On the evening of 10th October, 50 AE, a calamity hit the Hidden Leaf Village.
The Nine-Tails Demonic Fox suddenly appeared in the middle of the village, breaking out of its jinchūriki, and the Kyūbi was mad, to say the least, as it claimed thousands of lives in a couple of seconds just by smashing its long tails around.
Uzumaki Kazuma rushed out of the forest with the best sealing masters of his clan, after making sure that the defensive barriers were active, and leaving Kushina in charge of the district.
He worked hard to protect the villagers, but then he sensed a big threat and rushed back to the Uzumaki Forest, just in time to witness dozens of strange white creatures who could hide from his senses and seemed to be created by Wood Release.
Had they not been trying to infiltrate his barriers, he would never have picked up on them, and then his heart tensed up when he saw them use thousands of explosive tags, which set off a chain reaction, attracting the attention of Kyūbi, who threw a charged-up Bijūdama towards them.
He could not hide his abilities right now and immediately used his Space and Time Sealing Art, creating a portal in the air that consumed the Bijūdama and then sent it up into the sky, where it exploded, turning the evening into a bright day for a brief moment.
Kazuma then tried to search for the creatures who had suddenly disappeared and was relieved to see that the barriers around the district had held on.
The forest, however, was on fire now, and he quickly created a few clones, leaving them to defend the district and to contain the fire.
By the time he arrived to join ranks with his unit, his clansmen had already created the barriers to save the civilians, who were being led into the safety of the Uchiha District and the Hokage Mountain.
He was dismayed to learn that the Third Hokage had forbidden the Uchiha Clan from getting close to the Kyūbi.
Even though he knew what he was worried about, it was ridiculous.
The Fourth Hokage had disappeared. He was nowhere to be found, and the Kyūbi was charging another Bijūdama, which, to his horror, was shot towards his home again.
It was nothing but a nightmare for him, and Kazuma quickly teleported away and intercepted the attack, which did not please the Tailed Beast.
Then, to add to his horror, the fox created several more Bijūdama at once, nine to be exact, and challengingly shot them all towards him and the Uchiha and Nara Districts.
Kazuma could not use Space and Time Jutsu on all of them, so he used his Chakra Chains and combined them with a jutsu that he had created not long ago.
"Sealing Art: A Thousand Reflective Barriers!"
It was similar to a summoning jutsu, where, in the blink of an eye, a thousand reflective barriers appeared, leaning at an angle, and as soon as the Bijūdama contacted them, they were deflected into the sky and out of the village.
Seeing his Chakra Chains, the Kyūbi tried to escape the village, not willing to be sealed again, and left devastation in its wake.
Kazuma panted heavily as he tried to hold back the pain. His chakra was only half of what it once used to be, and he was feeling a little tired now. He was still not used to feeling this hollow.
However, deciding to seal the Kyūbi away before Konoha could get their hands on it again, he chased the beast, but to his shock, the Third Hokage got in his way and asked him to protect the village as he and his shinobi forces chased the chakra beast out.
Kazuma stayed back and watched as the Fourth Hokage suddenly appeared on a giant toad and blocked Kyūbi's path, and after a brief confrontation, he teleported with the beast a good distance away from the village.
The moment he saw golden Chakra Chains suddenly erupt and lock the Nine-Tailed Fox, he lowered his head as he knew that his niece would not live past this day.
His eyes froze when he sensed something unexpected.
Even though he was not present at the scene, he could sense that the Fourth Hokage was using the Reaper Death Seal.
It was the secret of their Uzumaki Clan, and he was very disappointed that Mito had shared it with outsiders.
However, even she did not know its complete secrets as they had only remained in the hearts of the Uzumaki Clan Leaders and their heirs.
When he sensed Namikaze Minato use the power of the Shinigami to divide the Yin and Yang parts of Kyūbi's chakra and soul, his mind ran with plans.
The Fourth Hokage did not trust the Uzumaki with the Kyūbi, and so, he sealed the Yin half into himself and the Yang half into his newborn son.
