“You even know about Ashura and Indra?” the Nine-Tails exclaimed in surprise once again.
“Of course I do. I also know that for the past thousand years, their chakra has continuously reincarnated, generation after generation, locked in an endless cycle of conflict,” Naruto said calmly.
“What?!”
The Nine-Tails cried out in shock.
Even it had never known about that!
“And the previous reincarnations of Ashura and Indra were Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha,” Naruto continued indifferently.
“What?!”
The Nine-Tails exclaimed yet again.
But at the same time, realization suddenly dawned on it.
No wonder those two had been such monsters!
That was right.
Even from the Nine-Tails’ perspective, Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha had been absurdly powerful.
“Here’s another secret. The Senju and Uchiha Clans are actually descendants of Ashura and Indra,” Naruto added calmly.
“…”
The Nine-Tails fell silent.
After being bombarded with so many shocking revelations, learning that the Senju and Uchiha were descendants of Ashura and Indra was surprising, but also something it could immediately accept.
After all, only descendants of Ashura and Indra could have produced monsters like Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha.
“So I imagine you’ve already figured out why Madara Uchiha controlled you as his summon and brought you back to fight Hashirama Senju, right?” Naruto asked, still perfectly calm.
“…What exactly am I supposed to have figured out?”
Truthfully, the Nine-Tails had the distinct feeling that asking this question would result in Naruto insulting its intelligence.
It really did not want to respond.
But deep down, it was simply too curious.
After a moment of silence, it finally could not resist asking.
Sure enough, Naruto gave the Nine-Tails a disdainful glance.
“You’ve lived for a thousand years and you still can’t figure out something this simple? You actually need to ask a six-year-old kid like me?”
The instant those words left Naruto’s mouth, the Nine-Tails felt so ashamed that it wanted to crawl into a hole.
Unfortunately, there was nowhere inside this sealed space for it to hide.
Damn brat!
I knew it!
the Nine-Tails cursed inwardly.
Naruto did not continue mocking it.
Instead, he calmly explained, “Obviously, it was for the legendary eyes of the Sage of Six Paths—the Rinnegan.”
“Ashura inherited the Sage of Six Paths’ powerful body, while Indra inherited the Sage of Six Paths’ Sharingan.”
“But no matter how powerful Madara Uchiha became on his own, he could never awaken the Rinnegan through his own strength alone. He needed Hashirama Senju’s power.”
“And the reason Hashirama Senju was so powerful was because his power had already permeated every cell of his body.”
“So now you should understand.”
“Madara Uchiha brought you back to fight Hashirama Senju because he wanted Hashirama’s cells.”
“He wanted them so he could awaken the Rinnegan!”
“How is that possible? Madara Uchiha was killed by Hashirama Senju!” the Nine-Tails exclaimed.
“Izanagi.”
Naruto spoke calmly.
“By sacrificing the light of a three-tomoe Sharingan, an Uchiha can gain the ability to rewrite reality.”
“But he used Izanagi to rewrite that reality and resurrect himself.”
“…”
The Nine-Tails fell completely silent after hearing that.
However, it still refused to believe him.
“Even the old man of the Six Paths would have died of old age by now. Madara Uchiha must have failed. There’s no way he awakened the Rinnegan. He must have died long ago!”
“Madara Uchiha is indeed dead,” Naruto said indifferently.
“But his Rinnegan remained.”
“It’s in the Land of Rain.”
“How do you know that?!”
The Nine-Tails stared at him in horror.
“The person who freed you from my mother’s body six years ago was acting on Madara Uchiha’s behalf.”
“Their objective is to collect all nine Tailed Beasts, revive the Ten-Tails, and become the Ten-Tails’ Jin chūriki, just like the Sage of Six Paths.”
Naruto’s expression remained calm.
“N-No, impossible!”
The Nine-Tails was visibly shaken.
“How could you possibly know that? And how could they know that the old man of the Six Paths was the Ten-Tails’ Jin chūriki? He never told anyone!”
