Sakura felt a vague sense of foreboding.
"We cannot let our guard down. This time, as we leave the Village Hidden in the Leaves, we must closely monitor everything that deviates from the original story."
Naruto nodded indifferently. "Don't worry, I can now sink into my Mind Space instantly."
If they ran into an emergency, he would immediately make Nine-Tails pay rent.
Worst comes to worst, he could just tear off the talisman on the seal door to make a show of it—he could always stick it right back on anyway.
Soon, the day to catch the cat arrived.
Compared to the original story, the trio's physical combat skills had improved dramatically, so the kitten was quickly grabbed by the back of its neck by Naruto.
Seeing the kitten thrashing and attempting to scratch Naruto's face, Naruto immediately declared that he wanted to learn from Pan Hong and treat the kitten to dragon fruit, only to be stopped by Sakura.
The scared-to-death kitten was successfully handed over to the wife of the feudal lord.
Naruto seized the opportunity to start stirring up trouble.
He sat down cross-legged, stretched lazily first, and then said leisurely, "Are these the village's missions? They honestly don't require any skill at all."
Iruka, sitting next to Hiruzen, flew into a rage and roared, "You idiots! None of you have any experience!"
"You have to start with simple missions to build up experience, everyone comes up this way!"
"Who is 'everyone'? I don't know them," Naruto scratched his eyebrow. "I only know I can finish a month's worth of cat-catching in a single day. The person next to me is practicing the Water Release technique, and as for Sasuke, it goes without saying—he mastered all the Fire Release techniques of the Uchiha clan before graduation."
It was worth mentioning that Sakura's chakra nature included water; in order to farm the Land of Waves dungeon, she had already begun practicing some conventional Water Release techniques.
"Heh heh, it's a good thing for young people to have drive," Hiruzen, sitting nearby, exhaled a smoke ring, and was about to explain the ninja mission grading system of the Village Hidden in the Leaves to them.
Naruto interrupted Hiruzen's spell-casting. "Stop, we know all of this. Just assign us a C-rank mission, or else give us all this year's D-rank missions so we can finish our quotas early and take New Year's leave."
Kakashi couldn't quite keep a straight face and moved to grab Naruto, but the latter anticipated his move and directly released his Shadow Clone.
His real body was hiding behind the door, secretly observing Tazuna, the NPC from the Land of Waves.
Naruto hid in a blind spot behind the wall, earnestly scrutinizing the slightly intoxicated Tazuna as he paced back and forth.
Neither his posture nor his expression showed any signs of being possessed by another soul; he looked entirely normal.
A moment later, upon hearing Hiruzen's order, Tazuna pushed the door open and entered the room.
Naruto immediately left and headed to the Village Hidden in the Leaves's ninja tool shop to purchase gear, mostly consisting of Explosive Tags and military rations—items that could deliver a massive amount of firepower all at once, ensuring he could unleash a saturated bombardment on enemies during periods of chakra fatigue.
On the other side.
"Sorry, Lord Hokage, I'll have a serious talk with Naruto later," Kakashi said with an apologetic expression.
"Mm, in any case, your mission is to protect Mr. Tazuna and ensure he can successfully finish building the bridge," Hiruzen said calmly with a nod.
Earlier, Kakashi had already had several private chats with Hiruzen.
Regarding Naruto's recent abnormal behavior, Hiruzen had instructed Kakashi to observe in secret for the time being, figure out what Naruto was after, and avoid making too big of a commotion so as not to let Danzo Shimura's lackeys catch wind of anything.
Because of this, he hadn't excessively pursued the matter of Naruto and Sasuke beating people up a while ago.
After a little while longer, at the gates of the Village Hidden in the Leaves.
"Help me carry some," Naruto familiarly tossed a ninja tool pouch to Sakura, and threw another one to Sasuke.
He had already given the two of them a heads-up in advance.
"You guys are pretty well prepared." Kakashi remained calm on the surface, but felt a trace of surprise in his heart.
