30. The day of birth (3)

The sun was about to set and the stars peeked out from the invading darkness in the sky, the konoha as always was filled with liveliness under the watchful gazes of the hokage's faces carved on the mountain wall.

"Ichiro-chan, Aiko-kun take care of Sasuke, okay?, I will be back in an hour" said Mikoto, looking at the two kids in front of her.

"Okay mom" said Ichiro who was holding Sasuke while Aiko nodded his head.

"The dinner is in the kitchen, eat it if you are feeling hungry and stay at home, no going out to train after it gets dark ." she said sternly, looking at the red-haired boy, who again nodded his head in acknowledgement.

Making sure everything was arranged properly, Mikoto headed out of the house.

..........

"It hurts, ya know" screamed Kushina in pain lying on the bed in the middle of the cave.

"Push Kushina, you are almost there" said Biwako, her forehead coated with sweat, they were here for a while now and the delivery was proving to be more difficult than they had imagined.

"Is … she alright" asked Minato, his face filled with worry.

"She is alright, you are the fourth Hokage, act like one, focus on the seal." snapped Biwako checking Kushina's condition.

Minato placed his hands on the seal pouring chakra into it to strengthen the seal. 'There is not much resistance' he thought, but looked at Kushina with anxiety.

After a few more screams from Kushina, the atmosphere in the cave suddenly changed.

"Uwahhhhh Uwahhhhhh wahhhh" , came the cries of the baby making Minato who was concentrating on the seal to stop abruptly, his eyes getting moist.

"I became a father today" he said wiping his eyes with his sleeves looking at the blond haired baby who was now being wrapped in cloth by Biwako.

"It's a boy," she said, moving towards Kushina holding the baby.

"Mother sees the baby first" she said when Minato came to take the baby and she gently placed the baby near Kushina.

"I finally get to see you, Naruto." said Kushina, sighing in relief as tears of happiness spilled from her eyes looking at the blond bundle of joy.

Biwoko took the child away to place it in the crib that was placed on the side of the room.

"Are you alright Kushina-chan?" asked Minato, looking at the love of his life.

"Alright let's strengthen the seal and get it done" he said with a smile after he saw her nod her head.

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

*A Few minutes before Naruto's birth*

The ANBU shinobis were spread around the barrier keeping watch over the surroundings, even they failed to notice as a phantom slowly appeared on top of the barrier without making any sounds.

And within a few seconds the massacre began, the barrier blocked all the sounds from passing in and out so the people inside did not notice the sounds of battle taking place outside.

"How is this possible" muttered an ANBU as he saw the knife embedded in his chest and he looked at the robed figure in front of him without any injuries, before going limp.

The robed man tossed aside the dead body of the shinobi like it was trash and muttered "All the rats are dead."

If one looked at the scene they would find that there were at least 20 corpses of the ANBU scattered around with either stabs or had their necks broken.

The robed figure looked at the barrier and walked towards it easily bypassing it as if it had never existed and entered the cave just in time to hear the cries of the baby.

"Just in time" it muttered as it entered inside, blending into the shadows.

............….

"Ahhhh…" just as he was about to fix the seal, Minato heard a soft scream and sounds of two bodies hitting the ground.

"Biwako-san, Taji" he muttered in shock as he saw the dead bodies of two people

"Yondaime Hokage…..Minato, Step away from the jinchūriki….If you don't this child won't live a minute longer." said a masked man covered in long robe as he held baby Naruto with a hand positioned above its throat.

' how did he slip through the barrier…!?, Who on earth is he ?' thought Minato looking at the movements of the masked man ready to take action.

"UGHHHH…" groaned Kushina as Kyubi's chakra leaked through the weakened seal.

"Kushina...The kyubi's seal is still…!" said Minato worriedly looking at his wife, about to help her.

"Get away from the jinchūriki… or do you not care what happens to the brat?" said the masked man conjuring a kunai in his hand pointing it at the baby.

"Wait….C,Calm down!" said Minato trying to make sense of the situation.

"You're the one that needs to calm down, Minato. I myself am perfectly calm." said the Masked man throwing the crying baby into the air and jumping with his Kunai to stab it midair.

"NARUTO!!" screamed Kushina who looked at this from the corner of her eyes.

Minato's face hardened and as the baby was about to be stabbed vanished from his spot and reappeared hugging the baby as he landed on the opposite wall.

"I expected nothing less from the Yellow Flash…, But what about the next one?" said the Masked man as if smiling behind his mask and made a hand seal.

It was then Minato noticed that there were explosive tags attached to the blanket covering the baby.

"NARUTO, MINATO" screamed Kushina, noticing it too as Minato teleported somewhere with Naruto.

............…

"BOOOM" an explosive sound was heard in the outskirts of Konoha and Minato landed on his back as he came to a halt outside a destroyed building.

"Thank Goodness, Naruto's unharmed" he muttered looking at the crying baby in his arms.

He had Teleported into an old building on the outskirts of Konoha and thrown a kunai out of the building as he got rid of the blanket and teleported to the kunai before the tags went off.

'He forced me to use Hiraishin no jutsu. He's after Kushina and now I am not with her!' he analysed the situation getting frustrated.

'I have got to hurry' he thought, hugging Naruto, he teleported into a safe house quite far away from Konoha.

"You'll be safe here" he said gently placing the baby on the bed.

"Just wait here a bit Naruto, I have to go and save your mom right now.." he added covering the baby with the blanket as he got ready to teleport to Kushina.

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

"What...do.. you...want?" asked Kushina her voice filled with exhaustion, the seal was weakening and the Kyubi's chakra was starting to spill out making her experience lot of pain.

She was in an unknown location tied up in chains made of seals to the rocks leaving her in a kneeling position.

"To take kyubi from you and destroy konoha." said the man nonchalantly shocking Kushina.

"Minato is always protecting you. But now I 've gotten him away from you and furthermore the seal has weakened after you gave birth….Do you know how long I've waited for this brief moment?" he said, removing his hood and looking straight into her eyes.

Kyubi who was silently looking at all this from inside the seal saw the eyes of the man which was red containing three tomoe markings growled, "Those cursed eyes!!" as its eyes also morphed into the same three tomoe sharingan losing control of itself.

"Now come out of there, Kyubi!" said the masked man making a hand seal the chakra spilling out of Kushina increased exponentially.

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

Aiko was sitting on the lawn of the Uchiha house looking at the full moon and playing with Sasuke, he suddenly stiffened when he saw the mark indicating Kushina disappeared while Minato's moved to another place.

'What happened, why is she out of range?' He thought, standing up, took a tri-pronged Kunai out of his tool bag and was about to call Minato but stiffened as a notification popped in his mind.

'Ding! Do you wish to save Kushina Uzumaki?

-yes

-no'