A year and a half earlier, Mount Myōboku.
Ten-and-a-half-year-old Naruto Uzumaki spent five minutes "relearning" perfect Sage Mode.
"Unbelievable..." the old sage Fukasaku remarked from the side. Jiraiya, his left sleeve hanging empty, smiled and waved his right hand at Naruto atop the stone spire forest. "Hey—Naruto—it's time to go—we're heading to see the Great Toad Sage—"
From high above, Naruto shouted back, "Coming—" Bang! Before his final syllable had even faded, he dropped straight from the sky, smashing through several stone spires. Rubble covered the cracked ground beneath his feet, yet he was completely unharmed.
"This Sage Mode is way too insane..." Naruto shook out his arms, kicked his legs, and looked up at the height of the stone spires.
Fukasaku smiled. "In Sage Mode, your strength receives a tremendous boost..."
Naruto grinned. Beneath his red Sage eye markings, his blue eyes shone brightly. "Let's go, Pervy Sage... Get the key, and then..." Touching his stomach, he narrowed his eyes with a smile. "I need to have a proper fight with this guy!"
Hmph... Kurama lay inside the cage, barely lifting an eyelid.
At the Great Toad Sage's place.
"Hello, Great Sage!" Naruto enthusiastically greeted the enormous old toad sage.
Jiraiya was speechless. Why was his disciple just as rude as he was...? Fukasaku, following beside them, was thinking the exact same thing in silence...
The Great Toad Sage was ancient and feeble. He spoke weakly, "Mm... you two... what were your names again?"
Master and disciple both broke out in cold sweat. Jiraiya said helplessly, "Great Sage, I'm Jiraiya. This is my disciple, Naruto Uzumaki..."
No expression changed on the Great Toad Sage's deeply wrinkled face. As though nothing had happened, he continued, "Naruto... I saw you fighting side by side with the Nine-Tails... Gama Tora..."
He turned to a small, thin, tall toad beside him. "Give Naruto the key to the seal... I saw the moment he opened that technique... Jiraiya, you needn't worry... He won't fail..."
Naruto was not surprised in the slightest, while Jiraiya quietly let out a breath of relief.
"Time to eat—"
Naruto grabbed his chopsticks and reached down, but unexpectedly failed to lift anything... Opening his eyes, he discovered that his chopsticks were clamped around Fukasaku's white eyebrow. Fukasaku stared at him with an expression of utter pain.
Naruto stared back at him and fell silent. In the end, he awkwardly set down the chopsticks. "Good thing you haven't made noodles or anything yet..."
Fukasaku said helplessly, "There's a reason we reverse-summoned you here. The Great Toad Sage has made another prophecy about your future... Come on. Jiraiya is already waiting for you there..."
Naruto scratched his head and followed Fukasaku.
When they arrived in an open area, Naruto nodded to Jiraiya, Fukasaku, and Shima, then sat cross-legged and formed the Seal of Confrontation with both hands.
He did not move.
His mind became tranquil.
Very quickly, natural energy began gathering around Naruto from the surrounding environment, and two red markings slowly appeared around his eyes. By then, Naruto's consciousness had already entered that place...
Before the cage, Sage Mode Naruto smiled at Kurama. "We're starting now, Kurama!"
Kurama gave a scoffing laugh. "You're quite confident..."
Naruto smiled, then slowly turned serious. He held out his right hand. Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop. Five Chakra flames sprang from his fingers, and a mass of black Curse Marks appeared in his palm. Then he slammed his right hand onto his stomach...
Crack—
The sealed cage opened completely!
The Nine-Tails leaped out!
As red Chakra from the Nine-Tails continuously surged from Naruto's cross-legged body, Shima worriedly asked, "Will this be okay? The Nine-Tails' ominous Chakra is getting denser and denser..."
Fukasaku frowned deeply, but he trusted the Great Toad Sage's words.
Jiraiya remained silent, staring intently at Naruto, whose body was already half-covered in Demon Fox Chakra. Kushina's Chakra should be appearing soon...
"Mom..." Naruto stared fixedly at the red-haired woman before him. The not-yet-eleven-year-old boy's nose stung, and tears immediately rolled from his eyes.
Kushina stroked her son's golden hair, tears welling in her own eyes as she called tenderly, "Naruto..."
"Mom!!" Naruto could no longer hold himself back. With a cry, he threw himself into his mother's embrace.
It was so warm. His mother's embrace was even warmer than he remembered.
The tears would not stop.
This was happiness, wasn't it?
"I saw it all. Mom saw it all... Naruto... You did very well..." Kushina comforted her son with aching tenderness. From within Naruto, she had seen every experience he had gone through over the years.
She could imagine how lost, frightened, and worried her young son must have been after being struck by those sudden memories. Yet he had endured it. He had strengthened his resolve, used those memories to temper his will, and driven himself onward...
"You did well, Naruto... Your father and I are sorry..." Kushina's tears fell like raindrops as well. Resting her chin on Naruto's head, she spoke with deep guilt.
Her son was facing a sudden trial of fate, yet she and Minato could do nothing.
The her here was merely Sealing Jutsu Chakra carrying a fragment of her consciousness. Like the fragment of Minato's Sealing Jutsu Chakra within Naruto, she could do nothing except appear under specific circumstances and fulfill her mission. She was powerless.
But it was all right. It was enough that she could see Naruto, enough that she could tell him how much they loved him, enough that she could tell him how happy they were to be his parents...
The blood-red color in Naruto's eyes gradually faded, and countless Chakra chains suddenly burst from his back!
"Hmph, so you've come... Kushina..." The Nine-Tails, locked in a tug-of-war with Naruto, had naturally expected this all along.
Clarity returned to Naruto's eyes, and he smiled confidently. "I met my mom! Kurama! I'm going to defeat you! My mom is watching!"
"Hmph... Brat, calling for your mommy because you can't win..." the Nine-Tails said disdainfully. Though it intended to help Naruto temper his will, it had actually been holding back as well.
"Sage Art: Infinite Massive Rasengan Barrage!"
"Rasenshuriken!"
Naruto followed Fukasaku into the Great Toad Sage's hall.
Jiraiya was already there. Naruto greeted them naturally, "Yo, Pervy Sage! Hello, Great Toad Sage! Long time no see!"
Seeing that Naruto had arrived, the Great Toad Sage spoke. "I called you here today... mm... what were your names again?"
Master and disciple sweated profusely. History really did have an uncanny way of repeating itself.
"Great Sage, they are Jiraiya and Naruto, master and disciple..." This time, Fukasaku reminded the aged-to-the-point-of-decrepitude Great Toad Sage on behalf of the embarrassed pair.
The Great Toad Sage continued, "Mm, Naruto... Many prophecies concerning you... have appeared..."
Jiraiya and Naruto grew serious. The future... should be changing now, right?
"Before long... you will encounter a snake... and a tanuki... Though what I saw was not very clear, they were certainly the scales of a white snake and the markings of a tanuki..."
The Great Toad Sage truly spoke in fits and starts, making everyone worry that he might breathe his last at any moment:
"Later... you will meet a man with powerful eye techniques... After that, you will save the world with a youth possessing the same eye techniques..."
Jiraiya and Naruto exchanged a look.
The "snake" and "tanuki" were obvious to both master and disciple, and the "youth possessing the same eye techniques" who would save the world should be Sasuke Uchiha... But who was this "man with powerful eye techniques"? What man possessed the same eye techniques as Sasuke? Could it be Itachi Uchiha? Or was there someone else who would "save the world" alongside Naruto?!
Before you continue