"That fox inside you seems rather agitated." Liuyu rose from the Throne and slowly descended the steps.
His footsteps were light, almost silent, yet each one seemed to land on Naruto's heartbeat. "Why not let him out for a chat? He and I are old acquaintances, after all."
"You... you know Kurama?" Naruto finally found his voice.
"Know him? You could say that." Liuyu stopped three meters in front of Naruto, a distance neither too close nor too far, leaving no sense of pressure while allowing them to see each other's expressions clearly.
"After all, I was once a Konoha ninja, and the Nine-Tails is Konoha's tailed beast. Though the last time we met, he was sealed inside Minato's wife, and I was merely a spectator."
"The last time you met?" Naruto froze. "When?"
"Sixteen years ago, during the Nine-Tails' attack." With a smile, Liuyu spoke words that chilled Naruto to the bone.
"I was right there, watching Minato and Kushina give their lives to seal him, watching you become a jinchūriki, watching Konoha wail amid that disaster. Such a touching sacrifice, wasn't it?"
"You..." Naruto clenched his fists. "You were there, but you didn't help?"
"Help?" Liuyu sounded as though he had heard something amusing. "Why should I have helped? That was Konoha's affair. What did it have to do with me?"
"But you were a Konoha ninja once, too!"
"Once." Liuyu nodded. "But not anymore. My village betrayed me, slandered me, and hunted me down, so I left. From then on, whether Konoha lived or died had nothing to do with me."
His tone was calm, as though he were stating an objective fact. Yet Naruto heard something deeper in it-not hatred, not anger, but utter, icy indifference.
"Why did you bring me here? What do you really