Ino: If I Were Hinata, I'd Smash Your Dog Head In!

Naruto firmly believed that there was always an opportunity to cheat in troublesome situations.

For example, extracting the Nine-Tails, or Izanagi.

If you know you're surrounded by a bunch of cheaters and you don't use cheats, you're bound to lose to those monsters. So, when he encounters trouble, his subconscious thought is to figure out how to cheat.

Kabuto is too cunning; he's pure evil, pursuing things that are ethereal and unrealistic. Such people have fewer weaknesses and aren't fixated on success or failure.

In other words, sacrificing White Zetsu for escape was a completely psychological burden for Kabuto.

This made it even harder for Naruto to stop Kabuto, who was slippery and difficult to catch. As a result, he had no choice but to cheat, so he approached Kabuto's ally and asked him to be a double agent.

Naruto offered Black Zetsu a condition that was hard to refuse: the Nine Tailed Beasts.

He's not afraid of the Black Zetsu agree. He'll use a carrot and stick approach. If he can't find Kabuto, Black Zetsu? This guy is a scoundrel by nature. He'll just say one thing: if he can't deal with Kabuto, he can't deal with you.

Black Zetsu was speechless. After thinking about it, he figured it wouldn't be a bad deal to agree, so he reluctantly agreed.

He wouldn't follow the rules and go to Kabuto. Things in the Shinobi World are never just about fighting and killing; there are also human relationships involved.

Ultimately, Black Zetsu and Kabuto's collaboration only required the Nine Tailed Beasts.

Tailed Beast could also give him the Naruto Beast, and their goals were temporarily aligned in the matter of reviving Kaguya Otsutsuki. Black Zetsu was dedicated to reviving Kaguya, while he was dedicated to using Kaguya as a consumable resource.

Naruto only needs one chance. As long as Black Zetsu cooperates with him to trap Kabuto for a few breaths, he is confident that he can swallow Kabuto's soul whole into the Death Reaper's belly.

"When will this war end?" Ino looked down at her growing belly with worry. "You're going to the battlefield again. Can't you find someone else?"

"I'd like to too," Naruto said, patting her head. "Let's wait a little longer. It won't be long. If I don't go to the top, am I supposed to send Lord Inoichi to the battlefield?"

Hearing this, Ino was somewhat moved. She didn't want Naruto to take risks, nor did she want to see her elderly father go to the battlefield.

Because Naruto went to the battlefield, Kakashi, seemingly out of consideration, also assigned Inoichi Yamanaka to Konohagakure. This was actually against the rules, Choza Akimichi and Shikaku Nara had already been active on the battlefield for some time.

The trio of Ino-Shika-Cho have always been inseparable, advancing and retreating together. How could the deer and butterfly both go to the battlefield while the rest of the Yamanaka Clan rests in the rear?

However, considering that Ino was pregnant and Inoichi Yamanaka only had this one daughter, Shikaku Nara and Choza Akimichi didn't care much, only Inoichi Yamanaka felt bad about it.

Inoichi Yamanaka is an honest man, but he's feeling uneasy, so he goes to the Hokage Building to work overtime Tenten. He doesn't really need to do that, but he's just that kind of awkward person.

"But I worry about you too, I'm afraid every day," Ino said with a sigh.

"I'll be back when I have time, what's there to worry about?" Naruto hugged Ino and comforted her. "There aren't many people in this world who can hurt me, and besides, you know me. At worst, I'll just run away."

"Okay." Ino pouted and muttered, "You have to stay safe and sound. We finally got a baby, and I don't want anything to happen to you."

"If anything happens to you, I won't..."

"Alright, alright, stop with the depressing talk," Naruto interrupted the spellcasting. "I'm actually very strong, and I still have many trump cards I haven't used yet. If you don't believe me, I'll..."

"No!" Ino grabbed him. "Your trump card is related to your life. Don't tell anyone. I just want you to be safe and sound."

"There's one more thing, how's Hinata doing lately?"

Upon hearing this, Naruto's heart skipped a beat. "What happened to Hinata?"

A hand reached out and pinched Naruto's ear. Ino angrily twisted it around, but didn't use much force, and said...

Do you really think I'm stupid?

"Although Konohagakure is not small, I have connections with Hinata. Even if she wanted to hide her pregnancy from me, she couldn't. I just don't want to talk to you."

"But I haven't been able to contact Hinata lately. You must have taken Hinata to some remote place and hidden her away. Do you think I don't know?"

