31. The day of birth (4)

'Ding! Do you wish to save Kushina Uzumaki?

-yes

-no'

'What!!' thought Aiko feeling anxious but quickly took a deep breath calming down slightly as he selected 'yes' and started the chakra assimilation skill absorbing chakra from the tri-pronged kunai.

"Aiko" called out Ichiro who was beside him looking at his weird behaviour and was shocked as his hair slowly turned orange.

"Ichiro, I need to go, stay safe, something is about to happen." he said, once the assimilation was complete sensing Kushina's location which was very far from konoha, using the mark placed by Minato on the seal. He teleported away leaving a stunned Ichiro who quickly took Sasuke inside the house as she noticed the anxiousness in his usually calm voice.

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

Aiko felt as if the world around him turn a shade of red when looking at the state Kushina was in. His fists clenched as his body quivered in rage which pulsed through his blood like lava, he did not know till now that it was possible to feel an emotion this intense.

' Set Calm mind to 100%' he thought and it was like he was plunged into a glacier from a volcano instantly calming down, but the fury was still there but he knew it would only hinder what he had to do, so his mind ignored it.

'I need to strengthen the seal' he thought, placing a hand on the seal from which chakra was leaking, his skin burned from the volatile chakra of the Kyubi, but he ignored the pain pouring his chakra into the seal trying to close it.

Aiko felt one of the other two marks apart from them, present in the area, move towards him and he knew it was an enemy because both of them were colored the darkest shade of red. Aiko quickly performed a few hand seals and with a cloud of smoke a shadow clone appeared beside him.

"Kill him." he ordered his voice cold, focusing back on the seal as the clone went to fulfill its order.

'Too much chakra has come out, it is not possible to seal it back' he thought, his mind working quickly to come up with a solution, focusing back on the seal. 'The only way is to seal the remaining part inside while cutting off the part that had already come out.' he decided, making a single hand seal because he did not have enough chakra nor a method to pull the escaped part inside.

The Zanpakutō, he had in a sealing scroll, was unsealed. Taking it in his hand he slashed his palm with it coating the blade with blood as he formed a few single-handed hand seals.

The blade glowed dark red and he felt his Vitality drop from 18 to 12 points. He didn't care about it as he raised his blade coating it with chakra planning to swing it on the surface of the seal, He heard a loud explosion sound in the background and the memories of the dispelled clone hit him.

He then heard the sound of air cutting behind him, Having trained with shurikens for so long and with his heightened senses due to instinct manipulation skill, he recognised them as shurikens thrown at him, but he did not dodge to the side as he knew he was running out of time and the seal was weakening at an exponential rate.

He coated his back with chakra and swung the blade with all his might cleaving off the leaking chakra along with the kyubi's soul which was mixed in it, potentially dividing the Kyubi into two parts, while blood splashed from the shurikens embedded into his back.

He dropped the Zanpakutō , placing the hand covered with blood on the seal, trying to close it with his remaining chakra.

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

The Masked man felt furious, just when he was about to fully release the Kyubi, someone had teleported to the location.

At first he thought it was Minato because he did not think there was someone else capable of using Hiraishin no jutsu in Konoha or finding where he was this quickly, but he was proven wrong as he looked closely at the intruder. It was some brat trying to play hero, he moved towards him planning to send him to the place where all the people who tried to play hero in this cursed world went.

But as if sensing his approach the brat created a clone and sent it to fight him, The masked man smirked mockingly under his mask as the clone threw a kunai right at him as it followed with a punch closely.

He let the kunai pass through him and caught the punch that was coming his way hoping to see shock and fear on the face of the brat like many others who had seen his ability for the first time had shown, but was unsettled when he saw that emotionless face.

The brat used his own grip as support and kicked aiming for his sides, he released the hand letting the kick pass through him and saw the Original body take out a short sword, thinking the brat was planning to kill Kushina before the Kyubi was released fully, he decided to end this fight as he clawed at the clones neck timing it in such a way that he would reach the neck just as the clone's foot passed through him.

He reached it as planned and just as he was about to crush the throat of the clone he saw the first sign of expression on its till now expressionless face, it was a small smile as it made a single handed hand seal, the one he was very familiar with.

"BOOM" a loud explosion shook the ground scattering dust as the clone set off the explosive tags that were attached on its body, The masked man promptly went intangible but still was a bit late as his robe was now tattered in pieces.

Suppressing the fury in his heart he threw shurikens at the main body of the brat hoping to separate him from the Jinchūriki or better just kill him, but the brat as if sensing them positioned himself in such a way that they missed the vitals and he swung his sword cutting the chakra leaking from the seal!

He watched caught off guard as the separated chakra formed a silhouette of the demon fox, even though its chakra was more than 1000 times of his own, he knew that the Kyubi was much weaker than what it should have been.

Planning to release the full Kyubi and kill them, he quickly flickered towards the boy but was a step late as the boy disappeared with the now free Kushina.

Second later, a huge claw descended on the place where he stood passing through him and destroying the surroundings.

'The genjutsu is undone' thought the masked man as he jumped into the air making the Kyubi look into his eyes, successfully putting it under genjutsu again.

'It seemed that the separation caused it go berserk' thought the masked man as it was easier to control it this time.

"Let's head to Konoha" he muttered looking at the place where the boy had been, for a second, suppressing the envy he felt rising in his heart before getting sucked into the black vortex along with the Kyubi.