Nine-Tails: What the Hell Is This Thing?

In the pitch-black night sky, a few morning stars twinkled, and a faint glow had begun to rise at the horizon. This night was nearing its end.

Naruto's fantastical journey had also come to an end. The two spiritual bodies left the "Dream World" together and returned to the Sealing Space.

This was also the first time Naruto had seen the Nine-Tails Fox sealed inside his body with his own eyes, aside from within the "Dream World."

"It's huge! So this is the Nine-Tails? It looks so fierce. No wonder everyone's afraid of him!"

Naruto had already learned from Daren Yi of the Nine-Tails' various "tragic" misfortunes over the years. Although he had personally witnessed the Nine-Tails' claws pierce his parents, he surprisingly could not bring himself to hate him.

Instead, he felt a strange sense of kinship. After all, he himself had been called the Nine-Tails Fox for so many years.

In a sense, they ought to be the same kind—outsiders isolated from the crowd, both living "a life despised by others"!

"Kid! What kind of look is that? Are you pitying me?"

The Nine-Tails had never cared about being hated and despised by countless people, nor feared their attacks. Yet a single look of pity and sympathy from this little brat broke through his defenses.

Damn it! What right did a weak, pitiful human cub have to pity Lord Nine-Tails? Was this some kind of joke?!

Boom!

With an explosive crash, the Nine-Tails' towering body, like a small mountain, slammed fiercely against the iron bars sealing him. The gale it stirred swept in all directions.

From seven-year-old Naruto's perspective, it was as though the entire sky above him had come crashing down. The enormous shadow cast across the ground danced wildly alongside the Nine-Tails' nine massive tails, each nearly a hundred meters long, making him look like a demon god...

"S-So cool!"

Little Naruto stood on the ground, looking up at the sky with his mouth hanging open in astonishment. His sparkling eyes practically shone, yet his gaze remained pure and sincere.

"Huh?"

The Nine-Tails tilted his massive fox head in confusion, his two fluffy orange ears twitching. He seriously suspected he had misheard!

Shouldn't this human cub have been so frightened that he burst into tears?

What the hell did "so cool" mean? He was the strongest Tailed Beast, one that should be described as terrifying, savage, and domineering!

The Nine-Tails' orange-red pupils gradually turned vicious. He bared his fangs at Naruto in a feral grin. As the giant beast breathed normally, the wind blasting from his nostrils alone made Naruto's clothes flutter and his hair whip about.

Yet Naruto's reaction once again exceeded the Nine-Tails' expectations. The little brat actually smiled—he actually gave him a cheerful, hearty, sunlit smile?

"What are you smiling about?" the Nine-Tails asked irritably.

"You smiled at me, so I smiled at you!" Naruto said as if it were only natural.

"You really aren't afraid of me?" The Nine-Tails became even more annoyed!

"Nope!" Naruto even found the big fox a little cute.

Sniff, sniff!

Still unwilling to believe it, the Nine-Tails instinctively twitched his nose. He discovered that this brat truly did not feel the slightest fear toward him. There was not even any greedy malice or possessiveness toward his power.

Impossible! The Nine-Tails began to suspect something was wrong with his senses and his nose.

So he turned his head and sniffed Daren Yi, who stood to the side silently smiling as he watched the show.

The next second, the big fox's fur stood on end all over his body, turning him into a fluffy ball of fur. Startled, he leaped several huge steps backward, nearly retreating into the corner.

What the hell was this thing?!

Had some "aggregate" of human negative emotions and desires gained sentience?

Sage of Six Paths above, he, the Nine-Tails, had lived for over a thousand years. What hadn't he seen? But he had truly never seen anything like this thing before him!

He had not sensed carefully earlier and had assumed it was merely a genius ninja from the Uchiha clan, a monstrous powerhouse like Madara. But now, after seriously examining him with his innate ability to sense malicious emotions...

The Nine-Tails could beat his chest and swear on his fox dignity: whatever this thing was, it was absolutely not a person!

Instead, it somewhat resembled the ancient gods completely buried beneath the dust of history—demonic creatures condensed from emotions and desires, yet powerful beyond all reason.

The negative emotions and desires the Nine-Tails sensed from him were like a boundless ocean condensed into form...

The most absurd part was that something like this, practically a "natural wonder," actually had its own consciousness?

Just imagine: if one day, the sun suddenly reached out and greeted the humans of Earth, would they panic? That was enough to understand how the Nine-Tails felt right now...

As the Nine-Tails wore an absurd expression that screamed, "This is beyond ridiculous," Daren Yi cleared his throat and got down to business. "Nine-Tails, let's make a deal!

As long as you cooperate with Naruto in drawing upon and using your Chakra whenever possible, and protect Naruto at critical moments, I promise I won't bully you casually!"

???

This was a deal? The Nine-Tails felt he was talking nonsense, and wanted to give him a few Tailed Beast Bombs!

"If you're pretending to be human, why can't you speak like one?"

The Nine-Tails warily took several steps back, putting plenty of distance between himself and Daren Yi, though he refused to concede verbally.

"Honestly! Nine-Tails, you're soft all over except for that hard mouth of yours! Fortunately, I, Daren Yi, am best at reasoning with people!"

Daren Yi had loved Kurama in his previous life. Now that he could personally bully this big fox in this life, his mood was through the roof...

He formed hand seals, and the Mangekyō Sharingan bloomed in his eyes. The Nine-Tails, who had already developed a psychological shadow over it, instinctively lowered his head to avoid looking directly at it.

Yet he ended up meeting a pair of Mangekyō head-on. Those blood-red eyes entered his vision and shone into the depths of his heart.

"You're mistaken! Nine-Tails, you think you're lowering your head, but in truth, your mind has been misled. You've already forgotten that you lowered your head once before. This time, you're raising it!"

Standing in the distance without moving an inch from beginning to end, Daren Yi quietly watched the Nine-Tails, who had kept his head lowered to avoid directly meeting the Mangekyō, lift his head in blank confusion.

Within his huge orange-red pupils appeared the reflection of a Sharingan bearing the same pattern as Daren Yi's eyes.

"The Mangekyō Sharingan really does counter Tailed Beasts completely! But even so, with Chakra on the scale of the Nine-Tails, I still need him to look directly into my eyes before I can fully control him!

Now that this step is done, the next will be easy. Nine-Tails, come try my Genjutsu: Sensory Deprivation Black Room!"

The Nine-Tails was about to go insane. He had merely glanced at those Mangekyō by accident, and then he had completely lost consciousness.

When he woke again, he could no longer sense his body. It was as though only a mass of consciousness remained, locked alone inside a little black room surrounded by nothing but darkness.

Everything beyond seemed to have become void. He could hear no sounds, see no images, smell no scents. His sense of touch and taste had become void as well. He could not even be sure whether time was still passing normally...

Thanks to readers "Very OK Suspicious New Slope," "Yun Qi Ding's Flash of Inspiration," and "Lou Lan" for the monthly votes, and thanks to every reader for following, commenting, supporting, and voting with recommendation tickets!

(I originally wanted to list the nicknames of some familiar readers, but then I felt I should list the names of every reader who cast a recommendation vote. After typing for a while, I quietly gave up. I might as well spend that time writing extra chapters... Though this is still the new book period, I'll try to release more extra chapters later! Enough rambling, back to writing.)