After the light particles dispersed, only Naruto's consciousness remained, floating quietly in the darkness.
Arranged within his mind were the hand seal sequences for the Rasengan and Adamantine Sealing Chains, the diagrams for Flying Thunder God, and the underlying logic and full application of the Fuinjutsu framework.
It was as if someone had built a private archive inside Naruto's mind.
Naruto smiled slightly, then his consciousness began to slowly rise.
The scene changed as a dark and damp environment once again enveloped Naruto.
At the end of the corridor, inside a massive cage, Nine-Tails's colossal form lay sprawled on the water.
Nine-Tails's half-closed eyes snapped open the moment Naruto's consciousness appeared.
"Brat... you've finally appeared!" Nine-Tails roared, the sound shaking the entire sewer.
Nine-Tails pushed itself up from the ground, its massive body lunging to the bars. Its two claws gripped the bars tightly, and its scarlet eyes glared fiercely at Naruto's figure through the gaps.
"Tell me, how do you know my name?"
The name Kurama is not something just any Tom, Dick, or Harry can know. This is the name the Sage of Six Paths gave to Nine-Tails. Besides that old man and the other Tailed Beasts, no one else in this world should know this name.
"Kurama, be quiet. I'm a bit busy right now, wait a moment." Naruto waved a hand in Nine-Tails's direction, speaking casually without even looking up.
He still needed to organize the knowledge in his mind.
Then, right in front of Nine-Tails—the strongest Tailed Beast that once nearly destroyed the entire Konoha —he continued to organize the Ninjutsu in his memory as if nothing were wrong.
"Uzumaki Naruto..."
Nine-Tails's fangs ground together to produce a piercing screech. Its claws slammed heavily against the cage bars, making the entire cage rumble loudly.
A gust of wind whipped up Naruto's hair and the hem of his clothes.
Naruto frowned. "Kurama, you're very noisy."
He looked up at the massive fox raging inside the cage.
Nine-Tails felt inexplicably furious under Naruto's gaze.
A brat who had been used as a vessel for twelve years—how dare he look at it with such eyes?
Nine-Tails puffed out its chest, preparing to brew another, even more intense roar and Chakra blast. But before it could make a sound, a will descended, pinning it in place.
It was not Chakra, not Fuinjutsu, nor any form of power Nine-Tails had witnessed in its long life.
Nine-Tails's body froze. Its claws stopped on the bars, and its nine tails hung motionless in mid-air, as if a pause button had been pressed on all of them simultaneously. Its mouth was still open, but the roar brewing in its throat was blocked in its chest, unable to emit even a trace of sound.
The only things that could still move were those scarlet eyes, which were wide open.
What happened?
What is this?
Why can't I move my body?
It wasn't the seal restraining it, it was too familiar with the feeling of the seal's restraint. That feeling of having its power locked away by the Eight Trigrams Sealing Style was completely different from this.
Nor was it a Genjutsu. It had dealt with the Sharingan more than once. When Madara's Mangekyo tried to control it, it could at least feel that ocular power coiling around its will like chains.
But now it was different, it couldn't feel the presence of any external force. There were no chains, no feeling of restraint. Its body simply stopped listening to it.
Naruto watched Nine-Tails's sudden rigidity and was also stunned for a moment. He looked down at his hands or, to be precise, the outline of his hands in his consciousness state.
He could feel the will he had just emitted. It was as natural as breathing, perhaps even easier than breathing. He had just subconsciously wanted Nine-Tails to quiet down, and then the ability had activated.
Without thinking, it happened in an instant. It was so fast that Naruto only realized he had activated Absolute Control on Nine-Tails after it had already frozen.
But this wasn't right. His Absolute Control ability in his previous life could only act upon his own body: controlling brain neurons, controlling muscle groups, and controlling cells around wounds to accelerate division. These were all within the scope of his own body.
Previously, Nine-Tails Chakra, as well as the Chakra left by Kushina and Minato, could be controlled. That made sense as they were Chakra that existed within his body.
(Note: When MC previously controlled Minato, that was Minato's Chakra that existed within his body, not a living being. In contrast, Nine-Tails is the true body.)
But now, this ability was acting directly on another independent living entity, and one of Nine-Tails's caliber at that. Nine-Tails was not his body, it was another independent living individual sealed within him.
Unless the fact that Nine-Tails was inside him meant that, by the judgment criteria of Absolute Control, it counted as a part of himself.
Or perhaps the true definition of Absolute Control wasn't controlling his own body at all, but controlling everything that belonged to him within his body?
Naruto immediately began to speculate: if Nine-Tails had just been directly stripped of its bodily control by Absolute Control—without even needing Fuinjutsu, and bypassing the process of Chakra confrontation entirely—then it meant the underlying logic of Absolute Control was not at the level of Chakra, nor at the level of energy, but something of a higher order.
Was it authority itself?