After finishing his second bowl of ramen, Naruto felt completely full. He said goodbye to Teuchi and hurried out, eager to head back home.
As Naruto stepped through the threshold of Ichiraku Ramen, Teuchi smiled warmly behind him and called out, "Take care on your way back, young man! Be careful not to trip in the dark!"
Naruto flashed a polite smile over his shoulder before stepping out onto the street. He couldn't help but chuckle internally. Old man Teuchi really sees me as a regular three-year-old child, actually warning me not to trip in the dark. The moonlight tonight is so bright, how could I possibly—
Naruto froze. Looking down at the brilliantly illuminated ground, an icy dread shot straight down his spine.
It was currently around nine o'clock in the evening. The fact that the ground was glowing this brightly meant only one thing—tonight was a full moon!
Oh, hell no! Naruto panicked. I'm a Saiyan! Saiyans transform into giant apes when they look at a full moon!
He had literally just sworn an oath to master his emotions and stop throwing mindless tantrums, only for the universe to immediately serve him a full moon night. It felt like the gods themselves were actively rooting for the premature destruction of Konoha!
Panicking, Naruto instantly slapped his hands over his face, burying his head low as he hurried down the street. He kept his eyes glued to his own feet, even going out of his way to dodge puddles to ensure he wouldn't accidentally catch the moon's reflection in the water and trigger a transformation.
This incredibly bizarre behavior left the Anbu detail assigned to monitor him scratching their heads in absolute confusion. They had been suddenly reassigned today to watch over this supposed "Nine-Tails Jinchuriki" and knew next to nothing about Naruto Uzumaki's quirks. Initially, they had assumed he was just a regular three-year-old toddler, but his current behavior looked downright eccentric.
On the other side of the village, Hiruzen Sarutobi, who had been watching Naruto's every move through his crystal ball, was equally baffled. He stroked his beard, completely unable to decipher the purpose behind Naruto's paranoid movements.
Against all odds, Naruto managed to navigate back to his apartment without incident. The second he crossed the threshold, he slammed the door shut, closed his eyes, and frantically drew every single curtain in the apartment. Only after verifying that the entire room was tightly sealed and that not a single beam of moonlight could pierce the darkness did he let out a massive, trembling sigh of relief.
That was way too close!
If he had accidentally looked up at the sky tonight, Konoha would have been flayed alive even if it managed to survive. More importantly, if his giant ape rampage ended up killing innocent people like Hinata or Teuchi, he would have carried that suffocating guilt for the rest of his life.
No. This won't do, Naruto thought grimly. An uncontrollable, volatile liability like this must be strangled in the cradle!
With a look of absolute resolve, he limped into the dark kitchen. Because the doors and windows were completely locked and covered, the Anbu stationed outside had no way of knowing what Naruto was doing next.
However, Hiruzen Sarutobi—gazing through his mystical crystal ball—could see everything with perfect clarity.
In the reflection of the crystal, Hiruzen watched as Naruto marched straight up to the counter and picked up a heavy kitchen knife. The boy stared intensely at his own tail for a long, quiet moment. Then, gritting his teeth, he brought the blade down with brutal force, severing the tail completely.
Naruto let out a muffled, agonizing shriek, collapsing to the floor. A Saiyan's tail was deeply integrated with the spine and packed with sensitive nerves; the sheer, blinding pain of the amputation nearly caused the toddler to black out on the spot.
Back in the Hokage's Office, Hiruzen leaped out of his chair, his eyes nearly popping out of his skull. He slammed his fists onto his desk, roaring in absolute fury, "What on earth are those incompetent Anbu doing?! They actually allowed Naruto to mutilate himself and chop off his own tail?! What the hell are those fools thinking?!"
Hiruzen was practically vibrating with rage. According to his calculations, that mysterious tail was the absolute catalyst behind Naruto's terrifying rampage earlier. Now that Naruto had severed it, the village had certainly avoided the immediate threat of another outburst—but Konoha had also just lost a potentially massive, devastating military asset.
The current state of Konoha was tragically fragile. Among the legendary Sannin, Tsunade had fled the village long ago due to her debilitating hemophobia, while Jiraiya was constantly wandering the world under the guise of searching for the "Child of Prophecy." Aside from Hiruzen himself, the only Shadow-level powerhouses left in the entire Leaf Village were Danzo and Orochimaru.
For Konoha—a superpower that had once single-handedly crushed the four other Great Shinobi Nations simultaneously—to be reduced to a meager three Shadow-level fighters was a pathetic testament to how weak they had become. Furthermore, the true Nine-Tails had been dragged into the stomach of the Reaper by Minato Namikaze three years ago. Hiruzen had spent the last three years researching a method to extract the beast from the Reaper's seal, but he had yet to formulate a viable plan.
