Can the Nine-Tails Do a Backflip?

"I understand." Ino was completely flustered, her face flushed and her body stiff as she walked towards the fireworks display.

Naruto stood by and watched, with Nine-Tails crouching at his feet. The two of them, one human and one fox, squinted on the dark, gloomy hillside, waiting to watch the fireworks.

Suddenly, Ino was holding a candle, stopped and turned to walk towards Naruto.

"What's wrong?" Naruto asked, amused. "You look really good in that Yukata, but surely you're not afraid to order it?"

He guessed that Ino was uncomfortable wearing Yukata, but in fact, it did look quite nice, so he just casually complimented her.

Ino, unusually, didn't reply. She blinked a few times, her face flushed in the candlelight. She pursed her lips slightly, turned her head in another direction, and then reached out her hand.

". for you."

There's nothing in the palm of your hand; if it's handed over, then all that's left is the hand itself.

Naruto was slightly taken aback, then quickly grabbed Ino's hand.

"Ah! Don't rub it!"

"This was your initiative."

"... Alright, this is the only time." Ino compromised.

The fireworks were lit, their dazzling display and explosions startling the usually quiet hillside. Naruto and Ino lit them and ran. Naruto held Ino (the Nine-Tails) in the other.

The two people and the dog jogged along, glancing back at the fireworks, and started laughing as they ran.

Finally, panting heavily, they hid in an alley near a fork in the Konohagakure Street, looking at each other with their hearts pounding.

The next day.

The Fireworks Festival saga has finally passed without incident. Naruto has a day to rest, and tomorrow he'll be going on a mission with Team Eight.

He didn't ask Sakura any further, thinking he'd check on her after the mission was over. If she'd recovered, then everything would be fine. If she hadn't, it wouldn't be a bad thing either.

Sasuke has been driven almost insane by Itachi Uchiha, making it impossible for him to fall in love, get married, and have children like an ordinary person. He is too pure, seeing only black and white, and only right and wrong.

Such people are stubborn and live a tiring life. They will neither back down nor make peace, and they will not be trapped by love or locked in their souls.

The heavy rain was coming; it was an unjust fate that had chosen him.

Naruto was well aware that Sasuke Uchiha was unsolvable, and there was no need for him to get involved in his affairs.

"There are too many lunatics in this world." Naruto lay lazily on the sofa, turning his head to look at Nine-Tails, who was sitting on the small sofa opposite him in the same posture, chewing on a dog's leg.

"Hmm?" Nine-Tails was happily munching on a piece of meat, lying on a smaller sofa that Naruto had specially bought for it. "You mean the Uchiha?"

"Who else could it be but them? They're ruthless even to their own people."

"Where is my wine?"

"Go get it from the refrigerator yourself."

"You're the dog! Even if I jumped up, I couldn't reach it!"

"Would you be willing to practice backflips?"

"You brat! Don't push your luck. Once I regain my strength, I'll tear you to pieces!"

"Alright, alright." Naruto yawned as he got up and slowly walked towards the refrigerator. "I'll wait for that day. Anyway, you're older than me. But when will you recover from this state?"

"If I recovered, would you still be able to stand up and talk?" Nine-Tails' voice, sounding like he was just giving up, came from the other end of the sofa.

"You have to practice opening the refrigerator if you don't know how." Naruto Teuchi the refrigerator and was about to reach for the special drinks for Nine-Tails when a mechanical synthesized voice suddenly sounded in his mind.

[Ding! Hinata's favorability with Nine-Tails' Recognition by 45%]

Upon seeing the line of text that popped up on the panel, his body froze instantly. Wasn't the mission supposed to be stalled?

Before releasing the Nine-Tails, Naruto had already prepared for the mission to stall. If acquiring the Nine-Tails' power stopped at 37%, it wouldn't be such a bad thing; at least he wouldn't feel guilty every time he faced Hinata.

More importantly, he needs to separate the Nine-Tails from himself as soon as possible. The ability of the Evil God's Hound to suppress the Nine-Tails is one aspect, but it can also prevent Akatsuki from acquiring the Tailed Beast.

The Nine-Tails is now a dog, cloaked in the guise of Evil God's Hound, which is tantamount to being protected by the Evil God Hidan worships. In other words, its guise cannot be removed by human power.

Simply put, the Nine-Tails in its Chakra state no longer exists, so even if the Sage of Six Paths intervened, he would not be able to collect the Nine-Tails from him.

Unless, the Evil God disappears.

But this ethereal thing is almost as unsolvable as the Death Reaper in the Pure Land; no matter who comes, it's useless.

With no way to deal with the Nine-Tails, and not wanting to use Hinata as a tool, Naruto, considering both factors, decided to seize the opportunity and forcibly remove the Nine-Tails during the fireworks festival.

But now it seems that whether the Nine-Tails is inside him or not has nothing to do with the questline.

The Nine-Tails isn't useless; it's just being suppressed. Once the Nine-Tails- Tails questline is completed, the two of them—one human and one dog—will have at least the combined power of two Nine-Tails. Besides, the system is powerful and reliable; there should be more options available.

Last time it was delayed, and this time it's delayed again.

Forget it, I won't think about it anymore.

After hesitating for a few seconds, Naruto gave up thinking. Why think so much? The world isn't so easily destroyed, and he's not the savior.

"Kid, why are you so slow? Did you get your brain caught in the refrigerator door?"

"Stop nagging! If you keep talking about backflips this afternoon, then..." Naruto grabbed a bottle of liquor and slammed the refrigerator door shut.

He went to the kitchen to get a glass of water, then walked to the sofa and placed the chilled wine in front of Nine-Tails. Nine-Tails skillfully opened the bottle and, in a very human-like manner, hugged it and drank it down.

A summer breeze swept across the balcony, making the wind chimes tinkle. A man and a fox tilted their heads back and drank water (or wine) in unison.

The next day.

Naruto, along with Nine-Tails, met up with the three members of Team Eight at the village entrance. They heard that their mission was to find the Scent-Tracking Bug, an endangered insect that can track scents.

Seemingly a chain reaction, Naruto didn't care about Sasuke's whereabouts, but the higher-ups began to take it seriously. They not only assigned the skilled tracking Team Eight the task of finding the Scent-Tracking Bug, but also dispatched a large number of Anbu to the Land of Rice.

The two advisors and Danzo's reasons were so valid that Tsunade couldn't object and could only let them go.

"Hey! Naruto, you have a dog too?" Kiba Inuzuka strolled over leisurely from a distance, hands in his pockets and Akamaru on his head.

Team Eight has arrived. Hinata walks to the side with her head down, while Shino Aburame, remains as composed as ever.

"Shut up, you Akamaru's mode of transportation!" Naruto and Kiba Inuzuka still couldn't get along.

"You're calling me a means of transportation?" Kiba Inuzuka rolled up his sleeves. "You want to fight?"

Akamaru, perched atop Kiba Inuzuka's head, stared at Nine-Tails for a long time. The more he looked at it, the less it resembled one of their kind, so he desperately tugged at Kiba Inuzuka's hair to prevent it from getting close to Naruto.

"Huh? Akamaru, what did you say? Naruto's dog is dangerous?"

Besides