Within the lake of his heart, the familiar cage separated a man and a fox whose hearts had yet to connect!
Naruto said, "Are you asking me to apologize because you think I did something wrong, Kurama?"
Kurama said, "Whether you did anything wrong or not, what harm would it do to apologize to me?"
Naruto murmured, "You're no longer insisting I was wrong..."
Kurama said, "Huh? What did you say?"
"Nothing." After a brief silence, Naruto said, "I'm sorry."
Kurama's large ears twitched. "Hmph."
Naruto continued, "I failed to protect you before!"
"Hmm???" Kurama had only wanted to go through the motions, but that unexpected remark made his ears prick up.
Naruto said firmly, "This time, I swear no one will ever take you away from me!"
At that, the Nine-Tails' emotions erupted. "Hmph! Haven't you been planning to revive the Ten-Tails someday? Reviving the Ten-Tails means killing me! Don't you understand that?"
Naruto slowly raised his head, his eyes as clear as they had been in his previous life. "Hey... Kurama, do you know why I don't want the Ten-Tails revived too soon?"
Kurama blurted out, "Because you want to find someone to die in your place, someone to sacrifice to revive Kaguya Ōtsutsuki! You want to revive Kaguya and become the Ten-Tails Jinchuriki yourself. You've said that over and over, haven't you?"
Naruto nodded. "Yes!"
Kurama had to get it off his chest. "That means another Ten-Tails Jinchuriki will appear before you, and that person will be your enemy! You don't want to face an enemy like that before you're completely confident you can win. That's why you don't want the Ten-Tails revived too soon, isn't it?"
Naruto said candidly, "That's the explanation I have to give the people around me, because I need to maintain my