Chapter 11 (Patreon)

Before long, a full month had passed since Naruto’s birth.

Just as Roy had predicted, the fighting at the border had settled into a stalemate.

After Nara Shikaku led Konoha’s forces in repelling Kumogakure’s first attack, neither side managed to gain a decisive advantage.

The Fourth Raikage had initially planned to join Killer B in a direct assault on Konoha’s command post and end the battle in a single strike.

Dodai, one of Kumogakure’s most experienced jōnin and advisers, managed to talk him out of it.

Konoha had not sent the Nine-Tails’ jinchūriki onto a battlefield at any point during the Third Shinobi World War.

Although Kumogakure had launched its current attack after hearing of Minato Namikaze’s death, rumours claimed that the Nine-Tails’ jinchūriki had survived the attack on Konoha.

Everyone in the shinobi world knew that a jinchūriki normally died when their Tailed Beast was extracted.

If Kushina was still alive, then there was a strong possibility that the Nine-Tails had been sealed inside her once again.

Konoha had already lost many of its strongest shinobi.

If Kumogakure pushed the village too far, Konoha might send Kushina to the battlefield as a last resort.

A direct clash between the Eight-Tails and the Nine-Tails could devastate both armies and leave the two villages weakened enough for Iwagakure or another enemy to take advantage of them.

Rather than risk that outcome, Dodai believed it would be better to maintain pressure on Konoha until the village agreed to a ceasefire on Kumogakure’s terms.

The Cloud could then demand compensation without committing itself to a battle that might end in disaster.

The Fourth Raikage was impatient and quick to anger, but he was not incapable of listening to sound advice.

He had never intended to destroy Konoha at any cost.

His true aim was to recover some of what Kumogakure had lost during the Third Shinobi World War while Konoha was still vulnerable.

Elsewhere, Iwagakure was watching the conflict closely.

When the Third Tsuchikage learned that Kumogakure had attacked Konoha, he considered striking the Land of Lightning while the Cloud’s forces were occupied.

However, no matter how long he waited, Konoha and Kumogakure continued fighting with surprising restraint.

“That reckless brat from Kumogakure actually managed to hold himself back?” Ōnoki muttered in disappointment. “I was certain he would charge straight into Konoha’s army.”

If Iwagakure attacked the Land of Lightning now, Kumogakure’s forces could withdraw from the Land of Fire and return home before Iwa gained anything.

Such a move might only ease the pressure on Konoha.

“He’s a Kage now,” said the muscular man standing nearby. His dark red hair and powerful build made him difficult to overlook. “He can’t behave like a reckless young shinobi forever.”

Rōshi gave his Tsuchikage a disapproving glance.

“Stop looking for another war, Ōnoki.”

Iwagakure had only recently survived the Third Shinobi World War.

Although ten thousand Stone shinobi had succeeded in wearing down and killing the Third Raikage, Iwa’s own losses had been severe.

In Rōshi’s view, the best outcome was for Konoha and Kumogakure to continue wearing each other down while Iwagakure recovered in peace.

“Rōshi, you don’t understand.”

Ōnoki rolled his eyes but did not bother explaining further.

With no safe opportunity to attack Kumogakure, he ordered Iwa’s intelligence forces to continue watching the battlefield and decided to wait.

Rōshi watched the Tsuchikage leave and quietly sighed.

He hated war.

Whenever Iwagakure entered a major conflict, he was expected to fight because he was the jinchūriki of the Four-Tails.

That meant more deaths.

Rōshi’s own family had been taken from him by war. He understood the pain of losing loved ones far too well.

While the borders of the Land of Fire remained tense, the atmosphere inside Kushina’s home was completely different.

Wearing an apron, Kushina stood before the stove with an expression of intense concentration.

“Now,” Roy said from behind her.

Kushina immediately tipped the vegetables from the plate into the hot pan and began stir-frying them.

Once the dish was ready, she took a small bite.

Her eyes widened.

“It’s delicious! I didn’t know you could cook, Roy.”

The food she had prepared under his instructions tasted far better than the simple miso soup she usually made.

She had added slightly too much salt, but the crisp vegetables and unfamiliar method of cooking more than made up for it.

Encouraged by her success, Kushina followed Roy’s instructions and prepared several more dishes.

However, when she finally sat alone before the table filled with food, her excitement slowly faded.

