the feel of evil chakra is still in the air."

Minato quickly went on the recount the events of the night.

30 Minutes Later

"Hmmm…that would explain a great deal. Especially those seals on the stomachs of the brats." Tsunade was contemplating on all of the new information she just gave. "Well, I'm not on your level, but based off of what I could see, the seal is placed on all three of them and appears to be secure…but you should confirm that just in case."

Minato nodded and did just that. After a few minutes of inspecting each of the seals, he nodded again a small smile forming on his face. "All three of them are fine, but the most important ones would be the ones on Narumi and Menma, as that is where all the power is. Naruto shouldn't have any problems with the Kyūbi as it doesn't have any chakra. On that note, what are we going to do?" This last part was directed towards his wife. But the smile on his face grew to new proportions at the sight before him.

"Hmmm?" Kushina was still focusing on her children. Naruto especially seemed to have fun playing with her fingers. His was giggling like mad and trying to get a grip on one of them. "About what?" She questioned.

"We still need to tell the village what happened, remember? As we said earlier, they will ask questions, especially now that they know the Kyūbi was anywhere near the village. We don't have to tell them you were a jinchuriki, but we have to tell them about the kids. Especially with those whisker marks. If we don't do this right, they might come to their own conclusions. And that could be a lot worse." Minato was incredibly nervous, but he had faith in the villagers to listen to what he was saying.

Kushina was extremely reluctant but she knew that Minato was right. So she nodded her head, but still had a request to make. "Can it at least wait until the morning? I want to at least spend one night as a family before things potentially go to hell-ttebane." She was still tired from everything that had happened, and she was incredibly worried about the reactions of the village.

Minato nodded and turned back to Tsunade who had been silent. "Tsunade-sama, would you be willing to stay in the village? At least for a little while? To take care of the injured? It would be a great help, especially with the number of casualties I saw in the brief time I was around the other shinobi during that fight…"

Tsunade looked extremely reluctant but agreed anyway. Who knows? Maybe this will be the first step to moving on with her life. She knew that if she continued doing what she had been, she would only self-destruct. And it wasn't fair to Shizune to drag her all around the elemental nations like that. She nodded her head and said, "Fine, but you're paying for my booze! Shizune, let's go!" With that she quickly vacated the room.

"Wait for me! It was good seeing you two again! And congratulations on the kids!" After those parting words, Shizune followed her teacher out of the room.

After watching the two women leave, Minato turned back to his family. That thought brought a new surge of warmth and happiness to rush through him. 'My family! I can actually say that now! Thank you for this chance, Hiruzen-sama.' He embraced his wife and kissed the side of her head as she gazed down on their children.

Kushina smiled at the feeling of her husband embracing her, and allowed her worries to leave her thoughts for now.

Ok, I know that isn't really how you use the Reaper Death Seal, but for my purposes, it is. I like the looks of that better than the other one...

So? What do you think? I've only written about 8,000 words and I already have a new appreciation for authors. Especially people like Fairy Tail Dragon Slayer who release constant updates, I mean wow. That is impressive.

Anyways, like I said, this was pretty close to cannon but I will diverge it from there. Not like I have much of a choice anyways with two extra kids and a living set of parents... But anything you want to point out? Anything I messed up big on? Or shouldn't do in the future? No guarantees that I will use the suggestions, but I will at least try and listen to your opinions and point of view on things. And I am in no way an all-knowledgeable guy that knows everything about Naruto.

I've already started on the next chapter, so I will at least try and post that, but whether anything goes beyond is yet to be seen. And although I will really try and keep chapters long, no promises. I will try and set a minimum of 3000-4000 words though. As a fanfic reader, I know how irritating too short a chapter can be sometimes.

Kog6943