Shikamaru asked, "Is this a power you didn't even use during the Fourth Shinobi World War, when you were fighting Madara Uchiha?!"
["That's right. Even when we faced Kaguya during the Fourth Shinobi World War, I never once considered using 'that.'"]
The Seventh Hokage Naruto's expression turned grave.
"Kurama, what exactly is this 'that' you're talking about?"
["Baryon Mode."]
His Nine-Tails answered.
The expression of the Nine-Tails inside Young Naruto changed slightly, as though he had been genuinely confused for a moment.
Young Naruto turned to the Nine-Tails behind him. "What's Baryon Mode?"
Kurama didn't answer him.
Instead, the Seventh Hokage's Nine-Tails explained.
["In Baryon Mode, the Tailed Beast's most fundamental chakra core is consumed to generate an enormous amount of an entirely new type of chakra. Strength and speed rise dramatically, while sensory abilities are also greatly enhanced, surpassing every other Nine-Tails mode. The cost is that once my original chakra is completely exhausted, I will disappear from this world."]
"!!!"
Amado said, "It sounds similar to nuclear fusion. The same principle by which the sun generates energy, combining numerous light particles to produce heavier particles."
["Exactly. As long as Naruto makes contact with Isshiki, it can consume Isshiki's remaining time and life force at the same rate. When he first arrived in Konoha, he had less than twenty-four hours left. With this ability, I could shorten that to an hour, a dozen minutes, a few minutes, or even a few seconds."]
"Theoretically, it would work. That's why I said Hokage-sama must have had some unexpected factor capable of overturning those less-than-twenty-percent odds."
The moment Amado finished speaking, Uncle Sasuke and Shikamaru, the Hokage's adviser, rejected the idea.
"That's far too dangerous! If Naruto loses his Tailed Beast..."
["This method only affects the Tailed Beast. It doesn't harm the Jinchūriki. If another enemy like Isshiki appears and Konoha has to be protected, Naruto, you'll need to be prepared to make that choice."]
Kurama's words plunged everyone into silence.
Especially Naruto Uzumaki, the Seventh Hokage.
Of course he didn't want to use such a method.
But Kurama was right. If Konoha ever faced another enemy like Isshiki in the future, then as Hokage, Naruto would have to make that choice.
There was only one person who saw the Seventh Hokage hesitate and immediately clenched his teeth in frustration.
Naruto Uzumaki from the mission scroll world.
"Once..."
The moment he spoke, everyone turned toward him.
"In the memories you have, the Pervy Sage once made you choose, didn't he?"
"Be a smart ninja and give up on Sasuke."
Uncle Sasuke froze.
This was a part of Naruto's life he had never known about.
"How did you answer him?"
Before the Seventh Hokage Naruto could respond, Young Naruto answered for him.
"If giving up on my comrades is the smart thing to do, then I'd rather be a fool for the rest of my life."
The force in the young boy's bearing made everyone catch their breath.
His knitted brows and wide golden eyes carried the unmistakable determination of Naruto Uzumaki. That stubborn, unwavering refusal to yield.
"Kurama is one of our comrades too, right?!"
"So why is this even something we need to hesitate over?!"
Of course they wouldn't abandon a comrade!
And of course they would protect Konoha too!!
It sounded stubborn, perhaps even unreasonable, but with Naruto's personality, he would find a way through effort, relentless determination, and perhaps even sheer luck.
As if something had suddenly clicked, the Seventh Hokage Naruto went still for a moment.
Then he smiled bitterly.
Becoming Hokage really had changed him a great deal...
He was no longer as clear-minded or straightforward as he had been when he was young.
Minato Namikaze sensed his exhaustion and gently patted the shoulder of his son from this era.
"You've already done an excellent job. The way this village has developed has amazed all of us."
"Exactly, Seventh Hokage." Whenever the village or the Uchiha came up, Hashirama Senju could talk forever. "Before coming here, I never imagined Konoha could someday grow into something like this. It's dozens of times more magnificent than even the grandest cities of the Warring States Period!"
As he spoke, the First Hokage became so moved that he started crying.
"To be able to see Konoha like this, as the First Hokage who founded this ninja village, I really... I really..."
To keep his older brother from slamming his forehead into the burger shop's table and breaking it, Tobirama Senju grabbed a burger and stuffed it into his mouth.
"Got it. Shut up and eat."
"Oh." (Obedient)
Madara Uchiha: "..."
Young Naruto's words had struck both enormous Nine-Tails right in their weak spot, making their fox hearts skip a beat.
["Hmph. Still as good at sweet-talking as ever."]
Everyone else: If your tails weren't wagging so fast, and if your claws weren't kneading the ground like kittens, maybe we really wouldn't be able to tell anything from those terrifying faces of yours!!
There's a limit to how dishonest you can be about your feelings!!
And seriously, doesn't Naruto attract this exact type of person way too often?!
He's basically a tsundere magnet!!
"Fourth Hokage-sama, did you notice something?"
Sai had seen Minato Namikaze staring thoughtfully at the Seventh Hokage Naruto.
Minato murmured almost to himself, "So it wasn't my imagination."
"What wasn't your imagination, Minato-sensei?" the Sixth Hokage Kakashi asked.
