A.N. The ideal theme music for this chapter is Distortion World, the GlitchXCity remix. This chapter was edited with the help of Infamous Storm.

"Mirror Queen, Eternal Prisoner, First Exile… For your example, for your sacrifice, for your once-shining light, to you we give praise…"

-Inscription found on the second pillar of Turnback Cave

History teaches us that its most climactic moments are great, epic clashes. The ring of swords, the roar of spells, banter exchanged and philosophies tested on the field of glorious battle.

History is written by the victor's spin doctors.

There were no swords here, for neither ninja was particularly skilled with one. Jutsu were used, but they certainly did not roar. What use is a move your opponent hears coming?

Both men were silent as they fought. There was no grand philosophical clash. This fight was built on simpler things.

He tried to kill my son. He killed my wife. He dies today.

There was no way this fight would be settled with words alone. So why banter, and give away your position?

For the sake of everyone the system he enforces has doomed to a futile end, he must die. Mostly for Rin, but the others too.

A streak of white met a streak of yellow with the 'tink!' of kunai on kunai. A blonde man in an armored vest and a dark-robed man in a streaked, white mask briefly became visible, straining against each other's blades, before disengaging and vanishing among the trees.

Miles away yet nowhere near the minimum safe distance, the nine-tailed demon fox swiped its paw at something. The impact as it struck the ground shook the woods, and the masked man hurled a huge, collapsible shuriken at his opponent. Perhaps the quake had left the leaf ninja unbalanced?

But, the blonde reacted as quickly as ever. Starlight glinting off his Konohagakure-issue leaf hiate-ate, he met the monster shuriken with a thrown kunai. The instant the weapons made contact, an explosion briefly lit the wood bright as day. The big shuriken was blown to shrapnel.

So were the smaller ones hidden in its shadow.

The leaf ninja's retaliation came moments and nearly half a mile later, a barrage of kunai that passed through the masked man's body as though he was a mirage. The taijutsu exchange that followed, fists and forearms clashing in a struggle for dominance, proved the outlaw all too solid, and the blonde took a few hits before they parted. The masked man remained as insubstantial when defending as before.

But, the blonde left a parting gift: a kunai at the dark figure's feet that sparked and hissed as its chakra-charged seal went critical. Rather than phase through the electrical discharge it generated, the outlaw's form wavered, and spiraled into his eye with a faint sucking noise.

Acting on instinct and reflex, the leaf ninja hurled a kunai left and behind, and its blade ripped a thin line in the masked man's robe as he reappeared. The leaf ninja's mouth, set in a grim line, turned up slightly at the sides.

The outlaw reached up to his eye, and a manrikigusari, a weighted chain, swirled into being in his hand. The slight smile disappeared. Fighting someone with that much extra reach was hard enough without the intangibility jutsu. The two ninja shifted their weight, preparing to charge into battle again.

A piercing, baleful shriek split the quiet of their fight, easily overwhelming the clamor of the demon's distant rampage. As the scream rose higher, ripples spread across puddles scattered about the clearing by a day-old rainstorm. Tiny droplets rose from the puddles as though cupped in some alien hand, flash-froze, and fell back to earth.

Miles away, the nine-tailed demon fox froze in place, ears cocked. In the brief moments before an incredible blow united its head with Konoha's street, it appeared distinctly uneasy. When it rose again, any sign of this was replaced with berserk fury, but neither the blonde nor the masked man were paying any attention to the biju.

The shriek had definitely come from this clearing.

"What did you do, Minato?" The masked man demanded, the single eyehole in his mask darting cautiously over the open space. "What jutsu is this?"

"Why don't you tell me?" Namikaze Minato shot back.

"Playing dumb doesn't suit you, Hokage," The outlaw groused.

"And you're even worse at it than I am."

"Yes. I have shaken all the puddles. It's all part of my master plan. I have a biju, and I was already kicking your ass. Seriously, what did you do? It's not like you're giving any secrets up. If it was going to hurt me it would have by now."

"Sarcasm is the refuge of the weaker argument."

"Do the proverbs and hypocrisy come with the hat?"

"…You really didn't do it." Minato breathed. "Crap."

"And neither did you. Which means there's somebody else in the woods with us," The masked ninja sighed, shaking his head, "I suppose a simple plan of action was too much to ask for tonight."

