Snow was falling again.
Thin, powdery layers of white drifted across the valley as Naruto lay on his back beneath a dead tree, one arm still bound from the earlier fight.
Killer Bee was gone.
Not victorious.
But not dead either.
That alone meant Naruto had lost.
Not completely.
But enough.
Enough to hurt.
Enough to burn.
Kurama stirred inside him.
"You're still alive. Barely. You held back."
Naruto didn't answer.
He stared at the sky, letting the cold settle into his bones.
Kurama growled.
"Your silence doesn't scare me. But your weakness should."
Still nothing.
Until finally, Naruto whispered:
"Then let's fix it."
The seal chamber was darker than he remembered.
It echoed differently now.
Not because Kurama was quiet.
But because Naruto was no longer here to beg.
He stood at the edge of the great torii gate, cloak fluttering, eyes red — not from the Sharingan, but from within.
He didn't hesitate.
He didn't ask.
He just released it.
The first seal unraveled like silk dissolving into flame.
And in the center of the chamber...
A man appeared.
Golden hair. Blue eyes.
A face that once smiled in photographs he never got to hold.
"Naruto," Minato said, breath catching. "My son—"
Naruto turned his back before he finished.
"I didn't come here to talk."
Minato stepped forward. "I only have a little chakra left—"
"I don't care."
The words cut sharper than any kunai.
"I did it because we had no other choice," Minato tried again. "You were our son. You could carry the fox—"
Naruto turned slowly.
Expression blank.
Voice even.
"And how many years did you plan to leave me alone in that cage?"
Minato froze.
"Don't answer," Naruto said. "It doesn't matter. I'm not your son."
He raised his hand.
A second seal bloomed open.
This time, the chakra cracked the ground.
And from it came a red-haired woman with wide, teary eyes.
Kushina.
She gasped. "Naruto—!"
He stared at her like she was a dream he hadn't asked for.
"I've seen your face before," he said. "On monuments. In stolen photos. In stories told by people who never lifted a hand to help me."
He took one step closer.
"You put the Nine-Tails in me. You made me a weapon."
Kushina shook her head. "We—"
"I said don't speak."
Kurama watched quietly from the shadows of the seal.
He didn't like this.
But he understood it.
Because for the first time since the night of the betrayal, Naruto wasn't angry.
He wasn't crying.
He wasn't screaming.
He was... cold.
Colder than the void they had left him in.
"I used to dream of you," Naruto said to Kushina. "I imagined your hugs. Your laughter. A voice that told me I mattered."
Kushina's eyes blurred.
"I was wrong."
Minato stepped forward. "Naruto, please—"
But Naruto's hand raised again, and the torii gates behind him pulsed.
He wasn't threatening them.
He was judging them.
"You gave your lives to stop a monster."
He looked at them both.
"But you created another one."
The silence stretched.
And then, finally, Naruto said:
"I'm not your child."
Kushina sobbed. "We loved you!"
"No," Naruto said, voice low. "You loved the idea of me. The symbol. The sacrifice."
Then—finally—
Naruto's hands dropped.
And his shoulders, so straight and sharp, slowly relaxed.
"I didn't come here to punish you."
Minato looked up.
Naruto continued, "I came here to free myself from you."
And for the first time, a crack in his voice.
Not of pain.
But peace.
"I forgive you."
The words fell like thunder.
Kushina broke.
Minato collapsed to his knees.
And Naruto...
Naruto turned.
And walked away.
Not healed.
But clean.
Behind him, the seals faded.
Not closed.
Just... finished.
And in his chest, his chakra shifted.
Kurama whispered: "You did it."
Naruto whispered back: "Now we begin."