Mastering the Nine-Tails

Naruto Uzumaki leaped onto a boulder and sat cross-legged.

A red-eyed figure with a face identical to his appeared.

"You hate them, don't you!"

"You hate the people in the village! Why should you have been treated like that? Don't deny it. I'm you! I know every emotion in your heart!"

Images flashed before Naruto's eyes: being mocked and beaten as a child, his classmates' disgust, his inability to make friends.

But when Naruto looked at the apparition again, his face held none of the resentment his false self had expected.

"Maybe I really did resent them once! But now I have a family. I have Teacher Ye, Sakura, Sasuke, and the others. Since then, I've never hated them!"

"You're only my past!"

Naruto embraced the apparition.

"If I could, I'd wipe away the hatred in your heart too," Naruto said.

The apparition froze. He could tell Naruto meant every word. There was no hiding it from him.

Memories of time spent with Kakashi-sensei and Teacher Ye surfaced in the apparition's mind, filling his heart with warmth.

His pupils slowly returned to normal. "Thank you, Naruto," he murmured.

He broke into fragments and vanished into the air.

"Naruto, are you awake?" Shisui Uchiha asked.

Dawn had arrived. They had reached Kumogakure at night, but after everything Uchiha Yoru and Naruto Uzumaki had done, the sun was already up.

Only Shisui Uchiha and Shee had stayed to watch Naruto. Uchiha Yoru had gone off to sleep long ago.

"Let's hurry on to the next stage!"

Shee stepped into the waterfall, and Naruto and Shisui followed him.

A hidden space lay beyond it. The stone walls recorded all sorts of things about Tailed Beasts, though the writing was hard to understand.

Time was pressing, so Shee had no chance to explain the