After the preliminary fights were over, Naruto—his hand still bandaged and plastered—was released from the hospital with instructions to return in a week for a check-up. He was lucky: the bones had broken cleanly, and the expert doctors were able to save him a lot of recovery time thanks to their medical ninjutsu skills. Still, he needed more time to fully heal, and that would impact his training, especially since they had only one month to recover and prepare for the final part of the exam.
But soon enough, he received another piece of bad news: Kakashi would focus training Sasuke, and Naruto had to be content with some unknown ninja—Master Ebisu. Even though he was meeting him for the first time, this instructor didn't seem particularly reliable.
As Naruto trained to walk on water at the hot springs, Elias was busy in an isolated space by his Cosmos, testing the interaction between his simulated core and it's alterated copy. Even if it was impossible to perfectly simulate the unknown core of another Bijū, he added multiple alterations to his own, making it increasingly foreign—so much that, when the time came, he could devour the other one successfully and as quickly as possible.
His time was coming. The next month would be decisive for his future. It was nearly time. Time to unleash Order Sixty-Six!
Very soon, he would gift the Hidden Village a new piece of art—so sublime they would die from wonder!
Soon enough, Naruto gained a new master after managing to walk on water with ease. The very next day, he signed a contract that would allow him to summon beasts. Elias witnessed the process: a small amount of chakra marked Naruto's bones, while another portion was sealed into the scroll. But the result was ridiculous—the only thing he could invoke was a tadpole!
And so, the days passed.
Elias was aware of the identity of his den's new master—it was one of the Three Sannin, Jiraiya. He wasn't worried about this unforeseen development, though. A brat using a jutsu he created had made Orochimaru flee. So when Elias would be born anew, this ridiculous pervert wouldn't amount to much.
Fifteen days passed, and the boy showed no sign of improvement—while Elias was now seventy percent confident he could hunt down, devour, and assimilate the other Bijū in under five minutes.
As for what would happen to his host?
It wasn't important. Naruto was about to reach his expiration date very soon anyway.
Three weeks into the training, Naruto still couldn't summon anything more than a tadpole—and Jiraiya could no longer hide his frustrated expression. Just as he was about to say something to the boy, Naruto suddenly passed out.
The seal should have allowed the young ninja to use the Kyūbi's chakra, and naively, Jiraiya believed Naruto was simply rejecting its use on a subconscious level. After all, when he checked the seal himself, everything seemed perfectly intact. And so, Elias had baited him successfully—tricking him into believing his student could access the power when placed in danger.
Jiraiya had been briefed by Kakashi, who told him Naruto had used the Kyūbi's chakra to save his teammate in the Land of Waves. The same had supposedly occurred during the Forest of Death trial, as Anko described seeing him cloaked in chakra during the brief moment she joined the fight against Orochimaru.
After transporting Naruto to a cliffside, Jiraiya dropped him carelessly onto the ground—jolting the boy awake.
"Ah—where are we?" Asked Naruto, confused.
"The training stops today. If you want to live... show your determination right now!"Said Jiraiya, before shoving the poor boy off the cliff.
But the situation was far worse than anyone could have imagined.
Naruto was plummeting into the mouth of the earth itself—a chasm that yawned open like some ancient, patient beast. The walls were slick with water from the pounding waterfall above, glistening like the fangs of a predator. No one could see the bottom. One could only guess. Or fear.
He flailed, trying desperately to grip the stone with chakra—but his hands slid off uselessly, the moisture stealing away every ounce of traction. His breath shortened! His thoughts scattered! Despair overtook him like a slow-rolling tide of ink as time gradually fractured!
His heartbeat began to hammer in his ears, deafening, overwhelming, like the thundering of war drums before a massacre! His lungs constricted. His limbs trembled. A shrill, metallic ringing pierced his hearing as if the world itself was screaming!
He was terrified—truly terrified.
And then, something in him broke. He stopped hoping. He stopped calling for help. He simply fell. Fell to his destiny. Fell into the maw of doom slowly, sickeningly, as though fate was savoring every second of his descent!
