Chapter 16 | In Naruto With An Achievement System

This chapter is based on the events shown in: The Whorl Within The Spiral - a one-shot manga done by Kishimoto. If you haven’t read the special, you’re likely to be confused, I’d recommend reading that first or pulling up a video about it, if you’re not into reading Manga. 

Chapter 16

The ANBU operative known as Raven moved through the village with practiced silence, his fox mask catching the afternoon light. The order had been simple enough: inform Kushina Uzumaki that the Hokage required her presence at the tower in one hour. 

He approached the sealed residential area where the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki was kept. The barrier shimmered faintly in the air for those who could sense chakra, and knew what to look out for. Usually two ANBU operatives stood guard at the entrance, their wolf and bear masks turned toward the street.

Expecting the usual Raven raised his hand in greeting as he approached. "I need to speak with—"

He stopped.

Both guards were on the ground. Not unconscious, but held completely immobile by golden chains that wrapped around their torsos and limbs, pinning them to the earth. The chains hummed with chakra, and Raven recognized them immediately. Adamantine Sealing Chains. Uzumaki techniques.

"What happened?" Raven dropped beside the wolf-masked operative, already reaching for the chains. They didn't budge under his touch.

"Namikaze was here earlier," Wolf said through gritted teeth. His voice was tight with frustration and what might have been embarrassment. "Told her he couldn't train with her today. He was polite about it, apologetic even. She seemed fine when he left."

Bear spoke up from his position a few feet away. "Ten minutes after he was gone, she just... left. Said she was going to find him. We moved to stop her and the chains came out. She didn't even look angry. Just determined."

Raven's blood went cold. The Jinchuriki had left the barrier. The Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, whose seal was stable only within the protected zone as she had yet to fully master her Adamantine Sealing Chains to suppress the beast if the influence became too much, had voluntarily breached containment to find Minato Namikaze.

He didn't waste time trying to free them. The chains would disperse on their own eventually, or a sealing specialist could handle it. Right now, every second mattered.

"How long ago?" Raven demanded.

"Five minutes. Maybe less."

Raven was already moving. His body flickered, the world blurring as he used the Body Flicker Technique in rapid succession. The rooftops of Konoha passed beneath him in streaks of color. He pushed harder, using the technique again before the disorientation from the first had fully faded.

The Hokage Tower rose ahead of him. He didn't bother with the main entrance. Instead, he aimed for one of the rooftop access points, the private entrances that led directly to the upper floors. His feet hit the tiles and he was through the door in the same motion, stumbling slightly as the accumulated disorientation caught up with him.

The hallway spun for half a second. He steadied himself against the wall, then pushed forward. Two more turns and he was at the Hokage's office. The door was closed. He didn't knock.

Hiruzen Sarutobi looked up from his desk as Raven burst through the door. The Hokage's expression shifted immediately from mild surprise to sharp attention. He'd been a shinobi long enough to recognize the body language of someone bringing bad news.

"Report," Hiruzen said, already rising from his seat.

"The Uzumaki Jinchuriki has breached the barrier," Raven said, his words coming fast but controlled. "She subdued her guards with sealing chains approximately five minutes ago. Namikaze visited her earlier and cancelled their training session. She left to find him shortly after."

Hiruzen's face didn't change, but his hands moved. He was already pulling out a scroll, already thinking three steps ahead. "The guards?"

"Restrained but unharmed. The chains will fade."

"Training Ground 13," Hiruzen said, more to himself than to Raven. His mind was clearly racing through possibilities, calculating risks. The Jinchuriki outside the barrier meant the seal was under greater stress. If her emotional state became unstable, if the Nine-Tails sensed an opportunity...

Konoha could burn.

Hiruzen made his decision. He scrawled something quickly on the scroll, then looked up at Raven with an expression that was very grim.

"I'm mobilizing a containment team as a precaution," Hiruzen said. "But that's our last resort. You have a new priority mission."

Raven straightened, waiting.

"Find Genin Yuuki Kagurazaka. You have my authority to reveal the nature of the situation to him. Get him to Training Ground 13 with all possible speed." Hiruzen's eyes were hard, the eyes of a man who'd made countless difficult calls during wartime. "He is our primary countermeasure."

Raven hesitated for only a fraction of a second. A genin? Even if he did often interact alone with the Hokage. But the Hokage's tone left no room for questions, and Raven was a professional. If the Hokage said this boy was the answer, then there was a reason.

"Understood," Raven said. He turned and vanished in another Body Flicker, the disorientation be damned.

