Naruto: The Nine-Tails' Legacy

"Where is this?"

Naruto stood there blankly.

Not because suddenly getting dragged into some strange space shocked him.

After all, this had already happened once before.

First time surprised, second time familiar.

What truly shocked him—

Was how much this place resembled the location he constantly saw in his dreams.

The same pure white world.

Almost every night, Naruto dreamed of a place extremely similar to this.

Only now, this place looked far more colorful and alive.

Naruto looked left at the grass, right at the flowers.

The more he observed, the more familiar everything felt.

His curiosity rapidly intensified.

"What? You're that fascinated by your own inner world?"

A sudden voice echoed beside him, startling Naruto so badly he nearly jumped into the air.

Turning around, Naruto saw a set of familiar bars completely out of place with the surrounding scenery.

Behind them sat the enormous Nine-Tailed Fox, watching him with obvious amusement.

Naruto instinctively blurted out:

"A monster fox—"

Then suddenly froze.

"Huh?"

"Why does it feel like I already yelled that once before?"

Scratching his head, Naruto thought hard while pacing around in circles.

Then suddenly—

He slapped his palm in realization.

Wasn't this the fox monster that appeared in his dream once before?!

So it wasn't actually a dream?!

Then suddenly—

Naruto's eyes widened dramatically as realization finally struck him.

"You…"

"You're the one everyone in the village always talks about…"

Before Naruto could finish speaking, Kurama directly interrupted him.

"Stop acting stupid already."

The Nine-Tails slammed his tail heavily against the ground.

The resulting tremor launched Naruto briefly off his feet, physically interrupting his sentence.

"We don't have much time."

"Today, this old man only needs to explain a few things first so you can prepare yourself."

"Oh."

Naruto simply nodded obediently.

Originally, Kurama thought they'd need to argue first.

Instead, Naruto immediately sat down cross-legged on the ground, curiously poking at the cool white mist around him.

After confirming it wasn't dangerous, he immediately assumed the posture of a proper student and stared attentively at Kurama.

…What the hell?

Kurama felt genuinely shocked.

Was this some kind of instinctive response created after Minato spent day after day teaching him inside dreams?

Although Kurama also constantly listened to Minato's lessons, subconscious dream reactions and actual waking behavior were completely different things.

At the very least—

This version of Naruto acting like an obedient honor student was something Kurama had barely ever witnessed across both his previous and current memories.

Minato Namikaze…

What a terrifying man.

"You're not curious about this old man's identity?"

"Hm?"

Naruto tilted his head.

"Didn't you just say this is my inner world?"

"Then you're probably the Nine-Tailed Fox everyone in the village always talks about."

"No wonder they always look at me weird behind my back and whisper about me."

"So it was true after all."

Then Naruto stared upward toward Kurama with sparkling eyes.

"You're HUGE."

"You're really inside my body?"

"How'd they even do that?"

"Some kind of sealing technique?"

Naruto's reaction—

Far too calm.

Far too curious.

Actually caught Kurama completely off guard.

But in truth, Kurama had subconsciously approached things with assumptions based on the previous timeline.

This Naruto still experienced loneliness and sadness during childhood.

Yet under both Kurama's and Minato's guidance, he also gained far more than before.

Friends surrounded him.

People who acknowledged him existed everywhere.

And because Kurama restrained both his malice and chakra influence, this version of Naruto truly grew up bathed in Konoha's "light."

In fact, due to Naruto's overwhelmingly outstanding performance, less than two years after entering the Academy he had already earned the title:

"The Peak of the Ninja Academy."

Not only students from his own year—

Even top students from older grades believed defeating Naruto Uzumaki at school was the only true way to become number one.

Otherwise, graduating as "first place" felt embarrassing.

All of those experiences together made Naruto far more capable of accepting the existence of a giant fox demon sealed inside him compared to the Naruto from Kurama's previous memories.

More importantly—

At this exact moment, Naruto couldn't sense even the slightest hostility or danger from the enormous fox before him.

"Quite a lot of questions all at once."

Kurama lazily flicked his tails before calmly answering.

"First, yes. This old man truly exists inside your body."

"And yes, I was sealed here."

"But you already understand sealing techniques somewhat."

"Without the proper release method, this old man can't leave."

"And I won't harm you either."

"You can relax about that."

