The void was darker than before. The cage glowed with the same golden light, the same writhing seals, the same paper tags that burned with inner fire. The Nine Tails sat behind the bars with its nine tails curled around its massive body and its red eyes fixed on the small figure standing before it.
Naruto did not move. He stood with his hands in his pockets and his headband around his forehead and his face completely blank. The information from their conversation was still settling inside him. The masked man. The Sharingan. The attack on the birthing chamber. The truth that the Fox did not remember the rampage.
He looked up at the beast.
"I want to learn to use your chakra."
The Fox's eyes narrowed.
"I want. Not because I trust you. Not because I like you. Because I cannot afford to be weak." Naruto's voice was quiet. Flat. The same tone he used for everything now. "There is someone out there who could control you. Someone with a Sharingan. Someone who attacked my mother and released you from your seal. If I die in some alley before I find out who that person is and what really happened that night, then everything my father sacrificed was for nothing."
The Fox was silent. Its tails stopped moving.
"So I am making you a deal." Naruto held up one finger. "You give me your chakra. Not all of it. Just enough. Enough that I can fight. Enough that I can survive. Enough that I can grow strong enough to find the answers we both want."
The Fox's lips curled back. Teeth gleamed. "And what do I get in return?"
"The truth. The masked man. The reason you were used. The reason you have been trapped inside a cage for twelve years with no memory of what you did." Naruto lowered his hand. "You want to know as badly as I do. You just do not want to admit it."
The Fox stared at him. The red eyes were unblinking. The silence stretched between them like a wire pulled taut.
"You are arrogant, boy."
"I am honest."
"There is a difference?"
Naruto did not answer.
The Fox leaned forward. Its massive snout pressed against the bars. Its breath washed over Naruto, hot and smelling of smoke and blood and something older than both of them.
"I will give you a taste. A tiny taste. Enough that you will feel it. Enough that you will know what power is. But if you take too much, it will burn you from the inside out. Your body is Uzumaki. You have the vitality. The reserves. The chakra of your mother's blood. But my chakra is not like yours. It is older. Hotter. It will consume you if you are not careful."
Naruto nodded. "I understand."
"You do not. But you will."
The Fox closed its eyes. The seals on the cage flared brighter. The paper tags blazed with white light. And then Naruto felt it.
Heat.
Not the heat of a fire or the heat of the sun. Something deeper. Something that came from inside his own chest, spreading outward through his veins, his muscles, his bones. It was not painful. Not yet. It was like drinking warm water on a cold day. Like stepping into a hot bath after being outside in the snow. His body accepted it. His chakra reserves, already enormous from his Uzumaki blood, seemed to open themselves to the new energy.
The Fox opened its eyes.
"That is enough for now. Do not seek more until your body has adjusted."
Naruto did not respond. He was already gone.
He opened his eyes in the training ground.
The stars were still out. The moon was still high. The monument was still in front of him, black and polished, catching the light. He had been gone for what felt like hours. But the position of the moon told him that only a few minutes had passed in the real world.
He stood up. His legs felt different. Stronger. His arms felt lighter. His chest felt warm, the way your chest feels warm after drinking something hot on a cold night. The Fox's chakra was there, sitting inside him, waiting.
He walked to the nearest tree. It was old. Thick. The trunk was wider than his body.
He punched it.
The tree exploded.
Wood splintered in every direction. The trunk cracked down the middle. The top half of the tree tilted, groaned, and fell to the ground with a crash that echoed through the empty training ground. Leaves scattered. Birds flew from nearby branches, startled from their sleep.
Naruto looked at his fist. There was no pain. No bruise. His knuckles were not even red.
He punched the ground.
The earth cratered. Dirt and grass flew upward in a cloud. The impact left a hole the size of a small pond, deep enough that he could have stood in it with room to spare.
He jumped.
The ground fell away beneath him. The trees became small. The training ground became a patch of dark green far below. The moon was closer now. The stars were brighter. He was higher than any building in the village. Higher than the Hokage monument.
He came down hard. His feet hit the earth and the ground cracked beneath him, a spiderweb of fissures spreading outward from where he landed. He did not stumble. He did not fall. He simply stood there, feeling the impact travel up his legs and dissipate into nothing.
