At that moment, the Nine-Tails had no idea what kind of game Naruto was playing.
He'd just been throwing threats in the afternoon—now he wanted to watch TV together at night?
Did the brat realize he couldn't do anything to the great Nine-Tails, so he was trying to butter him up now?
Did he think some flattery would make him retract his chakra and stop interfering?
No chance.
Such a naive little runt.
And even if he was trying to please him—what's the point of bringing in a TV?
What could possibly be interesting about human nonsense? Did the brat really think that was enough to win him over?
Absolutely not.
"Hmph," Nine-Tails scoffed in his head, "silly little human. Even if I were rotting from boredom in here and had counted one trillion foxes out of sheer nothingness, I still wouldn't fall for your lame tricks."
Still, curious to see Naruto fail and humiliate himself, the fox didn't look away from the screen.
And just then, the show started.
The Investiture of the Gods, a 1990s drama from Earth, adapted from the classic Chinese novel Fengshen Yanyi.
It told a mythological tale of the fall of the Shang dynasty—how the tyrannical King Zhou offended the goddess Nüwa, ruled with cruelty, and was manipulated by the seductive demoness Daji. In contrast, the virtuous King Wen of Zhou rose up, gathered his forces, and with the help of Jiang Ziya, launched a righteous rebellion to topple the corrupt dynasty.
The show had been in Naruto's video library as a study reward for a while, but he'd never gotten around to watching it.
He picked it now for a very specific reason: he'd read in the summary that one of the characters was a nine-tailed fox—Daji.
Given that the troublemaker inside his belly was also a nine-tailed fox, he figured this would be the perfect bait to grab its attention.
And clearly, it was working.
While the Nine-Tails was busy watching Naruto, Naruto was sneakily watching it from the corner of his eye.
When he noticed the fox hadn't looked away once, his confidence shot up.
Hook, line, and sinker.
What Naruto feared most wasn't the Nine-Tails ignoring him—it was the fox straight-up refusing to engage.
But he had faith in the quality of the shows stocked in his study space library. Every series in there had been handpicked as excellent content.
He'd observed that even regular villagers led pretty dull lives. Kids played ninja games or got in trouble for fun. Adults worked all day, and at night they just went to bed early. Aside from a few rich folks, no one really had much in the way of entertainment.
If even they were bored, imagine a fox that was locked in a lightless cage inside someone's belly for a thousand years with nothing but sleep to pass the time.
That fox was rotting with boredom.
Even Naruto, with games and shows and books galore, could get addicted to a good story. There was no way this moldy, sealed-up fox could resist the pull of quality television from another world.
And sure enough, Naruto could see it—
That smug, unimpressed look the fox had at the start? Gone.
Now, those giant red eyes were glued to the screen, face full of focused interest.
The story had pulled it in completely.
Goddess Nüwa?
She looked powerful… how would she stack up against the Sage of Six Paths?
Huaxia? Kyushu? The Yin-Shang dynasty?
Where were these places? Were they in the ninja world?
And how did that other nine-tailed fox turn into a human? Were there others like him?
The Nine-Tails' brain was overflowing with questions.
Curiosity and a desperate thirst for knowledge had completely hijacked his mind. He needed to see what happened next.
Time flew. Over an hour passed in a blink.
Just as the second episode ended and the Nine-Tails leaned forward, eager for more...
The screen went black.
"HEY! Why'd it stop?!"
He blurted it out before he could think—and instantly regretted it.
He realized.
He had let it slip.
"…Was it good?" Naruto asked, a mischievous smile in his voice.
"Hmph! I wasn't interested in the stupid show," the Nine-Tails growled, trying to act cool. "I was just curious what tricks you were playing, brat."
The whole space smelled like pure denial.
"Ohhhh…" Naruto dragged out the word, pretending to believe him.
ROAR!
That single "oh" made the Nine-Tails explode.
He reared back and let out a furious howl, baring his teeth and glaring at Naruto with blood-red eyes, the air around them thick with killing intent.
But Naruto wasn't fazed at all. He kept smiling like nothing happened.
With a little bounce, he hopped off the couch, waved cheerfully, and said:
"Alright then, Big Fox, goodnight! I've already wasted enough time today. I gotta get back to studying. See you tomorrow—we'll watch the next episode together!"
Then, with a smirk, he reached out and pulled the memory card from the media player, ready to leave.
Behind the bars, the Nine-Tails—who'd lived for over a thousand years—knew exactly what just happened.
He'd been baited.
Naruto had lured him in with The Investiture of the Gods, hooked him on the story, then cut him off right when things got good—knowing the only way to keep watching was to play nice.
If the Nine-Tails wanted more, he'd have to agree to Naruto's terms.
It was so obvious.
And he'd walked straight into it.
The moment he gave in, Naruto would get smug. He could already picture the brat's face full of triumph.
"No way… I can't bow to this runt. I'm the Nine-Tailed Fox! I have dignity!"
Clenching his jaw, the fox forced himself to stay silent.
He shut his eyes and started counting foxes again.
One… two… three…
Naruto left after saying goodbye, and the Nine-Tails felt it.
Still, he kept his eyes closed, muttering fox numbers like some kind of monk trying to reach enlightenment.
But in truth, his mind kept wandering—back to the episode he just watched.
Back to the story.
Back to all the unanswered questions.
He couldn't stop thinking about it.
That damn TV was right there—so close—and yet he had no way to find out what happened next.
Frustration piled up inside him like kindling waiting for a spark.
And before he realized it…
He was already looking forward to tomorrow night.