Konoha lost its Fourth Hokage that night, and with him, thousands of civilians, and three hundred shinobi lost their lives.
The Third Hokage returned to the seat of power the next day, and Uchiha Fugaku and Orochimaru were denied the position of Hokage once again.
In Hiruzen's eyes, and the eyes of his old friends and aides, the Uchiha were behind the attack, and this distrust, which was now at its peak, was going to fester into something very dangerous over the course of the next few years.
The Uzumaki Clan suffered a great tragedy that night as well.
Kazuma was distraught when he buried his nephew in the Uzumaki Cemetery.
Uzumaki Fujin was not at the Clan District when the attack happened. He was with his wife, Hazuki, his daughter, Izumi, and his newborn daughter, Akane, at the Konoha Memorial when the Demonic Fox appeared out of nowhere.
To protect his family, he suffered some injuries, and then on their way back to the Clan District, they were attacked by some masked men.
The official narrative was that some enemies had infiltrated the village when Kyūbi went on a rampage, but Kazuma and Hazuki knew the truth.
They were enemies, but not outsiders. Those who had killed Fujin using poisons were members of Root, and their targets were Izumi and the newborn, Akane, whom they wanted to kidnap.
If it was not enough, Izumi, who had seen her father die right in front of her eyes, awakened her Sharingan, and the Uchiha who had come to their aid saw it.
As per the promises Hazuki had made at her wedding, her daughter now bore the Uchiha name, and she had to return to the Uchiha District and live there with her.
Uchiha Hazuki, though devastated at the loss of her husband, did not show a lot of emotion in front of people. After Kazuma promised her that their loss would be avenged, she silently left with her daughters to go and live at her parents' house.
A day later, after her niece and her late husband were laid to rest in the Konoha Cemetery, Kazuma requested the Hokage to let him take care of Mizumi's child, but the Hokage adamantly refused his request.
Instead, the baby was sent to an orphanage, where a retired shinobi matron took care of him.
People questioned why the kid was named Uzumaki and not Namikaze, and the reason Hiruzen gave them did not convince everyone.
He said that Naruto would be safer with the name Uzumaki than Namikaze, as his father had a lot of enemies and the Third Tsuchikage was waiting to avenge the loss of his son.
Kazuma, however, could sense that there was a dark motive behind the Hokage's decision.
He knew exactly what it was.
Naruto could not have a whole family because he would need to be a blank slate to be brainwashed with the Will of Fire and Hiruzen's interpretation of it. He was an asset, a jinchūriki who needed to be loyal only to the village.
Only a few weeks later, the news spread amongst the civilians and the shinobi that the Fourth Hokage had defeated the Kyūbi at the cost of his life and sealed it inside a newborn boy named Uzumaki Naruto.
Kazuma did not sit still that day and barged into the Hokage Office. He demanded an explanation, and the old man feigned innocence. To Uzumaki's surprise, Hiruzen even insinuated that someone present at the council meeting that day must have leaked the information.
Perhaps, he wanted to draw his suspicions towards the Uchiha, but Kazuma was not a fool.
He left the office, frowning, and went to the orphanage to check up on the little kid.
It was a shame that a child so young already had his fate sealed, burdened with a responsibility, and destined to be a tool for the village.
There were dozens of eyes on him, so he did not take Naruto in his arms, and after promising the orphanage a huge sum of money, he returned to his home.
A couple of days later, to appease him and his clan, the Hokage passed a decree forbidding everyone from speaking about Naruto being the jinchūriki of the Nine-Tailed Fox. The punishment for breaking this law was death.
Even though he wanted to kill the old man, Kazuma visited his office and thanked him for passing that decree.
The two then discussed the renovation plans for the village, and on his way back to the Uzumaki Forest, he met the Nara Clan Leader, who bowed to him and thanked him for saving his clan's district from the Kyūbi's attacks.
