Water drops continued to fall in the dark, cavernous sewer with crisp, echoing drips.
Before the massive iron seal gate, Hinata clung tightly to the cold, rough iron bars with her fair, tender hands.
Her brilliant, pale-blue eyes sparkled with a fanatical light, as if she were staring at an invaluable treasure.
“Big fox, don’t back away!
Come a little closer, let me feel those fluffy big ears of yours!”
Hinata pressed her adorable, porcelain-like face hard against the gap between the iron bars.
She was so excited that she could barely maintain her soft, baby-voiced disguise.
Behind the iron gate.
The proud leader of the Nine Tailed Beasts—the terror-inducing incarnation of calamity in the ninja world—was actually forced to shift its massive body backward once more.
Its giant vertical pupils, glowing like red lanterns, were filled with unmistakable bewilderment and utter confusion.
‘Is something wrong with this brat’s head?!’
The Nine-Tails roared wildly in its mind.
I am a demon fox!
A disaster!
A terrifying existence that can flatten mountains with a single swing of my tail!
You’re bloody drooling at me, and you want to pet my ears?!
This is an outright insult to the dignity of a Tailed Beast!
“Roar—!!!”
To reclaim its supreme dignity as the head of the Tailed Beasts, the Nine-Tails abruptly stepped forward, slamming its huge paw into the water and sending a massive splash into the air.
It opened its gigantic, blood-red maw—wide enough to swallow a giant beast whole—and let out an earth-shattering, wild roar right at Hinata outside the gate.
Boom!
Along with the roar, a hurricane-like tempest of crimson chakra, thick with intense malice, swept toward Hinata outside the iron bars.
The gale even carried the rust-tinged stench unique to the sewer, mixed with the stale breath accumulated in the Nine-Tails’ mouth over who knows how many years.
Facing a chakra storm capable of striking sheer terror into the heart of a normal Jonin, Hinata didn’t even twitch an eyebrow.
With a slight shift of her intent, her Limitless technique formed an absolute barrier around her body, blocking out every bit of the wild chakra and bloodlust just a millimeter away.
However, while chakra could be blocked, certain soul-piercing physical attacks were hard for even Limitless to fully filter out.
“Cough, cough, cough!”
Hinata suddenly let go of the iron bars and took two quick steps back.
She fanned her chubby hand frantically in front of her nose, her delicate face instant scrunching up into a ball.
‘Holy crap!
That stench is way too intense!’ Hinata cursed internally.
She raised her head, her pale-blue Six Eyes filled with absolute disgust as she looked at the giant fox behind the gate.
In a crisp voice dripping with revulsion and even a touch of pity, she questioned loudly:
“Kurama, do you ever brush your teeth?!
That breath is worse than a stinky gutter!”
Silence.
The entire sealed space plunged into a silence deeper than a graveyard.
Behind the iron gate, the terrifying expression on the Nine-Tails’ fox face froze completely.
Its wide-open maw didn’t even have time to close as a cold draft blew through the sewer, swirling up a few stray leaves from out of nowhere.
Brush my teeth?!
I am the mighty Nine-Tails!
I’m showing off world-destroying bloodlust here, and you’re actually complaining that I have bad breath?!
And asking if I brush my teeth?!
The Nine-Tails felt an immense wave of frustration trapped in its throat, unable to vent or let it go.
Its crimson vertical pupils trembled violently as a deep sense of powerlessness washed over it.
The Nine-Tails thought in desperate exasperation.
However, just two seconds later.
The Nine-Tails’ massive body shuddered violently, its already giant vertical pupils instantly shrinking into extremely dangerous needle points!
It stared intently at the pink-clad girl fanning the air outside the gate.
A thunderbolt seemed to strike its mind, making its orange-red fur stand on end uncontrollably.
“Wait!”
The Nine-Tails’ voice was no longer filled with artificially grand authority, but carried obvious shock and disbelief as it rasped in a low growl:
“Brat!
How do you know my name is…
Kurama?!”
Besides that old man Sage of Six Paths who died a thousand years ago and the other Tailed Beasts, there was no way anyone in this world could know that name!
Even Uzumaki Mito and Uzumaki Kushina, the Jinchuriki who had imprisoned it, or Uchiha Madara, who used it like a summon, didn’t know its real name!
Where on earth did this four-year-old Hyuga girl hear it from?!
Facing the Nine-Tails’ near-demanding, furious roar, Hinata suddenly stopped her fanning motion.
She lowered her chubby little hand and let the corners of her mouth curve up into a mysterious, deeply mischievous smile.
“Take a guess?”
Hinata tilted her small head, her cute, babyish voice carrying a chillingly mature tone.
She placed her hands behind her back, her brilliant, pale-blue Six Eyes emitting an intimidating light in the dim space.
Hinata certainly wasn’t going to tell him she knew it from watching anime.
Right now, she just wanted to play the mysterious enigmatic figure to the max!
“I know far more than you could ever imagine, big fox.”
Hinata casually paced back and forth in front of the iron gate, her tone as relaxed as if discussing the weather.
“I don’t just know your name is Kurama; I also know about your complicated relationship with Shukaku.
So drop the scary act—it won’t work on me.”
