The Fourth Hokage's Legacy Was the Nine-Tails!

At that thought, Hatake Kakashi immediately grew tense. If the Nine-Tails' chakra had loosened, then this was going to be a huge problem.

He remembered all too clearly how terrifying the Nine-Tails was. Twelve years ago, it had taken his teacher sacrificing himself to seal it away again. If the Nine-Tails escaped now, who could seal it?

The aged Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen?

And even if the Third Hokage could seal the Nine-Tails again, if it escaped, the current Nine-Tails Jinchuriki would die immediately. Where would Konoha find another Jinchuriki now?

Becoming a Tailed Beast's Jinchuriki was not that simple. You could not just grab any random person and expect them to endure it.

Every village's Jinchuriki had been carefully selected. None of them were ordinary people.

Not to mention that the Nine-Tails was the strongest and most terrifying of the nine Tailed Beasts. Even all the other Tailed Beasts combined were not as frightening as the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox. Ordinary people had no chance, no hope, of sealing such a monster for the long term.

Only members of the Uzumaki Clan could do it!

And now, the only known member of the Uzumaki Clan left was Uzumaki Naruto.

Fortunately, judging by what Kitahara Kaede had written, the Nine-Tails seemingly could not yet break free. Later, one of the Sannin, Jiraiya, would completely resolve the problem.

Then again, that made sense. If the Nine-Tails had escaped, how could Naruto have risen to the pinnacle of the Shinobi World? How could he have become the Savior of the Shinobi World?

Still, what he said between the lines was true. The Uzumaki Clan was famed for Fuinjutsu, but there was nowhere left to learn it now.

Come to think of it, the Uzumaki Clan had once been a renowned great clan and even possessed its own ninja village. Yet Kirigakure had wiped out their village. Compared with the Uchiha Clan, it was hard to say which had been more unfortunate.

But what did Konoha mean by bringing calamity upon itself?

What did this have to do with Konoha?

"The Nine-Tails? What is that?"

Compared to Hatake Kakashi, who knew more and thought further, Uchiha Sasuke knew very little. His clan had been exterminated too quickly, and much of the basic knowledge of the Shinobi World he should have known had become mysteries to him.

For instance, he had no idea what the Nine-Tails was. He only vaguely felt that he might have heard of it somewhere before.

But from what Kitahara Kaede was saying, this Dead Last actually had great talent. He had only become an idiot because something called the Nine-Tails had interfered with his chakra?

If that was the case, then it explained why such a Dead Last would eventually become the Savior of the entire world.

But why had he never heard of this Uzumaki Clan before? He had never heard anyone in the village mention the so-called Uzumaki Clan.

Could the Uzumaki Clan, like the Uchiha Clan, have already been wiped out?

And it must have happened before they were born. Otherwise, he would not have heard absolutely nothing about it.

By that logic, did that Dead Last not become an Orphan of his clan, just like him?

For some reason, Uchiha Sasuke suddenly felt a sense of empathy.

They were both survivors of great clans, except Naruto seemed even more miserable than he was. At least Sasuke still had his clan's inheritance left behind. Although little of it was in his hands now, it was still far better than what Uzumaki Naruto had.

He had heard that the Dead Last often could not even afford food.

Suddenly, Uchiha Sasuke thought of something.

The Nine-Tails, the Nine-Tails!

Earlier, Uchiha Itachi had said in the video that he had come for Naruto, for the so-called Fourth Hokage's legacy. Sasuke had never known what that meant, but now, was it possible that the Fourth Hokage's legacy was not something else at all, but this Nine-Tails?

What exactly was this Nine-Tails, that it made that man—no, the organization he belonged to—value it so highly that they even wanted to capture it?

He felt as though he had vaguely touched upon something.

After waiting a while longer without seeing any further updates from Kitahara Kaede, the two finally went off to rest.

The next day, Kitahara Kaede did not continue teaching Uzumaki Naruto. He had received a temporary mission that required him to leave the village.

This worked out well, too. Kitahara Kaede was worried that too much interference from him would cause Uzumaki Naruto to miss out on the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique. If Naruto really missed it, that would be a grave sin.

After all, this was the foundational technique that would allow Uzumaki Naruto to dominate the world in the future.

This technique had only truly found its rightful master in Uzumaki Naruto, who possessed one hundred times the chakra reserves from the very beginning.

Of course, what mattered most was that this world still needed its Savior to save it. The second-generation Savior, Uzumaki Boruto, was also Uzumaki Naruto's son. It all ran in the same line.

Thus, Kitahara Kaede did not want to alter the fixed future. After all, he could not possibly handle the Ōtsutsuki Clan descending en masse decades from now. Every one of them started at the Six Paths Level, and there were only a handful of people in the entire Shinobi World capable of dealing with them.

With his current strength, he was already considered quite skilled in the present-day Shinobi World. But against the Ōtsutsuki Clan, he would be Cannon Fodder who died instantly.

Forget the Ōtsutsuki Clan. Even against Uzumaki Nagato or any random Kage Level opponent, he could only turn and run for his life right now.

He still needed time to lie low and grow stronger.

Leaping through the branches, Kitahara Kaede, Soten Genryu, and Hyuga Keiko constantly moved through the forest. Even while traveling, they maintained a combat formation.

Suddenly, Kitahara Kaede stopped. He raised a clenched fist in a signal to halt, and the other two immediately stopped as well.

"What's wrong?" Soten Genryu asked.

"Let's rest for a while. Don't push yourselves to the limit while traveling," Kitahara Kaede said.

Today, they had received a B-Rank Mission: hunt down a Konoha Rogue Ninja named Suzuki Ryujin, whose strength had been assessed at the Elite Chunin level.

He had once been one of Orochimaru's followers. Later, when Orochimaru's defection from the village occurred, he fled Konoha to avoid being purged by Konoha's upper ranks.

He had remained unseen for years, but someone had recently spotted Suzuki Ryujin near the border of the Land of Fire. That was why Kitahara Kaede's team had been dispatched to hunt him down.

The mission document stated that it would be best to bring him back alive. If that was not possible, they were to bring back his corpse.

Kitahara Kaede found it a little strange. Generally, missions to hunt Rogue Ninja were handed to the Anbu, because they were the professionals.

Though all of them were ninja in theory, ninja were completely different from one another. The training Anbu received was entirely different from that of ordinary ninja.

A Rogue Ninja at the Elite Chunin level might have already broken through to Tokubetsu Jonin or even Jonin over all these years. Was it really appropriate to send only a Chunin team to deal with him?