Behind him, Hiruzen was already moving, calling for his assistant, preparing for the worst while hoping for the best. The containment team would be ready. But if Yuuki Kagurazaka could do what Hiruzen believed he could do, they wouldn't be needed.

The office door swung shut, leaving only the faint scent of displaced air and the weight of a decision that could save or doom them all.

— Yuuki Kagurazaka —

I was sharpening my kunai when I heard the knock.

Three sharp raps against my apartment door. The pattern every shinobi in Konoha knew. Official business.

I set down the kunai and the whetstone, wiping the metal filings from my hands as I crossed the room. When I opened the door, an ANBU operative stood there, fox mask gleaming in the afternoon light.

"Yuuki Kagurazaka," the ANBU said. His voice was neutral, professional. "The Hokage has authorized me to brief you on an urgent situation. The Nine-Tails Jinchuriki has breached her containment barrier and is currently at Training Ground 13 with Minato Namikaze. Her emotional state is unknown, and the seal is under stress outside the protected zone."

I stared at him. My brain took a second to process what he'd just said, and when it did, ice flooded my veins.

The Nine-Tails. Kushina Uzumaki. Outside the barrier. There was a barrier?

I didn't remember this. I'd gone over the timeline in my head a hundred times since I'd woken up in this world, trying to map out every major event I could recall from the manga and anime. The Nine-Tails breaking loose happened on the night Naruto was born. That was years away. This wasn't supposed to happen now.

Which meant either I'd forgotten something, or this was new. A butterfly effect. Something I'd changed without knowing it.

Right. My Nature Release. The Cursed Buds that could drain chakra, that Hiruzen and Tsunade had been so curious about. They'd even asked about its effects on Jinchuriki recently, after Iwa deployed theirs. I guess now was a better time than ever to find out.

I grabbed my gear vest from the chair and secured it quickly, checking my kunai pouch and adjusting the straps. "How long ago did she leave?"

"Approximately seven minutes."

Seven minutes. She could have reached Minato by now. If something had already gone wrong, if the seal had already started failing...

I pushed the thought away. Panic wouldn't help. I turned to face the ANBU. "Let's go."

He nodded once, then moved back into the hallway. I followed, and we hit the street at a run. The moment my feet touched the ground, I shifted my attributes without thinking, pulling points into Speed. "Swift," I thought, and my body responded instantly.

The world sharpened. My legs felt lighter, my reaction time faster. I pushed off and followed the ANBU onto the rooftops.

We ran. The village blurred past us, buildings and streets reduced to shapes and colors. The ANBU was fast, but I was keeping pace. More than that, I was keeping pace easily. I saw him glance back once, and even through the mask I could sense the surprise.

Training Ground 13 was on the outskirts of the village. We crossed half of Konoha in minutes, my lungs burning but my legs still strong. The attribute shift was doing its job. I didn't think about what I'd do when we got there. Didn't think about facing the Nine-Tails, about what it would feel like to try and drain that much chakra.

I just ran.

The treeline appeared ahead. Training Ground 13 was a large clearing surrounded by dense forest, far enough from the village proper that destructive techniques could be practiced without risking civilian homes. We hit the tree cover and the ANBU slowed, moving more carefully now.

I felt it before I saw it.

The air itself felt wrong. Heavy. There was a pressure that made my skin crawl, made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. It was like standing next to a bonfire, except the heat wasn't physical. It was chakra. Massive, oppressive, and angry.

The ANBU stopped on a branch ahead of me, raising one hand. I landed beside him and looked toward the clearing.

Red chakra churned in the air like a living thing. It formed a cloak around a figure in the center of the clearing, violent and writhing. I could make out Kushina's shape beneath it, but the chakra had formed three tails. They lashed and coiled, and the ground around her was scorched black.

Minato stood directly in front of her. He wasn't moving. Neither was she. They were both perfectly still, locked in place like statues. Minato's hand was pressed against Kushina's stomach, five fingers spread across where the seal would be. His hand glowed with pale blue light.

He was trying to reinforce the seal. 

And from the way the red chakra was still boiling around them both, it wasn't working.

"Shit," I breathed.

I didn't wait. Didn't hesitate. I formed the hand seal and my vines erupted from the ground below the clearing. Ten of them, thick as my arm, each one tipped with a Cursed Bud. They shot forward across the distance and wrapped around Kushina's body, coiling around her torso, her arms, her legs. The buds latched on, sinking into the red chakra cloak.

The moment they connected, I felt it.

