As Naruto stepped through the iron gate with one foot, the fox's closed eyes cracked open by A Trace, a faint glint flickering within.
Smack!
The moment Naruto's entire body passed through the gap and came to a stop on the other side of the iron gate, the fox's crimson eyes flew fully open. Its body shifted, nine enormous tails rising high behind it, every strand of red fur bristling.
"Roar! Roar!"
The fox threw back its head and roared.
Naruto looked up at the Nine-Tails with focused attention. He had already activated the Mirrored World's defensive mechanism, but once inside, he realized the Nine-Tails was several times larger than it had appeared beyond the iron gate.
He could hear an indescribable exhilaration in the fox's roar. Just as he was trying to decipher its meaning, the fox stopped howling. Its mountain-sized head lowered directly toward him, nearly pressing against Naruto's body.
"Brat! I can't sense any fear in you!"
After the fox spoke, its eyes gleamed with dangerous scarlet light. Rows of incomparably sharp canine teeth opened and closed, as though it were considering swallowing Naruto whole.
"I didn't know you existed before. I only met you today, so why should I fear you? This is a Sealed Space that belongs to both of us. In a sense, we are equals. Besides, why define our relationship from the very beginning in terms of who fears whom?"
Naruto saw his own reflection in the fox's crimson pupils and answered without the slightest change in expression.
"Heh heh! Equals!"
The instant it heard those words, the fox revealed its ferocious nature. Red Chakra churned all over its body like a bloody radiance. A savage gleam flashed in its eyes, and its foxlike face became terrifying beyond measure.
Not good! The Nine-Tails really can't be trusted!
Outside the iron gate, Minato Namikaze saw that something was wrong. The moment that thought flashed through his mind, his hands rapidly formed Hand Seals, preparing for the crisis of Naruto losing control at any moment.
While he was busy, that ominous Chakra blinked into existence and completely wrapped around Naruto's small body.
Warning! The Mental World has been invaded. Under the defensive mechanism, you may choose forced expulsion or forced capture.
The instant Naruto was wrapped in that Chakra, his eyes turned completely red. Then he heard the prompt from the Mirrored World. However, he ignored it for now, because he could feel that the fox's Chakra was not trying to seize his will. It had merely dragged him into a chaotic space.
There, he seemed to see the sort of ghosts and monsters from television dramas in his previous life. First came waves of seductive, urging voices. Then negative emotions thick with hatred surged toward him like crashing waves, threatening to drown him.
This was pure resentment. Within it, he could actually sense certain emotions conveyed by the fox. Naruto also found this resentment deeply familiar. In an instant, it reminded him of the mad wish from his previous life—to escape his wheelchair and become a healthy human being.
Especially before the final moment when disaster struck, lives vanished, and he made his last wish—when faced with the great terror between life and death, he discovered that no emotion could help him escape his desperate situation.
Those twenty-odd years of barely clinging to life in that world had shown him countless examples of humanity at its darkest.
So, at the moment of his release, he had also uttered the most vicious curse, cursing the world that had made him feel such injustice.
Since coming to this world, he had believed from the start that emotions were useless against reality. The worse reality became, the more easily people sank into impractical fantasies.
Hatred, numbness, despair, bitterness, collapse, fear—he had tasted them all. Only now did he realize that these negative emotions had once supported his humble life.
"Big Fox, you should be able to sense my state of mind right now. These negative emotions are nothing to me."
"Stop testing me with such clumsy methods. As a being with what could almost be called eternal life, you cannot understand true human despair. You should be able to feel that I bear you no ill will. I came here sincerely to discuss how to solve this problem."
As soon as he finished speaking, Naruto found himself out of that chaotic space. The fox was studying him with great interest.
Outside, Minato Namikaze nearly stumbled when he heard his son's voice.
Although the expected crisis did not seem to have occurred, he continued preparing himself in case something unexpected happened again.
"Brat, you are the strangest human I have ever seen."
"The obsession of hatred runs deep in your heart. You use negative emotions as nourishment to cultivate something with an unclear meaning. What's more, I can sense that while this hatred nurtures that thing, you are gradually stripping it away from the world. You have become an observer with cold rationality."
After its test, the fox seemed to have truly discovered that Naruto bore no ill will. Its face was no longer as vicious as before.