"Well, unless they intervene on your side, I'll just track them down once you're dead," The Hokage decided, "You're the bigger threat."

"If I respected you more, I'd be flattered," The outlaw gave his chain a whirl, "Time for you to join your wife."

Minato responded with more kunai. They didn't connect, but they kept the masked man on the move. The robed ninja knew that if the battle stayed in one place for too long, he'd lose for sure. Minato's signature teleportation jutsu homed in on seals placed on his weapons. If he got to saturate the battlefield, keeping up would be impossible.

The leaf ninja's assault soon climaxed in another close combat duel, sparks flying as his kunai clashed against the outlaw's chain with a discordant jangle. As before, both ninja landed a few hits, for all the good it did. The outlaw phased through any attacks that slipped through his guard, and Minato barely felt the strikes he took through his armored vest.

The masked man went stiff, dropping his guard long enough for Minato to land a palm strike. The outlaw flew backwards until he slammed into a tree and fell to his knees, shuddering. Razor shards of mirror-bright crystal forced their way through his eye, melting into inky droplets even as they fell in inexplicable curves. Minato had never seen something fall left before, even if they eventually swerved to the ground.

When this failed to threaten him in any way, Minato dashed to his opponent and slapped a complex, spidery seal onto the masked ninja's shoulder. The outlaw pushed Minato away, staggering to his feet, but the damage was already done. Accompanied by a roar of triumph, the demon fox's path of destruction through Konoha wavered as it slipped its reins. Practically, this didn't make it do less damage, but did leave it inclined to go after the most convenient targets.

"You know how to do a contract seal?! Damn it!" The masked man screamed, agony bleeding into his voice as the crystalline tears continued to 'fall'. "This doesn't change anything, Fourth Hokage! The fox will still destroy Konoha, and there's nothing you can do about it!" His form started to waver and swirl again.

Only to abruptly solidify as the scream returned. The masked man sank to his knees, hands clasped over his ears, as the sound pierced his brain. The dark puddles left in his wake began to expand, linking up into a pond of ominous black. As the Hokage watched and his opponent writhed in agony, a pair of red embers ignited under the darkness.

Slowly, without so much as a whisper of noise, a great, beaked head rose from the shadow lake, dripping globs of darkness as large as a grown man. The red eyes provided the only spot of color in the sludgy black as the leviathan rose, skeletal tendrils and lethal spines lining its serpentine form.

Several long heartbeats later, the entity pulled itself free of the stygian pool. As the pond began to shrink, something invisible seemed to grasp at the creature. It sagged in the air, head bowed, spines bending into stout legs as its tentacles compressed themselves into a pair of smoky, bony wings.

The creature touched down, grass withering where it shuffled its new feet, and it threw back its head, and screeched again. The sound slammed into Minato like a physical blow, almost driving him to the ground as it tore at his chakra. The masked man, more vulnerable since he'd started reacting before it even arrived, or maybe just closer, fell onto his side and started convulsing and clawing at his eye with both hands. Even as the sound faded, the sensation continued to tear at the leaf ninja, like an endless horde of invisible, ravenous insects.

Minato instinctively kept himself still as stone as the leviathan lowered its head to examine him with a single great, glowing eye. This was apparently the right choice, because it raised its head again without trying to eat him. Or anything worse. Instead, displaying what he could only describe as curiosity, it began to examine the forest about it before its attention was caught by the nine tailed demon fox and the fires left in its wake. As blood began to seep from the masked man's eye hole, the strange creature shrieked at the fox, in a questioning tone. The fox gave the dark creature a once-over, and sat back on its haunches.

Ignoring the pinpricks from the leaf ninja that swarmed over it, the biju swept the tips of its tails over its gaping maw. Where the tips almost met, white and black particles globbed together, forming a malevolent ball of reddish chakra. As the sphere expanded, it emitted a rising hum that despite its distance crashed into the entity's aura like a wave against a beach. The biju's filling-rattling chakra battered against the shadow creature's scratchy, sucking presence, only achieving local superiority in the last moments before the fox swallowed its creation whole.