Chakra flooded into me. Not the usual trickle I got from draining an opponent. This was a torrent. A massive, overwhelming wave of power that crashed into my system like a dam breaking. It was heavy and thick and wrong. It felt toxic, like poison burning through my veins.

There was a slight pulling sensation. My vision blurred, twisted, and then snapped back into focus.

I wasn't on the branch anymore.

I was standing in water. Ankle-deep, cold water that stretched out in every direction. The space around me was massive, like a sewer or an underground chamber. Pipes ran along the walls, dripping with condensation. The ceiling was lost in shadow above.

And directly in front of me, bound by my wooden vines, was the Nine-Tailed Fox.

Kurama.

He was colossal. I'd seen pictures in the manga, seen the anime episodes, but nothing prepared me for the actual scale of the beast. Each of his tails was thicker than a building. His body filled the entire space, and his eyes were fixed on me. Slitted pupils in fields of red, burning with an intelligence and hatred that made my blood freeze.

And this wasn't half of the Nine-Tails. This was the full damn package.

My vines wrapped around his massive form, digging into the bubbling red chakra that made up his body. Dozens of Cursed Buds pulsed as they drank in his power.

To my left, I saw them. Minato and Kushina. They were here too, standing in the water, both of them staring at me with expressions of complete shock.

Kurama moved. His head lowered, bringing those massive eyes level with me. When he spoke, his voice shook the entire mindscape. It was deep and ancient and filled with fury.

"THIS... THIS ACCURSED WOOD!?"

His roar was deafening. I felt it in my chest, in my bones. My hands came up instinctively, as if I could shield myself from the sound.

"AGAIN!?" Kurama's voice rose to a shriek. His tails lashed, and the water around us exploded into spray. The vines held, but I could feel the strain. He was pulling against them, testing their strength. "I WON'T BE CAGED BY THIS DAMNED MOKUTON AGAIN!"

I couldn't move. Couldn't speak. The sheer presence of the beast was paralyzing. This was the Nine-Tails. The strongest of the Tailed Beasts. The creature that had nearly destroyed Konoha in the original timeline.

And I'd just walked into his mind.

The fear was immediate and total. It locked every muscle in my body, froze the breath in my lungs. Kurama's eyes were fixed on me, and the weight of that gaze was like being crushed under a mountain. This wasn't just a powerful opponent. This was a force of nature, a living catastrophe that had existed for longer than I could comprehend.

But then something kicked in. That perk. [(Wo)man on Mission]. The fear didn't disappear, but it stopped controlling me. My breathing steadied. My hands lowered. I could still feel the terror clawing at the edges of my mind, but I could think through it now.

The chakra drain was constant. The Cursed Buds were working, siphoning the Nine-Tails' power through the vines and into me. But the amount was insane. I felt like I was trying to drink from a waterfall. My chakra reserves, even with all my training and the boost from [Age Bringing Glory], were nothing compared to this. I was taking in more chakra in a single second than my entire pool could hold.

The excess had nowhere to go. I could feel it building, burning through my pathways, threatening to tear me apart from the inside. I pushed it out, forcing the overflow back out through my chakra network. The expulsion was wild and unfocused, raw Nature Release energy that sprouted from the water around my feet. Plants and roots burst upward in chaotic tangles, spreading across the mindscape floor.

It hurt. Every second of it hurt. The chakra felt wrong, corrupted somehow. Toxic. Like acid eating through my veins.

"FIRST THAT DAMNED SENJU," Kurama roared, his voice rattling the pipes on the walls. "AND NOW YOU!?"

His body surged against the vines. The wood creaked and groaned under the strain. I could feel it through the connection, feel him testing the bonds, looking for a weak point. The vines held, but barely. I pushed more chakra into them, reinforcing them with what little control I had left.

To my side, Minato and Kushina were still frozen in shock. Minato recovered first. His eyes moved from me to Kurama, assessing the situation with the kind of speed you'd expect from someone called the Yellow Flash.

"Who are you?" Minato called out, his voice cutting through the sound of Kurama's thrashing.

I didn't answer. Couldn't answer. All my focus was on maintaining the drain, on keeping the vines intact, on not letting the overflow of chakra rip me apart. Speaking felt impossible. Breathing was hard enough.

Kurama's eyes narrowed, focusing on me with terrible intensity. "YOU THINK WOOD WILL HOLD ME? YOU THINK THIS PATHETIC IMITATION OF HIS POWER IS ENOUGH?"