"Hmph!" she snorted unhappily.

Naruto gasped. Sure enough, what was bound to happen would happen. There was no escaping it; he couldn't let Hinata and Ino never see each other again.

That would inevitably mean one of them would be living in a completely unfamiliar place, which would be too cruel, no matter who that person is. He naturally wouldn't do that; he could only try to resolve the situation with the worst-case scenario in mind.

"Well... in the Land of Snow, she and her child are doing quite well, and Hanabi is there too." Naruto downplayed the issue, "The main Hyuga Clan is too busy to protect Hinata."

"Hmph! You didn't need to send him to such a far place Land of Snow." Ino crossed her arms and glanced at Naruto. "It's so far away, I would definitely miss home."

"You're just taking advantage of Hinata's soft nature. If I were Hinata, I would smash your head in!"

"Yes, yes, yes." Naruto was already drenched in sweat.

"Seriously, were you even listening?" Ino couldn't help but pinch him, slightly annoyed. "How could you be so mean? You should visit them more often, you know?"

"Huh?" Naruto was dumbfounded.

This wasn't the direction he had anticipated; he had even planned out the most graceful way to perform a dogeza (a traditional Chinese prostration). After all, Ino and Hinata were the people he cared about most, and the conflict between them wasn't irreconcilable.

But... something seems off now. What's wrong with Ino?

"I know you're afraid I'll be unhappy, but you can't send Hinata that far away. She's probably not going to say anything, but you still have to spend some time with her, since her future children will have to call me stepmother."

"You can't be too biased. You come to my place every time you have free time; you have to..."

Ino was still rambling on and on, while Naruto looked down in disbelief, even wondering if he was hallucinating.

Time management finally paid off, albeit in some inexplicable way. But who cares, as long as it works, at least Ino's attitude has softened.

Naruto knew that all of this was not so easy to achieve, because of the double pregnancy and the unprecedented war in the Shinobi World, he was always at the forefront and in danger.

In this situation, things that were originally unacceptable don't seem so hard to accept anymore.

This is known as the broken windows theory. If you didn't want to break the windows initially, it doesn't seem so unacceptable to break the door when you decide to break the roof.

Ino knew very well that if something happened to Naruto, all the arguments would be meaningless. Even though she didn't want to share her boyfriend with anyone else, she now wanted to work with Hinata to hold Naruto back.

Thinking that something might happen to Naruto, and worried about the baby in Hinata's belly, she thought that the four of them might be able to pull through.

After becoming pregnant, she did tend to overthink things, but fortunately Naruto patiently made time for her every day, even immediately after returning from the battlefield.

Humans are made of flesh and blood, and over time, Ino couldn't help but be moved. However, she could never have guessed that Naruto's abilities weren't Ninjutsu, but rather a genuine cheat code.

Some things can be faked, but feelings can't. He genuinely cares about Ino and Hinata. Every effort he makes is simply to make them happy or to prevent conflict.

He never paid much attention to other people, or rather, he didn't care that much about them.

"Did you hear me?!" Ino was annoyed just looking at him, and couldn't help but pinch him again, huffing and puffing. "You're spacing out again for no reason!"

"I heard you, I heard you." Naruto feigned reluctance, afraid of giving himself away if he continued, and quickly changed the subject.

"The frontline operations are almost over, and Shikamaru and the others will probably be rotated out soon."

"Them?" Ino was stunned for a moment. "Why would they come down? If Uncle Shikaku and Uncle Chōza Akimichi don't come down, they'll stay there forever."

"Of course it was their father who made them withdraw. Uh, what do you think Shikamaru and Choji were like fighting on the front lines?" Naruto seemed to realize that Ino had some misunderstanding about those two.

"... Brave? Holding a very important position, dangerous but indispensable, etc." Ino seemed to realize the problem and asked hesitantly.

"You're overthinking it. How could it be dangerous?" Naruto waved his hand. "They are going to the battlefield, but since you're missing, they actually spend most of their time observing and learning on the battlefield."

"They didn't carry out any particularly dangerous missions, similar to Tenten and Rock Lee. Neji was also injured. So, the four of them are actually dispensable; Konohagakure doesn't need them."

"Once the situation on the battlefield becomes clearer, these guys will probably be replaced, which will give you more people to keep you company."

