First Conversation, A Distant Call Under the Clear Sky

As Uzumaki Mito passed away, the sealing of the Nine-Tails was successfully completed.

Before he could even process his grief, Qi Luna felt the world spin, his consciousness forcibly dragged into a strange space.

It was a dark, damp cage. Beneath his feet, water barely covered his ankles. Behind him lay nothingness, an endless darkness swallowing the light at the end of the corridor. Before him stood a pale golden iron gate—the very prison formed by the Four-Symbols Seal!

As Qi Luna approached the gate that held the strongest Tailed Beast, sharp claws suddenly thrust through the gaps in the iron bars, lunging viciously toward him. They stopped less than five centimeters from his nose, held back by several golden chains that bound the beast's entire body, rendering it unable to move an inch further.

"ROAR—!!!"

The Nine-Tails' roar whipped up a foul, bloody wind. It glared at the tiny Qi Luna outside the bars, its aura filled with decades of pent-up malice and fury, howling like a demon from hell:

"Damn you, Uzumaki Mito! Even at the end of your life, you still had to play me for a fool!"

"Damn you, brat! Damn the Uzumaki Clan! These cursed chains again!"

"I'll kill you! I will tear you to shreds! I'll make sure your wretched Uzumaki bloodline is wiped from the ninja world forever!"

The violent killing intent and hatred surged like a tangible, monstrous wave, crashing against the pale golden gate and Qi Luna's mind. The Nine-Tails slammed its massive claws against the iron gate, causing the golden Adamantine Sealing Chains to pull taut and groan. Yet, as the runes flowed, the seal remained unmoved, as steady as a mountain.

Caught in the center of this storm of hatred, Qi Luna's red hair danced in the invisible shockwaves. His emerald eyes remained calm as he looked up at the legendary strongest Tailed Beast. He felt no fear, nor anger; instead, his expression held a trace of sorrow.

"I'm sorry, Nine-Tails."

Ignoring the vortex of hatred that could tear a soul apart, Qi Luna stepped past the beast's claws and the blockade of the gate. He walked firmly toward the roaring giant until he stood upon its shoulder, right beside its eye socket.

He tilted his head slightly, his gaze piercing through the boundless hatred to look directly into the Nine-Tails' bloody, slit pupils that burned like molten lava.

His voice was soft, yet exceptionally clear. It carried a strange, penetrating power that resonated steadily through the beast's roar, like an anchor dropped into a sea of fury:

"Anger... is only natural."

"To be imprisoned in a sunless cage for decades, to be driven as a weapon, to be surrounded by endless fear and hatred... I may not be able to fully comprehend such pain, but... I can understand it to a certain extent."

Qi Luna's voice was very, very light, carrying a hint of imperceptible exhaustion and confusion, yet his tone was filled with sincerity:

"I am sorry that I have bound you here in this way."

"That I have allowed the vortex of resentment to drag you into this dark abyss."

He slowly raised his hand, gently resting his palm against the side of the Nine-Tails' eye socket, his gaze meeting the beast's violent soul with sincerity:

"But I want to say that we... are not each other's enemies! This cage is not our eternal end. One day, I will grant you freedom and let you no longer be trapped in the mire of hatred and fear!"

"Will you... believe me? Kurama!"

The Nine-Tails' roar, which had been enough to shake the very space, stopped abruptly for the first time!

Qi Luna's sincere words echoed in the dim space of consciousness. That long-forgotten name was like an ice crystal dropped into boiling magma, causing the churning hatred to suddenly stall.

Its lantern-sized vertical pupils constricted sharply as it stared in disbelief at the tiny figure standing beside its eye.

The storm of hatred still surged around it, but that pure, violent killing intent had been forcibly cracked open by these sudden, almost absurdly calm words and the name "Kurama"—a name long forgotten by the world.

The entire dim, crimson space of consciousness fell into an eerie silence. Only the ripples on the water beneath the Nine-Tails and the faint humming of the Adamantine Sealing Chains, caused by the beast's sudden stillness, remained.

