"That's something for later."
Rei Ao stopped teasing Kushina and looked toward Konoha's general direction.
"Right now, Konoha should already be in complete chaos."
Kushina's eyes dimmed.
Yeah… the people in the village who hated her were definitely looking for her right now, weren't they?
"Then… what am I supposed to do?"
She sounded lost.
Go back to Konoha?
How would she explain it?
Not go back?
Then where could she even go?
Rei Ao didn't answer directly. Instead, he asked, "Do you want to go back? Back to that village that calls you 'Tomato' and pushes you out?"
Kushina fell silent.
She remembered the ridicule from earlier, the helpless feeling of being isolated, the wary, rejecting looks.
But she also remembered Grandma Mito's gentle reminders.
Conflicting emotions tangled inside her.
Rei Ao watched the girl with her head lowered and didn't press her.
Saving her, completing the deal, and obtaining authority—and ownership of the Nine-Tails—were his main goals.
As for the girl's own whereabouts and future, he didn't particularly care.
Still, since she had become part of the "goods" in the transaction, it wouldn't hurt to arrange things a little.
In the moonlit clearing, the only sound was insects chirping.
Leaning against a tree, Rei Ao looked at the red-haired girl a few steps away, head down as she fiddled with the corner of her clothes.
Kushina's body stiffened almost imperceptibly.
She didn't answer right away—only lowered her head even more.
Her vivid red hair fell like a curtain, hiding most of her face.
Plans?
She didn't know.
Konoha… that place…
"The people there…"
Kushina finally spoke. Her voice was muffled, heavy with a sadness that didn't match her age.
"They don't like me."
She thought of the laughter in class, the nickname "Tomato," the distant, scrutinizing stares.
"Because of my hair, because I came from outside, because… I'm not the same as them."
She clenched her fists until her nails dug into her palms.
"Grandma Mito said that as long as I work hard—as long as I become strong—everyone will recognize me. They'll accept me as part of Konoha. But…"
She paused, and her voice carried confusion and hurt.
"But it feels like no matter how hard I try, all they ever see is 'that weird red-haired outsider.'"
Rei Ao listened quietly without interrupting.
Only after she finished did he speak.
"What makes you suffer isn't just their pointless exclusion and mockery."
His voice was calm, but it cut like a surgeon's scalpel, slicing open something deeper in her heart.
Kushina lifted her head and looked at him blankly.
Rei Ao's gaze rested on her as if it could pierce through clothes and flesh, seeing the surging thing inside her—something she herself hadn't fully realized yet.
"And there's also the existence of it."
He exhaled two words softly.
"The Nine-Tails."
Kushina's eyes flew wide open. Her red pupils filled with stunned disbelief.
"Y-you… how do you know about the Nine-Tails?!"
The words burst out of her, her voice rising with shock.
"That's Konoha's highest secret! Only a handful of high-ups and—"
She stopped abruptly, realizing something, her face turning slightly pale.
The man in front of her was unfathomable—his power impossible to understand.
The chat group and other worlds were mysterious, too.
So maybe knowing about the Nine-Tails wasn't impossible…
But why bring it up?
Rei Ao didn't answer her question.
Instead, he stepped forward, away from the tree he'd been leaning on.
Moonlight stretched his shadow long across the grass.
Then he made a simple motion—raising his right hand and curling his fingers as if grasping at air.
No hand seals. No incantation.
But the instant his fingers closed—
A vast, violent chakra packed with malice erupted like a sleeping volcano, blasting straight into the sky with him at its center!
"BOOM—!!!"
It wasn't fire, yet it was more blinding than fire.
Like molten sunlight itself—surging, overwhelming, carrying the savage intent to destroy everything—instantly chasing away the night's chill and turning the entire clearing bright as day!
A terrifying pressure descended like something tangible. The air let out a strained, pained groan.
Under the pure chakra's crushing might, the surrounding trees trembled violently, leaves raining down in a frenzy!
Kushina stumbled back—step after step.
Only when her back slammed into another tree trunk did she barely manage to stop.
Her face was paper-white. Her heart pounded wildly. She could almost not breathe.
This feeling… this horrifying feeling…
It was exactly the same as the presence she'd occasionally sensed from Grandma Mito—something that made her blood run cold!
No—
It was even clearer. Even more violent!
As if that legendary calamity beast was right in front of her!
"ROAAAR—!!!"
A deafening, feral roar tore through the night sky!
Before Kushina's terrified eyes, that pillar of chakra rapidly condensed and took shape!
Bone, muscle, fur—an outline so enormous it made despair feel physical—etched itself beneath the moonlight!
And then—
A gigantic demon fox, towering to the heavens, formed in the center of the clearing, entirely made of golden chakra!
Its nine tails—like mountain ridges—whipped wildly behind it, each swing kicking up gale-force winds!
Its blood-red beast eyes were like two shrunken crescent moons, radiating cold, brutal light that promised total destruction!
The Nine-Tails!
A living, breathing Nine-Tailed Fox!
Kushina's mind went blank. Completely.
The Nine-Tails… was released?
How was that possible?
Wasn't it supposed to be sealed inside her?
How could it be here?
Wait… no!
Kushina suddenly noticed something.
This Nine-Tails was terrifying, its pressure suffocating—
But those blood-red eyes, when they looked at Rei Ao, held not the slightest trace of rage or hostility.
If anything… they looked loyal.
At that moment—
Rei Ao's figure flickered, and he was suddenly standing atop the Nine-Tails' head.
On that horrifying skull that could make anyone's legs turn to jelly, he stood as casually as if he were on his own balcony.
He looked down at Kushina, who was frozen like a chicken in a thunderstorm.
"Get up here," he said.
Kushina's legs felt weak.
But with some unknown surge of courage (or maybe she was just scared stupid), she gritted her teeth, then started climbing—hands and feet scrambling—up the Nine-Tails' chakra-made fur that somehow felt solid under her grip.