"Burning life… Hmph. What a foolish fellow."
The Nine-Tails looked unhappily at Naruto Uzumaki, its sharp fangs gleaming white.
"That kind of power clearly only needed you alone to burn your lifespan. After you burned through your life and died, it only needed to wait a few years before it could regain its freedom and no longer be bound and driven by you humans… Yet in the end, it took the initiative to become the one whose lifespan was burned in your place. Foolish!"
"You are the foolish one, Kurama."
The Six-Tails, coiled not far from the Nine-Tails, spat out a bubble and refuted it in a disdainful tone.
"Putting aside how good the relationship between that Kurama and its Jinchuriki truly was, if that human, who could directly fight the Otsutsuki, died because his lifespan was burned out, do you really think it would still have a chance to regain freedom? Would it not be like this time when you revived—opening your eyes only to see that Otsutsuki waiting in front of you with the Ten-Tails?"
"Shut up! Saiken, you have already been fully tamed by Rei Kaguya, but I have not!"
The Nine-Tails irritably smashed its tails against the ground and spoke with great displeasure.
"In any case, whether inside humans or inside the Otsutsuki, we are only tools in their eyes, without will or emotion. What difference is there?"
"The difference is that if humans want to borrow our power, more or less, they still need to build a good relationship with us," Yagura Karatachi—or rather, the Three-Tails Isobu inside him—said. "But before the Otsutsuki, who possess overwhelming power, we do not have any qualifications to negotiate terms with them."
"Isobu! Have you been tamed by humans too!?" the Nine-Tails shouted angrily.
"I have not been tamed. I am merely stating the simplest and most direct truth to you."
The Four-Tails Son Goku inside Roshi also took the initiative to speak.
"We are nothing more than chakra aggregates separated from the Ten-Tails and given self-awareness because of the old man of the Six Paths' personal wish. If the old man of the Six Paths had not defeated Kaguya Otsutsuki and replaced her as the new Ten-Tails Jinchuriki, how could we possibly have had the chance to be born with selves and consciousness?"
"If I had to choose, then I would definitely choose to help the ninja, who are weaker overall… Returning to the bodies of those cold and emotionless Otsutsuki and becoming a muddled, unremarkable part among the countless chakras and lives devoured by the Ten-Tails? That would be true death."
"You, Saiken! You, Isobu! And you, Son Goku…"
The Nine-Tails bared its teeth in rage, its tails rising high like enormous whips.
"Have all of you forgotten how humans once treated us!? Have you forgotten what kind of humiliation they inflicted upon us in order to turn us into power they could drive as they pleased!?"
"I remember. But I would rather not lose myself. That is all," Saiken slowly said, releasing a stream of white mist. "Do not forget. The old man of the Six Paths did not separate us from the Ten-Tails because he wanted to one day see us turn back into greedy, violent monsters without intelligence or selves."
"Besides, even if you refuse, that fellow next to us who is stronger than a pure-blooded Otsutsuki still has ways to strip out your chakra and use it as material. Why must you earn yourself another meaningless beating, Kurama?"
The Three-Tails Isobu, who had likewise experienced being violently beaten by Rei Kaguya, spoke with lingering fear, yet also carried a hint of expectation for fanning the flames.
The Nine-Tails immediately choked, unable to utter a single rebuttal for a long while.
Thus, without Rei Kaguya or Naruto Uzumaki interfering, the argument between the Tailed Beasts ended in Kurama's complete defeat.
After Naruto Uzumaki let out a breath of relief, he turned toward Rei Kaguya and asked, "But why? Why we have to try reviving the Ten-Tails at this time—I still can't understand the reason."
"Didn't some conclusions already leak out from their conversation just now?"
Rei Kaguya folded his arms and spoke calmly.
"The Ten-Tails is the aggregate of all chakra. It devours mountains and seas, feeds on all things in the world, gathers their chakra into itself, then erases the spiritual imprints contained within all chakra, ultimately producing a pure chakra fruit to nourish the Otsutsuki clan members who control and drive it…"
"Then, in the process of recovering all chakra, the Ten-Tails itself will also obtain the information contained within the chakra being collected. That information is our most important clue for tracking Isshiki Otsutsuki's whereabouts."
"Of course, because the Nine-Tails inside your body was originally also a portion of chakra separated from the Ten-Tails, if we revive the Ten-Tails and use its ability to return chakra to unity, perhaps we can use the method of redistributing chakra to it to revive it once more… As a Jinchuriki, after losing your Tailed Beast, your strength should have fallen by quite a bit, right, Naruto Uzumaki?"
"To think… this is the method needed to revive Kurama?"
Naruto Uzumaki touched his stomach and murmured in disbelief.
"It's practically… like creating it all over again."
"It is creating the Nine-Tails all over again."
Orochimaru cut into the conversation from the side and seriously explained.
"A lifeform such as a Tailed Beast is, in essence, merely a chakra aggregate that has gained its own will. The fact that they can continually return from death and revive proves that their lifeform is fundamentally different from life in the conventional sense."
"Then why did it fall into this near-death state just because it consumed 'lifespan,' a concept that should only exist in conventional lifeforms like humans? There is only one reason. The chakra that forms it was simply consumed to such an extent that it could no longer maintain its will and form."
"If you want to revive it in this state—or rather, awaken it—and prevent its memories from mixing with some other thing, then you must use pure chakra that contains no other will or spiritual existence. And that kind of chakra can only possibly be possessed by the Ten-Tails, which can produce chakra fruit."
"…I understand. What do I need to do?"
Naruto Uzumaki took a deep breath and tried to remain calm as he asked.
"Simple. We will have the other Tailed Beasts inject their chakra into your body. Then Nagato will summon the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, and you will connect with it."
Rei Kaguya patted Nagato on the shoulder beside him and said calmly, "Just like in your world, where Nagato used this method to control the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path and devour the Tailed Beasts. However, even if only a portion of Tailed Beast chakra is injected into the Demonic Statue, with the chakra of all nine Tailed Beasts gathered together, it is possible that the Ten-Tails will truly awaken and attempt to devour your consciousness… Do not casually lose, Naruto."
"I won't lose."
Naruto Uzumaki clenched his fist and nodded seriously.
"I am the Jinchuriki recognized by Kurama. It's only an incomplete Ten-Tails. I absolutely won't lose!"