Where is the puddle? I'm asking you, where is the puddle?

Sakura had a vague sense of foreboding.

"We can't let our guard down. This time, leaving the village, we need to pay close attention to anything that deviates from the original story."

Naruto nodded calmly, "Don't worry, I can descend into my mental space instantly now."

If an emergency arose, he'd just have Nine-Tails pay the rent.

At worst, he'd tear off the seal on the Gate of Opening as a show, it could always be reattached.

Soon, the day to catch the cat arrived.

The genin trio's taijutsu had improved significantly compared to the original story, so the kitten was quickly grabbed by its scruff by Naruto.

Seeing the kitten baring its teeth and claws, about to scratch Naruto's face, Naruto immediately declared he wanted to learn from Pan Hong and feed the kitten dragon fruit, but Sakura stopped him.

The terrified kitten was successfully handed over to the Daimyo's wife.

Naruto then seized the opportunity to start causing trouble.

He sat cross-legged, stretched lazily, and then said slowly, "Is this the village's mission? It truly has no technical skill involved."

Iruka, sitting next to the Third Hokage, roared in anger, "Idiot! You guys don't have any experience!"

"You need to gain experience by starting with simple missions, everyone goes through this!"

"Who is 'everyone'? I don't know them," Naruto scratched his eyebrow. "I only know I can catch a month's worth of cats in a single day. The person next to me is practicing Water Style Jutsu, and Sasuke, not to mention, he's already mastered all the Uchiha clan's Fire Style Jutsu before graduation."

It's worth noting that Sakura's chakra nature includes water. To grind the Land of Waves dungeon, she had already started practicing some standard Water Style Jutsu.

"Heh, it's good for young people to be ambitious," Hiruzen, standing nearby, exhaled a smoke ring and was about to explain Konoha's mission ranking system to them.

Naruto interrupted Hiruzen's spellcasting, "Stop. We know all that. Assign us C-Rank Missions. Otherwise, give us all of this year's D-Rank Missions, and we'll finish the quota early and get a year-end holiday."

Kakashi could barely keep his composure and tried to grab Naruto, but the latter anticipated his anticipation and dispelled his Shadow Clone.

His main body, however, was secretly observing the Land of Waves NPC, Tazuna, from behind the door.

Naruto hid in a blind spot behind the wall, carefully observing a slightly tipsy Tazuna pacing back and forth.

His posture and expression showed no signs of being possessed; he seemed fine.

After a few more moments, Tazuna heard Hiruzen's command and pushed the door open to enter the house.

Naruto immediately left and headed to the Konoha Ninja Tool Shop to purchase ninja tools, mostly items like Explosive Tags and Soldier Pills that could provide a significant burst of power at once, ensuring that during chakra fatigue periods, they could implement saturation bombing on enemies.

Meanwhile.

"I'm sorry, Lord Hokage, I'll talk to Naruto later." Kakashi said apologetically.

"Mm, in any case, your mission is to protect Mr. Tazuna and ensure he can complete the bridge construction smoothly." Hiruzen nodded calmly.

Before this, Kakashi had already had several private chats with Hiruzen.

Regarding Naruto's recent abnormal behavior, Hiruzen instructed Kakashi to observe him secretly, figure out Naruto's demands, and at the same time, not cause too much of a stir to avoid Danzo's hawk-eyed subordinates getting any ideas.

It was for this reason that he hadn't pursued the matter of Naruto and Sasuke beating people up too aggressively a while ago.

After a while longer, at the entrance of Konoha village.

"Help me carry some." Naruto skillfully threw a ninja tool bag to Sakura, and another to Sasuke.

He had already spoken to the two of them in advance.

"You guys are quite well-prepared," Kakashi said calmly on the surface, feeling a bit surprised internally.

Is this still that careless dead last?

"Whoa, this little runt is quite cautious," Tazuna muttered, exhaling a breath of alcohol towards Naruto.

Naruto glanced sideways, "Whoa, this old drunkard is quite the actor."

"Naruto!" Sakura chided angrily, apologizing to Tazuna, "How can you speak like that to a senior? Sorry, uncle, please don't act crazy while drunk."

Naruto shrank back, "Ah, yes, yes, uncle, don't hit me, I'll buy you drinks later."

Tazuna's face turned green and white. So you're going to pin all the blame on me?

Sasuke's expression was blank, signaling for the group to hurry up and depart.

Rustle, rustle...

Kakashi began chatting with Tazuna, discussing the Land of Waves.

Naruto and Sakura, meanwhile, were paying attention to the ditches on the ground.

According to the original plot, the first two enemies to attack Tazuna would hide in the puddles by the roadside and ambush them from behind.

Rustle, rustle...

After a long while.

Sasuke, Kakashi, and Tazuna's expressions remained normal.

Something's wrong...

Something is 114514% wrong.

Where are the puddles? I'm asking you, where are the puddles?

Sakura glanced at Naruto, her right fist slowly clenching, her fingertips turning pale.

The worst-case scenario had happened.

Another Transmigrator was involved, altering the plot?

Naruto faced the situation like a formidable enemy. Without hesitation, he immediately dived into his spiritual space.

He wouldn't give the enemy any chance to react; he had to activate his biggest cheat right now.

As if suddenly moving from land into deep water, Naruto's body experienced about a second of pressure. When he opened his eyes again, he was in his spiritual space.

The dim yellow surroundings didn't affect Naruto's rapid footsteps. He quickly arrived at the Nine-Tails' location.

"Brother Nine-Tails, here's your chance to show your worth," Naruto said directly. "Lend me some of your Chakra to play with. Not much, just a tiny bit."

The Nine-Tails slowly rolled over, ignoring Naruto.

During this time, he had endured Naruto's incessant blabbering like a mountain flood. To get some peace, he had decided to play dead recently.

Truly an evil human. The moment the seal is broken, I'll rip your mouth apart!

Seeing this, Naruto wasn't surprised. He directly leaped to the entrance and began tearing at the talismans on the door.

Hearing the noise, the Nine-Tails immediately turned around.

"Kid, are you in trouble?" the Nine-Tails asked with a low chuckle.

"Just tell me if you're going to give it or not," Naruto stopped his actions.

"Hehehehehe..." The Nine-Tails revealed its massive white teeth. "Arrogant! You've belittled me for so long, and now you want to take advantage of me!"

"Arrogant Brother can go sit with Cloud Mountain," Naruto said expressionlessly. "Give me a straight answer. If you don't pay rent, you'll rot inside me. Anyway, you're only half the Nine-Tails. At worst, I'll go find the other half."

The Nine-Tails' pupils contracted. "You actually know I'm only half?"

"I also know that if you keep yapping, I'll go to the Waterfall of Truth and drain all your Chakra, then turn you into dried fox meat."

Naruto wasn't joking. In the original story, Naruto did exactly that before the Fourth Shinobi World War began.

The Nine-Tails fell silent. It couldn't understand why this brat knew so much about Tailed Beasts.

He was supposed to be just its vessel...

The human and the fox were in a stalemate for the moment.

Meanwhile, while Naruto and the Nine-Tails were negotiating, a sudden change occurred!

A thin mist began to drift around, gradually obscuring the vision of those present.

Mist Technique!