"Damn it—did his computer get a virus!?"
Hiroki's next thought came just as fast.
Despicable Nine-Tailed… how did it bypass my firewall?!
Surprisingly, Hiroki's first reaction was neither fear nor anger, but the pure, instinctive curiosity of a programmer.
How exactly does this bug—or program—run?.jpgWhy can it even run?.jpgNo… does it really function entirely on bugs?.jpg
As everyone knew—at least everyone who mattered—Hiroki's mental firewall was something he had coded himself. In theory, it blocked all external programs, unauthorized write operations, and foreign "IP addresses" from ever entering his consciousness space.
So the question was obvious.
How did this strange Nine-Tailed icon—this completely abnormal application—appear on his desktop?
Could it be that…
Did the Nine-Tailed inject itself before he activated the firewall?
No, that didn't make sense. Hiroki clearly remembered that his firewall operated passively. It was always on.
If he had to pinpoint anything unusual, the only thing he recalled was clearing some junk cache earlier—some useless background processes cluttering his mental space.
…Wait.
Was there a problem with that?
There was no time to think further.
This was an unknown program, a foreign entity, and for all he knew it could be stealing his Ninjutsu data in the background—or worse, formatting his memory hard drive.
And this wasn't just any virus.
It was the Nine-Tailed.
Who knew what Kurama wanted to do?!
Hiroki's consciousness condensed sharply, transforming into his most familiar operational tool: a flickering white arrow cursor.
Manual deletion it was.
The cursor traced a precise trajectory through the deep-blue Void Realm, moving like the Body Flicker Technique, instantly appearing above the orange-red Nine-Tailed icon.
Right-click.
But just as the command representing the context menu was about to be issued—
Whoosh!
The chibi Nine-Tailed icon, like a startled cat, suddenly darted sideways. With agility completely inappropriate for something labeled an "icon," it narrowly dodged the cursor's lock.
"Brat! What do you think you're doing to this old man?!"
The Nine-Tailed's mental roar echoed again, this time laced with clear vigilance—and irritation.
Hiroki ignored it entirely.
The cursor immediately chased after it again. Are you kidding? As a programmer, how could he not click a suspicious program?
Thus began an unprecedented chase across the vast "System Desktop."
One programmer.One fox.Or more accurately—one system administrator and one highly intelligent virus.
Hiroki's cursor was fast, but the Nine-Tailed icon twisted its pixelated body again and again, dodging by the narrowest margins.
Damn it—so fast?!
He was operating directly on the consciousness level, and he still couldn't click a Nine-Tailed?!
Wait.
If he was operating with thought speed… didn't that mean the Nine-Tailed was doing the same?
So this wasn't about hand speed at all.
It was a battle of thinking speed.
"…Damn it," Hiroki muttered internally.
This virus didn't just have high permissions—it had intelligence and autonomous evasion logic.
If conventional deletion wouldn't work, then he'd eliminate its hiding place.
With a thought, Hiroki opened [My Computer].
Then he clicked into [Desktop].
All desktop icons lit up simultaneously, neatly arranged in order. The Nine-Tailed icon was instantly exposed at the very bottom of the [Desktop] directory.
"Damn it!" the fox snarled. "If one method doesn't work, you switch tactics immediately?! Brat! Don't even think about catching this old man!"
Even inside the folder interface, the Nine-Tailed icon accelerated like an orange-red streak of lightning, then—
Whoosh!
It drilled straight into another directory.
[Copied Ninjutsu]
Hiroki's cursor froze mid-air.
Oh no.
He immediately opened the folder.
Inside were neatly organized subfolders: [Fire Release], [Wind Release], [Scorch Release], and more. And right now, that damned Nine-Tailed icon was scurrying through them like a gopher, even poking its pixelated head out of [Lightning Release: False Darkness] to bare its teeth at him.
"Brat," the fox laughed, "your mental world is pretty interesting, isn't it? These are your Ninjutsu, right?"
…It can access my files?!
A chill ran through Hiroki's mind.
This was no longer a simple desktop pet. This was a super-virus that had penetrated deep into his system and gained read permissions—possibly even write permissions.
If it accessed his core memory…
The consequences were unthinkable.
No more games.
Hiroki took a steadying breath and abandoned the graphical interface entirely.
