Strongest Shinobi

(A/N: It's a really big one, so this will be the only one for today.)

Many months went by in the blink of an eye. Izana often visited Kushina, watching her belly getting bigger with each visit. Izana would put his hands on Kushina's belly, feeling the child kicking against his hand.

However with each visit, Izana could also feel a different chakra seep out more and more.

[The seal is weakening. But it seems Kushina knows.]

Like Ryuujin said, Kushina seemed to know of her circ.u.mstances.

Her own chakra was mingling with the other chakra, forcing it back every time it came out.

"Are you alright nee-san? You seem tired."

"Haha, I'll be fine once the child is born."

Kushina just brushed it of.

"Let's go get something to eat Izana-kun. Let's go to Ichiraku!"

Kushina, set on going dragged Izana with her.

"But I thought pregnant woman weren't allowed to eat greasy food?"

Kushina looked away, not meeting her gaze.

"Let's go, Let's go!"

She ignored Izana as she took a spot at the Ichiraku ramen shop.

"Boss, two bowls of a full course ramen please."

"Coming right up."

The man behind the counter, the owner of the shop called Teuchi, began to work and finished it within a few minutes.

Yet within those minutes, Kushina was getting a big lecture.

Minato, having just arrived, was lecturing Kushina about greasy food and pregnancy.

"But Minato, it's fine. The baby will be born soon, so it's alright to let loose a bit."

"No, it will have to wait after you give birth."

Minato was firm in this, asking the boss a less greasy menu for Kushina.

"Hey, Izana. I'm sorry to drag you into this."

"It's alright nii-san. I'm used to it."

Minato, smiling wryly, finished Kushina's previous order and dragged her away.

"Bye Izana, see you later with the baby."

Kushina waved Izana goodbye while being dragged away by Minato.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

It was later that night when the unexpected happened. Just outside of town, the kyuubi appeared.

There was panic and chaos in the village.

When it all happened, Danzo came to visit the Uchiha residence.

"The villagers need to be protected. I want the Uchiha clan to undertake this task."

Fugaku nodded at Danzo's words and send him out.

"All Uchiha, protect the villagers."

Having spoken these words, the Uchiha departed from the residence.

Fugaku was about to leave too when he was stopped by Izana and Itachi.

"Be careful father." Itachi said, worried about his safety. Fugaku promised, saying words of his own to the two of them.

"Itachi, Izana. Take care of Sasuke and Mikoto."

They both nodded at Fugaku's words.

"Follow me."

Fugaku yelled as he departed with the other shinobi.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Having felt an ominous feeling in the air, Ryuujin emerged from within Izana and took control.

Izana didn't know why and questioned Ryuujin.

"What's wrong?"

[We can't go towards the Kyuubi.]

Izana became worried because of his words.

"Why not?"

[Because other people will know that you are a Jinchuriki. I don't want you to be treated like one, don't even mention being used by the dark side of the village.]

"But I need to help Minato-nii and Kushina-nee. Something has obviously gone wrong!"

Izana said, becoming more worried by the second.

[We'll go as soon as it is safe for us to go.]

Ryuujin didn't say anything further to Izana, moving their body after Itachi to get Sasuke and Mikoto towards the shelter.

"Itachi-kun."

Itachi looked at Izana, but noticed he was different.

The usual black eyes had turned golden in colour with a reptile-like pupil.

"I'm not Izana, I'm Ryuujin. Make sure Izana stays here, he wantsto help Minato, but I don't want him to be treated as badly as other Jinchuriki, so I don't want him to go. Please make sure he doesn't do anything stupid."

Itachi nodded at Ryuujin's words.

Ryuujin sighed as he gave back control to Izana. He hated to f.o.r.c.i.b.l.y take control, but in this case he had to.

Izana blinked slowly as his sight returned to normal, while immediately after he pleaded for Itachi to let him help Minato an Kushina, but was resolutely shot down.

"I won't let you go, I promised Ryuujin not to let you go." Itachi said completely serious.

Izana wanted to plead further but was stopped by Mikoto.

"Calm down Izana and let them take care of it. Minato and Kushina are full fledged shinobi and they know what to do. Trust in them."

Though Izana didn't agree, he still sat down next to his aunt, hoping that Ryuujin would let him help them when he deemed it safe.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

When Ryuujin finally told Izana he could help them, Izana took off towards the distance in which he could see the Kyuubi rampage.

It was a lot further away, in the middle of the forest far away from the village. He could still see the tracks from where the Kyuubi had first stood, elongating all the way to where it stood now.

