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"How can this be...?" Naruto found it somewhat hard to accept.
Even though just moments ago, when he had seen Kagaya instantly defeat those Hidden Cloud shinobi of unknown strength, Naruto had already guessed that Kagaya would not be easy to deal with. But even then, Naruto had still been full of confidence.
After one year of training, Naruto's progress had been far too immense. Before his training, Naruto's strength was, at best, barely at the Chunin level. But after training for a year, Naruto's current strength was already on the verge of stepping into the Kage level. This kind of advancement was nothing short of terrifying.
It was precisely this absurdly rapid growth rate that made Naruto so exceptionally confident. He didn't think he could easily defeat Kagaya, but at the very least, in his view, he should have been able to fight Kagaya on relatively equal footing, back and forth.
Yet...
Has the gap grown even wider?
Naruto thought to himself. That person before him—ever since childhood, he had been the most genius among their peers, never changing. Naruto had always treated him as a target to chase after, yet he had never once managed to catch up.
One year of training had made Naruto believe that he should have more or less caught up to Kagaya. Even if not that, he should at least have narrowed the gap in their strength somewhat. But...
Far too early...
Kagaya's words still echoed by Naruto's ears.
Is that so? For the current me... wanting to defeat him... is it truly still far too early?
Far too early, huh... Uzumaki Naruto...
"What's the matter? Giving up already? Don't forget... you still have me. Heh heh heh..."
A somewhat sinister, chilling voice rang out. Naruto hurriedly lifted his head to look, only to find himself now standing upon a vast expanse of water. And before him, there stood an enormous cage. A pair of crimson pupils blazed alight from within the cage, horrifying beyond measure.
The Nine-Tails!
Crimson chakra began to surge and churn, slowly seeping through the cage and forming the head of the Nine-Tails outside the bars.
"Naruto... how can you give up? Have you even forgotten your own ninja way? Heh heh heh... If you really can't beat him, then by all means, borrow my power to your heart's content. Just as you once said—consider it the rent I pay for living inside your body. Heh heh heh..."
The Nine-Tails' deeply enticing voice reverberated around Naruto's ears.
Naturally, the Nine-Tails harbored no good intentions. The Fourth Hokage had wanted Naruto to be able to master the Nine-Tails' power. Therefore, when he had placed the seal on the Nine-Tails, he had made it very loose, leaving space for chakra to flow through to Naruto. That was why Naruto could borrow the Nine-Tails' power.
Originally, the seals placed on the Nine-Tails within its previous Jinchuriki had been far, far from simply being locked inside a cage.
In the original story, there was a depiction of the Nine-Tails sealed within Kushina. The Nine-Tails had been entirely bound by chains atop a colossal sphere of molten magma. Every single one of its tails had been pinned down by an enormous stake. There was also a stake through its neck, another through its stomach, and stakes through all four of its limbs. Then, those stakes had been firmly, immovably anchored to the magma sphere by chains.
Under those conditions, the Nine-Tails couldn't even move, let alone transmit chakra!
It could be said that this was the situation for the vast majority of Tailed Beasts when they were sealed.
For someone like Naruto, being merely locked inside a cage... it was truly so loose it couldn't possibly be any looser. Of course, this was also intentional on the Fourth Hokage's part. If he wanted Naruto to master the Nine-Tails' power, he had to use a loose seal that made the circulation of chakra possible.
Otherwise, using a seal like Kushina's, without external interference, the Nine-Tails would never, for all eternity, even dream of breaking free from the seal. A Jinchuriki going berserk would also be utterly impossible.
Back to the matter at hand—why was the Nine-Tails urging Naruto not to give up? Because the advantage of a loose seal was that Naruto could borrow the Nine-Tails' power, but the disadvantage was that the Nine-Tails itself possessed the ability to break this kind of loose seal!
Every time Naruto borrowed the Nine-Tails' power, this seal would imperceptibly loosen just a bit more. Once it loosened to a certain degree, the Nine-Tails could completely destroy the seal!
