The story is set sometime before Kakashi Gaiden, tensions are high between the hidden villages, and despite having the Nine-Tailed Biju, the Leaf Village is at a disadvantage when facing other villages' jinchurikis. In this setting the future Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, tries to find a way to counter them while trying to balance his life and relationship with his future wife, Kushina. At the same time Kushina has to deal with the restrictions imposed upon her due to being the Nine-Tailed Biju's jinchuriki.
Warning: Unmarked spoilers from Naruto below:
The Whorl within the Spiral provides examples of:
- Battle in the Center of the Mind: As with Naruto, Kushina has to deal with the sealed Kurama in her mindscape, taunting and threatening her in an attempt to provoke her into either giving in to her hatred or releasing him. When Kurama breaks free of the seal binding him, he seizes control of Kushina's body, though Kushina and Minato are able to battle and defeat Kurama within her mindscape.
- Caged Bird Metaphor: Although used with a butterfly instead of a bird, Kushina is shown to be living an oppressed existence, confined to an area seal in the village and having ANBU guarding her all time.
- Call-Back: Kushina remembers Mito's words to her telling her of "filling her vessel with love", this gives her the strength and will to fight back Kurama and help Minato driving him down.
- Call-Forward:
- While Minato is developing the Rasengan, Jiraiya suggests him to try spinning the chakra in the direction his hair whorl twirls, a tip he would give Naruto in the future, but then it turns out that Minato's hair has two whorls that grow in both directions.
- Jiraiya shares a frozen popsicle with Minato in the same manner he would do so with Naruto in the future.
- Minato is shown having fangirls eager to hang out with him, just like his son Naruto during The Last: Naruto the Movie.
- Minato's motivation for creating the Rasengan is shown to be finding a way to emulate and counter the Tailed Beast Bomb.
- When Kushina enters her Version One Tailed Beast Mode, whisker-like marks appear on her cheeks — just like those her son Naruto sports.
- Minato getting impaled by a seven-tailed transformed Kushina evokes quite a few moments from the Naruto series:
- The moment foreshadows how both of them would sacrifice their lives to protect their newborn son, Naruto.
- During that aforementioned moment, Kushina begs him to run away and save himself, which Minato refuses and then he performs a successful attack with the newly perfected Rasengan; this is similar to how during their fight with Kabuto and Orochimaru, Tsunade begs Naruto to flee but Naruto stands his ground and manages to hit Kabuto with his first perfect Rasengan.
- After disregarding Kushina's pleas, Minato declares that he loves her and that he will not allow Kurama to have her, and charges at him; Not unlike Hinata who after Naruto pleads to her to get away, she then says that she won't allow Pain to hurt Naruto anymore, then she confesses her love to him and charges Pain.
- Near the end there's a shot of Minato with the Hokage Mountain in the background, and Minato's face is at the exact position his face will be carved on the mountain.
- The Cameo:
- The Biju Son Goku and Kokuo alongside their respective jinchuriki, Roshi and Han, appear at the beginning fighting Jiraiya, Minato and 2 other ninja.
- Tsunade appears in a single panel on the background when Minato wakes up at the hospital, implying that it was she who treated him.
- Catapult Nightmare: Kushina wakes up in this manner when Kurama goads her in her dreams to release his power.
- Chick Magnet: Despite Minato and Kushina are pretty much shown to be in a romantic relationship already, Minato is shown to have fangirls who want to hang out with him.
- Continuity Nod: It is shown that Kushina and Minato have been spending a lot of time together, and during this time she has taught him several Uzumaki clan sealing techniques. Which was mentioned by Kushina when Naruto first met her.
- "Eureka!" Moment: Minato has one when he realizes that his two whorls of hair mean that he can rotate the chakra in any direction, with this he manages to perfect the Rasengan.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Minato gets impaled by a seven-tailed transformed Kushina, though obviously he survives.
- Like Father, Like Son: Minato is shown to have a goofy side that he seemingly passed to his son Naruto, since he's shown thinking of a lame name for his newly created jutsu.
- Power Incontinence: Despite having been Kurama's jinchūriki for several years at this point, Kushina is unable to suppress the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox's power without being in a special spiral-shaped sealing grounds, which she is forbidden from leaving. The moment she leaves it, he starts breaking free of his prison in her mental world and taking over her body.
- Superpowered Evil Side: Much like he would later do with her son Naruto, Kurama tries to goad Kushina into giving in to her hatred and releasing him, while threatening to kill her if she doesn't. Leaving the sealed area that suppresses Kurama's power enables the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox to quickly take over her body, causing her to transform into her Version One Tailed Beast Mode and then into a seven-tailed Version Two Tailed Beast Mode, though Minato is able to help her suppress Kurama.
