Slow Progress

"How are you going to absorb its chakra?"

Naruto asked Kurama.

Kurama replied confidently, "Naruto, you just need to restrain it for me. I'll handle the rest."

"Okay," Naruto nodded, his gaze towards the Nine-Tails in the iron cage instantly sharpening.

The Nine-Tails felt a sense of unease and shrieked, "Useless! You've actually reached an agreement with a human? Who are you? Where is this place? Why am I here like this?"

"Damn trash Nine-Tails!"

Seeing the Nine-Tails like this, Naruto lost his patience waiting for it to calm down.

The Nine-Tails had been very violent back then.

After being sealed by the Fourth Hokage, it had rampaged inside Naruto for who knows how many years before finally calming down.

If Naruto wanted to pacify this Nine-Tails like he had pacified Kurama, it would take over ten years.

By then, it would be too late.

Besides, Naruto hadn't received any missions from the System yet.

So there was even less reason to pacify it.

As for Kurama, he didn't seem to have any sympathy for the Nine-Tails.

In fact, Kurama seemed to harbor more malice towards this Nine-Tails than humans did.

Imagine this:

Suddenly, someone identical to you appears.

He's superior to you in every way and has gained the approval of the people around you.

Meanwhile, you're just watching like a clown.

How could anyone stand that?

My own life doesn't need others interfering. Even if I'm trash, that's my business. I don't need others pointing fingers!

Thinking this, Naruto understood why Kurama had so much malice towards the Nine-Tails.

"Adamantine Sealing Chains - Modified!"

"Wood Release: Gate of the Great God!"

Swish swish swish~

Whoosh~

Naruto casually threw out two top-tier sealing techniques.

The Nine-Tails was confined within Naruto, suppressed by his immense chakra.

Therefore, the Nine-Tails' movements were restricted, and its chakra wasn't very flexible.

Facing the dual sealing techniques, it had no ability to resist.

Before long, the Nine-Tails was tied up by Naruto.

Kurama seized the opportunity to channel his chakra into the iron gate.

Then, using a peculiar method, he began to absorb the Nine-Tails' chakra.

It would take a considerable amount of time for Kurama to completely absorb the Nine-Tails' chakra.

When Naruto returned to Konoha, everything seemed much the same as when he left.

However, Naruto's departure from the village had caught Hiruzen Sarutobi's attention.

So Naruto went to the Hokage's office.

Hiruzen Sarutobi, holding his pipe, said to Naruto earnestly, "Little Naruto, even though you're no longer a Jinchuriki, the outside world still knows of your identity."

"Your rash departure from the village could attract the covetous eyes of ill-intentioned individuals."

Naruto was silent for a moment, then suddenly asked, "So how did you hide my identity back then?"

"Huh?" Hiruzen Sarutobi's mind went blank, and his old face froze.

Naruto waved his hand, "Alright, alright. I don't care about that issue anymore anyway. I'll try not to run around recklessly in the future."

Even Naruto didn't believe that last sentence.

Hiruzen Sarutobi felt a sense of helplessness.

He didn't know why.

He felt like his child had grown up and was gradually becoming uncontrollable.

It was just like Asuma back then...

The difference was, Naruto was much smarter than the former.

Putting that aside for now, Hiruzen Sarutobi brought up another matter with Naruto. "Little Naruto, you know ninja teams need to carry out missions, right?"

"I know that," Naruto nodded. "But I think catching cats and chasing dogs is negligible in terms of helping me."

Seeing Naruto actually disdain low-level missions, Hiruzen Sarutobi felt quite a headache.

He asked again, "Naruto, your strength is great, but what about your teammates? They also need to grow."

"I've already made arrangements," Naruto replied truthfully. "Sasuke has his own training plan, and Sakura has a different development direction. You don't need to worry about that."

On the surface, Naruto was polite and amiable.

But inwardly, he was constantly complaining.

Is this old man ever going to stop?

Why is he so meddlesome?

Hiruzen Sarutobi rubbed his temples. "Alright, since little Naruto has his own arrangements, I won't ask any further."

"In that case, I'll be taking my leave," Naruto nodded and bowed before turning to leave.

Hiruzen Sarutobi watched Naruto's retreating back and suddenly felt a pang of sadness.

The child of a hero, after a tragic childhood, had become someone different from the hero.

This was all due to his own negligence, and some issues with Danzo.

It had led to things reaching this point.

At this moment, Naruto was not influenced by the Will of Fire.

Although Naruto, like Minato Namikaze, possessed unimaginable talent.

Naruto had become a different person from Minato Namikaze.

Hiruzen Sarutobi knew that Naruto staying in Konoha was only for the sake of some people.

Naruto returned home and began to rest.

Today's experiences had been quite eventful.

First, he took photos for Sasuke.

Then, he created a training plan for Sasuke.

Then, he went out to seal the complete Nine-Tails.

He then encountered Kurama and Itachi Uchiha.

He reached an understanding with Kurama and planned to absorb the Nine-Tails' chakra.

He was also called for a talk by Hiruzen Sarutobi...

At this moment, Naruto felt a bit tired.

He took a bath and fell asleep.

A week passed.

After practicing tree climbing and water walking, Sasuke found Naruto for another spar.

But unfortunately, he still couldn't defeat Naruto.

Naruto found the Konoha Body Flicker Technique scroll for Sasuke to practice.

Although Hiruzen Sarutobi had told Naruto that every team had mission objectives to complete.

Naruto completely ignored this.

Since the team's establishment, Naruto's team had not carried out a single mission.

During this past week.

Naruto and Sakura Haruno's business had also picked up.

As it was during winter break.

Initially, not many people bought Sasuke's photos.

But word spread, from one to ten, then ten to a hundred.

In the end, the two of them only needed to wait at the entrance of the Uchiha compound, and customers would come to them.

On this day.

At the main entrance of the Uchiha compound.

One table, two chairs.

This was Naruto and Sakura Haruno's workspace.

In front of them, three to five girls of various ages were lined up.

Before long, he finished selling all the photos he'd taken that day.

Naruto opened the System's mission log and checked the progress.

[126,400 / 10,000,000]

Naruto: "..."

This progress was far too slow.

He'd earned over a hundred thousand silver in a week, which, in terms of Naruto's past life's purchasing power, was equivalent to about six thousand yuan.

For two people.

That was roughly four hundred yuan per person per day.

This was definitely not low; in fact, it was very high.

But the mission progress was too slow.

At this rate.

Naruto would need to keep selling until the Fourth Shinobi World War ended to complete the mission.

This was utterly ridiculous...

Sakura Haruno counted out the silver and said happily to Naruto, "Naruto, we earned so much today, almost forty thousand silver!"

And even now, people were still coming, only to leave disappointed.

Seeing Sakura Haruno so satisfied, Naruto shook his head slightly. "Sakura, we need to speed things up. How about we make multiple copies of the photos?"

This would save a lot of time.

Although the quality would be slightly reduced...

"Okay!"

Sakura Haruno nodded without hesitation.

Putting aside that this was Naruto's decision.

After these few days, Sakura Haruno also felt that demand far outstripped supply.

Judging by the current situation.

It was far from enough to meet the needs of all of Konoha.

Moreover, if they could pull this off, it would mean financial freedom for life.

While this wasn't a world where money talked, no one ever complained about having too much of it.