He ran.
The trees blurred past him. The wind screamed in his ears. He crossed the training ground in less than a second, from one end to the other, so fast that his body left afterimages in the air. He stopped at the edge of the clearing and looked back at the distance he had covered.
Forty meters. Maybe fifty. He had crossed it in the time it took to blink.
He created a shadow clone. Then another. Then another. He did not stop at fifteen. He kept going, the smoke billowing around him, the clones appearing in waves until the clearing was full. A hundred. Two hundred. Three hundred. They stood in formation, shoulder to shoulder, stretching from one end of the training ground to the other.
Naruto looked at them. He had never been able to create this many before. His Uzumaki chakra reserves were naturally enormous, but this was something else. The Fox's chakra had merged with his own, amplifying what was already there. The clones were not just numerous. They were solid. Stable. Each one carried the same warmth in its chest. Each one felt the same power thrumming through its veins.
He looked at his hands. He flexed his fingers.
"Hundreds of shadow clones," he said. His voice was quiet. Almost surprised. "And I am not even tired."
The clones dispersed. The memories hit him in a wave. Three hundred different perspectives. Three hundred different experiences of standing in the same clearing, feeling the same power, waiting for the same command. He absorbed them all without flinching.
He brought his hands together. The hand signs were the same ones he had seen Sasuke use during the bell test. The same sequence. The same final seal.
"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu."
The flame erupted from his mouth. It was not a small fireball. It was enormous, five meters in diameter, a sphere of roaring orange flame that lit up the night sky like a second sun. It streaked across the training ground and struck a cluster of trees on the far side. The trees exploded. Bark and leaves and splintered wood flew in every direction. The fire spread quickly, climbing the remaining trunks, reaching toward the stars.
Naruto stood in the clearing and watched his work. The fire crackled. The smoke rose. The heat washed over his face.
He was satisfied.
From the darkness of the treeline, a shadow watched.
The figure was motionless, cloaked in black, its face hidden behind an animal mask. The mask was white. The features were canine. The eyeholes were dark and empty.
The figure had been following Naruto for weeks. Since the first break in. Since the night in the restricted archive. The figure had watched the boy kill Mizuki. Had watched him read the Cloud report. Had watched him cook and train and meditate in the lotus position. Had watched him face Kakashi in the bell test and win through strategy and perversion and the unexpected competence of a pink haired girl.
Now the figure watched him punch through trees and crater the earth and create hundreds of shadow clones and breathe a fireball the size of a small house.
The figure turned. It melted into the shadows. It moved through the trees without sound, leaping from branch to branch, covering distance with the efficiency of someone who had been doing this for years.
The figure arrived at a compound on the edge of the village. The building was nondescript. Unremarkable. The kind of building that blended into the background and asked no questions and received no attention.
The figure entered. It walked through corridors that were dark and cold and smelled of old wood. It stopped in front of a door and knelt.
"Lord Danzo."
A voice answered from within. Old. Dry. The voice of a man who had seen too much and forgotten nothing.
"Report."
"As you suspected sir, the person who has been breaking into the archives is Naruto Uzumaki."
Silence.
The figure continued. "He is currently in the Third Training Ground. He has accessed the Nine Tails' chakra. His abilities have increased significantly. He destroyed multiple trees with a single punch. He created hundreds of shadow clones. He performed a Fireball Jutsu with a five meter diameter."
The door opened.
Danzo Shimura stood in the doorway. His face was bandaged on the right side. One eye was visible. The other was hidden. His posture was straight. His presence filled the corridor.
"Well, well, well. Isn't this an interesting development."
He walked past the kneeling figure. He stopped at a window and looked out at the dark village. The Hokage monument was visible in the distance. The face of Hiruzen Sarutobi stared back at him.
"Don't tell anyone about this. Make sure he is granted full access to the archives. Never let anyone stop him. Never let anyone find him."
The figure bowed. "As you command."
Danzo's visible eye narrowed.
"It is time Hiruzen faced the consequences of his actions."
The night was still. The village slept. And somewhere in the training ground, a boy with blue eyes and a demon in his stomach breathed fire into the sky.
Next Time: Enemy Ninjas from the Village Hidden in the Mist