33. The Kyubi’s attack (1)

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu" muttered the Masked man pressing his palm against the ground and a huge circular array of seal markings appeared on the ground surrounding him and Kyubi suddenly appeared in the middle of Konoha destroying buildings and wreaking havoc on the village.

The peaceful atmosphere around the village was gone as the buildings collapsed and people screamed in terror.

'The Kyubi' thought lord third shocked, as he looked outside the window from his house, he quickly left to get dressed in his combat clothes as ANBU suddenly appeared in his hall.

"I know, protect and evacuate citizens and youngsters to a safe place, and gather all those who can fight." he said quickly, giving orders and moving towards Kyubi before the ANBU could open his mouth.

'How did Kyubi escape? were our preparations inadequate?' he thought quickly summoning Enma.

Everywhere around Konoha shinobis could be seen trying to help civilians escape into the protective tunnels and some heading towards the Kyubi with their weapons held in their hands.

Ichiro who heard the loud noise also noticed the huge shadow of the Kyubi and headed out of the house carrying Sasuke towards the civilian shelters while searching for her parents as the Uchiha police was the one organising the evacuation.

.....

"Minato-san, I don't think fighting Kyubi is a good decision." said Aiko leaning against the bed using his shoulder as he looked at Minato.

"The better course of action will be to escape with Kushina-san and the baby, even if it is only a part of the original Kyubi, its chakra levels are huge and we don't know much about other enemies who might be present." he said calmly looking straight into the eyes of the blond-haired man, thinking escaping from this place was the best course of action to ensure everyone's safety.

Minato looked at the boy with a surprised expression on his face.

"Aiko-kun" said Minato, his gaze becoming serious, " Abandoning one's village and country is the same as abandoning one's child, The life of the people whose village was destroyed… you should be able to understand it better right?, what type of harsh life awaits those without a country..." he added his gaze landing on Kushina who was hugging Naruto.

"It is the duty of a man to protect his family and for the Hokage the whole village is his family" he said turning around before teleporting to the village.

"He is right Aiko-kun, we are a family of shinobi after all." said Kushina softly as she slowly placed a hand on his head ruffling his hair as he was leaning against the bed near her.

Kushina's condition was slowly stabilising with the help of Kyubi's chakra, even though it was very very slow Aiko was able to perceive it with his skill.

Aiko stayed silent, but he thought that giving the same amount of importance for the safety of one's family and some stranger's life was not correct but he felt that both Minato and Kushina truly believed what they said to be right thing to do.

Aiko closed his eyes, recovering his stamina and keeping an eye on Minato's mark through his mapping skill.

...….........

Minato appeared on top of his statue in the village, where he had placed a hiraishin kunai, just in time as the Kyubi released a tailed beast bomb towards it.

"I won't let you do it here." he muttered as he quickly made a few hand seals and a huge array of seals emerged out of thin air in the path of the bijuu bomb sucking it in.

"BOOM" a huge explosion sound was heard and the forest present on the outskirts of the village got razed as the jutsu transported the attack there.

"Is it lord Fourth?" muttered an ANBU who was fighting alongside third trying to push back the Kyubi.

"Ok, let's do it," shouted the third, renewing his attacks with his staff.

When Minato was about to jump towards Kyubi, he felt a presence sneak up behind him. 'I was waiting for you.' he thought as he threw a kunai as he turned back just as the person behind him raised his hand as if to attack him.

'Aiko-kun's guess is correct' he thought as the Kunai passed through the masked-man and his fingers passed through his robe because he was intangible. But he felt danger as a vortex formed on the mask of the man trying to suck him in.

Minato promptly teleported to another place outside Konoha, escaping the suction, but the masked man also appeared on the location from the vortex.

'I have to be quick the village can't hold on for much longer, Physical attacks doesn't work on him, I have to attack when he attacks me, But it's risky for him attack and with Kyubi still in the village he might want to end this quickly because keeping it in control must be difficult.' he thought coming up with an attack plan.

'The one who attacks the quickest wins!' he decided, throwing a kunai at the man who seemed to have come to the same decision as he moved towards Minato, his hands forming a claw aiming for Minato's throat.

The Kunai passed through him and his hand touched Minato's neck.

'Victory is mi…' he thought but before he could finish his thought he felt a sharp pain on his back as the Minato in front of him disappeared reappearing behind his back holding the Kunai that had passed through him hitting him a Rasengan.

The masked man quickly jumped away and was about to make some snide remark when Minato appeared in front of him again placing his hand on his chest marking him with a seal.

"As expected of lord fourth, you managed to wound me, break kyubi out of my control in such a short amount of time…. But the Kyubi will be mine once again….I am the ruler of the world, I have many means at my disposal." he said as he went intangible and vanished from the place.

'This feeling...He is not lying' thought Minato, looking at the place the man had vanished as he teleported back to Konoha.

.....

Meanwhile somewhere in Konoha….

'It is here, It is the same disgusting aura.' thought Black Zetsu it's head poking out of the ground in front of an old building in the outskirts of Konoha.

"Where is the delicious meal you talked about?" asked the White Zetsu impatiently as it sensed three life forces inside the building.

"It will be delicious alright, It is after all from the son of that traitor." said Black Zetsu with hatred in its voice. 'We don't need any more pawns, the last one was thorny enough' it added in it's mind. Moving towards the building.

It was a weird sight as both Zetsus were fused, it was like a lunatic speaking to itself.

.....

It had been a few moments since Minato left and Aiko, who sitting with his eyes closed, suddenly opened them, the Zanpakutō he had dropped earlier appeared in his hand, he summoned it using the Hiraishin mark he had placed on it earlier.

"Come out" he called as he activated his boost card and watched it turn to small particles as he felt his worn out body fill with energy as he heard a notification from the system.

'Ding! Boost card activated

Type: stamina [+30]

Time limit: 9 minutes 59 seconds…'

His stamina jumped from 1 to 31 in his stat screen and a timer similar to his 'chakra assimilation' skill appeared below the first one showing 9:59 and kept decreasing as he looked at the floor to the left side of the room slowly standing up.