When Yuzuru opened his eyes again, he realized he had somehow entered the "Nine-Tails' Rampage" instance once more.
"What? Did I sleep too deeply? I entered the instance without meaning to... But if I count it up, the instance's cooldown has indeed ended."
"But I'm sleeping in a tree hollow in the Land of Rain right now. Isn't entering the instance too dangerous?"
Yuzuru was currently alone in the Land of Rain, so entering the instance now certainly carried some risk. Still, he felt it would be a shame to quit immediately. That would be the same as wasting an opportunity.
At this stage, the boost from entering an instance even once might well determine whether he lived or died... Forget it. He might as well be bold. If there was a chance to take a gamble, he had to take it.
Yuzuru made his decision quickly. Since he had entered the instance, he couldn't leave empty-handed.
After a little thought, he quickly settled on the order of his actions, hoping to maximize his gains... Setting aside those intangible rewards that existed only as possibilities, the key was to first secure the rewards he could actually get his hands on.
That said, although time spent acting in the instance was precious, Yuzuru still decided to do one thing first.
The Nine-Tails appeared on schedule once more and began wreaking havoc. All of Konoha fell into chaos, and the ninja ran around like headless flies.
Yuzuru was already fairly familiar with this instance. He hurried to a certain spot and waited quietly for a while. Then he looked up at the moon and began counting to three.
Whoosh—a masked Anbu Ninja hurried past not far in front of him.
"Anbu! Anbu Ninja! I have important information!"
Yuzuru's shout made the Anbu Ninja stop. Though he was in a great hurry, the words "important information" still caught his attention.
"What is it?"
"Orochimaru! I saw Lord Orochimaru break into the secret jutsu archive in the Hokage office building! Several of the ninja guarding it have already been killed! He's going to steal forbidden jutsu!"
"What? That's impossible. Lord Orochimaru is the Third Hokage's student, one of the Sannin..."
Boom!
Just as the Anbu Ninja was about to verify the report, the Nine-Tails rampaged in the distance, sweeping down a row of buildings like dominoes. A cloud of dust blocked the Anbu Ninja's view.
When the dust had settled a little, the ninja across from him was nowhere to be seen.
"Could Orochimaru really have taken advantage of the chaos...? Damn it! Chaos on top of chaos!"
The Anbu Ninja cursed under his breath. Though he didn't want to believe it, he had no choice but to report the information to the Hokage.
After giving that Anbu Ninja the information, Yuzuru simply left. To be honest, doing this was pointless and brought him no benefit at all. It was a pure waste of time, but... well, it felt good to get it off his chest.
Orochimaru needed to learn that stabbing people at random came with a price.
Next, Yuzuru repeated the same trick, recreating what he had done two instances ago. He went straight to where the Fourth Hokage was going to seal the Nine-Tails again.
Then...
"Lady Kushina! Kushina Uzumaki! Please hold on! I'm here to save you!"
Yuzuru began stuffing filling into the wound in Kushina Uzumaki's abdomen.
"You... young... man... don't... fumble around..."
The still-living Fourth Hokage was once again shocked by Yuzuru's actions. What the hell was this supposed to be, saving someone?
"Lord Hokage, right, you too..."
In theory, Yuzuru could no longer gain experience points from the Hokage, but he had nothing better to do, so he decided to give it a try.
You delivered a fatal blow to the important instance character Kushina Uzumaki by extremely despicable means. You received a score of 0.3. Your score does not affect your rewards. One of your stats has increased significantly... Chakra: Lv. 5 → Lv. 9. You have obtained jonin-level chakra. Chakra reserves are measured in units commonly known as "cards." Congratulations, you have surpassed one card. You have acquired a new skill: Contract Seal (Mastered).
The moment Kushina Uzumaki stopped breathing, the quality and quantity of Yuzuru's chakra surged, taking him directly to level nine.
This chakra level was certainly good, but... did level nine mean "nine points of vitality and spirit"? That did mean he had surpassed one card. The unfortunate thing was that some people could reach ten in vitality and spirit because their chakra reserves were high enough, while others could reach ten because ten was the highest possible stat.
The clearest example was that Orochimaru and Itachi Uchiha both later had a ten in Genjutsu, but the result of their battle... If there was such a gap between two tens, then the gap between a nine and a ten was even more enormous. It wasn't even close.
Besides the increase in chakra reserves, Yuzuru had also learned a Sealing Jutsu called the Contract Seal. If he remembered correctly, the jutsu could temporarily sever the connection between a summoner and their Summoning Beast... It was a rather useful Sealing Jutsu, but one that wouldn't normally come in handy.
The rewards Yuzuru had gained from Kushina Uzumaki were, on average, inferior to what he had gained from the Fourth Hokage. But the boost to his chakra reserves helped him enormously.
In short, spreading points evenly couldn't compare to excelling in one area.
Unfortunately, each person only had rewards to give once. After the Fourth Hokage stopped breathing, Yuzuru gained nothing at all... This time, the Fourth Hokage dropped neither experience points nor a skill.
Yuzuru didn't linger. He simply checked what he had gained, then immediately used the Body Flicker Technique to leave.
He still had other things to do, so he couldn't run into the Anbu Ninja who were breaking through the seal and heading there.
But after leaving the area and seeing the Anbu Ninja take control of the scene, he suddenly stopped... because he had just realized something.
The instance had a main mission: kill or seal the Nine-Tails. If he assassinated the infant Naruto, would that count as killing the Nine-Tails? Would it count as completing the mission?
He really was milking the Fourth Hokage's whole family for all they were worth. This was definitely worth trying, but... forget it. There was no time this round. He would have to wait for another chance.
The Fourth Hokage and his wife were dead, and the Nine-Tails had been sealed again, but that didn't mean the Nine-Tails' Rampage was over. The Hokage's death was a major event, and the chaos wouldn't die down before daylight.
Yuzuru quickly returned to Konoha. The chakra coursing through him let him use the Body Flicker Technique more frequently.
As soon as he made his way deeper into Konoha, he spotted a commotion near the Hokage office building... If nothing unexpected had happened, the Third Hokage and Orochimaru should be fighting.
Orochimaru had broken into the secret jutsu archive and killed Anbu Ninja. Now that he had been caught in the act, even the indecisive Third Hokage couldn't protect him.
Orochimaru was tied up, which meant Yuzuru had plenty of time to act. He quickly slipped underground and headed straight for "Orochimaru's Underground Laboratory."
Deep underground, dark and gloomy, lay Konoha's darkest secrets.
Yuzuru ran boldly through the underground passage. Now that the Nine-Tails had been sealed again and the worst of the turmoil had ended, the "Root," which had kept still, finally began to move.
Danzo knew how to seize the moment.
Yuzuru's bold actions underground had turned out well by sheer luck; no one would interfere with him down there. But to his surprise, when he arrived at the designated location, the supposedly secret laboratory stood wide open.
There seemed to be no security measures at all. It was as if what was being conducted inside wasn't some shameful, forbidden experiment, but a great undertaking that deserved to be announced to everyone.
But who cared what traps might be inside? Yuzuru didn't give it a second thought and stepped right in.
Before you continue