Kurama's Power

"Menma."

Squelch!!

The voice that suddenly appeared in Menma's mind made his body tremble.

The sharp scalpel carved a deep wound across the fresh, beating heart, and blood immediately gushed out.

Menma froze for a moment. Looking at the completely ruined experimental material in his hand, a surge of anger abruptly rose in his chest.

"Phew... Don't get angry, don't get angry. After all, it's just the useless fox I raised."

He let out a long breath, then gritted his teeth. "What. Is. It?"

The Nine-Tails' tone was clearly filled with impatience and frustration as well. It snapped irritably, "That brat Naruto is looking for you."

"I bet he asked you something you didn't understand, so you came to me to bail you out, right?"

Menma immediately saw through Kurama's little scheme, drawing a burst of impotent indignation from it.

But if it was something even Kurama didn't understand, it was probably related to philosophy or law again.

Naruto was at the age when his values were taking shape, and his curiosity was especially strong. A moment of carelessness could easily lead him down a dead end.

This was when he needed guidance.

"I'll go back once I'm done with the experiment."

Menma answered absentmindedly, then turned and recorded the experimental data on the Computer beside him.

Come to think of it, the Shinobi World's Tech Tree was seriously warped.

They had Computers, Televisions, radios, and even living biological research laboratories.

Yet they lacked all kinds of heavy weapons, and means of transportation like trains were pitifully scarce.

If this were some fictional manga world, then everything could be explained away as a bug.

But now, this was a real world.

That meant all those seemingly incongruous things had their reasons.

"Is productivity simply too low? Or is it because of the daimyo..."

As Menma pondered, the Nine-Tails' voice rang out again.

"Menma, what's the use of all these experiments? You'd be better off retrieving that half of my body."

What use were experiments?

"What would an academically hopeless fox like you know? Ignorant and fearless, indeed!"

Hearing Kurama's words, Menma sneered disdainfully. "If my current research project succeeds, you'll be able to sit on Madara Uchiha's head and beat the stuffing out of him whenever you want!"

"Hm?"

Beat up who?

Madara Uchiha?!

Inside Naruto's Sealing Space, the great fox that had been lying in its cage doing nothing instantly sat upright, its two large ears standing tall.

Little Naruto, who had been frowning with a pen clenched between his teeth, also came back to himself. He turned his head in confusion. "What's wrong, Fox Teacher?"

"This has nothing to do with you, brat. Get back to your books!"

Without even turning its head, the Nine-Tails suddenly remembered something and added through gritted teeth, "And how many times have I told you?! Don't call me Fox Teacher!"

That brat Naruto was becoming more and more like that Menma fellow.

At first, he had only been a little mischievous, but lately he had been getting increasingly outrageous.

He had actually wanted to touch its tail.

"Okay, Fox Teacher. Got it, Fox Teacher."

Naruto recited obediently, then lowered his head again to look at the test paper on the desk.

"Ah... 'To kill one person in order to preserve the world is not to kill one person for the world's benefit; to kill oneself in order to preserve the world is to kill oneself for the world's benefit.'"

He clutched his head and wailed, then muttered in distress, "Mozi's Da Qu... This sentence feels so hard to understand."

Kurama's mouth twitched. It turned its head away, too lazy to argue with such a single-minded brat.

"You just said... beat up Madara Uchiha?"

With a thought, light gleamed in the Nine-Tails' fox eyes as an idea stirred in its heart.

If one were to ask which human it hated the most—

Without question, it was Madara Uchiha.

"Yeah. Once I go back and get some experimental materials."

At those words, Kurama's fur stood on end as it complained, "How much fur have you already plucked from me? You're practically going to strip me bald!!"

But...

"Madara Uchiha's grave grass should be three feet high by now, right? Are you planning to dig him out of his grave?"

Menma smiled meaningfully. "A ruthless hero wouldn't die so easily."

"How could that guy possibly still be alive??"

The Nine-Tails frowned.

It had witnessed Madara Uchiha's death with its own eyes. Even his life force had completely vanished.

Hashirama Senju might have been a fool, but his younger brother was no fool.

A fake corpse could never have fooled Tobirama Senju so easily.

"Even the Hyuga Clan has its own secrets. The Uchiha Clan has even more hidden away."

Menma did not want to explain too much. He merely brushed it off and changed the subject. "Answer a few questions for me."

"Hm?"

"From the time you Tailed Beasts were born until now, has your strength remained unchanged, stagnant?"

"Of course not!"

As though it had heard something insulting, the Nine-Tails said indignantly, "You humans are still progressing, so naturally we Tailed Beasts are advancing as well! We simply chose different paths!"

So that was it?

Menma stroked his chin, confirming the suspicion in his heart.

There had been a joke about the Tailed Beasts in Naruto in his previous life.

When the Sage of Six Paths distributed shares of Tailed Beast Chakra, One-Tail got one share, Nine-Tails got one share; Two-Tails got one share, Nine-Tails got one share; Three-Tails got half a share, Nine-Tails got one share...

In the end, there was one share left. Fine, let the Nine-Tails have it.

But in Menma's view, that joke was complete nonsense.

Many people believed that the Tailed Beasts' strength had remained unchanged from their birth until now.

But clearly, that was wrong.

When the nine Tailed Beasts were born, they were all still in their juvenile stages. By the era of the ninja villages, all nine had taken on adult forms.

The most obvious example was Chomei.

As a juvenile, it had only been a cocoon, but after growing up, it became a fusion of a beetle and a dragonfly.

"When the Sage of Six Paths created the Tailed Beasts, he probably did divide the chakra evenly. That means differences emerged while the nine Tailed Beasts were growing."

The nine Tailed Beasts all possessed different abilities.

The Eight-Tails Gyūki was second only to the Nine-Tails in strength. It had Ink Sealing Technique, limb regeneration, and octopus-tentacle clones. It was also the brains among the nine Tailed Beasts.

Chomei had tail-vibration insect bites, flight, and scale powder.

Saiken had powerful acid, poisonous gas, and Lava Release.

These Tailed Beasts' abilities leaned more toward biological traits, and they had not deeply developed their own powers.

Then there were those whose abilities leaned toward chakra natures.

Kokuo had horn charges and Boiling Release; Son Gokū had Earth Release and Lava Release; Isobu had Shadow Touch and Water Release; Matatabi had cat claws and Fire Release.

Shukaku, who had always been at odds with the Nine-Tails, actually possessed Sealing Technique, Wind Release, and Magnet Release as well.

It had the fewest tails, but its strength was not weak.

"Unfortunately, beneath the Nine-Tails, every tail is equal."

Menma grumbled inwardly before asking, "So, Kurama, what path of development did you choose?"

The Nine-Tails seemed to possess neither any particular chakra nature nor unique biological abilities. Menma was also curious what "path" the Nine-Tails had chosen.

Perhaps it could open a new door for his experiments.

After hesitating for a moment, the Nine-Tails finally spoke in a low voice. "Over these hundreds of long years, the nine of us Tailed Beasts have actually all been thinking about what true strength is."

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