Naruto Gaiden: Whirlwind in the Vortex

On a mission, Roshi and Han prepare to unleash their Tailed Beast Balls, prompting Jiraiya to have Minato warp Team 6 clear of the blast, an escape that leaves Minato marveling at the raw force of the tailed beasts. In Konoha, Kushina wakes shaken from a dream in which the Nine-Tails tempts her into setting it free. She chafes at never getting a private moment with Minato because guards trail her constantly.

Her excitement over training alongside him collapses when Minato reveals he plans to work on a new technique somewhere she cannot follow, since she is confined within the sealing barrier. Recalling advice once given by her predecessor Mito, Kushina bucks her orders, restraining the guards with her chains, which they note have only grown stronger with age. The instant she slips past the barrier, the Nine-Tails jeers at what it sees as her recklessness.

Jiraiya coaches Minato through building the new jutsu, but the chakra refuses to hold together. Jiraiya observes how a person's chakra spin tends to match the direction their hair swirls, yet Minato happens to have two whorls turning opposite ways. That insight sparks the breakthrough that steadies the technique, though Minato's talent for naming things clearly lags behind his talent for creating them. Once Jiraiya departs on assignment, Kushina joins Minato, claiming the Third Hokage cleared her to leave the barrier, and apologizes for her earlier outburst; Minato insists the fault is his, since he built the jutsu with her in mind.

The Nine-Tails suddenly expels its chakra through Kushina, forcing a Tailed Beast Transformation that injures Minato. As the fox pushes her to break its seal, Minato binds it with a sealing jutsu. Steadied by Mito's words and by Minato's declaration of love, Kushina lashes the beast with her chains and claws back control. Furious, the Nine-Tails drives her into Version 2 and skewers Minato through the abdomen, but he slips into her mind and, with her help, strikes the fox using his finished technique.

Minato later comes to in the Konoha Hospital, watched over by Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Kushina. Because he devised the jutsu for her sake, Kushina takes on the job of naming it and leads him to the very spot Mito had once shown her. Climbing the stairs there, with Minato's profile aligning against the carved faces of the Hokage Rock, she offers the name Rasengan.

The chapter was created after Minato topped the NARUTOP99 poll, the reward being a dedicated one-shot from Kishimoto. It ran in Weekly Shonen Jump issue 33 of 2023, carrying a cover date of July 31, 2023.