"Please, stop here."
Though Kushina no longer wanted to appear, this time she had to put a stop to it.
"Na-Naruto?! No—wait! Could it be that one from that day?!"
Sasuke's first thought was of a certain being he'd fought alongside Kushina Yuki—that was absolutely not Naruto.
Just what was this woman...?
"Hm? There are two kinds of chakra?"
Karin, for her part, noticed something off. Because once this woman appeared, there were two chakra signatures about her, and neither belonged to Naruto. One of those chakras was very warm, like a mother's; the other was utterly terrifying, almost enough to chill the blood.
"That legendary demon fox?" Sasuke suddenly recalled the demon fox sealed inside Naruto's body. The thing that had appeared back then seemed to be that very fox.
Kushina paid the other two no mind, looking only at Hanabi.
"When the Fourth Hokage sealed the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox, he used a special sealing method. I only worked it out after stumbling onto this place by chance." Hanabi went right on spoiling the plot. "This special seal split the Nine-Tails in two. The Nine-Tails inside Naruto is only one half. The other half was sealed, along with the Fourth Hokage's soul, inside the Shinigami's body."
[I think Hanabi's lying]
[Definitely. Hanabi must've gotten these powers after something like the Shinigami's power took up residence in her]
[obviously]
Wonderful—the audience had all learned to fill in the blanks.
A lot of them now believed the Shinigami's power had taken up residence in Hanabi, which was what let her in on so many secrets.
This was exactly the effect Hanabi was after.
Otherwise a lot of her intel really would be hard to disclose, but this way, she could "rationalize" it.
"In short, the Fourth Hokage's soul isn't in the Pure Land—it's in the Shinigami's belly." Hanabi delivered her final summary.
"So, Hanabi, your goal is Lord Fourth Hokage's soul?" It clicked for Sasuke.
This was plan A.
Have the Shinigami of the Dead Demon Consuming Seal attach to her, then draw it out.
As long as the Shinigami's belly was cut open and the soul released, the seal could be undone.
But the Shinigami's injuries fed back onto the host body, and the host would become the Shinigami's sacrifice—its belly cut open all the same.
It was only that undoing the Dead Demon Consuming Seal didn't actually require the soul.
Lmao, just a teeny little fatal wound—for Hanabi, who plays her own corpse on the regular, it was nothing at all.
As for intel on Summoning: Impure World Reincarnation, Hanabi didn't need to go digging up graves either, because the Fourth Hokage's chakra was right there inside Naruto.
And now that Kushina had stepped in to stop her, Hanabi wanted to see what Kushina would say, too.
If it made for good enough drama, plan B wasn't off the table.
Even plan C would do.
Whatever was the most fun—that was how she'd let things unfold.
"The Nine-Tails' power is more terrifying than you imagine. It's a mass of pure malice," Kushina said.
—Isn't this person the Nine-Tails herself?
Naruto was very confused.
Karin was out of the loop; she waited obediently off to the side.
Sasuke, though, had thought of a certain possibility.
"That's nothing more than wishful thinking," Hanabi said, the smile still on her face, though its meaning was far from clear. "Foolish people decide, wishfully, that the Tailed Beasts are some kind of disaster, then seal them away, and then wishfully decide they've done some good deed."
[In the face of ignorance, even the gods themselves fall silent]
[I think I'm starting to get Hanabi's logic—way back in episode one she already talked about the Leaf villagers' ignorance]
[Welp, by that logic, aren't the characters in light novels all ignorant from start to finish?]
"This one..."
The Nine-Tails was murmuring.
Kushina was startled, because thanks to the Nine-Tails being inside her, she could actually pick up some of its emotions.
Until now, the Nine-Tails had been frenzied, hateful, evil. But in this moment, the Nine-Tails' demeanor carried, unexpectedly, a sense of "calm."
"If a person were locked in a little dark room for decades, I think no matter who they were, they'd go mad with rage... no—if they managed to stay mad, that'd be fortunate enough. Because most of the time, that person would likely have given up thinking altogether and become a walking corpse. In that respect, the Tailed Beasts really are remarkable," Hanabi said.
"What gives you the right to say that?" Kushina shot back. But she herself didn't have the conviction behind it.
"Because I've seen it. That kind of despair and darkness after being sealed away for decades, for hundreds of years, even for centuries," Hanabi said. "If it's the consciousness being sealed along with everything else, then that's not so bad. But if the consciousness remains the whole time—that is quite simply the cruelest punishment in the world."
[Oof, Hikari]
[No wonder Hanabi relates to this so hard]
[the shinobi world is too dark]
[Wait—so are the Tailed Beasts the same kind of thing as Hikari?]
[honestly hard to say]
[can't there just be a monster that's evil by birth?]
"The most terrifying thing in this world is, in fact, people themselves," Hanabi went on. "With all sorts of lofty, high-minded reasons, they place themselves at the summit of morality, and then they can toy with others' fates as they please. Isn't that... rather funny?"
"But even so, you cannot understand the Nine-Tails." Kushina clenched her fists.
—To release the other half of the Nine-Tails just like that would be a disaster too.
"Don't underestimate the Nine-Tails so much~" Hanabi laughed softly. "Personally, I think the Nine-Tails just might become Naruto's good friend."
"Hahahaha..." Inside Kushina, the Nine-Tails was laughing wildly.
"You've got to be kidding! You've got to be kidding! The moment I get out, the first thing I'll do is kill that brat—and then destroy the Leaf!"
The Nine-Tails was in a frenzy of rage.
[I can already see the ending]
[today's daily boomerang]
[lmao]
[Nine-Tails: Naruto, you're gonna DIE today!]
[Nine-Tails: Naruto, please, whatever you do, don't die!]
Hah—the audience were all making predictions now.
Still, deepening the "emotional" bond between Naruto and the Nine-Tails a little didn't sound half bad either.
And the Nine-Tails' wild laughter only made Kushina more certain of her resolve.
The Nine-Tails could not be let out.
"If you try to undo this seal, you'll become a sacrifice yourself," Kushina said.
"What—Hanabi, something's going to happen to you?!"
Naruto hadn't reacted much before, but the instant he heard this, the words came out on reflex.
"Of course I have ways to avoid that," Hanabi said. "Compared to all this, human malice far outstrips the Tailed Beasts'. Even setting aside the Chunin Exams, Naruto has to master the Nine-Tails' power regardless—doesn't he?"
"..."
Kushina knew it was true.
And once he'd mastered the Nine-Tails' power, she'd be able to leave with her mind at ease.
But the present situation wasn't quite what she'd wanted, either.
Kushina fell silent.