"Um, Mom, shouldn't you let Kurama go now?"
Naruto pointed at Kurama, who had struggled, failed, struggled again, and failed again.
Kurama: (ಥ_ಥ)
You finally remembered me?
Hashirama smacked his forehead. Oh, so they had forgotten Kurama.
"Uh, oh, right. Got it."
Kushina stroked Naruto's head. Then all the chains retracted into her body.
"Kura... ma, thank you for taking care of Naruto."
Kurama gave this heartless woman a resentful look and turned his head away.
"Kurama, don't be mad."
Naruto ran straight over to Kurama, stepped onto his tail, and climbed onto his back.
"Come on, let's go horse racing!"
"?"
Wait, I might have been the mount before, but I was a rider too.
You're sitting right on my actual body. Is that right? Is that reasonable?
"No."
Kurama raised his head and rejected Naruto's suggestion, even though he really did want to run freely beneath the setting sun.
"Aww, come on, run! Kurama's the strongest tailed beast, so you must be the fastest runner in the whole Shinobi World!"
"Just give me a ride."
(✪ω✪)
"Hmph. As long as you know."
Strongest tailed beast? Fastest in the Shinobi World? I don't care about any of that.
I've simply been cooped up too long and want to run freely across the grass.
Several strands of chakra on his back formed a seat and safety belts, securing Naruto in place.
Then Kurama carried Naruto toward the racetrack Hashirama had prepared earlier.
With an unmistakable upward curl at the corner of his mouth.
Throughout all this, Minato and Kushina watched in utter shock.
Was this really the Nine-Tails whose terrifying destructive power had demolished half of Konoha?
"Well, don't worry about it."
Hashirama patted their shoulders.
"After all, Naruto's our family."
Hashirama smiled, then mysteriously pulled the two of them