Her eyes settled on a photograph of herself and Minato.

The room suddenly felt far too quiet.

Roy noticed the grief in her expression and stepped closer, resting a hand on her shoulder.

“You can’t change what happened,” he said gently. “But Naruto is still here.”

Kushina continued staring at the photograph.

“Raise him well. Give him the life Minato wanted for him. That’s the best way to honour Minato’s sacrifice.”

Kushina wiped the tears gathering at the corners of her eyes.

“Thank you, Roy.”

After eating, she gradually regained some of her energy.

She went into the next room and spent some time playing with Naruto. Once the baby fell asleep, she quietly returned to her bedroom.

“Roy, how should I do this?” she asked. “Can someone really speak normally with a Tailed Beast?”

A month had passed since Naruto’s birth and the extraction of the Nine-Tails.

Thanks to her Uzumaki vitality, Kushina’s body had fully recovered.

Now she was beginning to seriously consider Roy’s suggestion that she learn to become a perfect jinchūriki.

If she could truly use the Nine-Tails’ power without losing control, she would be capable of far more than she was now.

“There are nine Tailed Beasts in the shinobi world,” Roy began.

He sat cross-legged directly behind Kushina.

“They’re known as the One-Tail through the Nine-Tails, according to the number of tails each one possesses.”

Roy then began explaining the true origins of the Tailed Beasts and the lives they had led since the time of the Sage of Six Paths.

Deep inside Kushina’s seal, the Nine-Tails lay bound beneath the Adamantine Sealing Chains.

As Roy’s voice reached the sealed space, its eyes slowly opened.

This man...

Shock and suspicion appeared in the fox’s enormous eyes.

Most humans believed the Tailed Beasts were mindless masses of chakra born from disasters, hatred and destruction.

They feared the beasts.

They also feared and rejected the jinchūriki who carried them.

Yet the unseen man speaking to Kushina knew the truth.

He knew that the Tailed Beasts had been created from the Ten-Tails’ chakra by the Sage of Six Paths.

He knew they possessed thoughts, memories and feelings of their own.

That alone was enough to leave the Nine-Tails deeply unsettled.

Roy’s existence was equally strange.

Even while sealed, the Nine-Tails could still sense much of what happened around its jinchūriki.

It could clearly hear Roy speaking to Kushina, yet it could not sense him at all.

He was like a voice belonging to something that did not exist.

When the Nine-Tails first became aware of Roy, it had found the situation amusing.

It had been sealed and used by Minato and Kushina for years.

Then, just when it finally escaped, Minato had sacrificed his life to force it back into Kushina.

The Nine-Tails’ hatred for the couple—especially Minato—had been immense.

Yet Minato had barely died before another man appeared inside his home and became unable to leave his wife’s side.

Had Minato been able to see it, his expression would have been entertaining.

The Nine-Tails did not fully understand human romance, but after spending so many years among humans, it understood marriage and family well enough.

It had been unable to take revenge on Minato personally.

Seeing another man constantly beside Kushina had therefore brought it a small amount of satisfaction.

Now, however, Roy was telling Kushina to stop viewing the Nine-Tails as nothing more than a weapon.

He wanted her to understand its pain and speak to it as an equal.

For the first time in many years, the Nine-Tails heard a human acknowledge the suffering of the Tailed Beasts.

Long ago, it had roamed the world freely.

It had waited for the blue-eyed youth the Sage of Six Paths had foretold—the one who would someday understand the hearts of the Tailed Beasts.

Instead, Hashirama Senju had declared that the beasts possessed too much power to remain free.

He had overpowered them, handed them to the hidden villages and allowed them to be sealed inside human hosts.

The Nine-Tails had not always hated humanity.

It had once been willing to live peacefully.

But humans had answered that willingness with fear, imprisonment and endless attempts to use its power.

Year after year, it was treated as nothing more than a monster or a weapon.

Human cruelty had given birth to its hatred.

Even now, after hearing Roy’s words, the Nine-Tails could not bring itself to trust him.

Humans were skilled at pretending to understand.

They lied when it suited them and broke their promises whenever they gained something from doing so.

More importantly, the Nine-Tails had heard Roy’s earlier conversation with Kushina.

He wanted her to master its chakra and gain full control over its power.

The fox’s eyes narrowed.

So that’s what this is.

He’s no different from the others.

He only wants my power.

“Damn human...”