In the original story, during the battle against Pain, the Nine-Tails' seal had loosened to the point where it could be broken. Thus, the fully formed Nine-Tails had very nearly materialized in the world.
Therefore, ever since Naruto was a child, the Nine-Tails had been trying every means possible to transmit chakra to him. It even deliberately disrupted Naruto's training, making him look like a dead-last failure, all so that Naruto would lack his own power and thus become even more dependent on its Nine-Tails chakra.
In any case, the Nine-Tails' goal was not to help Naruto bring Kagaya back or anything of the sort. Its goal was exceedingly simple: make Naruto borrow its power—the more, the better! The more he borrowed, the faster the seal would loosen!
Naruto looked at the Nine-Tails before him and began to hesitate.
At this moment, Naruto still hadn't discovered the dangers of borrowing the Nine-Tails' power. In the original story, it was only after experiencing the battle against Pain—when the Nine-Tails had nearly broken the seal and sounded a massive alarm bell for Naruto—that Naruto consciously began restraining himself from casually borrowing the Nine-Tails' power.
But before that, Naruto truly hadn't perceived the Nine-Tails' danger. He was in a state where he was relatively willing to borrow the Nine-Tails' power.
Memories began to gradually surface. Naruto's childhood had, without a doubt, been lonely and tragic. Throughout the entire Leaf Village, it seemed as if everyone despised him and kept their distance. Only that genius, who blazed with dazzling brilliance, had never once looked at Naruto with strange eyes. Throughout his entire childhood, the memories that had left the deepest impression on Naruto were the countless times Kagaya had encouraged him.
That had practically become the sole ray of light within the darkness of Naruto's childhood. That was why Naruto was so stubbornly fixated on Kagaya. That was why, even after Kagaya had attacked the Leaf Village, Naruto had always, always wanted to bring Kagaya back to the Leaf Village.
It could be said that from childhood to now, the very first warmth Naruto had subjectively felt had been given by Kagaya.
Before Kakashi and Jiraiya had appeared in his life, Kagaya had been the only person who was good to Naruto.
Give up? Uzumaki Naruto? Are you going to give up on this chance to bring Kagaya back?
Kagaya furrowed his brow, watching the Naruto before him in silence.
Crimson chakra began surging out from Naruto's body. The six whisker-like marks on his face became increasingly pronounced.
Forming hand seals, a shadow clone appeared beside Naruto and began shaping a Rasengan.
"Kagaya! This time... I'm definitely bringing you back! I still haven't asked you why you left the Leaf Village! I still haven't asked you why you attacked the Leaf Village! There are far too many questions I need to get clear answers to!"
Kagaya was silent for a moment, then turned his gaze toward Jiraiya.
Jiraiya froze, not understanding why Kagaya was looking at him. As long as Kagaya wasn't going for the kill against Naruto, Jiraiya didn't want to get involved in the fight between the two of them. Jiraiya knew a little about the relationship between Naruto and Kagaya. Furthermore, Jiraiya was well aware that even if he joined in, it would still be impossible to detain Kagaya. So, Jiraiya had no intention of interfering from the very start.
But what did Kagaya mean by looking at him?
Mm...
In the next second, Jiraiya suddenly understood. He shook his head.
Seeing Jiraiya shake his head, Kagaya withdrew his gaze and looked back at Naruto.
Kagaya's meaning in looking at Jiraiya was very clear: the Nine-Tails inside Naruto was starting to stir up trouble—weren't you going to stop it?
And Jiraiya's meaning was: I'm not stopping it.
This was also normal. Jiraiya knew Minato's intentions. The matter of having Naruto master the Nine-Tails' power was something Jiraiya was also working toward.
In the original story, Jiraiya had even deliberately provoked the Nine-Tails into erupting at one point.
So, regarding the Nine-Tails transmitting chakra, Jiraiya didn't want to interfere.
