Once, out of curiosity, Naruto had specifically asked the tailed beasts before leaving whether they really were ranked by number, as Kurama claimed. Was that why they obeyed the Nine-Tails, who had the highest number?
Every tailed beast had flatly denied it.
There had never been any such rule. The number of tails a tailed beast had represented neither its strength nor its status.
Of course, the Nine-Tails had merely snorted, insisting that Old Man Six Paths had given them clearly differentiated numbers of tails precisely because that rule existed.
The others only kept denying it because they thought he was "easygoing."
In the past, hotheads like Shukaku would have immediately snapped back.
Now, however, the tailed beasts were rather helpless. Not only was Kurama incredibly powerful, but he also held the moral high ground—after all, they had all attacked him to some extent, yet Kurama had saved them.
They were living under his roof, and he had freed them from control, so they felt too embarrassed to argue any further against the Nine-Tails' demands.
He just wanted to brag, didn't he? At worst, they could burst their own eardrums and pretend they couldn't hear him.
The Nine-Tails also spared his brothers some dignity by not constantly bringing it up in front of Naruto. He only mentioned it to Naruto every time he woke up.
As Naruto gradually found the other tailed beasts and jinchūriki, Konoha continued investigating why the tailed beasts had gone berserk.
Just as the Nine-Tails had previously suspected, the tailed beasts had retained their memories, but something had gone wrong with their minds.
According to the jinchūriki, the tailed beasts inside them alternated between muttering and rampaging, almost becoming living nightmares. Occasionally, they would regain their senses for a brief moment and hurriedly teach their jinchūriki