First Meeting on the Night of the Nine-Tails

BOOM—!!!

The deafening roar and the sound of the explosion caused Ling Xuan, still in his swaddling clothes, to suddenly "open" his eyes.

No, perhaps not open, for he felt himself enveloped in a warm darkness.

Yet, an indescribable sense of crisis and chaotic energy fluctuations were clearly transmitted into his fragile consciousness.

What... is going on? Ling Xuan's consciousness was somewhat muddled.

His last memory was of being struck by a runaway truck while trying to save a little girl crossing the street, followed by nothing but darkness.

Logically, he should be dead.

"Waa—waa—"

The cries of an infant uncontrollably escaped from "his" own mouth.

Wait, an infant?!

Ling Xuan was struck with horror. He tried to control his body, only to find his limbs soft and powerless; even turning his head was exceptionally difficult.

He struggled to "see" his surroundings, but his vision remained blurred.

He could only vaguely sense that he was lying in a small basket with a wooden structure that was shaking violently, as if it might fall apart at any moment.

"Nine-Tails... it's that Nine-Tails!"

"Hurry! Protect the Hokage!"

"Minato-sensei!"

Fragmented shouts filled with anxiety and terror pierced through the wooden boards and reached Ling Xuan's ears.

Nine-Tails? Minato?

Ling Xuan's consciousness instantly became much clearer.

To any fan of Naruto, these two words represented one specific, fateful night.

One of the most tragic disasters in the history of Konoha: the Nine-Tails' Attack!

I... I transmigrated? And I transmigrated into the world of Naruto as an infant? Furthermore, I'm at the scene of the Nine-Tails' Attack?!

This realization left Ling Xuan both horrified and unable to laugh or cry.

Others transmigrated with a system, or as a descendant of a powerful clan, or at the very least, as a healthy youth.

But him? He had become a powerless infant, and it was a "hell-mode" start!

Just then, a chakra fluctuation far more terrifying than any before suddenly erupted, carrying a destructive, violent aura.

Even through the wooden house, Ling Xuan could "feel" the horror of that power.

"ROAR—!!!"

It was the roar of the Nine-Tails! This time, it was right before his eyes!

The roof seemed to have been torn off, and chaotic air currents rushed in, bringing with them the heavy scent of blood and burning.

Ling Xuan felt the force holding him disappear, and the cradle he was in tumbled out, coming to a stop at the edge of some ruins.

It was at this very moment that his vision miraculously cleared for an instant.

He saw it!

Under the night sky, outside the village, stood a giant orange-red demon fox that blotted out the heavens.

Its nine massive tails whipped about frantically, each strike triggering a sound like the earth shattering and mountains collapsing.

The demon fox's scarlet beastly eyes were filled with destruction and hatred.

And before the demon fox stood a blonde man wearing a white haori, his back resolute and imposing.

It was the Fourth Hokage, Namikaze Minato!

"It won't do... I cannot let it continue to destroy the village!" Minato's voice was weary, but filled with unquestionable determination.

He quickly formed hand seals with both hands.

"Sealing Jutsu: Dead Demon Consuming Seal!"

A hideous phantom of the Shinigami emerged behind Minato, emitting a chilling aura that made one's soul tremble.

Almost the instant the Shinigami appeared, Ling Xuan felt an unbearable, burning pain in his eyes, as if two flames were igniting within his sockets.

After the intense pain, a cool current of air surged from his eyes into his brain.

In that moment, his vision underwent a world-shaking transformation!

In the vision of his left eye, the rampaging Nine-Tails was no longer just a demon fox, but was composed of countless dense, inseparable particles of red chakra.

These particles were entangled and combined in a profound way, forming the life-form of the Tailed Beast.

He could even "see" the flow of negative emotional energy contained within the Nine-Tails' chakra.

Meanwhile, in the vision of his right eye, the flow of chakra within Namikaze Minato, the composition of the Dead Demon Consuming Seal, and the energy essence of the Shinigami phantom were all clearly displayed in his "mind" like a three-dimensional structural diagram.

The meaning of every hand seal and the mobilization of every strand of chakra seemed to be slowed down countless times, allowing him to see them with absolute clarity.

[Target: Nine-Tails Demon Fox]

[Status: Berserk, (Analyzing... traces of suspected ocular jutsu manipulation detected)]

[Energy Composition: High-density Tailed Beast chakra, containing massive amounts of negative emotion... Analyzing...]

[Weakness Analysis: Mental connection unstable... Soul...]

[Target: Namikaze Minato]

[Status: Life force rapidly depleting, soul sacrifice in progress...]

[Jutsu Analysis: Dead Demon Consuming Seal (S-rank Forbidden Jutsu)--Principle: Summoning the Shinigami at the cost of one's own soul to seal the target... Structural analysis completion: 15%...]

[Special Skill Analysis: Flying Thunder God Technique (Space-Time Ninjutsu)--Principle: Spatial leaping via jutsu markers... Structural analysis completion: 5%...]

Lines of profound information flowed into Ling Xuan's mind like a waterfall, corroborating with the scenes his eyes were "seeing."

This is... my golden finger?!

The Eye of Truth?!

Ling Xuan was both shocked and delighted. Although he was still an infant, unable to move a muscle.

His eyes and his brain, however, were operating at an unprecedented level of efficiency at this very moment.

He "watched" as Minato struggled to split the Nine-Tails' chakra into two, sealing one part into the newborn Naruto, forming the Four Symbols Seal and the Eight Trigrams Seal.

Every detail, the chakra patterns of the sealing jutsu, and the methods of energy guidance were recorded and analyzed by his Eye of Truth.

[Jutsu Analysis: Four Symbols Seal--Principle... Analysis completion: 30%...]

[Jutsu Analysis: Eight Trigrams Seal--Principle... Analysis completion: 28%...]

Although Ling Xuan's current infant brain could not yet fully comprehend this super S-rank information.

The Eye of Truth had already deeply branded all of it into the depths of his soul, waiting for him to slowly digest it in the future.

The Nine-Tails' roar gradually subsided, and the raging chakra storm slowly dissipated.

The figures of Minato and Kushina Uzumaki collapsed, having protected the village and their child with their lives.

The surroundings fell into a deathly silence, leaving only the burning flames and the cries echoing from afar.

Ling Xuan lay in a dilapidated cradle, his tiny body trembling slightly from the "information overload" he had just experienced.

He closed his "eyes," yet his mind remained filled with the earth-shattering sealing scene, along with countless profound jutsu patterns and energy flow diagrams.

"The Nine-Tails Incident... Namikaze Minato... Kushina Uzumaki... and, Naruto Uzumaki..."

"Not only did I survive, but I witnessed the entire process of the Nine-Tails sealing at the very start, and even analyzed the surface-level mechanics of the Dead Demon Consuming Seal, the Flying Thunder God, and the Four Symbols and Eight Trigrams Seals..."

An indescribable excitement surged in his heart.

Although the starting difficulty was hellish, with this Eye of Truth.

In the future, it might not be impossible to carve out a path to the heavens in this cruel ninja world!

"This world, I, Ling Xuan, have arrived!"