[Point of View — The Kyūbi | Beneath the Seal | ]
It began as a whisper.A faint pulse beneath the boy's skin, subtle yet undeniable.A flicker of eyes watching too closely — cold, calculating, and far beyond ordinary.
Far below, in the endless darkness of the seal's cavern — black as the void between stars — the Kyūbi stirred.One massive, slitted eye cracked open, burning with ancient fire.The great beast had been half-dozing, as it often did when the boy faced lesser foes: bandits, wandering rogues — nothing that stirred true interest.But this... this new presence was different.
The true danger had never been the bandits.No — the true threat lurked unseen, watching from the shadows.
The crimson-eyed child.
The Kyūbi's gaze sharpened.That eye...
Artificial. Warped. A pale echo of ancient power.
Yet… unnervingly potent. Even the Kyūbi — who had watched the rise and fall of empires — had never seen this exact pattern.
It could feel the eye probing at the boy's faltering chakra. Soft at first. Then hungry. Intent.
A lesser predator might have missed it. The humans surely would.
It had seen countless dōjutsu in its long life.
It had seen the eyes of gods.
It had known Hagoromo — the Sage.His gaze had held wisdom and peace, not greed.
Had faced Hamura — the guardian whose gaze was unwavering and pure.
And long, long ago... had felt the cold, endless hunger of Kaguya, before even the moons were born.
This eye... it did not belong to their line. No.
Not of the Uchiha — filthy, cursed clan.And yet it carried a hunger that stank of the same greed that once drove their blood to madness.
It was no ordinary bloodline gift, no natural dōjutsu born of the earth.Not the Rinnegan. Not the Byakugan. Not even the hateful tomoe of the Uchiha.
Yet its shape — its flavor — was kin to them.
A warped kinship.
Something else entirely.Something unnatural.It mimicked the gaze of the heavens themselves, daring to tread where only the Sage and his kin once dared to walk.
The Kyūbi growled low, deep within its sealed prison — an ancient sound no mortal could hear.Such arrogance. Such foolish ignorance.
Above, the boy's movements faltered.His wounds bled freely, exhaustion weighing heavy.His clones flickered and vanished one by one.
Fatigue seeped into every motion. His guard dropped — just for a breath.
And that was all the opening the crimson-eyed enemy needed.
From the stone, a puppet surged forth — chilled limbs weaving with chakra threads — aimed to finish what the bandits could not.
The Kyūbi's claws flexed beneath the seal, sensing the boy's chakra falter — fragile and strained.It recognized the pattern — countless mortals broken by exhaustion, despair, and death.
But not yet. Not today.
Without conscious thought, the Kyūbi's chakra pulsed — a subtle, faint surge — not enough to break the seal, but enough to brush against the boy's core.
A warning.A spark.
[Naruto vs Ranmaru]
Naruto's eyes snapped open, surprise flickering as an unfamiliar warmth coiled inside him.His body moved, blade rising by pure instinct.Steel clashed against the puppet's strike.
Ranmaru staggered, the attack deflected. His crimson gaze narrowed, disbelief flashing.
The child's eye faltered, sensing the unseen force glaring back.For the first time, hesitation gripped Ranmaru's breath.
Naruto, unaware of the ancient presence aiding him, gritted his teeth — wounds burning, sword trembling — but alive.
The Kyūbi watched from deep beneath the seal.
Its gaze followed every trembling breath, every faltering movement above.The boy stood battered, bloodied — yet still defiant.
Ranmaru's false eye gleamed with flickering crimson light, shadows coiling hungrily beneath its glow.
Tch.The Kyūbi's growl rumbled through the dark.
This one dares reach for power it cannot comprehend — and now clings to it in desperation.
Ranmaru raised a trembling hand.Another puppet, jagged and lurching, staggered from the shadows — chakra threads barely stable.
Naruto's vision swam. His sword felt leaden in his grasp, his legs like stone.Blood dripped steadily from open wounds.
And yet — that warmth still flickered inside him. Subtle. Distant. But there.
He took a breath.Move. One more strike.
With a shout, Naruto burst forward — blade flashing with reckless resolve.The puppet lunged — too slow.His sword cleaved through its core in a single sweeping arc.
Ranmaru staggered backward, wide-eyed.The crimson glow pulsed violently — unstable.