Minato Namikaze stared at the line above the Seventh Hokage Naruto's head.
"It looks like the line has gotten longer. Or rather, his health has recovered?"
"Recovered?"
"Really?!"
"When did that happen?"
"How much did it recover?!!"
The Sixth Hokage, Sai, Shikamaru, and Uncle Sasuke all spoke almost simultaneously.
Boruto followed right behind them, practically climbing onto the table in front of Minato.
"Is it full again?! Grandpa!"
Being called "Dad" by his thirty-two-year-old son was something Minato, currently only twenty, could still accept.
But being called "Grandpa" by a boy around the same age as Young Naruto left him speechless for a moment.
Still, this was important.
Minato immediately indicated a tiny section on the diagram Sai had drawn earlier.
At most, it looked like the health bar had risen from thirty percent to around forty percent.
"It only recovered this much. As for when..."
Minato thought for a moment.
"Probably after Naruto said he'd rather be a fool than ever abandon a comrade."
Shikamaru immediately put his two-hundred-plus IQ to full use.
The mission scrolls.
Guiding parallel worlds toward better outcomes.
The SS-rank mission.
Making a non-combustible object burn again.
The Nine-Tails' subconscious urge to sacrifice himself for Naruto.
The health bar above Naruto's head recovering in response to Young Naruto's conviction.
He broke all the information apart, then rearranged it into a new chain of logic...
"The mission scroll is trying to help Naruto keep the Nine-Tails!!"
The moment Shikamaru Nara said it, the Seventh Hokage Naruto, everyone around him, and both Nine-Tails turned toward him.
But Shikamaru's thoughts had already gone back to a conversation he'd had with Shikadai a few days earlier about video games.
"The Nine-Tails' power is the foundation that lets Naruto persuade people over and over again!"
Strength was the foundation.
His determination to never give up, along with his empathy and ability to see things from another person's perspective, could only become effective communication once he was capable of defeating the enemy in the first place.
"It's like a video game. Once the Protagonist loses his aura and his level drops to zero, unless he obtains some new power, then in the story that follows..."
"He's no longer the Protagonist."
Tobirama Senju followed Shikamaru's reasoning and finished the thought for him.
"That actually makes a lot of sense."
["Exactly."]
The one who suddenly spoke was the Kurama inside Young Naruto.
["There's been something bothering me this whole time."]
["That Baryon Mode..."]
["What exactly is it?"]
Those words left the Seventh Hokage Naruto's Kurama completely stunned.
Seeing the look on his counterpart's face, the Nine-Tails inside Young Naruto asked again.
["I'm asking you, what exactly is this 'Baryon Mode'?"]
["There's no such mode anywhere in my memories. And I don't believe the Six Paths Old Man would have built a self-destructive mechanism like that into us when he created us."]
Everyone's expressions changed in surprise.
Shikamaru Nara said, "The Uchiha Sharingan is capable of controlling the Nine-Tails. If someone had controlled the Nine-Tails and made it use this 'Baryon Mode' before it ever met Naruto, the Child of the Prophecy, causing the Nine-Tails to disappear permanently, wouldn't that completely invalidate the prophecy?"
The Kurama opposite him widened his enormous fox eyes.
That was right!
There was no reason the Six Paths Old Man would deliberately build something like that into his consciousness!!
Kurama remembered the words the Six Paths Old Man had left to the Tailed Beasts, and to him as their leader, both before his death and when they parted after the Fourth Shinobi World War.
"Shukaku, Matatabi, Isobu, Son Gokū, Kokuō, Saiken, Chōmei, Gyūki, Kurama."
"Even if you are scattered across the world, you will always remain together."
"I know I am going to die. In the future, a human better suited to guide you will appear..."
"A blue-eyed boy who plays with the Tailed Beasts. When he appears, you will understand what true power is."
"A small portion of each of your chakra now exists within Naruto. If you ever need to discuss something, you can use those portions of chakra to communicate. Kurama, you should remain inside Naruto as the caretaker of your gathering place."
For a moment, Kurama couldn't make sense of it.
Could the Six Paths Old Man have foreseen some future enemy at the moment of their final separation and entrusted this new power to him?
But telling Kurama to destroy himself in order to defeat an enemy didn't fit the Six Paths Old Man's usual way of doing things.
And if the Six Paths Old Man hadn't implanted this idea into him, then who had?!
Kaguya Ōtsutsuki?!
Isshiki Ōtsutsuki?
Or some other unknown member of the Ōtsutsuki Clan?!
Minato Namikaze had reached the same conclusion.
"Isshiki Ōtsutsuki's final words clearly suggested that more troublesome aliens besides him will eventually set their sights on this Ninja World. If Naruto loses the power of the Nine-Tails, how is he supposed to protect this world?"
"If what the mission scroll is trying to do is help Naruto keep the Nine-Tails, then doesn't that also mean we can infer the opposite?"
"Something is trying to make Naruto lose the Nine-Tails."
The more they thought about it, the more terrifying it became!
Who was it?!
Who could plant subconscious suggestions inside the Nine-Tails?
That kind of technique reminded Sasuke Uchiha of someone.
That clingy guy who was always stuck to his older brother!!