"Good morning!" Yuiko exclaimed.
Naruto sat down heavily at the dining room table, grabbing himself a bowl of rice. "Good morning," he mumbled.
Yuiko watched him eat with a content smile on her face. Naruto eyed her wearily.
"Is something wrong?" she asked.
"Uh, well," he stammered.
Think of something to say, he thought. Think of anything to say other than "you give me the creeps."
"I, um, am just worried, is all," he said.
"About?" Yuiko asked, her eyes growing wide as she leaned closer to him in her chair.
"Eh …"
In truth, there were a lot of things Naruto had to worry about. The Akatsuki and his recent run-in with Sasuke on the mission he had just returned from being a few of them. But he wasn't sure how much of that he really wanted to share with someone like Yuiko.
Yuiko's expression changed from curious to concerned. "It's the Nine-Tails, isn't it?" she asked.
"You know about that too, huh?"
She nodded, turning away from him in thought. "I could try something …" she said hesitantly.
"Huh? What does that mean?"
"You don't know much about our clan, do you?" she said, returning his gaze.
In truth, Naruto had completely forgotten that Yuiko was also an Uzumaki. "Oh, sure! Our clan! They do, uh …"
"Fūinjutsu."
"Oh yeah, that! Which is …?"
"Sealing techniques."
Naruto smiled as the realization hit him. "I get it! So you can help make the seal for the Nine-Tails stronger, right?"
"I can try."
"Alright! Let's do it! Then when I don't have to worry about that stupid fox, I can start my training with Kakashi-Sensei and learn the strongest ninjutsu ever!"
—
The two of them emerged from the forest onto a rocky bluff, looking out over the trees below. Yuiko had chosen the most remote training ground in Konoha that she knew.
I can't mess this up, she told herself. But just in case, at least the village will have some warning …
She shook her head, eliminating the thought. Yuiko inhaled deeply, turning around to face Naruto with a smile. "You ready?" she asked.
"I was born ready!" he said, punching his open palm with a fist.
Yuiko nodded. "Alright — just remember, keep your cool. If anything goes wrong, I'll handle it. You just need to trust me."
She extended her hand. Naruto hesitated slightly, then grasped it.
He blinked. He was staring into the distant darkness of a dimly lit hallway. Yuiko had disappeared. He turned around, water sloshing at his feet. Yuiko stood with her back to him, facing the Nine-Tails. The beast crouched behind enormous red metal bars that reached up into darkness.
"Oh ho? My jailer has been keen on bringing me visitors lately, it seems," the Nine-Tails said. Its voice rumbled deeply throughout the chamber. "This one doesn't appear to be an Uchiha this time, though."
Yuiko approached the cell, forming large ripples as the water splashed about her feet.
"Hey, be careful! Don't get too close!" Naruto warned.
The tip of an enormous claw shot through the bars. Yuiko batted at it absentmindedly, the claw dissipating into a number of red bubbles.
"You haven't activated the cloak on Naruto," she said as she reached the cage. Yuiko put out her hand, sliding it along the edge of the paper seal. "You can't possess a physical form outside the bars as you are now."
The Nine-Tails grunted in frustration. It shifted its head, putting her under the gaze of a large, red eye. "You smell of something familiar … of grass and open air."
Its massive brow furrowed as its pupil dilated. "You seem to be another jailer," it spat.
"Shut up, I'm busy," she said. Yuiko placed her palm on the center of the seal, drowning out the Nine-Tail's nasty reply to her remark.
The seal itself had been executed perfectly; she wondered if even her Grandfather would have been able to create such a powerful seal that could hold for so long. Minato did always have an eye for detail. He had designed the seal with the intention of Naruto undoing it, if he were to ever reach a point at which he and the Nine-Tails could work together. Yuiko admired his optimism, but felt that he had made a mistake thinking that the Nine-Tails, an embodiment of pure rage, could ever be brought to heel. She pondered if she could fill in the cracks. Potentially, she could push the Nine-Tails so far down into Naruto's psyche that it would only be able to claw its way out if Naruto went completely insane.
The seal itself had different steps that activated at the growth of a new tail when the Nine-Tail's cloak was formed. She pushed more of her chakra into the seal, digging deeper to study the last steps. Maybe there she could find what she needed to close the gaps. Then she could —
She gasped. Her body was suddenly awashed with warmth as something pushed back at her.
