If You Want to Know, I'll Tell You

Inside the Sealing Space, Kurama was, as always, lying on the sofa watching a show.

He was watching Ultraman Tiga. Battles between giant beasts dozens or even hundreds of meters tall were easier for Kurama to relate to.

Maintaining the form of a Little Fox half a person's height, he sensed Naruto's arrival and deliberately pressed pause.

Turning around, he greeted Naruto, who stood not far from the sofa. "Yo, Naruto. The exams are over? How did you do?"

Come to think of it, Kurama and Naruto had not seen each other for seven days.

Ever since they first met in the Sealing Space, they had spent every day by each other's side, yet this was the first time they had gone so long without seeing one another.

Seeing Naruto's expressionless face and obvious bad mood—

Had he failed the exam?

Kurama's thoughts shifted, and he comforted him. "Don't lose heart, Naruto. If you didn't pass this time, there'll be another chance. Don't you always say that persistent effort is the foundation of success? Keep it up!"

Naruto shook his head. "I passed. I did well and got full marks."

Meeting Kurama's puzzled gaze, Naruto continued, "Kurama, you once said that the Fourth Hokage died by your hand, right?"

At those words, Kurama's expression stiffened slightly.

This brat had never cared about such questions before. Why was he suddenly asking? Had he learned something?

Still, Kurama had long been mentally prepared for this day.

Without saying much, he pushed himself up from the sofa and extended his fist toward Naruto.

Since you want to know, then I will tell you the whole truth, including everything I thought and felt at the time. After that, what comes next will be yours to decide.

Their fists met, and Naruto felt the scene before his eyes shift. He appeared in a forest.

Once again, he entered Kurama's memories, becoming an enormous orange Nine-Tails fox living freely, if lonely, in the forest.

Though every human who saw him throughout his long life looked upon him with fear and terror, he had still lived peacefully.

Until a man with long black hair and a fan emblem embroidered on his clothes suddenly appeared, shattering that peace.

"Become my power, Nine-Tails."

This man called Uchiha Madara declared it in a lofty tone. His black pupils abruptly turned blood-red as he used the Pupil Power of the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan.

From that moment on, Kurama lost control over his own body.

From the perspective of a bystander, he witnessed the entire process of being forced to sign a Summoning Contract with Uchiha Madara, becoming his summoned beast, and then following him into battle against a man named Hashirama Senju.

Kurama was deeply unwilling. He had no desire to fight for a human who regarded him as a lesser beast and an uncontrollable disaster.

But the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan was too powerful. Even with all his strength, Kurama could not break free.

In the end, the man called Uchiha Madara was defeated by Hashirama Senju.

And Kurama, who had joined the battle as a summoned beast, was left utterly listless after being struck by Hashirama Senju's ultimate move, Top Transformed Buddha.

The battle had been as simple as a human beating up a frail kitten.

He had thought that dreadful experience would end there.

Yet the human named Hashirama Senju, who had manhandled Kurama like a kitten, said to him, "Your power is far too great. You need to be sealed."

Then, without asking for Kurama's consent, a woman named Mito Uzumaki sealed him inside her body. From then on, he lived a miserable life shut inside a little dark room, cut off from the outside world.

He was weaker than his opponent. Though Kurama's heart was filled with resentment, he could not change that fate.

Decades later, Mito Uzumaki's life was nearing its end. Kurama eagerly awaited her death. As long as he could escape that miserable little dark room, he would not have cared even if he had to die along with her once.

The human world was too dangerous. From then on, he would hide deep in the mountains and never come out.

Yet unexpectedly, he was extracted from Mito Uzumaki's body and sealed inside a little girl named Kushina Uzumaki.

This little girl, Kushina Uzumaki, inherited humanity's usual arrogance. She had no desire to communicate with him, spending every day binding his body with powerful Sealing Techniques and extracting his strength.

Fortunately, this little girl's power was ultimately far inferior to that of the previous Jinchuriki. The Nine-Tails was able to extend some of his senses and observe the human world, making his life a little less boring.

As the years passed, Kurama watched the little girl who bound him grow up and gradually become a young woman.

Although Kurama did not understand why this woman named Kushina Uzumaki strengthened her Sealing Techniques every night to block off his senses, the days simply continued to pass.

She found someone she loved, married a man named Minato Namikaze, built a family, and had a child.

On the day that child was born, he was, as always, tightly bound.

By then, Kurama could not even be bothered to entertain the thought of struggling. Perhaps this life of being locked in a little dark room would continue forever?

Then, on that very day, the Pupil Power he loathed appeared.

The masked man used the Summoning Contract with Uchiha Madara, along with the Mangekyo Sharingan, to control him and extract him from the Jinchuriki Kushina Uzumaki's body.

Under that control, he rampaged through Konoha. He could not refuse the Sharingan's Pupil Power, nor did he want to.

Then, the man named Minato Namikaze, now the Fourth Hokage, transferred him outside the village, where the woman named Kushina Uzumaki once again bound him with Adamantine Sealing Chains.

A Jinchuriki who had a Tailed Beast extracted from her body was destined to die. Though she bound him, the Tailed Beast, once more before her death, she could not change that outcome.

Because she did not know that if he, the Tailed Beast, were sealed back into her body, she could be saved.

And even if she had known, her weakened body at that moment could no longer bear all of Kurama's power.

Kushina wanted to use her last Chakra to split Kurama apart and seal him into the body of her newborn child.

The man named Minato Namikaze loved his wife deeply and did not wish to live alone. So that his wife could see their son after he grew up, he used the forbidden Sealing Technique known as the Reaper Death Seal.

He sacrificed his soul to the Death God and divided Kurama into two halves, Yin and Yang.

He then sealed the Yang Attribute half inside his son Naruto's body, while the remaining Yin Attribute half, along with Minato Namikaze's soul, was taken into the Death God's stomach.

Minato Namikaze had hoped that his son could live on as the village's hero, and the power of this half of Kurama was the protection he left for his child.

But in the end, things did not go as he had hoped.