Chapter 173 - 171: Kurama: I May Not Have A Brain, But I Have A Plan!

"Old woman, if you keep this up, you won't last six months. In fact, you might not even last one." Kurama's voice rumbled through the cage, looking at Mito who, thanks to his cooperation, appeared perfectly healthy on the outside.

On the inside, she was the weakest he'd ever seen her.

Weaker than after she gave birth, when his seal had loosened just enough for him to seize control for a few glorious seconds before Hashirama had personally reintroduced him to the concept of gravity.

The Forbidden Jutsu she was developing required her to seal away her own Yang and Yin chakra. At her age, where exactly was she supposed to pull that much life force from? The universe? She wasn't Hashirama. She couldn't just grow it.

"But it's worth it, isn't it?" Mito asked, sounding genuinely unconcerned about the whole 'dying' thing. If anything, she seemed almost eager. "How strong do you think Azula will be once I transfer all of this to her?"

Kurama was silent for a long moment. "At minimum, on the same level as Madara during the Valley of the End."

"And after she integrates Tajima's eyes and awakens the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan?"

Kurama didn't need long to calculate that one either. "If she masters Yin-Yang Release and produces Truth-Seeking Orbs, she'll surpass both Asura and Hashirama."

Which was strange, now that he thought about it. How had Hashirama been stronger than his own ancestor?

Kurama had watched the battle between Asura and Indra from kilometers away, and Asura had needed the old man's direct chakra infusion plus an entire army of ninshu practitioners just to summon the Thousand-Armed Buddha. Hashirama had done it by himself, presumably while also thinking about what to plant in his garden that afternoon.

The only edge Asura had was the Truth-Seeking Balls, which could nullify any jutsu.

But if the old woman's scheme worked, Azula wouldn't just have the raw chakra for the Thousand-Armed Buddha. She'd have the potential for full Yin-Yang Release, meaning she'd effectively be Indra, Asura, and Hashirama crammed into one body.

A budget Sage of Six Paths, minus the Ten-Tails. Add a Rinnegan during the process and the 'budget' qualifier might even drop off.

"I see." Mito did not sound satisfied. "With the Ōtsutsuki coming, and knowing her personality, shouldering everything alone because asking for help has never once crossed her mind, I'd hoped the help I could give her would be greater."

"Mito." Kurama's tone was flat. "Are you perhaps underestimating Asura and Hashirama a little too much?"

Mito and Tobirama had been the primary eyewitnesses to the battle between Madara and Hashirama.

She, of all people, knew exactly what her husband had been capable of.

Helping Azula reach that level in a fraction of the time, without requiring her to spend decades training or make some terrible sacrifice of her own, was, from Kurama's perspective, one of the best bargains any shinobi had ever received.

She was getting a dynasty's worth of power for the price of one very determined grandmother.

Mito shook her head. "I'm not underestimating them. I'm just thinking about the Ōtsutsuki." She paused, her expression softening into something almost melancholic.

"You know Azula. From the first moment she met me until now, everything she's done has been driven by a single goal: get stronger. Relying on others to help her probably never crossed her mind. On that point, she really is a pure Uchiha."

She stared at her weathered hands. "But do you think, if there wasn't such a crisis looming, she would have stopped? Just for a little while? Enjoyed her life?"

In Mito's estimation, only the children of the Warring States era could compare to Azula's particular brand of madness when it came to training. The way she treated sleep like a personal insult.

But before Kurama could answer, Mito noticed him frowning at something she couldn't perceive.

"Is something wrong?" She extended her senses. Nothing unusual.

"Hmph." Kurama snorted, the way a cat might snort at a particularly underwhelming mouse. "It's nothing. Just that turtle contacting me. He must have met Azula."

"Turtle?" Mito's mind clicked through her mental archives. "The Three-Tails? Isobu?"

After a decade of being thoroughly spoiled by Azula's endless stream of future knowledge, Mito had gathered as much information as possible from every source available: Kurama, Azula herself, Uzumaki scrolls, Uchiha records, Senju archives.

She knew all the Tailed Beasts' names. She knew their origin as fragments of the Ten-Tails. She probably knew more about them than any Jinchuriki knew about their own partners.

"We Tailed Beasts can communicate with each other no matter the distance," Kurama explained, a grudging lecture he clearly didn't enjoy giving. "Essentially, we're the same entity divided into nine pieces."

He never, ever wanted to be part of the Ten-Tails again, but there was no denying where they came from. "That said, in the last thousand year or so, I don't think I've spoken to any of them more than six times."

"The last contact was when we were all captured and sealed." He didn't add that he'd skipped that particular gathering. A meeting of losers, commiserating about their defeats.

He'd wanted no part of it.

Mito nodded, unsurprised. She remembered Azula mentioning for a while that she wanted to collect the Tailed Beasts' chakra but had never found the right opportunity.

Before she could comment, the world shifted around her, and she found herself standing in an entirely different mental space. What surprised her was the fact that the Three-Tails was here, completely unsealed.

If her memory was correct, he should be sealed inside the new Mizukage.

And while Azula's relationship with that woman wasn't hostile, despite the unpleasantness that had occurred between their villages, releasing a Tailed Beast from a Jinchuriki who'd only recently been bonded to it should have been impossible.

Her body wouldn't have adapted to Isobu's chakra yet.

Kurama, sensing her confusion, explained before she could ask. "This space is fundamentally a mental world. Even while sealed, even while controlled, we can appear here freely. We can even bring our Jinchuriki, provided the relationship is good enough."

"Oh." Mito absorbed this, then studied the Three-Tails with the critical eye of someone who'd spent decades living inside a much larger, much angrier beast.

He was... underwhelming.

From her assessment, Tsunade could probably handle him without too much trouble, even in his preferred aquatic environment. Probably, as she'd have to check the math later.

Isobu, who had reached out expecting to speak to Kurama alone, was not prepared for the sight of his most disagreeable sibling standing calmly beside an elderly human woman who was, presumably, his Jinchuriki.

Of all the Bijuu, Kurama had always despised humans the most. And yet here he was, looking for all the world like a domesticated pet who'd finally accepted the indoor life.

"Kurama," Isobu said, his voice was steady. He was not the type to tease or provoke, which immediately set him apart from certain other tailed beasts who could be named. "It seems you have quite a lot to tell me."

The implications were already assembling themselves in his mind. Kurama, the most hostile of them all, had not only reconciled with his Jinchuriki but was actively lending his chakra to others and may possibly be freely sharing names that they'd all agreed, centuries ago, would never be spoken to humans.

Something monumental must be happening.

"Isobu." Kurama's usual lazy drawl was gone. "Indeed, something big is in motion. But it would be better to explain it to everyone at once."

He'd reached the same conclusion Azula had: this was not a conversation he wanted to have eight separate times.

Then, as if remembering a minor administrative detail, he added, "By the way, you should bring your Jinchuriki here as well."

Mito frowned immediately. If Kurama intended to reveal the truth about the Ōtsutsuki, she would have strongly preferred to limit that knowledge to the Bijuu alone. Human hearts were unpredictable. Human loyalties shifted. She was deeply reluctant to add another person to the very short list of those who knew: herself, Azula, and Tsunade.

Seeing her expression, Kurama waved a massive paw. "Don't worry. I know what I'm doing."

Mito looked at him. She had learned, over the past decade of close proximity, that Kurama was many things. Powerful beyond measure. Stubborn enough to wear down mountains. Surprisingly tolerable company during the long, quiet nights when sleep refused to come.

But 'intelligent' had never been his defining trait.