"Only someone really strong could do this." Izana muttered as he could see how deep the tracks were.

As Izana got closer, he could see that most of the shinobi were still far away dealing with the injured.

Deeming it safe to go, Izana used Full tailed beast mode as he turned into Ryuujin, letting him take control.

Ryuujin seemed to think it was still a bit dangerous as he pushed Kurama farther away from the village to make sure they would be less easily spotted. It was easier that they were a deep colour black, seemingly merging with the darkness of the night.

"Hoh, you've grown big Kurama." Ryuujin said in a mocking tone.

Yet no answer was given.

Kurama swiped with its claws and tails towards them, intending to smash them to the ground.

"You've become quite the nuisance. In place of the old man, I'll teach you a lesson."

Not expecting to hear a reply, Ryuujin grabbed Kurama by its tails, flying high up into the sky, not dropping it down before they had moved an even great distance away from the village.

As he still hadn't calmed down and continued his rampage, Ryuujin pinned him down to the ground, sealing his movements.

Even his tails couldn't be moved, as they were wrapped around by Ryuujin's long tail.

Ryuujin worried slightly that the shinobi would arrive and hoped to end it sooner. After all they could Shunshin really fast.

Before Ryuujin could start to worry when Kurama would come to himself, it managed to free himself, yet warily looked at Ryuujin pinning him down as if looking at a stranger.

Kurama was surprised to see an unknown huge creature and tried to free itself.

"And who might you be to know me?"

Kurama responded, wary of the opposite party as he struggled even harder.

"Don't you remember? We've met a really long time ago. You were still a weeny little fox back them when the old man was still alive. You even had a nickname amongst the other tailed beast, if I remember correctly."

Kurama, a bit provoked by Ryuujin's words, started to remember Ryuujin.

"How can you still be here? I heard you travelled to some other place." Kurama said, shocked to see Ryuujin after such a long time.

"What, you didn't miss me. Too bad, I missed you a bit. You little Tsundere-Explosion-Fox."

Kurama got angry at Ryuujin's words.

"Don't call me that. I didn't ask for such a stupid nickname."

Kurama, having calmed down, sat down without destroying anything more.

Ryuujin too let go of Kurama and stood on the ground, still wary he might attack. It's Kurama, you'd never know.

"So old man, how come you're here?"

Kurama was interested in how Ryuujin could be here.

"Well, some stuff happened, so now I share a body with a four-year-old Uchiha kid."

Kurama was shocked at Ryuujin's words.

"Did those pesky Uchiha do that? How dare they fuse a Tailed beast and a human. It's even worse than being sealed."

Kurama, getting angry again, was mowing down the trees around him.

His anger grew as he noticed that the state Ryuujin was in now couldn't be retained any longer. Ryuujin sighed as he saw he failed to calm Kurama down.

"I'm sure it had to be Madara. I don't know how he could still be alive, but it seems his control has been broken for now."

Kuruma snorted in disdain as he recalled the filthy feeling of having been controlled against his will.

"I'll make sure to wipe out that filthy clan, but first I need to take care of something else."

Before Ryuujin could respond, he felt his form start to fade. Kurama smirked as he stormed back towards the village.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

[I'm sorry Izana, I did all I could.]

Ryuujin said as he was dissapointed in himself that he couldn't stop Kurama, even though it seemed to work temporarily.

Izana had become worried even more as he felt Kushina's chakra flare up, while simultaneously her saw golden chains emerge to wrap around Kurama.

Not planning to wait, Izana ran towards the big Fox, but as he saw Kushina and Minato, he couldn't get any closer.

[It's a barrier. it's useless Izana, we can't get closer. Not when we've used up most of our chakra.]

Ryuujin said, slightly worried as he saw Minato make handseals, after which Kurama shrank by half.

Minato g.r.o.a.n.e.d as markings were etched into his c.h.e.s.t.

What he planned to do next shocked them the most as Minato summoned a pedestal with a new born baby on it.

"Ryuujin, tell me he isn't going to do that? He's planning to seal him in Kushina, right, right!?"

Izana shouted as panic kicked in.

Ryuujin didn't respond as he felt the despair of Izana grow. Izana knew what would happen if the Kurama wasn't sealed in Kushina. He had told it to Izana himself.

As Minato formed the seals, Kurama lunged at the child, intending to kill him. Before he could though, Minato and Kushina jumped in front of the claw to protect their child.