Even if the Nine-Tails weakened the seal... so what? The Nine-Tails had absolutely no idea that there was still a fragment of Kushina's chakra inside Naruto, as well as a fragment of Minato's chakra. To put it plainly, even if the Nine-Tails broke through this seal, there were two more waiting for it!
Even if both of those failed, the Leaf Village still had shinobi skilled in sealing jutsu. The Nine-Tails had practically zero chance of actually breaking the seal and escaping.
"Rasengan!"
Naruto charged forward once again. And once again, he was sent flying back.
At this moment, Naruto's outward appearance merely had a bit more crimson chakra clinging to it. Other than that, there was no change at all. Borrowing chakra to this degree... to Kagaya, it was no different from not borrowing any at all.
"Still not enough, Naruto!"
Just as expected, the Nine-Tails was also very dissatisfied. Borrowing this tiny amount of chakra? Couldn't you be a little more generous? Borrow more! Look how tight this seal is—if you don't borrow more, how am I supposed to break it?!
This time, a massive amount of crimson chakra began to emerge, forming a layer of crimson chakra cloak around Naruto's body. This cloak had two fox ears atop its head, a single tail trailing behind it, and sharp claws at its hands and feet.
Naruto's current appearance was exactly like when he had fought Sasuke at the Valley of the End in the original story. The only difference was that this Naruto had already grown up, somewhat resembling his appearance from two years later in the original story.
The next second.
"Blegh!"
A mouthful of fresh blood spilled from Naruto's mouth. He had been punched and sent flying by Kagaya, who had arrived at his side at some unknown moment!
Kagaya looked expressionlessly at Naruto. No... what he was looking at wasn't Naruto. It was the Nine-Tails!
"Come, then. Show me your power."
Naruto clenched his teeth and stood back up, his emotions growing increasingly furious.
And within Naruto's body, the Nine-Tails narrowed its eyes slightly. It had keenly perceived that the one Kagaya was provoking wasn't Naruto, but itself—the Nine-Tails!
Hmph! Brat who doesn't know the immensity of heaven and earth!
In truth, along the trajectory of Kagaya's life, after awakening his Sharingan, his contact with Naruto had grown less and less frequent. Gradually, they had practically stopped seeing each other at all. Therefore, the Nine-Tails' perception of Kagaya's strength was just like Naruto's—unknown and unclear.
In Naruto's mind, Kagaya was very powerful. But in the Nine-Tails' mind, Kagaya might be powerful, but before them, the Tailed Beasts, he was inevitably beneath notice!
Naruto's skin began gradually turning red. The Tailed Beast cloak vanished. Little by little, Naruto's entire form transformed into a crimson monster, crawling on the ground like a fox. White, blank eyes stared fixedly at Kagaya.
He had gone completely berserk!
Kagaya glanced at the number of tails. Three.
"Are you underestimating me?"
In the very next instant, Kagaya once again appeared beside the miniaturized Tailed Beast form of Naruto. A golden skeletal arm materialized and directly, viciously swatted Naruto flying.
"Aaarrrgghhh!!!"
Because Naruto had already transformed into a miniature Tailed Beast, this time Kagaya didn't hold back significantly like before. Instead, he added just a little more force. That force was so immense that even the miniaturized Tailed Beast Naruto cried out in pain.
The voice was very shrill, utterly unlike a human voice.
The Tailed Beast Naruto was sent flying far into the distance, carving a long, deep furrow into the earth and kicking up clouds of dust and smoke.
Very quickly, the Tailed Beast Naruto dispersed the force and came to a stop.
"ROOOAAARRR!!!"
This roar was different from the shrill shrieks before. This time, it was somewhat deep and guttural. Accompanying this roar, vast amounts of Nine-Tails chakra began to appear.
By the time the dust and smoke cleared, the Naruto in the distance had already sprouted four Tailed Beast tails. Around his body, white, skeletal bones had also begun to form.
Naruto raised his head. A tiny black dot started gathering above his mouth.
Tailed Beast Bomb!
