"I don't believe Aunt Kushina is that kind of person! So even if it means hurting her—I'm going to stop you!"
Not for himself. For her. That was why he had to take her down.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
Naruto called up his best technique without hesitation.
Across the cave, Kushina Yukii still had her hands locked in a seal she hadn't released. She had to hold the hand sign—couldn't let it go.
But her legs were another matter entirely.
The moment Naruto's clones rushed her, Yukii spun into a roundhouse kick—one smooth arc—and scattered every last one of them.
"You're suffering, aren't you, Naruto." Yukii spoke, her voice quiet and unhurried. "The Nine-Tails stole your life from you. So give it up. Hand your power to me. What's wrong with that?"
All the clones were gone. Naruto himself went flying—and Sasuke, barely back on his feet, caught him with what little strength remained.
"Sasuke, help me!"
Sasuke blinked. Then a smile crossed his face.
"Yeah, yeah. Don't go and die on me, idiot."
Side by side, left and right, the two of them charged at Yukii again.
Yukii couldn't use her hands—but she leapt backward, completed a seal with only her feet while still airborne, and stamped down hard.
Ice crystals materialized through the air, countless and sharp.
"Ice Style: Swallow Snow Blizzard!"
A hail of shuriken-shaped ice rained down from above, completely sealing off the way forward. The cave walls offered no cover, no shelter anywhere.
"No good—there's no way to dodge this!"
Sasuke saw it immediately. No gap to slip through.
Like Rain Dew Senbon... Hanabi used that technique before. Haku showed how to dodge it back then. But there's no cover here now.
Wait. Ice Style—someone else once showed the counter to that.
And that someone promised to teach me a jutsu.
In the space of a single heartbeat, Sasuke remembered.
"Fire Style: Entenka!"
A sphere of roiling flame expanded outward from his hands, meeting Yukii's ice barrage head-on and consuming it.
Fire Style: Entenka—Flame Heaven.
A jutsu Hanabi had used. One she had promised to pass on to Sasuke. Though the name was borrowed, the technique itself was entirely her own—a no-seal original derived from the Fire-natured transformation of the Rasengan's principles. The Rasengan itself wasn't something she could teach him yet, but this adapted version was.
"Hah... hah..."
Using it drained what little chakra Sasuke had left. But months of weighted training kept him upright, still able to fight.
The two of them reached Yukii together—left flank, right flank, one attacking, one covering—and for a moment actually held their own.
But the gap in skill was real. Sasuke, already chakra-starved, went down first—a kick that sent him skidding. Then Yukii hooked her leg around Naruto's, twisted, and drove him into the ground with her knee.
"This ends here!"
"It doesn't!" Naruto shouted. "Aunt Kushina—I'll stop you! I have to!"
"I'm not—going to fall—!"
Boom.
Crimson chakra erupted from Naruto's body and hurled Yukii backward.
"Ugh—ahhh!"
Naruto screamed.
"...The Nine-Tails."
Yukii flipped in midair and landed cleanly.
[The animation budget just exploded]
[She's terrifying and gorgeous, I love her]
[Step on me, PLEASE step on me]
[Someone drag that weirdo out of the comments]
[Such a shame Hanabi isn't here—a three-way fight would've been even more intense]
The Nine-Tails' chakra blazed outward. The cave's ice began to melt at the edges.
"Naruto!" Sasuke couldn't move—but he could feel it, that terrible power surging inside his teammate.
Finally.
Finally—now I can act.
Without waiting for the Nine-Tails' chakra to emerge first, the Seance Jutsu would be missing its most critical component.
Before she could move, Naruto slammed into her—a full-body charge that sent them both crashing into the cave wall.
"Ugh—"
Yukii forced herself upright. Two short coughs. Her face had gone even paler.
"I'll have it," she murmured. "The Nine-Tails' power."
"Ugh—aah!"
Naruto—who had lost himself to the beast's rage, eyes burning red, barely human in that moment—heard her words. And somehow, impossibly, came back.
"Aunt Kushina, stop. You'll... die..."
She still held the seal.
With the Nine-Tails' chakra flooding his senses, Naruto felt it clearly—something coming off Aunt Kushina. A chill that had nothing to do with ice. Like a presence that had nearly run out of time to exist.
She felt like someone at the end of their life.
"Then give me the Nine-Tails! Dying like this would be a relief, wouldn't it?!" Yukii's voice cracked into a snarl.
"My life doesn't matter!" Naruto shouted back. "But—Aunt Kushina—you'd die! You'd die!"
Yukii went silent.
And Naruto rushed her again, moving at a level clearly above anything he'd managed before.
He's fast.
Sasuke watched from where he lay, something cold settling in his chest.
It's like he became a different person. That power—it's already so far beyond mine.
But Yukii was faster still. Working with only her legs, she matched Naruto exchange for exchange.
"Got her—!"
Naruto's fist was centimeters from landing—then Yukii's form shattered into ice crystals.
He stopped short, thrown for a moment.
"Idiot, that's a clone! Not the real one!" Sasuke yelled.
Too late. The warning arrived after the fact. After sprinting all this way and then throwing himself into the fight, Sasuke was completely spent—he could only shout from the sidelines now. Yukii materialized from the opposite side, and her hands drove into Naruto's stomach—again.
"Naruto—!"
Sasuke threw his last shuriken with everything left in him. Yukii kicked it aside—but from within its shadow, a second shuriken appeared.
Yukii gritted her teeth. She accepted the hit.
And drove her hand into Naruto anyway.
BOOM.
The Nine-Tails' unstable crimson chakra erupted again, blasting Yukii off her feet.
The Seance Jutsu—complete.
"Damn it, Naruto, pull yourself together!"
Sasuke had burned through his last drop of chakra. Shadow Shuriken had taken everything.
"Too late. The Nine-Tails' power—" Yukii coughed blood, dragging herself upright from the ground, then wrenched the shuriken from her arm. "I've already called it out."
"Do you have any idea how much Naruto trusts you?!"
He shouted it—feeling the pain on Naruto's behalf, a sharp ache in his chest.
"I... failed again, didn't I?"
"I can't do anything... There's nothing I can do..."
Naruto couldn't resist. His consciousness began to dissolve.
Whoever it is. Anyone—I want... to help Aunt Kushina. I want... to stop Aunt Kushina. Anyone...
A blurry shape drifted into view. Warm. Impossibly warm.
Mom... help... Aunt Kushina...
And in that instant—some other chakra, different and distinct from anything before, wrapped itself around Naruto completely.