If Arata hadn't been standing right there watching, the Nine-Tails would never have wanted to speak that name at all. Even mentioning it was enough to make it feel irritated and resentful.
When Kushina heard its words, she froze in place.
If it had only been Arata saying this, she might still have questioned it. But now even the Nine-Tails—the very beast that had been sealed within her clan's jinchūriki—was saying the same thing. That meant… this was probably the truth.
Although Kushina had never met the Nine-Tails before and didn't know what kind of temperament this giant fox had, she could clearly tell from the way it ground its teeth while speaking that it harbored deep hatred toward Uchiha Madara.
Thinking back carefully on the Nine-Tails' history, Kushina began to understand why it hated Madara so much.
From the history she knew, the Nine-Tails had once lived freely in the ninja world, roaming the Land of Fire at will and wreaking havoc without restraint. That kind of life had lasted for many years—until Uchiha Madara appeared.
Madara had captured the Nine-Tails outright, turning it into his personal tool. Then, during the great battle at the Valley of the End, after the Nine-Tails' chakra had been completely drained, Madara simply discarded it.
In the end, the Nine-Tails was captured by Senju Hashirama, who—fearing it would continue to bring disaster upon the world—sealed it into Uzumaki Mito.
In other words, if it hadn't been for Uchiha Madara, the Nine-Tails might still be living a carefree, unrestrained life, instead of being so easily sealed inside a human body.
Worse still, that first sealing became the fuse for the scramble over jinchūriki. Before long, every great nation in the ninja world began hunting the tailed beasts, and by today, all of them had been sealed into human hosts.
With a history like that, how could the Nine-Tails not hate Uchiha Madara?
Still, Kushina couldn't understand one thing.
Wasn't Uchiha Madara killed long ago by Senju Hashirama? If he were really still alive, then by now he should be well over seventy years old.
Facing the Nine-Tails' fierce, murderous expression, Kushina showed no fear at all. She leaned in closer and asked curiously,
"Didn't Uchiha Madara die a long time ago? How could he still be alive?"
Seeing the girl standing less than a meter away, the Nine-Tails knew that if it wanted to, it could swallow her whole in a single bite.
A human not even a meter tall was nothing more than a toothpick to it.
But when it looked at Kushina's face—so similar to Mito's—it refrained from attacking. After all, it had spent decades with Mito. Even if it had never truly acknowledged her, she could still be considered half a friend.
Mito had a decent temperament and had treated the Nine-Tails fairly well. Although she possessed the extremely restraining Adamantine Sealing Chains, she rarely forced the Nine-Tails to do anything.
So aside from resenting the fact that Mito was its jinchūriki, the Nine-Tails actually held a certain level of respect for her.
As for Kushina, even if it didn't know exactly who she was, that distinctive red hair was unmistakable. The Nine-Tails knew she was an Uzumaki—very likely related to Mito in some way.
That was why it had tolerated her again and again.
Regarding her question, the Nine-Tails let out a disdainful snort and said,
"Don't judge him by ordinary ninja standards. His power is far greater than you can imagine. Hmph!"
Although Uchiha Madara was the one the Nine-Tails hated most, it would never deny Madara's strength. Whether it was taijutsu, genjutsu, or ninjutsu, Madara had unquestionably stood at the very pinnacle of the shinobi world. In those days, only Senju Hashirama could truly be mentioned in the same breath as him.
Of course, the old Sage of Six Paths—who created the nine tailed beasts—was, in the Nine-Tails' eyes, the strongest being the ninja world had ever known. But that old man had died long ago, so he didn't count anymore.
And the power Hashirama had displayed back then was so overwhelming that the Nine-Tails had once even believed he might be Asura himself—the Sage's son. Having once seen Indra and Asura clash from afar, the Nine-Tails knew very well that only Asura could wield Wood Style at that level.
Uchiha Madara had fought Senju Hashirama to a standstill in that battle. Although Madara ultimately lost due to a moment of carelessness, Hashirama was also gravely injured and died of illness not long afterward.
So strictly speaking, that battle had been a draw. Madara lost—but somehow survived to this day—while Hashirama's victory had only been temporary.
The Nine-Tails was an ancient monster that had lived for countless years, and it knew more than a few secrets of the Uchiha clan. In fact, when it encountered Madara again, it had already vaguely guessed how he had survived.
The answer was one of the Uchiha clan's forbidden techniques—
Izanagi.
There was a period in Uchiha history when every elite member of the clan was required to master this jutsu.
Back then, the Uchiha were at their peak, crushing the Senju clan to the brink of extinction—and Izanagi was the reason.
This jutsu allowed the user to record their own state and, within a set duration, nullify all damage—even death itself. In life-or-death battles, it was an unbelievably powerful trump card, often turning a clear loss into a mutual kill.
But because of Izanagi, the Uchiha could always be the ones left standing. The jutsu could even rewrite death itself, forcibly reviving the dead.
The price, however, was severe: the eye used to cast the jutsu would permanently lose its sight.
As a result, even though the Uchiha clan suppressed the Senju at their peak, the loss of vision among so many elites eventually weakened their overall deterrence.
After all, Uchiha relied on their Sharingan to survive. Once they lost it, at least half of their combat strength disappeared. Genjutsu became nearly useless, and even their taijutsu suffered greatly without the Sharingan's predictive vision.
Later, some tried changing tactics—using Izanagi only once in their lifetime, sacrificing just one eye so they could still fight with the other.
But by then, it was already too late.
The clan had grown dependent on Izanagi.
Such a broken ability was addictive. Once used, people wanted to use it again.
Some even went so far as to murder their own clansmen to steal their eyes, desperate to keep using Izanagi despite already being blind.
Eventually, as the Uchiha clan became isolated and came under pressure from all sides, their leader had no choice but to declare Izanagi a forbidden jutsu, banning its use entirely.
The Nine-Tails' guess was simple:
Uchiha Madara had used Izanagi to rewrite the outcome of his death, allowing him to survive all the way to the present day.
But that story was long and complicated, and the Nine-Tails had no interest in explaining it to Kushina in detail.
Which was why, earlier, it had simply summarized everything with one sentence—
Uchiha Madara was terrifyingly powerful.