High above, Jiraiya peered down into the void, eyes narrow. But his calm facade cracked. First a ripple of unease gripped his gut, then it twisted into something worse! Something primal!
He couldn't see him anymore.
"This is bad... Naruto!!" Jiraiya roared, launching himself into the abyss and summoning a giant toad mid-air.
The toad carried him down, leaping from wall to wall in a blur of motion, but it wasn't fast enough. The Sanin's heart pounded in sync with the crashing water, now deafening in its proximity. And in that moment, panic gripped him like a vice!
He had been wrong! Horribly wrong! He had trusted too easily! Believed too blindly! He thought the Kyūbi would protect its host! He thought the fox feared death! But now… it seemed the demon would rather let its vessel die than lift a finger.
Minato's son, the child of destiny, was spiraling toward death—and Jiraiya had pushed him there.
Time became a curse. Every second stretched like a blade across his conscience!
Then—after what felt like hours—they reached the bottom, and what greeted him was a still, shallow pool of water, stained crimson. Naruto was laying face down, twisted at grotesque angles—his limbs mangled like a broken doll flung from a great height. Blood trickled from his head and what remained of his face. The air around him hung heavy, motionless, as if the world itself had stopped to mourn.
Jiraiya stood frozen, breathless as a glacial chill ran through his spine, carving guilt into his bones.
He had nearly killed him, but somehow… Naruto was still breathing.
Crushed. Bleeding. Broken but alive. And that made it worse—because now, he would have to live through this.
In the Ninja Hospital, a heavy silence hung in the air like a funeral shroud.
Hiruzen, Koharu, Homura, and Danzō stood together, watching in grim horror as the barely recognizable form of Naruto was wheeled into emergency surgery. His body was shattered—twisted and broken like a puppet yanked apart by rage. A team of elite seal masters stood close by, hands ready, chakra poised to act at the first sign of the demon awakening and seal failing. Jiraiya stood among them.
At a glance, one could see he was a man consumed—devoured—by guilt. He had betrayed his student, failed his godson, and brought the Nine-Tails' Jinchūriki to the very edge of death.
The same Nine-Tails that had destroyed the village thirteen years ago... the same demon that ripped away the souls out of Konoha's clans like it was nothing! The same one sealed inside that broken boy on the operating table!
Jiraiya's hands trembled. Not from fear of the fox, they were trembling from what he had done.
Meanwhile, in the inner sanctum of Naruto's fading consciousness, the world was impossibly serene.
He stood in the middle of a vast prairie under a sky too perfect to be real. Bright sunlight spilled across rolling fields of golden flowers and towering mushrooms, their caps glowing faintly in soft hues of pink and blue. The breeze carried the scent of spring, and in the distance, a shape approached—small, red, and smiling.
There he was.
The nice, very cute little fox.
"Kyūbi-kun!" Naruto shouted, his voice warm with childlike trust. "I knew you'd save me again!"
"Long time no see, Naruto! I missed you so much!" Chirped the tiny fox, bouncing forward on padded paws.
But then… something shifted.
The fox began to grow. Slowly at first. Then faster.
Larger. And larger. And larger still.
In mere moments, he towered above Naruto, eclipsing the sun, his fur bristling like intense fire, his eyes gleaming with hunger.
"Woooow! You got so big! Amazing!" Naruto laughed, eyes wide with admiration.
"I grew a lot, didn't I?" The giant fox replied playfully, his grin stretching far too wide, exposing rows upon rows of teeth. "And do you know why?"
"No! Why? Tell me!" Naruto asked eagerly.
The voice that answered was no longer playful. It didn't come from the fox, but from his left. As the voice answered he felt some one's breath on his ear. It's sound was hoarse and wet:
"To better eat you... my child!"
Naruto's expression froze.
Then came the sound:
CRUNCH!
A horrible, wet, bone-splitting munching sound.
There were no screams. No protests. No pleas, only the slow, methodical sound of something being devoured, chewed, consumed.
No more Naruto.
Only the sound of the slow munching remained.