Inside Naruto's mental space.
This was a place Naruto hadn't visited in a long time, not since Sasuke clamped him in that genjutsu.
Right now, several massive Tailed Beasts sat inside the cage, bullshitting with each other.
Previously, Makoto and the crew had ordered Sasuke to stuff partial materials from the other Tailed Beasts into Naruto's body.
This wasn't done just to help Naruto break through his power ceiling.
The main purpose was to turn the kid into a transfer station—a literal signal tower for Tailed Beast chakra.
That way, whether in normal combat or in Baryon Mode, which burned through chakra and the Tailed Beasts' life force, both the margin for error and the raw power output would receive a massive boost.
Of course, Naruto still reaped the benefits.
For Naruto, once all nine Tailed Beasts were stuffed into his gut, he would basically enter the same state as the original Fourth Shinobi World War, holding the chakra of every Tailed Beast inside him.
In terms of power scaling, compared to his final form, he would only be missing the Yang Power handed out by the Sage of Six Paths.
While Naruto was hypnotized by Sasuke, the Nine-Tails had been bored out of its mind.
Since it had nothing better to do, it helped connect the signal ahead of schedule and called the other Tailed Beasts over to bullshit and watch Naruto and Sasuke's little theater drama.
One after another, fragments of the Tailed Beasts had been stuffed into Naruto, giving him their chakra.
Now, only the two from Iwagakure remained on the checklist: the Four-Tails and Five-Tails.
The Four-Tails was almost in the bag too.
After all, Kurotsuchi had already lured Rōshi out of his deep mountain hideout.
During this downtime, the Nine-Tails stayed inside Naruto's mental space with the other six beasts, watching the boys outside while explaining a version of events it had personally edited.
At first, after getting dragged in and forced to watch the Naruto-Sasuke soap opera, the other Tailed Beasts yelled and clamored to leave.
Until the Nine-Tails dropped the bomb about the Great Toad Sage's prophecy!
The Tailed Beasts knew exactly what kind of heavyweight the Great Toad Sage was.
He was the old geezer who once laughed and chatted with their creator, the Sage of Six Paths.
So when the Nine-Tails cited the Great Toad Sage's prophecy, they pricked up their ears and shut up.
Thus, the Nine-Tails fed them the slightly modified version.
The original prophecy stated Naruto would have a deeply improper relationship with it, the Nine-Tails.
In order to drag the other beasts down into the mud and force them to resist fate together, the Nine-Tails twisted the prophecy.
It claimed Naruto would engage in a degenerate, polar-region battle royale with all nine Tailed Beasts!
He would even howl their names in the heat of the moment!
Just like how Naruto screamed Sasuke's name in that little theater show.
The Tailed Beasts were scared speechless.
Some of them even considered letting the Nine-Tails hijack Naruto's body to off himself, sacrificing one annoying blond kid to save everyone else!
They were mighty, god-tier Tailed Beasts!
Getting treated as disposable war tools by the ninja villages was humiliating enough.
Now being living weapon wasn't enough, and they were going to be turned into creepy fetish props too?
Especially the Two-Tails, Matatabi, whose psychological gender leaned female.
The Five-Tails wasn't here, making Matatabi the only female in the cage.
(The Two-Tails and Five-Tails leaned female. The One-Tails, Four-Tails, Eight-Tails, and Nine-Tails leaned male. The rest were unknown. Maybe Walmart shopping bags.)
Matatabi cursed the Nine-Tails out.
She argued that Naruto and Sasuke's little show proved Naruto's orientation, meaning there was no chance she, Matatabi, would be included in his sick fantasies.
This had to be the Nine-Tails' bullshit conspiracy!
Facing Matatabi's doubts, the Nine-Tails didn't sweat it.
It kept a straight face and continued explaining.
Would Naruto give Matatabi a pass just because she was female?
Hell no.
Naruto harbored another twisted fetish.
He was a hardcore furry!
"You all know Naruto was orphaned at a young age and grew up alone. He craved parental love. That is a basic human instinct.
Just like how Orochimaru recently spliced human genes and discovered that human males obsess over huge tits because of an infant's primal desire for nutrition.
In the exact same way, Naruto developed a sick craving for parental figures.
And his parents both served as my jinchūriki. In Naruto's eyes, both of them once appeared in my form, causing his brain to short-circuit. He treats fluffiness as a parental attribute, and boom—he awakened this degenerate fetish!"
"?"
After the Nine-Tails finished its talk, the other Tailed Beasts stared in silence, a collective question mark floating over their heads.
"Where the hell is the fluff? I'm covered in literal fire," Matatabi shot back.
"Exactly, you damn fox! You're talking out of your ass. I'm covered in sand!" Shukaku instantly yelled.
"..."
'Holy shit.'
Only now did the Nine-Tails realize a glaring plot hole in its story.
Among the nine Tailed Beasts, besides itself, only the Four-Tails and Five-Tails—who weren't even here yet—had fur.
The rest were bald as hell.
"Fools."
The Nine-Tails masked its panic and scolded the other beasts in a deep, dignified tone.
"Have you never heard the saying, 'love the house and its crow'? If Naruto developed a furry fetish because of the connection between his parents and me, why the hell can't he develop a general Tailed Beast fetish because of the connection between me and you guys?"
"So when we get to the bottom of this shit, the real culprit is you! You slutty fox!" Shukaku suddenly figured it out.
"So what if I'm the root cause? What matters is we're all grasshoppers tied to the same rope. Instead of bitching at me, you should be figuring out how to resist fate."
The Nine-Tails owned it without dodging.
"What do we do?"
"Yeah, what's the play here?"
"I call bullshit! With that little blond brat's strength, if we just say no, can he really force us?" Shukaku stayed stubborn.
But this time, the Nine-Tails didn't even need to roast the raccoon.
Matatabi directly slapped Shukaku with a massive cat paw.
"Idiot! That kid is the one in the prophecy of both the Sage of Six Paths and the Great Toad Sage.
Besides, even if Uzumaki Naruto's strength stay in the gutter and never grow, doesn't he still have his dearest, Uchiha Sasuke?
What if Naruto begs Sasuke, and Sasuke uses that damn Rinnegan to enslave us so Naruto can rape us? What can we do then?!"
"What?! They can do that?!" Shukaku turned pale with shock.
"Shukaku, actually, you don't need to sweat it," the Nine-Tails comforted it.
"Huh? Why? Is Naruto not into me? Looks like being ugly... uh, anyway, looks like it pays off." Shukaku breathed a massive sigh of relief.
"No."
The Nine-Tails shook its massive head.
"It's because your jinchūriki, Gaara, already wants to become Naruto's dearest too. So if Naruto wants a piece of you, your jinchūriki will gladly hand you over. There's no need for Sasuke to lift a finger."
"..."
"Jinchūriki, huh? Since what Naruto wants is the Tailed Beasts, then let him target us in the mental space. Don't drag our jinchūriki into this sick mess."
"Yeah." Chōmei, the Seven-Tails, and Isobu, the Three-Tails, chimed in.
"Hmph! Looks like you two actually care about your meat-suits," the Nine-Tails snorted.
However, Matatabi stayed quiet.
It wasn't that she didn't want to exclude Yugito from this nightmare.
It was that she refused to sacrifice herself either.
She wanted to grab Yugito and gtfo!
"Kurama, you're the smartest bastard among us. You already have a plan, right? Otherwise, as Naruto's prime target, there's no way you'd be sitting here this calm."
The slug-like Six-Tails, Saiken, squirmed and jiggled before speaking up.