The creature gathered a mass of glowing chakra to its own beak even as its aura rushed into the space left by the fox's receding power. The fox opened its maw, chakra smoke cascading over its jagged teeth like a waterfall, and sent a beam of red-black chakra burning toward the entity, and it responded with a coruscating, jagged helix of energy. While the shimmering blast looked far more impressive than the fox's darker attack, the biju's chakra swallowed up the creature's thinner beam and crashed into its head and chest.

The creature reared back, the black liquid blown from its skin to spatter the stern heads of the Hokage monument behind it. However, though four of its legs left the ground, it did not lose its balance and crashed back to all sixes. It fell heavily, but noiselessly, save for a faint 'crunch' as its right foot landed directly atop the masked outlaw. Minato was able to escape the creature's footfalls with his hiraishin teleportation jutsu, but saw no reason to rescue the man who'd just killed his wife. As he watched from relative safety, the entity shook off the remains of the dark sludge, revealing grey and black-banded skin protected by golden, insectoid, alien armor. Its wings remained smoky and indistinct, topped with more solid-looking red spines, and it spread them to blot out the moon and stars as it shrieked at the fox in rage and surprise.

Cackling at the thought of a challenger, however unworthy, the demon fox inhaled more chakra, sacrificing power for speed, and spat a ball of energy at its new opponent. Rather than endure the strike, the armored creature faded away to a purple outline, and Minato winced as the nose of his statue on the mountain was disintegrated instead. He probably could have saved the monument if he'd known the creature could do that.

Instead of returning to full visibility, the creature sunk into the ground, leaving behind a pool of darkness that looked far more like an actual shadow than the one it had emerged from. Twisting like a snake, the darkness lashed toward the demon fox faster than even most jonin could react. Minato's teleportation jutsu let him keep pace with the shadow, though he was forced to halt as it darted behind the biju's back, and the entity rose from it, wings crackling with baleful energy.

As it emerged, almost all the ninja present flinched from its grating aura. Minato actually saw several chunin pass out, though they were rescued by their comrades before they could be seriously hurt. But strength was a limited defense; even Sarutobi Hiruzen and Orochimaru, the most dangerous ninja currently in the village aside from Minato himself, were not immune. It was probably a good thing that no genin were fighting the fox. They probably would have died. The retired Third Hokage did recover faster than most, though.

"Minato, thank the Kami you're here!" The elder ninja exclaimed as he leaped up to Minato's chosen rooftop, heavy staff in hand. Conversation was briefly aborted as the shadow entity shaped curved claws from its blood-red wing spikes and left a trio of crackling slices across the demon fox's flank. The fox's roar shattered every window in the village that had endured up to this point, and collapsed a few weaker buildings besides. Its attempt to retaliate, a full-body tackle, made even more noise.

It was completely ineffective, as the fox passed through the mysterious creature like the thing wasn't even there, but it crushed seven apartment buildings underneath its chest. Forewarned of the creature's phasing ability, Minato was at least able to rescue everyone he could see before the fox landed on them. He had to hope those apartments had been evacuated as he'd ordered.

"What is that thing?" Minato's predecessor continued, sounding slightly dazed. Behind the two Hokage, the ghostly creature put a vicious slash across the fox's muzzle for its troubles. "I- I've never seen anything like it before."

"Your guess is as good as mine, Master Sarutobi," Minato grimaced, frustrated by his lack of knowledge. How was he supposed to protect Konoha from this thing if he didn't know how to fight it? "I was fighting this masked man with strong space-time jutsu and a lot of taijutsu skill. He tried to kill my son. He did extract the nine-tails," And the Third Hokage knew full well what that meant for Kushina, the previous container. Even if it was done properly, the damage would have been crippling. "We fought. I got a contract seal on him, and kept him from using the Kyubi-no-Kitsune as a weapon. Then, things got really strange, and that thing showed up. After the demon blasted it, it stepped on the masked man, but he was already probably dying just because it showed up. Best guess, its phasing is linked to the space-time jutsu that guy had. All I know about that thing's capabilities is what you've seen it doing just now, plus a shadow-based shunshin variant and enough toughness to walk off a direct hit from the Kyubi's energy blasts."

"It walked it off?! You're sure it was a direct hit?" Sarutobi gasped, shaking his head. "No, I trust you. It's just… A direct hit. From a biju. Kami, how do you even fight something like that?"