"I... cannot fall... I will not!" the child hissed — chakra spiraling wildly around him.
The Kyūbi's eye narrowed.It sensed it now — beneath the surface of the boy's strange dōjutsu.A deeper pattern.Foreign. Ancient. Foul.
A fragment of something far older than Ranmaru himself — something that did not belong in this world.Something... familiar.
Above, Naruto's blade moved — too fast for the wounded boy to follow.
Shhhk!
Steel pierced flesh.
Naruto's sword drove clean through Ranmaru's heart.
The crimson glow shattered — spiraling fragments of chakra scattering like dying embers.Ranmaru's lips parted — a final, trembling gasp escaping.
"I... saw... too much..."
His body crumpled to the ground.
But in that instant — as life fled the boy's eyes — the seal buried deep within his flesh awoke.
A faint mark — black as midnight — pulsed once upon Ranmaru's chest.Then tendrils of foreign chakra lashed outward — desperate to anchor itself.
Karma.A seed of the Ōtsutsuki.
The seal acted swiftly — seeking the nearest living host.
Naruto knelt too close — body battered, chakra thinned by blood loss.
A single pulse of black energy struck — vanishing beneath Naruto's skin, unnoticed by any.
Naruto's body jerked — breath catching in his throat.
Within an instant, the cursed seal etched itself into the boy's flesh — a spiral of jagged black markings coiling beneath the skin near his ribs.
For a moment, the world tilted. His blade clattered to the ground.
Beneath, the Kyūbi's claws raked against the cage.
You dare... taint MY vessel?!
But the Karma had already begun its foul work.
It was no mere mark — it was a seed.A blueprint.
It reached into Naruto's very cells — weaving its cursed code through muscle and marrow.
Naruto's blood boiled with fever. His body shook.
Then the Kyūbi felt it.
A twisting force — seeking to reshape the vessel, to bend it toward the will of long-dead parasites.To turn the boy into something else.Into a shell.
Worse still — it pressed against the boy's mind — a whisper creeping into Naruto's thoughts.A foreign will — faint, subtle — yet hungry.
Rest... yield... I will give you power...
The black tendrils of the Karma lashed wildly, seeking to root deeper — to latch onto the boy's soul.
No.
The word carried no sound — only force, ancient and immeasurable.
With a snarl that echoed through the seal, the Nine-Tails rose.
The Kyūbi's growl shook the depths of the seal.
Foolish child — DO NOT LISTEN!
It surged a tide of molten red chakra howled outward, shaking the entire dimension inside— a protective flare, wrapping around Naruto's chakra network like a crimson shield.
It had watched the Rinnegan awaken.Had stared down the Byakugan's piercing truth.Had suffered the hateful Sharingan's cursed gaze.Had endured Kaguya's all-consuming hunger.
But this — this mockery — this star-born parasite —It would not stand.
The beast's will hardened into claws of pure chakra — vast, incandescent with Yang.
With a deafening roar, the Kyūbi grasped the writhing Karma imprint within Naruto's mind — tore it from its false throne.
The black markings flared — screaming in soundless fury.
But the Nine-Tails gave no quarter.
Its ancient will slammed downward — primal, unyielding.
CRACK!Shatter.Break.Burn.
In an instant, the conscious will of the Karma was erased — obliterated beneath the crushing force of the Kyūbi's chakra.
No voice remained. No thought. No command.
But the beast was not finished.
It could feel traces of the genetic curse — threads already burrowed into Naruto's cells — racing through bone, marrow, muscle.
The Kyūbi growled.
So... you think to twist my vessel from within? Then let us see whose fire burns hotter.
The Nine-Tails unleashed pure, Yang-rich chakra — not the searing destructive waves of rage — but a controlled tide of restoration.
Life chakra, forged in the heart of a being older than nations, now poured into the boy's body.
Burning away corrupt residues.Burning out tainted strands.
Yet the deepest changes — those already woven into Naruto's very genes — could not simply be purged.The Kyūbi understood this.
Its chakra seized the intruding patterns — sped them, forced them to complete — but under the beast's control, not the dead parasite's.
Bone knit. Flesh mended. Strength restored by the fox's command.
Above, Naruto gasped — breath seizing — then steadying.His wounds sealed with unnatural speed, skin steaming as black residue burned away.
The black markings faded — some dissolved completely.