The Nine-Tails' Story

After school began the next day, Naruto was surprised to find that Sasuke, who had always been a little tsundere, had actually taken the initiative to come talk to him.

Though the situation was a little awkward, it was clear that Sasuke was showing him goodwill and wanted to become good friends with him.

Although Naruto was somewhat puzzled by this change, he was still happy to accept it.

They each carried the chakra of Asura and Indra.

Asura and Indra were Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki's two children.

Indra was the eldest son. He inherited the Sage's eyes and spiritual power, and he had been an exceptionally gifted genius since childhood.

Asura was the second son. He inherited the Sage's body and possessed immense physical strength.

Because the two brothers held different beliefs—Indra worshipped power while Asura believed in equal love—the Sage of Six Paths passed the Ninja Creed down to his younger son, Asura, before his death.

Driven by jealousy, Indra began a never-ending cycle with Asura, possessing their descendants and fighting once more.

In the previous generation, Indra's chakra had attached itself to Madara Uchiha, while Asura's chakra had attached itself to Hashirama Senju.

Under the influence of Asura and Indra's chakra, the two had eventually erupted into a great battle at the Valley of the End.

After their deaths, the new Asura chakra attached itself to Naruto, while the new Indra chakra attached itself to Sasuke.

If nothing unexpected happened, the two would inevitably face each other in battle. After that battle ended, Sasuke would formally acknowledge Naruto, finally ending the twisted relationship in which Asura and Indra endlessly reincarnated through their descendants.

The other students were also surprised by Sasuke's change toward Naruto. It was not just Naruto—Sasuke had originally been somewhat tsundere and bad at interacting with others.

Starting that day, Sasuke was actually willing to greet them. As long as someone had become Naruto's friend, Sasuke would at least be willing to chat with them.

They were not exactly getting along like brothers, but they had at least become fairly close friends.

From then on, Naruto began his official life at the Ninja Academy.

At first, he had been willing to attend the Ninja Academy and study, but later he discovered that the Ninja Academy could not really teach him anything and instead wasted his training time.

So in the end, Naruto created a Shadow Clone to attend the Ninja Academy in his place.

He himself chose to hide in a small forest far from the village and train constantly.

Whenever he had nothing to do, he would wander through the streets more often, hoping to run into a few characters from the original story and take on some missions.

If there was a mission, he would do it. If there was not, he would stroll around the streets before going home to rest.

There were also several times when, after training, he unconsciously entered the Nine-Tails' consciousness space. The Nine-Tails seemed much easier to talk to now and kept pestering Naruto about what happened next. Naturally, Naruto did not tell it, only saying that he would tell Kurama when he had the chance.

Kurama was brushed off by Naruto's "next time for sure."

However, through their repeated conversations, Kurama gradually came to acknowledge Naruto.

One time, Naruto and Kurama were idly chatting in the sewers.

For some reason, Naruto felt that Kurama was rather pitiful too. It had clearly done nothing, and deep down, it was a good fox. It had originally been hiding peacefully somewhere unknown.

Then one day, it ran into that Hidden Leaf punk, Madara Uchiha.

Without any precautions, it had been directly controlled by Madara Uchiha's Mangekyo Sharingan.

Next, from the Nine-Tails' perspective, let us see what exactly happened.

Come on! Deceive! Come on! Ambush! Me, an old Tailed Beast who did not even know how many years old I was! An old comrade!

Was that okay? I say it was not okay!

When I woke up, I discovered that some kind of chakra armor had appeared on my body, and there was a little man standing across from me. I thought it would be an easy beatdown.

Then that little man clapped his hands together. Without even needing hand seals, he suddenly summoned a Wood Human Technique with thousands of arms, beat the hell out of me, and I lost consciousness.

When I woke up again, I saw that little man from before. His name seemed to be Hashirama Senju.

He said something like, "Nine-Tails, you are too dangerous. If I leave you unchecked, you will harm and destroy others. To prevent that from happening, I will seal you!"

Then, for no reason at all, Hashirama Senju used his powerful Wood Release to suppress and beat me. Then there was a woman named Mito Uzumaki, who actually knew that damned sealing technique. Her life force was absurdly tenacious too, and I was sealed inside this person named Mito Uzumaki.

Inside her body, I learned that Hashirama Senju had finally died. As long as I outlasted Mito Uzumaki too, I could regain my freedom.

But no one had expected that Mito Uzumaki would be so hateful. She had actually left a backup plan, somehow abducting a little girl named Kushina Uzumaki. She was Mito's clanswoman and also possessed powerful vitality and sealing abilities.

I had barely escaped the tiger's mouth before entering the wolf's den.

