Through the dust and debris, Akai could tell they were amidst the ruins of a lush forest, a clearing covered in fallen trees and rubble.
COUGH! COUGH!
Akai waved the particles in the air away and clutched Yumeka's sides tightly. She was consoling little Yurime, who stuck to her mother like a superglue.
He wanted to do the same. In his left peripheral vision, he had caught a blinding sphere of black and violet that swallowed all sound, light, and breath tear through the forest kilometers away. The ball of energy landed like a wrathful God who wanted to rip open the lands and somehow he could clearly see every fine detail of it. The trees disintegrated, uprooted mid-scream, their trunks shredded into splinters and ash. The ground had cracked open in jagged scars and ancient roots had turned to dust.
But his mind worked faster than his eyes.
Akai knew distance would only delay the roar of energy and lingering scream of the earth that would follow.
To his right, he caught the milliseconds of the Fourth Hokage racing forward—to brace his family from the wave of impact—and again, somehow, he could react the same.
"Ugh—!"
The majority of the dust faded, as with the wind.
Akai slowly released his hands from Yumeka's ears to draw a kunai. He controlled the quivers of his arm as he raised it, but the blade still looked comical in his hand. The winds had revealed a slit pupil of seething rage and an eye the size of the Moon, jagged teeth the length of a man, nine tails that clawed at night itself.
The kunai—could it even damage a single strand of the monster's fur?
"How... how are ninjas... supposed to fight... that...?" he heard Yumeka whisper.
Her gaze wandered upwards until they met. He hadn't missed how she clutched little Yurime tighter. He took a step forwards.
"... dear... your eyes..."
He was barely a ninja. He didn't know how to properly fight. He hadn't touched a kunai in years. Most snot-nosed brats in the Academy could beat him black and blue if they tried. But that wouldn't stop him from trying because...
"... Sharingan of the Uchiha."
The power to protect that he long desired. He finally had it.
The bastards from the Uchiha clan who worshipped and grovelled for these pairs of eyes—that controlled this monster to nearly kill his wife and daughter—he'd let them all pay, eye-for-eye.
But a sharp voice and wave of hand stopped him from mobilizing his Chakra.
"No, Akai-san!" the Fourth Hokage said, arm stretched backwards. "This is not your fight. We can't let you civilians get involved—"
"I can... still fight... Minato..."
Golden chains emerged from Kushina's back and pulled the Demon Fox into the Earth. Naruto stopped crying, as if sensing his mother's resolve.
"Grrrrrr," the beast growled, seemingly immobilized.
"—Kushina!"
She hacked mouthfuls after mouthfuls of blood.
"Sorry... Naruto... Minato... I'll drag the Demon Fox... and die with it inside me... that'll prevent it from coming back... for a while... it's the only way... to save you both... Akai and Yumeka... their child too... and the village... thank you... for everything..."
"Kushina, you—"
"Don't look so sad... Minato... I'm happy... you loved me... happy that... it's our son's... birthday... but if I had any... regrets... it would be that I wouldn't see... Naruto... grow up."
Minato broke down into silent tears.
Akain could move again. He didn't want to take advantage of their conversation, but he had a score to settle—not as a civilian, but as a Uchiha. He stepped in front of Kushina, facing the Demon Fox, the searing fire behind his eyes burning ever so hotter.
"Akai-san... you... Sharingan... two-tomoe... now..." Kushina noted.
"You don't have to die. If this is the Uchiha's responsibility... I'll pay for it... for your debt. I'll control the Fox. Tell me what to do," he said.
"No... control... won't work..."
"It wouldn't work... the Masked Uchiha intruder used the Sharingan to control the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox to attack the village," Minato said.
He held a hand on his shoulder.
"He took advantage of the seal weakening during childbirth. The Fox must be resealed... not controlled."
Akai turned in his direction. Minato's grip didn't lighten up.
I'm still... useless?
"Kushina... if you die with the fox inside... the balance of the Bijuu will be destroyed... and the Masked Man, he must be the great calamity that Jiraiya foretold about... I'll seal half of the Fox in me with the Dead Demon Consuming Seal—" Minato continued.
"... w-what? You'll... die..."
"— and seal the other half of the Fox... with the rest of your Chakra... using a weakened Eight Trigrams Seal... into Naruto! Believe in our son... he shall be the... savior... of the world..."
"... do you really want... him to shoulder... such a burden?" Kushina asked.
"... no."
It wasn't Minato who answered. It was Yumeka.
Her voice was... frail.
