Chapter 466: The Tailed Beasts' Journey to Save Themselves
Inside Naruto's mental world.
This was a place Naruto had not returned to for a very long time ever since he had been placed under genjutsu control.
Right now, several enormous Tailed Beasts were sitting around inside, chatting with each other.
Earlier, Shiromo and the others had Sasuke stuff portions of the other Tailed Beasts' chakra into Naruto's body.
This was not specifically to help Naruto break through in strength. The main purpose was to turn Naruto into a relay station and signal tower for Tailed Beast chakra.
That way, whether it was ordinary combat or battles using Baryon Mode that burned chakra and the Tailed Beasts' life force, both the margin for error and the overall power would improve dramatically.
Of course, Naruto himself also benefited from it.
Once all nine Tailed Beasts were placed inside Naruto, he would basically enter the same state as he had in the original story during the Fourth Great Ninja War, when he possessed the chakra of all the Tailed Beasts.
In terms of raw power, compared to his final form, he would only be missing the Sage of Six Paths' Yang power.
While Naruto was hypnotized by Sasuke, Kurama had been bored out of his mind inside Naruto's mental space. Since he had nothing better to do, he simply connected the "signal" ahead of time and called the other Tailed Beasts over so they could chat together while watching Naruto and Sasuke's little drama play out.
Naruto had already been infused with portions of several Tailed Beasts. With their chakra now inside him, only the two from Iwagakure remained, Four-Tails and Five-Tails.
As for Four-Tails, that was practically settled already.
After all, Roshi had already been lured out of the deep mountains by Kurotsuchi.
During this period, Kurama stayed inside Naruto's mental world, watching Naruto and Sasuke together with the other six Tailed Beasts while also explaining the "modified" version of the prophecy.
At first, after being dragged in and forced to watch the Naruto-and-Sasuke theater show, the other Tailed Beasts all shouted that they wanted to leave.
That was until Kurama told them about the Great Toad Sage's prophecy.
The Tailed Beasts all knew what kind of existence the Great Toad Sage was.
He was someone who could casually chat and laugh with their creator, the Sage of Six Paths.
So when Kurama mentioned the Great Toad Sage's prophecy, they naturally listened attentively.
Then Kurama revealed the version he had slightly altered.
Originally, the prophecy said that Naruto would develop an improper relationship with Kurama.
But in order to drag the other Tailed Beasts into this mess and make them help resist fate together, Kurama modified the prophecy into one where Naruto would engage in a chaotic free-for-all with all nine Tailed Beasts.
And he would passionately shout all nine of their names.
Just like how Naruto called out Sasuke's name in the little drama they had watched.
The Tailed Beasts were so horrified they nearly pissed themselves.
Some of them even considered having Kurama control Naruto and make him kill himself, sacrificing one person to save everyone else.
They were proud Tailed Beasts.
Being treated as weapons of war by the major ninja villages was humiliating enough already.
And now that wasn't enough?
Were they also supposed to become sex toys too?
Especially Matatabi, the Two-Tails, whose mental gender leaned female.
Since Five-Tails was not here yet, she was currently the only female among the Tailed Beasts.
(Two-Tails and Five-Tails leaned female; One-Tail, Four-Tails, Eight-Tails, and Nine-Tails leaned male; the rest were unknown. Maybe they were Walmart shopping bags.)
Matatabi immediately cursed at Kurama. The Naruto-and-Sasuke skit had already proven Naruto's preferences, so there was absolutely no way she would be involved in this. This had to be Kurama's conspiracy.
Faced with Matatabi's questioning, Kurama did not panic. He calmly continued explaining.
Would Naruto spare Matatabi just because she was female?
No.
Naruto had another fetish.
He liked furry creatures.
"You all know that Naruto was cruelly abandoned by his parents when he was little and forced to live alone. Deep down, he desperately longs for parental love. That's human instinct."
"It's like how Orochimaru recently researched instinctive human behavior encoded in genes and discovered that many human males like big breasts because of their craving for nourishment during infancy."
"In the same way, Naruto developed a longing for his parents."
"And both of Naruto's parents once served as my jinchuriki. In Naruto's eyes, they both appeared carrying my image. As a result, Naruto mistakenly associated fluffy fur with parental traits, awakening this fetish."
"?"
After Kurama finished speaking, the other Tailed Beasts slowly produced question marks over their heads.
"Where's the fur? My body is made of flames."
Matatabi asked in return.
"Yeah, stupid fox, that's complete bullshit. My body is sand!"
Shukaku immediately followed up.
"…"
Holy shit.
Only then did Kurama suddenly realize something.
Among the nine Tailed Beasts, aside from himself and the absent Four-Tails and Five-Tails, none of the others were actually fluffy.
"Idiots."
Kurama pretended to remain calm and scolded the others in an old-fashioned tone.
"Haven't you heard the saying, 'Love me, love my dog'? If Naruto could develop a fluffy-animal fetish because of the connection between his parents and me, then why couldn't he develop a fetish for Tailed Beasts because of my connection to all of you?"
"So in the end, the root cause is you, Kurama, you shameless fox!"
Shukaku suddenly understood.
"So what if I am?" Kurama admitted without hesitation. "What matters now is that we're all tied to the same rope. Instead of blaming me, you should think about how to resist fate."
"What do we do?"
"Yeah, what do we do?"
"I refuse to believe that little blond brat could force himself on us if we don't agree!"
Shukaku still stubbornly talked tough.
But this time, Kurama did not even need to respond. Matatabi directly smacked him with a cat paw.
"Idiot. That's the person mentioned in the prophecies of the Sage of Six Paths and the Great Toad Sage."
"Besides, even if Uzumaki Naruto never grows any stronger and stays exactly as he is now, doesn't he still have his soulmate Uchiha Sasuke?"
"What if Naruto begs Sasuke to use the Rinnegan to control us so Naruto can do whatever he wants with us? What could we even do then?"
"What?! That's possible too?!"
Shukaku's face changed drastically.
"Actually, Shukaku, you don't need to worry."
Kurama comforted him.
"Huh? Why? So Naruto doesn't care about me? Looks like being ugly—uh, anyway, there are advantages after all."
Shukaku let out a huge sigh of relief.
"No."
Kurama shook his head.
"It's because your jinchuriki, Gaara, already wants to become Naruto's soulmate. So if Naruto wants you, your jinchuriki would happily agree. Sasuke wouldn't even need to help."
"...Our jinchuriki, huh? Naruto's target is the Tailed Beasts. If that's the case, then let him do it to us inside the mental world. Don't hurt our jinchuriki."
"Yeah."
Chomei, the Seven-Tails, and Isobu, the Three-Tails, both spoke up.
"Hmph. Seems like you all became pretty attached to your jinchuriki."
Kurama snorted coldly.
But Matatabi remained silent.
It wasn't that she didn't want to keep Yugito out of this.
It was because she didn't want to sacrifice herself either.
She wanted to escape together with Yugito.
"Kurama, you're the smartest among us. You must already have a solution, right? Otherwise, as the one who'll be the first to get 'used' by Naruto, you wouldn't be this calm."
The slug-like Six-Tails, Saiken, wriggled a few times and spoke to Kurama.
(End of this chapter)