Naruto: The Nine-Tails' Legacy

Releasing the seal of the Dead Demon Consuming Seal.

Freeing the true soul of Minato Namikaze trapped within the Shinigami, along with the other half of Kurama.

In Kurama and Minato's original plans, this step had always been the beginning of everything.

And the most crucial step.

According to Kurama's memories, during the future era when the Yin Half of Kurama resided inside Minato, it had learned that the Dead Demon Consuming Seal had eventually been undone by Orochimaru.

However, Orochimaru had never explained exactly how he achieved it.

Nor had Minato asked.

What Orochimaru did mention was the ruins of the Uzumaki Clan and the lost sealing techniques scattered across the world.

If Orochimaru had needed to search for those lost techniques himself, then Minato—who had been personally taught orthodox Uzumaki sealing arts by Kushina—already possessed far more knowledge than most.

As for the Land of Whirlpools...

They had always planned to visit eventually when Naruto was older.

Unexpectedly, fate had brought Naruto here ahead of schedule.

"Dad..."

"Is this what you're looking for?"

While Minato continued searching the ruins with the experience of a veteran shinobi, checking hidden compartments and concealed mechanisms, Naruto suddenly popped his head out from a nearby corner.

In his hand was an ancient-looking scroll.

"Let me see..."

Minato took it.

Then his eyes widened.

"It actually is!"

"Hehe, I just found it while looking around."

"Then your luck must be pretty incredible, Naruto."

Minato smiled.

His mood visibly improved.

He immediately began reading the scroll, which recorded the secrets of the Dead Demon Consuming Seal.

Yet the more he read, the deeper his frown became.

The Dead Demon Consuming Seal was one of the Uzumaki Clan's forbidden techniques.

Unlike most sealing arts, which targeted chakra, this was one of the rare techniques capable of directly affecting souls.

Its overwhelming power was precisely why the Uzumaki Clan had treated it as a trump card.

The user sacrificed their own soul.

In exchange, they could drag virtually any enemy down with them.

But the method of undoing it...

Was disturbingly similar.

The caster had to cut open the belly of the summoned Shinigami.

A near-suicidal act equivalent to mutual destruction.

The Shinigami itself would not die.

The person performing the ritual absolutely would.

The idea of having Naruto release the seal was immediately rejected.

"Mutual destruction..."

Naruto curiously read the text as well.

But Minato quickly rolled the scroll back up.

"Naruto."

"This technique isn't suitable for you."

"Let me figure everything out first."

"Huh?"

"Why?"

"Isn't this supposed to be a really powerful sealing technique?"

"And doesn't it help you guys?"

"It does."

Minato nodded.

"But things are a little different from what I expected."

"Different how?"

Naruto looked puzzled.

Minato didn't elaborate.

Instead, he simply smiled and reached out to pat Naruto's head.

Unfortunately, since he was currently controlling Naruto's Shadow Clone—

The touching father-son moment felt more like Naruto was patting himself.

"Take the mask with you when you leave."

"And remember."

"Do not put it on casually."

After giving his final warning, Minato severed the connection.

The clone returned to Naruto's control.

Back within Naruto's mindscape, Minato looked toward Kurama.

"Thank you for your help, Kurama-dono."

Unlike the time when Kurama directly controlled Naruto's clones himself, using Kurama's chakra as a medium to connect Minato's consciousness to a Shadow Clone was far more difficult.

Otherwise Kurama wouldn't have ended the connection immediately after obtaining the result.

"It's not that troublesome."

Kurama flicked his tails.

"It's just annoying while I'm still sealed."

Then he snorted.

"So?"

"What did you find?"

Minato explained the contents of the scroll.

"I see."

"No wonder Orochimaru was the one who released the technique."

Kurama finally understood.

"Are you saying Orochimaru survived after releasing it?"

Minato asked.

"As far as I know..."

Kurama recalled the future.

"He's probably the human farthest removed from the concept of death."

Minato fell silent.

The truth was that he had already considered alternative candidates.

For example—

Hidan.

The immortal Akatsuki member Naruto had recently captured.

Perhaps Hidan's undying body could survive the ritual.

But the Dead Demon Consuming Seal was an extraordinarily advanced sealing technique.

Even if they started teaching from scratch, the user needed vast theoretical knowledge.

Back in Minato's era, aside from himself, only a handful of people in Konoha—such as Hiruzen Sarutobi—possessed enough mastery over ninjutsu to learn it.

Kurama glanced at Minato and immediately guessed what he was thinking.

"If there's no suitable candidate..."

"Why not just find Orochimaru?"

"...Huh?"

Minato blinked.

"But Kurama-dono..."

"Didn't you say Orochimaru already defected from Konoha during this period?"

"So what?"

Kurama sounded completely unconcerned.

"In the future, Naruto dealt with him plenty of times."

"In my opinion, he's actually a pretty reasonable guy."

"Leave this matter to me."

Minato stared.

Orochimaru?

Reasonable?

For a moment he genuinely wondered whether he'd misheard something.

Or perhaps the Orochimaru Kurama knew wasn't the same Orochimaru he remembered.

Back when Minato was alive, Orochimaru hadn't defected yet.

But whether it was from Jiraiya's stories...

Their competition for the position of Fourth Hokage...

Or his later interactions with the man...

Minato could say with complete certainty—

Not a single word in the phrase easy to talk to had anything to do with Orochimaru.

Kurama-dono's thought process is impossible to understand...

Meanwhile, beneath the same night sky...

Kakashi stood outside Konoha's Torture and Interrogation Department.

He let out a sigh.

Just as he had expected.

Mei Terumī's request to join Konoha had been rejected almost immediately after she proposed it.

After all, Konoha and Kirigakure had only recently become allies.

Accepting one of Kirigakure's elite jōnin as a defector would be equivalent to openly provoking the Hidden Mist.

What made matters worse was that Mei had made absolutely no attempt to hide her intentions.

"If possible,"

"I would like to use Konoha's strength to seize political power in Kirigakure."

When she had calmly said those words in front of Hiruzen and Kakashi...

Even the Third Hokage had been stunned.

It took him quite a while to recover.

For a brief moment, he even wondered if the entire world had changed.

Back then, the Uchiha Clan had possessed the strength of an entire clan.

They had endured years upon years of oppression before eventually considering a coup.

Even now, Hiruzen could understand the desperation that had driven them.

Their conflict with Konoha traced all the way back to the village's founding.

But the Hidden Mist shinobi?

What kind of people were they?

One elite jōnin.

A single person.

And she already had plans to overthrow her village's government.

Not secretly, either.

She openly wanted to borrow the power of an allied village to accomplish it.

Compared to her...

Even the Uchiha Clan seemed lacking in ambition.

Or perhaps courage.

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