Prejudice in People's Hearts Is Like a Mountain

"What do you want to do?"

Interest flickered in Nine-Tails' eyes. Perhaps because they had found a common topic, Nine-Tails' attitude toward Naruto grew somewhat friendlier.

"Kurama, do you want to destroy Konoha with me?" Naruto invited Nine-Tails.

"..."

Nine-Tails fell silent. After a long while, it spoke in an oddly inscrutable tone. "That guy Asura would never say something like that."

Nine-Tails' words did not provoke much of a reaction from Naruto, because he remembered that Asura in the original story had seemed like some kind of saint.

He looked curiously at Nine-Tails and asked, "What kind of person was Asura?"

Nine-Tails froze for a moment before falling silent again, its brow furrowing. It seemed to be thinking. As Asura's former companion, Nine-Tails naturally knew him very well. Even after several centuries, it still clearly understood what kind of person Asura, the second leader of the Shinobi Sect, had been.

But a Tailed Beast was still a Tailed Beast. After Asura left, it had simply lazed around in the mountains. So even after hundreds of years, Nine-Tails was still illiterate. It racked its brain—large on the outside but actually tiny within—trying to figure out how to properly introduce Asura to this Little Blondie.

Yet after thinking for ages, only one sentence came out of its mouth.

"Asura... was a very kind person."

Naruto was somewhat dumbfounded. Seeing Nine-Tails think for so long, he had assumed it was about to give him something profound, perhaps use a pile of flowery language to describe Asura's glorious image. He had never expected it to be so... plain.

You only knew two words, and you needed that long to think?

Still, kind was indeed a very fitting description. Asura had been so kind he was practically a saint—he really was like one. In the original story, Uzumaki Naruto, influenced by Asura's Chakra, could say something like, "Obito, who wanted to become Hokage, was the coolest," right after Hyuga Neji had been pierced to death.

He really believed love could create peace. But what right did he have to forgive the enemy who had just killed them on behalf of those who had sacrificed themselves?

"So, Kurama, do you believe in that too? Creating peace with love?" Naruto looked at Nine-Tails curiously, wanting to hear its opinion.

Nine-Tails fell silent. To be honest, it had believed in it before. After all, it had once fought alongside Asura. But after being sealed away for decades, it had come to feel that Asura's ideas were somewhat naïve.

Although Nine-Tails did not answer, its expression had already given Naruto the answer. Smiling, he said, "It would be hard for me to become someone like that. After all, you expect me to forgive those people."

"Kurama, don't you think that's ridiculous?"

The smile had long vanished from Naruto's face, and his azure eyes were filled with icy coldness.

Nine-Tails also fell silent. Though it had always been confined within the Sealing Space, it could still sense everything outside. It knew very clearly what kind of malice this Little Blondie had suffered in Konoha. It would not be an exaggeration to say that it had watched Naruto grow up. If Naruto had not been the Nine Tails Jinchuriki, and if not for the Uzumaki Clan's innate vitality, he likely would not have survived until now.

What irony. A hero had to bleed, and his child still had to weep.

"Kurama, kindness without its teeth is weakness. When forced upon others, it becomes malice."

"Was Asura truly a kind person? Blindly choosing to use his own 'love' to reform others, making them accept what he considered well-intentioned ideals, making them put down their hatred—was that not another form of evil imposed upon others?"

Nine-Tails did not speak. It merely watched Naruto quietly as Naruto continued in a low voice.

"Prejudice in people's hearts is like a mountain. No matter how hard you try, you can never move it."

"If I truly followed Asura's path and chose to use 'love' to build a bridge of mutual understanding between people, would those ignorant villagers really accept me openly?"

"When all was said and done, everything in the Ninja World was decided by strength."

Although Uzumaki Naruto in the original story had truly earned everyone's recognition through his own efforts and become Konoha's Seventh Hokage, Naruto now had no desire to follow that predetermined path in shaping his life.

Why should the perpetrators pay nothing, while he, the one who had suffered their bullying, still had to beg for their recognition?

What a joke. He was not like all those weaklings. Did they see the enormous crimson fox before him? He truly possessed the power to destroy Konoha.

He, Uzumaki Naruto, would do whatever he wanted!

Prejudice in people's hearts was like a mountain. No matter how hard one tried, one could never move it.

And this time, Nine-Tails deeply empathized with Uzumaki Naruto as well, and it could not help but begin reminiscing about the past.

The so-called "embodiment of hatred" was merely a label that began circulating after it was sealed inside Uzumaki Mito. Before that, it had only been a large fox living in the mountains.

As the strongest of the Nine Tailed Beasts, a being formed from the aggregation of Chakra, Nine-Tails' strength would naturally grow even if it simply lay around. Even if it did nothing at all, its power still ranked among the greatest in the world. So after leaving the Sage of Six Paths, it had directly gone to lie around in the mountains.

It had already been lying around in those mountains for several hundred years when someone suddenly arrived shouting, "Nine-Tails, your power is too great! You're too dangerous!" Then they grabbed it and sealed it inside a woman.

Nine-Tails immediately began cursing. Damn you! You're so powerful and dangerous—why don't you seal yourself away? It had done nothing. Every day in the mountains, all it did was eat and sleep. Why should it be sealed away?

Just because it was a Tailed Beast?

It had done nothing, yet it was suddenly thrown into prison—an indefinite sentence at that. Nine-Tails immediately began to darken.

Yet Nine-Tails still had one question in its heart.

"Kid, you know, don't you?"

"Know what?"

"Your parents died by my hand."