“That story begins with the Sage of Six Paths’ mother.”
Naruto continued speaking in the same indifferent tone.
“Back then, after the Sage of Six Paths and his younger brother sealed away their mother, who intended to destroy the world, she left behind a tail.”
“With that tail remaining, the so-called secret was no longer truly a secret.”
“And don’t forget.”
“There’s still a toad on Mount Myōboku capable of prophecy.”
“Brat.”
The Nine-Tails’ eyes sharpened as it stared intensely at Naruto.
“You aren’t making up all these stories just to trick me into giving you my power, are you?”
“I do want your power,” Naruto replied calmly.
“But I have no reason to lie to you.”
“As the Nine-Tails’ Jin chūriki, sooner or later they’ll come after me.”
“Everything I’ve said will eventually be verified.”
“We’re grasshoppers tied to the same rope. Helping me means helping yourself.”
The Nine-Tails stared fixedly at Naruto before giving a cold laugh.
“You keep telling me to trust you.”
“But do you trust me?”
“Don’t you want my power?”
“I’ll give it to you.”
“All you have to do is remove the seal, and I’ll give you all of my power!”
“…”
Naruto fell silent.
“What’s wrong?”
The Nine-Tails looked at him disdainfully.
“Weren’t you just talking about trust? Why don’t you dare remove the seal?”
“I really can’t trust you,” Naruto replied calmly.
“Because unlike you, I don’t have the ability to sense other people’s malice.”
“So naturally, I have no way of knowing whether you actually believe what I’ve told you.”
“Hmph. Then what gives you the right to demand that I trust you?” the Nine-Tails asked coldly.
“Because I’ve already told you so many secrets that someone my age should never know—secrets that barely anyone in the entire shinobi world knows.”
“And you still don’t believe me?”
“More importantly, as I just said, you can sense malice.”
“Whether I harbor any malice toward you or not, shouldn’t you know better than anyone?” Naruto asked calmly.
“Hmph. Since you already know I can sense malice, who’s to say you haven’t deliberately suppressed your hostility toward me?” the Nine-Tails snorted.
“…”
Naruto fell silent for a moment.
Then he said, “I’m six years old.”
“…”
This time, it was the Nine-Tails’ turn to fall silent.
“If you hadn’t mentioned it, I almost would’ve forgotten you’re a six-year-old brat.”
“Well, whatever.”
Naruto shrugged.
“There are still ten years before the world is destroyed. That’s plenty of time.”
“Maybe entering meditative absorption so smoothly made me a little overconfident.”
“Trust was never something that could be established overnight anyway.”
“Let’s just treat today as our first proper meeting.”
“Since we can’t reach an understanding yet, we’ll leave things here for now.”
“Once the events I mentioned start happening, you’ll naturally realize whether I was telling the truth.”
“By then, I hope we’ll have built enough trust between us.”
“So, that’s all for today.”
After saying that, Naruto turned around and walked away.
The Nine-Tails silently watched Naruto’s departing back.
It continued staring until Naruto disappeared into the darkness of the sewer.
Following the path he had found, Naruto’s consciousness smoothly returned to his body.
“Looks like my Talk-no-Jutsu really can’t compare to the original Naruto’s.”
Naruto shook his head slightly.
He climbed out of bed and walked to the window.
Outside, an extraordinarily bright moon hung in the night sky.
At that moment, Naruto suddenly felt his chakra reserves increase.
His chakra control had improved as well.
Naruto froze.
Then he smiled.
Clearly, the Nine-Tails had begun actively restraining its chakra so that it would no longer interfere with Naruto’s own.
It had even withdrawn some of its chakra on its own.
As a result, Naruto could now utilize more of his own chakra, and his chakra control had become even stronger.
Clearly, the tsundere fox had ultimately been willing to take one small step toward trust.
It had offered Naruto a small measure of faith.
After all, when it came to something like this…
It was better to believe there might be truth to it than to dismiss it entirely.