"That's another 100 million Ryo."
Ryu stared at the diamond in his hand.
The difference was obvious. The previous ones had been impressive because they existed at all. This one looked designed. The lines were sharper. The proportions were cleaner. The symmetry was better.
*
Inside Naruto, Kushina saw the gleam first.
"That's a diamond," Kushina said at once.
Minato blinked and looked closer. "You're sure?"
Kushina did not even hesitate. "I am."
He stared at the stone in Ryu's hand for another moment. Then his expression changed as he thought of implications.
"A rare luxury stops being rare the moment someone can create it repeatedly," Minato said. "If he can keep doing that, he is basically a money-making machine."
Kushina replied, "You make it sound bad rather than good."
"It is amazing," Minato said. "But it is also dangerous. A ninjutsu like this can topple the economy."
*
Ryu made another one.
Then another.
He did not rush. He repeated the process a few times while Minato and Kushina watched.
Ryu let the last diamond fall into his palm with the others and gave them a brief look of satisfaction.
Ryu was getting better and better at his craft and the size and speed of his creation were increasing day by day.
He set the diamonds in his pockets and then he turned and looked at Naruto.
*
"What is he trying to do now?" Kushina asked.
*
Ryu moved over and sat beside the sleeping boy. Naruto's breathing remained deep and even. Ryu placed a hand on his stomach, over the seal, and closed his eyes.
There was no dramatic pulse of chakra. No visible struggle.
One moment he was sitting in the room. Next, he opened his eyes in the sealed space inside Naruto.
The dark water stretched beneath his feet, as did the corridor and the bars; the old oppressive weight of the place screamed, "Stay away."
Ryu looked left right and then walked forward towards the cage
He passed the gate as if crossing a familiar courtyard.
*
Minato and Kushina watched him go.
By now, they were long past the point of asking whether such a thing should even be possible. The boy had already done too many things that should not have been possible.
Even so, his casualness still unsettled them.
Minato said, "There is something unsettling with this kid. He doesn't understand the forces he is dealing with... or maybe he does."
He was not creeping into the prison of the Nine-Tails with fear or caution. He looked like a guest arriving slightly late to a meeting.
*
"Hey, Mr 9," Ryu called out, his voice easy. "Like I promised, I am here to visit you. How are you doing, big guy?
Fox stared at him.
Ryu then said, "Care for a game?"
The fox stared at him some more, then smiled.
Ryu raised his hands and made a few signs.
The black water rippled.
Square blocks rose from below, one after another, broad and square, locking into place to form a platform in the middle of the corridor, like a chessboard.
A moment later, chess pieces began to drip from above, one by one, at their respective places, white and black taking their sides.
Ryu glanced at the board. "Do you know the game?"
Kurama's tails shifted once behind him.
"Brat, I am thousands of years old. That game was invented in those thousands of years. Of course I know it." His red eyes narrowed faintly. "I have seen it played before."
Ryu stepped onto the platform and moved the king's pawn forward two squares with just his thoughts alone.
Ryu asked, "Was it your previous host?"
Kurama mirrored the opening.
"My previous host was an idiot," he said flatly. "And before her, there was another who was not interested in games. She had more girly hobbies, even though she was smart enough to dominate this one."
*
Kushina exploded instantly.
"Who are you calling stupid, you stupid fox?"
Minato turned to her with the helpless patience of a man who had once been married to her while alive and clearly still was while dead.
"Dear, please calm down," he said, almost smiling. "They cannot hear you."
*
Ryu developed a knight.
"So you made friends other than your previous host who played with you before… Care to tell me who?"
Kurama answered the move with one of his own, pushing a piece forward with quiet force.
"So you didn't see this part with your powers," the fox said. "Oh, Seer boy..."
Silence.
For a second, Ryu went still. So did Minato and Kushina. That had come out of nowhere.
*
"Seer?" Kushina said.
Minato's eyes sharpened.
"What is this stupid fox talking about?" Kushina demanded. "Ryu is a seer?"
*
Kurama watched Ryu with slow satisfaction.
"I figured out your secret."
Ryu recovered quickly, but not instantly. The surprise had been real. Not because Kurama had guessed something strange, but because the fox had reached for a theory so close to the shape of the truth. Ryu had been giving him clues purposefully to gain him as an ally in the future war already before enemies took action. But he had not hoped for him to figure it out so fast.
Ryu wanted to know how Fox came to this conclusion or if he was just guessing.
"I don't know what you are talking about," Ryu said.
Kurama's gaze did not waver.
"You are not fooling me, boy."
Ryu rested his fingers on a bishop but did not move it yet. "Then explain how you reached that conclusion."
Kurama obliged.
"In our fight, you used the images of Hashirama and Madara. A child like you, born a century apart from them, should not know the peaks of ninjutsu of both. Then you used the names of those bastards—Kinkaku and Ginkaku—to irritate me. This is also not a well-known fact in this age."