"Not like this," The retired Hokage's staff spoke in a distinctly shell-shocked tone. A single brown eye opened on the staff's head, looking first his wielder and then Minato in the eyes. "You need to order everyone to fall back. Now."

"What? Why? We need to keep this contained, or they'll wreck even more of Konoha-" The staff cut Minato off almost immediately.

"I know what that thing is! I said now, boy! I'll explain once our people are safe. Go!" Minato went.

"We evacuated all noncombatants and reserves when the fox first appeared, sir. Combat personnel are falling back now," Minato's Jonin-commander Nara Shikaku, second in command of Konoha's armed forces, looked like he'd swallowed several pickled plums in rapid succession. "I have to ask why we're retreating, sir. We didn't give up when the fox attacked, and it's as close to a natural disaster as anything alive can be. How much difference does another giant monster make?"

"Tell me this, jonin Shikaku," Hiruzen's staff vanished in a puff of smoke, a human-sized monkey wearing ninja gear more commonly seen in the warring clans period taking the weapon's place. Though the monkey was elderly, his age only enhanced his air of confidence and power. Although that confidence seemed to have taken a hit recently. "How many ants does it take to defeat an anteater?"

"That's not talking about the biju," Shikaku reasoned, raising an eyebrow. The demon fox was incredibly dangerous, yes, but Konoha had defeated its like in the past, "You're telling me that gold and grey thing eats people like an anteater does ants? I'd think we'd have heard of something that eats entire towns in a sitting before."

"Not exactly," The monkey clarified, "I assume you know that we summons have different myths and… religious beliefs than you humans?" All three humans nodded; they were pretty familiar with summons. "Well, that… thing is a force right out of the oldest stories, passed down from one Monkey King to the next for as long as anyone can remember. Most young monkeys learn the same nursery rhymes as you humans, but we royal monkeys hear something… a little different. You don't speak monkey, but I'll do my best to translate my father's words.

"Revere the Creator, and his golden wheel. By his sacrifice does the world exist, and by your gratitude is he solely rewarded. Thank the Wanderer, shining of armor. His breaths mark the seconds, his seconds the breaths, and his silence brings peace. Respect the Warrior, for though his armor is pink and festooned with the wealth of a thousand lords, his vigil never ceases. By his claw, the will of the kami is done, and the mortals protected from the whims of fate. But love the Lifebringer, of the thousand faces. Welcome the guest, for they may be he, hoping to reward the generous and hospitable. And should you rouse the Mirror Queen to don her mirror armor and leave her mirror world, fall upon your sword. If you are lucky and swift, your spirit will reach the pure world before she is finished with your corpse. But whatever you do, should you rouse her ire, do not pray to the Creator for salvation, for then nothing at all can save you."

"That's a nursery rhy- wait, wait, wait," Minato's mind bounced from one concept to the next as he parsed the monkey summon's tale, "You're saying this story tells children that if they meet this thing they should commit suicide and hope it's distracted by eating their body long enough for them to reach the next life?! What kind of message is that sending your kids?"

"One we hope they never have to follow," The monkey sighed.

"Then why aren't you fleeing, Lord Enma?" Shikaku asked, "I'm sure you're loyal to Lord Sarutobi, but if what you've said is true we're all dead anyway. You might as well save yourself."

"Well, that story is very, very old," the summon explained, "As in predating the Sage of the Six Paths old. I only recognize her from a few pictograms that survived. More ancient than the biju themselves. It's conceivable that meanings have changed over the years. Tales shift enough in a decade, let alone millennia. And I admit to being curious as to how the new kami," He swept his hand over the distant Kyubi-no-Kitsune as it battered against the shadow creature with chakra-infused tails, "Fares against the old. Perhaps it's an old monkey's folly, but if the biju wins then it'll be tired from fighting another greater spirit. And if the Mirror Queen wins, well, the fox is a lot bulkier than she is. There's no way she can eat the whole thing in one sitting. We're in a better position no matter who is victorious."

"I can't help but noticing," Sarutobi observed, "That legend doesn't say anything about what happens if you didn't anger the 'mirror queen'."

"I don't think you're supposed to be able to meet her otherwise," Enma scratched his head, eyes warily fixed on the giant monster brawl, "But Minato got close and didn't die. That's encouraging."

