"So these are ninjas from other villages, huh? Their clothing is so bizarre." Izuno Akigiku leaned on the railing with both hands, looking down at the eccentrically dressed individuals below, unable to hold back her comment.
Naruto nodded slightly in agreement. That was indeed true. Konoha's general fashion sense was relatively normal; Sunagakure's attire, with its white cloth wrappings, was understandable given their unique desert climate. But these Amegakure ninjas… what was their deal? Cosplay? And they were cosplaying mermaids? So flamboyant…
"Hey! Some Sand ninjas are causing trouble over there. Should we go check it out?" Kaminarimon Etsureki pointed to a nearby alleyway, his voice filled with interest. Successful experiences are always the best way to boost a man's confidence. His transformation from a timid rookie on their first C-rank mission to someone now eager to stir the pot was undoubtedly an affirmation of his own strength.
"Huh? Naruto, your former teammate is getting beaten up! Are you going to help?" Akigiku squinted, then quickly exclaimed.
"Hm? No, she's not, right?" Naruto blinked. Sakura was merely in a standoff with two Sand ninjas; it didn't look like she was being hit.
"Judging by the atmosphere, I don't see Sakura having any chance of taking down those Sand ninjas. By the looks of it, she's about to get beaten," Akigiku said, critiquing the situation.
Naruto nodded. She had a point. But just as he took a step forward, he pulled back.
"What's wrong?" Akigiku asked. Naruto wasn't usually so petty. Besides, it was their supervising jonin from Team Seven who had kicked him off the team; it had little to do with Sakura. Moreover, she had ample reason to suspect that this guy hadn't cared one bit about being kicked off Team Seven. This was evident from their few encounters with Team Seven members and how they interacted. Originally, she and Etsureki had been prepared to help Naruto get revenge, but since the person involved didn't seem to mind, they couldn't very well say much. She remembered one time when she and Etsureki, worried that Naruto was excessively suppressing his true feelings due to childhood trauma, had subtly probed his thoughts on the matter. In the end, they could only conclude that this guy genuinely didn't care. This psychology, so different from ordinary people, they could only attribute to Naruto's childhood experiences after much deliberation.
"Her teammate has arrived," Naruto said, pointing towards Sasuke, who was hidden behind a tree trunk.
"My, my, the cool and handsome little pretty boy is still as aloof as ever." Akigiku focused her gaze. Good heavens, a single pebble and a few threatening words were enough to scare off that Sand ninja. Truly worthy of the Uchiha clan!
For Naruto and Etsureki, the Uchiha clan might just be a rather fancy-sounding name. But for those from minor ninja clans like hers, they were an eternally insurmountable mountain. There used to be two such mountains, but the Senju clan had now thoroughly integrated into Konoha.
"Be careful of the guy carrying the gourd," Naruto said suddenly.
"Carrying a gourd?" Akigiku looked. It seemed that in the brief moment she'd been distracted, another Sand ninja had appeared on the scene.
"Aside from being even colder than that Uchiha Sasuke…" Etsureki scratched his head. Naruto's perspective was completely different from theirs. Many individuals who seemed ordinary enough at first glance, Naruto could somehow sense their dangerousness. And his assessments were always proven correct by reality. On one C-rank mission, they had nearly been ambushed by a ronin hidden in a crowd; it was Naruto who had spotted him at a glance, successfully pulling them back from the brink.
"How high is the danger level?" Akigiku also fully trusted his judgment, a trust born not only from faith in her teammate but also from Naruto's past combat record.
"If you encounter him in the Chunin Exams and I'm not there, find a way to escape." Naruto's tone was somewhat grave. He saw something in the gourd-carrier's eyes—Shura. A Shura who killed for the sake of killing. People like that either died young at the hands of others, or… He had encountered a Shura in his past life, an existence that was both a teacher and a friend to him…
"What's wrong?" Etsureki asked, a little nervously. Although he knew the Chunin Exams might be difficult, he hadn't expected this level of hellish difficulty. Naruto's strength was monstrous; even Hayate-sensei had once explicitly stated he wasn't confident he could secure a definite win against him. For such a formidable teammate to show such a solemn expression, the gourd-kid below was likely on a similar level.
"Oh, just thinking about some past events," Naruto shook his head slightly. Noticing the tense expressions of his two teammates, he was momentarily surprised, but then, thinking about his own state just moments ago, he chuckled inwardly. They were most likely frightened by the expression he'd worn while lost in memories. But that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Appropriate pressure could be transformed into motivation to push them forward, lest they assume they were completely safe just because he was around. In the long journey of their lives, he was merely a passerby. He could only help them for a stretch. The rest of the road, they would ultimately have to walk themselves.
Seeing the confronting teams below disperse, Naruto spoke up, "I'm heading off first."
"Where to?" Etsureki asked, puzzled.
"Two days off, gotta find something interesting to do. Besides…" Naruto's gaze flickered between the two of them, a teasing glint in his eye, "if I stick around any longer, someone might start finding me a nuisance."
Both their cheeks instantly flushed red.
"Cough, cough, cough…" Etsureki looked left and right, coughing frantically.
"What are you talking about? I don't understand…" Akigiku said bashfully, fiddling with the hem of her clothes.
Naruto didn't say any more, leaving the two of them ample space.
Thwack!
Naruto expertly cast his fishing rod, the baited hook landing gently in the mountain stream. The fish here mostly hid in the shadows of large boulders. Compared to crudely clubbing them with a stick, fishing was the more effective approach.
A balance of tension and relaxation—that was the supreme way. Meditation was also a form of relaxation, but ultimately, it couldn't compare to leisure activities like this. Moreover, the current here was swift, and the fish, well-exercised by it, tasted even fresher. Whenever he had enough time, he would come here to fish for a while.
"What do you think of that brat from today?"
The Nine-Tails' voice suddenly echoed in his mental space, a novel experience for Naruto. Over the years, although he had successfully communicated with the Nine-Tails a few times, this was the first time the tsundere great fox had initiated contact.
Leaving a part of his attention on the outside world, Naruto shifted his primary consciousness into his mental space.
"The gourd-carrying brat?" Naruto asked.
The Nine-Tails lay lazily on the ground and said, not directly answering the question, "You should have noticed it, the aura on him."
"So that savage aura really wasn't his own," Naruto nodded slightly. Besides the budding Shura-like aura around the gourd-boy, what concerned him most was that inhumanly savage presence.
"He is one of your kind."
"He's also a 'Nine-Tailed Demon Fox'?"
"How can that mere tanuki be compared to me?" the Nine-Tails scoffed, clearly disdainful of the entity within the gourd-carrying child.
"Tanuki?" Naruto's eyebrow arched. What on earth was this all about?
"You are both jinchuriki. In your human terms, you are the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, and he is the One-Tail Jinchuriki," the Nine-Tails explained.
"Who's stronger, the One-Tail or the Nine-Tails?" Naruto asked with a smile.
"Who's stronger?" The Nine-Tails' eyes instantly glared, and it gestured towards the nine endlessly churning tails behind it. "Of course, whoever has more tails is stronger! As my jinchuriki, you must remember this firmly!"