Chapter 70: A Proposition Before a Beast
The first of the Nine Tailed Beasts, the Nine-Tails!
The colossal fox lay with its head on its paws, seemingly dozing. Its enormous form, wrapped in a blazing, fiery red aura, dominated the space. Even with its eyes closed in rest, it radiated an aura of primal, overwhelming terror. Nine massive tails swayed slowly in the air behind it, blocking out the imaginary sky like nine mighty, slumbering fire dragons.
Click.
Aizen's footsteps broke the dead silence. He advanced, step by measured step, toward the immense, barred cage.
"So, you are the mysterious power residing within that boy," Aizen stated.
Even when confronted with the legendary Nine-Tails, his expression remained one of utter calm, as if the great beast were nothing more than a slightly larger insect.
ROAR!
Sensing the intruder, the Nine-Tails' eyes snapped open, blazing with feral killing intent. An indescribably terrifying pressure erupted from its body, so potent it seemed to still the very air.
"On our first meeting, you are the king of the Tailed Beasts, are you not?" Aizen's tone was breezy, elegant and unconstrained. Even facing the Nine-Tails, he was the picture of composure.
"Insignificant human! Who gave you permission to step into my domain?!" the Nine-Tails roared, baring its fangs and claws. Its eyes held nothing but sheer contempt.
As the strongest of the Tailed Beasts, it had always held itself above all humans.
"What an interesting thing to say," Aizen replied, a faint smile on his lips. "You call this your domain. And yet, this is clearly a prison. Are you admitting, then, that you cannot escape it?"
His voice was calm, ignoring the beast's provocation and instead turning the mockery back upon it.
"IGNORANT HUMAN! A seal of this level could never hope to hold me!" the Nine-Tails bellowed, its rage causing its scarlet pupils to narrow into slits.
Had it not been sealed away by the Fourth Hokage's Dead Demon Consuming Seal, its power would have allowed it to run rampant across the Five Great Nations. But now, the tiger had fallen onto flat ground, reduced to a prisoner.
"How pitiful," Aizen mused. "Such immense vitality, wasted due to a lack of commensurate strength. A long life spent as a prisoner will only make you weaker."
Physically, the difference between Aizen and the Nine-Tails was like that of an ant and an ancient behemoth. Yet, their auras told a different story. Though the Nine-Tails was fierce and powerful, to Aizen, it was all bluster—strong on the outside but brittle within. Aizen, in contrast, was the epitome of serenity, radiating an invisible, sky-crushing pressure. He was like a natural-born king: noble, elegant, and flawless.
The Nine-Tails was taken aback. It felt a strange sense of familiarity from Aizen, a sensation it hadn't experienced since... Uchiha Madara!
The memory of its enslavement was a nightmare that had haunted the Nine-Tails for decades. Despite its immense power, it had been as docile as a pet before Madara, utterly powerless to resist.
Now, that same feeling of trepidation resurfaced. The Nine-Tails saw the shadow of Uchiha Madara in Aizen. It even felt that Aizen's soul was of a higher, more noble order, as if he were born to be the master of the heavens and the king of the night.
"It would be too boring to start a fight. So, let's have a conversation instead," Aizen said, his smile graceful, as if he were addressing a conversational partner, not the ferocious Nine-Tails.
"BE GONE! YOU INSIGNIFICANT, PATHETIC HUMAN!" the Nine-Tails roared, infuriated by Aizen's unshakable calm. To the beast, this composure was the ultimate insult.
Who was it?
It was the strongest of the Tailed Beasts, second only to the Ten-Tails! It possessed endless chakra and could effortlessly destroy an entire ninja village. Such power had bred a natural, innate sense of superiority. It would never allow a mere human to remain so composed in its presence. To the fox, this was contempt of the highest order.
"Human?" Aizen chuckled softly and shook his head in apparent regret.
"Is that so? Is that your perception? How truly ironic. What makes you think... I am human?"
Aizen took another step forward. A torrent of blue spiritual power surged from his form. For a long time, he had suppressed his Reiatsu, but now, even at only half its former strength, it erupted forth like a volcano.
The entire seal space trembled violently. A terrifying storm of spiritual pressure swept out, so dense it was almost tangible.
All the arrogance vanished from the Nine-Tails' face, replaced by a soul-deep panic. It felt a sense of crisis it hadn't experienced since facing Uchiha Madara.
"Are you satisfied with your current situation?" Aizen's voice was soft, yet it carried an undeniable weight. "Have you never thought that 'this world should have a different appearance'? Do you not wish to escape this prison and ascend to a higher plane?"
He advanced step by step, his spiritual pressure climbing with each movement, condensing to an extreme.
"Let me help you. Submit to me. Follow me. I will grant you greater power... and a new world."
At that moment, Aizen's presence peaked. He stood before the caged beast not as a man, but as a god upon a throne, his authority absolute and not to be blasphemed.