"More than that. She bent down and looked me right in the eyes. But I didn't see any aggressive behavior until the Kyubi attacked her," Shared the Fourth Hokage, "She didn't even kill the masked guy until she got blasted, and stepped on him probably accidentally."

Shikaku tracked the ancient kami as she body-slammed the biju, plowing a furrow of destroyed buildings through the Uchiha compound despite the clan's heavy defensive seals and the Kyubi's greater size. "If we have to choose, live and let live is considerably better than whatever the fox might offer."

"There is her aura, though," Minato argued, not really opposed to what the Nara seemed to be suggesting but wanting to be sure he was making the right call, "I'm pretty sure genin-level or weaker people might die just from being near her. That's kinda hostile, if she's doing that on purpose."

"All the great kami are said to have a 'pressure', a sort of overwhelming presence that saps their foes' ability and will to fight," Enma related pensively, "The Boss of the phoenix summons, an old friend of us monkeys, has it, and it's never affected me outside of the sparring ring. But I don't know whether he's actually one of the ancient kami, or a descendant of one, or a reincarnation, or what. Try to understand a phoenix's age and lineage, and all you'll get for your trouble is a headache."

"Hm," Minato narrowed his eyes, as the Kyubi grappled its opponent in its mighty tails. The mirror kami (how was it connected to mirrors, anyway?) responded by shrouding itself in bluish-purple fire, forcing the fox demon to release it with a hiss. "I'll take the giant monster we might be able to negotiate with over the one that's definitely hostile. Shikaku, mobilize our main forces. Have the jonin fire on the demon fox, but only if they can keep from hitting the possible friendly. Hiruzen, it would be very helpful if you were to lead the chunin corps to fall back and cover our civilians and lower ranks. Take Orochimaru with you; without his boss summon this isn't his kind of fight, and I don't want Manda inside the village unless we absolutely need him. I'm going in. With massed fire support from our jonin and that creature distracting it, I should have an opening to seal the fox."

"What about the other one?" Shikaku felt this was a reasonable question.

"If I survive the sealing, I'll do my best to convince her to leave. If I don't make it, you'll have to do it. Sorry."

"It's what I get for feeling sorry for you back in the academy. So troublesome."

The wreckage left by the nine tailed demon fox blurred before Minato as he flashed from one intact seal to another, leapfrogging closer to the giant monster brawl. He could have gone straight to the fight, but didn't want to get stepped on because he teleported to a place he couldn't see was safe. It took him five seconds to close in instead of one.

Of course, moving so fast had its own downsides. If he'd had to run, he would've had time to come up with a plan of action. The sheer size of the fox made actually harming it a major challenge, entirely aside from all the other advantages the thing had. Minato's signature weapon was kunai; the fox likely wouldn't feel them at all. Even the rasengan probably wouldn't feel like more than a bee sting, although that would work if he could hit the right place.

He could summon a big toad, but even Gamabunta, the strongest of his summons, couldn't stand up to a biju for more than a few minutes. Besides, the toads weren't exactly the most graceful of fighters, and according to King Enma collateral damage was not an option here.

Minato supposed he'd just have to fall back on the ninja classics: wait out the fight, and look for an opening. Sure, the crusty old veteran who'd taught the future Fourth Hokage these tactics was talking about samurai, whose heavy armor and chakra arts made them a nightmare for genin and chunin in a fair fight. But Minato figured the same basic concept applied here.

He kept a close eye on both titans as the shadow creature swept up rubble in her wings, shrouded it in a dull, brown aura, and hurled it at the demon fox in a rapid volley. The demon scorned the chunks of concrete and the massive fireball hurled at its knees by a group of Uchiha jonin. It sat back again and began charging another gigantic chakra blast, even as four of the rubble barrages shattered across its head and chest. The third thrown went wide.

But as the fifth hit, the mirror kami shrieked in triumph, entire body glowing faintly red. The improvised weapons may not have hurt the fox, but they apparently did whatever the creature was hoping for. Six legs churning, she charged the fox, building up a fairly impressive amount of speed.

The fox fired his chakra beam at the creature, who responded by hunching her shoulders and speeding up slightly. Was she planning to break through it with brute force? Minato wouldn't put it past her, but he had a better idea.

