"...Companion?"
Kushina repeated the word blankly, her voice full of confusion. Who? The Nine-Tails? And who was Kurama?
From what Naruto was saying, it sounded as though he had become friends with the Nine-Tails Fox Demon that hated all humans.
But how was that possible? The Nine-Tails had been sealed inside her for over a decade. Though they had technically been "together day and night," their relationship could only be described as utterly terrible.
Every time they met in the sealing space, the Nine-Tails would try every possible means to tempt her with malicious whispers, seeking a weakness to seize her mind and gain freedom. Kushina's response had always been simple and brutal: she would bind it into a dumpling with Adamantine Sealing Chains, then forcibly draw out its Chakra for her own use.
Being friends with the Nine-Tails? This child's way of thinking was just too...
Seeing the incomprehensible expression on his mother's face, as if she had heard some absurd fantasy, Naruto felt it was understandable. He decided to explain it in the most straightforward way.
"Like this," he said easily, rising to his feet. "We're partners, two hearts as one."
At the slightest movement of his thoughts, warm, brilliant golden Chakra instantly surged from his body, forming Nine-Tails Chakra Mode—dazzling as the sun and radiating powerful yet peaceful waves.
"!!!"
Yet the instant she sensed that Chakra, utterly different in color but incomparably familiar in essence, Kushina sprang out of her chair! Her face was filled with terror, and she almost instinctively activated her Chakra to summon Adamantine Sealing Chains!
"Wait! Don't panic!" Seeing his mother's reaction, Naruto hurriedly lifted his shirt before the phantoms of those golden chains could appear, exposing the completely intact Eight Trigrams Seal on his abdomen.
"The Nine-Tails hasn't gone berserk! The