Chapter 43: Mental Space, the Nine-Tailed?
"Waaaah! Help! I haven't even touched Granny Tsunade's hand yet—"
Naruto flailed his limbs wildly in the air. If he were an ordinary person, he would have been scared witless by now, or perhaps started reflecting on his short life.
But a bizarre thought suddenly popped into his head.
[Tsk, this damn gravitational acceleration. If only I knew a flight Ninjutsu right now... even the Super Light-Weight Rock Jutsu would do. Speaking of which, when that Old Man Tsuchikage flies, can he carry people? If I let the Leg-kage... ahem, I mean the Tsuchikage's granddaughter Kurotsuchi carry me, it would have to be in a princess carry position...]
At this life-or-death moment, this nonsensical idea acted like a key, instantly prying open a door that had been closed for a long time.
Splash!
There was none of the imagined agonizing pain of being smashed into a pulp. Naruto felt as if he had fallen into a viscous, cold sewer.
Before his eyes was no longer the rapidly receding cliff, but a vast, dim, and damp space filled with the sound of dripping water. There was a nauseating smell of blood in the air.
"This place is..."
Naruto stood up from the shallow water, shook his wet hair, and looked ahead.
There stood a massive golden iron gate with a seal bearing the character for "Seal" pasted on it. In the darkness behind the iron bars, two crimson vertical pupils as large as lanterns slowly opened, locking onto the tiny human with hatred and murderous intent.
"Have you come... brat..."
A low, raspy voice sounded like a roar. Immediately after, a visible surge of red Chakra poured out, filled with the thousand years of resentment accumulated by the Nine-Tailed.
"Do you want my power? Then tear off that seal..."
The massive body of the Nine-Tailed Demon Foxloomed in the darkness, its nine tails swaying gently, stirring up ripples in the water that carried an aura of destruction.
If it were the original Naruto, he probably would have been weak in the knees by now.
But the current Naruto not only didn't retreat, he instead stuffed his hands in his pockets and slowly strolled through the splashing water toward the iron gate.
Naruto even stood on his tiptoes, pressing his face against the bars, trying hard to see what it looked like inside.
"..."
The terrifying atmosphere the Nine-Tailed had just prepared instantly froze. What was this human brat doing? Visiting a zoo?
"Kurama, don't make things so scary."
Naruto curled his lip, his thoughts echoing within this mental space.
[For someone so big, living in a sewer like this is way too beneath you. When I take charge of this place later, the first thing I'll do is turn it into a five-star ocean-view suite.]
[But then again...]
Naruto's gaze bypassed the two massive claws and landed on the Nine-Tailed's orange fur.
[This fur color is truly top-tier. It's so smooth and bright; it would definitely be warm if made into a scarf. But according to the laws of the 2D world, shouldn't high-level magical beasts be able to shapeshift?]
Meanwhile, in various corners of the Village.
Hinata had just finished bandaging her wound when her face instantly turned beet red, steam puffing from her head; Anko was munching on dango and snapped the bamboo skewer in her mouth with a crack; Kurenai Yuhi almost drew her lipstick onto her cheek; and Tsunade, in a casino far away, crushed her wine glass.
[Since it's a fox spirit, its human form would definitely be a mature older sister type, no doubt about it!]
[Let me think... since it has orange fur, it must have big, blonde wavy hair, healthy tanned skin, wearing black tight leather, and a Gyaru style with a small leather whip in hand!]
[The key is those nine tails! If they're kept in human form, along with a pair of fluffy fox ears... Imagine it, a cold and tsundere gyaru, hands on her hips calling you a 'baka,' but those ears are twitching non-stop because she's shy. When you want to touch her tails, she'd blush and give you a light flick with the whip, saying 'only for ten minutes'...]
[Slurp—]
[I can't take it! This is the correct way to open a Tailed Beast! Kurama! If you turn into a tsundere Beast-eared girl for me right now, forget tearing the seal, I'll give you my life right now! Quick! Let me hear you call me Master!]
Inside the mental space, there was dead silence.
The massive Nine-Tailed Demon Fox maintained its predatory stance. In its crimson eyes, which were originally filled with hatred and tyranny, a very human-like expression of having seen a ghost now appeared.
For a thousand years, humans had called it a natural disaster, a demon fox, a monster. These people only wanted to use its power to start wars or seal it away to be used as a weapon.
But never had a human looked at it with eyes devoid of fear and greed, containing only a gaze that made its skin crawl... like a pervert looking at the cover of some unhealthy magazine.
He wanted to touch its tails?
He wanted it to wear leather and hold a whip?
What the hell is a tsundere gyaru?!