The step at the eighth tail ... it's you!
The surprise caused her to nearly lose her place in the inner workings of the seal. Minato's presence glowed merrily in her subconscious, like warm sunlight on a clear summer day. He had embedded a part of himself within the seal upon his death. A final failsafe.
A chance to meet his son.
Her resolve faltered. Reinforcing the seal meant closing every gap Minato left behind, including the piece of his chakra. But doing nothing meant that Naruto would continue to struggle to keep control of the beast. That he would spend every moment fighting it, keeping it at bay —
'The last thing I want is for you to feel that you're stuck on a path that had already been carved out for you. Life is much more enjoyable when you find your own way.'
She remembered the look on Minato's face when he said that to her. The way she felt that she had finally been let free.
Her hand dropped limply from the seal. Yuiko slowly opened her eyes, turning around to look down the hallway. Naruto looked back at her with a worried expression. She gave him a weak smile, stepping away from the seal.
"So? Did you do it? Did it work?" he asked excitedly. Yuiko stopped before him, taking his hands in hers. Naruto looked back at her warily.
"No," Yuiko said cheerfully, "but I want you to meet someone."
"Huh? Meet someone? And what's with that face if you couldn't do anything?!" Naruto exclaimed.
His breath caught in his chest as the scene around them burst into shards and blew away in the wind. They stood in a lush forest; trees reaching up to the sky farther than Naruto could see.
"This is my oldest friend, Kokuō," Yuiko said, looking over his shoulder.
He turned and yelped at the sight of a large, horse-like beast lying casually behind him. Its white coat glistened as it moved to bring a giant blue eye to his level.
"Pleased to meet you, Naruto. I'm always happy to meet an acquaintance of Yuiko's," it said. Although it spoke softly, he could still feel its voice reverberating through his body in much the same way as the Nine-Tails'.
"Wha-what are you?" he gasped.
The beast chuckled. "Here, perhaps this will help," it said, raising five tails into view.
Naruto stared at them, mouth agape. He looked at Yuiko, then back at the tails. He looked back and forth a few more times before finally pointing at Yuiko. "I … I get it! You're another jinchūriki, aren't you?!"
Yuiko smiled, giving a curt nod.
"What the hell?!" Naruto yelled, "Why didn't you tell me?! All this time you were … And your Tailed Beast is …" he trailed off, gazing at Kokuō. "... friendly. I didn't know they could be nice."
"This is why I wanted you to see her," Yuiko said, placing her hand on Kokuō's muzzle. "Maybe Kokuō is different from the others. Maybe the rest of them are like the Nine-Tails. But … I don't think that's true. I think that, maybe, even the Nine-Tails can become like Kokuō."
"What? Are you crazy?" Naruto said. "Trust me, I know that thing inside and out. There's no way the Nine-Tails is ever going to be on my side."
"You could be right," she said, taking his hand, "but I think there are more possibilities open to you than you know. It's up to you to find your own way."
"My own way?" he said.
His ears were filled with the sound of rustling leaves intertwined with a faint melody. The song was oddly familiar. The scene around them tore into pieces like leaves drifting in the wind. The two of them stood facing each other atop the cliff. Yuiko released his hand.
"I'm sorry I didn't say anything sooner, Naruto. I thought Jiraiya would have mentioned it to you at some point, but I guess I should have known better."
"So am I, like, the only person who didn't know?" he asked.
"Pretty much. My entry is still in the Bingo Book, so most of the other Konoha shinobi who've met me are aware," she replied.
"So I'm the last person to learn something important again, huh?" he said, downtrodden.
"Some people need a little more time coming to conclusions," she replied.
"That doesn't make me feel any better."
"It wasn't meant to."
Naruto couldn't help but smirk.
"Oh," Yuiko said, her expression growing stern. "Don't ever repeat those words you heard the Nine-Tails say just now. Those are very bad words."
"Uh, right," Naruto said, making a mental note to ask Kiba later what some of them meant.
"Look, Yuiko ..." he said, rubbing the back of his head as they began to walk. "What I said before about you moving out — you can stay, if you want."
"I'm glad that you say that," she said, cheerfully ruffling his hair, "since I wasn't planning on leaving anyway."
"It would be nice if you stopped treating me like a little kid, though", he said, adjusting his headband.
"But you are a kid," she said flatly.
Naruto sighed.