More Tails, More Power

"Are these ninja from the other villages? Their clothes are so weird."

Izuno Akigiku leaned against the railing with both hands, looking down at the oddly dressed people below and unable to stop herself from commenting.

Naruto nodded slightly in agreement. That was true enough.

Konoha's overall fashion sense was fairly normal. As for Sunagakure, given their unique sandy, windy climate, it was understandable for them to wrap themselves in white cloth.

But what was going on with these Amegakure ninja?

Cosplay?

And they were cosplaying mermaids?

So gaudy...

"Hey! Some Sunagakure Ninja are causing trouble. Should we go deal with it?" Raimon Koshireki pointed toward a nearby alley and spoke with great interest.

Success was always the best way to build a man's confidence.

From the inexperience of their first C-rank Mission to now watching trouble unfold without fearing it would get worse, it was undoubtedly a sign of his confidence in his own strength.

"Huh? Naruto, your former teammate is getting beaten up. Are you going to help?" Izuno narrowed her eyes and quickly said.

"Hm? I don't think so?" Naruto blinked.

Sakura was only confronting two Sunagakure Ninja. It didn't look like she had been hit.

"Judging from her presence, I really don't see Sakura having the confidence to knock those Sunagakure Ninja to the ground. From the looks of it, she's about to get beaten up," Izuno commented critically.

Naruto nodded. She had a point, but just as he took a step forward, he stopped again.

"What is it?" Izuno asked. Naruto was not that petty. Besides, it had been Team Seven's instructor who kicked him out of Team Seven; Sakura had little to do with it.

Moreover, she had every reason to suspect that this guy had not taken being kicked out of Team Seven to heart at all.

That much was clear from the way both sides interacted whenever they ran into members of Team Seven.

Originally, she and Raimon had been prepared to avenge Naruto. But since the person involved did not care, they found it difficult to say much.

She remembered one time when she and Raimon had worried that Naruto was suppressing his feelings too deeply because of childhood trauma. They had even indirectly asked what he thought about the matter.

In the end, the two of them could only reach one conclusion: he genuinely did not care.

After thinking it over, they could only attribute this psychology, so different from that of ordinary people, to Naruto's childhood experiences.

"Her teammate is here." Naruto pointed at Sasuke, who was hiding behind a tree trunk.

"Oh my, that cool little pretty boy is still as aloof as ever." Izuno took a closer look. Good grief—a single pebble and two or three threats had frightened that Sunagakure Ninja stiff.

Just as expected of the Uchiha Clan!

To Naruto and Raimon, the Uchiha Clan might have been nothing more than an impressive-sounding name.

But to small Ninja Clans like theirs, it was an insurmountable mountain.

There had once been two such mountains, but the Senju Clan had completely merged into Konoha.

"Watch out for that guy carrying the gourd," Naruto suddenly said.

"The one with the gourd?" Izuno looked over. In the brief moment she had been distracted, another Sunagakure Ninja had appeared.

"Other than being even colder than that Uchiha Sasuke..." Raimon Koshireki scratched his head. Naruto saw things completely differently from them.

Many people looked ordinary enough, yet Naruto could always sense their danger.

And those instincts had always held up in practice.

During one C-rank Mission, they had nearly been ambushed by a Wandering Ninja hiding among the crowd. Naruto had spotted him at a glance and pulled them back from the brink.

"How dangerous is he?" Izuno trusted his judgment completely. It was not only trust in her teammate, but also trust in Naruto's past accomplishments.

"If you run into him during the Chunin Exams and I'm not there, find a way to save your own lives." Naruto's tone was grave.

In the eyes of the boy carrying the gourd, he saw something—an asura.

An asura who killed for the sake of killing.

People like that either died early at another's hands, or...

In his previous life, he had met an asura—someone who had been both teacher and friend to him...

"What is it?" Raimon asked nervously.

They knew the Chunin Exams would be difficult, but surely they would not be this hellish.

Naruto was powerful enough that even Hayate-sensei had openly admitted he was not certain he could defeat him.

If even such an absurdly powerful teammate wore such a solemn expression, then the gourd-carrying kid below was probably just as terrifying.

"Oh, I was thinking about some old memories." Naruto shook his head slightly.

Seeing the nervous expressions on his two teammates' faces, he was briefly taken aback. Then, recalling his state just now, he laughed inwardly.

They had probably been frightened by the expression on his face when he was reminiscing.

But that was not a bad thing.

A little pressure could become the motivation that drove them forward, keeping them from thinking they could rest easy just because he was around.

On the long road of their lives, he was merely a passerby.

He could only help them for part of the journey.

The rest of the road would ultimately have to be walked by themselves.

As the clashing groups below dispersed, Naruto said, "I'm heading out."

"Where to?" Raimon asked in confusion.

"Two days off. I have to find something interesting to do. Besides..." Naruto's gaze moved back and forth between the two of them as he teased, "If I stay any longer, someone might start thinking I'm in the way."

Their cheeks instantly flushed red.

"Cough, cough, cough..." Raimon looked everywhere but at them and coughed frantically.

"What are you talking about? I don't understand..." Izuno twisted the hem of her clothes and replied bashfully.

Naruto said nothing more, leaving the two of them plenty of space.

Plop!

Naruto skillfully flicked his fishing rod, and the hook wrapped in bait landed softly in the ravine.

Most of the fish here hid beneath the shadows of massive rocks. Compared to crudely knocking them unconscious with a wooden stick, fishing was far more practical.

Knowing when to relax and when to exert oneself was the superior path.

Meditation was also a form of relaxation, but it could not compare to a leisurely activity like this.

The current here was swift, and the fish had been tempered by it for a long time, making them even more delicious. Whenever he had enough time, he would come here to fish for a while.

"What do you think of that kid from today?"

Nine-Tails' voice suddenly sounded in the Mental Space, greatly surprising Naruto.

Over the years, he had managed to communicate with Nine-Tails a few times, but this was the first time the proud, tsundere fox had taken the initiative to speak with him.

Leaving part of his attention outside, Naruto cast the main body of his consciousness into the Mental Space.

"The kid carrying the gourd?" Naruto asked.

Nine-Tails lay lazily on the ground and answered with another question. "You noticed it too, didn't you? The aura around him."

"So that violent aura wasn't his." Naruto nodded slightly. Aside from the budding asura within the gourd-carrying boy, what had caught his attention the most was that inhuman, violent presence.

"He's the same kind of person as you."

"He's also the 'Nine-Tailed Demon Fox'?"

"How can that raccoon dog be mentioned in the same breath as me?" Nine-Tails sneered, clearly looking down on the thing inside the gourd-carrying child.

"A raccoon dog?" Naruto raised an eyebrow. What was that supposed to mean?

"You are both Jinchuriki. In your human terms, you are the Nine-Tails' Jinchuriki, while he is the One-Tail's Jinchuriki," Nine-Tails explained.

"Who's stronger, the One-Tail or the Nine-Tails?" Naruto asked with a smile.

"Who's stronger?" Nine-Tails' eyes widened at once as he pointed behind himself at the nine tails constantly surging through the air.

"Of course, whoever has more tails is stronger. As my Jinchuriki, you must remember that well."