The fox exhaled a blast of scorching breath, then let out a mocking snort. "Stop daydreaming. Without the Sage of Six Paths' bloodline, you think you can just brute-force your way into Wood Style?"
To the Nine-Tails, that was utterly ridiculous. Did Akira really think it was some clueless little fox he could fool with nonsense like that?
As a chakra entity that had lived for a thousand years, the Nine-Tails knew better than anyone that Wood Style was no ordinary jutsu. It was a splinter of the Divine Tree's power.
Akira, however, didn't seem bothered in the slightest by the giant fox's temper. He simply floated cross-legged above the shallow water of the seal space, a faintly amused smile curling at the corner of his mouth.
He spread his hands casually, sounding as if he were discussing the weather. "Don't be so absolute. I'm standing right here as proof that exceptions happen."
"You know perfectly well I'm not an Uzumaki, not one of the Senju either, and I've got nothing to do with the Uchiha. But I still pulled off Wood Style anyway. Annoying, isn't it?"
Akira raised one finger and gave it a lazy wag. "In theory, if you push Water and Earth Style to their limits, then pour in enough Yang Release chakra to shake the world, Wood Style should come out naturally. Sometimes overwhelming force really does solve everything."
To the Nine-Tails, that sounded like shameless showing off.
Its slit pupils locked onto Akira, and it let out a cold snort. "Easy for you to say. You really think throwing water and earth together is enough to grow a forest?"
"To contain that endless force of life, you need a body strong enough to compare to a sage's."
"Even that half-baked Yamato from Konoha would've been drained dry by rampaging chakra if he hadn't had the First Hokage's cells inside him."
The giant fox slammed one paw into the water, sending up a burst of spray. "So there's only one conclusion. You were born with a sage's body. Otherwise there's no way you'd have chakra reserves that deep."
Akira shrugged and skipped neatly past the subject. "Fine, we can dig into the academic side of it some other time. What matters right now is this: keep your mouth shut about my Wood Style. Do not tell Naruto."
The moment he pictured Naruto's inability to keep a secret, Akira felt a headache coming on. "That kid can't keep anything to himself. If you tell him, then within three days even the stray dogs on the street will know I can use Wood Style."
The Nine-Tails split its jaws in a rumbling laugh full of sharp teeth. "You've got a god-tier ability like Wood Style. You can apparently throw out something on the scale of True Several Thousand Hands whenever you feel like it. And you're still worried people might find out?"
"So what if the whole world knows? With that kind of strength, who would dare say anything?"
"Back in the day, Hashirama could clap his hands and conjure anything he wanted. He used Wood Style to crush the entire ninja world until no one dared lift their heads. So why are you the timid one?"
It paused, and a flicker of caution entered its eyes. "Besides, from what I can tell, even without Wood Style, that strange Lightning Style of yours alone is enough to leave very few people in this world standing."
Even after being complimented by a fox, Akira held to his original view. "Careful people live longer. The taller you stand, the more likely you are to get shot at. Keeping a low profile is always the smart move."
"The last time I used Myojinmon to suppress you, it was only because I had no choice. I'm still regretting it. If I'd thought it through, I could've just thrown out a few strong sealing jutsus and left it at that."
Hearing that, the Nine-Tails silently rolled its eyes.
So this lunatic had been holding back even more ways to deal with it.
Still, it had never intended to say anything to Naruto anyway. Letting the matter rot quietly inside the seal suited it just fine.
To change the subject, the Nine-Tails lowered its massive head slightly and spoke in a quieter tone. "Compared to that, I think I've figured out why the Akatsuki are hunting Tailed Beasts across the world."
"The other idiot beasts may still be in the dark, but I'm not."
Akira raised a brow, then sat down on the floor of the mindscape as though settling in for a story. "Oh? Go on."
For once, the Nine-Tails' expression turned serious. Even the air around them seemed to grow heavier.
"You mentioned the Gedo Statue earlier, didn't you?"
Akira nodded. "I did. What about it?"
The fox lowered its voice, and a dangerous light gleamed in its huge eyes. "Do you know what that ugly stone statue is actually for?"
Akira already knew the answer, of course, but he played along perfectly. "Enlighten me."
The Nine-Tails fixed him with a hard stare and said each word slowly. "It is a vessel. The ultimate vessel. Something designed specifically to recover and fuse all Tailed Beast chakra back together."
Akira gave a deliberately casual smile. "That much I figured. Nobody goes to that much trouble just to collect lawn ornaments. Is there more?"
The Nine-Tails shot him an irritated look for interrupting. "Be quiet and listen. Gathering chakra is only the process. Their real objective is to revive a forbidden existence."
Akira blinked, putting just enough confusion into his voice. "A forbidden existence?"
The Nine-Tails gave a heavy nod. For the first time, there was even the faintest trace of unease in its tone.
"A true monster. If it ever returns, destroying this world would be no more difficult than lifting a finger."
Akira rubbed his chin as if considering that. "Destroying the world? That sounds oddly familiar. Didn't I just clean up some self-proclaimed end-of-the-world lunatic the other day?"
The Nine-Tails froze for a second, then realized he was talking about Moryo.
It gave a contemptuous snort. "That thing you sealed, the one called Moryo, isn't even fit to carry the shoes of what I'm talking about."
"There are nine Tailed Beasts in this world. Haven't you ever stopped to wonder where we came from?"
Akira settled into a cross-legged posture with exaggerated attentiveness. "All right. Go ahead. I'm listening."
The Nine-Tails seemed to sink into a memory so old it had almost become myth. Its eyes took on a worn, distant look.
"At the dawn of this world, there existed a monstrous beast with ten tails. It was called the Ten-Tails."
"Its power was true divine power. Tearing the earth apart and overturning the seas were nothing more than basic feats to it."
"And we nine Tailed Beasts, in the end, are just fragments. We are what remained after the Ten-Tails' chakra was split apart into nine pieces."
"Back then, the Ten-Tails went berserk and tried to remake the world. The Sage of Six Paths beat it down and sealed it inside himself, becoming the first jinchuriki in history."
"Before the Sage died, he feared the Ten-Tails would one day run wild again. So he divided its chakra into nine parts. That's what we are now."
Akira nodded slowly, then summed it up in a matter-of-fact tone. "Got it. So the Akatsuki's endgame is to stuff all of you back into one container, revive the Ten-Tails, and let the whole world burn."