Remembering all the suffering the Nine-Tails had caused him over the years, Naruto felt the pain as if it were his own. The more he thought about it, the angrier he got. Then he complained to the Nine-Tails:
"You think everyone wants your power? I couldn't care less! Thanks to you, I've been through a lot! You're a fox who never had to take an exam, so do you even know how embarrassing it is to fail the graduation exam twice in a row?!"
"Don't get so cocky... you brat!"
The Nine-Tails had always been feared as a ferocious beast, so it was hardly known for its good temper. Being scorned to its face by a brat wounded its pride—this was the first time anyone had ever looked down on its power.
The Nine-Tails rose and roared:
"I am the Nine-Tails! A bringer of disaster and destruction! You snot-nosed brat, do you have any idea how powerful I am? Indra and Madara Uchiha both begged me to help them. Even Hashirama Senju only locked me up because he feared my power... You foolish brat, I'll tear you to shreds!"
"..."
Naruto's temple twitched as the Nine-Tails sprayed spit all over his face.
To be honest, Naruto had already been in a bad mood when he came in, and the Nine-Tails' ridiculously arrogant attitude was just begging for it.
Forget it.
There was no one watching him in here, so what was there to hide?
He was going to let loose.
"Get lost, you stinking fox!"
Naruto raised both middle fingers. "Let's see how you like Grasp of the Undying and War Stomp! Come at me! You stupid asshole!"
?!
The first human ever to insult it like that left the Nine-Tails at a loss.
This wasn't right.
Humans who could beat it attacked outright. Humans who couldn't, no matter how much it insulted them, still spoke to it politely... Wait. Had this damn brat just cursed at it?!
"What did you say, you brat?!"
The Nine-Tails slammed its massive claw against the bars, making the water churn. "Open the damn door if you've got the guts!"
"Why don't you get out yourself!"
"Open the door, if you've got the guts!"
"You said you were so powerful, so why can't you even open a door? All you can do is yap like a dog! Or are you too scared to come out? Just say so. I'll definitely make fun of you, you stinking fox!"
"You... I... I'll eat you alive! Grrr—!!"
The Nine-Tails had spent decades cooped up at home and had never argued with anyone like this. Its verbal skills and defenses against insults were, in the end, too crude. At a loss for words, it flew into a rage. Its berserk chakra nearly broke through the cage, and the entire sealing space trembled. But Naruto stood motionless before the storm, making faces at the furious Nine-Tails.
Neither of them noticed the hidden chakra deep behind the bars tremble slightly as the Nine-Tails went on a rampage. In the end, the Nine-Tails still couldn't break out of its prison, and the chakra faded back into silence.
About half an hour later.
Finally worn out from arguing, the human and the fox both sprawled on the water, their chests heaving. Naruto shakily raised his middle fingers again. "So stop messing with my chakra control, okay? Otherwise, I'll come in here and insult you every day."
"You damn brat..." The Nine-Tails bared its teeth, putting what it had learned to use. "I've never messed with your chakra control, okay? Dumbass."
"Huh?"
The Nine-Tails went on to explain, "Your... The person who sealed me inside you used two Four Symbols Seals to form the Eight Trigrams Seal. That way, the chakra of yours truly that leaked through the gaps in the Four Symbols Seals would be converted into your chakra... I've never messed with your chakra control. You're just too weak to handle even the chakra of mine that leaks out!"
At that, Naruto's eyes slowly widened. He suddenly realized that he might have jumped to conclusions.
Although he'd learned the general outline of the story from the movie theater, the videos there were shown at random, so he didn't know every last detail.
But he was quite sure of the Nine-Tails' character. That proud fox wouldn't stoop to lying. If it had done it, it would've just admitted it with a mocking laugh.
So... he really had jumped to conclusions.
—A valuable lesson.
Naruto sat up and looked at the Nine-Tails with complete candor.
"Thanks."
?
The Nine-Tails was dumbfounded.
Had this guy been cursed into stupidity? Why was he suddenly thanking it?
It swore that, in the thousands of years since the Sage of Six Paths had died, it had never asked itself so many questions in one day, nor experienced so many firsts.
The first time a human had called it by name.
The first time someone had looked down on its power.
The first time a Jinchuriki had insulted it.
The first time a human had thanked it.
"Then I was wrong. Sorry for misunderstanding you." Without a trace of embarrassment, Naruto went on to apologize openly.
Oh, and now there was another first: the first time a human had apologized to it.
The Nine-Tails stared wide-eyed at the brat below, who had lain back down again. A complicated look flickered in its eyes.
Naruto didn't notice. At that moment, he was sorting through the logic.
"So my poor chakra control isn't because the Nine-Tails is deliberately interfering. Maybe I just lack the natural talent for it?"
"That's possible... But in a world that puts so much emphasis on bloodlines, both my parents were ninja who were good at controlling chakra. Did I somehow end up with the opposite of their talent?"
"Maybe there's another possibility... Compared to this enormous amount of chakra—the Uzumaki bloodline plus the chakra converted from the Nine-Tails—my spiritual energy was too weak before. Controlling my chakra was like a child trying to lift a sledgehammer, or a pony trying to pull a heavy cart. Of course I couldn't control it well... I'll test that once I get out."
"After all, now I've already... Hmm?"
Just as Naruto was thinking, a feeling of relief washed over him—or rather, his mind—and interrupted his thoughts.
"What's going on?"
Naruto stood up in surprise. It felt as if a thousand-pound burden had been lifted from his body, leaving him light as a feather. Not only that, the chakra inside him began to flow faster on its own. It was like the flow had changed from a trickle to a steady stream, and had somehow multiplied several times over!
Naruto looked at the Nine-Tails in astonishment. It had already turned away from him, its back to Naruto, as if it were asleep.
But the entire sealing space had changed, too. The pool beneath Naruto's feet was no longer blood-red; it had turned clear. The stench in the air had vanished, and even the mottled marks on the bars were slowly fading, their surfaces growing smooth.
A sudden flash of insight made Naruto understand.
All of these changes were because the Nine-Tails had reined in its chakra.
In the story, while Naruto was training in the Wind Style: Rasenshuriken, Kakashi had told him that his chakra was four times greater than Kakashi's. But if Naruto wasn't using any of it to seal the Nine-Tails, he'd have a hundred times as much.
That meant more than ninety percent of Naruto's chakra was tied up in keeping the Nine-Tails sealed.
But that chakra was divided between different tasks: some of it maintained the sealing formula, and the rest repaired it.
After all, with a rebellious nature like the Nine-Tails', how could it sit quietly in the seal and accept its fate? In the story, whenever Naruto's resolve wavered, it had managed to escape several times. That showed it had never stopped trying to corrode the seal.
The blood-red water, the stench, and the dried blood on the pillars had all been physical manifestations of the Nine-Tails' chakra leaking out.
But now the Nine-Tails had reined in its chakra. That meant the chakra Naruto had used to repair the seal was free, naturally leaving him feeling relieved and making it seem as though his chakra had increased out of nowhere.
"Damn, you're something else..."
Naruto looked at the Nine-Tails, touched.
He had no idea what had gotten into the fox to make it suddenly change its tune, but that didn't stop him from wanting to reach through the bars and stroke its fur—
"So cute."
"Don't touch me! Ow!"
The Nine-Tails, which had been pretending to sleep, couldn't take it anymore. It shrank back, then turned around and bared its teeth.
"Get lost, you brat! Don't push your luck!"
Before you continue