I had thought that if I just waited out my sentence, I would gain my freedom.

These hateful humans never considered my feelings at all. I clearly did not want to do anything. I was just lazing around in the wild when they captured me, treating me like a pet and sealing me into whoever they wanted without ever asking for my opinion!

After Mito Uzumaki died, I was sealed inside Kushina Uzumaki.

Luckily, Kushina Uzumaki did not go find another member of the Uzumaki Clan somewhere.

Maybe as long as I outlasted Kushina, I could truly regain my freedom.

Then, some masked man from who knew where released me while Kushina was giving birth.

I had been locked up for so long. What was wrong with coming out to get some air!

I had not even done anything, yet that masked man controlled me with his Sharingan and used me to destroy the Hidden Leaf.

That damned Minato Namikaze used some unknown sealing technique to seal half of my chakra inside his own body. Then he died with my chakra, the kind of dead that could not be brought back to life.

Then, before Kushina Uzumaki died, she sealed the other half of my chakra inside the newborn Naruto Uzumaki.

These humans were truly ruthless. They could even do that to their own newborn child. Unlike our big Tailed Beast family, where everyone loved one another and lived in harmony.

At most, we would spit out a few Tailed Beast Balls while playing around. What was the big deal? At most, we flattened a few mountains. How was that a big deal?

It was only inside Naruto Uzumaki that I realized someone could really have it that bad. He was despised by the villagers and deceived by some unknown old man. I did not know what that old man was doing, but I could sense that he had bad intentions.

He carried a malice that was half good and half bad. Humans really were complicated.

After living inside Naruto Uzumaki's body for so long, sometimes when I looked through Naruto's memories, I felt that those humans were going too far.

Like me, Naruto had clearly done nothing, yet he was inexplicably saddled with some label.

Then people hated him, looked down on him, and despised him.

We were clearly not the ones at fault. This world was. So I began slowly seeping into Naruto's body, lending him little bits of my chakra.

As long as I destroyed Kushina's seal, I could be free and leave Naruto's body.

As for whether Naruto would die after losing me? I could not say. In any case, it had nothing to do with me.

If anyone was to blame, blame Naruto's own mother for being so heartless that she put me inside her child's body.

As the days passed, more and more of my chakra remained inside Naruto's body, and the seal loosened further and further. I finally saw the possibility of escaping.

But guess what? One day, for no reason at all, the power inside Naruto's body became stronger. He grew more and more like that damned bargain-bin mother of his and Mito Uzumaki.

The seal I had worked so hard to erode was reinforced all over again. I seriously... Damn it, I have an 8 a.m. class! Aminos!

Then he came before me and said a whole bunch of inexplicable things.

At first, I did not believe Naruto's nonsense. Not until Naruto started spoiling the future for me.

Like how the masked man was Obito, Minato Namikaze's former disciple.

Like how he would start a great ninja war for a woman and create a world that only had Rin.

And how Madara Uchiha, who had controlled me before, was dead, but not completely dead, and was waiting for someone to revive him.

And how Naruto knew the names of us nine Tailed Beasts, knew the old man's name, and even knew about the old man's eyes.

All of it was very strange, so I inevitably came to believe him.

Later, I realized that he was different from those people before.

Madara Uchiha had only wanted my chakra, so he could defeat Hashirama Senju.

Mito Uzumaki had sealed me inside her body in order to help Hashirama Senju seal me away.

And Kushina Uzumaki had inherited the duty of sealing me under Mito Uzumaki's guidance.

But Naruto was different. He had been forced into it and had no choice.

He had been with me since birth. Perhaps, in some sense, we could even be considered brothers from different fathers and mothers.

Moreover, I could not sense even a trace of malice from Naruto.

It was clearly because I was inside him that he suffered so much unfair treatment. It was clearly because of me that he was always hungry, starving, and despised by others.

He clearly knew everything, knew it was all because of me, but even so, he did not harbor the slightest malice.

Perhaps he truly possessed a pure heart. Or perhaps he was the Child of Prophecy the old man had spoken of, the one who could change the fate of the ninja world!

Later, he told me that we would become inseparable comrades and good friends, though I drove him away.

But I still somewhat believed in the sincerity in his eyes when he said those words. He truly saw me as a friend.

I had never had a human friend before. It was quite a novel experience.

Later still, he seemed to grow stronger and stronger, until I could no longer see through him.

He was gradually able to enter my consciousness space whenever he wished.

Later on, perhaps because he was afraid I would be bored, he came to talk to me every so often.

I had to admit, perhaps we really had become friends.

This was the story of me, the Nine-Tails, Kurama, up to this point!

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