"The life consud by Baryon Mode… it wasn't yours, Naruto. It was mine."
Kurama's voice grew fainter and fainter as his enormous body slowly began to fade away, yet there was an unusual ease in his tone.
"Kurama…?"
Naruto's mind went blank.
He had already prepared himself to disappear, yet now he could only stare helplessly as the Nine-Tails gradually vanished before his eyes. Since the day he was born, this companion had been with him through hatred, conflict, suffering, and support…
But they had never truly been separated.
And now, Kurama was disappearing.
For his sake.
It felt as though Naruto's heart were being torn apart by invisible claws. The strongest man in the shinobi world, Konoha's Seventh Hokage, the great hero who had saved the world more than once—
Uzumaki Naruto.
At this mont, that legendary ninja beca once more the lonely, helpless blond child he used to be. An indescribable fear overwheld him, causing him to collapse onto the ground. He wanted to scream, to beg Kurama to stay—
But before he could say anything, Kurama slowly raised a fist and stopped it in front of him.
This was their ritual.
No matter when or where, as long as they bumped fists, their hearts would understand one another.
Naruto stared blankly at Kurama's already fading form… at the gigantic fist held before him.
After a long silence, he finally raised his own hand.
For the last ti, he bumped fists with Kurama.
Smack!
Naruto abruptly woke in the real world.
Exhausted beyond asure, he lay sprawled on the ground, feeling the complete absence of the Tailed Beast's chakra within him. In a helpless whisper, he muttered:
"Kurama…"
At the sa ti, Kurama's consciousness faded into nothingness.
He was a Tailed Beast—a mass of chakra—not an ordinary lifeform. In theory, the Nine-Tails could never truly die. Given enough ti, his chakra would gather once more, allowing him to be reborn.
But as the strongest of the Tailed Beasts, although Kurama had been controlled and sealed by others since the Sage of Six Paths created him…
He had never truly ceased to exist before.
So while resurrection was theoretically possible, even Kurama himself didn't know whether he would truly return.
And more importantly—
He had no idea how long it would take.
In the final instant before his consciousness vanished completely, only a single thought remained in Kurama's mind.
He hoped his rebirth wouldn't take too long.
At the very least… he wanted to see Naruto again.
With that final thought, the Nine-Tails disappeared entirely from the world, waiting for the day his chakra would gather once more and revive him.
At least…
That was how it should have happened.
Yet the mont Kurama lost consciousness, he suddenly awakened again almost instantly.
A suffocating, oppressive aura surrounded him, filled with overwhelming hostility that made him deeply uncomfortable.
"What's going on? I've already revived?"
Having never experienced resurrection before, Kurama froze for a mont. But when he tried to examine his own condition, he quickly realized sothing was wrong.
He hadn't fully revived.
Not even halfway.
"Damn it! Who turned into this?!"
Kurama roared furiously.
But alongside his rage, he also felt pain.
Pain coming both from himself and from the surrounding environnt. Black mist and strange, sinister energy filled the area. The atmosphere was so unsettling that it drove him into restless agitation and tornt, as though he had been trapped inside a prison built solely to torture its inmates.
Was it an enemy again?
Had soone laid a trap during his resurrection process?
He loathed this sensation intensely.
Yet at the sa ti… it felt oddly familiar.
His body seed restrained by so invisible force, while countless malicious presences writhed around him endlessly. The combination of shock and fury made Kurama instinctively shout:
"Naruto, sothing's seriously wrong here. What's happening on your side—"
But the mont the words left his mouth, Kurama abruptly realized—
There was no response.
The resonance unique to a perfect Jinchūriki… the bond between him and Naruto…
It was gone.
Naruto was no longer there?
A complicated emotion surged within Kurama's heart, mixed with a naless fury and an overwhelming sense of helpless frustration.
Had his resurrection taken too long?
Had Naruto already…
"Hm?"
Kurama, who had lowered his head monts earlier, suddenly sensed sothing. A startled sound escaped his mouth, while his massive fox eyes filled with confusion—and delight.
The call he had sent out…
Had received an answer.
He sensed Naruto.
The response was extrely weak, but there was no doubt about it—it was Naruto's presence. However, the emotions carried within that response were filled with fear and curiosity.
Still, the joy of recovering what he thought he had lost made Kurama ignore those strange emotions entirely. He imdiately gathered what little strength he had left and forcefully pulled the responding Naruto toward him.
And then—
"Ah… ah…"
Kurama stared blankly at the familiar blond hair before him, as well as the six whisker-like marks on the child's cheeks.
There was no question that the owner of the terrified expression standing before him was Naruto.
But…
Kurama looked at the trembling little brat sitting on the ground. Despite shaking from head to toe, the kid still stubbornly stared at him with wide eyes, even pointing a finger at him while trying desperately to compare this image with the Naruto in his mories.
"M-Monster!!"
After trembling for several seconds, "Naruto" finally let out a shrill scream. Then he scrambled to his feet and began fleeing wildly in panic—
Though in this pitch-black place where east, west, north, and south couldn't even be distinguished, the kid was really just running in circles.
Still, the sight finally snapped Kurama out of his drifting thoughts. He flicked one of his tails and slamd it heavily against the ground.
BOOM!
The instant the trendous force struck, the entire space shook violently. The tiny figure shouting and running around imdiately lost his balance and crashed face-first onto the floor.
"Ow! That hurts! What was that for?!"
Little Naruto clutched his nose with tears in his eyes, his face flushed red from the impact. The intense pain temporarily overwheld his fear, and while rubbing his face, he actually dared to yell angrily at Kurama.
"Waaah! I'm bleeding!"
"Calm down. This is your inner world. There's no physical body here."
Kurama snorted.
The massive airflow from his voice alone blew little Naruto stumbling backward again. As the boy struggled to climb back to his feet, Kurama continued:
"Keep calm. I won't hurt you. And stop imagining nonsense. The reason you got hurt—and why my breath can knock you over—is entirely because you think it can."
"...Huh?"
Little Naruto rubbed his face as he finally managed to stand up. He clearly hadn't fully understood Kurama's explanation, but after all that chaos, most of his fear seed to have faded. Even Kurama could sense the icy, oppressive atmosphere around them weakening considerably.
Then the little boy slowly turned around.
For the first ti, those large blue eyes seriously looked at Kurama.
And after examining him once more, Kurama confird one undeniable fact—
That tiny body, barely as long as one of his claws… the oversized scarf, the mismatched goggles, and the orange-and-gray jacket bearing the Uzumaki crest…
This was Naruto at three or four years old.
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