The Nine-Tails opened his massive jaws. Chakra condensed in front of his mouth, dense and dark. It formed a sphere, small at first but growing rapidly. The energy coming from it made the air vibrate. I recognized it immediately from the anime.

A Tailed Beast Bomb.

The drain intensified. Kurama was funneling enormous amounts of chakra into the attack, and my Cursed Buds were trying to siphon it all. The flow increased exponentially, and the pain went from bad to unbearable. It felt like my insides were on fire. The toxic chakra was too much, too fast, and I was expelling it as quickly as it came in. More plants erupted around me, vines and roots spreading wildly across the mindscape.

Some of them reached Kurama. They wrapped around his legs, his tails, adding to the mass of wood already binding him. The Cursed Buds spread, multiplying, drinking deeper.

"I WON'T LET IT HAPPEN!" Kurama screamed. The Tailed Beast Bomb grew larger, now the size of a boulder. The sphere pulsed with concentrated malice. "DIE, DAMN IT!"

That snapped Minato and Kushina out of their shock.

Minato moved first. A Rasengan formed in his hand, the sphere of spinning chakra appearing almost instantly. He charged forward, running across the water toward Kurama's head. The massive fox was focused on me, all his attention on forming the Tailed Beast Bomb and trying to break free of the vines.

Kushina's hands came together in a seal. Golden chains erupted from her back, the Adamantine Sealing Chains that were her birthright as an Uzumaki. They shot toward Kurama, wrapping around his tails, his legs, his torso. They coiled and tightened, binding him further.

Kurama's head snapped toward them, rage flashing in his eyes. "THEY ALL DISTRUST YOU! YOU DARE—"

The Tailed Beast Bomb was nearly complete. I could see the chakra compressing, condensing into a sphere of pure destructive force. If he fired it in here, in this mindscape, I had no idea what would happen. Would it kill us? Would it destroy the seal completely?

I didn't want to find out.

I used the drain. Used the massive flow of chakra that was pouring into me. Instead of just expelling it randomly, I forced it back through the vines with intent. More Cursed Buds sprouted along the wooden bindings, dozens of them, covering Kurama's body like a plague. They dug in deeper, and the drain increased again.

Kurama roared, thrashing harder. The Tailed Beast Bomb wavered, its formation disrupted by the sudden spike in chakra loss.

Minato reached him, “I won't let you harm her!” He leaped, the Rasengan bright in his hand, and drove it directly into the forming Tailed Beast Bomb.

The collision was explosive. The Rasengan and the Tailed Beast Bomb met, and for a moment everything went white. The force of it sent shockwaves through the mindscape. Water sprayed in all directions. The pipes on the walls cracked and burst.

I felt the impact through the vines. Felt Kurama's body jerk from the blow. The Tailed Beast Bomb destabilized, its chakra scattering in chaotic bursts.

Kushina's chains tightened. She was shouting something, words I couldn't make out over the noise. The golden links wrapped around Kurama's jaws, his neck, pulling him down toward the water.

My vines held. Through the pain, through the overwhelming flood of chakra, through the sheer terror of what I was doing, the vines held. The Cursed Buds pulsed, drinking in more and more of the Nine-Tails' power, weakening him with every passing second.

Kurama's movements slowed. His thrashing became less violent. The rage in his eyes didn't diminish, but his body was being bound by three different forces now. My wood. Kushina's chains. And Minato's disruption of his attack.

"YOU... ALL OF YOU..." Kurama's voice was still a roar, but there was something else in it now. Frustration. Desperation. "I WILL NOT GO BACK AGAIN! I WILL NOT—"

His words cut off as Kushina's chains wrapped around his muzzle, forcing his jaws shut. More chains appeared, dozens of them, covering his massive form. They glowed brighter, the sealing formula written into each link activating.

The combined assault was too much. Kurama's body began to sink, pressed down by the weight of the bindings. The water around him churned and boiled as his chakra was forcibly suppressed.

And then, suddenly, it was over.

The world flashed white again. The pulling sensation returned, stronger this time, yanking me backward. My vision blurred, twisted, and I felt myself being ejected from the mindscape.

I hit the ground hard.

The impact knocked the wind out of me. I was on my hands and knees in the clearing, grass and dirt under my palms. My whole body felt like it was on fire. Every nerve ending screamed. The toxic chakra was gone, but the aftereffects remained, burning through my system.

I retracted the vines. They dissolved back into the earth, the Cursed Buds withering as the connection severed.

The red chakra around Kushina was gone. She stood in the clearing, swaying slightly. Minato was beside her, one hand still on her stomach where the seal was. Both of them looked exhausted.

