Conceptual Level?

The golden space began to dim.

After the motes of light dispersed, only Naruto's consciousness remained, quietly floating in warm darkness.

His mind contained the hand-sign sequences for the Rasengan and Adamantine Sealing Chains, the Flying Raijin technique diagrams, and the underlying logic and complete applications of the sealing technique framework.

Dense yet clearly organized.

It was as though someone had built a private archive within Naruto's mind.

Naruto smiled faintly, and his consciousness slowly began to rise.

The scene changed.

A dark, damp environment enveloped Naruto once more, the air carrying the scent of rust and beasts.

Inside the massive iron cage at the end of the corridor, the Nine-Tails' enormous red body lay sprawled across the cold water.

Its nine thick tails swayed listlessly behind it, each sweep across the ground stirring up a low howl of wind.

The Nine-Tails' half-closed eyes snapped open the instant Naruto's conscious form appeared.

"Brat... you finally showed yourself!"

The Nine-Tails roared, its voice making the entire sewer tremble.

The Nine-Tails pushed itself up and lunged toward the bars. Its massive body pressed close as two thick claws gripped the railing tightly, crimson eyes glaring fiercely at Naruto through the gaps.

Dark red chakra flared around its body, scorching the air within the cage until it warped slightly.

"Tell me, why do you know my name?"

The Nine-Tails spoke in a low voice, every word seeming to be ground to pieces in its throat before it emerged.

Kurama was not a name just any stray could know.

It was the name bestowed upon the Nine-Tails by the Sage of Six Paths—the first and only true name it had ever received in this world.

Other than that old man, the Sage of Six Paths, and the other tailed beasts, no one in this world should have known that name.

Yet this brat before it had not only spoken it, but had said it so naturally, as if he were calling an old friend.

"Kurama, stop making so much noise. I'm a little busy right now, so wait a moment."

Naruto casually waved in the Nine-Tails' direction without even looking up.

He still had to sort through the knowledge in his mind.

Having said that, right in front of the Nine-Tails—the strongest tailed beast that had once nearly destroyed all of Konoha—he calmly continued organizing the ninjutsu in his memories.

The sealing space fell silent for one second.

Then the Nine-Tails completely exploded.

"Naruto Uzumaki..."

The Nine-Tails clenched its sharp teeth, its fangs grinding against one another with a piercing screech.

Its huge claw smashed viciously against the cage bars, making the entire iron railing thunder.

The curse marks on the sealing paper flashed madly, as if shrieking warnings that someone was violently assaulting the seal.

A gale carrying crushing chakra pressure burst from its mouth, mixed with scorching saliva and millennia of accumulated fury, crashing toward Naruto like a wall.

The wind whipped up Naruto's hair and clothes, sending the pooled water around his feet rippling backward in a fan-shaped wave.

Naruto frowned.

"Kurama, you're really noisy."

Naruto raised his head and looked at the enormous fox raging inside the iron cage.

His azure eyes met the scarlet vertical pupils in the dim underground chamber for a moment.

There was no fear in Naruto's gaze, no provocation, not even much emotion—only a calm warning.

For some reason, Naruto's gaze made the Nine-Tails furious.

A brat, a brat who had been used as a container for twelve years—what right did he have to look at it like that?

The Nine-Tails puffed out its chest, readying an even fiercer roar and chakra assault.

But before it could make a sound—

A will descended and froze the Nine-Tails in place.

It was not chakra, not a sealing technique, nor any form of power the Nine-Tails had encountered during its long life.

There was no warning, no hand signs, no curse marks—not even a ripple of chakra.

It was simply a pure will, as if this space itself had suddenly made a decision, and as an existence within that space, it had no right to object.

The Nine-Tails' body stiffened.

Its massive claws stopped on the bars, and its nine tails hung motionless in midair as though someone had pressed pause.

Its tooth-filled mouth remained open, but the roar brewing in its throat was blocked within its chest. It could not make even the faintest sound.

Only its scarlet eyes could still move. They were wide open, its pupils shrunk to pinpoints.

What happened?

What was this?

Why couldn't its body move?

It was not the seal restraining it. It knew the sensation of the seal's restraints too well; the feeling of having its power locked away by the Eight Trigrams Sealing Style was completely different from this.

Nor was it genjutsu. It had dealt with the Sharingan more than once. When Madara Uchiha's Mangekyō ocular power had tried to control it, it could at least feel that ocular power wrapping around its will like chains.

But this was different. It could not sense the existence of any external force—no chains, no feeling of restraint.

Its body had simply stopped obeying it.

It was as though the world itself had erased its authority to act at the level of its rules.

Naruto was also stunned when he saw the Nine-Tails suddenly go rigid.

He lowered his head and looked at his hand—or rather, the outline of his hand in his conscious form.

He could feel the will he had just released. It had been as natural as breathing, perhaps even easier.

Just now, he had merely wanted the Nine-Tails to quiet down on instinct, and then the ability had activated.

It had been as natural as controlling his own heartbeat and muscles in his previous life.

No thought required. Instantaneous.

It was only after the Nine-Tails froze that Naruto realized he had used Absolute Control on it.

But that was not right.

In his previous life, his Absolute Control Ability could only affect his own body: controlling brain neurons, muscle groups, and the cells around wounds to accelerate their division. All of that fell within the scope of his own body.

The Nine-Tails' chakra, along with the chakra left behind by Kushina and Minato Namikaze, could be controlled because they were chakra. That could be explained.

But now, this ability had directly affected another independent life form—and one on the Nine-Tails' level at that.

The Nine-Tails was not his body. It was another independent living being sealed inside him.

Unless, by Absolute Control's standards, the fact that the Nine-Tails was inside his body meant it counted as part of him.

Or perhaps Absolute Control had never truly meant controlling his own body. Perhaps it meant controlling everything within his body that belonged to him.

Naruto immediately began to speculate. If Absolute Control had directly stripped the Nine-Tails of control over its body just now, bypassing even sealing techniques and skipping any struggle of chakra, then the underlying logic of Absolute Control was not at the chakra level or the energy level, but something higher.

Authority itself?

Holy crap, does that mean my Absolute Control is conceptual-level?

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