I, the Nine-Tails, am not some tailed beast like the Two-Tails or Seven-Tails with no principles or self-respect!

"Then I'm sorry for the trouble, sister-in-law..."

Tobirama Senju nodded, feeling as though a heavy weight had finally lifted from his heart.

With the village's defenses settled, he really had no desire to keep chatting. He intended to hurry back to his room and catch up on sleep.

He still had to sneak out of the village with his older brother early tomorrow morning, then rough it all the way to the Akatsuki Ninja Village. If he didn't seize the chance to get some sleep tonight, he suspected that his chronically overworked body might simply drop dead halfway there, before he ever saw the village gates.

However, he had barely turned and taken two steps when Mito Uzumaki made it clear she had no intention of letting him leave.

Instead, at that very moment, she brought up another extremely thorny issue.

"Tobirama, don't leave just yet."

"About that matter you mentioned to me before... having me try to communicate with the Nine-Tails sealed in the basement, using gentler methods to improve its opinion of Konoha and eventually reach some agreement to borrow its power."

"I tried your suggestion. I'd say it failed. It didn't help at all."

"That damned demon fox is a beast that responds to neither kindness nor force."

"No matter what threats or incentives I offered, it refused to accept Konoha's terms. In its eyes, we Senju are just like the Uchi-

"-ha, enemies who treat it like an animal to be ordered around."

"Forget having it voluntarily step forward to protect the village in a crisis. I'm afraid the first thing it would do after breaking free of the seal is take revenge on Konoha."

Mito Uzumaki gave a cold snort as she spoke.

As the Nine-Tails' immediate keeper, no one knew better than she did