A pair of faint, yellow flares traced across the giants' battleground, and the Fourth Hokage appeared in front of the armored entity, a hiraishin kunai held in front of him like a shield. The demon's beam struck the kunai, and vanished.

From a seal concealed to the fox's left, an identical beam lanced out, throwing him to his side and filling the air with the stench of burning fur. Minato teleported out to a safer vantage point as the shadow entity adjusted her course. A hazy corona of purple chakra inside a cage of yellow sparks overtook her faint reddish glow as she drew close to the biju.

The redirected chakra blast knocked the fox off its feet. When the mirror kami hit the fox, he flew. Out of the Uchiha compound, over the Hokage's office, to land in a residential district with an almighty crash.

Panting slightly, the creature paused for a few moments. Then, she extended her wings and leaped to land near her opponent, flapping rapidly to extend her air time. It seemed like actual flight was beyond her, good news if she decided to keep fighting after the fox went down.

By this time, the fox had gotten to his feet, so the shadow creature slapped several trees down between them. Minato had just enough time to wonder what that was supposed to accomplish before the fox charged, got a paw stuck in the fallen timber, and fell flat on its face with a startled yip. The ancient kami followed up by applying another shimmering helix directly to the fox's forehead, and just before impact the two spiraling tendrils wove together into a snarling dragon's head. The explosion engulfed everything within a kilometer in a wave of incongruously rainbow-colored death.

The fox responded with a deafening roar, backed by an absurd amount of chakra, which blasted the entity back out of the crater, flattening half the merchants' quarter as it landed. It doesn't matter which one wins, Minato realized. It doesn't matter because no matter which one wins, Konoha loses.

The village had already lost almost an entire generation of academy students and children. The sheer malevolent power of the fox's corrosive chakra had snuffed them out like candles in a hurricane, before they even realized they were in danger. If the village also lost all its infrastructure, it would never recover. He had to seal the fox now and end this fight, whatever the consequences. But that, of course, left the question of where to put it.

The fox couldn't be sealed in an inanimate object for long; its corrosive chakra would inevitably destroy its prison, within days or weeks. Only a living thing could survive containing the biju, and only a baby could survive having the fox's chakra leaking into their own. The seal would need a way to relieve pressure by venting small amounts of biju chakra or it would explode, and that leak would kill an adult. Other biju were a bit more forgiving, but the fox's power was especially deadly.

He needed a baby, and while some might have survived, Minato had no idea where they might be. And besides, asking someone else to sacrifice their child for the good of the village left a sour twist in his stomach at the thought. Especially when he knew one parent whose permission he already had.

Flash.

Minato's surroundings blurred from concrete and rubble to paper and cut wood as he teleported into a small house coated in defensive seals. His and Kushina's workshop was more hardened more than a bunker, to contain any explosive mishaps. This made it the perfect backup shelter for his son and his dying wife. "Kami help me, Naruto," the Hokage murmured as he shoved open the steel security door that protected his laboratory, "I'm so, so sorry."

"Minato! We… we haven't won yet, have we?" Kushina's face, still streaked with blood and pain, fell as she saw her husband's expression. "We… we need to seal the fox. Yeah. Okay. Take Naruto. I… still have enough strength to drag that thing to Hell with me dattebane! I'm dying anyway, and it'll take the fox a while to come back, so…"

"If you kill the fox, Iwagakure and Kumogakure will declare war on us within the week," Minato stated softly, "After so much damage we can't fight them and hope to win. But if they think the village still has a jinchuriki, if they still have to fear the fox's power, then we… then Hiruzen and Jiraiya-sensei might be able to bluff them."

"No…" Kushina breathed, her dismay falling in an uncoordinated, panicked babble. "Not Naruto you don't know what it's like it'll tear him apart you can't someone else you-"

"There is no one else," Minato confirmed sadly, "It has to be him. The fox… not a lot of children survived. They didn't have enough chakra to buffer the biju's. The lucky ones just had heart attacks. Some of them melted."

"But- but- Mikoto!" Kushina's eyes brightened with manic desperation, "She just had a baby! Sasuke's an Uchiha; his chakra's strong already! He'll still be alive! We could-"

"Sacrifice your best friend's son in place of our own?" Minato's voice cut through his wife's like a knife, "I'm absolutely certain you don't mean that."

"Tell me there's no other way."

