In the consciousness space, time seemed to have frozen.
Naruto watched Kurama, who had fallen into a long silence, with some unease. The giant fox had its eyes tightly shut, its brow deeply furrowed, and its facial muscles twitching slightly, as though it were immersed in an extremely intense—even painful—whirlpool of emotion.
Judging from its ever-changing expression, it seemed to have seen something far beyond its expectations, something deeply unsettling.
At last, Kurama's massive eyelids trembled and slowly opened. Its eyes held bottomless shock, lingering fear, and... an indescribable fury and panic that was nearly bursting forth!
The final image lingering in its mind was Naruto activating that mode wreathed in blazing red Chakra! It clearly "heard" another version of itself roaring at Naruto.
"...This technique... Naruto! What did you do?!"
It was a conversation it had witnessed between the "self" from another time and space and the more mature Naruto from that world.
"This is a technique I temporarily came up with by borrowing Satsuki's power. I call it Yin-Yang Release: Bipolar Life-Reincarnation Guardian Contract Spiral..."
"Naruto!" The other Kurama's voice was filled with terror and desperation to stop him.
"...Sorry, I used Yin Release to freeze the karmic link between you and this mode." That mature Naruto's voice carried a resolute calm as he spoke the cruelest words. "This technique consumes my Life Energy. Please, after gaining your freedom, protect the world until those bastards are completely gone..."
"Bastard?! You... why would you do this?!"
"We're together, remember? From prison mates who hated each other, to companions who fought together, to brothers fighting side by side... You and I stopped being separate long ago!"
That Naruto's final voice carried a weary smile, yet it pierced the heart of the Kurama witnessing it all.
"...Maybe it's also because whenever