Long Time No See, Teacher Jiraiya.

Naruto Uzumaki's finger bones, extended with sharp claws, stopped only two or three centimeters from Arata's eyes.

Yet that touchable distance had become an insurmountable chasm he could never cross!

"Damn it..."

"Damn it!"

Suppressed, vicious words of unwillingness squeezed and collided through Yu Zhi's sharp teeth.

He wanted to kill the bastard before him.

He desperately wanted to kill this bastard!!

But with every bit of struggle, the pain he felt abruptly intensified. The black energy chains bore the absolute power of a master-servant contract, mercilessly inflicting Kamui's punishment upon a disobedient pet.

Yet even as Naruto Uzumaki's entire body suffered inhuman agony, an indescribably stubborn will seemed to dwell within him, driving him to struggle, resist, and tear the intruder before him to pieces!!

"I will absolutely take Sasuke's eyes back."

"I will absolutely beat you to a pulp!"

"This is my ninja way, and I will see it through!!"

Under the output of contract power that ordinary people simply could not endure, the weakened power of the Nine-Tails instead allowed him to recover a fragment of his own consciousness.

His fist, frozen in midair, once again showed signs of advancing forward!!

"Oh?"

"I overlooked the fact that a Jinchuriki is divided into a host and a tailed beast."

Watching the little Nine-Tails' increasingly powerful will, Arata spoke thoughtfully.

It was like using genjutsu to control a perfect Jinchuriki: one needed to separately control the Jinchuriki himself and the tailed beast dwelling within him.

Right now, he had merely forcibly written Kurama's name onto the contract.

But what could suppressing the Nine-Tails' will and power accomplish?

The gap between them could not be bridged by a few cries of "keep it up," nor by carrying out some so-called "ninja way."

Yet just as Arata raised his leg, intending