I Want to Lift Your Tails and See Whether You're Male or Female

A short while later, Hashirama arrived with Mito, his face bruised and swollen like a Pig's head.

"Uh... Uncle, what happened to you?" Dave swallowed. How had he ended up getting beaten up...?

"It's nothing, Dave. I brought your aunt over," Hashirama said nonchalantly, shaking his swollen, Pig-like head.

When he had gone to the Square Dance Troupe to take Mito away, the furious aunties had ganged up on him to stop him from stealing their lead dancer... Only after Mito explained that it really was urgent had they dispersed.

"Auntie." Dave gave an awkward smile.

"You want the Nine-Tails sealed inside your body?" Mito asked gravely.

Dave froze for a moment, then nodded with determination in his eyes.

"All right, I can seal him. But Dave, you need to think through the consequences," Mito replied with a nod.

"I've thought it through. You have too, haven't you, Kurama?" Dave replied with a smile, then turned to call to the Nine-Tails behind him.

The Nine-Tails froze on the spot... Hearing that name, which he hadn't heard anyone call him in a thousand years, left him in a daze. Who knew what was going through his mind...?

"All right. Lie down beside the Nine-Tails," Mito said with a nod.

"Eight Trigrams Double Seal! Five Elements Seal!"

A short while later.

When Dave woke again, he had entered a pitch-black world. Darkness surrounded him. He looked down at his feet; there seemed to be water beneath them. Looking ahead, he saw an enormous cage. He slowly walked up to it and peered inside.

"Brat, how do you know my name?" the Nine-Tails asked in a low voice as his form slowly appeared in Dave's field of vision.

Dave said nothing. He looked at the Sealing Talisman on the cage before him and smiled faintly. Slowly approaching it, he laid his hand on it and began peeling it off.

"Hey! Brat! Are you insane? Do you know what'll happen if you do that?" The Nine-Tails was dumbstruck. He had planned to lie low inside this brat for a few decades, wait for those two cheating bastards to die, then casually coax the boy into peeling off the Sealing Talisman. After that, he could burst straight out of the brat's body and return to freedom.

But you've only just been sealed! You only just got here, and you're already peeling it off? What the hell am I supposed to do with that?

"What, you want to invade my mind? Then control me? Hehe, I know you won't. Uncle Madara and Uncle Hashirama are still outside," Dave said with a smile. He genuinely wanted to be friends with the Nine-Tails, so of course he had to treat him sincerely.

The Nine-Tails was frustrated... The brat was right. He really didn't dare make any rash moves right now...

Mito's seal wasn't something the Nine-Tails could escape simply by having that Sealing Talisman peeled off. The talisman only kept the Nine-Tails' chakra and violent emotions from coming into contact with Dave. From now on, the Nine-Tails would remain inside his body unless Dave died or someone forcibly extracted him, as had happened in the original story. Otherwise, the Nine-Tails would be here for life.

"So, how about we become friends?" Dave asked with a smile, reaching out a hand toward the Nine-Tails.

The Nine-Tails huffed and ignored him... Looking at the prickly fox before him, Dave rather unkindly burst out laughing.

At this point, the Nine-Tails had never been controlled by Madara's Sharingan, never been sealed by Mito, and never truly been struck by Hashirama's Wood Release: True Several Thousand Hands. He was just a poor, prickly little fox who had been beaten up by two trash-talking cheating bastards.

"Look, I really mean it. Don't worry, I won't normally restrict your freedom. We can share chakra, right? You can use chakra to make a Shadow Clone. Your clone and your real body share sight and touch, so I'll take you around the village and we can be bullies together. How's that?" Dave said after some thought. He knew the Shadow Clone technique too. All he had to do was teach it to the Nine-Tails, and the fox could come out and see the world.

The Nine-Tails stared at Dave without saying a word, but he was already tempted. What tailed beast wouldn't want to be free? Fuck, he had only just emerged into the world and wanted to sleep there, only for that bastard Madara Uchiha to beat him up on the grounds that he was blocking his way. Besides, the brat in front of him was being sincere. He could sense the good and evil in people.

The Nine-Tails and Dave looked at each other for a moment. Then the Nine-Tails slowly extended his fox paw and touched Dave's hand.

Dave gave a wicked grin, then lunged straight at the Nine-Tails. The Nine-Tails froze...

A short while later.

"Ahh~ Your fur is so soft~" "Brat!!! Go to hell!!!"

"Don't be so standoffish. We're friends now, aren't we? What's wrong with petting your fur?"

"Heh, if you don't say anything, I'll take that as a yes. Hang on, let me lift your tails and have a look. I really want to know whether you're male or female."

"Go to hell!!!"

Outside.

Hashirama and the other two watched Dave with deeply anxious expressions. Just moments earlier, red chakra had seeped out of Dave's body, frightening Hashirama so badly that the markings had appeared on his face. He was terrified something might happen to Dave.

As for Tobirama, seeing his precious son in that state had sent his heart into his throat. Inwardly, he kept cursing Madara Uchiha as a bastard, a piece of trash, a murdering, pillaging, raping, whoring scumbag. If anything at all happened to his son today, either Madara Uchiha or one of his ancestors would be one man short.

Just as Hashirama was about to force Dave awake, Dave slowly opened his eyes and looked around in confusion.

Only when the three saw that Dave was all right did they breathe a sigh of relief... Tobirama finally stopped cursing Madara Uchiha in his head, too.

"Are you all right, Dave?" Mito asked gravely. Dave's situation was the first of its kind in the Shinobi World. No one had ever sealed a tailed beast inside a person before, so they had no idea what to expect.

"I'm fine. The Nine-Tails and I are really good friends now," Dave said with a smile.

"As long as you're all right. How do you feel?" Mito asked with a smile, breathing a sigh of relief.

"Great. I can feel so much chakra inside me now. It's like an ocean." Duy felt chakra within him like an endless, surging sea. He had never felt so exhilarated.

"Mm, so can you summon the Plant that Revives Izuna? Can Madara come back?" That thoughtless Hashirama had been worrying about Madara the whole time...

Mito irritably rapped Hashirama on the head. Tobirama nearly failed to hold himself back from slapping him, too...

Duy slowly closed his eyes. He could sense that he could summon a vast number of plants, and he was looking through the ones he had just unlocked.

A short while later.

Duy slowly opened his eyes, a smile on his face.

"We can bring Uncle Madara back."