A chill ran down the Nine-Tailed's spine and through its entire body, causing its orange fur to stand on end.
[Ding!]
In the outside world, an urgent crimson warning exploded in the minds of all women who possessed the heavenly curtain.
[Server-wide Announcement: Detected that the host Uzumaki Naruto is attempting a dangerous cross-species fetish projection and conquest attempt on an'S-rank Non-human creature'!]
[Warning! Your range of potential love rivals has broken through the 'human' category!]
[Emergency Group Mission: You must keep this idiot's lower half in check in the future! You absolutely cannot let him stray down the path of no return with Non-humans!]
"Naruto-kun... actually likes that kind of thing?" Hinata covered her burning face, her fingers unconsciously pinching the corner of her clothes, her hazy eyes carrying a trace of dangerous determination. "If it's for Naruto-kun, then I'll buy a pair of cat ears too..."
"He's crazy! This brat is definitely crazy!" Ankofiercely swallowed the dango in her mouth. "He won't even spare a beast? Wait... if it's a wild style... it seems I have more of an advantage?" She looked down at her own fishnet outfit, lost in thought.
Back in the mental space.
Naruto had no idea he had just increased the level of internal competition in his harem; he was still leaning on the bars, looking at the big fox with a face full of expectation.
"Hey, Kurama, don't just stay silent. Change into one and let me see, even a loli type is acceptable to me!"
"Get out!"
The Nine-Tailed finally reacted.
This roar shook the mental space, but no matter how one heard it, the roar carried a sense of being both furious and panicked after being molested.
"Stay away from me! You shameless, perverted brat!"
Originally, the Nine-Tailed had planned to take the opportunity to bewitch Naruto and induce him to break the seal. But now, its only thought was: get this pervert as far away from it as possible! It absolutely could not let his filthy thoughts defile a noble Tailed Beast!
However, if it didn't give this kid some incentive to send him away, who knows what kind of nonsense he would come up with next? What if he really started lusting after its tails?
"Take it! Take my Chakra and get the hell out!"
Boom!
A massive surge of red Chakra was pushed out, directly blasting Naruto away.
"Hey hey hey! Don't push me! Even if the deal fails, the friendship remains! If you think the leather outfit doesn't look good, we can negotiate a sailor uniform! Kurama—!"
Naruto's voice grew more distant as his consciousness was pulled away.
Until that figure completely disappeared, a deathly silence returned to the sewer.
The Nine-Tailed remained huddled in the corner with its fur standing on end. After a long while, it slowly gathered its massive tails in front of itself, carefully covering its body.
"Damned human..."
It snorted. Although its tone was still disdainful, the tyrannical urge to destroy everything in its crimson eyes had inexplicably dissipated by more than half, replaced by something called a "psychological shadow."
And... a very strange, complex emotion of seemingly having its beauty "recognized" for the first time in such a bizarre way.
[Ding!]
The moment Naruto was wrapped in red Chakraand regained physical sensation mid-air in the real world, the system prompt arrived.
[Congratulations to the host for completing 'Conquer the Nine-Tails (Phase 1)'!]
[Evaluation: With your extraordinary and perverted imagination, you successfully intimidated the powerful Tailed Beast, making it actively lend its power for'self-protection.' This is a victory for the LSP spirit.]
[Reward obtained: Nine-Tails Chakra: Controlled Mode.]
[Special Title obtained: [Monster Lover · Novice] (When equipped, the initial curiosity of all Non-human intelligent creatures toward you will be greatly increased, but it will significantly decrease the sense of security felt by human females).]
Real world, deep in the canyon.
Naruto, who was falling rapidly, suddenly snapped his eyes open. His vertical pupils had turned scarlet, but his gaze was clear, and a mischievous grin hung on the corner of his mouth.
Boom!
A large amount of red Chakra ignited around him like fire, forcefully counteracting the downward momentum and making him pause in the air for an instant.
"Hehe, Pervy Sage! What kind of special training is this, just relying on 'borrowing money' for power?"
He kicked off the rock wall fiercely, turning into a red lightning bolt as he charged up the cliff face as if it were level ground.
Standing at the top of the cliff, Jiraiya frowned as he watched the terrifying aura that had suddenly erupted below.
"This kid... actually suppressed the Nine-Tails' hatred so quickly?" Jiraiya's mouth hung open slightly in surprise. "Minato, it seems your son has a stronger willpower than I thought... wait, why is he charging up with such a lecherous smile? Is this really the Nine-Tails' Chakra going berserk?"
Jiraiya suddenly felt that he might have truly taken on an incredible monster. Not because of the Nine-Tails, but because of the "monster" that was Naruto.