"Besides…"

Kurama snorted softly.

"This old man doesn't particularly care about Konoha anymore."

"And back then, part of the reason this old man attacked the village was because someone manipulated me."

"Second…"

Kurama glanced around.

"This place is your inner world."

"In other words, your own mental landscape created this environment."

"This old man is merely borrowing it temporarily."

"And the reason…"

Kurama's eyes narrowed slightly.

"Is because this old man will teach you how to cultivate."

"Cultivate?"

Naruto immediately froze.

"Wait, then the person teaching me in my dreams every night…"

"That isn't this old man."

Kurama interrupted immediately.

"You'll meet him later."

"Just not now."

"Don't interrupt."

Kurama sounded increasingly impatient.

"In short, due to certain reasons, this old man will personally teach you how to use a special kind of energy during this period."

"Once mastered…"

"Your strength will increase dramatically."

"So cool?!"

Naruto's eyes instantly began sparkling.

"But unlike those dream lessons before, this kind of training requires extremely precise control and willpower."

"So it can't be learned through vague dream teaching methods."

Kurama continued explaining.

"In other words…"

"You must come here consciously during real-world training periods."

"And because the training consumes enormous amounts of energy…"

"You'll most likely need food and sleep immediately afterward to recover."

"Hm…"

"And some additional preparations too."

Kurama flicked his tails slightly.

"So ideally, you should find someone to take care of you during this period."

"Otherwise, after training, you probably won't even be able to move for a while."

"Ohhh…"

Naruto nodded immediately with a look of complete understanding.

Clearly, he already had someone in mind.

"Good."

"Then listen carefully. First, you'll need to prepare—"

"Wait wait wait!"

Naruto hurriedly interrupted him.

"I still have other questions!"

Seeing Kurama preparing to immediately launch into serious training mode, Naruto quickly raised his hand.

"A few days ago, I suddenly ended up in some weird place."

"And when I regained awareness afterward, I was already inside Hinata's house."

"Was that because of you?"

"More or less."

Kurama answered honestly.

"You panicked after encountering danger, so this old man temporarily controlled your body to save you."

"After things became safe again, I returned control."

"Then…"

Naruto immediately leaned forward anxiously.

"Do you know what happened to Big Sister Izumi?"

Finally—

A clue.

The issue had been driving him crazy these past few days.

"Hm?"

"Uchiha Izumi?"

Kurama froze briefly instead.

"Didn't you leave a Flying Thunder God marker on her?"

During these past few days, Kurama had focused almost entirely on restructuring the mental world.

Aside from occasionally monitoring whether Naruto encountered danger again, he honestly hadn't paid much attention to anything else.

"I can't sense the marker on Big Sister Izumi anymore."

Naruto looked worried.

"You don't know either?"

"The Flying Thunder God marker disappeared?"

Kurama frowned.

"That shouldn't be possible."

"I remember Minato specifically saying Flying Thunder God markers never disappear…"

The giant fox unconsciously glanced toward the chakra mass floating high above, which Kurama had temporarily disguised as a "sun."

Then he muttered quietly:

"Don't tell me this old man only learned half the technique…"

"Or did Minato secretly hold back information?"

Unable to figure out the answer, Kurama finally spoke honestly.

"This old man genuinely doesn't know."

"Maybe someone else will explain it to you eventually."

"But not right now."

"I see…"

Naruto sighed softly.

"Then can you at least tell me…"

"What exactly happened to Sasuke's family?"

The moment Naruto asked that question—

Kurama instantly became energetic.

His massive tails even stood upright excitedly.

"Ohhh, now THIS this old man can explain properly."

"First, Naruto, you need to remember something."

"There aren't many good people within the Uchiha clan."

"In the future, if you ever encounter Uchiha bastards, striking first is usually the correct choice!"

"Of course, your friend doesn't count."

"But everyone else? Absolutely."

"And among them…"

Kurama's eyes became dangerous.

"The worst bastard of all was that Madara Uchiha."

"That guy was truly a piece of shi—"

One human sat listening.

One giant fox lay sprawled while ranting endlessly.

And somehow—

The atmosphere between them felt unbelievably harmonious.

Almost exactly like two old friends who had already known each other for years.

Read 50 chapters ahead on P@treon -> [email protected]/AiraTales7 (replace @ with a)