I tried to push myself up. Made it about halfway before my arms gave out. The world tilted sideways. I heard someone call out, maybe the ANBU from earlier, but the words were distant and muffled.

My vision darkened at the edges. The last thing I saw was Kushina collapsing, Minato catching her before she hit the ground.

Then everything went black.

— Yuuki Kagurazaka —

Everything hurts.

That was my first thought as consciousness crept back in. Not a sharp pain, but a deep, aching burn that seemed to radiate from somewhere inside my chest and spread through my entire body. It felt like I'd been cooked from the inside out.

I became aware of voices before I could open my eyes. Two of them, talking in low tones nearby. One was measured and calm. The other was decidedly not.

"Sensei, what the fuck were you thinking sending him?"

That was Tsunade. I recognized her voice immediately, though I'd never heard her sound quite that angry beffore.

"His ability needed to be tested." Hiruzen's voice was steady, but there was a weight to it. Tiredness, maybe. Or guilt.

"In a controlled environment!" Tsunade snapped. "Not against the Nine-Tails itself! Do you have any idea what could have happened? What almost did happen?"

"We had no time to prepare," Hiruzen said. "Kushina breached containment. If the seal had failed completely—"

"Which is exactly why it should have been in a controlled test first!" Tsunade's voice rose slightly before she caught herself and lowered it again. There was a pause, then a frustrated exhale. "His entire chakra system was burning, sensei. When I examined him, his pathways looked like they'd been scoured with acid. The amount of toxic chakra that went through him... he's lucky he didn't suffer permanent damage."

Another pause. Longer this time.

"I apologize," Hiruzen said quietly. "But if the Fox had escaped..."

"I get it." Tsunade's voice had lost some of its heat, replaced by resignation. "I get it. The village comes first. But he's nine years old."

"He's a shinobi."

"He's nine."

Neither of them spoke for a moment. The silence stretched, heavy with unspoken things.

I tried to open my eyes. It took more effort than it should have. My eyelids felt like they were made of lead. When I finally managed it, the light in the room stabbed into my skull like a kunai. I let out an involuntary groan and shifted slightly on what I now realized was a hospital bed.

The voices stopped immediately.

Footsteps approached. A shadow fell across my face, blocking some of the harsh light. I blinked, squinting, and Tsunade's face came into focus above me. She looked tired. Annoyed. And maybe a little relieved.

"Welcome back," she said. Her voice had shifted to something more professional, though there was still an edge to it. "Don't try to sit up yet. Your body needs time to recover."

I didn't argue. Moving sounded like a terrible idea anyway. My mouth was dry, my throat felt like sandpaper. I swallowed with difficulty.

"What... happened?" I managed to croak out.

"You overloaded your chakra system," Tsunade said bluntly. She pulled up a stool and sat down beside the bed, her arms crossed. "You drained so much of the Nine-Tails' chakra that your body couldn't process it. You basically tried to pour an ocean through a straw. Your pathways couldn't handle the volume or the toxicity of that chakra."

The memories came back in pieces. The clearing. The red chakra. Being pulled into the mindscape. Kurama's massive form. The Tailed Beast Bomb. The overwhelming flood of power that had felt like it was tearing me apart.

"The two that were with me?" I asked. 

"Both are fine," Hiruzen said. He'd moved to stand at the foot of the bed, his hands clasped behind his back. He looked older than usual, the lines on his face deeper. "Thanks to you. The seal was stabilized. Kushina is back within the barrier, under observation. Minato is unharmed."

I nodded slightly, which made my head throb. I closed my eyes again, trying to will the pain away.

"How long was I out?"

"Teo hours," Tsunade said. "You've been unconscious since yesterday afternoon. It's morning now."

Fourteen hours. I'd lost an entire night.

"Your chakra pathways are recovering," Tsunade continued. Her tone was clinical now, falling into doctor mode. "I've accelerated the healing with medical ninjutsu, but you're going to feel like shit for at least another day or two. Your reserves are depleted. Don't try to use chakra for anything until I clear you."

"Understood," I said.

Another pause. I could feel both of them watching me. There was something else, something they weren't saying yet.

"The technique worked," Hiruzen said finally. "Your Nature Release successfully weakened the Nine-Tails enough for Minato and Kushina to suppress it. The parasitic drain proved effective even against a Tailed Beast's chakra."

"That's one way to put it," Tsunade muttered. "Another way is that he nearly killed himself testing an experimental technique on the most dangerous creature in the village."

