With the Nine Tails right in front of him, Nagato rummaged around as if searching through a box, tugging at Naruto's soul. In the end, he still couldn't find the Chakra he wanted.
The Chakra Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki had left inside Naruto was connected to the Four Symbols Seal. Unless he tampered with the seal, he couldn't find that Chakra. And if he did tamper with it, Minato Namikaze would appear on his own. The Fourth Hokage's methods really were reliable.
As for Itachi Uchiha, the Crow he'd put inside Naruto had been placed there with great skill, too.
Unlike the Chakra of Minato Namikaze and his wife, Nagato could find Itachi's Crow. But whenever he tried to grab it, the damn bird would fly all around inside Naruto like a headless chicken. It was slippery, too, and he just couldn't pull it out.
The damn Crow didn't care whether Naruto lived or died, either. It let Nagato tug at Naruto's soul as he pleased. Nagato got the feeling that even if Naruto died, the Crow would stay in Naruto's corpse with Shisui's eye until it eventually vanished.
"Pain! You promised me!"
The Nine Tails suddenly roared at Nagato. Nagato had grown impatient from all the fumbling, and with a hard yank, he pulled Naruto's entire soul out.
He didn't care who Naruto was. Since he couldn't get anything out of him, he might as well kill him. Nagato was in a pretty violent mood at that moment.
As Nagato pulled Naruto's soul free, Naruto's eyes rolled back, and he collapsed limply. It looked as though he were dead.
A surge of fury rose in the Nine Tails, but just then, a flash of white light appeared, and it fell silent again. Another soul had suddenly appeared at the point where Naruto's soul connected to his body.
Like a corpse suddenly coming back to life, the soul of Asura, the eldest son of the Sage of Six Paths, was pulled out by Nagato!
He had short hair, a headband wrapped around his forehead, and two strands hanging down at his temples, each wrapped in white cloth. The instant Asura's soul appeared, Nagato stopped what he was doing and warily watched the big shot.
Unfortunately, Asura's soul seemed to have no consciousness left. It simply floated between Naruto's soul and body without moving.
Nagato blinked, overjoyed. This big shot's soul was far more valuable than the Chakra he'd found earlier. He was just about to pull Asura's entire soul out in one go, continuing to tug at it with his hands, when he realized he couldn't move it at all!
He froze awkwardly, and deep inside, a shiver ran through him as if he were facing a powerful enemy. It felt as though something terrifying had fixed its gaze on him.
"Naraka Path!"
Nagato summoned the King of Hell. Then, through its eyes, he saw the enormous shadow behind Asura's soul, glaring down at him with its Rinnegan. It was a pretty frightening sight.
"Heh. So the one who hits the kid brings out the old man, huh?"
Seeing the Sage of Six Paths through the King of Hell's eyes made Nagato's heart skip a beat with fright. Once he'd caught his breath, he said that with great indignation. But his body told the truth: he hurriedly stuffed Naruto's soul back inside.
Once he'd finished, Nagato even patted Naruto's body with his hand. It was as if he were using that simple gesture to show the Sage of Six Paths that Naruto's soul had been safely returned, and the old man could rest easy.
Nagato didn't dismiss the King of Hell he'd summoned. He kept it watching the enormous shadow hovering in the air, waiting to see how the old man called the Sage of Six Paths would react.
Was he satisfied with Nagato's "admission of fault and quick correction"?
Asura's unconscious soul returned to Naruto's body along with Naruto's own soul. The Sage of Six Paths' enormous shadow, however, hovered there for a little while longer, as if to make a show of its power, before slowly fading into the void.
Nagato wiped his brow, though there was no cold sweat there, and let out a sigh of relief.
"Good thing that old man Six Paths has a decent temper and doesn't seem interested in attacking."
Thinking that, Nagato looked over at the Nine Tails, and the Nine Tails happened to look back at him.
"What did you see just now?" "What did you see just now?"
The man and the tailed beast asked each other the exact same question at the same time.
Then, at the same time, their expressions stiffened, and they fell into thought...
Originally, both of them had been eyeing Naruto hungrily, but now...
They were both baring their teeth a little, too wary to make a move against Naruto.
That old man Six Paths was pretty scary. The question was whether the Nine Tails could see him...
Nagato glanced at the Nine Tails, which was staring blankly from behind the bars. When it noticed, it immediately shot him a fierce look, as if to say, Don't even think about messing with me. I'm super scary!
It looked more than a little like it was bluffing.
After a while, once his soul had returned to his "body," Naruto finally regained consciousness and sat up.
"Who the hell are you?!" The kid really was a bit of an idiot. The moment he came to, he immediately yelled at Nagato as if Nagato owed him a fortune.
"I'm your senior, junior brother! Don't worry, I won't hurt you!"
Nagato's expression changed, and he immediately gave Naruto a harmless smile. He even patted Naruto on the shoulder in a friendly way, like a warm and kind older boy next door.
The Nine Tails narrowed its eyes at the shameless redhead. It had no idea how the man could go from trying to kill Naruto one moment to treating him like a gentle spring breeze the next. Its fox face was full of contempt. Was this what shamelessness looked like? Still, for some reason, it didn't expose Nagato outright.
Naruto, though, flew into a rage at his words. "How could you possibly be my senior?! You bastard! You did this to my master, my teacher, my friends, and my village! I'm going to kill you!!"
Dark, negative emotions began pouring out of Naruto's abdomen again.
The kid really was a bit stupid. He never stopped to wonder whether he could take on his enemy. He was always so righteous and confident.
Nagato narrowed his eyes. "I really am your senior. All right, let me tell you a few things."
Now that Nagato had realized he couldn't kill Naruto or get at the Chakra inside him, he decided to try another way of dealing with him. "First, my name is Nagato Uzumaki. Remember that. I really did train under Master Jiraiya for a while. It's just that I didn't learn any real skills."
The two words "Uzumaki" made Naruto freeze. It was the first time in his life he'd ever heard of someone with the same surname as him.
"Next, your name is Naruto Uzumaki. Your father was Konoha's Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze. Your mother was a kunoichi from the Uzumaki Clan in the Land of Whirlpools, named Kushina Uzumaki. She was also the previous Nine-Tails Jinchuriki."
Nagato tossed one fact after another at Naruto, leaving him seeing stars. These were all the things Naruto cared about most. Minato Namikaze and his wife should have told him at the right time, but now Nagato had revealed everything ahead of time.
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