Seeing Gaara rise up as if he were a corpse.
Temari and Kankuro were startled once again.
A moment later, they saw Gaara's face filled with rage.
Immediately after, he closed his eyes and lay back down.
But he was still gritting his teeth.
Temari and Kankuro exchanged a silent glance.
Naturally, neither of them knew what had happened.
However, judging by Gaara's expression, something seemed wrong.
He looked very pained.
Yet, he also seemed particularly helpless.
[Whoosh—]
[Naruto took a deep breath, then walked toward the end of the passage.]
[Buzz—]
[The moment he stepped out of the passage.]
[His vision suddenly cleared.]
[At the same time, a feeling that was even more eerie and cold swept over his entire body.]
[Naruto sensed an extremely massive and profoundly evil Chakra.]
[Instinct told him that if he continued forward, he would inevitably meet the owner of that massive Chakra.]
[The danger level was extremely high!]
[No need to wonder, it had to be the Great Fox.]
[Although he knew the entity was called the Nine-Tailed by the world.]
[Naruto still preferred to call it that.]
[Drip—]
[Another sound of dripping water.]
[Naruto continued walking forward.]
[He felt that he was very close now.]
[Before long.]
[Naruto froze in place.]
[In front of him was a massive iron gate that surpassed his imagination.]
[Beyond the iron gate was complete darkness.]
[Naruto squinted slightly to look.]
[He saw a scroll pasted in the middle of the iron gate, bearing a giant character for 'Seal,' surrounded by sealing runes identical to those on his abdomen.]
["This is the place."]
[This was a sealed gate.]
[Therefore, the Great Fox must be located behind the gate.]
[Although the process differed somewhat from what he had imagined.]
[The Great Fox seemed unprepared to meet him.]
[In desperation, it resorted to a trick.]
[But this also gave Naruto another piece of useful information: the Great Fox could contact the other Tailed Beasts.]
[This point was crucial.]
[The outline of a plan appeared in Naruto's mind.]
[But now was not the time to dwell on these things.]
[To be honest, Naruto had been very calm moments ago.]
[But after realizing he was only separated from the Great Fox by a single barrier.]
[He suddenly felt nervous.]
[He was also filled with anticipation and excitement.]
[Buzz—]
[Just then.]
[In Naruto's perception, the massive, evil Chakra behind the gate suddenly became 'agitated.']
[The sense of danger grew even stronger.]
[Simultaneously, in Naruto's line of sight.]
[Behind the sealed gate, in the pitch-black space, two eyes suddenly appeared.]
[Crimson eyes with vertical pupils.]
[That was it.]
[It was the Great Fox!]
[Naruto had faced those eyes once before.]
[Furthermore, whenever the Great Fox's Chakra appeared within him, the first things to change, besides the whiskers on his face, were his eyes.]
[As the boy and the fox stared at each other.]
[Behind the sealed gate, the previously dark environment immediately faded away.]
[A fox whose massive size fundamentally reshaped Naruto's worldview came into view.]
[Its nine constantly swaying, bushy tails were extremely conspicuous.]
[The Nine-Tailed!]
[Naruto's breath hitched.]
[He could imagine that the Great Fox's size wouldn't be small.]
[But he had never expected the Great Fox's size to be as vast as a mountain!]
[In this instant.]
[Descriptions from historical documents surfaced in Naruto's mind.]
[Uchiha Madara viewed the Nine-Tailed as a mindless entity composed of Chakra, capable of controlling the Nine-Tailed with just a glance, and forcibly signed a Summoning Contract with it.]
[Summoning Contract, Summoning Ninjutsu.]
[It was a Space-Time Ninjutsu that could summon a contracted beast, a summoned creature, at any time and place after signing a Summoning Contract with it.]
[As for Senju Hashirama, he was a bit more straightforward.]
[The amount of Chakra in his body was on a level that could easily crush a Tailed Beast.]
[Subduing the Nine-Tailed required little effort.]
[There was also another person, Senju Hashirama's wife, Uzumaki Mito, a woman whom even Uchiha Madara respected.]
[For Uzumaki Mito, capturing the Nine-Tailed was as simple as eating and drinking.]
[The description was brief, but the amount of information contained within it was immense.]
[At this moment, as Naruto truly faced the Nine-Tailed.]
[He only now began to understand what the god of shinobi truly meant.]
[And how terrifying the power of Uchiha Madara, who was equally famous as the god of shinobi, Senju Hashirama, was.]
[As for Uzumaki Mito, she made Naruto realize the immense potential of the Uzumaki bloodline flowing within him.]
[For a fox like this, moving mountains and filling seas was probably not a difficult task.]
[Therefore, by the same logic, it was not a difficult task for Senju Hashirama and the other two either.]
[Naruto's heart, however, was filled with even more doubts.]
[With such terrifying strength, it wouldn't be difficult to utterly destroy the Konoha he knew.]
[Was this the reason Uchiha Madara left the Village back then?]
Gulp—
Throughout the Ninja World, many people were swallowing hard.
The oppressive feeling from a Tailed Beast was intense.
Especially the oppressive feeling from the Nine-Tailed.
When everyone heard Naruto's inner thoughts.
They were shocked once again.
Although still somewhat biased, they had a direct sense of the strength of a Ninja on the level of the god of shinobi, Senju Hashirama.
The Nine-Tailed was somewhat displeased.
Why wasn't this Black-Framed Naruto afraid of it?
These subconscious thoughts were all 'belittling' it.
It was infuriating this fox!
Kurotsuchi: "Good heavens, the First Hokage seemed to have said just now... would people die sealing a little fox like the Nine-Tailed?"
Mei Terumī: "Die? Not only would they die! Many people would die!"
Fourth Raikage: "Although I am reluctant to admit it, the fact that it was desired by a Ninja of Uchiha Madara's caliber is enough to prove that the Nine-Tailed is the strongest of all the Tailed Beasts."
Fourth Raikage: "Before Killer Bee, our Kumogakure Jinchuriki were unable to coexist with the Ox Demon, the Eight-Tails."
Fourth Raikage: "At that time, every time a Jinchuriki lost control, the Village suffered heavy losses."
Fourth Raikage: "Most importantly, this happened every time while my father was still alive and standing guard beside them."
Fourth Raikage: "With the strength of my father, the Sandaime Raikage, he was repeatedly placed in life-or-death situations during the multiple times the Eight-Tails, the Ox Demon Jinchuriki, lost control, and he even received a shocking scar across his chest."
The Fourth Raikage's words greatly displeased Shukaku.
But the Fourth Raikage only stated who was the strongest, not who was the weakest.
Just as the other person said, although he didn't want to admit it, the fact was that the Nine-Tailed truly was the strongest of all the Tailed Beasts.
And at this moment.
After directly sensing the terror of the Nine-Tailed.
All of Naruto's classmates were stunned.
They had absolutely no idea that the Great Fox sealed inside Naruto was such a terrifying existence.
Thinking about it this way.
The Nine-Tails Rampage back then... seemed even more catastrophic than they realized.
It also indirectly proved how decayed Konoha was now.
Back then in Konoha, Tailed Beasts were treated like pets.
Such an existence was a natural disaster to most people.
Something that human strength could not contend with.
["Heh heh."]
["You foolish brat, I told you not to repay kindness with enmity, yet you keep waking me from my slumber again and again!"]
["Why do you think this fox fell asleep in the first place?!"]
["Get over here... and let this fox tear you to shreds with one claw!"]