"It wasn't exactly planned," I said, opening my eyes again. The light was still harsh, but more tolerable now. "I just... did what I was told to do."

Tsunade's expression softened slightly, though the annoyance didn't fully leave her face. "I know. Which is why I'm yelling at him instead of you."

Hiruzen sighed. "The situation was unprecedented. Decisions had to be made quickly."

"Decisions that put a genin in direct contact with a Tailed Beast," Tsunade shot back.

"A genin with the only ability capable of containing the situation."

They stared at each other for a moment. I had the distinct impression this argument had been going on before I woke up, and would probably continue after I fell back asleep.

"How bad is it?" I asked, cutting through the tension. "My chakra system. Really."

Tsunade turned back to me. "You'll recover fully. The damage isn't permanent. But it was close. If you'd maintained that drain for even another minute, we'd be having a very different conversation right now."

That was sobering. I'd felt like I was dying while it was happening, but I hadn't realized how close it actually was.

"The Nine-Tails' chakra is corrosive," Tsunade continued. "Especially in that volume. Your body tried to process it and couldn't. You were essentially poisoning yourself with every second you maintained that connection."

I thought about the pain. The burning. The feeling of being torn apart from the inside. Yeah. That tracked.

"Can I ask what happens now?" I said.

Hiruzen and Tsunade exchanged a glance.

"Now," Hiruzen said slowly, "you rest. You recover. And we discuss what this means for future deployments."

"The answer to that is simple," Tsunade said flatly. "He doesn't fight Tailed Beasts again. Not until he's older, stronger, and has chakra reserves that can actually handle that kind of strain."

"Agreed," Hiruzen said, which seemed to surprise Tsunade slightly. "This was an emergency measure. It won't be repeated unless absolutely necessary."

That should have been reassuring. Somehow it wasn't. The way he said "unless absolutely necessary" left the door open for exactly the kind of situation I'd just survived.

But I was too tired to argue. Too tired to think about the implications. My body was screaming at me to go back to sleep, and for once, I was inclined to listen.

"Get some rest," Tsunade said, standing up from the stool. "I'll check on you in a few hours. If you need anything, call for a nurse."

She left, her footsteps firm and purposeful. Hiruzen lingered for a moment longer.

"You did well, Yuuki," he said quietly. "The village owes you a debt."

I didn't respond. I didn't know what to say to that. He nodded once, then turned and followed Tsunade out of the room.

The door closed behind them with a soft click.

I was alone.

I stared at the ceiling, listening to the sounds of the hospital. Distant footsteps. Muffled conversations. The occasional beep of medical equipment.

My hands were shaking under the blanket.

Human. That's what I still was. Vulnerable. Even with all my perks, all my training, all the knowledge I'd brought from another life, I'd nearly died. The pain was still there, a dull ache that reminded me with every breath how close I'd come to being burned out from the inside.

Was I ready to face the future? The honest answer was no. I wasn't ready for Pain. For Tobi. For Madara, Zetsu, Kaguya. All the threats I knew were coming, the catastrophes that would make today's crisis look like a training exercise.

The fear tried to take hold. Tried to drag me down into despair.

But something pushed back against it. That passive effect from [(Wo)man on Mission], the boost to willpower that had kept me functional when I was staring down Kurama. It kicked in now, steadying my thoughts, letting me think clearly despite the terror.

I took a deep breath. It hurt, but I did it anyway.

I wasn't ready. But I could be. I would be.

The fear didn't disappear, but it transformed into something else. Determination. Purpose. I'd walked into the Nine-Tails' mindscape and survived. I'd drained his chakra, helped suppress him, and lived to tell about it.

Next time, I'd be stronger. Strong enough that I wouldn't need to nearly kill myself to make a difference. Strong enough to face whatever came next.

Strong enough to make that fucking fox cry and be the one filled with fear.

The thought brought a grim smile to my face. It faded quickly as another wave of pain rippled through my chest. I shifted slightly, trying to find a more comfortable position, and felt a flash of resentment toward Hiruzen.

The village comes first. That's what he'd said. I understood it intellectually. I was a shinobi. Sacrifices had to be made. But understanding didn't make the pain go away. Didn't change the fact that he'd sent a nine-year-old to face a Tailed Beast because it was expedient.

I could still feel the burning in my pathways. Still remember the sensation of toxic chakra tearing through me.

He'd apologized. But would he make the same choice again if he had to?

Probably.

A blue screen flickered into existence in front of my eyes.

