Kushina Uzumaki

A moment later, Naruto opened his eyes and looked toward a spot deep within the cage that he had just pinpointed.

"Found it."

The corner of Naruto's mouth curled slightly. Then he withdrew his gaze and looked back at the Nine-Tails.

"Kurama."

Naruto said the name casually, as if he were calling an old neighbor he had known for years.

"I'll come back for you in a while."

With that, Naruto's consciousness dispersed like smoke blown away by the wind, vanishing from before the Nine-Tails without warning.

Not even a ripple was left on the waterlogged ground.

A brief dead silence fell over the cage.

Then came a violent reaction like a volcanic eruption.

The name Kurama was like a key, precisely piercing a corner of the Nine-Tails' memories that had been buried for a very, very long time.

It was the name the old Sage of Six Paths had given it. It was proof that it had once been treated as an independent life with dignity—a name it had thought no one in this world would ever know again.

"Kurama?"

The Nine-Tails lunged at the cage bars, its massive claws slamming down with a deafening metallic crash.

The entire cage shook violently. The seals on the talismans began flashing rapidly, yet its huge claws still thrust recklessly through the gaps between the bars, nails scraping metal with a piercing shriek.

"How do you know that name, brat?"

"Come back here! Why do you know that name?"

"Answer me, Naruto Uzumaki..."

The Nine-Tails' roar echoed endlessly through the long sewer, but the only response was the hollow echo reflected back by the walls.

Elsewhere, Naruto's consciousness passed through layer after layer of mental barriers, as though diving ever deeper into an ocean of awareness.

The sealed space where the Nine-Tails resided drifted farther and farther away. Its violent, icy chakra presence was gradually replaced by an entirely different atmosphere.

It was warm and reassuring.

Golden light, like rippling water, gently brushed over Naruto's consciousness.

The cold, damp feeling of the tunnel quietly faded, as though he had crossed an invisible boundary and entered a completely different space.

The ground and walls of this space emitted a soft golden glow. They had no tangible material, as if they had been built from pure light and warmth.

The golden radiance beneath Naruto's feet rippled slightly with each step, as though he were walking on the reflection of a tranquil lake.

Then Naruto saw a red-haired woman standing amid the golden light, her hands folded over her lower abdomen as she smiled at him.

Her long hair was a vivid, warm crimson, like autumn maple leaves or sunset clouds dyed red by the fading sun.

She wore simple house clothes. Her features were gentle, the corners of her eyes slightly curved, overflowing with endless warmth and affection.

This was not the polite smile of a stranger. It was the smile of a mother who had waited a very, very long time before finally seeing her child.

There was joy in that smile, heartache, regret, and a love tempered by time and prepared long ago.

Naruto looked at her, and for some reason, his heart skipped a beat.

Of course Naruto knew who she was.

Kushina Uzumaki—the previous Nine-Tails jinchuriki, the wife of the Fourth Hokage Minato Namikaze, a powerful kunoichi from Whirlpool Country, and "his" mother.

But knowing that was one thing. Actually standing before her was another.

Some emotion belonging to Naruto was quietly stirring within him. The blood bond that had been forcibly severed when he was an infant had, in this moment, reconnected across twelve years.

As Naruto looked at Kushina's smile, a form of address instinctively surfaced in his mind.

But it lingered in his throat, then, because of the awkward embarrassment of a thirty-year-old man, was forcibly changed into her full name.

"You're... Kushina Uzu—"

The next instant, a red afterimage rushed at him.

Fast.

So fast that Naruto had no time to react.

Bang...

The next moment, a fist landed squarely above Naruto's forehead.

The sound was dull yet crisp, like a wooden mallet striking a plump watermelon.

Naruto's consciousness was sent flying two meters backward by that punch. He flipped through the air before landing on the ground.

A large, bright-red bump swelled on his forehead at a visibly rapid pace.

It hurt.

It really hurt.

This was clearly the world of consciousness, but for some reason, the pain of that punch rivaled the time in his previous life when he fell from a cliff and broke his ribs.

Naruto crouched on the ground, clutching his forehead, practically smoking all over.

"What did you call me?"

Kushina Uzumaki's voice suddenly rose several octaves.

She stood where Naruto had been moments before, her fist still held in its striking pose.

Kushina narrowed her eyes. She was still smiling, but that smile was more chilling than the Nine-Tails' roar.

Her deep crimson hair behind her seemed to be activated by some invisible aura, suddenly floating upward like nine vicious red octopus tentacles twisting and dancing in the air. It spread out behind her, blocking much of the golden light and casting an oppressive shadow.

A tangible surge of red chakra erupted from her body. For an instant, the pressure made Naruto feel as though he were seeing the Nine-Tails raging behind its cage again.

No, this was even scarier than the Nine-Tails!

At least the Nine-Tails was separated from him by bars. This woman was right in front of him, less than two meters away, and her fist could deliver a second precise strike at any moment.

Cold sweat beaded on Naruto's forehead. Looking at the red-haired witch in her complete form, his throat bobbed involuntarily as he swallowed.

"M-Mom!"

Naruto reacted swiftly, terrified that being even one word too slow would earn him another round of iron fists.

Whoosh!

In an instant, sunshine spread everywhere and spring flowers bloomed. The golden space became warm and bright once more.

All the wild red hair behind Kushina fell back down, hanging smoothly behind her. Her eyes returned to gentle crescent moons, as though the red-haired witch who had punched someone flying two meters away had never existed.

The hair-raising smile on her face turned into the softest smile a mother could have. She lightly clasped her hands before her and tilted her head at Naruto.

"Naruto, you've grown up."

Kushina examined Naruto carefully from head to toe.

That face, that golden hair, those blue eyes—he looked almost exactly like her beloved Minato.

As Kushina looked at Naruto, she seemed, in a daze, to see the tiny life she had held in her arms more than a decade ago, crying beside her ear from within his swaddling clothes.

In the blink of an eye, he had grown this big.

Naruto stood up from the ground, rubbing the still-throbbing bump on his head as he silently made a vow to himself:

When I look for a girlfriend in the future, I absolutely, absolutely won't find the violent type.

No matter how pretty she is.