Upon hearing the words "deep hatred for Konoha," a flash of ruthless hostility crossed the eyes of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox!
It had been getting along just fine following the Sage of Six Paths.
Then some brat with an Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan had popped out of nowhere.
Shamelessly launching a sneak attack on a centuries-old Tailed Beast like itself, this punk had even forcefully made it his—no, wait, made it his footstool!
Just like that, the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox was forced into signing a soul-selling contract!
Thank goodness it was a male fox; can you imagine if it had been a female? It would have been ridden around all day long!
How could it ever show its face among the other Tailed Beasts again?
Originally, the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox had thought that was rock bottom!
Never did it expect that the very first time it was summoned by Uchiha Madara, it would have to face Senju Hashirama!
To this day, the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox had not forgotten the enormous wooden Buddha statue that fellow Senju Hashirama had summoned.
A thousand consecutive slaps had instantly beaten it into a daze!
At that moment, it had practically forgotten it was a beast of folklore—who the hell was actually the Tailed Beast here?
That man named Hashirama was ridiculously, absurdly strong, slamming both it and Uchiha Madara into the dirt and rubbing their faces in it.
To top it all off, while beating the pulp out of it, Hashirama kept shouting, "Please stop fighting, I don't want to fight you!"
The harder he hit, the softer he spoke; the softer he spoke, the harder he hit!
From that day on, the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox would break out in tremors all over just seeing Senju Hashirama!
Following the death of Uchiha Madara in battle, the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox was sealed by the Senju clan into the belly of someone from the Uzumaki Clan.
From then on, the poor Nine-Tailed Demon Fox never saw the light of day again.
It recalled running through the sunset with the other Tailed Beasts—that was the youth it had lost!
Well, except for the memories of Shukaku; sooner or later, Grandpa Nine was going to beat that thing into dust!
Ever since it was trapped inside the belly of an Uzumaki Clan member, it was miserable, and those so-called Jinchuriki who sealed it were equally annoying.
The Nine-Tailed Demon Fox had no idea what it had done wrong; was it a crime to simply have a bit too much Chakra and slightly too much power?
If they had the guts, why didn't they go make trouble for the Sage of Six Paths? What kind of accomplishment was it to bully a single Tailed Beast?
When the Tailed Beast Chakra was originally divided, it admitted the Sage of Six Paths told it to split up.
But the method it used to divide was completely fair: one portion for Shukaku, one for itself, one for the Two-Tails, one for itself, one for the Three-Tails, one for itself...
Was it its fault that it had simply worked just a tiny, teensy bit harder than those other eight Tailed Beasts?
And when it finally managed to have a masked man rescue it, the bastard turned out to have those damned Sharingan eyes again!
It never wanted to lay eyes on anyone from the Uchiha Clan for the rest of its life; they were its natural nemesis!
If it was the Uzumaki Naruto standing before it right now, if it remembered correctly, this kid belonged to the Uzumaki Clan and didn't possess those cursed, evil eyes.
Maybe this granddaddy really stood a chance!
Having finished hashing it all out in its inner monologue, the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox finally made up its mind!
It let out a cold snort and slowly closed its eyes without a word.
Seeing this, Uzumaki Naruto gave a slight smirk at the corner of his mouth; he already knew the deal was struck!
When he withdrew from his mental space and opened his eyes, the familiar ceiling greeted him once more!
Uzumaki Naruto got up and looked out the window; the moon was bright and the stars were sparse—before he knew it, it was already the dead of night.
Gazing down at the hidden village of Konoha below, a flash of fury crossed Uzumaki Naruto's eyes.
"Demon Fox," "Monster," "Murderer," "Disgusting wretch."
These intensely insulting words kept flooding into Uzumaki Naruto's mind, as if those voices were ringing right in his ears!
Uzumaki Naruto slowly extended his palm, sensing the Chakra within his body.
For a long time, the Chakra inside him had been suppressed and interfered with by the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox.
The vast majority of his internal Chakra was automatically consumed just keeping the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox suppressed, which resulted in Naruto—despite being of the Uzumaki Clan—actually running low on mana!
Yet right now... the Chakra inside Uzumaki Naruto felt as abundant as a torrential downpour.
Of course, compared to the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox's own reserves, it was still just a drop in the bucket.