Having witnessed Naruto's raw power today, Hiruzen had estimated that the boy's rampaging state was already equivalent to a top-tier Elite Jonin. While that strength didn't quite possess the existential dread of a true Tailed Beast, it was still a massive asset. If Naruto could learn to properly harness and control that power, he would have become a premier weapon for Konoha.
Now, the foolish brat had severed his own appendage just to keep his anger in check. In the Hokage's eyes, this was a disastrous, net-negative loss for the village's military might.
I can't let this go, Hiruzen thought, his eyes narrowing. I absolutely must uncover the biological secret behind Naruto's transformation. Even if it's some undocumented, anomalous Kekkei Genkai that no one else can inherit, I have to figure out the underlying mechanism!
Back in the apartment, the agonizing pain finally began to recede into a dull, throbbing ache. Naruto let out a shaky breath, reaching into a nearby drawer to pull out two large band-aids, which he carefully slapped in a cross pattern over the wound on his backside.
He then picked up the severed tail, placed it inside a clean plastic bag, squeezed out as much air as possible to create a makeshift vacuum seal, and tucked it safely into the back of his refrigerator.
Though he had no idea if he would ever be able to reattach it in the future, keeping the tail preserved was infinitely better than throwing it away. Once his base strength grew formidable enough to consciously master the Great Ape transformation, he could find a way to fuse the tail back onto his body and become a complete, unbound Saiyan warrior once more.
With his tail secured, Naruto collapsed face-down onto his bed and immediately drifted into a deep sleep. Everything that had transpired today—from the brutal massacre at the Police Force to the agonizing self-amputation—had pushed his fragile, three-year-old body to its absolute limits. He desperately needed rest to replenish his stamina.
Late into the night, while Naruto was fast asleep and snoring softly on his stomach, a shadow flickered through the window. Hiruzen Sarutobi silently infiltrated the apartment, moving with the soundless grace of a master shinobi.
Tiptoeing past the sleeping boy, the Third Hokage opened the freezer door and quietly retrieved the plastic bag containing Naruto's tail.
Using a sterile medical blade, Hiruzen carefully shaved off a few tissue samples of the boy's unique flesh and blood for laboratory analysis. Once he had secured the biological matter, he resealed the plastic bag perfectly, placed the tail back into the exact spot in the freezer, and vanished back into the night without leaving a single trace.
After completing his covert operation, the Third Hokage returned everything in the apartment to its exact original state and crept away. The entire process was so silent that even the Anbu detailed to monitor Naruto were completely unaware of his intrusion.
Upon returning to his office, Hiruzen immediately summoned the lead personnel of Konoha's Scientific Research Department. Handing over the fresh tissue samples from Naruto's tail, he ordered them to prioritize this study and uncover its biological secrets as fast as possible.
What the Third Hokage didn't realize, however, was that one of the researchers was a double agent. Upon returning to the lab, the scientist secretly sliced off a portion of the blood and tissue cells. He then summoned a small white snake, fed the biological sample to it, and sent it slipping into the shadows.
Shortly after, in a deeply hidden underground base, Orochimaru stared at the glowing flesh and blood cells regurgitated by the small white snake, his eyes burning with frantic heat. The appearance of an entirely new, undocumented biological anomaly made the legendary scientist tremble with pure, unadulterated excitement.
Orochimaru was already deeply familiar with Naruto Uzumaki. While the rest of the village cared only about the boy's status as a Jinchuriki decoy, Orochimaru's fixation had always been on that peculiar monkey tail. He possessed an insatiable curiosity regarding the diverse, bizarre bloodlines of the shinobi world, and he certainly wasn't going to ignore a child born with such an anomaly.
According to his initial hypotheses, Naruto's tail was likely a unique Kekkei Genkai—a genetic mutation somehow tied to the resilient, dense lifeforce of the Uzumaki clan. Although he didn't yet know the exact cellular function of the tail, these raw cells were more than enough to begin his personal cultivation experiments.
If he had the choice, he would have loved to kidnap Naruto directly and lock him in a laboratory for live vivisection. But the boy was the village's public Nine-Tails Jinchuriki; his old mentor, Lord Hiruzen, would never allow him to lay a finger on the asset. Furthermore, Hiruzen had grown increasingly paranoid and wary of him lately. Orochimaru could sense that the Third Hokage was preparing to move against him very soon.
Though Orochimaru no longer felt any lingering loyalty to Konoha, the dark shift in his mentor's demeanor left a bitter taste in his mouth.
