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That stopped Naruto's incipient protest cold before he could finish thinking about it. S-Class Secrets were the kind couriers burned before letting an enemy get their hands on them. SS-Class Secrets were the kind that battlefields worth of ninja were sacrificed without hesitation to protect. SSS-Class Secrets were the kind that started or stopped wars based on who knew them.
That his Jiji was even telling him about the existence of any secrets of that rank to do with him was an immense sign of trust on his surrogate grandfather's part. One that made Naruto feel all warm and fuzzy inside about his Jiji.
"I understand." The blond orphan nodded seriously.
After peering at him for a moment, Sarutobi nodded and continued. "Now then…to start off with, I am certain you have guessed the source of this chakra. Am I correct?"
Naruto looked sheepish. "Kinda. It's…it's the chakra of the Kyūbi no Kitsune, isn't it?"
"Correct." The old man nodded again. "Your story starts twelve years ago, on your day of birth, which was also the day that the Kyūbi attacked Konoha. In the history books, the ones in Konoha for the younger generation anyway, it is claimed that the Yondaime sacrificed his life in order to use a kinjutsu that managed to kill the beast. This is plainly a lie."
"Why couldn't he kill it?" Naruto asked curiously.
"The Kyūbi is not a creature of flesh and blood, Naruto-kun. It is an entity formed purely of chakra given thought and condensed to a point that it take on solid form." The Hokage explained. "It is possible to disperse their bodies, though it is by no means an easy feat and even that does not truly 'kill' them. Their consciousness is linked wholly with their chakra and, given time, that consciousness will draw their chakra back together until it can return to a physical form. It is a process that can take years, or even decades, but eventually they will reform and you are back at square one."
"But…it only showed up twelve years ago…how do you know all this?" was what Naruto needed to puzzle out.
Sarutobi folded his hands in front of him as he answered. "There are more chakra entities out there than the Kyūbi, Naruto-kun. The nine most well-known are called the Bijū. The Shodaime Hokage used his Mokuton (Wood Style) Kekkei Genkai to subdue and capture every one of them, bar the Nine-Tails, and established a sort of power balance between the fledgling villages by gifting the Bijū to them. The Bijū have tails ranging from one tail through to nine and each take on a different animal appearance. They are the One-Tailed Tanuki, the Two-Tailed Monster Cat, the Three-Tailed Giant Tortoise, the Four-Tailed Giant Ape, the Five-Tailed Dolphin-Horse, the Six-Tailed Slug, the Seven-Tailed Giant Beetle, the Eight-Tailed Giant Ox and of course, the Nine-Tailed Fox."
"Are they all as powerful as everyone says the fox is?" Naruto asked.
"Generally, the Bijū are rated based on the number of tails they possess, the larger the number of tails, the stronger the beast. Still, it would be like comparing a ten ton elephant to an eleven ton elephant, both are still capable of squishing a man like a bug. More than that, each possess their own unique abilities that makes fighting them on their own grounds suicidal for anyone, even Kage-level shinobi." Hiruzen answered. "The One-Tail, for example, has a long held the ability to fuse its chakra body with sand and resided in Kaze on Kuni's vast desert before Shodaime-sama captured it. In that desolate expanse of sand, the One-Tail is far more powerful than it would be elsewhere, and proved a serious obstacle for Shodaime-sama to capture. I was still just a child at the time, but I was taken along to witness the battle. I knew then, just as I know now, that had it been anyone else, even the Nidaime, they would not have emerged victorious against the One-Tail."
The sheer awe in the old man's voice when he spoke of that battle made Naruto gulp. He couldn't begin to comprehend the scale of the battle his Jiji had witnessed. After everything that the Sandaime had seen and done in his life, for him to still consider that battle one of the greatest he had ever seen was amazing.
After pausing for a moment to let what he had said so far sink in, the Hokage continued in a sombre voice. "Using Fūinjutsu, it is possible to seal one of the Bijū inside of a person, allowing them to draw upon the chakra of the sealed beast. A human to whom this had been done to is known as a 'Jinchūriki', literally meaning 'The Power of Human Sacrifice' in an old tongue. That, Naruto-kun, is what you are; the Jinchūriki of the Kyūbi no Kitsune. As it is impossible to slay a Bijū permanently, sealing it away was the only choice left to the Yondaime."
Naruto swallowed as he tried to sort through everything he'd just learned. After a moment, he had to ask another question. "But…why me? Why seal it into me?"
Sarutobi's eyes softened. "Not just anyone can become a Jinchūriki, Naruto-kun. It is very, very difficult to find someone to seal a tailed beast into. I do not know if you are aware of this, but you are one of the last living members of the Uzumaki Clan. All members of your clan possess…a unique physiology that makes you near-perfect hosts for a Bijū's powerful chakra.
"Aside from that, the reason you in particular were chosen is rather simple. Normally sealing one of the Bijū takes a great deal of time, preparation, and an immense amount of chakra. The Yondaime had very little of all three by the time he was able to start the sealing process. While the kinjutsu the Yondaime used took care of most of the time restraints and some of the chakra, at the cost of his own life, there was still much more that was needed. The main reason for the extensive preparation and chakra cost is to reinforce the chakra coils of the prospective host; otherwise the Bijū's potent chakra would shatter them, killing the host before the process is finished and merely dispersing the beast's chakra. The chakra coils of a newborn baby, however, are undeveloped and thus far more malleable. As you were the only newborn in the village, you were the only possible candidate. The only one the Yondaime could trust to seal the fox in and save the village."
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