"Damn brat!"
"If you've got the guts, let me out! If I don't eat you, I'm not Kurama!"
Enraged by being called a beast by Menma, Kurama's fur stood on end. He had inadvertently revealed his true thoughts. What brother? What new tailed beast born from chakra? It was all just a lie to trick Menma—planning to devour him and steal his power the second he was released.
Menma grinned, appearing instantly before the seal. "Thanks for the reminder. That's exactly what I was thinking."
Compared to negotiating with Kurama or trying to control him, devouring the beast and making it his own power was infinitely safer. He just didn't know if the system's half of Kurama could merge with the half in the ninja world into one complete entity. If it could, he wouldn't need to spend 50,000 Corruption Points to exchange for the Yin Kurama.
While pondering this, Menma reached out toward the sealing tag.
At the same time, a gust of wind blew past him, followed by a gentle, deep male voice.
"Stop!"
A blond man with features strikingly similar to Naruto Uzumaki's, dressed in a divine robe, appeared. He swiftly extended his right hand, grabbing Menma's raised arm.
Boom!
Menma didn't even turn his head. His tail pierced the railing beside him, firmly blocking the hand trying to stop him.
Finally—
Rip— Creak— Bang!
With a harsh, metallic groan, the iron gate swung open to both sides.
"Hehehe... Hahaha..."
The Nine-Tails, claws digging at the inner door, slowly crawled out. A chilling, maniacal laugh escaped its lips. One paw rested on the doorframe, its face contorted with hatred and glee as he looked at the blond man.
"You've finally shown yourself..."
The Nine-Tails let out a hoarse, hate-filled growl. "Minato!"
Hearing the Nine-Tails' roar, Minato Namikaze frowned, watching it warily. "Of course I didn't want to show myself now, and I definitely didn't want to see you, Nine-Tails. But seeing my grown son with my own eyes... let's call it even."
With that, Minato took a step forward, blocking Menma's path with one hand. Then, without turning his head, he calmly said, "Menma, I don't know why you changed your name, nor do I understand why you're doing this. But we can talk about it later. Let your mother and I close this seal again first."
As Minato spoke, another gust of wind blew by. Kushina Uzumaki, with her messy red hair and sleepy eyes, appeared beside him.
"Huh? Minato? You didn't disappear, so why did you wake me up? Did something happen to the seal?"
She looked at the Nine-Tails' ferocious expression, rubbed her eyes in disbelief, then looked up.
"Whoa!!! It's the Nine-Tails! The seal really has a problem!!!"
Kushina turned and pointed at the Nine-Tails in the distance, jumping three feet high. Her hair flew wildly in the air. The initial beauty of her awakening was completely gone.
But it was this turn of her head that allowed her to see Menma standing coldly behind Minato.
"You... you... it's Naruto Uzumaki! My child!!!"
Kushina, like a red missile, crashed through Minato and lunged at Menma. He, however, had no intention of letting her embrace him. Menma nimbly dodged to the side, leaving Kushina to crash into empty air.
Kushina's eyes reddened instantly, and her red hair flew wildly again. She looked ready to charge again!
"Alright, Kushina, after we deal with the Nine-Tails, there'll be plenty of time for you to hug him," Minato tried to comfort her.
But all he got in return was a fist the size of a sandbag from Kushina, landing hard on his head.
"Why won't you let me hold my child! It must be you! You did something..."
In the distance, the Nine-Tails, anger building as it recalled humiliating days, saw this family of three suddenly appear, ignoring it and starting to argue and fight. Instantly, its blood rushed to its head, and it angrily condensed its nine tails before its mouth.
"You're really quite leisurely and arrogant... Then let me send you on your way, let your family reunite in hell!!!"
As it spoke, crimson and blue chakra began to gather toward the tips of its tails until it condensed into a black Tailed Beast Ball, which the Nine-Tails devoured in one gulp. Then its cheeks bulged rapidly, and a terrifying destructive power emanated from it, accompanied by gusts of wind pressure.
"Menma, watch out!"
Sensing the danger, Kushina quickly stepped in front of Menma. Countless sharp, triangular chain heads appeared around her. Minato also rushed to the front, one hand covering the large bump on his head, the other gripping a kunai inscribed with the Flying Thunder God rune.
"Kushina, be careful to conserve some chakra, or you won't have a chance to speak later."
Looking at the two solid backs blocking his way, Menma hadn't expected that his dark personality would actually be treated like a child they were willing to protect at all costs! Could it be that his previous words had worked, making them treat him as the primary personality?
Although he didn't understand, Menma wouldn't let these two chakra reserves be completely depleted. He would still need these two strands of chakra to do his bidding. And he wanted them to see for themselves what kind of life this body was living—to see for themselves how the village and people they had risked their lives to protect were treating this body with such contempt!
Thinking this, Menma unceremoniously pushed the two apart.
"My name is Menma, not Naruto Uzumaki! Also, if you want to be this body's parents, we'll see how you behave later. Otherwise, Naruto Uzumaki and I, already ostracized orphans, will only ever be orphans no one dares to mess with!"
As he spoke, Menma had already reached the front.
"Menma!"
Kushina, her eyes filled with anxiety, hurriedly prepared to step forward, but Minato stopped her, giving her a reassuring look.
"He's very powerful. He's been protecting Naruto Uzumaki all along, and because of some experiences, he harbors hatred for everything. We must believe in him, we can't let him hate us anymore..."
Ahead, Menma, in a bad mood, quickly unleashed a terrifying, flame-like golden-red chakra around his body! And with each step he took, this golden-red flame doubled in size! When he reached the front, the raging golden-red flames on his body expanded into a gigantic golden-red humanoid fox with a sealed spatial ceiling above its head and black patterns on its surface!
...