Nine-Tails: I Secretly Learned It

"Once I learn it, can I be like A Luo and send my soul out too...?"

The moment Naruto heard A Luo was going to teach him soul cultivation—cultivating the spirit body—he was so excited he nearly pounced on him again.

"Then you need to study hard. Cultivation is grueling. You'll have classes during the day and cultivate at night, but it'll definitely be useful. Maybe you'll even get to see the deceased souls you want to see..."

A Luo cast out an extremely tempting lure. Looking at Naruto's shining eyes and hopeful expression, he continued explaining some of the problems that might arise during cultivation.

While he taught Naruto, Kurama lay quietly inside the cage, secretly committing everything A Luo said to memory.

Cultivation, huh? It was trapped here every day with nothing to do anyway, so it might as well give it a try.

That brat hadn't avoided it, so this absolutely wasn't eavesdropping and secretly learning!

"Go back and try it slowly. I may be busy cultivating for the next few days, so I won't come see you for now. If you have any problems, find the old ancestor at my house. He knows where to find me..."

A Luo had said everything he needed to say. Only after making sure both Naruto and Kurama had heard him clearly did he prepare to leave.

Since he was leaving, he naturally had to take Naruto out of this seal as well. Naruto still lacked the ability to leave on his own.

After they left, the Nine-Tails lay in its cage, covering its face with both paws as it grinned smugly.

A method for cultivating the soul—it had never heard of such a thing before. Now, it just had to wait until it learned it, gained a different kind of power, and then tore this seal to pieces!

Konoha, just wait!

Once Lord Nine-Tails got out, the first thing it would do was bounce twice on your corpses!

"I'm off. See you another day!"

A Luo floated beside Naruto's bed, waved at Naruto, whose face showed only two large eyes, then dissipated like mist.

After leaving Naruto's home, A Luo went out to take a look at the ANBU member, who had changed positions but was still just as bored while waiting to get off work. In a good mood, he drifted away.

This time, he was in no hurry to return home. He floated around Konoha for a while and took a look around the Hokage Building. Hiruzen Sarutobi had gotten off work early today.

After leaving the Hokage Building, he went to look at the other clans of Konoha. Those in the same age group as them were all at home training in their respective secret techniques.

As heirs of ninja clans, school was actually when they were the most relaxed.

Once they got home, even Shikamaru Nara, who feared trouble the most, was exhausted from refining chakra and practicing the Shadow Imitation Technique. He would lie down to rest, then resume training again after a short while...

Among the few their age, Sakura Haruno was probably the only one who still played at home and found it boring.

In the original storyline, she was his future sister-in-law. But given the current situation, she probably wouldn't be able to catch up to Sasuke.

Not only would Sasuke leave, Naruto would definitely leave too. Even if he didn't want to, A Luo would find a way to take him away!

After drifting around for a while, A Luo returned home. Seeing Sasuke already lying beneath the blankets and diligently trying the Soul Cultivation Art, he manifested his spirit-body form and sat quietly at the side to wait.

Sasuke tried diligently throughout the night, but he still achieved nothing.

Sasuke was upset by the difficulties he faced in this regard, but he knew there were no shortcuts.

The old ancestor who had always been around him had said that, even as a spirit body, it had taken him over half a month just to finally get the faintest sense of it. Sasuke, a living person, might take even longer.

But no matter how slow the process was, he would persist. This was his chance to catch up to his younger brother and walk the same path of growth as A Luo.

"Big brother, it's already impressive that you persisted through an entire night without falling asleep. Get up and wash up now. Make breakfast and eat. I'll go back after watching you head out. Teacher Orochimaru will have someone prepare nutritious meals specifically for me!"

A Luo sat nearby, watching Sasuke open his eyes as he smiled and urged him to hurry.

Although his soul had not rested properly, much of his body's fatigue had faded over the course of the night.

After getting up, Sasuke quickly made breakfast, along with lunch to take to school.

While he was busy, Izuna moved over beside A Luo.

"You brat, you took on a teacher?"

Izuna had always been there, but most of the time he followed Sasuke around and cultivated quietly.

Now that he had heard a certain form of address change, he came over curiously, wanting to ask what was going on between A Luo and Orochimaru.

Teacher was not a title one used casually. Could that Orochimaru really teach A Luo properly?

"Yeah. Teacher Orochimaru is actually very good. He knows a lot..."

A Luo floated outside the kitchen and chatted with Izuna, letting Sasuke hear as well.

As long as Orochimaru was not coveting the Sharingan, he would be an excellent teacher.

"As long as he's useful to you. A good teacher isn't just about knowledge; their conduct, hobbies, and habits matter too. You need to be able to judge things for yourself. Learn the good things, and don't learn the bad ones. I occasionally went out to look around, and in some shady places, I heard Orochimaru's name mentioned a few times. He seemed to really like conducting ninja experiments..."

Because he had heard those things before, Izuna truly could not form a good impression of Orochimaru.

But he believed A Luo was not foolish enough to pick up bad habits from him.

"If we're talking about ninja experiments, it starts with Tobirama Senju. Teacher Orochimaru's experimental projects all came from portions of the documents left behind by the Second Hokage, and there was even more..."

A Luo brought up Tobirama Senju. Without caring about Izuna's disgusted look, he began talking about some information he had heard.

Impure World Reincarnation, Living Corpse Reincarnation, experiments and attempts to cultivate Kekkei Genkai, and, naturally, experimental projects created specifically to deal with the Uchiha clan...

In short, when it came to ninja experiments, the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, had started it all. Back then, quite a large number of ninjas and civilians had died as well.

It was just that, in the records, everyone used as an experiment had been labeled either an enemy or a traitor.

After all, they had the final say. Whether it was true or false depended entirely on Tobirama Senju's word.

As for Tobirama Senju having once laid hands on certain living or dead members of the Uchiha clan, they could bring that up later when they dragged Tobirama Senju out to whip his corpse.

"Damn Senju Clan, damn Tobirama Senju! He actually took my brother's corpse for examination and experiments?!!"

Izuna did not care much about the other members of the Uchiha clan, because the Uchiha who remained in Konoha were all people who had betrayed his brother back then.

He just hadn't expected that, as A Luo spoke, he would mention his brother.

It turned out that Madara Uchiha's corpse had been among those Tobirama Senju examined and analyzed after death!

This information made Izuna so furious that his Sharingan activated. He desperately wanted to drag Tobirama Senju out of the Pure Land and tear him apart several times!

Right, there was a technique called Impure World Reincarnation.

He needed to cultivate properly. Once he could use Impure World Reincarnation to bring Tobirama Senju back in the future, he would tear that bastard's soul out separately and beat it until his soul scattered!