Jiraiya glances around to see that Naruto has disappeared. He heads back to the waterfall, thinking that Naruto probably went back while everyone was distracted. Sure enough, Naruto is sitting beneath the waterfall.
B arrives, and says, "He wanted to be alone for this."
Jiraiya nods.
Naruto stands up and turns to see B and Jiraiya watching him. There is a sad look on his face, but at the same time he seems happy.
"By the look in your eye, I'd say you did it?" asks B, grinning.
"Yeah," says Naruto. "So when can we do the next stage of training?"
"We can start right now!" says B. "Just follow me and I'll show you how! Yeah!"
"Awesome!" says Naruto.
"Do you have the key for your seal?" asks B. "We can't proceed without it."
"I have the key," says Jiraiya. "That's why I need to be here."
"Right," says B. "Let's do this!" he leads them behind the waterfall, into a room full of headless statues. "See these statues?" he asks Naruto.
"Yeah?" Naruto looks around curiously.
"For many generations, jinchuriki have been coming here to train," says B. "These statues are the ones who failed the training."
"WOAH!" Naruto recoils from the statues.
"In here," says B, pointing to a small, shoulder high opening. "Is the true test. You have to put your head in there. If you are worthy, the door will open. If you are not worthy, your head will be cut off and you will turn into a statue!"
"Oh, is that why I had to do the waterfall training first?" asks Naruto.
"Yes, now stick your head in there!"
"Are you sure it's safe?" asks Jiraiya as Naruto sticks his whole upper body in the opening.
Then Naruto screams and pulls out of the hole, his head missing.
Jiraiya panics. "JUST HOLD STILL NARUTO! I'M SURE WE CAN REATTACH IT!" he tries to get at the opening to pull out Naruto's head.
Then he hears laughter. "You fell for it!" Naruto says, releasing the transformation jutsu. "You should see your face! You're all like: WAHH!" he adopts an overly dramatic panicked expression.
"You were gonna try and reattach his head!" laughs B.
"WHAT IS THIS?!" demands Jiraiya, waving his arms about.
"There was just a switch in there!" laughs Naruto.
"The statues are just broken," adds B. "And I did exactly the same thing as Naruto when I first came here! You should've seen A's face!"
"Haha, you two are hilarious," says Jiraiya as sarcastically as he can.
Still giggling, B leads Jiraiya and Naruto into the room the switch opened up. The room is white inside, and it is hard to tell where the floor ends and the walls begin. "Jiraiya, I need you to give the key to Naruto," says B, once they are inside.
Jiraiya summons the toad responsible for the key and transfers it over to Naruto. Naruto does not like having to swallow the toad whole, but it is necessary.
Now that everything is ready, b and Naruto sit down and enter Naruto's mindscape. Jiraiya doesn't have much to do now, so he just waits.
Inside his mindscape, Naruto looks around for B. "You here, Octopops?" he calls.
"I'm here, but not really," says B. "This is as far as I can go for now. You won't see me, or Gyuki, so don't bother looking."
"Right!" Naruto nods. "Sup, Kurama!"
Kurama wakes from his nap. "Is it time for the training now?" he asks sleepily. "Oh, hey, Gyuki."
"Hi Kurama," says a deep voice, which Naruto guesses belongs to Gyuki. "You're being uncharacteristically nice to this kid."
"You can talk!" laughs Kurama. "You're actually letting your jinchuuriki sit on your head!"
"Hey can I sit on your head, Kurama?" asks Naruto, hopefully.
"I'll think about it," says Kurama. "Let's get this training done."
"Right," says B's disembodied voice. "Naruto, you need to open up the seal and pull out Kurama's chakra, without letting any of his will come out with it. I won't be able to help you with any of it; are you okay on your own?"
"I got it, Octopops!" says Naruto. "And I'm not alone, Kurama is here!"
"I'll leave you two to it, then," says B and his presence fades out of Naruto's mindscape.
"So how is this going to work?" asks Naruto, as he pulls the tag off the seal and unlocks the gates.
"You try to pull out my chakra and I try to stop my will from going along with it," says Kurama. "It will be equally hard for the both of us."
"Okay," says Naruto throwing open the gates. "How do I grab your chakra, anyway?"
"With your chakra," says Kurama.
"Oh, right." Under Kurama's guidance, Naruto forms a chakra ghost of himself and grabs Kurama's chakra with it. He pulls it away, and Kurama strains against Naruto's pulling.
"Watch out!" Kurama roars. "My will is coming down to consume you! This is painful for me, so I can't stop it!"
Naruto sees a mass of red flow down the bluish colour of Kurama's chakra. He braces for impact. "What do I do?" he asks.
"Send it back to me!" orders Kurama.
"I can't! It's too strong!" Naruto struggles to hold his own against the mass of hatred and fear that is enveloping him.
"Keep trying!" roars Kurama, desperately trying to retract his will.
Kurama's will envelops Naruto completely, and just as he is about to be consumed, Naruto sees a flash of yellow and a flash of red.
"It's okay, Naruto," says a woman's voice.
"We're here to help you," says a man's voice.
Two people appear before Naruto, one with long red hair and one with spiky blonde hair. Naruto has only ever seen pictures of these two.
"Mum…" he chokes out. "Dad..!"
Kurama's will halts in its tracks.