Conceptual Level?

The Golden Space began to dim.

After the particles of light dispersed, all that remained was Naruto's consciousness floating quietly in a warm darkness.

Arranged in his mind were the hand-sign sequences for the Rasengan and Adamantine Sealing Chains, the Flying Thunder God Formula Diagram, and the underlying logic and complete applications of the Sealing Technique framework.

They were dense yet clearly organized.

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

Naruto smiled faintly, and then his consciousness slowly rose.

The scene changed.

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

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

Its nine thick tails swayed listlessly behind it, each sweep across the ground stirring a deep gust of wind.

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

"Brat... you finally showed up!"

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

The Nine-Tails pushed itself up and lunged toward the bars. Its huge paws gripped the railings tightly, and its scarlet eyes glared viciously at Naruto through the gaps.

Dark red Chakra flared around its body, scorching the air inside the cage until it twisted faintly.

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

The Nine-Tails' voice was low, each word seeming to be ground to pieces in the depths of its throat before emerging.

Kurama was not a name just any stray cat or dog could know.

It was the name the Sage of Six Paths had given the Nine-Tails, the first and only name it had ever truly possessed in this world.

Other than that old man, 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 spoken it so naturally, as though 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 lifting his head.

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

After saying 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 a second.

Then the Nine-Tails completely exploded.

"Naruto Uzumaki..."

The Nine-Tails clenched its fanged jaws, its teeth scraping together with a shrill, grating creak.

Its enormous paw slammed viciously into the cage bars, making the entire iron railing rumble.

The curse marks on the sealing talismans flickered madly, as though shrieking a warning that someone was violently assaulting the seal.

A gale carrying oppressive Chakra pressure burst from its mouth, mixed with scorching spittle and a thousand years of accumulated fury, crashing toward Naruto like a wall.

The gale tossed Naruto's hair and clothes, blowing the standing water at his feet backward in a fan-shaped ripple.

Naruto frowned.

"Kurama, you're really noisy."

Naruto raised his head and looked at the gigantic fox raging within the iron cage.

Azure eyes and scarlet vertical pupils met 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 Vessel for twelve years—what gave him the right to look at it like that?

The Nine-Tails' chest expanded as it prepared to unleash an even fiercer roar and Chakra assault.

But before it could make any 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 in 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 though this space itself had suddenly made a decision, and as something existing within that space, it had no right to object.

The Nine-Tails' body stiffened.

Its huge paws stopped on the bars, and its nine tails hung motionless in midair as though someone had pressed pause on all of them at once.

Its mouth full of fangs remained open, but the roar building in its throat was blocked inside its chest. It could not even make the slightest sound.

Only its scarlet eyes could still move. They widened round, its pupils shrinking to pinpoints.

What happened?

What was this?

Why couldn't my body move?

It was not the seal restraining it. It knew the sensation of the seal's restraints far too well; being locked down by the Eight Trigrams Sealing Style felt completely different from this.

Nor was it genjutsu. It had crossed paths 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 winding 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 rules.

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

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

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

He had merely instinctively wanted the Nine-Tails to quiet down, and then the ability had activated.

It was as natural as controlling his heartbeat and muscles in his previous life.

Without a thought, it arrived in an instant.

It happened so quickly that Naruto did not realize he had used Absolute Control on the Nine-Tails until after it had frozen.

But that was not right.

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

The Nine-Tails Chakra from before, as well as what Kushina and Minato Namikaze had left behind, were also Chakra, so it made sense that he could control them.

But now, this ability had directly affected another independent living being, and one on the level of the Nine-Tails.

The Nine-Tails was not his body. It was another independent living entity sealed within 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's true definition had never been controlling his own body, but 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, without even needing a Sealing Technique or any process of Chakra resistance, then that meant the underlying logic of Absolute Control was not on the Chakra level, nor the energy level, but something more advanced.

Authority itself?

"Holy crap, does that mean my Absolute Control is Conceptual Level?"