This type of Tailed Beast Bomb could be considered a miniature Tailed Beast Ball, though its destructive power fell far, far short of a true Tailed Beast Ball.
Whoosh!
The tiny black sphere was spat out by Naruto, hurtling directly toward Kagaya.
A flash of gold. A Susanoo roughly four meters in height instantly appeared, extending its right hand and directly seizing that Tailed Beast Bomb!
BOOM!
A tremendous explosion erupted within the Susanoo's right hand, but it didn't cause any significant damage. Kagaya had used his Susanoo to take Naruto's Tailed Beast Bomb head-on!
The Susanoo opened its right hand. The palm was now completely charred black, still emitting black smoke. As expected, although directly catching a Tailed Beast Bomb looked incredibly cool, sustaining injury was unavoidable.
Chakra surged. The black scorch marks rapidly vanished. The Susanoo returned to its normal state.
"That is...!!!"
Within Naruto's body, the Nine-Tails' eyes flew wide open. When it had only been a single hand earlier, the Nine-Tails hadn't recognized it. But at this moment, with the four-meter-tall Susanoo manifesting, it already bore a certain resemblance.
A resemblance... to a technique from the Nine-Tails' memories. The technique of that man!
"Madara..."
Recalling that man, a surge of dread first welled up within the Nine-Tails' heart. But it quickly vanished, replaced by boundless, unending fury!
It was that bastard! From the moment he had found it, it had been plunged into an endless, eternal cage!
Bastard!!!
Die!!!
The Nine-Tails' chakra began surging outward madly! It, too, was enraged!
"ROOOAAARRR!!!"
A pillar of crimson chakra shot straight into the sky. The terrifying chakra directly whipped up violent, howling gales.
Jiraiya's face instantly turned deathly pale. Although he wanted Naruto to interact more with the Nine-Tails' chakra so that he could master its power sooner, this current surge of immensely powerful chakra seemed to be somewhat slipping beyond his control.
The surrounding trees were directly uprooted by the fierce winds generated by the chakra, blown far, far away in all directions.
From the Hidden Cloud, Karui's face also turned a sickly pale.
"A Tailed Beast going completely berserk..."
The Hidden Cloud had also experienced such an event. So Karui knew full well the sheer terror of this phenomenon. She didn't dare hesitate. Carrying Omoi and Samui, she immediately fled this place.
Kagaya also witnessed this scene. He furrowed his brow but ultimately did not stop them.
If they ran, so be it. They could run. But could the vast Hidden Cloud Village itself run?
Haku was also buffeted by the raging winds, unable to keep his eyes open. He flickered several times and vanished. A short while later, Haku returned, supporting Karin, who was clad in blood-stained clothes. He hurriedly rushed inside Kagaya's Susanoo. Because the very first time Kagaya had activated his Susanoo had been to protect Haku and Karin, Haku knew that Kagaya's Susanoo could allow others to enter.
Just as expected, once inside the Susanoo, those violent winds instantly disappeared. Within the Susanoo, it was still so calm and serene, as if no matter what happened outside, nothing could so much as shake this golden giant in the slightest.
Kagaya looked at Karin, dressed in blood-soaked clothing. His expression was extremely dark and grim. Originally, when Kagaya had seen Haku—relatively uninjured—earlier, he had assumed Karin was in a similar state and had been planning to slowly, methodically purge those underground organizations. But now, seeing Karin in this condition, Kagaya was utterly and thoroughly enraged.
He no longer wanted to continue playing around here with Naruto. He wanted to swiftly deal with Naruto, then go and purge those underground organizations.
Yes... Naruto—or rather, the Nine-Tails—had, from beginning to end, never been regarded as a threat by Kagaya.
Don't forget: his eyes were the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan! Even if the Nine-Tails immediately shattered its seal, then retrieved its other half of chakra from Minato's body inside the Shinigami's stomach and merged back into the complete, fully formed Nine-Tails... what could it possibly do against Kagaya?
Madara could effortlessly subdue the Nine-Tails.
He could do the very same!