"Gone! Disappeared!"
Robin watched as Naruto was taken away by the sudden white light. Surprise immediately appeared on her face, and she looked at Yamato somewhat flustered.
"Yamato, what did Naruto mean just now?"
Issho also looked at Yamato with a solemn expression and asked in a deep voice, "Where did Naruto go back to?"
Although Naruto's words before he left had been very clear, the way he disappeared was unbelievable. Because of that, Issho and Robin couldn't help but worry and could only confirm the situation with Yamato.
"Naruto returned to his world."
Yamato said somewhat dejectedly, "Every time he comes here, after staying for a period of time, he has to go back once. And each time he returns to his world, he stays there longer than the last time. I don't know how long it will be before he comes back again."
"???"
Issho and Robin were stunned for a moment after hearing Yamato's words.
Then Robin quickly asked, "Yamato, do you mean Naruto isn't from our world? He just returned to his own world?"
"Yes."
Yamato nodded firmly.
But Issho and Robin were even more shocked after hearing that. After a brief silence, they both exclaimed at the same time,
"Nani?!"
…
Ninja World.
"Naruto-kun!"
As soon as Naruto returned, a large tree beside him suddenly transformed into a giant toad and happily greeted him. It was Gamabunta, whom Jiraiya had ordered to wait here for Naruto.
"Yo, Gamabunta, long time no see."
Naruto smiled and greeted him, then asked, "Is Jiraiya-sensei not here again?"
"Yes!~"
Gamabunta nodded and said, "Jiraiya-sama went on a very important mission, so he asked me to wait here for your return, ribbit!~"
The first time Jiraiya left Gamabunta here to wait for Naruto, he had been quite unwilling. After all, waiting meant staying here for several months.
But Naruto was very generous. After he returned last time, the "treatment" he gave Gamabunta was extremely good. So even though the waiting time was longer this time, Gamabunta wasn't unhappy at all.
In fact, he had even snatched this mission away from the other toads.
"Very important?"
Naruto became interested when he heard Gamabunta's words.
"What kind of mission?"
"I don't know, ribbit!~"
Gamabunta shook his head.
"Jiraiya-sama didn't say. But he asked me to tell you something, Naruto. If he hasn't returned by the time you come back, then don't return to Konoha Village for now. Instead, go find Lady Tsunade. He left some things for you with her, ribbit!~"
"Don't go back to the Village for now?"
Naruto suddenly felt a bad premonition when he heard this.
"Did something happen in the Village?"
"I don't know, ribbit!~"
Gamabunta shook his head again.
Then he suddenly opened his mouth and spat out a package.
"This is what Jiraiya-sama left for you before he left, Naruto, ribbit!~"
"For me?"
Naruto quickly bent down and opened the package.
Inside was a thick stack of banknotes.
His eyes immediately lit up.
"Wow, that's a lot of money!"
Naruto estimated that the money Jiraiya left him was at least one hundred million ryo.
It was the first time in his life he had ever seen so much money.
But after the excitement faded, the uneasy feeling in his heart returned.
Jiraiya's arrangements felt suspiciously like… preparations for his own death.
At the same time, Naruto became even more curious about what kind of mission Jiraiya had gone to complete.
However, Naruto knew he probably wouldn't get any useful information from Gamabunta, so he decided to send him away first.
"Here, Gamabunta. I brought you some special food. See if you like it."
Naruto took out the Infinity Storage.
With a gentle wave, a huge pile of strange insects appeared in front of Gamabunta, forming a small mountain.
All of them were insects Naruto had brought back from the Pirate World. They were species that didn't exist in the Ninja World.
The smallest ones were the size of domestic dogs, while the largest were even bigger than Gamabunta himself.
"Ribbit, ribbit, ribbit!~"
When Gamabunta saw these unfamiliar insects, his eyes immediately lit up like searchlights.
He became so excited that he couldn't even speak properly and began devouring them crazily.
Soon, Gamabunta returned to Mount Myōboku with his food in great satisfaction.
After sending Gamabunta away, Naruto asked the system in his mind,
"System, when can I start the next experience?"
[For the Host's physical and mental safety, please wait seven natural days before starting a new life experience.]
"Phew, good. It's still seven days."
Naruto sighed in relief.
He had been worried that the cooldown time after the real-life experience might have increased.
Fortunately, it was still seven days.
"Big Fox."
After confirming the cooldown time, Naruto asked the Nine-Tails in his mind,
"When my Conqueror's Haki broke through earlier, did you notice anything strange about me?"
Since it had already been confirmed that Armament Haki and Observation Haki affected his Yin-Yang Chakra, Naruto wanted to know whether the more special Conqueror's Haki had any impact on him.
But when the breakthrough happened earlier, Naruto himself hadn't noticed any changes.
So he could only ask the Nine-Tails.
