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"Hmph."
The Nine-Tails let out a cold snort.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Akira narrowed his eyes and casually formed a hand sign. "You refusing?"
The fox's fur bristled. "Fine. I'll teach the brat properly."
Then it added irritably, "But if the kid's useless and has no talent, don't blame me."
"Relax. Naruto won't disappoint you." Akira waved a hand. "You two are a natural pair."
With that, his consciousness withdrew from Naruto's inner world.
He didn't have Naruto's legendary gift for talking people into submission. If he wanted these two to get along ahead of schedule, brute force was the fastest way.
Besides, with Naruto's personality, it wouldn't take long before he wormed his way into the fox's good graces.
The real reason Akira bothered at all was simple: insurance.
His cheat ability was just a sign-in system. The rewards were random. Who knew what garbage it might spit out next? Completely unreliable.
Better to secure a backup plan. One more layer of protection never hurt. It cost him nothing anyway.
"A natural pair? With that brat? Tch."
The Nine-Tails scoffed, glancing down at the tiny blond kid at its feet.
"Hey! Stupid fox! My dad said I've got amazing talent, so don't look down on me!"
Naruto puffed up, indignant.
"Heh."
The Nine-Tails ignored him and lumbered back into the water prison.
Naruto scratched his head, thinking hard. "Wait… didn't you accept Akira as your big brother? And Akira's my friend. So that makes you kind of my underling, right?"
He brightened suddenly. "If we're all on the same side now, you don't have to stay in the cage, Little Nine!"
"ROAR!!"
The Nine-Tails exploded. "Know your place, brat! Call me that again and I'll swat you into paste!"
After venting a little, it grudgingly explained, "My power isn't something you can handle. Without this seal, your body would've exploded already."
As it spoke, it shut the iron gate itself and used its leaking chakra to reinforce the water prison's seal.
Yes.
Much safer this way.
With that lunatic Akira around, staying sealed up actually felt more comfortable. At this point, nothing could convince it to break free.
"Without the seal… I'd explode?"
Naruto blinked, then suddenly grinned.
"So you locked yourself back up so I wouldn't die? Guess you really are a good fox after all. Let's be friends, okay?"
He reached a hand through the bars.
"Get lost!"
The Nine-Tails slapped his hand away.
"Don't flatter yourself. We're bound together. If you die, I go with you. That's all there is to it. And don't call me Little Nine!"
"Ohhh."
Naruto nodded, half-understanding. "So we're friends then, right?"
"GET OUT!!!"
With a furious roar, the Nine-Tails blasted Naruto's consciousness out of the inner world.
What an annoying brat.
Still… wasn't he the first human who ever tried to be its friend?
…Maybe he wasn't completely insufferable.
Naruto. Don't disappoint me.
I'll train you properly. And when you grow strong enough…
The Nine-Tails narrowed its eyes. A bloodthirsty grin crept across its muzzle as a certain punchable face flashed in its mind.
Uchiha Akira.
It swore then and there—it would raise Naruto to surpass him.
As long as the kid wasn't hopeless, a tailed beast plus its jinchūriki would produce far more than the sum of their parts.
And when that day came…
It would repay Akira with a hundred thousand Thousand Years of Death.
Let him taste that pain.
Back in the real world, Akira and Naruto opened their eyes one after the other.
The six tails behind Naruto vanished, along with the cloak of tailed-beast chakra wrapped around him.
"I-it's… over? Just like that?"
Hiruzen stared at them, stunned. Then he quickly waved off the sealing squad.
"Stand down. You're dismissed."
"Yes, sir!"
The sealing team looked awkward. So they'd been summoned just to watch someone else handle the Nine-Tails?
Still, better this than a rampaging beast.
Once they were gone, Hiruzen took a steadying breath and looked at Naruto with solemn eyes.
"Naruto, what Uchiha Akira said earlier… it's true. But not the whole truth."
While Akira had been suppressing the Nine-Tails, Hiruzen had crafted what he considered the perfect explanation—one that might salvage his image in Naruto's heart. Even if the boy didn't fully believe him, it could at least soften the blow.
"It was your father's idea," Hiruzen said gently. "Minato entrusted you to me and asked for this."
He put on a sincere expression.
"He said that having the villagers treat you as the fox—resent you, isolate you—would temper your spirit. If you could endure their cold stares and still grow strong, your will would become unbreakable. Your heart would be forged into steel."
"It would lay the foundation for you to become an outstanding ninja."
Akira watched with interest, not interrupting.
"As for your family's assets," Hiruzen continued, "it's not that I didn't want to return them. Minato specifically instructed that you not receive them before coming of age."
"He wanted you to grow up in hardship. To learn perseverance and resilience from a young age. A true powerhouse never walks a smooth road."
"You must understand his good intentions, Naruto."
Naruto stared at him blankly, silent.
Hiruzen mistook that silence for shock.
"I know this is hard to accept," he said softly. "But please, don't resent your father. Everything he did was for your sake. If you must hate someone, hate me. He only proposed the plan—I carried it out."
"Are you finished?" Naruto asked flatly.
"That's the full truth, Naruto. Please don't—"
"I just met my father."
"What?"
Hiruzen's eyes widened.
"You… what did you say?"
"I met him just now. In my inner world."
Naruto's gaze was ice-cold.
"He said trusting you was the biggest mistake of his life. That believing a scheming old politician like you must've meant he'd gone blind."