Naruto smiled faintly. "You're curious about what it has cultivated?"
The fox grinned. "I am indeed curious. I watched you grow from childhood, but I never expected the resentment caused by your own negative emotions to be of such scale."
"If it really is as you say, then what it has cultivated should be the will to survive and constantly grow stronger."
"Will? What is that?"
The fox was somewhat puzzled. Even its pupils widened slightly.
Naruto thought for a moment before saying, "Will is the psychological tendency by which a person consciously determines a goal, then regulates and controls their actions according to that goal, overcomes difficulties, and achieves the intended objective. It is an important psychological factor in the process of human decision-making."
"The pain brought by these negative emotions can be said to have carved itself into my bones. It can also be said to have intoxicated me."
After turning those words over in its mind several times, the fox opened its mouth wide. "Hmph! You brat have been literate for less than a year. How did you come up with all this messy nonsense?"
Minato Namikaze outside was also somewhat confused. Only now did he realize that whether it was Naruto's growth from childhood or the time they had spent together since recognizing each other, Naruto did not act like a child at all.
The personality his son displayed was more like that of an adult with rich life experience.
And not an ordinary adult, either.
At that thought, Minato Namikaze's expression suddenly turned extremely grim. No one knew what he had thought of, but he fell into deep contemplation.
Naruto stared into the fox's eyes with a bright gaze and slowly said, "Pain makes people grow! And now, can we discuss cooperation?"
The fox looked at Naruto suspiciously with its vertical pupils. "How do you want to cooperate?"
Outside, Minato Namikaze also snapped back to attention and pricked up his ears.
Naruto spoke solemnly. "I will give you a promise!"
The fox replied instinctively, "What promise?"
Naruto looked directly into the fox's eyes with a blazing gaze. "Within sixteen years, I will free you from the seal and grant you true freedom, so long as you believe in me."
The Sealed Space suddenly fell silent.
Not only was the fox stunned, but even Minato Namikaze unusually did not speak out in opposition this time.
After a long while, the fox roared, "Do you know this? Once I am free, I will definitely destroy Konoha!"
"That has nothing to do with me."
Naruto replied blandly, as though his father beyond the iron gate—the Fourth Hokage of Konoha—did not exist.
"Roar!"
"Brat, tell me! Are you really willing to grant the Tailed Beasts freedom? Do you know that once a Tailed Beast leaves a Jinchuriki's body, the Jinchuriki will certainly die?"
The fox stared coldly at Naruto and roared in a questioning tone.
Naruto's expression remained unchanged. "Certainly die? Nothing is absolute. This is the Shinobi World. With a power as miraculous as Chakra, I will definitely find a way to free you while keeping myself alive."
"Also, let me state this again. You possess intelligence no less than that of humans. In my eyes, Tailed Beasts are no different from humans. You Tailed Beasts and we humans can communicate with one another from equal positions."
"Very good! Brat, you are not bad! I cannot sense any ill will from you either! Your willingness to come in here also proves your courage."
The fox spoke as though it had confirmed something.
"I never bore you any ill will to begin with."
Naruto lowered his head slightly. He remembered.
Later in the anime's story, the Nine-Tails could specifically sense the ill will of others. Now that Naruto was standing this close to the fox, it must have been using that special ability to test him all along.
And when its Chakra had wrapped around his body earlier, he had clearly sensed some of the fox's thoughts.
"Brat! Hold out your fist!"
Naruto had just lost himself in thought when the fox's booming voice rang out, making his ears buzz. Looking up, he saw that the fist formed by the fox's claw covered his entire field of vision overhead, nearly touching the top of his head.
He knew this scene.
Calmly, he raised his arm and held out his fist.
Bang!
The instant the large and small fists touched, man and fox immediately discovered that they could directly read each other's truest thoughts at that moment.
"Brat! My name is Kurama! Do not forget your promise!"
"I will remember. Once a promise is spoken, it will certainly be fulfilled. Let me formally introduce myself—Naruto Uzumaki. I hope you remember my name as well."
But at that moment, an unwelcome voice appeared again.
Warning! The Mental World has been invaded. Under the defensive mechanism, you may choose forced expulsion or forced capture.
Before you continue