Naruto, If You Don't Get Involved, What's the Point of Being Hokage!

However, once one relaxes, trying to start over again...

That is truly as difficult as ascending to heaven!

Naruto is currently in this very state.

Having finally enjoyed a full meal and shaken off his previous exhaustion, the system is forcing him to begin training immediately, which he finds truly unbearable.

[Warning! Baptism of Lightning Release countdown, 2... 1...]

[0!]

Naruto grits his teeth, simply unwilling to continue training. He has braced himself to be electrocuted, his muscles tensed all over, his facial features twisted into a knot...

The next instant.

Zzzzt—

Hum!!!

The Baptism of Lightning Release arrives right on schedule!

Violent electric currents instantly surge through his entire body. Naruto immediately feels as if all one hundred and thirty trillion cells in his body are being pricked by needles, followed by a total explosion!

This kind of intense agony is simply not something an ordinary person could endure.

Even with Naruto's extraordinary talent, even with the bloodline power of the Uzumaki clan, and even as the jinchuriki of Kurama, he still cannot offset this most direct form of pain.

"Ahhh—"

Naruto lets out a hysterical scream that echoes across the night sky of Konoha.

However, this is only the beginning...

[Baptism of Lightning Release continues...]

"Ahhhhhh—"

Relying on his final shred of stubbornness, Naruto attempts to withstand the Baptism of Lightning Release, yet he soon discovers his own naivety and childishness...

Clearly, this thing is not a one-time event.

As long as he does not cooperate, the "baptism" will continue to descend incessantly!

Who could stand this?!

Naruto still wants to fight to the death and seek life through death...

Suddenly.

"Damn you, Naruto! Hurry up and train!"

Naruto is startled.

"What voice is that?!"

"This isn't the voice of the system in my head..."

"You... who are you?!"

Inside Naruto's body, within the mental space of the Eight Trigrams Sealing Style.

The legendary natural disaster, the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox Kurama, who possesses the power to destroy the world, had been living a peaceful and uneventful life.

Ever since he was sealed by that damned Fourth Hokage Minato Namikaze many years ago, Kurama has been forced to live miserably inside the body of this brat, Naruto, without any freedom.

Although this life is painful, as time passed, Kurama gradually grew accustomed to it and was forced to accept it.

Even so, he has never given up hope in his heart.

Leaking chakra through the Eight Trigrams Sealing Style, while part of Minato Namikaze's calculated plan, is also a double-edged sword.

His own chakra is extremely evil and filled with malice, which will subtly influence Naruto's will.

If this continues, eventually he will lose control completely, giving Kurama the chance to seize his body, escape, and regain his freedom!

Although the time might be very long, for a Tailed Beast like Kurama who has no concept of death, can constantly be reborn, and has already lived for thousands of years, this is nothing.

However, those peaceful days were suddenly shattered.

On this day, Kurama was still fast asleep in the mental sealing space.

He hadn't provoked anyone, nor had he bothered anyone.

Suddenly...

Zzzzt—

Rumble!

Violent thunderbolts descended from the sky, striking him while he slept and leaving him charred and tender!

Even Kurama, who strikes fear into the entire ninja world, cannot help but scream repeatedly, suffering beyond measure!

This power of the Baptism of Lightning Release seems to transcend everything, descending directly upon both body and spirit, making it utterly impossible to endure!

In both pain and rage, Kurama immediately wants to find out exactly what is happening.

Soon, he discovered that a thing called a "System" had appeared on Naruto.

Even Kurama had no idea what this thing was.

However, the power of this gadget was inconceivable, possessing unimaginable might!

It forced Naruto to train with desperate, life-risking intensity; the moment he disobeyed, it would immediately issue a warning and trigger the so-called Baptism of Lightning Release!

Upon realizing this, Kurama was both shocked and furious!

Whether Naruto worked hard or not didn't matter, and whether he became Hokage was none of his business, but you couldn't electrocute him while dragging me into it too!

Kurama was, of course, far more powerful than Naruto.

However, for one, he was only half of the Yang Kurama chakra, and for another, his power was already suppressed and bound by the Eight Trigrams Sealing Style. Furthermore, this Baptism of Lightning Release was essentially "true damage"—it ignored all defenses and struck directly at the soul!