His consciousness invoked a higher-level authority.
A translucent window with a cold, system-grade border popped open.
At the top, stark and merciless text appeared:
[Task Manager]
Inside, countless running processes were listed.
Hiroki's gaze scanned them instantly, locking onto the one with abnormally high CPU usage.
[Kurama.sys — High Priority (System Process)]
Found you.
The cursor moved onto the process.
Right-click.
"End Process."
Just as he was about to confirm—
The Nine-Tailed icon froze.
A sharp, unmistakable killing intent surged through the underlying rules of the system, transmitting directly to the fox's perception.
The Nine-Tailed instantly understood: if this brat's thought moved even a fraction further, the portion of Chakra and consciousness it had left here would be erased completely.
Not sealed.Not suppressed.
Erased—on the level of existence itself.
This brat… he's serious?!
For the first time, genuine panic struck the Nine-Tailed.
It had finally escaped decades of being nailed to a stone ball—only to risk being locked into an even stranger prison.
Worse, this mental world wasn't chaotic or violent.
It was boring.
And endless boredom, even for a Tailed Beast, was unbearable.
More importantly—when the brat first saw it, there had been no malice. He had genuinely wanted to understand it.
"Wait! Stop! Stop!"
The Nine-Tailed's roar echoed again, but this time it was no threat—only a hurried plea.
The chibi fox icon crawled out of the folder voluntarily, stopped on the desktop, and drooped its tail, putting on the most pitiful pixelated expression it could manage.
"This old man—this old man didn't do it on purpose!" it said, sounding genuinely aggrieved. "This is my first time seeing such a mental world too! Who knew your territory had so many rules?!"
Hiroki's cursor hovered over the confirmation button, unmoving.
"Speak."
"What I left here isn't my main body—just a projection of Chakra and consciousness! It won't harm you!" the fox hurriedly explained. "And—and you can clean hatred like trash! This place of yours is clean… comfortable! Can't this old man stay for a while?"
Seeing no response, it immediately raised the stakes.
"Besides! You wouldn't want this old man to cause trouble every day inside the new host—Kushina, right?! If this old man's in a bad mood, leaking a little Chakra would be more than enough to make her suffer!"
"If I stay here, just think of it as opening a channel for communication! When I'm in a good mood, I'll cooperate! Isn't that good for your Konoha?!"
Hiroki fell silent.
The logic was sound.
A Nine-Tailed that could be directly communicated with was far more valuable than a sealed, unstable time bomb.
And more importantly, the fox clearly feared the Task Manager—which meant the Task Manager worked.
Still…
He wasn't letting it off that easily.
"What else?" Hiroki asked.
"…I can lend you some of this old man's power through this projection," the fox grinned. "Don't push your luck."
Kurama's power.
That was… tempting.
After a brief pause, Hiroki moved the cursor away. The [Task Manager] window closed.
"You can stay," he said calmly. "But if you mess with my files—"
"I'll format you."
The Nine-Tailed icon visibly sagged in relief.
That instant, unmistakable intent to erase it had been far too real.
"It's a deal!"
The tiny fox icon hopped twice on the desktop.
Hiroki also relaxed slightly, a familiar thought surfacing unbidden.
Nine-Tailed—successfully captured~I want to be a Pokémon Master.jpg
—
Far away, in the underground stone chamber.
As Hiroki and the Nine-Tailed reached their agreement, the Adamantine Sealing Chains linking Uzumaki Mito and Uzumaki Kushina flared one last time before shattering, dissolving into countless motes of light.
Uzumaki Mito smiled peacefully—and stopped breathing.
On Kushina's abdomen, a brand-new black Uzumaki sealing formula slowly formed, radiating powerful sealing energy before stabilizing completely.
"It's a success!" Sarutobi Hiruzen said, his voice trembling with relief and exhaustion.
The transfer was complete.
Kushina stirred in her sleep, her brows briefly knitting together—then relaxing once more.
Deep within her consciousness, a deep, tsundere voice echoed faintly.
"Hmph. You little girl… your taste isn't bad. The brat you chose—Hiroki—is actually pretty interesting."
Half-asleep, Kushina mumbled back in protest.
"Of course."
-------------------------------------------- To read chapters in advance go to P@treon - harsh07