Ryu said nothing.
Kurama continued, his voice low and steady.
"At first, I thought your grandfather must have told you stories about shinobi from that era. But then you mentioned someone from an even older era that your grandfather should not have known about either."
He made a move. A bishop slid out, claiming a long diagonal lane across the board.
"Also, the words that genjutsu Madara said..." Kurama's lips pulled back slightly. "You repeated them. The exact words."
Ryu's eyes narrowed a fraction.
"At first, I thought your genjutsu had pulled that from my memory," Kurama said. "But it was not deep enough to reach my memories. I know that much."
*
Minato's face had changed.
"Is the Nine-Tails this chatty?" Kushina muttered.
Then she frowned and pushed back on instinct. "Stories about Lord First and Madara were told to me too. I am sure Uncle Dan also heard plenty from Mito-sama."
Minato did not dismiss that. But he did not look reassured either.
*
Kurama leaned closer to the bars.
"So if your genjutsu did not create Hashirama and Madara from my memories, how exactly do you know what Hashirama and Madara said to me all those years ago? Word for word?"
He moved another piece and trapped one of Ryu's knights into an ugly position.
"Then you used the jutsu of those moon bastards. But even they should not know what Madara said to me a hundred years ago. You said you and I are distant relatives as if you know the true history of your clan. Nobody should have that knowledge."
His voice grew quieter, not louder.
"And you declared yourself a descendant of the Sage of Six Paths... and his brother too. The brother who is not mentioned in the history of shinobi at all. How are you so sure?"
Ryu did not answer.
Kurama did not let the pause breathe.
"How did you come to know about the Moon Clan? The true origin of the Rasengan? The ancient version you used? They wipe out the memories of those who discover them. That is how they survive."
Kurama watched him for another moment.
"I thought about it for days. Maybe the Moon Clan told you about your heritage. Maybe you were spared because you have something they need, since you are such a useful little problem solver."
The fox's tail shifted again.
"But then I observed you more."
His red eyes remained on Ryu alone.
"The more I watch you, the more mysterious you become."
A breath passed.
"Then I came to this conclusion."
Ryu finally moved his bishop.
Kurama's mouth curved.
"I thought you were a retro-seer."
Ryu smiled. Fox hadn't guessed... He carefully came to the conclusion.
Fox continued, "You could see past events with your bloodline."
*
Kushina felt a chill she did not like. The thought of a child walking around burdened with impossible knowledge.
"He's right," she said quietly. "The boy knows things he shouldn't."
Minato was silent for a few seconds longer.
Then he said, "I had doubts in the same direction. But I did not say, as I wanted to observe more ... and find out what agenda he has."
Kushina turned toward him.
*
Ryu's expression did not change much.
"That is an interesting theory," he said. "There could be many explanations."
He repositioned his bishop, not retreating but changing the pressure on the board.
"How are you sure the one you reached is the correct one?"
Kurama did not blink.
"Maybe the moon people told me," Ryu went on. "Or maybe the one who got caught in genjutsu and made you attack the Leaf Village told me."
Kurama's gaze sharpened.
"That wannabe Madara," Ryu said. "That fake Madara. You have realised by now that he is a lackey of that old bastard."
Ryu gave away another clue. hoping Fox might still have a grudge against the guy and will ally with Ryu if he can prove that Ryu is against his foe. Enemy of an enemy.
*
But it caught both Minato and Kushina more unexpectedly than the Fox.
"He knows about the masked attacker," Minato said.
Kushina stared at Ryu, then at the fox, then back again.
The timing hit her a moment later.
"But that attack was years ago," she whispered. "He must have been... what? Four? Five?"
Minato did not answer.
Because that was the problem.
Even if one accepted that Ryu was strange, brilliant, and frighteningly informed, there were still limits that age should have imposed. That knowledge should not have been available to a child that young by any normal means.
*
Kurama laughed.
Ryu felt the shift immediately.
The earlier accusation had not been the trap. It had been the test.
"Because I am not sure," he said. "Or rather... because my earlier conclusion was wrong. That is why I said, 'I thought you were a retro-seer,' but not anymore."
A pause.
"My earlier conclusion was rather incomplete."
That made Minato and Kushina even more confused.
Kurama tilted his massive head.
"You know who that masked bastard is, don't you..."
Ryu did not answer.
He did not even let his face answer.
Instead, he asked, "So what is your new conclusion?"
Kurama ignored the diversion completely.
"You are not just a retro-seer, as I first guessed."
The fox waited, then spoke after building some anticipation in the air, "You are a regular seer too. You know the future as well."
Ryu said nothing. For one suspended beat, nobody moved.
Then Ryu laughed, "Hahahaha."
Ryu laughed harder than he earlier had.
A/N:
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