The Nine-Tails’ breathing instantly grew ragged.
Shock!
Utter shock!
Looking at the cute, doll-like little girl in front of it, the Nine-Tails unexpectedly felt a subtle, unexplainable trace of awe from her tiny body—a feeling it had only ever felt toward the old man Sage of Six Paths back then!
‘This brat…
what on earth is her background?!’
The Nine-Tails was inwardly stunned, even unconsciously pulling its front paws back a inch.
Seeing that the Nine-Tails was thoroughly baffled by her bluff, Hinata knew the timing was just right.
She stopped in her tracks, the smile on her face vanishing instantly, replaced by the cold, domineering aura of a ruler.
“Listen up, Kurama.”
Hinata tilted her head up, warning it word by word, her voice carrying unquestionable authority:
“I used my mental power to break in here today not to chat with you, and certainly not to pet you.”
Hinata pointed her chubby hand directly at the giant fox behind the gate:
“That yellow-haired kid outside is my follower.
He’s refining chakra right now, so stop letting your garbage red chakra seep out through the seal gaps to mess with him!”
The Nine-Tails let out a cold snort and opened its mouth to argue, but Hinata’s Six Eyes suddenly burst with blinding blue light.
“I’m warning you.
From now on, whenever Naruto refines chakra or casts a jutsu, you are not allowed to interfere with your malice!”
Hinata’s tone turned razor-sharp, carrying an explicit threat:
“Otherwise, I’ll gladly give you another dose of that ‘power-off’ shock therapy from a year ago!
Do you hear me?!”
At the word “shock,” the Nine-Tails recalled that humiliating punch from a year ago, its massive body trembling almost imperceptibly.
Its crimson eyes stared fixatedly at Hinata.
Though unwilling, under the pressure of her strange, powerful mental energy and its deep dread regarding her identity, the Nine-Tails ultimately just snorted a plume of white steam from its nostrils. You are reading on novelping(.)com, the official source.
With an extremely arrogant posture, it turned its massive head away and slumped heavily onto the ground.
That was its tacit agreement.
“Good fox,” Hinata said, knowing when to quit, and snapped her fingers in satisfaction.
Right then, a sharp, piercing pain surged through her brain, and her vision began to blur with heavy double images.
‘Oh no, using the Six Eyes along with mental invasion takes too much energy!
This four-year-old body can’t hold out much longer!’
Hinata cursed internally, cold sweat breaking out on her forehead.
“That’s all for today.
I’m taking off.
Remember my words: stay quiet and don’t cause trouble!”
Before her voice even faded, Hinata’s spiritual body dissolved into specks of blue light, vanishing instantly from the sealed space.
…
Outside, in the central park of the Third District.
The warm spring breeze blew gently.
On the grass, Naruto still had his eyes shut tight, his face bright red as he struggled with the chakra inside his body.
Standing in front of him, Hinata’s hand on his belly suddenly loosened.
Transmitting high-intensity mental energy across the Eight Trigrams Seal for the first time had severely exhausted her brainpower.
Her large, pale-blue eyes instantly lost focus, and her tiny body went limp as if drained of all strength, tilting forward.
Thud.
A very faint sound echoed.
With his eyes still closed, Naruto felt his right shoulder sink suddenly as a sweet, lovely fragrance—like a blend of spring cherry blossoms and sunshine—brushed against his nose.
Naruto trembled and snapped his ocean-blue eyes open.
Greeting his vision was Hinata’s close-up, slightly pale, yet breathtakingly beautiful sleeping face.
Her soft, dark blue short hair lightly brushed against Naruto’s neck, bringing a ticklish, tingling sensation.
“Eh?!”
Naruto’s brain went completely blank at that moment.
His face, already red from holding his breath, instantly flushed red all the way to the tips of his ears upon feeling the soft weight on his shoulder.
Visible white steam even began rising from the top of his head!
“Hi…
Hi-Hi-Hi-Hinata?!
What’s wrong with you?!”
Naruto gasped incoherently, his hands freezing in mid-air—uncertain whether to hug her or push her away.
He stood stiff as a bright red wooden post, not daring to move a muscle while his heart pounded like a war drum in his chest.
Meanwhile, Sakura and Ino, who were resting nearby, turned their heads immediately at the noise.
When they saw Hinata lying defenselessly against Naruto’s shoulder while Naruto stood flushed and helpless like a dazed idiot, the two little girls’ eyes widened like saucers.
“Th-Th-This…”
Sakura pointed at them, her jaw dropping almost to the ground in shock.
“Well aren’t you something, you blonde idiot!”
Ino jumped up, hands on her hips, pointing at Naruto with a face full of gossip and condemnation as she yelled:
“While Hinata was teaching you about chakra, what scandalous thing did you do to Lady Hinata?!”
“I didn’t!
I didn’t do anything!
Hinata collapsed on her own!”
Naruto defended himself loudly with tears in his eyes, but his face—so red it looked ready to bleed—made his explanation seem completely weak and powerless.
A gentle breeze blew past, rustling the leaves.
Feeling Hinata’s steady, warm breath against his neck, four-year-old Uzumaki Naruto felt as if his heart no longer belonged to him at all in that moment.