"None that give Naruto a good chance of surviving."

"Fuck. Is… is it too much to ask that we could be happy? For just one day?" Kushina grew even paler, her red hair glowing like blood against her waxy, unhealthy complexion. "I… If I have enough strength to drag the fox with me, I've certainly got enough to hold him down while you do the sealing ritual."

"Nope, that's Gamabunta's job," Minato replied, supporting his wife with his shoulder as they limped for the door. He couldn't teleport from inside the lab; the Uzumaki-Namikaze family's last bastion had no holes in its security, not even for jutsu nobody else alive had mastered. "I need you to convince the other giant monster that it wants to leave peacefully. And without eating anyone, if at all possible."

"Wait, what?" Uncomprehending (or possibly just heedless) of the gravity of the situation, Naruto giggled heartily at his mother's tone. Even after the family vanished in a flash of yellow, the infant's laughter echoed through the house.

When the mirror kami sunk into its shadow and failed to reappear, the nine-tailed demon fox howled with triumph. It had been far too long since he'd fought someone his own size. Even if it hadn't been his equal (because nothing was), he'd quite enjoyed it. Ah, well, back to killing all the mortals. He turned, caught his foot in another of those infernal tree traps, and ended up sprawled flat again. Son. Of. A. Bitch. Even after it left it was still- Was that shadow getting bigger?

Gamabunta, the boss toad, hit the Kyubi-no-Kitsune at just under terminal velocity. Immortal and immeasurably powerful the biju may have been, but nothing alive can ignore having their head sat on by nearly half a million tons of toad moving faster than the swiftest horse can run. It didn't help that Gamabunta then impaled the biju through the neck and chest with his sword, and when this failed to take the fight out of it emptied his pipe into the fox's right eye.

The fox didn't stop fighting, but it screamed in agony, flailing like a landed fish. Its uncoordinated struggles failed to shift the burly summon, though, who pummeled his captive's back and tails with water jutsu while Minato set up a sealing alter. He usually didn't need special equipment for his seals, or even ink most times, but with a biju it's better to play it safe.

Meanwhile, Kushina scanned the surrounding area, quickly locating 'a huge, gold lizard-bug-thing that makes the air feel like it's made of piranhas' staring at her husband's melee in bemusement. The less hostile of the giant monsters had been located! Now to try to talk to her. The Uzumaki staggered over to a convenient chunk of fairly stable rubble to lean against, channeled a little of her slowly fading chakra into a voice-amplification jutsu the Hokage used to make speeches, and called out.

"Hey! You! With the gold armor and the big red eyes!" The creature started, craning her neck to search for the speaker, "Yeah! You! Down here dattebane!" Kushina managed a weak wave, which was enough to catch the thing's attention. "I'mma talk to you. You wrecked a lot of stuff. Ordinarily I'd be pretty cool with that. Heck, I've wrecked a lot of stuff in my time. But this is our stuff, and we kinda need it dattebane. So, if you could, I dunno, stop wrecking our stuff? That'd be grand."

The creature turned her glowing gaze on its surroundings, and then with what Kushina could swear was a distinctly sheepish look she turned slightly smoky at the edges. The grating aura didn't vanish, but it lessened somewhat, as though it was passing over the dying Uzumaki rather than through her. Trailing wisps of vapor, the creature stepped down towards Kushina, walking into the ground as though she was going down a staircase, until shadow entity and Uzumaki were face to face. "Yeah. That… That's actually perfect," Kushina confirmed, smiling as widely as she could without pain, "Now, my husband's sealing the fox away as we speak, so Mr. big, fuzzy, and grumpy over there isn't going to be causing any more problems for anyone for a while. So, was there anything else you were actually here for? Aside from fighting him?" The entity considered this, and shook her head. "Well then, don't let me keep you, please stop panicking our civilians, good luck in whatever it is giant monsters do when they're not smashing stuff?" A loud 'pop' sounded behind Kushina, followed by a rush of air. A few moments later, Minato staggered over to her rubble, and collapsed beside his wife, gasping for air.

She looked over, and was relieved for a moment to see Naruto sleeping peacefully in his arms. Then, she saw the massive, spiraling seal peeking through a hole in Minato's clothes. "Minato? What. Did. You. Do?"

