First Conversation: A Distant Call Beneath Clear Skies

At the moment Uzumaki Mito passed away, the Nine-Tails' seal was also successfully completed.

Before he had time to grieve, Qi Luna felt the world spin around him. His consciousness was forcibly pulled into a strange space.

It was a dark, damp prison. Water just deep enough to cover his insteps spread beneath his feet. There was nothing behind him; endless darkness swallowed the light at the end of the corridor. Before him stood a pale golden iron gate—the prison formed by the Four-Symbols Seal!

Facing the seal that held the strongest Tailed Beast, Qi Luna had just started toward the gate when several sharp claws shot through its bars and thrust viciously at her. They stopped less than five centimeters from her nose. The Nine-Tails' entire body was bound tight by several golden chains, unable to advance another inch!

"GRAAAH—!!!"

The Nine-Tails' roar sent waves of foul wind surging through the prison. It glared at the tiny Qi Luna beyond the bars, radiating decades of pent-up malice and fury, and let out an enraged howl like Moryo from the depths of hell:

"Damn you, Uzumaki Mito! Even on your deathbed, you still had to play one last trick on me!"

"Damn brat! Damn Uzumaki Clan! Those damn chains again!"

"I'll kill you! I'll tear you to shreds! I'll wipe your damn Uzumaki Bloodline from the Ninja World for good!"

Its murderous intent and hatred surged like a tangible, towering wave, battering the pale golden gate and Qi Luna's mind. The Nine-Tails slammed its massive claws against the bars. The gleaming Adamantine Sealing Chains tightened under its tremendous struggles, their links screeching, their runes flowing—but they stood firm, immovable as a mountain!

At the heart of the storm of hatred, Qi Luna's red hair fluttered in the invisible gale. Her jade-green eyes remained calm as she looked up at the legendary strongest Tailed Beast. She felt neither fear nor anger. Instead, a hint of sadness showed on her face.

"I'm sorry, Nine-Tails."

Ignoring the vortex of hatred that could tear her soul apart, Qi Luna passed through the Nine-Tails' claws and the barrier of the gate. Step by steady step, she walked toward the roaring beast, until she stood on its shoulder, beside its eye.

She tilted her head slightly, gazing through its boundless hatred and looking straight into its blood-red, molten-lava eyes.

Her voice was soft, yet unusually clear, with a strange, penetrating quality. It rang out steadily above the Nine-Tails' roar, like a pin anchoring the sea amid a raging storm:

"Your anger... is justified."

"You've been locked in a lightless cage for decades, used as a weapon, surrounded by endless fear and hatred... Maybe I can't fully understand that pain yet, but... I can understand some of it."

Qi Luna's voice was very, very soft, touched by a weariness and uncertainty she could scarcely hide. But her words were utterly sincere:

"I'm sorry I bound you here this way."

"I let the vortex of resentment drag you into the abyss of darkness."

She slowly raised her hand and gently rested it against the side of the Nine-Tails' eye socket. Her gaze met its savage spirit with sincerity:

"But what I want to say is that we... aren't enemies! This prison isn't our eternal end, either. One day, I'll set you free, so you won't be trapped in the mire of hatred and fear anymore!"

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

The Nine-Tails' roar, powerful enough to shake space itself, stopped for the first time... mid-bellow!

Qi Luna's heartfelt words echoed through the dim space of consciousness. That long-forgotten name was like a shard of ice dropped into molten lava, bringing the churning hatred to an abrupt halt.

The enormous, lantern-sized pupils of its eyes contracted. It stared in disbelief at the tiny figure beside its eye.

The storm of hatred still surged around it, but its pure, violent bloodlust was torn open by a sudden, almost absurdly calm declaration—and by that long-abandoned name, "Kurama," forgotten by the world.

An eerie silence fell over the entire dim, crimson consciousness space. Only ripples on the water beneath the Nine-Tails and the faint hum of the Adamantine Chains remained as the beast stopped struggling.

The Nine-Tails' huge body froze in place. For the first time, the eyes of hatred that had burned for a thousand years held something beyond anger: pure, incredulous... confusion.

"Ku... Kurama?"

"Absurd! You foolish brat! Who gave you permission to call me that? I am the Nine-Tails! The strongest Tailed Beast, the calamity that brings destruction to the Ninja World! The being you wretched humans should fear forever!"

The Nine-Tails' voice was like muffled thunder, full of mockery and deliberately feigned frenzy.

Its body began struggling wildly again. The chains roared as it tried to drown out Qi Luna's calm words and actions with deafening howls and overwhelming hatred:

"Freedom? Trust? Don't make me laugh! Ever since Senju Hashirama, Konoha has used the Uzumaki Clan to imprison me. Uzumaki Mito died, so you took her place, brat. When you grow old and wither away, they'll just replace you with someone else!"

"As long as the hatred and desire in your hearts remain, this imprisonment will never end! You? You're just a brat who likes to make big promises! Get out! Get out of my sight!"

The tide of hatred surged forth again, even more furiously than before. The consciousness space shook violently. Qi Luna fell from the Nine-Tails, was swallowed by the water on the floor, and finally lost consciousness.

When Qi Luna woke again, she was in her own room in the Senju Clan Compound.

Remembering the Nine-Tails' chaotic, intense emotions, she realized they had been more than simple hatred. They seemed closer to the fury of embarrassment that came from having its disguise seen through and its deepest memories touched.

There was no hesitation in her jade-green eyes. Instead, they held a trace of understanding.

As expected of such a tsundere. All it took was a name for it to start changing its attitude? Honestly, what am I going to do with him?

Tsunade and the others had been keeping watch beside the unconscious Qi Luna. When they saw her wake, their eyes, red and swollen from crying, finally showed a trace of relief.

Afterward, Qi Luna and the people of Konoha attended a memorial service for the shinobi who had died in the Second Shinobi World War, as well as for Uzumaki Mito.

Qi Luna stood atop the spiral tower in the Senju Clan Compound. She looked toward the Hokage Rock, which still had only three faces, and thought of the village Grandma Mito had spent her whole life protecting. Remembering Kurama's final roar—which had seemed like a raging storm but had held little real malice—she couldn't help smiling.

"Ah, I understand now, Grandma Mito. I'll definitely get along with Kurama!"

Through a gap in the seal, the Nine-Tails sensed the outside world. Within the sealed space, he lowered his head slightly. Deep in his molten eyes, beneath the raging fire, a complicated, indescribable glimmer flashed and vanished.

He remembered a time long, long ago...

It was when he had just been born. The old man he regarded as his "father" stood before them, the Nine Tailed Beasts, gazing into the distant future. He had once said:

"One day, someone will come who understands you. Beneath a clear sky, he will call your names aloud..."

Then he thought of that absurd, reckless, Tailed Beast-hating brat who called him "Kurama"—that Uzumaki descendant known as "Konoha Red Peak," with a strange power slumbering inside her that even he could sense.

"Hmph!"

The Nine-Tails let out a low, inscrutable snort, as if scoffing at his own inexplicable train of thought.

He shook his head sharply, as though trying to fling the untimely thought—and Qi Luna's irritating image—out of his mind.

Yet as he sank into his eternal hatred and resentment, the corner of his cruel mouth, hidden in shadows where no one could see, lifted ever so slightly for the briefest moment... barely enough to notice.

The faint curve disappeared in an instant, so quickly it seemed unreal.

Then a deeper roar once again filled the sealed space. But this time, the sound seemed to hold a little less of the pure desire to destroy, and a little more... of a restless confusion that even the Nine-Tails himself had yet to recognize.

"GRAAAH—! Damn brat..."