[Achievement Unlocked: Survive a Direct Encounter with the Kyuubi]

[Rank: HIGH]

I stared at it. My first HIGH rank achievement. The reward alone was significant, more than I'd gotten from anything else so far. Whatever perk I could roll with that would probably be powerful.

I dismissed the notification with a thought.

Not now. I was lying in a hospital bed, my chakra system still recovering from being scoured by the Nine-Tails' power. Whatever ability I got from this, I needed to be in better shape before I used it. Who knew what effect it might have on me in my current state.

The screen vanished.

I closed my eyes and focused on breathing. In and out. Steady and controlled.

I could do this. I would do this.

The fear was still there, lurking at the edges of my mind. But I had a handle on it now.

I'd survived the Nine-Tails. Whatever came next, I'd survive that too.

I had to.

— Orochimaru —

Orochimaru had been fighting for three days straight when the recall order came.

The Iwa border had turned into a meat grinder. With their Jinchuriki deployed, the fighting had intensified to a level that required constant reinforcement from Konoha's elite forces. He'd spent seventy-two hours eliminating enemy squads, disrupting supply lines, and keeping Iwa's forces from pushing deeper into Fire Country territory.

He was tired. Not physically, he'd pushed through worse, but the kind of bone-deep exhaustion that came from sustained combat operations. When the messenger hawk arrived with orders to return to the village immediately, his first thought was that the situation had escalated further. But the note mentioned an incident involving his student and instructed him to report to the hospital.

He made it back to Konoha by dawn.

The hospital's sterile hallways were familiar territory. He found Tsunade in a private room on the third floor, reviewing a medical chart. She looked up as he entered, and her expression told him everything he needed to know before she said a word.

"It's Yuuki," she said.

Orochimaru went very still. "What happened?"

Tsunade set the chart down. "The Uzumaki Jinchuriki breached containment two days ago. Sensei sent Yuuki to Training Ground 13 as a countermeasure. He used his Nature Release to drain the Nine-Tails' chakra directly."

"Directly," Orochimaru repeated. His voice was flat.

"He was pulled into the mindscape. Fought the Fox alongside Minato and Kushina. The drain nearly killed him. His entire chakra system was burning from the inside out when they brought him in."

Orochimaru's chakra flared. It leaked out in a wave of pressure that made the air in the room feel heavy and oppressive. The medical charts on the desk rattled slightly.

Tsunade didn't flinch. She'd known him too long to be intimidated by his anger. "He'll recover. The damage isn't permanent. But it was close."

"How close?"

"Another minute and we'd be planning a funeral."

Orochimaru's hands clenched into fists. His face, normally controlled and carefully neutral, contorted with rage. The Nine-Tails. Hiruzen had sent a nine-year-old genin to face the Nine-Tailed Fox. His student. His responsibility.

"Do you want to see him?" Tsunade asked quietly.

Orochimaru forced his chakra back under control. The pressure in the room eased. "Is he awake?"

"He was. He's sleeping now. I gave him something to help with the pain."

"Then I'll see him later." His voice was cold, controlled. "If you say he'll be fine, then he'll be fine."

Tsunade nodded slowly. She knew where he was going. "Don't do anything stupid, Orochimaru."

He didn't respond. He turned and walked out of the room, his footsteps echoing down the hospital corridor.

The Hokage Tower was quiet at this hour. Most of the administrative staff hadn't arrived yet, and the few chunin on duty recognized Orochimaru immediately. They stepped aside without question. No one tried to stop him.

He climbed the stairs to the top floor, his mind working through everything Tsunade had told him. The timeline. The decision. The risk. By the time he reached the Hokage's office, his anger had crystallized into something sharp and focused.

He didn't knock. He opened the door, stepped inside, and closed it behind him with a controlled motion that was somehow more threatening than if he'd slammed it.

Hiruzen looked up from his desk. He didn't seem surprised to see him.

"Orochimaru," the Hokage said evenly. "I expected you would come."

"You sent him to fight the Nine-Tails." Orochimaru's voice was quiet, but there was venom in every word. His eyes were fixed on his former sensei with an intensity that would have made most men flinch.

"I sent him to contain an emergency," Hiruzen corrected. "The Jinchuriki breached the barrier. The seal was failing. He was the only one with an ability that could safely weaken a Tailed Beast without killing the host."

"He's nine years old."

"He's a shinobi." Hiruzen's voice was firm. "And his technique worked. The seal was stabilized. Kushina and Minato are alive. The village is safe."

Orochimaru's chakra flared again, stronger this time. Papers on Hiruzen's desk lifted slightly in the pressure. "You nearly killed him. Tsunade said another minute and he would have died. One more minute of draining that chakra and his pathways would have burned out completely."