The Nine-Tails' massive body stiffened. In those eyes of hatred that had burned for a thousand years, for the first time, there appeared a look of pure, incredulous, and bewildered confusion that transcended anger.

"Ku... Kurama?"

"Absurd! You foolish brat! Who gave you permission to call me that? I am the Nine-Tails! The strongest Tailed Beast, the disaster that brings destruction to the ninja world! I am the existence that you pathetic humans should fear forever!"

The Nine-Tails' voice sounded like suppressed thunder, filled with mockery and a manic denial.

Its body began to struggle wildly again, the chains roaring. It tried to drown out Qi Luna's calm demeanor with deafening roars and overwhelming hatred:

"Freedom? Trust? Wishful thinking! Ever since Senju Hashirama, you people of Konoha have used the Uzumaki Clan as my cage. When Uzumaki Mito died, they replaced her with a brat like you. When you grow old and decrepit, they will just replace you with the next one!"

"As long as the hatred and desire in your hearts remain, this imprisonment will never end! You? You are nothing but a brat who talks big! Get out! Get out of my sight!"

The torrent of hatred surged again, even more violently than before. The space of consciousness shook intensely, and Qi Luna fell from the Nine-Tails, submerged by the water on the ground until he lost consciousness.

When Qi Luna woke up again, he was back in his own room within the Senju Clan Compound.

Recalling the Nine-Tails' chaotic and intense emotions, he realized it was no longer just pure hatred; it felt more like the embarrassment of someone whose facade had been pierced and whose deepest memories had been touched.

His emerald eyes held no retreat, but rather a hint of realization.

As expected of a tsundere, did he start to change his attitude just because of a name? I really can't do anything about him~

Tsunade and the others, who had been guarding the unconscious Qi Luna, finally felt a sense of relief when they saw him wake up, their eyes red and swollen from crying.

Afterward, Qi Luna and the people of Konoha Village attended the memorial service for the ninjas who had sacrificed themselves in the Second Shinobi World War, as well as for Uzumaki Mito.

Qi Luna stood on the spiral tower of the Senju Clan Compound. He looked toward the Hokage Rock, which still only bore three faces. He looked at the village that Mito had spent her life protecting, and recalled the Nine-Tails' final roar—which had seemed like a violent storm but actually lacked true malice. A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth:

"Ah~ I understand, Grandma Mito. I will definitely be able to get along with Kurama!"

Through the gaps in the seal, the Nine-Tails, sensing the outside world, lowered its head slightly within the sealed space. Deep within the violent rage of its molten, vertical pupils, a complex and indescribable light flickered and vanished.

It remembered a long, long time ago...

Back when it was first born, the old man it regarded as "father" had stood before the nine Tailed Beasts, looking toward a distant, unreachable future with deep eyes. He had said:

"One day, someone will appear who understands you. He will stand under the clear sky and call out your names aloud..."

Then, thinking of this absurd, audacious brat who called him "Kurama" and was so annoying to Tailed Beasts... this Uzumaki descendant known as the "Konoha Red Peak," in whose body slept a power that even made him feel a strange sensation...

"Hmph!"

Nine-Tails let out a muffled, ambiguous snort, as if mocking himself for such an unprovoked association.

He shook his head violently, as if trying to cast out these untimely thoughts, along with the detestable figure of Qi Luna, from his mind.

Yet, as he remained immersed in his eternal hatred and resentment, the corners of his hideous mouth, hidden in the shadows where no one could see, twitched upward for a fleeting, almost imperceptible moment.

That curve vanished in an instant, so quickly it felt as if it had never been real.

Immediately, an even deeper roar filled the sealed space once more, though this time, the roar seemed to lack a fraction of its pure desire for destruction, replaced by a sense of... bewildered irritation that even Nine-Tails himself had not realized.

"ROAR—! Damn brat..."