The Chunin Ninja Exams Are Coming

Seeing the Great Toad Sage awaken, Sage Fukasaku hurriedly escaped Sage Shima's grasp and stood with his head respectfully bowed, waiting for the Great Toad Sage's instructions.

Seeing this, Sage Shima also calmed down and waited alongside Sage Fukasaku.

The Great Toad Sage slowly woke up. Looking at the few toads below the platform, he drawled, "Who are you?"

"Great Elder, we are Fukasaku and Shima," Sage Fukasaku answered respectfully.

"Oh, Deep what?"

"...Fukasaku, Shima!"

"Oh, what Shima?"

"...You old toad, have you gone senile?!" Sage Shima shouted furiously, and Sage Fukasaku hurriedly held her back.

"Oh, oh, I remember now. It's Fukasaku and Shima!" The Great Toad Sage finally remembered. "What did you come here for?"

Even the good-tempered Sage Fukasaku could no longer endure it. He roared, "Weren't you the one who called us here, old master?!"

"Oh, oh, I remember now. I had another dream," the Great Toad Sage said slowly.

Sage Fukasaku and Sage Shima's expressions turned grave at once. The Great Toad Sage's dreams were no ordinary dreams—they were prophecies!

When he was young, he had once given the Sage of Six Paths a prophecy, helping create the Shinobi World as it was today.

What prophecy would he make this time?

Sage Fukasaku and Sage Shima stood with their hands at their sides, listening attentively.

After waiting for a long while without hearing anything further, Sage Fukasaku looked up. Good grief—the Great Toad Sage had fallen asleep again!

Sage Fukasaku was truly furious and loudly woke the Great Toad Sage.

"...Who are you?" said the Great Toad Sage.

After a burst of chaos, the Great Toad Sage finally finished the important matter before falling asleep again. "Go find little Jiraiya and tell him that the Child of Destiny who will lead the Shinobi World's transformation has awakened. He wears golden clothes like flames and leads enormous companions as he battles pale-bodied enemies!

He is suffering greatly!

Hurry and find him, guide him, help him!

Otherwise, the entire Shinobi World will fall into an unprecedented crisis!"

Thus, the group of toads noisily went off to carry out their tasks.

For now, let us set aside the commotion on Mount Myōboku and turn our attention back to Menma.

After another three days of travel, Menma and the others finally returned to Konoha.

After agreeing to meet at the training ground tomorrow, they went their separate ways.

Kakashi went to the Hokage Office to report on the mission, while Menma and the other two returned home to rest.

Standing at the door of his home, Menma felt deeply uneasy. He did not know how to explain the Six-Tails' Chakra inside him to his parents.

Whatever. A slash across the neck was the same whether he stretched it out or pulled it back. He had to face it eventually. Menma gathered his courage and pushed open the door. "I'm home!"

"Oh, Menma. Welcome home!" Minato Namikaze's voice came from inside the house.

After changing his shoes, Menma walked into the living room and discovered that his father, Minato Namikaze, was wearing an apron and busy in the kitchen.

Where was Mom? Menma thought, and then asked aloud.

"Your mother has had missions these past few days. She'll be coming home very late at night," Minato explained.

"Isn't Mom in the Sealing Corps? How could she be this busy?" Menma asked curiously.

"Isn't it because the Chunin Ninja Exams are coming up? I really don't know what Lord Hokage is thinking, inviting other countries to hold the Chunin Ninja Exams together this year.

Before the exams, they need to inspect whether Konoha's barriers have been damaged and make a huge pile of sealing scrolls.

Your mother is the captain of the Sealing Corps, so she's been run off her feet these past few days," Minato casually complained as he stir-fried.

The Chunin Ninja Exams were finally coming? Menma kept his face impassive, but his heart churned. It was fortunate that Mom had been returning home late lately. That gave him some time to come up with an excuse for the Six-Tails' Chakra.

In the original Naruto story, the Chunin Ninja Exams had taken up a major portion of the early plot, and many people's paths had undergone huge turning points during that time.

But Danzo was the Hokage in this world. Would the Konoha Crush Plan still arrive on schedule?

"Splash, splash~" Menma thought over his next plans while bathing in the bathroom.

Since this world had already gone off the rails, Menma did not know whether the major events from the original plot would still happen. But one thing was certain: he needed to keep improving his strength to deal with all the changes ahead.

After dinner, Minato told Menma to clean up while he went out to bring Kushina her dinner.

Not only did Kushina have to return late at night, but Minato himself had recently been assigned to night patrols.

After finishing the cleaning, Menma lay in bed, unable to fall asleep for a long time.

After an unknown amount of time had passed, he heard the sound of a key turning in the lock. Kushina must have returned. Menma thought for a moment, then got out of bed and left his room.

"Menma, sorry. Did I wake you?" Kushina looked exhausted, yet she still smiled apologetically at him.

"No, you didn't..." Menma shook his head, hesitating to speak.

"Menma... is there something you want to tell Mom?" Kushina keenly noticed that something was off with him.

Menma fell silent for a moment and did not answer directly. "Mom, can you sense the changes in my Chakra now?"

Kushina did not understand why he was asking, but she still activated the Mind's Eye of the Kagura to sense Menma's Chakra.

"What?!" Kushina's face changed drastically. Beneath Menma's Chakra, she sensed an immensely powerful, unfamiliar, dark Chakra. She had only ever felt something like it within herself.

"Menma, what is going on? Why is there Tailed Beast Chakra inside your body?" Kushina asked in alarm.

"Mom... how should I put this?" Menma paused in distress before saying, "By a series of coincidences, I obtained the Six-Tails' Chakra..."

"Come on, let's go to the living room. Tell Mom in detail what happened to you these past few days!" Kushina pulled Menma into the living room and sat down on the sofa.

Menma then told Kushina about everything that had happened during the Land of Waves mission. Of course, he left out the part where he had met and communicated with the Six-Tails. He only said that Utakata, the Six-Tails' jinchuriki, had pulled him into a spiritual world, where he had helped Utakata awaken his consciousness and suppress the Six-Tails.

During the process of suppressing the Six-Tails, its Chakra had seeped into him and remained in his body.

"...And that's how things ended up like this," Menma said. Then he asked, "Mom, will this Chakra have any effect on me? And can other people sense the Six-Tails' Chakra on me too?"

Kushina's heart was in turmoil. She had never imagined that an ordinary protection mission would lead to an encounter with a jinchuriki from an enemy ninja village.

Not only had he returned alive after facing a rampaging jinchuriki, he had even helped the jinchuriki suppress the Tailed Beast.