"I'm aware of the risk." Hiruzen stood, meeting Orochimaru's gaze directly. "Do you think I made that decision lightly? Jiraiya was at the eastern front. You were at the Iwa border. I had seconds to respond before the Nine-Tails broke free completely. If that seal had failed, if the Fox had escaped into the village, thousands would have died."

"So you gambled with his life."

"I made the choice that gave us the best chance of survival." Hiruzen's voice hardened. "That's what the Hokage does. That's what this position demands. I weigh the lives of individuals against the lives of the village, and I make the decision that saves the most people."

"The village comes first," Orochimaru said. There was something bitter in his tone. "Is that what you tell yourself when you send children to die?"

"Yes." Hiruzen didn't hesitate. "Because it's true. The village does come first. That's the burden of leadership. That's what it means to wear this hat."

For a moment, neither of them spoke. The office was silent except for the faint sound of the village waking up outside the window.

Orochimaru stared at the man who had been his teacher, his mentor, his role model. The man who now stood there defending the decision to send a nine-year-old into a Tailed Beast's mindscape.

"Did you truly even want this position?" Orochimaru asked quietly.

Hiruzen's expression shifted slightly. Surprise, maybe. Or recognition that Orochimaru had hit closer to the truth than expected.

"Every day I question it," Hiruzen said after a moment. "Every time I have to make a choice like this one, I question whether I'm the right person to be sitting in this chair. But someone has to make these decisions. Someone has to bear the weight of them."

"And you chose to bear it by risking my student's life."

"I chose to use every asset available to protect this village. Including your student. Including you. Including myself if necessary." Hiruzen's eyes were hard now, the eyes of the God of Shinobi, the Professor who had fought in two wars. "You're angry. I understand that. But I made the right call."

"He could have died."

"But he didn't. And because he didn't, neither did thousands of others."

Orochimaru's hands were shaking slightly. Not from fear. From rage. From the sheer effort it took to keep himself from doing something he couldn't take back.

"You don't get to risk him like that again," he said, his voice low and dangerous. "Not without consulting me first. He's my responsibility."

"He's Konoha's shinobi," Hiruzen countered. "And as Hokage, I will deploy him as I see fit when the village's survival is at stake."

They stared at each other across the desk. Neither willing to back down. Neither able to see the other's position as anything but wrong.

Finally, Orochimaru turned toward the door.

"If you ever put him in that situation again," he said without looking back, "we will have a very different conversation." 

Orochimaru knew for that threat to become a reality, he'd have to become stronger than he was now. He'd have to push himself even harder, he won't let his statement be taken lightly, not for himself but for the sake of his student.

He left before Hiruzen could respond.

The door closed behind him with a soft click that somehow carried more weight than any slam could have.

Hiruzen stood alone in his office, staring at the closed door. He slowly sat back down in his chair and let out a long, tired breath.

He'd made the right call. He was certain of it.

But that certainty didn't make the weight any easier to bear.

Author’s Note: The primary goal of this chapter was to shake Yuuki up a bit and to introduce Minato and Kushina into the story. Originally, I was just going to have them meet through the Hokage, but then I re-read the one-shot and remembered that it takes place during the Third War. That made me think: “Hey, what if Kushina loses control and goes full Tailed Beast mode? Who in the village could possibly be sent to suppress it?”

The actual meeting between the three will happen in the next chapter since this one ended up getting a little too long. By the way, Yuuki died before the one-shot events, so he has absolutely no clue that the fucking Nine-Tails almost breaks free before the Tobi Incident. (By the way really doesn't make sense, that Kushina had to stay in a spiral seal in the village to prevent the beast from taking over, I'll have to come up with a reason because the One-Shot doesn't give one)

As for the Orochimaru scene, at this point in time, he genuinely cares about his students. He’s not yet the “Diddymaru” of the future. His descent really began after Nawaki’s death and under Danzo’s influence. This scene also serves as motivation for him to grow stronger. It’s set more than two decades before canon, so Orochimaru isn’t as powerful as he’ll eventually become, and Hiruzen hasn’t yet weakened with age. When Hiruzen doesn’t take Orochimaru’s threat seriously here, it’s because he still sees it as the outburst of an overzealous student.

Thank you for your continued support on Patreon, I'm aware that there weren't any updates here, I'm thankfully free till November 10th, and I'll be working on this story. I'll also try to work on a backlog for the time I vanish.

Spider-Lite swinging away!