"I'm guessing you haven't forgotten what it felt like being completely pinned down inside Uzumaki Mito and Kushina, have you?"
The Nine-Tails' eyes snapped open. A flicker of real wariness passed through those huge pupils.
The truth was, it had no desire to fall out with Akira. More importantly, there was no point. It simply couldn't beat him.
"Impossible! I will never bow to humans! The Eight-Tails and Two-Tails are spineless. I'm the Nine-Tails. Don't compare me to those two!"
Akira laughed. "What kind of broken logic is that? Since when does cooperation mean slavery? This is called a win-win. And let's be honest, even if you got out, do you really think you'd stay free for three days? Another village would snatch you up and turn you into a living reactor before the week was over."
"You're the Nine-Tails. A strategic weapon. Of course everyone wants you."
"And if some other village got its hands on you, there's a good chance you'd end up worse off than you are in Konoha. Maybe even more miserable than when you were sealed inside the Uzumaki."
The Nine-Tails snorted, but it still clearly wasn't convinced.
Seeing that, Akira decided it was time for something stronger.
"I'll be straight with you. The Akatsuki are hunting Tailed Beasts all across the world right now. Sunagakure's One-Tail has already been ripped out. Do you know what they used to do it?"
"The Gedo Statue."
Akira spoke the four words lightly.
The Nine-Tails, which had been sprawled on the ground, instantly bristled and shot upright, staring at him in disbelief.
"You... how do you know about that thing?"
Akira shrugged. "Don't worry about how I know. The One-Tail has already been fed to the Gedo Statue. If you want the same fate, keep acting stubborn. Once you're dragged into that thing, your consciousness will be erased completely. You'll be reduced to a mass of mindless chakra. Think carefully about whether that's the ending you want."
The Nine-Tails glared at him for a long time. When it finally realized Akira wasn't bluffing, it sagged back down to the floor.
Staring at the tiny human standing on its nose, it asked, "Then why should I choose Naruto? Konoha treats Tailed Beasts as weapons too. And with you around, who could possibly take Naruto away from you anyway?"
On that point, the fox had absolute faith. It had experienced Akira's strength personally.
He was terrifyingly strong.
At the very least, he was no weaker than Senju Hashirama had been. If anything, he was even worse.
Akira spread his hands. "And what happens when I'm not standing next to him? You expect Naruto, with his half-baked control and your constant chakra rampages, to fend off Akatsuki elites on his own?"
"My goal is simple. I want the two of you working together so Naruto can grow into someone truly strong. That way I don't have to babysit him every day."
The Nine-Tails fell silent.
It really was weighing the options now.
After a long pause, it finally muttered, "That brat's body is too weak. He can't handle my full power at all. His chakra reserves are decent enough, but compared to Mito or Kushina, he's worlds apart."
Akira nodded. "That's true. He's only half Uzumaki. He doesn't have the kind of body needed to handle everything cleanly, let alone anything like the First Hokage's sage body."
"But none of that is unsalvageable. His body can be trained. Give him the right kind of special training, and he'll toughen up. And you've been living inside him all these years. You know what kind of person Naruto is."
"If you truly help him, he'll treat you like a brother."
Akira rarely used words like that, but if he was going to talk the Nine-Tails into cooperating, he needed to play the emotional angle.
The fox gave him a strange look.
"You know about that boy's background?"
Akira pretended to blink in mild surprise. "Yeah, I do. Why? Don't tell me you've got some blood feud with the Fourth Hokage?"
The moment those words left his mouth, the Nine-Tails knew Akira wasn't ignorant at all.
It snarled furiously, "Of course I do! I've got every reason to hate Minato Namikaze, and Uzumaki Kushina too! Those two sealed me away. And now you expect me to work with their son?"
Akira slapped the Nine-Tails lightly on the forehead in exasperation. "How old are you, really? And you're still this petty? Who else do you think you've got at this point? This is your situation. You're sealed inside him. That's reality."
"And as for the grudges of the previous generation, what do they have to do with Naruto? He was a baby. He hadn't done anything. Why don't you think about how much he suffered growing up because of you? The suspicion, the hatred, the way everyone looked at him?"
The Nine-Tails felt nothing but irritation. In its mind, Naruto getting mistreated had nothing to do with it. If Minato hadn't forced that seal into place, none of this would have happened in the first place.
"You're taking his side," it growled unhappily.
Akira waved a dismissive hand. "Enough already. Stop complaining like a bitter housewife. One question: are you in or out? If you agree, I can have Naruto's body trained up within a month. Strong enough to bear your chakra properly."
"But if you refuse, then I can make things very uncomfortable for you. And just so we're clear, if the Akatsuki come for you, what's waiting on the other side is being carved up and fed into that statue like a lump of chakra."
The Nine-Tails went quiet again. Then, after thinking for a moment, it suddenly asked, "Calling forth the Gedo Statue requires the Rinnegan. Are you telling me someone in this world has really awakened those legendary eyes?"