Chapter 468: Recognizing a Cat Master
"I? What can I even do?"
Matatabi felt an inexplicable surge of malice.
"Matatabi, your mission is to open up a new front. Try approaching it from another angle and see if you can suppress the attraction of fate", Kurama said.
"Can you speak properly for once?" Matatabi's face darkened.
"Our mission is to restrict Naruto physically. Yours is to restrict him psychologically", Kurama continued, still speaking like a riddle.
"Physical restriction and psychological restriction? Sounds like it almost makes sense… So what exactly am I supposed to do?", Matatabi still felt something was off, but couldn't quite put her finger on it.
"It's simple. Use your strengths as a cat and find a new master. A master that Naruto wouldn't dare mess with someone who makes him hesitate."
"Then we'll see whether fate and prophecy still make Naruto lose control. If they don't, it proves this method works."
"And if any danger arises for us, we can also use this method to avoid being 'consumed' by Naruto."
Kurama quietly laid out its plan.
What Kurama really meant was to observe whether Naruto would be influenced by the will of heaven, and at a critical moment (the prophecy point), forcibly return to the original trajectory, causing the worldline to converge.
As for that, Shiromo already knew the answer.
The "Will of heaven" in the ninja world, at least during the Shippuden era, wasn't nearly as terrifying as in Boruto.
It only became something like a rule-breaking anomaly in the Boruto era.
And in any case, with Shiromo as an abnormal variable, prophecy and fate could be easily altered.
But the tailed beasts didn't know that. So Kurama still needed Matatabi to test it firsthand before drawing conclusions.
This was what Kurama meant by working simultaneously on both the physical and psychological fronts.
"You want me to change jinchūriki?" Matatabi hesitated immediately.
She actually got along quite well with her current jinchūriki, Nii Yugito.
"Why change jinchūriki for that?"
"Then…" Matatabi started.
"You get along well with your jinchūriki, right? Just tell her about the prophecy. She'll definitely understand you."
"And if she doesn't understand, that means she doesn't care about you at all. In that case, changing jinchūriki wouldn't matter anyway—even if she dies, so what?" Kurama said calmly.
"..."
Matatabi was speechless.
That logic was almost genius in its own twisted way.
So Nii Yugito had no choice but to agree, right?
Matatabi was completely speechless.
But Kurama's reasoning also sounded strangely convincing, making it hard to refute.
"Wait, Naruto is coming in. Stop talking! Don't let him notice anything!"
"Also, it seems Sasuke's genjutsu has ended. From now on, we must not discuss anything we just talked about here. Just keep it in mind!"
"All tailed beasts will follow the assignment I just gave. No changes allowed!"
Kurama suddenly changed expression and stopped everyone from continuing.
The Eight-Tails looked a bit disappointed.
It had thought it might also get a mission like Matatabi's, going out with Killer Bee and finding a "master" to mess around with.
It wasn't about losing pride as a tailed beast or anything like that.
It just wanted to see what Killer Bee would look like when he had to acknowledge someone else as master. That would probably be hilarious.
What a pity. Its current task was only to assist Kurama in draining Naruto's physical endurance.
The moment Naruto entered, all the tailed beasts instinctively shrank at the same time, transforming into childlike forms and hiding behind the massive Kurama.
Kurama noticed their shameless behavior and felt like sitting on them and crushing them flat.
But after thinking it over, these were only fragments of their chakra. If it crushed them, it would just be freeing them.
No. Absolutely not.
"Kurama, so you were here? …Kurama! Why did Sasuke use genjutsu on me and you didn't help me!", Naruto immediately greeted Kurama warmly, then suddenly remembered his miserable experience and started complaining.
"Because I was also controlled, idiot."
Kurama lied without blinking. Naruto had no way to verify it anyway. Even if he went to Sasuke, Sasuke wouldn't be able to explain it clearly either.
After all, the two of them were already synchronized in perception—so why couldn't genjutsu be synchronized too?
"Huh? Really? Then what did you dream about, Kurama?"
"…What are you here for right now?" Kurama forced itself to stay patient and asked, seeing Naruto completely forget the point of coming in.
"Oh right! Pervy Sage said there are many powers inside me just like you, Kurama. He told me to try to master them."
"Kurama, where are they? Hurry up and call them out! I want to make friends with them, ya know~"
Naruto slapped his head and then stretched his neck, looking around for the other tailed beasts.
"..."
Naruto's enthusiastic words made the tailed beasts hiding behind Kurama shiver collectively.
"Make friends", they thought.
If they hadn't already learned of the Great Toad Sage's prophecy from Kurama, they might have actually been fooled by this so-called reincarnation of Asura.
By the time they were truly "consumed" by Naruto, it would already be too late.
"Naruto, you need to understand something. Jiraiya letting you come here to master the power of the tailed beasts is only so you can better use Sage Mode."
"Only taijutsu and senjutsu can counter the Ōtsutsuki clan."
"So Naruto, the more tailed beast power you master, the more natural energy you must master in return, so you can form enough senjutsu chakra", Kurama said earnestly.
"Is that so? I understand, then…" Naruto said.
Thud.
Before Naruto could finish speaking, acting on the idea of "better them than me", the tailed beasts hiding behind him all kicked Shukaku at the same time, trying to shove it out.
After all, Shukaku already needed to cooperate with its jinchūriki Gaara to drain Naruto's stamina.
And Shukaku had met Naruto before anyway.
But unexpectedly, Shukaku was too round and smooth. After being kicked out, it turned into something like a Rasengan, bouncing around like billiards and knocking into Isobu in the process.
Isobu already had a technique similar to a "Beast Human Boulder" style move. Now the two spheres started bouncing and colliding like tops, ricocheting everywhere and smashing into all the other tailed beasts.
"You guys are really something…"
Matatabi, who got knocked flying by the two "magic orbs", flipped mid-air and landed perfectly on the ground using her feline instincts.
But that perfect landing immediately drew Naruto's attention.
"What a cute little cat! Even cuter than Akamaru at Kiba's place. I wonder why Kiba and Kakashi-sensei like dogs so much."
"..."
Naruto's genuinely innocent compliment sounded like a curse in Matatabi's ears, making her flaming fur stand on end.
This guy really is targeting tailed beasts with bad intentions!
Originally, Matatabi had thought she could delay her mission a bit. But now it seemed there was no time to waste. She had to go tell Yugito immediately.
(End of this chapter)