Could this still be that careless dropout?
"Hoh, this little squirt is quite cautious," Tazuna clicked his tongue, exhaling a breath of alcohol toward Naruto.
Naruto glanced sideways. "Hoh, this old drunkard sure can put on an act."
"Naruto!" Sakura scolded angrily, apologizing to Tazuna, "How can you say that to an elder? I'm sorry, mister, please don't throw a drunken tantrum."
Naruto shrank his neck. "Ah, right, right, mister don't hit me, I'll buy you a drink later."
Tazuna's face alternated between green and white—you guys are really slapping labels on people like this, huh!
Sasuke kept a poker face and motioned for the others to hurry up and set off.
Rustle, rustle, rustle...
Kakashi began chatting with Tazuna, bringing up the Land of Waves.
Naruto and Sakura, meanwhile, kept their eyes on the drainage ditch along the ground.
According to the original plot, the first wave of two enemies attacking Tazuna would hide in the puddles by the roadside and ambush the group from behind.
Rustle, rustle, rustle...
A good while passed.
Sasuke, Kakashi, and Tazuna all wore their usual expressions.
This isn't right...
Something is wrong on a level of 114514.
Where are the puddles? I'm asking you, where are the puddles?
Sakura glanced at Naruto, her right fist slowly clenching until her fingertips turned pale.
The situation she least wanted to see had still happened.
Did another time-traveler intervene, causing the plotline to change?
Naruto felt as though he were facing a formidable enemy. Without any hesitation, his consciousness instantly plunged into his Mind Space.
He wouldn't give the enemy any chance to react; he was going to turn on the ultimate cheat right now, immediately.
Just like suddenly moving from shallow land into deep water, Naruto's body seemed to experience about a second of pressure before he opened his eyes inside the Mind Space.
The surrounding dim yellowish light did not slow down Naruto's rapid pace, and he quickly reached the Nine-Tails.
"Brother Nine-Tails, I'm giving you a chance to show your value now," Naruto said straight to the point. "Lend me your chakra to play with. Not much, I just want a tiny handful."
The Nine-Tails lazily rolled over, ignoring Naruto entirely.
During this period, he had listened to Naruto's talk-no-jutsu pour down like a flash flood, and in order to get some peace and quiet, he had recently decided to start playing dead.
Evil human indeed, I'll rip your mouth apart the moment the seal is unlocked!
Seeing this, Naruto wasn't surprised at all. He took a bold stride right up to the door and began tearing at the talisman plastered on it.
Hearing the rustling sound, the Nine-Tails immediately whipped around.
"Kid, are you in trouble?" The Nine-Tails let out a low laugh.
"Just tell me whether you'll hand it over or not," Naruto stopped what he was doing.
"Heh heh heh heh heh..." The Nine-Tails bared his huge white teeth. "Arrogant! You've belittled me for so long, yet in the end you still want to take advantage of me!"
"Arrogant bro can go sit at the same table with Yunshan," Naruto said with a deadpan expression. "Give me a straight answer. If you don't pay rent, you can just rot in my belly. You're only half of the Nine-Tails anyway, worst comes to worst I'll just go find the other half."
The Nine-Tails's pupils constricted. "You actually know I'm only half?"
"I also know that if you, my old man (a Hokkien phrase expressing blessings), keep nagging and bickering, I'll take a trip to the Waterfall of Truth and incidentally drain every last drop of your chakra, and turn you into dried fox jerky."
Naruto wasn't joking; this was literally what Naruto did before the Fourth Great Ninja War began in the original story.
The Nine-Tails fell silent. He couldn't understand why the brat in front of him knew so much about the Tailed Beasts.
Clearly, he was just a vessel carrying it...
Man and fox remained in a temporary standoff.
...
On the other side, while Naruto and negotiations with the Nine-Tails were underway, a sudden change occurred!
A thin mist began to drift through the surroundings, gradually blocking the group's line of sight.
Hidden Mist Technique!