Izana felt tears flow down his eyes as he could already see how big the wounds were. They couldn't be saved anymore. Heat flowed into his eyes, as the third tomoe appeared in each of his eyes. He didn't seemed to know or he just didn't care at this moment.

Minato and Kushina spoke words of advise to the child they would see for the last time.

After Kushina was done speaking, Minato smiled and performed the seal, letting Kurama completely dissapear into the child as marking appeared on the child's belly.

Minato fell down, breathing softly, the barrier disapearing.

Izana quickly ran towards them, the tears still dripping down his cheeks. Kushina saw him and smiled.

"I'm sorry Izana, that you had to see big sis this way."

Blood seeped down her lips as she told him what Minato had experience with his enemy, a masked man that called himself Madara. He was the one who caused the attack.

She looked at her child, as she felt her body grow cold.

"Please look after him Izana. Please look after Naruto. He will be hated by the village. please make sure he still has you to go back to when he has it hard." Kushina's last word were barely a whisper as she finally closed her eyes.

"Please Ryuujin! You must know something to safe them, right?" Izana said desperately.

[I'm sorry Izana. The only thing I could do is seal their souls, but then we'd still need new bodies, get Minto's soul back from the reaper and make sure the souls aren't damaged in the proces.]

"Just do it. I will figure something out. Please seal Kushina's soul for now. I don't want Naruto to never meet his parents, like I have never met mine." Izana said as the tears were still dripping down his face.

[Then get ready. It will hurt a lot, as i'll be using your blood and my chakra as a medium to seal her soul into an object. Do you already know what object?]

Izana nodded as he pulled out a good luck charm he had been given by his aunt for his birthday.

"Aunt Mikoto told me she had used a lot of special material for the charm. Will it work?" Izana was worried as he'd heard that material had to be chakra conductive to let it seal things.

[It will. Your chakra channels will be strained a lot, so you won't be able to use your chakra for a few weeks, to a month. Now prepare yourself.]

Ryuujin took over as he cut Izana's hand with his claw. He chaneled his Chakra to force out chakra rich blood, making Izana tremble from pain as it burned in his veins and body.

As the drops of blood fell on the charm, Ryuujin used his chakra to extract chakra right blood from Kushina's body too as he started to mingle the blood and began to write a complicated formula on the charm.

When he drew the last symbol, the mark shone once as something slightly transparant left Kushina's body and entered the charm.

[It's done. You only need to make sure to nourish the charm with your chakra once every month and make sure it doesn't get damaged.]

Izana nodded as he put the charm away safely, just in time to see the Third coming their way with a lot of ANBU.

He saw Kushina's and Minato's bodies on the ground, grief visible on his face.

"Did they say anything before they died?" The Third said, finding it slightly hard to speak as his throat clammed shut.

He breathed in deeply, calming himself down, as he listened to what Izana said. Izana told the Third everything Kushina told him, while keeping it to himself what he'd done.

The Third nodded, as he picked up Naruto and wanted to leave. Izana stopped him and looked at the little bundle in the Third's arms.

"What will happen to Naruto?"

The Third understood where Izana came from and answered, "He will be put in a orphanage, but don't worry, he'll be taken good care off."

Izana nodded as the Third left, while the ANBU collected Kushina's and Minto's bodies.

Izana felt his tears threaten to fall down again as he remembered what he and Kushina had spoken about.

*Flashback*

"Izana, did you know? We decided to call him after a character from a book that Jiraiya wrote."

Izana looked questionably to Kushina.

"Kushina-nee, are you sure you want to call him that. After all, the books that Jiraiya-san writes are indecent."

Izana had no idea what indecent meant, but since Ryuujin called it that, it had to be so, so he repeated what Ryuujin had told him of what he knew of Jiraiya's books.

Kushina blushed hard, but still defended Jiraiya.

"W-well… it's true most of his books are…indecent, but this book wasn't. The character was very cool and brave. He never gives up hope, so we wanted to call him after the character so he can be like that too."

[That means Jiraiya will be Naruto's godfather. Not sure if that's a good idea. Jiraiya is not the best example of a fine a.d.u.l.t. Hehehe, he is loose in the three prohibitions, woman, money and alcohol.]

Izana slanted his head in confusion but kept Ryuujin's words to himself.

*Flashback ends*

The joy he'd seen on Kushina's face had almost been blinding, that was how happy she was.

Izana promised he would bring Minato and Kushina back. In the meantime, he would make sure he would visit Naruto as often as possible.