Because He Cannot Escape

The two ate in silence; Naruto had nothing to say, but Jiraiya was a man who could never keep his mouth shut, chattering incessantly about ninja tales and his own stories of wandering the shinobi world.

Naruto had no interest in these topics, but he kept it to himself; compared to such things, he was far more interested in ninjutsu.

By the time the meal was finished, the two had managed to bridge the gap between them somewhat.

"Is there something you needed, Jiraiya-sama?" Naruto asked curiously after pouring two cups of tea and sitting on the sofa. According to the original story, Jiraiya only returned to Konoha during the Chunin Exams, and even then, it was because of Orochimaru.

"Actually, there isn't really anything. Say, why can't I sense your chakra? Have you not refined any yet?" Jiraiya didn't answer Naruto's question directly, asking out of curiosity instead. He had wanted to ask the moment they met, but it would have been too abrupt then, so he brought it up now.

"That? Honestly, I don't know either." Naturally, he couldn't tell others about such things.

"Oh? Then, would you mind if I checked?" Jiraiya hadn't forgotten the main purpose of his visit.

"Sure, go ahead." After a moment's thought, Naruto held out his hand.

The moment Jiraiya placed his hand on Naruto, he sensed a bottomless, unfathomable amount of chakra.

Even Jiraiya had never seen such a volume of chakra in his entire life.

A gasp of shock nearly escaped his lips.

What is going on? Even if he is of the Uzumaki Clan, it's impossible for him to have this much chakra. Having known Kushina and even having taught Nagato Uzumaki, he knew well that while the Uzumaki Clan possessed vast chakra reserves, compared to Naruto, they were still lacking.

His left hand moved with lightning speed, pulling up Naruto's shirt to expose his stomach.

Naruto's instincts flared, and he instinctively wanted to strike, but he suppressed the urge.

What he saw was a perfectly smooth abdomen, complete with four-pack abs.

But Jiraiya was not satisfied; instead, his expression turned grave. He hadn't seen what he expected to see—the seal of the Nine-Tails was gone.

If the seal was gone, then where was the Nine-Tails?

Chakra surged, entering the Sealing Space.

Inside the vast, golden expanse, Jiraiya appeared, and what he saw left him dumbfounded: a colossal red Nine-Tails was lying on the ground, fast asleep. There was no sealing cage, no other restraints.

Of course, in reality, there was still a seal; a string of golden chains was wrapped tightly around the Nine-Tails' neck, suppressing its ability to use chakra. However, because the Nine-Tails' fur was so thick and the chains were so small, they were invisible from Jiraiya's perspective.

"What is going on? The Nine-Tails' seal is broken, so why hasn't it escaped?"

"Because it can't." Naruto's calm voice echoed from behind Jiraiya.

Jiraiya jumped, startled, and scrambled backward.

"You brat, you'll scare a man to death!" Jiraiya, having entered, was completely stunned by the state of the Nine-Tails.

Naruto didn't speak, just stared straight at Jiraiya.

For a fleeting moment, Naruto considered killing Jiraiya; the fewer people who knew his secrets, the better. Outside his body, Naruto was certainly no match for the man, but now, with the opponent so close and caught off guard, he had a chance to end him.

But considering Jiraiya's role in the original story, Naruto held back and stayed his hand.

"Are you curious why it hasn't escaped?" Naruto asked directly.

Jiraiya remained silent. After all, the power of the Nine-Tails was immense; just lying there, it exerted a pressure that Jiraiya knew he couldn't defeat.

"Because of this." As he spoke, eight golden chains emerged from behind Naruto.

"Adamantine Sealing Chains." Seeing this, Jiraiya was shocked. He was Minato Namikaze's teacher and had often visited his home to drink, so he had interacted with Kushina and naturally seen her use this technique.

The Adamantine Sealing Chains were specifically designed to restrain Tailed Beasts; even the Nine-Tails would be suppressed if bound by them. Compared to Kushina's ten chains, the eight Naruto manifested were fewer in number, but in terms of both the quality and quantity of chakra, Naruto was ten times stronger than Kushina.

"When did you awaken this?"

Jiraiya asked curiously.

"I forgot the exact time." Who would remember such a thing?

"What about its seal?" Jiraiya pointed at the Nine-Tails, curious. He knew that without the key, even he couldn't have undone the Nine-Tails' seal.

"I guess I was just bored? I don't really know the specifics. The seal just stopped working, so I awakened this and used it to reseal the Nine-Tails." Naruto feigned a blank expression, brushing it off casually.

Jiraiya was no fool; seeing Naruto act this way, he knew he wouldn't get any real answers. But a Nine-Tails without a seal was incredibly dangerous; if anything happened to Naruto, the beast would surely break free.

"Do you want me to help you reseal it?" Jiraiya stated his purpose directly.

"Not for now, because the Nine-Tails and I are good friends." Naruto grinned, showing his teeth.

Having said that, he looked toward the Nine-Tails.

"Right, Kurama?" The Nine-Tails opened its eyes, meeting Naruto's threatening gaze.

"That's right, the brat and I are good friends." The Nine-Tails bared its teeth, not caring how Naruto knew its name.

Jiraiya looked at the strange atmosphere between the boy and the fox, unable to fathom how they could possibly be friends.

To convince him, Naruto walked up to the Nine-Tails and patted its paw, signaling friendship.

The Nine-Tails reached out and patted Naruto on the head.

"You're getting cocky, Nine-Tails, daring to touch my head." Because they were in physical contact, Naruto's voice echoed directly in the Nine-Tails' mind.

"If you want me to play along, brat, you have to pay a price." The Nine-Tails bared its fangs; for him, being able to pat Naruto's head was enough to keep him satisfied for a while.

Naruto snorted and said nothing more. In truth, he hated it when people touched his head, but for now, to deal with Jiraiya, he had to let the Nine-Tails take advantage of him. Besides, being patted by a fox that large made for a truly bizarre sight.

Jiraiya's mouth twitched as he watched, but at the very least, it showed that the relationship between the two wasn't as bad as he had imagined; at the same time, he was puzzled as to when the Nine-Tails had become so good-tempered, for even if Naruto possessed the Adamantine Sealing Chains and could suppress the Nine-Tails, such a situation shouldn't have been happening.

The previous jinchuriki, who was also Naruto's mother Kushina, was likewise a powerful ninja who could suppress the Nine-Tails all on her own, yet the way the Nine-Tails and Kushina got along was quite hostile; basically, they never spoke to each other.

In reality, it was because the Nine-Tails was tsundere, while Kushina feared the power of the Nine-Tails and kept it suppressed tightly, never once engaging it in conversation.

Naruto was different; he felt no fear toward the Nine-Tails and treated it like an ordinary friend, seeking it out every day to chat, and as for plundering the power of the Nine-Tails, it was a case of one willing to give and the other willing to take.

As for eventually seizing the power of the Nine-Tails, that was done by defeating the Nine-Tails fair and square, and to the Nine-Tails, having a bit of its power devoured by Naruto was nothing, as it would recover again very quickly.