Seeing and sensing his sincerity, Kazuma invited him to have a meal together, and the two stayed chatting with each other for hours to come, smiling, laughing, and sharing sake and meat at the Yakiniku Q. Late in the afternoon, they parted ways.
The next day, the Hokage summoned Nara Shikaku to his office, and under the guise of debating the next Hokage candidates, he asked for his honest opinion on the Uzumaki Clan Head.
Kazuma was unaware of this meeting and remained so for the rest of his life.
On the first day of the Year 51 AE, he asked Kushina to meet him inside the Hall of Sealings, and then instructed her to take her shirt off and lie down on the stone platform.
To his sister's dismay, he put on the Shinigami Mask, and then created seals with his hands.
"Sealing Art: Reaper Death Seal!"
Kushina felt a chill all over her body when the Shinigami appeared behind her brother, and she had a bad premonition in her heart.
When she heard the talk Kazuma had with the avatar of the God of Death, she frowned.
"Brother, Karin, or Enma would be better..."
"Enma does not need a Tailed Beast. Karin's life would be in danger." Kazuma shook his head. "And I am confident that you will be able to tame the Kyūbi."
The heiress obediently agreed to her brother's plan and shed tears when she heard what the price for what he was asking for was. It would have been better if he did not care about the little boy, but he did and did not want to kill the legacy of his late brother, Arashi.
Kazuma lost all of his remaining lifespan, save for eight years, in order to create a special seal on Kushina, The Eight Trigram Life, Death and Soul Seal, unique to the Shinigami. This seal was also chosen for extracting the Yin half of Kyūbi from Minato, whose soul was trapped within the Shinigami Stomach.
The seals in the hall lit up, containing the flaring Yin chakra of the Kyūbi, and then the Yin soul and Yin chakra of the Tailed Beast were sealed inside Kushina.
On the other side, the Yang soul of Kyūbi, who was asleep inside his new prison, suddenly opened its eyes. The next instant, an invisible force separated it from its chakra, leaving a husk behind, and it soon found itself in a strange place, merged with its Yin soul.
In front of him, the long-haired Uzumaki whom it faced the other night was standing, wearing a smile, and by his side was a young girl, around nineteen or twenty years old, whom he felt his soul bound with.
The Kyūbi raged, but then froze when he heard the Uzumaki man speak.
"Relax, Kurama."
Having not heard its name in ages, its massive body quivered.
"You will not be bound in chains and stakes again," he promised. "Take care of my sister, and she will take care of you from this day onwards. She will live as long as you will live, and you will never be sealed inside another jinchūriki again."
Kushina looked at her brother in dismay when he revealed the key detail. He had sacrificed himself to make her immortal.
"Now that your soul is one again, you will produce your Yang chakra over time."
The girl's eyes widened in another shock.
"What happens to Naruto? The jinchūriki dies if the Tailed Beast..."
"Technically, he is still a jinchūriki, but not of Kurama. The Yang chakra and Kyūbi's husk inside him will gain another soul. A piece of his own soul will inhabit the husk and a new Tailed Beast will be formed, an imitation of Kyūbi, with some of its memories, who will die together with the boy when his time would come. His Kyūbi will still be nearly twice as strong as Hachibi if I am correct about what your half chakra is equivalent to, Kurama."
"Don't you dare call me that!" The massive beast roared, its anger soaring to the skies in this new seal.
"Feisty, eh?" Kazuma laughed and then disappeared from Kushina's mindscape, and after the girl glanced at the gigantic demonic fox, she retired and opened her eyes in the Sealing Hall.
"Onii-sama!" She screamed when she saw Kazuma sprawled on the ground, fast unconscious and with blood leaking from his mouth and nose.
Kushina held back her tears as she tried to help him heal, and then guided him to his room, where Himari was putting Enma and Karin to bed.
Even though her niece asked her what happened, she did not tell her what her brother had just done.
Uzumaki Kazuma remained unconscious for the next four weeks, and when he woke up, he focused on spending every day of his remaining life with his wife and his two kids.