Even so, this was already more than enough for him to focus on his training for now!
Naruto did not sleep that night; he sat cross-legged on his bed and began refining Chakra.
A gust of wind blew past outside the window, ruffling Naruto's golden hair into a slightly messy state.
Yet his small face remained utterly meticulous and filled with absolute seriousness!
Sakura: "Is this guy even Naruto anymore? He's actually focusing on training!"
Shikamaru: "And Naruto, who's always relied purely on brute force, is actually using his head?"
Naruto: "......"
Naruto: "This guy is definitely not me!"
Tenten: "It's Naruto from another world."
Fourth Raikage: "It seems that world's Naruto has reached a unified front with the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox, though. Looks like your Konoha is in danger!"
Orochimaru: "And isn't that all thanks to my dearest Teacher Hiruzen?"
Sarutobi Hiruzen: "What does that have to do with me?"
Orochimaru: "Teacher Hiruzen, surely you didn't know? Naruto is clearly the hero's son, yet everyone in the village treats him like a monster. If only this world's Naruto were easy to fool—otherwise, who wouldn't turn against you?"
Sarutobi Hiruzen: "Is that your excuse for betraying Konoha?"
Orochimaru: "I simply believe in science, Teacher Hiruzen. One day, I will prove that the ultimate destination of a ninja is science!"
Namikaze Minato: "I believe that the Naruto in the other world is equally kind-hearted; turning against Konoha is probably just talk."
Onoki: "Hmph, if you ask me, the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox should have been assigned to our Hidden Stone Village back then, and none of this mess would have happened!"
Deidara: "Old man, do you even have the capability for that?"
Uchiha Madara: "Onoki brat, what kind of nonsense are you babbling?"
Upon seeing Uchiha Madara speak up,
Onoki, who had just been getting ready to type out some boasting about how he could instantly wipe out the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox with Particle Style, hastily deleted his text.
Uchiha Madara... an existence he simply could not afford to provoke.
To this day, Onoki had not forgotten
his past battle against Uchiha Madara.
Back then, he was ten years old,
standing before Uchiha Madara like a mere grunt.
Uchiha Madara had single-handedly taken on the Hidden Stone Village,
and the only way to get him to spare a few lives
was to bring up the name of Senju Hashirama.
That humiliation and terror
were things Onoki still could not forget to this day!
[Inside the screen, the daily life of Naruto in the black-bordered world continued.]
[However, it had turned into a simple routine between two locations.]
[During the day, he would go to the back mountain to fish and grill the catch, squeezing in some Chakra refinement along the way.]
[At night, he would return home to eat instant ramen, followed by heart-to-heart chats with the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox before sleep.]
[Of course, most of the time the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox would just droop its two ears, not even sparing Naruto a glance, and simply go to sleep on its own.]
Uzumaki Naruto, just as Orochimaru had said, was supposed to be the hero's son,
yet he was inexplicably hated and ostracized by the people of his own village.
What was even more infuriating was that
all those people owed their safety to the sacrifice of Naruto's parents,
while Naruto himself was forced to become the vessel for the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox.
Even now, when Naruto had reached school age,
not a single person had ever come to check on him.
As for the refinement of Chakra,
it was only because the Third Hokage had a sudden whim that he taught him at all.
Yet this world's Naruto was not only devoid of gratitude toward the Third Hokage,
he was acutely aware in his heart
that all of this was inextricably linked to the higher-ups of Konoha!
It was one thing if the ordinary villagers didn't know,
but surely these high-ranking officials knew, right?
Not only had they deliberately concealed Naruto's true parentage,
they had even intentionally guided public sentiment to turn Naruto into the embodiment of the demon fox itself!
Of course,
the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox was also a victim in this matter,
and it couldn't be blamed—
it was all manipulated by the masked man's Sharingan.
To be honest,
the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox even held a certain amount of admiration for Kushina and Minato as a couple!
Yet in the end, Naruto and the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox were left taking the blame for everything!
Although the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox hadn't told Naruto his background during these past few days,
through their casual chats back and forth, he had gradually come to learn bits and pieces of the truth.
His hatred for Konoha deepened even further!
Just wait—
sooner or later,
I will force those bastards in Konoha to give us justice!
In the past, his destiny was entirely controlled by others;
now, his destiny would be commanded by himself!