Although Kurama was asking about the portal, his eyes never once left the roasting meat. Not even for a second.
Naruto looked at the barbecue suspiciously, then looked at the big fox. After realizing what was going on, the corners of his mouth rose slightly.
'Heh!'
'I knew it! No one can resist the temptation of barbecue!'
'Just look at him… his eyes were practically glowing green, and the drool was about to hit the floor.'
'Yeah, nice try pretending to care about the portal.'
In order to save the fox's dignity, Naruto didn't call him out on it.
He kept his head down and calmly flipped the meat over, adding seasoning from time to time.
Sizzle…
The meat sizzled over the coals, and the rich aroma curled through the air like invisible fingers, plucking at Kurama's nerves.
Kurama swore he had never smelled anything so tantalizing in his entire existence.
If it weren't for the cage between them, he'd have charged over and swallowed that roast whole without a second thought.
Kurama stared intently at the meat, his throat moving constantly as he tried to swallow down the hunger.
"That's just my natural talent."
"Hey, big fox."
"Do you know how to get stronger quickly?"
Naruto asked as he added more seasoning to the grilled meat.
To Kurama, those words were like a devil whispering in his ear.
[Tell him... go on, tell him...]
[That way, you can have that meat.]
Kurama shook his head, and a plan suddenly came to his mind.
He wasn't dumb. If he told Naruto everything now, he'd probably only get to eat once.
What he wants is not just one full belly… he wanted to eat like this every day!
In addition, over the years, he'd observed Naruto's so-called training outside.
Those weird trainings only improved physical strength, but have nothing to do with becoming stronger.
It is obvious for Kurama that Konoha did not give any proper training methods to his Jinchuriki.
After Kurama thought it through, he lifted his head high, looked at Naruto with a sidelong glance, and put on a very arrogant attitude.
But in Naruto's eyes, Kurama just looked like a smug orange cat trying to act regal.
"Of course I know."
"I've lived for a thousand years and have seen everything."
"I can teach you how to become stronger..."
"But you have to prepare five... no, six barbecue meals for me every day!"
Kurama had dropped all pretense.
"No way!"
"Fox, you are so huge!"
"If I have to feed you six meals a day, I'd have to live in here full-time."
"Three meals at most."
Naruto looked genuinely troubled, and what he said was indeed true.
The largest piece of meat in the system is only about two meters long, and this size is just enough to fill the teeth of a big creature like Kurama.
Let's not talk about whether it's troublesome to feed Kurama six meals a day…
He was genuinely worried the fox would end up shaped like a propane tank.
He'd already had one orange cat turn into a walking propane tank in his previous life, so there is no way he would raise another one in this life.
Kurama looked at Naruto's six-year-old body and felt that asking for six meals was indeed a bit too much.
When he thought of the smell of that meat, Kurama decided to compromise.
"Five meals. No less."
"Deal!"
Kurama had barely finished his sentence when Naruto answered without hesitation.
For some reason... Kurama felt like he'd just gotten scammed.
Meanwhile, Naruto was silently ecstatic.
After all, there are industrial mods in his system. All he needed was to set up a barbecue production line, then he could automate the whole thing with a single command.
From prepping the ingredients, to the automated barbecue line, and finally feeding the big foxes on the conveyor belt.
Flawless execution!
Kurama raised his head and signaled Naruto that he could start.
Naruto scratched his head, hesitated for a moment, and took his first step toward the cage.
As the wall of orange fur slowly filled his view, Naruto couldn't help but feel a chill run down his spine.
His only understanding of Kurama came from the anime in his previous life. Back then, he just felt that Kurama was strong and was like a large Chakra power bank.
Furthermore, Naruto has never had such close contact with Kurama since he was born.
It was not until now, as he slowly approached the cage, that he could truly feel the oppressive pressure radiating from Kurama's body.
It was a raw and terrifying presence… rage, brutality, and every other kind of negative emotion, all wrapped together.
Naruto honestly wouldn't be surprised if Kurama suddenly lunged at him.
The distance between the man and the fox was not far, but Naruto felt as if he had been walking for several hours.
When he finally got close, his six-year-old body looked absolutely tiny compared to Kurama's body, which was the size of a five- or six-story building.
In his previous life, the biggest creature he'd ever seen were tigers, elephants, and the like in the zoo.
Nothing could have prepared him for this.
"Brat, get on."
Just as Naruto was lost in thought, Kurama extended his massive paw and asked Naruto to stand there.
Seeing the eagerness in the fox's eyes, Naruto cursed at himself in his heart, 'What the hell was I even thinking?'
'This is just a greedy fox!'
'His personality is exactly the same as Tabby in my previous life. What on earth am I afraid of?'
With this in mind, Naruto slowly let go of his fear, took a firm step forward, and climbed onto Kurama's paw.
Kurama then raised his paw above his head and then opened his huge mouth.
Seeing that abyss-like maw, Naruto hesitated for a moment, but then pulled some meats from the system and started tossing it in.
Naruto swung his arms in wide arcs and kept throwing the meats into the fox's mouth.
A large amount of meat steaks fell into Kurama's mouth as densely as raindrops from the sky.
However, Naruto found that Kurama didn't even chew it, but swallowed it directly.
Half an hour later...
"Big Fox! Are you full yet?!"
Naruto really couldn't stand it anymore.
His arms were sore from tossing meat for so long, and yet, Kurama showed no signs of being satisfied.
'This fox's stomach is as bottomless as Hinata's!'
The six-year-old Naruto began to worry at the thought of having two bottomless pits at home in the future.
Kurama finally closed his mouth, gave a couple of half-hearted chews, and then the sound of swallowing was heard.
"Gulp…"
"Buurp…"
"That was... about half full."
After a deafening burp, Kurama found that Naruto could hardly lift his hands, so he didn't continue to make it difficult for him.
However, after Kurama had eaten his fill, he began to look down on Naruto.
"You're way too weak, brat!"
"Stop wasting time with that pointless training of yours."
"Do as I say tomorrow."
Naruto remained silent upon hearing this.
He knew about Kurama's so-called messy training was probably those push-ups and sit-ups he'd been doing.
'All right, alright… You are the strongest Biju, so you have the final say.'
Although he was looked down upon by the big fox, Naruto was in a very good mood at the moment.
After all, today marked the first real connection he'd made with Kurama.
And he didn't think the big fox was as scary as the legends made him out to be.
Once you figured out his personality and went along with it, he wasn't so bad.
In fact, Kurama was technically Naruto's first friend since he arrived in this world.
"Good night, big fox."
As Naruto turned to leave the seal space, he said something to the fox, then disappeared from the spot without caring about Kurama's reaction.
Long after he disappeared, a voice echoed from inside the cage, "Goodnight, brat."