Naruto turned and walked away without another word.
Today, he'd seen Hiruzen's shamelessness firsthand.
Trying to shove the blame onto his father—and delivering the lie so convincingly, so emotionally.
If he hadn't met Minato himself, he might've believed it.
Disgusting.
"Tsk tsk. What's that saying? Try to steal a chicken, end up losing the rice meant to bait it. That's you, Hiruzen."
Akira laughed openly, his tone dripping with mockery.
"Thanks for the show, old man. As a reward, I won't bother you today."
He shot Hiruzen one last taunting look and vanished from the Hokage's office in a blur.
Bang!
Hiruzen's fist smashed into his desk, cracking it down the middle.
Bang!
A kick sent it splintering apart, papers scattering everywhere.
He was livid.
"Minato! If you left something behind, why didn't you tell me?!"
His face was dark with fury.
The kindly grandfather image he'd so carefully built in Naruto's heart was gone. Irreparable.
And Naruto likely saw him as an enemy now.
All because of that brat…
"Uchiha Sasuke."
Hiruzen spat the name through clenched teeth.
Everything he'd worked for had turned to smoke because of Akira.
First the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki. What next?
His thoughts jolted.
Konoha's two greatest treasures.
The Nine-Tails…
And the Scroll of Seals.
Whoosh!
Ignoring the wrecked office behind him, Hiruzen immediately used the Body Flicker Technique and rushed toward the secret chamber where the Sealing Scroll was kept.
The Sealing Scroll… it absolutely could not fall into Akira's hands.
If Akira knew what the Third Hokage was doing right now, he'd probably just let out a dismissive snort.
The Sealing Scroll? Sure, he had considered "borrowing" it to take a look.
But after thinking it through, he gave up on the idea.
There was no need.
The forbidden techniques recorded in the scroll were powerful, yes, but at his current level they would only be icing on the cake. Useful, maybe, but far from essential.
And even if he borrowed it, he'd have to spend a lot of time learning those techniques. Too much trouble.
…
"Naruto, what are you planning to do from now on? Want to join the Uchiha?"
As they walked, Akira glanced at the boy beside him.
"I… I don't know."
After a long silence, Naruto finally answered, head lowered.
"If you don't know, then come to the Uchiha first," Akira said again. "I can promise you this: in the Uchiha clan, no one will treat you like some demon fox. No one will hate you anymore."
Another long stretch of silence followed. Then Naruto suddenly took a deep breath, lifted his head, and looked at Akira seriously.
"Sa—Akira… you want me to join the Uchiha so badly… is it because of the Nine-Tails inside me?"
Akira raised an eyebrow.
So the kid had learned to be suspicious.
Then again, he'd just found out he'd been lied to his whole life. Doubt was only natural.
Still, after everything that had happened, Naruto really had grown a lot.
"Feh."
Akira curled his lip in disdain.
"If I wanted that fox inside you, I would've dragged it out and turned it into a pet already. You'd have been dead a long time ago. You think I'd wait until now?"
Naruto visibly relaxed.
"That's… true."
He couldn't help but nod, remembering how the Nine-Tails had been pinned to the ground and beaten senseless by Akira.
"So? Same question. Are you coming to the Uchiha or not?"
This was the third time Akira had invited him.
"I—can I think about it for a few days?"
Naruto raked both hands through his hair until his blond spikes looked like a bird's nest, his face twisted in frustration.
"I just found out way too much all at once. I need some time alone to sort it out. But don't worry, Akira. I'll give you an answer in a few days!"
"Fine. Suit yourself."
Akira nodded.
He had almost forgotten. Naruto wasn't like him. He didn't have the soul of an adult.
All at once, the kid had learned the truth about why everyone hated him, the true face of Hiruzen, the Nine-Tails, his father Minato Namikaze… and on top of that, Akira's sudden, overwhelming strength.
It was too much information. For a seven-year-old brain, it was practically a system overload.
He needed time to sort through it all.
"Take your time pondering life. I'm heading out. Oh, and this—food I was selling earlier. It's yours."
Akira tossed him a scroll sealed with a mountain of food inside, then vanished in a flicker.
This was still Konoha, and the Nine-Tails had already been beaten into submission. Akira wasn't worried about Naruto getting into trouble.
Still, just in case, once he returned to the Uchiha compound, he'd send two jonin to keep watch over Naruto from the shadows.
Mostly to guard against that old fox Hiruzen doing something desperate, like kidnapping the boy outright. The chances were slim, but better safe than sorry.
…
On the other side of the village, Naruto trudged home, so troubled he barely noticed the walk.
Staring up at the ceiling of his tiny apartment and the messy room around him, the seven-year-old felt even more overwhelmed.
What was he supposed to do now?
He wanted to ask the big fox in his belly for advice, but he had no idea how to enter that inner world.
"Hey, Little Nine? Little Nine, can you hear me?"
He lifted his shirt and shouted at his stomach a few times, trying to start a conversation with the Nine-Tails.
No response.
After calling out several more times without success, Naruto shuffled into the bathroom, dropped his pants, and plopped down on the toilet.
Maybe taking a dump would help ease the frustration in his heart.
"Huh. Weird. There's not even anyone watching the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki? Since when did Konoha get so careless?"
A voice muttered from the shadows.
"Well… works for me. Saves me a lot of trouble."
"..."
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