Aging is truly a horrific disease, Orochimaru thought, a cynical smile touching his lips. The great, heroic Sarutobi-sensei of the past has degenerated into a pathetic politician who will plot against his own disciples just to cling to his fading power.
This realization only solidified his resolve: he must achieve true immortality. Only when he attained an eternal, unaging body would he have the limitless time required to unravel all the world's secrets and master every jutsu in existence. He would never allow himself to rot, decay, and lose his mind to the passage of time like his pathetic master.
Shifting his focus, Orochimaru recalled another anomaly. Recently, Danzo Shimura had been acting highly suspicious. The Foundation leader had emptied out almost the entirety of the underground base, leaving only a skeleton crew behind while deploying his elite Root forces out of the Land of Fire.
It was clearly a massive, high-stakes operation. What on earth is that old vulture plotting? Orochimaru wondered.
Meanwhile, on a desolate, uninhabited island nestled within the northern archipelago of the Land of Fire, the very man Orochimaru was wondering about was currently hiding in a dense forest. Danzo Shimura stared intently at a clearing not far away, watching a massive, volatile vortex of crimson chakra writhe and twist in the air.
There was no mistaking it. That dense, burning malice was undeniably the chakra of the Nine-Tails. Having witnessed it multiple times during the Kyuubi's rampage three years ago, Danzo would recognize that vile energy anywhere.
He immediately barked an order to the masked Root ninja flanking him. "Hurry! Have the Sealing Squad draw the containment matrix ahead of schedule! And quickly carve the primary absorption seal onto my own flesh!"
The elite Root ninjas sprang into action with mechanical efficiency. Two master seal-masters knelt before Danzo, using chakra-infused ink to intricately carve a massive binding formula directly across his exposed abdomen. Simultaneously, dozens of combat ninjas surrounded the writhing vortex, weapons drawn and chakra flaring, waiting for the beast to materialize.
The second the preparations were complete, a cataclysmic roar shattered the silence of the deserted island. The legendary Nine-Tails, standing dozens of meters tall with its nine massive tails thrashing wildly, instantly coalesced into physical reality, its razor-sharp claws tearing into the earth.
The exact millisecond the Fox materialized, Danzo's face contorted into a mask of manic ecstasy. "Ninjutsu squads, suppress it! Sealing corps, bind the beast immediately!"
Following the absolute authority of the command, the Root ninjas launched a synchronized assault. A barrage of high-level elemental ninjutsu slammed ruthlessly into the Kyuubi's massive frame, catching the newly resurrected Tailed Beast completely off guard and leaving it momentarily dazed.
But the confusion lasted only a fraction of a second. The Kyuubi's slitted crimson eyes snapped open, burning with pure rage. These detestable, arrogant humans actually dared to ambush me the moment I opened my eyes?!
With a furious, earth-shattering swipe of its tails, the Nine-Tails unleashed a concussive shockwave that instantly scattered the incoming elemental jutsu, dissolving the attacks into harmless smoke.
However, the distraction had served its purpose. Beneath the Kyuubi's massive paws, a dense network of black ink formulas flared to life. The specialized sealing script raced up the beast's colossal limbs like a swarm of parasitic insects, wrapping around its torso and locking its joints.
The Nine-Tails thrashed violently, let out a deafening roar of frustration. This sensation of being paralyzed by a sealing matrix was infuriating. Granted, this rushed technique lacked the absolute, suffocating suppression of Kushina Uzumaki's Adamantine Sealing Chains, but the feeling of phantom iron links wrapping around its chakra network was deeply disturbing.
Seeing the beast restrained, the black sealing formulas carved across Danzo's bare torso suddenly flared with a blinding, blood-red light. He unraveled the heavy bandages covering his right arm, channeling his chakra into a single-handed hand seal, and launched himself high into the air, soaring toward the crown of the Nine-Tails' head.
As long as he could bridge the gap and slam his palm onto the monster's skull, the absorption sequence would trigger. The Kyuubi would be forcefully dragged and sealed directly into his own body. He would become the absolute Jinchuriki of the Nine-Tails.
Once that power was his, not even Hiruzen Sarutobi would be able to halt his ascent. He would march back to Konoha and seize the position of Hokage with absolute, crushing authority, trampling anyone who stood in his path.
Believing his decades-long dream was finally within arm's reach, Danzo let out a booming, arrogant laugh mid-air.
"Hahaha! From this day forth, you mindless beast shall become the sharpest weapon in my arsenal!"
But at that exact microsecond, the slitted eyes of the Nine-Tails locked onto the flying old man, gleaming with a terrifying, vicious intelligence.