"Splash... splash..."
The sensation beneath his feet was sticky and cold. Naruto looked down and found himself standing in a pool of dark red water. Its surface reflected nothing at all, only an airless, suffocating crimson.
You never truly understood something until you experienced it for yourself. The space where the Nine-Tails was sealed felt far more real than Naruto had imagined.
The air was so heavy it felt like solid lead. Every breath carried a thick, rusty tang and an indescribable rankness, like something found deep inside a beast's lair.
Boundless darkness shrouded everything. Only straight ahead did a faint, unsettling orange-red glow shine through.
That glow was both the source and the cage.
The iron bars were immense, each as thick as the trunk of a giant tree, covered in mottled dark-brown stains like blood that had dried countless times. Behind them loomed a monstrous creature that nearly filled Naruto's entire field of vision.
Seeing it with his own eyes was worlds apart from watching it in an anime. Even though he had prepared himself, Naruto couldn't help but feel shaken.
It crouched there like a crimson mountain built from pure malice and hatred, so enormous it made him dizzy. Even the rumble of its slow breathing carried an indescribable weight that pressed down on him.
Just then, two dazzling, ferocious lights flared from within its dense, flame-like red fur. They were the vertical pupils of a beast, burning with pure hatred and savagery. Its colossal head shifted slightly, accompanied by a dull, grating scrape.
"Hmph... brat."
The giant fox head emerged from the darkness. Two rows of gleaming, icy-white fangs, each like a huge curved blade, flashed as it spoke in a low voice, its tone full of mockery and contempt:
"I'm going to... eat you."
"..."
Looking at the colossal creature that seemed to reach all the way to the heavens, Naruto suddenly recalled a certain legendary comment from the livestream.
[Hajima's panting. So cute.]
"..."
Naruto suddenly wasn't nervous anymore.
He even felt like laughing.
?
The Nine-Tails' savage pupils flickered slightly. Naturally able to sense the emotions of others, it suddenly got the inexplicable feeling that the brat below was thinking something rather disrespectful.
Just as it was about to continue intimidating Naruto, the first words out of his mouth froze it in place.
"Kurama."
?!
Those three words struck like a blow to the head, and the Nine-Tails' expression stiffened instantly.
How did this brat know its name?!
No one knew its name besides the Sage of Six Paths!
Its attempt to intimidate Naruto clashed with its shock, making it look as if it were putting on an exaggerated facial-expression routine. The terrifying atmosphere it had worked so hard to create vanished in an instant.
Seeing the Nine-Tails' reaction, Naruto got the confirmation he'd been looking for.
"So it's true. What I saw in the theater really was the future."
Naruto had already leaned toward believing it was real, but he'd read about concepts like the dream of the yellow millet and the brain in a vat. Out of caution, he still needed to cross-check the information in the real world before he could be completely sure—and confidently use it to plan ahead.
The Nine-Tails, unable to communicate with the outside world yet privy to so much, was undoubtedly the perfect one to verify it with.
"How do you know that name, brat?" The Nine-Tails arched its back and rose, baring its claws as its nine tails whipped about wildly and sent up huge sprays of water.
"Because I'm the reincarnation of Asura, the son of the Sage of Six Paths." Naruto gave the explanation he'd prepared in advance. "I've remembered some things."
Still so weak, he could only rely on this kind of information advantage to negotiate with the Nine-Tails. After all, this wasn't the Nine-Tails from later in the story, the one who would come to understand Naruto and become his partner. At this point, it still hated and distrusted humans.
It wasn't hard to understand. If anyone had been kept in a lightless place like this by humans for hundreds of years, then dragged out now and then, forcibly controlled, beaten, and locked away again, they'd probably want to hiss at anyone they saw, too.
"The old man's son?"
The Nine-Tails found it hard to believe. But the Sage of Six Paths really had had two sons, and one of them really had been named Asura. It was such ancient history that only the Tailed Beasts knew about it. Even Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha had known nothing of it back in their day.
Seeing that the Nine-Tails' attitude had softened, Naruto pressed his advantage. He told it about how Hagoromo and his younger brother Hamura had sealed their mother, Kaguya Otsutsuki, separated the Ten-Tails, founded the Ninjutsu Sect, and how the Sage's sons, Asura and Indra, had come into conflict.
The more Naruto said, the more the Nine-Tails' mind short-circuited. Everything he said was true. First, after a thousand years, it had heard its name from someone other than the Sage of Six Paths for the first time; then this brat had suddenly claimed to be the reincarnation of the old man's son; and now he was telling it all these stories that only those involved could know. The Nine-Tails began to doubt everything it thought it knew. Could this brat really be telling the truth?
No... Maybe he'd read some historical records and was trying to fool me!
Ever since the Ninjutsu Sect had disappeared, the Tailed Beasts and humans had been in conflict for a thousand years. The Tailed Beasts sometimes hurt humans because they were so immense and some of them had foul tempers. Humans, in turn, had never stopped trying to control them, coveting their enormous power... A thousand years of hatred couldn't be erased by a few simple words from Naruto.
"I don't believe you, brat," the Nine-Tails said with a sneer once it had recovered. "You say Indra and Asura have been reincarnated over and over, so why, aside from you, you fake brat, have I never seen anyone else who was their reincarnation?"
"You have. The previous reincarnation of Asura was Hashirama Senju, and the reincarnation of Indra was Madara Uchiha."
"..."
The Nine-Tails suddenly felt at ease.
I knew it. Hashirama Senju was such a freak. He clapped his hands and got whatever he wanted. The Wood Dragon and Wood Golem, each as big as me, were one thing, but what the hell was that Thousand-Armed Buddha, with every hand bigger than me? Which of us was the Tailed Beast, him or me?
So he was a reincarnation of the Sage of Six Paths' son. No wonder.
...No, I can't trust humans.
Its thoughts clashed again, but the Nine-Tails couldn't think of anything to argue with. In the end, it lay back down and said with scorn:
"So what? Why did you come to see me and tell me all this?"
"Do you want my power?"
"Forget it. The Sage of Six Paths' son wouldn't be so spineless. And no matter what you say, I'll never trust humans..."
"I'm not here for your power," Naruto interrupted calmly. "On the contrary, I'm here to make you take your power back."
"More than ninety percent of the chakra inside me is being used to suppress you. And you keep leaking your chakra through the gaps in the seal to interfere with the normal flow of mine, so I can't use ninjutsu properly... Does it make you feel good to see that the Jinchuriki who sealed you is a dead-last?"
Naruto stared straight at the Nine-Tails. It was like an ant looking up at a giant tree, yet the ant pressed forward, step by step, sending ripples across the water as he went.
He reached the bars, and the two of them were almost breathing against each other. Naruto's bright blue eyes met the Nine-Tails' scarlet vertical pupils without flinching. His voice carried a hint of resentment:
"I don't want your power."
"Give me back my power, Kurama."
"You're over a thousand years old. You live inside a kid's body without paying rent, and that's not enough—you have to make trouble for an orphan, too? Can you stop being so childish?"
Before you continue