"I'm really not suited for that position." Jiraiya waved his hands quickly, shaking his head with exaggerated vigor.
He had long grown used to a wandering life, moving freely without restraint. The thought of being confined to an office, drowning in paperwork and politics, made his skin crawl.
Besides, if he was stuck in an office, how was he supposed to gather material for his novels? If he couldn't write, his fans would be sending more than angry letters they might just send him kunai in the mail.
So, without missing a beat, he changed the subject. "I heard Orochimaru infiltrated the village?"
Hiruzen Sarutobi's eyes softened at the name. His feelings toward Orochimaru were complicated, much like his feelings toward Danzo. Even though Orochimaru had betrayed Konoha, Jiraiya had never given up hope of bringing him back.
Years of traveling the shinobi world had taken Jiraiya across nations, and wherever his intelligence network whispered of Orochimaru, he would follow.
"Yes," Hiruzen admitted with a nod. "From what Naruto gathered, it seems Orochimaru's target this time was Sasuke."
He left out the part about the intelligence Itachi had passed on. That was an S-rank secret. Until Jiraiya officially accepted the role of Hokage, there was no reason to tell him. It wasn't that Hiruzen distrusted Jiraiya it was that in the shinobi world, ignorance was sometimes the only true protection. Even the secrets of the dead could be uncovered by the wrong eyes.
"...Naruto, huh?" Jiraiya's expression shifted at the name. Two figures flickered through his mind Minato and Kushina.
"You plan on meeting him?" Hiruzen asked quietly. He set down his pipe, the smoke curling away like fading memories. "If I recall, Minato said you were the one who helped choose his name."
Jiraiya's usual grin faded, replaced by a rare gravity. "How has the boy lived all these years?"
And so, Hiruzen began recounting Naruto's life in Konoha the isolation, the whispers, the struggles, and the resilience that carried him through. Jiraiya listened in silence, eyes shadowed with a weight of guilt.
Elsewhere, in the Uchiha compound, water bubbled up in the backyard pool. The natural hot spring they had created gurgled happily, steam rising into the night air.
Naruto crouched by the edge, satisfied. "Perfect. Once we hire a few workers to decorate it, it'll be done."
Of course, the bill wasn't his problem. This was Sasuke's house, after all.
Heading back inside, Naruto peeked into Sasuke's room. His teammate was already seated cross-legged, eyes closed, meditating deeply to refine his spiritual energy.
Their training had become a rhythm. By day, they strengthened their bodies. By night, they honed their minds. The dual approach was one of the reasons their growth had accelerated so quickly.
Naruto climbed onto his bed, settling into a lotus position. His breathing slowed, his consciousness sinking inward.
When he opened his eyes again, he was no longer in the compound. Instead, he stood on a vast grassy plain beneath an endless blue sky.
There, sprawled lazily on the meadow, lay a massive fox. Nine tails swayed idly behind it, each one curling and flicking without purpose. For the first time in ages, the Nine-Tails looked utterly relaxed.
"Hey, Fox," Naruto greeted, waving casually.
"What do you want?" the beast rumbled, its eyes still closed. Only its ears twitched at the sound of his voice.
"I think I met someone like me," Naruto said thoughtfully.
The Nine-Tails cracked one eye open. "You mean Shukaku. That annoying raccoon. I sensed it." Its voice dripped disdain, though there was a glimmer of recognition.
Naruto nodded. "I figured you would notice. I could feel it inside Gaara too."
Ever since Naruto had slightly loosened the seal suppressing the fox, the beast had become more aware of the outside world.
"Tell me, could Shukaku beat you in a fight?" Naruto asked with boyish curiosity.
The fox let out a snort of laughter. "Hah! I could crush that little sand rat like a kitten. It wouldn't even be a contest."
"So that means you're really strong, huh?" Naruto folded his arms, eyebrow raised.
"Obviously! I am the mightiest being in existence," the fox declared proudly.
Naruto smirked. "Then how'd you end up sealed away?"
The Nine-Tails froze, its smug expression cracking. That hit a sore spot.
Its mind flashed back unwillingly to two figures one who could control it with a single glance, and another who could toss it around like a toy. To add insult, those very men had sealed it away while calling it "too strong to be left unchecked."
Senju Hashirama. Uchiha Madara.
The fox's ears flattened. "Among the tailed beasts, I am the strongest," it muttered begrudgingly.
"I see," Naruto said, nodding as if satisfied.
The fox growled. "Enough! If you've got nothing important, don't disturb my rest."
Naruto grinned. "Actually, I came to give you something."
The fox raised a brow. "What?"
With a snap of Naruto's fingers, a giant television appeared in the middle of the seal space.
The Nine-Tails blinked in confusion. "What in the world is this?"
"This place is boring, right? So I made you a TV. It's built from my mental energy. You'll have to power it yourself with chakra, but I doubt you're short on that."
The fox circled the strange box warily. In its era, such technology had never existed.
Naruto scratched his head. "Think of it as a window that shows stories. Just watch and enjoy. If there are gaps or skipped scenes, that means I forgot something. When I remember, it'll play again."
Before the fox could ask more questions, Naruto's form shimmered and vanished, leaving only the humming television behind.
The screen flickered to life. The opening words appeared: Perfect World.
The Nine-Tails laid its head on its paws, scarlet chakra threads snaking from its body to fuel the device. Its golden eyes narrowed in curiosity as it began to watch.
Meanwhile, Naruto returned to his training with renewed vigor.
There was still so much to learn. But with his shadow clone method, each day felt like two hundred days' worth of progress. Ninjutsu, sealing arts, theory everything advanced at a staggering pace.
Only taijutsu remained the one thing he insisted on training with his real body every day. He would never forget his foundation. The body was the root of everything. His dream had always been clear: to forge a body strong enough to cross the stars.
And now, his training had taken an unexpected turn.
His shadow clones, along with Hinata's, had gone to Konoha Hospital for medical ninjutsu lessons. The head of the medical team had assigned a skilled instructor to train them.
Medical ninjutsu was not just about closing wounds. Over decades of development, it had become a field that studied the human body in depth meridians, cells, organs, and how to manipulate them with chakra for healing.
But the greatest revelation came when Naruto realized that medical ninjutsu tapped directly into the Yang Release system.
In essence, medical ninjutsu transformed chakra into Yang Release, accelerating recovery and restoring vitality.
What began as a plan to learn healing techniques just to care for his friends had unexpectedly opened the door to mastering an advanced chakra nature.
Naruto couldn't hide his excitement. He immediately dispatched more clones to study medical ninjutsu, determined to deepen his grasp of Yang Release through this new path.
His lips curved into a grin as he thought, If I can fuse this power with my body… maybe one day, my dream won't be a dream at all.
The journey to forge a body capable of traversing the universe had just taken its first real step.
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