The Big Fox's Feast
The Nine-Tails' massive mouth hung slightly open, and Naruto was tossing roasted meat inside like a factory line worker.
Each time a pile of meat accumulated on the fox's tongue, it would begin to chew, swallow, then open its mouth again expectantly.
Naruto had lost count of how many times he had repeated this.
How much roasted meat had he thrown in total?
Three thousand pieces? Five thousand?
If you stacked them all, it'd form a small mountain.
Did the fox's stomach come with a pocket dimension? Was it connected to Kamui or something?
The only thing that kept Naruto going was taking advantage of the moment—every time he threw something in, he'd use the chance to sneak in a stroke of the Nine-Tails' fur. It was silky smooth and strangely satisfying.
However, if he tried petting for too long, the Nine-Tails would grow agitated and swat its tails.
"Big Fox, are you full yet?" Naruto asked, his small arms aching from the constant motion.
He hadn't yet reached the age where he could train his body into a Qilin Arm, and throwing that much meat at his age was exhausting.
Sure, he could technically just put his hand directly into the Nine-Tails' mouth and release the roasted meat using the system's inventory feature—but then he wouldn't be able to pet it.
Between a sore arm and petting the Nine-Tails, Naruto chose the latter.
"Half full," the Nine-Tails replied lazily. It hadn't eaten like this in over a century—it was savoring every bite.
"You said that half an hour ago! You were already seventy percent full then!" Naruto cried, unconvinced.
This fox was clearly scamming him. How could anyone get hungrier the more they ate?
"How could this old man deceive a little runt like you?" the Nine-Tails snorted.
It wasn't lying—its massive chakra was compressing the food inside its stomach, and what it had already digested left plenty of room. So technically… it really was half full.
Naruto sighed and threw in another handful of meat.
Then, he had a sudden thought.
Could he feed the Nine-Tails a Dragon Egg?
He reached into his inventory, pulled out a Dragon Egg about a meter tall and thirty centimeters wide, and tossed it straight into the Nine-Tails' gaping maw.
"Crunch." The Nine-Tails instinctively bit down, the egg cracking and oozing a thick black liquid that bubbled strangely.
"Brat, what did you just feed me? This tastes weird," it said through a mouthful of meat.
Naruto didn't answer. He simply took out another Dragon Egg and stared at it. He had once tried cracking it open with an iron pickaxe and failed. Curious, he brought it over to the Nine-Tails' claw and slammed it down.
The egg shattered instantly.
Apparently, the Nine-Tails' claws were tougher than anything Naruto had access to.
Dark red liquid spilled out—like chilled black tea. Definitely different from the previous black egg.
Naruto dipped his finger in and tasted it.
Yup. It tasted exactly like iced black tea.
Emmm.
He cracked two more eggs. One was black again—its liquid bubbling. It looked familiar.
Tasting it, Naruto's eyes widened.
Coca-Cola.
Emmm. Interesting.
"Brat, what was that thing?" the Nine-Tails asked. While the taste was strange, it had just felt a surge of vitality flow through its body—a sensation it hadn't experienced in centuries.
Even Hagoromo, the Sage of Six Paths, hadn't been able to provide something like this.
"Dragon egg," Naruto answered.
The Nine-Tails snorted. "I've lived over a thousand years and never seen a dragon."
"I haven't either," Naruto admitted. "But it's what it's called."
He wasn't about to suggest that the Nine-Tails sit on one and try to hatch it.
Technically, these eggs were only supposed to hatch near lava.
Should he find the Four-Tails, Son Gokū?
Or bring in Mei Terumī?
She was the Mizukage…
If one actually hatched, whose kid would it be?
The Nine-Tails'? His? Mei Terumī's?
Who'd get custody?
Naruto's thoughts spiraled, and somehow ended up at the terrifying version of Aunt Mei in Boruto.
"Give me another one of those eggs," the Nine-Tails said.
Despite the odd flavor, the life force within was too good to pass up.
Naruto casually tossed one in.
"Crunch, gulp… ptooey!"
"Not that one! That's even worse than the last!" The Nine-Tails spat the egg out of the Seal Space's gate like a hairball.
Naruto jumped back.
Wait, the Nine-Tails had a projectile attack like that?
He started sorting: the iced black tea eggs went into storage. The Coca-Cola ones were for the Nine-Tails.
As he tossed another one in, he noticed the fox's expression—it actually enjoyed it.
Was the Nine-Tails secretly addicted to Coke?
Naruto shook his head but felt a similar pull.
The Nine-Tails dozed off, full and satisfied. Naruto, meanwhile, began copying characters.
He wrote out every character from the two beginner-level books Kurama had given him. The characters were large and awkward to draw, especially since his hands were still clumsy at this age.
It took until after nine in the evening to finish all 2,500.
Tired, he cracked another Dragon Egg and chipped some ice from his inventory.
He poured the black Coke-like liquid into a vase and drank it down in two gulps.
"Phew… that's the good stuff…"
The cold fizz exploded in his mouth, washing down his throat and igniting a warm, cozy feeling in his chest—like sitting in the sun on an autumn afternoon.
Sleepiness overtook him instantly.
He exited the seal space, flopped onto his futon, and passed out.
---
The Next Day
Naruto woke up early and went jogging around the building's roof.
But today, something felt different.
Energy surged through him—limitless, burning stamina. He ran until noon before finally getting bored.
"This body's got a bug," he muttered.
In the shinobi world, even five-year-olds could start training seriously.
Might Guy used to run 5,000 laps a day as a child. Hinata, Sasuke, and all the clan kids started their training around age four or five.
Naruto, with no guidance, could only train alone.
Weight training was out of the question.
Not because of height concerns—he wasn't vain.
But the foot arch bears 1.2x the body's weight when walking, and over 5x during a jump. At his age, that could seriously mess up his development.
He suspected that Lee didn't start weight training until he was at least ten, probably after graduation.
Even in the real world, overweight adults developed collapsed arches. The same applied here.
No matter how tough the kids of the Naruto world were, their growth plates were still human.
---
Afternoon in the Seal Space
Naruto returned to find the Nine-Tails in Schrödinger's state—eyes shut, unmoving, as though it both existed and didn't.
Was he the observer?
"Big Fox, I'm here!"
Naruto figured the Nine-Tails must be even more bored than he was. At least Naruto could sculpt—Kurama could only lie there day in, day out.
"Brat, give this old man more of those eggs."
Kurama had been waiting for hours.
Naruto had gone on a jogging spree all morning, making the fox wait far longer than usual.
"Are you addicted or something?" Naruto mumbled, but he still pulled out more eggs and cracked them open.
He even chugged two bottles himself.
Too good.
He no longer had any right to criticize Kurama.
The boy and the beast relaxed together, blissfully sipping Coke-like egg juice.
Then it was time for class.
Teacher Kurama read out forty kanji. Naruto wrote down their pronunciations in messy romaji, brought snacks to bribe his teacher, and occasionally sneakily petted him.
Once the lesson ended, Naruto found a corner and took out something from his warehouse:
The Reality Energy Conservation, Spiritual World Energy Non-Conservation Furnace.
A massive, glowing furnace, two meters tall.
It could melt all known metals from the game world—and fast.
Naruto was still shorter than the furnace itself, but thankfully, he could just toss materials into the top and collect molten metal from the output port.
Today, he planned to make big things.
Big enough for the Nine-Tails to use.
But first, he needed molds.
Not small sculpting molds like before.
He was about to step into a new domain—
Not sculpting anymore.
This was building.