Uchiha Sasuke and Boruto left, and the forest returned to silence. Although Naruto hadn't actually done anything, faced with Uchiha Satsuki's awareness of the intelligence that "the Naruto of another world likely has a wife," he couldn't help but feel as though he had let someone down.
However, to his surprise, Uchiha Satsuki did not press for further details, nor did she display any intense emotions.
She merely gazed at Naruto for a moment, then said in a calm tone that carried an undeniable warning, "If you dare to... 'explore more possibilities' in this world, I will have to go and have a 'good chat' with Aunt Kushina."
Having said that, she turned and left, thus easily "letting" Naruto off the hook.
Naruto was stunned, naturally understanding what Uchiha Satsuki meant—that if he dared to show affection beyond friendship to other girls while they already had a "childhood engagement" agreement.
Although Uzumaki Kushina could be said to dote on Naruto, if she were to find out that right after formally establishing a marriage engagement with the daughter of her closest friend, her own son ran off to "seduce" other young girls...
Naruto decided it was better not to imagine it.
That Uchiha Satsuki could "easily" let this topic go was largely because the "childhood engagement" agreement, which had already been confirmed by the elders of both sides, gave her a solid sense of confidence and security.
Within this framework, she could temporarily suppress the unease brought about by the information from the other world.
The storm temporarily subsided, and the two briefly said goodbye at the edge of the forest before returning to their respective homes.
Pushing open the apartment door, Uzumaki Kushina was leaning out of the kitchen with her apron tied. Seeing Naruto return, she immediately put down what she was holding and walked over quickly. She didn't ask about anything else first, but instead threw out a series of her most core concerns.
"For example... is your body really okay? Is anything uncomfortable? What about that strange eye? Will it cause you harm? And that wandering artist? Who exactly is he? Where did he go?"
Her eyes were filled with lingering worry as she carefully looked Naruto up and down.
Naruto patiently answered one by one: his body was indeed unharmed, his Chakra was circulating normally, his new eye felt controllable for now, and there was no discomfort... The questions about Uchiha Sasuke were glossed over.
Hearing that Naruto's body was fine, Uzumaki Kushina's tense shoulders relaxed slightly. She didn't press for questions about Uchiha Sasuke, but instead continued to repeatedly ask about how Naruto's body felt, until Naruto guaranteed it again and again, even taking the initiative to mobilize his Chakra to demonstrate his condition; only then did she finally seem to reluctantly accept the answer and stop questioning.
However, immediately afterward, she made another request: she wanted to talk to that 'Minato' who remained in Naruto's inner world.
Naruto nodded immediately, without any objection.
Accompanied by the input of Chakra, a portion of Uzumaki Kushina's consciousness—much like the principle of a Shadow Clone—entered that vast spiritual world once again to meet with the Minato Namikaze Chakra entity that had been waiting there all along.
Naruto was sensible enough not to "eavesdrop" on the private conversation of his parents' long-awaited reunion.
Time passed quietly.
I don't know how much time had passed when Naruto felt his mother's Chakra consciousness return. He opened his eyes to see Uzumaki Kushina standing in front of him. The previous urgency and questioning were gone from her face; she only sighed a long, deeply weary breath.
Then, she said nothing, merely stepping forward and opening her arms to pull Naruto tightly into her embrace.
Naruto quietly let his mother hold him. He could clearly feel Uzumaki Kushina's body trembling slightly. He tilted his head slightly and could see his mother burying her face in his shoulder, her eyes tightly closed at this moment. However, there was a faint dampness at the corners of her eyes, and after she opened them again, there was a deep, thick, lingering sense of palpitations and lingering fear of a near-death experience in the depths of her eyes.
For Uzumaki Kushina, the feeling of witnessing her son suddenly fall into a deep coma for unknown reasons was enough to make an ordinary person fall ill with worry. Even though the crisis was now resolved and her son stood safe and sound before her, that huge shadow and lingering fear that had once shrouded her heart could not be dispelled in a moment.
Home, the lights were warm. Konoha Village finally returned to peace.
——————
What exactly did Uzumaki Kushina and Minato Namikaze talk about in the spiritual world? Naruto could only make a slight inference from the subtle traces he caught when he briefly entered his inner world the next day: Minato Namikaze's face wore an expression mixed with guilt and heavy fatigue.
Meanwhile, Kurama, who was lying to the side, revealed a subtle expression of "watching a good show," almost bordering on schadenfreude.
With the threat of Urashiki removed, Naruto's personal "crisis" seemed to have temporarily come to an end, and life seemed to have returned to its original track.
However, for Konoha Village and even the entire Ninja World, the real waves and undercurrents were just beginning to surge.
The most direct impact came from the intelligence level. In the following days, Konoha Village was flooded with a large number of people from other Villages with complex identities and diverse purposes—merchants, tourists, and wandering Ninjas.
Even "friendly visiting delegations" from other Ninja Villages arrived. How many spies sent by various factions to gather information were mixed among them, and just how many spies were there? It was probably difficult to fully clarify.
Naruto was happy to be idle, but the Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi, whose injuries had slightly improved and who could barely handle affairs, as well as Jiraiya who was about to officially succeed him, had an extreme headache and had to conduct long, tedious work.
Time passed, and the Village's order gradually recovered. Under the work of the higher-ups, the regular Ninja mission distribution System began to operate again, and the Ninjas' lives returned to the familiar daily cycle of accepting missions, executing them, and reporting back.
Naruto's life also seemed to have returned to the right track: cultivating, eating, occasionally executing missions, and spending time with Uchiha Satsuki and Kakashi, who would come over to bum a meal from time to time, or others.
The turbulent waves stirred up by his battle in the outside world did not overly disturb his personally peaceful daily life... After learning that the target possessed power beyond that of ordinary people, would they dare to rashly disturb him? They couldn't afford to bet that every powerhouse was Senju Hashirama.
Of course, it wasn't without any impact. For example, the amount on Naruto's name on the bounty lists of major underground black markets soared to a staggering astronomical figure at an alarming speed.
Another example was the high-priced intelligence bounty that followed regarding the "origin of the species of the giant blue Ninja dog that was sighted."
Even a few days ago, the Inuzuka clan sent representatives who visited with an incomparably respectful, even somewhat humble, attitude.
They first beat around the bush to ask about the origin of Zacian, and then, carefully but unable to hide their eagerness, proposed whether he would be willing to "borrow" Zacian for an "extremely high price" for the purpose of... "breeding research."
Although the other party's wording was extremely polite and their attitude was almost pleading, Naruto refused without hesitation... How long has Zacian even been born...
Dull days alternated between missions and cultivation. One day, Naruto accepted a seemingly ordinary escort mission—to escort an actress to the Land of Snow.
The mission process itself had quite a few twists and turns, but with Naruto's current strength, he "steamrolled" through it, experiencing some of the unique customs and conflicts of the Land of Snow, which counted as a slightly novel adventure.
When he completed the mission, passed through the Konoha Village gate, and stepped back onto the familiar streets of the Village, Naruto looked up toward the direction of the Hokage Rock.
Then, he stopped in his tracks.
On the rock wall, next to the statue of the Fourth Hokage Minato Namikaze, the originally vacant position of the Fifth Hokage had already been occupied by a brand-new, carved statue.
The face of the statue was familiar, with iconic wild white hair and a somewhat stiff, serious expression at the corners of the mouth.
The inauguration ceremony for the Fifth Hokage—Jiraiya—was about to begin.
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