The burning behind his eyes erupted like a volcano. He wrestled out of Minato's grip and rushed to her side. He'd assumed she'd been listening, but...
"No. Yumeka. No, no, no..."
... she'd been dying.
"I... c-couldn't hide it... any longer," Yumeka mumbled. "I think... organs... gave away..."
Akai couldn't breathe. He knew it must've been earlier—it must've been during the Chakra explosion, where he'd rushed forwards—where he'd arrogantly rushed forwards like the Fourth Hokage to shield—that he'd overlooked her. Overlooked everything. The Sharingan had granted him incredible clarity of perception and ability to copy Taijutsu movements but he was arrogant. He didn't have the Fourth's physique or the Chakra to properly shield the impact, thus...
"... no. Breathe. Stop talking."
Akai pulled her and his daughter into a tight embrace, as if trying to squeeze life into her. But Yumeka's breath was still fading.
"Kushina-sama... Minato... Yondaime-sama... y-you don't need to die..."
The premonition returned. It struck Akai all at once. Time and time again, it had succeeded in its ruthless jackpot, when he didn't know what disaster could be next.
But he knew this time. He didn't need to think twice.
... if she was listening the whole time... and saw Namikaze Minato reject my help... then...
"No, Yumeka... w-what are you saying...?!"
"... I will... seal the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox... into my child... Akai's Sharingan... copy your seals... hypnotize me..."
"N-no, you can't... Yumeka-chan..."
"... You still... have some fight... left... Kushina... chan... I'm a... goner... thank you... for earlier... it was I... who taught... my silly husband... to repay debts..."
Yumeka rolled her neck to him. She pried her arm away from her stomach.
"... dear... I'm glad... I... console her... to sleep... you'll... listen... to me... one... last... t-time... ... ... right?"
Akai knew it wasn't a burning that pooled behind eyes. It was a searing coldness, a coldness that came from every vein of his, gushing with every single individual radiant smile of her and every single dish of her cooking seasoned with her laughter and love and the warmth of every snuggle they ever had together with her breath tickling his neck in the dark and—
"Yondaime."
"Boar. Dog. Monkey. Ram. Rat. Snake... Dead Demon Consuming Seal... and Ox. Serpent. Ram. Rat. Dog. Boar... Eight Trigram Seal."
"Akai-san..."
Akai didn't hear the call of the Namikaze Minato. He had already learned over Yumeka, lips sinking deep into hers, and watched the fading light of her pupils rotate into three red drops of blood. Then he was inside her mind.
Or she.
It wasn't an illusion. It couldn't be. Yumeka was there, behind him, arms wrapped his waist and face buried in his chest. She started to explain everything as she always did during the rare times he was angry with her. She was there.
"She'd be a hero, dear. You heard Kushina and Minato. Even if the Uchiha clan... or Konoha... tried to blame you for controlling the Demon Fox, they couldn't. You awakened the Sharingan now... and she hosts the Nine-Tailed Fox... with enough power to save the world. The two of you will be safe. You'll be free. You'll be..."
"... I'll be without you. We'll be without you."
He couldn't keep her in his embrace.
She was glowing, translucent, shimmering as the wonder she was, smiling for him even at death.
Akai reached for the remnants of her smile, but it had become a familiar mocking smirk, a smirk worn smugly by the Death God.
He looked around, eyes throbbing. The chains that held the Tailed Beast down were fading like Yumeka's soul. Namikaze Minato had taken a claw from the Demon Fox, pinned in the air between it and Kushina, who too was nearing her limit. Naruto was wailing and the sky shook as outsiders tried to break the Chakra barrier around them.
He was back in reality.
"Sharingan again," the Demon Fox snarled from behind the Death God. "Damn you, Fourth Hokage! Uchiha clan!"
"... you should behave."
Both of you.
Akai picked up the sleeping Yurime from Yumeka. He brushed the traces of battle from them, before massaging the area where he'd present two kisses—one on the forehead of his sleeping daughter and the other on the lips of his sleeping wife, where the moonshine landed in grace as if acknowledging his grief.
His gaze passed towards the Moon.
It too was wounded, surface scarred and pitted from kunai marks, one barren landscape of craters and jagged ridges from ninjutsu. He could see shadows that clung to its every crease, filling the deeper craters with ink-black pools, while the highlands gleamed with a cold, ashen silver.
The drops of blood in his Sharingan spun and bloomed into a black flower etched in blood.
Silver was always Yumeka's favorite colour, Akai thought. And the highlands are perfect for growing flowers. Lilies for Yurime.
"... seal."
Yes. I'll be their shadows. I swear upon the Moon.