Leaving the Village

To avoid any complications, the two departed quickly, and Konoha had a general idea of the Sannin's locations.

"Where is Tsunade?"

Uzumaki Naruto asked.

"Land of Hot Water."

The Land of Hot Water was a tourist destination, most famous for its hot springs and gambling dens.

Back in Konoha, school resumed the next day, but two students were missing from the class.

One was Sasuke Uchiha, and the other was Uzumaki Naruto.

Hinata noticed Naruto was absent and grew worried; after school, she went to Naruto's home and knocked on the door.

She heard no sound.

Anxious, she activated her Byakugan to observe.

"Naruto-kun isn't here?"

On the other side, Danzo was flying into a rage.

Everything had been going well, and with a little more effort, he could have completely exterminated the Uchiha clan.

But the two elders opposed him, wanting to leave the matter for the next Hokage to handle.

This made Danzo even angrier; he had used up his trump card just to deal with the Uchiha clan.

That was the Mangekyo Sharingan of Kagami Uchiha.

A pair of Mangekyo had been rendered useless just to kill Fugaku Uchiha.

After arguing with his two old friends, Danzo was still fuming, but when he returned to Root, something that made him even angrier occurred.

The Mangekyo he had collected had vanished.

"Say that again." Danzo's cold, sinister gaze locked onto his subordinates.

If not for the current shortage of manpower, he would have killed every one of them.

The men below trembled.

"Lord Danzo, a masked, one-eyed Uchiha broke in here and stole the eyes we had collected."

"A one-eyed Uchiha?"

Danzo was puzzled, and one person surfaced in his mind: the Nine-Tails incident.

"Yes, the opponent possessed the Mangekyo Sharingan and used space-time ninjutsu; we couldn't even touch him."

The subordinates kept their heads low, their voices trembling.

These events were, of course, all arranged by Uzumaki Naruto.

In this world, information was paramount; as long as one had intelligence on the opponent, one could formulate a countermeasure.

Danzo had seen the intelligence regarding the masked man and knew these people were not lying, but he was deeply unwilling to accept that the collected Mangekyo were just gone.

The cold malice in his eyes was impossible to hide.

"Those Uchiha all deserve to die."

Meanwhile, on Naruto's side, the two had been traveling for a day, and at night, they sat by a campfire in the forest.

Jiraiya held a pen and notebook, recording the inspirations flashing through his mind.

Naruto closed his eyes, his consciousness entering the Sealing Space.

The space had changed completely; in the golden expanse, the massive Nine-Tails lay there lazily.

"Hey, brat Naruto, you're here."

Seeing Naruto arrive, the Nine-Tails opened its eyes, the violence gone from them.

"Yeah, how are you holding up?"

Naruto asked.

"Same as always."

The Nine-Tails replied.

"You still need to recover as quickly as possible."

"Don't worry, you should spend more time thinking about how to increase your own strength."

The Nine-Tails looked at Naruto, its gaze like that of an old friend of many years.

Naruto was very satisfied to see the Nine-Tails like this.

Originally, in Naruto's plan, he was going to erase the Nine-Tails' memories.

But when it came time to act, a flash of inspiration gave him a better idea.

Implanting memories into the Nine-Tails.

He took those experiences from the original story and forged them into memories to be added to the Nine-Tails' own.

At the same time, he provided the Nine-Tails with a motive: both of them were transmigrators who had traveled back from a future world where they had been defeated by Kaguya Otsutsuki and chose to start over.

That was the reason for the current scene.

Such a scenario was far more logical.

It ensured the Nine-Tails wouldn't spot a single flaw.

"Don't worry, you should worry about yourself instead."

Naruto Uzumaki had planned everything out in meticulous detail, so he wasn't worried in the slightest.

Upon hearing Naruto Uzumaki's words, the Nine-Tails fell into deep thought.

Could the Nine-Tails become stronger? Naturally, it could.

That would mean becoming the Ten-Tails, but to become the Ten-Tails, it would have to devour the other Eight Tailed Beasts.

"Naruto Uzumaki, must we really do this?"

The Nine-Tails frowned.

"That depends on you. If you can find a way to grow stronger on your own, that's not out of the question either."

There was no doubt that the Tailed Beasts had grown much stronger compared to a thousand years ago; this proved that the Tailed Beasts were capable of continued growth.

However, the Nine-Tails itself had no idea how to achieve that.

"Think of a way yourself."

Naruto Uzumaki naturally had a method, but now was not the time to reveal it.

His consciousness returned to his body.

Jiraiya was squatting right in front of him.

"What are you doing?"

This gave Naruto Uzumaki a start.

"Tsk tsk, what were you doing just now?"

"Entering the Sealing Space."

"How is the Nine-Tails?"

Hearing this, Jiraiya became interested.

"The Nine-Tails' soul suffered heavy damage and it has fallen into a deep slumber. I can borrow a portion of its power now."

Naruto Uzumaki lied through his teeth.

"Show me."

Jiraiya was quite interested in that mode of Naruto Uzumaki's.

"Alright."

Naruto Uzumaki didn't hide anything regarding this.

[Nine-Tails Chakra Mode]

In an instant, golden flames enveloped Naruto Uzumaki's entire body.

A brilliant, golden Naruto Uzumaki appeared before Jiraiya.

Jiraiya's pupils constricted, and he instinctively took a few steps back.

This amount of chakra was even more powerful than when he entered Sage Mode.

Naruto Uzumaki moved his hands and looked at himself; he had to admit, this mode looked quite cool.

Next is to find a way to get the other half of the Nine-Tails back.

And then, the chakra of the other Tailed Beasts.

For others, there was only one way to enter Six Paths Mode, which was to fuse all chakra natures, but that was nearly impossible.

A ninja's lifespan was inherently short, and fusing all natures was fundamentally impossible, so ninjas without the bloodline could basically never enter Six Paths Mode.

For Naruto Uzumaki, however, it was simple: collect the chakra of all the Tailed Beasts, and he could enter Six Paths Mode.

Or, become the jinchuriki of the Ten-Tails.

However, the Ten-Tails was bound to Kaguya Otsutsuki, and becoming the Ten-Tails was far too dangerous.

"Hey kid, can you control this power?"

Jiraiya asked curiously.

Naruto Uzumaki frowned and tried to take a step, and the ground collapsed instantly.

He had crushed a three-meter-wide crater into the earth beneath his feet.

Naruto Uzumaki furrowed his brows.

Jiraiya's eyelids twitched, and he immediately stepped back.

It would be no exaggeration to say that Naruto Uzumaki's current state was that of a human-shaped Tailed Beast.

"Kid, you'd better retract this mode of yours first."

He hadn't felt much a moment ago, but now Jiraiya realized he might be standing a bit too close to this Tailed Beast.

Naruto Uzumaki felt a headache coming on after hearing that.

If I activate Triple Inversion, I should be able to control this power.

No, that's not right. It seems I still need to practice more control.

Naruto Uzumaki frowned in thought.

He pondered in his heart how he could train his control.

"Alright, kid, I'll teach you a method."

Just as Naruto Uzumaki was still deep in thought, Jiraiya spoke up.

Naruto Uzumaki looked puzzled.

He watched as Jiraiya performed a ninjutsu, his hair growing long and then moving to write characters on the ground.