After the War (2)

The present-day Konoha was battered and ruined, filled with the smoky scent left behind by war.

Women wept, men offered quiet comfort, and children looked on in innocent confusion...

The youngsters watched this scene with dazed expressions. Was this really the Konoha they knew?

"This is war." Kakashi's tone was calm, the kind of calm that came from loathing something so deeply that it no longer stirred any emotion.

Shikamaru and the others looked thoughtful, seeming to gain a deeper understanding of "war," a term they had once admired.

Strategizing from behind the curtains, deciding victory a thousand miles away, the weight of blood and honor—those things seemed to have made them overlook the fact that death and separation were the true refrain of war.

After watching Kakashi lead the others to the hospital for treatment, Naruto slowly made his way back to where he lived.

Perhaps because he was the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, the relief housing the village had assigned him was not in an especially prime location, but it was fairly close to the center of the village.

As a result, the war had not reached his residence this time.

Shadow Clone Naruto gently pushed open the door and asked the original body inside the room, "Did you find it?"

Naruto shook his head lightly. There had indeed been quite a bit of important intelligence at the location Kabuto Yakushi had mentioned, but none of it was what he wanted.

"Prepare yourself. The strain this time might be a little intense," the Shadow Clone said with a soft exhale.

Although Shadow Clones were incredibly useful, their side effects were no small matter. As the number of clones increased, so did the burden on the original body.

Fortunately, he was the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki. Otherwise, with how frequently he used Shadow Clones, his body would have collapsed long ago.

"Mm..." Naruto's face turned slightly pale. Though he had anticipated the pressure being transmitted from the clone this time, it still exceeded his expectations.

Normally, no matter what, the chakra carried by a Shadow Clone could not exceed that of his original body. So no matter how wildly he used them, the strain on his body would remain within tolerable limits.

But this time, with Kurama supplying chakra, the Shadow Clone's chakra consumption had multiplied several times over. Naturally, the pressure had increased accordingly.

Good thing this original body hadn't done anything major.

After a long while, Naruto grumbled to himself inwardly.

Even his almost freakish physical constitution had nearly failed to endure it. One could imagine just how much pressure this Shadow Clone had generated.

Still, it was understandable. There had been a long-distance dash, several battles, multiple instances of exhausting all his chakra, and in the end, under Kurama's reckless meddling, it had even formed a Tailed Beast Bomb.

The fact that his Shadow Clone had not dispersed outright already showed remarkable resilience.

Inside the Mental Space, Naruto complained to the big fellow before him, "Kurama, you got a little too carried away this time."

"Your physical condition is just too poor. You only received a little of my power, and you already couldn't take it," Kurama said, looking down at his Jinchuriki with open disdain.

He had never encountered a Jinchuriki with such poor physical capabilities.

Whether it was the first Jinchuriki, Mito Uzumaki, or the second, Kushina Uzumaki, which one of them had not been a monster who forcibly pinned him down in the sealing space and forcibly extracted his chakra?

This third Jinchuriki was a complete Waterloo.

He had even filtered out the negative emotions in his chakra. Compared with the previous two Jinchuriki, the pressure was unprecedentedly low, yet Naruto could only bear this much power. How was he supposed to hold his fox head high before the other Tailed Beasts if word got out?

"...I understand. I'll increase the intensity of my physical training from now on." Naruto could not help covering his face.

It really was his fault.

But what could he do? This body was only twelve years old. He simply did not dare make a training regimen too harsh, lest it affect this body's development.

Give him another three years—no, two years—and he would be confident of bearing the weight of the Nine-Tails' chakra.

"This is what you should have done long ago. As my Jinchuriki, and a descendant of the Uzumaki Clan at that, could you have a little more confidence in your body's endurance?" Kurama did not even know what to say anymore.

Whether it was Naruto's identity as the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki or as a descendant of the Uzumaki Clan, either one should have supported him through high-intensity training.

"A descendant of the Uzumaki Clan?" Naruto froze. Of course, he was familiar with Uzumaki—it was his own surname, after all.

But this was the first time he had heard that his surname belonged to such a prominent clan.

"Your father was the Fourth Hokage, after all. As the Fourth Hokage's wife, how could your mother have an ordinary background?" Kurama said.

"...Is that so?" Naruto nodded slightly.

"By the way, can you communicate remotely with my Shadow Clones?" Naruto asked, recalling Kurama's assistance during the battle with One-Tail.

"Didn't I tell your Shadow Clone already?" Kurama snorted. "It's called Ninshu."

"Ninshu?"

"When the old Sage of Six Paths was nearing the end of his life, he distributed his chakra among the people. His original intention was to use chakra as a medium to promote mutual understanding and affection among people, thereby bringing about peace..." Kurama explained.

"The Sage of Six Paths?" Naruto asked in surprise.

He knew of the Sage of Six Paths well enough. He was a frequent figure in the myths of this world; nine out of ten mythological novels mentioned him.

"That's right." The Nine-Tails lightly nodded his fox head.

"While that old man of the Six Paths was alive, and for a rather long period afterward, Ninshu was the mainstream."

"But as time passed, trust between people grew increasingly fragile, until one day, you humans took the initiative to sever this connection."

Naruto nodded slightly. One of the two major components of chakra was spiritual energy. If it was used as a medium for communication, it might be even better than language.

He made no judgment on the choice to actively sever the connection through chakra—that was, to abandon Ninshu.

Looking back at the past from his own era, one might think that abandoning Ninshu had been a mistake.

But all he could see was this one unresolved problem. Behind it were countless problems that had been resolved by abandoning Ninshu.

Land, food, drinking water, minerals...

The scarcity of resources, driven by humanity's limitless desires, was destined to cause one problem after another.

Could the humans of that era really not see the benefits of Ninshu?

How could that be possible?

Wisdom might improve through the accumulation of eras, but intelligence would not.

Abandoning Ninshu might have been the final choice made under pressure from one problem or another.

If that was the case, then Kurama could completely serve as a signal relay station.

Naruto looked at the big fox before him, and the more he looked, the more he liked him.

Low-latency, highly efficient information transmission, plus Kurama could serve as a mobile power bank for his Shadow Clones—this gave him far too much room to work with.

"What kind of look is that?" Kurama's fur bristled. That look made the fox very uncomfortable.

"Oh! It's nothing, nothing..."

Naruto said with a grin.

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