32. The day of birth (5)

Minato was about to sense Kushina's location, when he felt two familiar presences appear behind him.

He turned around in shock to find an orange-haired boy kneeling in front of the Red-haired woman lying on the ground near the kunai he had placed in the building.

"Aiko-kun?" he called out in shock, not expecting to see the boy here, but quickly rushed to the two as he saw blood all over him.

"Help me in stabilising the seal" said Aiko calmly not taking his eyes off Kushina as he kept channeling his remaining chakra into the seal.

Minato realising what Aiko was doing, pushed away unnecessary thoughts and made a few hand seals and channeled chakra into the seal along with Aiko.

'The resistance is huge,' he thought, increasing his chakra output, strengthening the seal and adding a few layers, finally managing to confine the Kyubi's chakra.

"Stop!, don't close the seal completely" said Minato, removing his hand from the seal and letting little bit of Kyubi's chakra to leak out when he realised the dire condition Kushina was in.

Aiko also stopped pouring chakra when he sensed the Kyubi's chakra stopping the leakage of Kushina's life force and stabilising her injuries.

'It must be because the kyubi was almost extracted, I was late.' he thought as he looked at the pale face of the red-haired woman lying on the ground.

.....................…

Kushina's world was enveloped in pain as the Kyubi broke through her seal, she felt like she was getting tossed in a very violent storm as the Kyubi's chakra overwhelmed her chakra pathways crushing them breaking free and corroding her will.

'It hurts' she thought using her remaining chakra which wasn't much as she tried to lock the kyubi within her.

'Just give up' whispered a voice inside her. 'Let this suffering end, you don't have to receive the gazes of fear or hatred anymore. Just let it go.' It continued eroding her will power.

'No.' she thought. ' I won't give up.' she gritted her teeth trying to find herself in the midst of all the pain.

'Yeah?, what are you holding on for?' said the voice mockingly as all bitter and sad memories surfaced in her mind making her consciousness blur as she experienced those forgotten emotions again.

Just as she was about to give up she felt a familiar warmth try to sooth her pain. It was like a small boat pushing against the huge current of the kyubi's chakra trying to reach her.

'Minato' she thought , sensing the chakra that was so familiar to her causing her mind to regain a little bit of clarity.

' Yes, I have them, I have a family, I want to watch Aiko and Naruto grow up, I can't give up! not now!' she thought as the faces of the people important in her life flashed in her mind filling her with determination.

As if her thoughts were being heard, she felt the Kyubi's chakra that was trying to escape weaken and the quantity of chakra injected into her increased and the seal slowly restored its original condition.

She opened her eyelids, which weighed like mountains and saw calm dark blue eyes meet hers as she looked at the orange haired boy beside her.

Looking at the boy's exhausted face and bloody hands, she realised he had somehow been dragged into the fight.

"Aiko-kun are you... alright?" she asked, feeling anxious and guilty as she tried to get up only to be stopped by a hand on her shoulder.

"Kushina-chan please don't move" she heard a voice turning around she saw Minato looking at her from the other side.

"Minato...Naruto...Is Naruto alright?" she asked, clutching his hands, her voice filled with exhaustion.

"Yeah, he is alright" said Minato lifting her gently from the floor trying to give her a smile as he moved towards the bed he had placed Naruto in.

"Thank Goodness" muttered Kushina leaning against his chest, "Minato...You have to stop that man...He is heading for Konoha and He wanted the Kyubi…" she trailed off gasping when she saw Aiko's back.

"Aiko-kun…...Your back…." she said looking at the shurikens embedded in it as tears leaked from her eyes.

"It's okay, they are not fatal injuries" replied Aiko calmly trying to stand up, quickly abandoning the idea as he could not put any strength into his legs.

"I will take care of it, you stay with Naruto," said Minato, giving her a reassuring smile as he placed her on the bed beside Naruto. Kushina hugged the sleeping Naruto, her heart filled with pain.

His eyes flashed with pain when he turned around looking at the still kneeling boy. He quickly moved towards him slowly cutting out the shirt that was covering the injured area and gently removed the shurikens without aggravating the wound.

He then applied some ointment and bandaged it and gave the boy a red coloured pill to swallow, Aiko recognised it as a 'blood replenishing' pill from the Akimichi clan.

Aiko quickly swallowed the pill and though not instantaneous felt his energy slowly return to him.

"Aiko-kun can you tell me exactly what happened? How did you know the situation?" asked Minato looking at the calm boy, he did not flinch even once during the whole treatment process and even though the wounds weren't fatal, they had missed the vital organs by a small margin and Minato knew better than to attribute it to the boy's luck.

Minato felt extreme gratitude towards the boy, but more than that whenever he looked at those wounds and his exhausted face he felt pain and his anger towards the man responsible for all this had gone past the boiling point and he was using extreme self control to keep it in check.

Aiko calmly lied that he felt something was wrong and tried sensing Kushina's location only to find it was far away from Konoha and had immediately rushed there and saw the situation she was in. Then he proceeded to explain the whole process till he teleported to Minato.

Minato, looking at the boy who was calmly explaining as if he was telling some other person's story suddenly felt a burst of pride in his heart at his courage and decisiveness as he placed his hand on the boy's head gently ruffling it.

"Thank you, Aiko-kun, You did a great job" he said, his voice shaking a little.

"Boom" they heard a sound as the house they were in shook a little causing Minato's face to harden as he stood up wearing his Hokage's robe.

"Now leave everything to me, I'll be back quickly" he said preparing to teleport to the village.

.....................

Somewhere in the leaf village, two phantoms emerged out of thin air, both covered in dark robes from head to toe as they stood in an empty alley.

"Tch, who would have thought you would lose to a brat, even after all that training?" came a voice from one of the phantoms wearing the robe.

"Shut up, I told you to stay back in Ame" snapped the other as he looked at the full moon in the sky revealing his mask covered face.

"Hehe, If I had stayed in Ame, I would have missed this" replied the first one giddily as if enjoying itself. "And I have found an interesting prey, one that could give us a lot of trouble in the future, if not taken care off." It added this time it's voice completely different as if some other being was speaking.

"What do you mean?" asked the masked man annoyed.

"You don't have to worry about it, just focus on your 'revenge'." It replied haughtily before sinking into the ground disappearing from the sight leaving the masked man alone.