Naruto: Passerby and Returnee

Chapter 283 One Symbol

[Don't you know who I am? Before becoming Hokage, I didn't have time to think about anything else! It was the Perverted Sage who wanted to see what young people liked these days, and insisted I write something. I didn't know what to write, so I just grabbed a historical legend to fill in... I never intended to send it to you; I put both in the "lock" and took the wrong one! See, this was a letter I was originally planning to send you, it's perfectly normal!]

Despite his best efforts to mentally prepare himself, Naruto couldn't shake off his shame. Unable to face Sasuke directly for the time being, he wrote a flimsy explanation and delivered it late at night using the Flying Thunder God Technique. He then decided to put the trouble aside for the time being and threw himself into his official duties. Unfortunately, he was so busy that he completely forgot about the incident.

Considering his physical condition, Naruto withdrew some of his clones without special identities. To maintain sensory coverage, he optimized his clone bases to the maximum extent possible. Of course, this sensory range wasn't his normal, non-combat state perception, but rather the range he could maintain when he was serious. If measured by his normal perception range, it would be beyond what his body could handle even when it was functioning properly, let alone now.

Changes in one's body also affect combat ability. As the new generation's strongest fighter, Naruto naturally takes on high-risk missions, making it crucial to monitor his physical condition. Fortunately, aside from a slight decrease in stamina, speed, and meridian endurance, other indicators are actually trending upwards. Even his super senses are only limited in their intensity, and their expansion speed has even increased significantly. Of course, this time Naruto specifically left a clone to observe. The final feedback was that once he activated his super senses, any tricks to conceal his chakra were useless. His chakra was stronger than before, and the overflow showed signs of getting out of control, making it very difficult to pretend to be a harmless passerby.

According to Tobirama, this was extremely bad news, so bad that he immediately restarted the research project on White Zetsu. The reason this project was delayed was because "Hui" had too many demands, causing him to be overly distracted. "Hui's" primary task was to solve the problem of food and clothing, which involved not only agricultural troubles such as the selection, planting, and cultivation of superior breeds, but also the design of various agricultural machinery to assist in production, the proper storage of agricultural products, and the processing and transportation of agricultural products. In order to "eat their fill," "Hui," a machine originally more suited to warfare, underwent several years of expansion, becoming the behemoth it is today.

The introduction of more personnel also meant more talent to be available. Tobirama no longer had to carry the banner of the research department alone; he only needed to oversee the research direction and experimental methods. Ninjas are inherently more adept at biological research, so he was essentially returning to his original specialty and focusing on breakthroughs in medical science.

Just as Tobirama was rushing to Konoha to retrieve his elder brother's original cell sample from the deepest part of the root lab, and also collected some evidence for future use, the person involved completely disregarded it and turned to study the new things he had seen before.

This new thing refers to the symbol that sealed Kurama's mind. When written with a pen, it didn't seem to have any effect, and simulating it with chakra didn't seem to have a strong effect either. Naruto thought this might be due to the different levels of energy input, so he kept adding more and more, but after a certain point, even with his control, he couldn't maintain the perfect form of the symbol. Later, Naruto made some other attempts, such as using containers that could store a certain amount of chakra to create the symbol, but the result was that no container could match his chakra control; those containers broke before reaching the maximum output Naruto had tried.

"Isn't he using chakra?"

All the experiments failed, so the most likely explanation is that the opponent wasn't using chakra at all. But honestly, his observation of "Naruto's" actions didn't include all five senses. He only felt an unprecedented lightness in his body, a natural and smooth feeling, even the teleportation across space didn't feel like squeezing into space, but rather like merging into it. At that time, "Naruto" was using a golden power, which, in appearance, was indeed different from chakra. That gold was more transparent than chakra, more like a tangible yet intangible thing. When he touched the "symbols," he didn't feel the substance of anything, yet he could clearly perceive that something existed there.

The underwater shadow ignored him completely, even regressing to a cross-legged, motionless position. His intuition told him this was closely related to his physical condition; the other party, despite being so powerful, had been suppressing its strength to ensure his survival. Whatever the other party's purpose, a second conflict was now impossible, and this enormous trouble could be temporarily set aside.

"What have you been up to these past few days? Staring at the water all day, are you just admiring yourself?" Nine-Lama's rant came late but surely.

"Am I that bored?" Naruto glared back at the big fox.

Speaking of which, this guy is really carefree. Last time he was unconscious for so long for no reason, and when he woke up it was a matter of life and death, he didn't ask anything afterward. Didn't he care what method he used to make the tailed beast fall asleep? Even if it was trust, it was a bit too much.

"......sorry."

"...Hmph." The fox, which had been lying down, arched its back, its nine tails spreading out like flower petals, baring its fangs and claws to assert its presence. "What kind of apology is this?"

...Sure enough, this arrogant guy wasn't really indifferent; he was just waiting for him to speak first.

"I shouldn't have knocked you out without your consent."

"anything else?"

“I shouldn’t have taken the risk alone. I should have at least taken more precautions. Your life is on my shoulders too.”

"uh-huh."

Seeing that Kurama seemed to be still not done, Naruto scratched his head, racking his brains, "I'm sorry! I'll completely open the seal now, so you can leave me anytime."

Kurama's tail slammed into the water with a loud thud, "Wrong, terribly wrong!!"

"Weren't you just saying all that? You promised you wouldn't take the risk again!" Kurama was so angry that his chakra was flying wildly again. "I am the Nine-Tailed Fox, the strongest of the tailed beasts. Do you think your lousy seal can stop me? How could I possibly desert my post!"

"Yes, yes, Kurama is definitely the most powerful!" Naruto quickly coaxed the fox, but as he spoke, he remembered the way that huge figure disappeared.

Yes, the Nine Lamas never deserts his post.