"The fox was… stronger than I anticipated," The Fourth Hokage explained in halting breaths. "I couldn't seal it… all at once. Naruto got half… but the other half had… to go somewhere."

"But you only had one altar!" Kushina exclaimed, confusion and worry briefly overcoming the weakness dragging at her voice, "How'd you… you summoned the Shinigami?! You moron! You don't just barter your fucking soul like that dattebane!"

"Already did," Minato groaned, "Didn't have a choice. Couldn't stop halfway through sealing the fox. Had to put it somewhere. Nobody else around. It's my soul anyway. I can do what I want with it."

"Kami damn it Minato, that ain't true! You said those vows same as I did, and I do not approve of you selling my husband's soul without my permission!" Naruto awoke at the raised voices, and promptly started giggling. Mom was saying funny stuff again. Fortunately for Minato's odds at a peaceful last moments this distracted Kushina, who yanked Naruto out of his father's arms and started fussing over him and double-checking his seal.

The entity, meanwhile, had gone stock still the moment Naruto woke up. It was entirely possible she hadn't seen a baby before, in Minato's opinion. Slowly, cautiously, the mirror kami drew her head closer to the strange, tiny human. Naruto ignored her approach, until she got too close. Then, cackling like a hyena, he lashed out a pudgy fist, grabbed a shiny, ethereal mandible, and attempted to pull it close for inspection. Oblivious to his parents' sudden panic, he tugged on the armored cheek with all his essentially nonexistent muscle. Completely out of her depth, the entity allowed Naruto to reel her in, where he promptly slobbered all over the tiny piece of her that he could reach. The immense creature blinked once, slowly, but submitted to the gumming.

However, this failed to hold his interest for long, and he soon returned to batting at his mother's hair, allowing the entity to take a step back. The kami regarded the baby for a few seconds, then flicked her eyes up to his parents' faces, and opened her mouth.

"If you have anything to say to your hatchling, it must be said now. Your time grows short." The entity's voice rumbled like thunder and howled like a driving thunderstorm, chilling the humans' flesh to the bone as their every instinct screamed 'RUN!'. But the dying couple were too far gone and too well-trained for that.

"Wait, you can talk?" Kushina exclaimed, ever distractible, but Minato pulled her back on track with a sharp gesture toward their baby. "Oh, uh uh uh… I guess I just wanna tell you that I- we love you more than anything else in the world. You hear that, Naruto? So, uh, eat your vegetables, not just ramen, always brush your teeth, and grow up to be a big, strong boy dattebane. Be respectful of your elders, and kind to your friends, oh and make loads of those dattebane. But don't worry if some of them don't like you, because that's not your fault, my beautiful, precious…" Kushina tried to force more out, but she'd started crying fairly early on, and the lump in her throat was not helping matters.

"Look out for Kakashi, your… big brother, I guess," Minato picked up the speech almost seamlessly, "He's a bit older… than you now, but he's lost… his family too. He's probably in a… bad place right now, so just… be patient with him, okay? He'll come around. But watch out for Jiraiya-sensei… You can't trust him unless… it's important. And try to meet… Uchiha Sasuke… and Nara Shikamaru… You won't regret knowing them. Just… live well, Naruto, and… if you can… try to die… with a smile on… your face…" He might have said more, but it was getting difficult to breathe. The mirror kami was right. Minato, feeling like he was lifting the Hokage monument, turned his head so he could look at his wife and son, the entity's golden armor glinting in the corner of his eye.

And then he followed his own advice.

As the Fourth Hokage, the man who vanquished the nine-tailed demon fox, breathed his last, a pair of infernal, red eyes bored into the empty eye holes of a grinning mask. The Shinigami, the kami of death, ignorant of this scrutiny, reached down and roughly yanked the entwined soul of Namikaze Minato and a huge chunk of biju chakra from their mortal container. He pulled a knife from his mouth, and prepared to cut them away. And then he would feast.

A mind older than death considered this. And a row of crimson spines impaled the masked kami, and ripped him apart. "Mine." A blood-tipped limb drew the Hokage's soul from his body intact, and another briefly hovered over Kushina's corpse before drawing her soul fourth as well. "Also mine."

Then, the entity turned to Naruto. Her head tilted slightly as she stared at him for a long moment. "Ours."