In the end, its massive body seemed weighed down by an invisible force, its four legs trembling slightly.
Seeing that the beast was fully suppressed, Arata stopped. He cut off his chakra and ocular output.
The crushing pressure vanished instantly, allowing the Nine-Tails...barely holding on...to finally breathe again.
The Nine-Tails stared fiercely into Arata's eyes and said,
"Your Sharingan isn't an ordinary Mangekyō. It's on the same level as Madara's… far stronger than a normal Mangekyō."
Arata nodded.
"Didn't Madara ever tell you? This is the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan. Its power far surpasses the standard version."
The Nine-Tails shook its head irritably. Anytime Madara was mentioned, its emotions became difficult to control.
"To him, I was nothing more than a mindless beast. Every time we met, he controlled me without a word.
He never bothered explaining why his eyes were stronger than others."
After witnessing Arata's Eternal Mangekyō, the Nine-Tails abandoned any thought of resistance.
Back then, Madara had toyed with it effortlessly using the same eyes.
Now, sealed and unable to escape, resisting Arata would only waste effort.
If Arata wanted control, it would merely take a bit more work.
Hearing Kurama's words, Arata felt a hint of sympathy.
Once, Kurama had lived freely in sparsely populated wilderness....unrestrained and untamed.
Then it encountered two absolute anomalies in succession: Uchiha Madara and Senju Hashirama.
From that moment on, it became Madara's weapon of war.
Later, it was sealed inside Uzumaki Mito, reduced to a tool for maintaining peace.
That was no different from prison.
After one jailer died, another came. Then another. During a "cell transfer," it was even split in half.
It would be stranger if its mood wasn't terrible.
After a moment of thought, Arata did something that left the Nine-Tails utterly stunned.
He walked straight through the gaps in the iron gate and approached the beast.
Raising his hand, he casually stroked Kurama's fur.
"Hm. Softer than I expected."
The Nine-Tails was startled and instinctively wanted to dodge....but after considering Arata's strength, it knew avoiding him was pointless and might even provoke him further. So it stayed still.
Though its body didn't move, its nine tails spun wildly behind it, like helicopter blades.
Lowering its head, Kurama stared at Arata beside it and growled,
"Aren't you afraid I'll eat you in one bite?"
It even bared its sharp fangs for emphasis.
After finishing his stroke, Arata found it unsatisfying.
He simply leaned forward and hugged the massive fox, rubbing against its fur as he spoke casually:
"First, I have no hostility toward you. As the Nine-Tails, you should be able to sense that clearly."
"Second, you can't beat me. Of course, if you think otherwise, I'm happy to indulge you."
"And finally...what entered this child's body is only a fragment of my consciousness.
Even if you tear it apart or swallow it, I'll just suffer a headache for a few days."
"But when that happens…"
"You'll have to take responsibility for what you did."
The Nine-Tails had indeed been bluffing.
As a being formed from the accumulation of negative emotions, it possessed a unique ability...one that allowed it to sense malice with exceptional clarity.
It could easily and directly perceive whether someone harbored hostile intent toward it, and that intent came from the deepest layers of the person's heart.
No matter how well someone concealed themselves outwardly, if there was even a trace of malice inside them, the Nine-Tails would sense it immediately.
And yet, from Uchiha Arata, it felt none at all.
The Mangekyō Sharingan was, to the Nine-Tails, revolting and detestable.....but that was merely a type of power, not intent. Power itself carried no consciousness.
So although Arata's behavior annoyed it somewhat, the Nine-Tails knew that this Uchiha bore no ill will toward it.
Showing its fangs and giving a brief scare was nothing more than an expression of displeasure.
Of course, this tolerance only existed because Arata possessed strength equal to....or even greater than.....its own.
If it had been an ordinary person, even a simple erosion from Nine-Tails chakra would have been enough to twist their mind and plunge them into misery.
Only when both sides stood on equal footing could there be calm conversation… or friendship.
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