"Huh?" Ino couldn't help but cover her face, her romanticized view of the battlefield shattered. "Well, that's fine. The battlefield is dangerous after all. Oh, by the way, could you get me a towel?"

"Oh oh."

~~

With the White Zetsu retreating and disappearing without a trace, there was nothing to do on the battlefield for the time being, but it wasn't as easy as Naruto made it out to be. He only said that to appease Ino.

He revealed what was about to happen in advance because he was about to kill Kabuto was gone, the battle would naturally enter a stable phase.

He had planned everything: kill Kabuto, become Kabuto, and collect the remaining Tailed Beast. Then, he would awaken the sleeping Kaguya Otsutsuki and conduct containment research.

When the Otsutsuki Clan arrives in the Shinobi World, hell awaits them.

His original plan was not like this, because Naruto did not want to do everything himself and wait for the next "Child of Prophecy" to take over.

Unfortunately, after waiting for a long time, no good news came Jiraiya.

None of them were of any use, Naruto sighed inwardly. Returning to the edge of the battlefield, he stood on high ground looking down at the devastated battlefield, thinking to himself that being invincible was truly a lonely thing.

His achievements today are entirely due to his own hard work; the system is merely an embellishment.

[Task 4: Collect Nine Tailed Beasts (2/9), Reward: Evil God Item [Taint] (Potion of Chaotic Madness)]

He thought for a moment, realizing that Black Zetsu should also have a few Tailed Beast, which he would have to trick into giving away. The most troublesome Tailed Beast was actually only One-Tail Shukaku, which he would have to take from Gaara.

He had already made arrangements for this, and was just waiting for Temari to be ready. The way to persuade Temari was also very simple: tell her that Gaara, who has Tailed Beast inside him, will not live long, and will die suddenly in his thirties at most.

Then he'd spout nonsense like the Tailed Beast of the Five Great Nations would be dealt with in one fell swoop, and Temari naturally believed it. After all, while Naruto liked to make empty promises, he'd basically delivered on them all.

In reality, Naruto hadn't thought that far ahead; his idea was to get his hands on it first.

Another troublesome Tailed Beast is the Eight-Tails. The Fourth Raikage A, was also lucky enough to survive the battlefield. He considered Killer B as a brother and also valued the Nine-Tails highly, making him a difficult opponent.

If all else fails, we'll have to forcibly remove them.

"You're asking me why I didn't appear on the battlefield?" The Yugito Nii stared at Naruto for a while, looking at him like he was an idiot, before frowning and asking.

" With the Two-Tails gone, do you think I can be trusted?"

"It should be fine, right?" Naruto was a little embarrassed. He had just casually extracted the Two-Tails back then and hadn't thought much about it at all.

"They didn't doubt me, they just didn't use me." The Yugito Nii said with their arms crossed, their tone slightly indifferent. "When do you plan to make a move against Killer B Bee?"

"Soon."

"How fast?" The Yugito Nii were getting impatient.

"It's hard to say. We have to deal with Kabuto first." Naruto didn't hide anything from her. He had signed the Evil God Contract, Yugito Nii wouldn't betray him. "After that, you'll have to wait to extract the Tailed Beast from Killer B's body."

How much longer?

"Are you in a hurry?" Naruto, somewhat surprised, turning to look at his most capable subordinate.

"I want to be the Raikage." She frowned and said bluntly, "How can I convince the people if I'm useless in this war?"

"Even after I became the Fifth Raikage, I was still unable to manage Kumogakure. Darui was stronger than me, more trusted by the Raikage, and was one of the key figures in this war."

Upon hearing this, Naruto's expression finally turned serious. He had been so preoccupied with other matters that he had completely forgotten about this. If things continued this way, Yugito might indeed miss out on the Raikage's throne.

Not to mention that Naruto originally intended for Yugito Nii to become the Fifth Raikage, he had already promised to help her become the Fifth Raikage when Yugito Nii submitted her pledge of allegiance.

Naruto couldn't go back on his word. Although Yugito Nii had no way back, even if Naruto ignored her, she couldn't break the Evil God Contract.

But even Evil God are men of their word; they don't treat their own people like that.

After a moment's thought, Naruto had an idea.

"Alright, let's put the matter of killing Kabuto on hold for now. I'll find an opportunity to create chaos and extract the Eight-Tails from Killer B's body. As for Darui..."

"Don't worry about him. Darui is not your rival. You are devoted to Kumogakure. Once I help you become the Raikage, he will be your most capable subordinate."