When awareness returned, it came slowly — like rising from the bottom of the ocean.
No sound. No sky. Just red.
He floated, weightless, inside a giant cage made of chakra. The bars pulsed faintly, alive with energy.
"So this is it…" he muttered into the void. "I'm sealed. Inside Naruto."
His voice echoed, low and rough — not human. Deep, rumbling, almost bestial.
"What the hell happened…?"
He gazed downward — or what passed for downward — and noticed fur. Infinite orange fur. Legs the size of autos. Nine tails floating behind him like mist, each independently moving, as if with a mind.
He tried to shift, but his body was heavy, sluggish. Chakra — wild and vast — coursed through him like an ocean too big to contain. Each breath stirred the air. Each heartbeat rippled through the liquid red space.
"I was just watching TV," he whispered. "And now this?"
A tail snapped out and struck the cage. The force shook everything, sparks of chakra racing along the bars. He flinched — even his anger had substance.
"So I'm the damn Nine-Tails now?"
He snorted, a dry, crooked laugh.
"Out of all the things I could've been, I end up being the monster that flattened Konoha."
Silence met him.
He tried to think it through. Okay… I'm sealed inside Naruto. Probably baby Naruto. So this is the start of the story.
He frowned.
"Does that mean I'm stuck here? Forever? Just watching?"
The thought clawed at him. The idea of spending eternity in this red void made his skin crawl.
"No. There's got to be something. A way out."
He pressed chakra outward, probing the boundaries of the seal. The bars blazed blue and spat, resisting violently. Pain shot up his arms. He stopped.
"Damn it…"
Time lost all meaning.
Days became weeks. Weeks became years.Here, it didn't matter.
Occasionally he slept. Occasionally he didn't.The red light never changed — the same hum of chakra, the same soft pulse of the seal, the same void.
He started pacing — or as close as he could to pacing when his paws could crush buildings. Each step sent ripples across the liquid floor. Sometimes he roared, just to break the silence. The echoes never sounded quite right.
"Great," he muttered. "Infinite power, zero entertainment. I'm basically a nuke in timeout."
He began experimenting with the bars again — not in anger this time, but curiosity. Sweeping threads of chakra along the edges, watching how the seal responded. Each flare, each hiss, each vibration spoke to him in a new way.
The resistance wasn't static. It pulsed — in sync with another heartbeat.
Naruto's.
"Kid's growing," he realized one day — or maybe one century. It was all the same. "When his chakra shifts, the seal shifts too."
That idea lingered.
He started training — not to destroy, but to control. Compressing his chakra. Warping it. Trying to make it smaller, tighter, contained.
It took time. It hurt. His instincts rebelled each time — the power didn't want to be caged.But he persisted.
And then, one day, something shifted.
He looked down — and saw not claws, but fingers.
A hand.
He froze, raising it slowly. The shape glowed — faint orange, translucent at the edges.
"…Holy shit," he breathed. "That really worked?"
He focused again, pulling his chakra inward, condensing it further and further until the massive fox form began to break apart — reshaping into something smaller.
A tall, broad-shouldered figure made of light.
His eyes still burned like fire, but the rest of him was human. He looked down — bare feet, faint orange lines glowing beneath the skin. Not solid yet. But close.
"Shit," he groaned, flexing his fingers. "So this is what hands are like again."
He took a few steps — actual steps — across the red floor. The chakra rippled beneath him, soft and alive. It wasn't freedom, but it was near.
He reached for the bars again. This time, the pain was weaker. The seal didn't lash out as harshly — almost as if it didn't recognize this new shape as the same threat.
A smile tugged at his lips.
"You don't look at me the same anymore, huh?"
He knelt, pressing his hand against the seal's surface. He could feel the chakra flowing through it — complex, layered, ancient. But not perfect.
Tiny tremors ran through it — places where Naruto's own energy distorted the design. Areas that weakened whenever the boy's emotions spiked.
"That's it," he murmured. "Each feeling makes it weaker. Anger. Fear. Pain. The stronger he feels, the weaker it holds."
He sat back, breathing slowly.
"So if I want out… I just have to wait. Wait for the right moment."
The thought lingered — perilous, seductive.
For now, he stayed there — human-shaped, bathed in red light. Beneath him, his reflection still showed the giant fox staring back.
"Guess that's progress," he grumbled. "From demon fox to chakra guy. Nice upgrade."
A faint laugh escaped him — the first in years.It broke through the stillness like something alive.
He leaned back, hands clasped behind his head, staring up at the crimson ceiling.
For a long while, there was nothing. Just the hum of the seal. The quiet rhythm of another heartbeat far beyond the cage.
Then—
Something changed.
A faint sound brushed through the silence. So soft he thought he imagined it.
A vibration. A tune.
Humming.
He sat up slowly, his foxl like ears twitching. The noise was distant — almost buried beneath the layers of chakra — but unmistakable.
A gentle, human melody.
"…the hell?"