Silence.

Naruto's smile did not waver. He closed the book in his hands, and promptly dropped to the ground, taking a meditative pose as he did.

With a deep breath, he closed his eyes, reached for that spot deep in his soul, and opened his eyes to face Yangkura.

The fox stared back, deep red eyes boring into him. "Explain."

"It's fairly simple." Naruto shrugged, holding the book to his side. "That guy, Madara... He's really, really powerful."

Yangkura released a breath that steamed the air, and, critically, didn't say anything.

"And he's going to come for me, because I have you." Naruto continued. "That's just the facts. All this time, I've been thinking of ways to release you from me, but they're all long and slow methods that I don't have the time for, and even more importantly, while Madara is around, you getting free is just going to end up with him hitting you with the Sharingan and feeding you to the Juubi."

Yangkura growled.

"And I don't want to let that happen, which means we're stuck at the impasse; you can't be free until Madara is dead, and Madara is just too strong to kill."

Yangkura's eyes narrowed. "You're going to ask for my power, aren't you."

"I don't want to." Naruto sighed, hanging his head. "I do not want to. My entire life, I've never willingly used your power. I've always had Sasuke or Sakura or Kakashi or someone with me that made it so I never need to. When I was young, I didn't want to because..." He closed his eyes, taking a fortifying breath. "Because you took my parents away from me. And... on some level, I hated you for it."

Yangkura said nothing.

"And then... Drich told me there was more to it." Naruto looked up, face a rictus of confusion. "And that just... what? Weren't you guys a bunch of monsters? The Sanbi is polite? How does that make any sense? How can somebody have good reason to hate and destroy like you do? Drich wasn't a normal person, but Drich is just fine, so how could... I got stuck on that thought, kept thinking about, and then... started doing my research. Things started to not add up."

He looked upwards, at the endless darkness above. "And I decided that I wanted to learn the real story."

"So you decided to make friends with me."

"Yes..." Naruto nodded. "Partially to annoy you, in the beginning, because I was twelve and I thought you deserved it, but as I got to know you better... that desire to be your friend became more and more earnest. Then the rest of the story came out, and decided that yes, you didn't deserve what ultimately happened to you. And so I, my desire to not take your power became two-fold; on one hand, because it was you, and I honestly believe that I shouldn't, and on the other hand, the more practical reason that using your Chakra is going to make my body adapt to it, and therefore will take longer for me to free you because it will take me more time to adapt to not having it."

"Which brings me back to my point; I don't want to use it. It's not fair! Either I don't and I die and you get imprisoned, again, or I do, and you stay imprisoned for longer, anyway!" Naruto grit his teeth together, releasing a sigh after a moment. "And I'm sorry, but I can't see any other options."

Yangkura stared at him, searching. Naruto looked back, feeling all too helpless.

The eyes closed, slowly, and, for a few seconds, he said nothing.

"If I were to accept..." Yangkura began. "What would that entail?"

"This seal would have to go." Naruto said.

A few more seconds passed, before Yangkura opened his eyes. "What? I thought you weren't trying to get yourself killed."

"I'm not. The thing about my current seal is that it's really, really good at containing things. Too good, actually." Naruto sighed, flicking open the book of seals. "It's got a limit on how much it will let out before it starts breaking, and you can't go over that limit safely, even with both sides of the seal wanting it to happen. So, in other words, it's got to go, because if it breaks completely, there's going to be nothing stopping anybody from just reaching in and plucking you out. I need another, different seal to handle that, making sure nobody can just reach in, while you can still reach out and help me. And... that's why we need to be able to trust each other."

Naruto looked up. "I need to trust that you, once I open the current seal, aren't simply going to break out and kill all my friends. To be completely honest, I already do, because you're smart enough to know that if you did do that, there'd be nothing stopping Madara from just summoning you outright, and then you'd be back to square one. You, on the other hand, need to trust that I am not going to make a seal that will make things worse for you. We need to trust each basically with our lives, because while I'm doing this, we'll both be able to screw each other really, really easily."

Yangkura stared at him.

Then, a moment later, released a low, rumbling sound that Naruto failed to place. "Tell me about the seal you intend to use."

"It's a modified from of a one-way barrier-type seal. Stops un-keyed Chakra from reaching in, doesn't stop it from going out. Nobody will be able to get to you through it, but you'll still be able to push out as much Chakra as you want, and freely retract it."

"Wouldn't that mean I could just push my way out, completely, at will?" Yangkura asked, a note of danger in his voice.

"Yeah." Naruto said.

Yangkura blinked at him. "What else?"

"There's a component that leaks a small amount of Chakra over time, which is both your key to freedom and my key to staying alive. After this is over, I'll set it to slowly reduce the amount of your Chakra in my system while connecting it with another seal to contain the rest of the excess, which will basically free you over time without killing me."

"You had this all planned out, didn't you?"

"I did make a promise." Naruto said.

Yangkura's eyes closed, and, again, he released that sound. After a few seconds, it grew louder, and Naruto finally placed it.

Laughter.

"'Ma'." Yangkura stated as he finished laughing.

"'Ma'?" Naruto frowned, before his eyes widened. "Wait, is that... that?"

"Yes."

Naruto smiled. "I see. I'll get to work right away, then. And... It's nice to meet you, Kurama."