Consequently, the pain Kurama endured was even greater than Naruto's!

He had never wanted to pay any attention to this brat, but now, he had no choice but to keep his fur standing on end at all times, monitoring Naruto's every move.

Every time the System's warning sounded, Kurama couldn't help but shudder!

Fortunately, Naruto was equally terrified of that pain, and throughout the day, he had been training with desperate effort.

This allowed Kurama to breathe a sigh of relief.

But now...

After a dinner, this bastard Naruto had actually started to resist, courting death!

Before Kurama could even react.

Violent lightning currents had already struck down fiercely once more!

Instantly, his fur was blasted apart, terrifying electricity surged through his entire body, and the intense pain was so great that even he, a thousand-year-old fox, couldn't stand it...

What was even more terrifying was...

That bastard Naruto was still being stubborn!

Thus, the second wave of the baptism descended immediately!

Kurama's pain was even greater than Naruto's!

He could endure it, but Kurama could no longer hold back, so for the first time in history, he roared out at Naruto.

"Damn you, Naruto! Hurry up and train!"

"And you, you damned System!"

"If the brat isn't working hard, electrocute him! Why are you electrocuting me?!"

Although Naruto had vaguely known that some kind of monster seemed to be hidden within him.

It was only now that he truly confirmed it.

"You... who are you?!"

Enduring the Baptism of Lightning Release, Kurama roared angrily: "You wretched brat!"

"Stop the nonsense! Start training immediately!"

In truth, Naruto couldn't take it anymore either. Despite being panicked, he still instinctively shouted: "Alright, alright, alright! I get it!"

"I'll train, won't I!"

The System's punishment stopped instantly.

Naruto gasped for air, having exhausted much of the strength he had just recovered...

He dared not be stubborn again and immediately began practicing the Chakra Refinement Technique.

Fortunately, he had already been training for a day; whether during lunch or every break between classes, Naruto had never stopped refining his chakra.

By now, his proficiency in the Chakra Refinement Technique had already broken through 60!

This was his first subject to reach a passing grade.

Therefore, Naruto entered the state of Chakra Refinement Technique much more smoothly than he had imagined.

The efficiency was even beyond his expectations...

"Huh?!"

"Since when did my Chakra Refinement Technique become so impressive?!"

Although Naruto was still shaken, sensing his own progress, he couldn't help but feel a mix of pain and joy...

Kurama, however, was in a much worse state than him.

At this moment, his fur was blasted and disheveled, his eyes were wide with rage, and his pair of fox pupils were completely blood-red, burning with intense flames!

"Damn it..."

"If this continues, before I can even seize this brat's body, I'm afraid I'll be electrocuted to death myself!"

"That damned System, what on earth is its origin?"

"I have lived for over a thousand years, yet I have never heard of such an existence..."

Kurama thought irritably, then forced himself to calm down.

"Should I... have a proper talk with that brat?"

"No... forget it, I will never trust a human!"

"However, I do not wish to experience another Baptism of Lightning Release..."

"It seems I have no choice but to cooperate with that bastard brat for the time being..."

For years, Kurama had been exploiting the "loopholes" in the Eight Trigrams Sealing Style to continuously leak his chakra and malice toward Naruto.

Although this was the original intention of Minato Namikaze, hoping that Naruto would gradually master the Nine-Tails' chakra for his own use, at this initial stage, it was actually having a disruptive, counterproductive effect on Naruto's training.

A large part of the reason Naruto was labeled a dead-last was precisely because of this.

However...

Now that Kurama feared the Baptism of Lightning Release and intended to stop recklessly disrupting Naruto's chakra and training, he had effectively solved this problem at its source.

This was a change that even the system could not have foreseen.

"Huh?"

"What's going on?"

"My chakra extraction seems to have become much smoother?"

"That feeling of being interrupted that I always had before... it seems to have completely vanished!"

Naruto was overjoyed. His proficiency in the Chakra Refinement Technique had already broken through 60 points, and now, without that external interference, his efficiency in extracting chakra had increased significantly!

Counting the entire day, plus two hours at noon and over an hour during several breaks between classes, he was still a long way off from reaching eight hours.