The night air burned with the stench of smoke and blood.
Buildings lay broken, streets torn apart, and above it all, a beast of hatred howled at the crimson sky.
The Nine-Tails raged through the Hidden Leaf, each step shaking the earth, each roar a hammer against the hearts of the villagers.
High above the chaos, Minato Namikaze flashed into existence, a yellow streak against the blackened night.
In his arms, wrapped tight in his cloak, were two tiny bundles: his sons.
Naruto cried loudly, tiny fists pounding weakly against the fabric.
Johan remained eerily silent, wide eyes unblinking, staring into the storm as if it didn't terrify him at all.
Minato gritted his teeth. Every second he delayed, more lives were lost.
Behind him, a claw the size of a mountain crashed down, sending a shockwave that cracked the earth. Minato didn't flinch.
In a flash of light, he disappeared, reappearing far beyond the village's crumbling walls, deep in the dense forest where the air was colder, quieter.
The fires of the Hidden Leaf still glowed faintly on the horizon, but here, there was only the rustle of trees and the broken breathing of the family he had saved.
Kushina collapsed to her knees as soon as they landed, barely managing to stay upright. Blood oozed from the wounds torn open during the Nine-Tails' extraction.
Her strength, once so fierce, now hung by a thread.
Minato gently lowered the twins onto the altar he had prepared, a simple slab of stone, carved with ancient seals now illuminated by the pale moonlight.
Kushina watched, her breath catching in her throat. In that single, deliberate action, she understood everything.
The ritual.
The sacrifice.
There was no other way.
Minato intended to seal the Nine-Tails inside their newborn sons and to do it, he would offer up his own life.
"No..." she whispered, dragging herself forward, her body screaming in agony.
But the pain in her heart was far worse.
"Minato... you can't..."
Minato didn't look at her yet. His hands hovered over Naruto first, then Johan, brushing their small foreheads with trembling fingers.
"I have to," he said quietly, almost to himself. "There's no other choice."
Kushina shook her head weakly, tears blurring her vision.
"They're just babies..." she choked out. "They shouldn't have to carry this burden. We... we should have protected them from all of this..."
Minato turned to her then, and for a moment, he wasn't the Yellow Flash, the Hero of the Leaf.
He was just a father a man trying to save what mattered most.
"I know," he said, voice breaking slightly. "I wish there was another way."
He looked down at his sons, Naruto, still whimpering softly, and Johan, staring into the darkness with eyes too old for a newborn and breathed out slowly, steadying the storm inside him.
"But I believe in them," he said, turning to Kushina, his gaze fierce despite the tears. "Naruto... Johan... they can carry this burden. They can become something greater than we ever imagined."
Kushina's lips trembled. She reached out, touching the tiny fists of their children.
"Minato..." she whispered, torn between hope and heartbreak.
"They'll have each other," Minato said, voice growing stronger, burning with conviction. "Two brothers. Two lights in the darkness. They won't be alone."
"They'll be heroes, Kushina. Not because they carry the Nine-Tails... but because of the strength they'll find inside themselves."
He brushed Naruto's soft hair, feeling the warmth of life beneath his palm.
Then he placed a trembling hand over Johan's chest, feeling the quiet, steady heartbeat beneath.
"In Naruto," Minato murmured, "the fire that never goes out."
His voice dropped even lower.
"And in Johan..."
He hesitated — for the boy's silence was different, heavier somehow. Like a still lake hiding an ocean of storms underneath.
"...a strength the world won't understand," he finished. "But someday... it will need."
Kushina closed her eyes, tears slipping freely down her cheeks.
In her heart, she wanted to scream, to curse the world, to beg fate for a different ending.
But she knew Minato was right.
There was no choice anymore.
Only faith.
And faith — fragile though it was — burned brighter than fear tonight.
Minato rose slowly, the markings of the Reaper Death Seal beginning to glow faintly across the altar.
The night had reached its final hour.
Destiny waited.