Orion smiled faintly.
"You don't have to believe me. I'm only making a suggestion."
The Nine-Tails, who had actually been somewhat tempted moments ago, now stared coldly at Orion.
The look made Orion feel a little uncomfortable.
"Why are you looking at me like that? You're the one who doesn't believe me."
The Nine-Tails lay back down on the ground and closed its eyes, looking completely unwilling to continue talking to him.
Orion could already tell there was no way he could persuade the Nine-Tails, so he stood up and prepared to leave.
"Since you don't want to, then forget it. I just hope you'll stop actively tempting Naruto with your chakra in the future. After all, it's the Nine-Tails' chakra. He can't resist that kind of temptation."
"And honestly, constantly luring him into using your chakra doesn't benefit either of you. It harms him without really helping you. What's the point of doing something so pointless?"
Orion looked at the Nine-Tails.
The Nine-Tails still kept its eyes shut, clearly unwilling to respond.
"Just get lost already. I'm going to sleep."
Orion felt speechless.
Still, he wasn't angry at all about the Nine-Tails' attitude.
He already knew exactly what kind of personality the Nine-Tails had.
"Then I'm leaving. See you next time… although hopefully not. Hahaha!"
After saying that, Orion disappeared from the seal space.
Only after Orion left did the Nine-Tails slowly open its eyes again.
It stared at the now-empty prison.
For some reason, the Nine-Tails suddenly felt a strange sense of emptiness.
For all these years, Orion had been the very first person willing to speak to it as an equal. Even though the Nine-Tails often found him irritating, it was precisely because it had started viewing Orion as someone it could genuinely communicate with that it felt this way.
If it had been anyone else, it wouldn't have merely felt annoyed.
It would have exploded in rage instead.
Looking at the empty prison, the Nine-Tails lay inside the cage and muttered softly,
"I wonder if that brat will come back again someday."
"…Actually, maybe it's better if he doesn't. The way he talks is seriously irritating. Sigh…"
Even while saying that, the Nine-Tails still felt lonely.
Perhaps the reason Naruto had originally managed to gain the Nine-Tails' acknowledgment within only a few months was because the Nine-Tails had long desired someone who would truly communicate with it and listen to its thoughts.
Originally, Naruto should have become the second person after the Sage of Six Paths to reach that point.
But Orion's sudden appearance had made him the second instead.
The Nine-Tails looked toward the prison bars, which had now turned black and gold, and chuckled softly.
"That brat's power is pretty impressive. His Eight Trigrams Seal is much stronger than Minato Namikaze's."
However, unlike Minato's seal, Orion's version had enlarged the prison several times over and made it much brighter.
Compared to the original seal left by Minato, Orion had noticeably improved the Nine-Tails' living conditions.
That had been Orion's intention from the start.
He felt there was no need to make the Nine-Tails suffer endlessly. Otherwise, it would only continue hating humanity more and more.
Besides, improving the Nine-Tails' environment would also help Naruto communicate with it better in the future.
Otherwise, the Nine-Tails would simply continue venting all of its resentment toward humans onto Naruto.
Orion's actions weren't because he and Naruto were particularly close.
He simply didn't want Naruto going berserk and creating trouble for him later.
After all, Orion was currently the only person in Konoha who possessed sealing techniques powerful enough to restrain the Nine-Tails.
If the Nine-Tails ever broke free in the future, Kakashi would definitely ask Orion to handle it, and he probably wouldn't be able to refuse.
After all, he was still a shinobi of Konoha.
If something like that happened, he would naturally have to act.
Orion actually held a fairly positive impression of Konoha. As for the political struggles among the higher-ups, he had little interest in them.
Compared to the other great nations, Konoha's atmosphere suited him the best and was the place he preferred to stay in the most.
So if the village truly needed his help one day, he wouldn't refuse if he was capable of helping.
Besides, Naruto was destined to become the future savior of the world.
Building a good relationship with him early on definitely wouldn't hurt.
Compared to making enemies, Orion would much rather gain another friend.
More friends meant more paths available in the future.
Even if he ever needed something from Naruto later, having him as a friend would obviously make life far more comfortable than having him as an enemy.
The Nine-Tails observed the prison, now much brighter and more spacious than before.
Although it was still technically a prison, it felt infinitely better than before.
Back when it had been sealed inside Mito Uzumaki and Kushina Uzumaki, its body had literally been nailed onto gigantic molten rocks.
Even though it was a being formed from chakra, it could still feel pain.
And it had endured that existence for decades.
That was why Orion could understand why the Nine-Tails harbored such hatred toward humans.
Anyone forced to endure that kind of life for decades would never feel goodwill toward the people responsible.
Not wanting to kill them would practically count as Stockholm Syndrome.
Later, after Minato sealed it inside Naruto, the environment had improved somewhat, but it was still terrible.
The prison had remained a dark, damp cage.
Now, however, Orion had remodeled the prison.
Though still a cage, the Nine-Tails had far more freedom within it, and the environment itself was far better.
Of course, this also required Orion to continuously pour even more chakra into maintaining the seal.
Otherwise, a single Eight Trigrams Seal alone wouldn't have drained Orion's chakra dry.
The Nine-Tails naturally knew this.
Orion hadn't mentioned it, and neither had it.
But the Nine-Tails understood exactly what Orion had done.
Combined with the fact that Orion was the first person in over a thousand years willing to communicate with it as an equal, even though they had only met once and spoken for a few hours, Orion had already become someone completely different from all other humans in the Nine-Tails' eyes.
In fact, in the Nine-Tails' heart, Orion occupied a position almost equal to that of the Sage of Six Paths.
Of course, there was absolutely no way it would ever openly admit such feelings in front of Orion.
Inside the prison, the Nine-Tails sighed softly.
"The ninja world is such a dark place… I wonder if that brat will someday stumble and die because of it."
"Heh. Actually, with that personality of his, how could he? If anyone's going to suffer, it'll probably be everyone else instead. With such a terrible personality, he's probably the one who'll make the rest of the ninja world miserable. Hahaha!"
Deep down, the Nine-Tails genuinely did not want Orion to die young.
Although Orion possessed terrifying talent and an immensely powerful force hidden within him, a genius who failed to grow up was no genius at all.
Right now, while Orion's strength far surpassed others his age, he still wasn't truly powerful enough.
At least, in the Nine-Tails' eyes, Orion's current strength was already at Kage level, and among Kage-level shinobi, he was definitely one of the stronger ones.
But he still hadn't reached the level of monsters like Hashirama Senju or Madara Uchiha.
Of course, expecting a twelve-year-old to already stand at the level of Hashirama and Madara would be absurdly unreasonable.
Even Orion himself felt that reaching Kage level strength at his current age was already incredible.
In fact, before all of this, Orion had originally thought that reaching elite jonin level within half a year would already be unimaginably monstrous.
His current growth was something he had never even dared to imagine.
The speed of his improvement was probably comparable only to Naruto receiving Six Paths power directly from the Sage of Six Paths during the Fourth Great Ninja War.
Just moments earlier, the Nine-Tails had still been speaking harshly to Orion.
But now, it genuinely felt some concern for him.
It truly did not want Orion to fall in the cruel ninja world.
After all, over the past thousand years, the Nine-Tails had witnessed far too many examples like this.
The ninja world had never lacked astonishing geniuses.
Yet most of them never became monsters on the level of Hashirama Senju or Madara Uchiha.
Instead, they had died young amidst the endless slaughter of the shinobi world.
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