"No."
The Nine-Tails shook its head.
"Although I don't know how your Conqueror's Haki suddenly broke through, I didn't notice any changes in you. Could it be that the existence and growth of Conqueror's Haki has no effect on you at all?"
From the moment Naruto awakened Conqueror's Haki until just now, the Nine-Tails had been observing him carefully.
Yet he hadn't detected anything unusual.
Now he even began to wonder whether Conqueror's Haki affected Naruto at all.
"No, there was definitely an effect."
Naruto shook his head firmly.
"I don't know exactly what changed, but I strongly feel that Conqueror's Haki did affect something inside me. I just don't know what it is yet."
"You felt something?"
The Nine-Tails became interested.
"Tell me what you felt."
"I don't know."
Naruto spread his hands helplessly.
"It's just a feeling. I can't explain it. It's very subtle… I don't even know how to describe it."
"…"
The Nine-Tails was speechless.
"Forget it. Since you can't explain it clearly and I can't detect anything, let's just assume it has no effect for now. We'll figure it out sooner or later, so don't think too much about it."
So far, both Armament Haki and Observation Haki had brought positive effects to Naruto.
The Nine-Tails believed that even if Conqueror's Haki had an influence on him, it probably wouldn't be harmful.
As long as Naruto continued to grow stronger, the truth would eventually reveal itself.
"Alright."
Naruto nodded.
Then he asked, "What do you think about Jiraiya-sensei's situation, Big Fox?"
Naruto couldn't shake the uneasy feeling about Jiraiya's arrangements.
It really felt like he was preparing for his own death.
And since Naruto wasn't very good at thinking through complicated matters, he instinctively asked the Nine-Tails for advice.
"How would I know?"
The Nine-Tails replied lazily.
He had never cared about Jiraiya or the affairs of ninjas.
Besides, despite appearing wise, he wasn't actually fond of thinking deeply about such matters.
"Alright…"
Naruto thought for a moment and then said,
"Let's go back to the Village first and see if we can find out what happened."
Jiraiya had specifically warned him not to return to the Village if he didn't see him.
That meant something serious had likely happened there.
But tracking down Tsunade would take too long.
So Naruto decided to secretly return to Konoha first to investigate.
"Do whatever you want."
The Nine-Tails replied lazily.
"With your current strength, there's probably no one in the entire Ninja World who can harm you anyway."
After Naruto ate the Lightning-Lightning Fruit, his strength had undergone a qualitative transformation.
In the Nine-Tails' opinion, unless figures like Senju Hashirama or Uchiha Madara were resurrected, no one could threaten him.
Just the elementalization ability of the Rumble-Rumble Fruit alone was already terrifying.
In this world, there was no such thing as Armament Haki to counter it.
And it was still unclear whether the seawater in this world could weaken Devil Fruit users.
"Oh, right!"
The Nine-Tails suddenly thought of something.
"Before you go back to Konoha, go to the sea first and test whether the seawater here can suppress Devil Fruit abilities."
"Oh, good idea!"
Naruto immediately understood what he meant.
In the Pirate World, Devil Fruits had two major weaknesses: seawater and Sea Stone.
Aside from that, only Haki could counter them.
But this world had neither Haki nor Sea Stone.
If the seawater here also didn't affect Devil Fruit users…
Then a Logia-type ability would basically be invincible here.
Naruto couldn't help getting excited at the thought.
"Huh? Someone's coming!"
Just as Naruto was imagining himself rampaging across the Ninja World, he suddenly sensed a strange presence approaching.
The key point was—
That presence was still ten kilometers away.
"Ten kilometers!"
Naruto immediately said excitedly to the Nine-Tails,
"Big Fox, my Observation Haki suddenly became much stronger. Did you feel it?"
"What?"
The Nine-Tails quickly sensed Naruto's Chakra, but he didn't detect any change.
"I didn't notice any change in your Chakra. Why do you think your Observation Haki became stronger?"
"It definitely became stronger!"
Naruto said excitedly.
"I can clearly sense someone approaching from ten kilometers away. The range of my Observation Haki has increased dozens of times!"
Naruto clearly remembered that when his Observation Haki first reached the second stage, its maximum range was only a few hundred meters.
And even within that range, the sensed information would become very vague.
After all, Naruto had never focused on expanding its range before.
But now his Observation Haki could cover a radius of ten kilometers.
And everything he sensed was incredibly clear.
More importantly—
Naruto could clearly feel that this wasn't even his limit.
"Dozens of times?"
The Nine-Tails sounded surprised.
"Are you sure you're not mistaken? Maybe something else caused it."
He knew that Observation Haki influenced Naruto's Yin Chakra.
But Naruto's Yin Chakra had only increased gradually—certainly not by dozens of times.
"You're right…"
Naruto sensed his body again and frowned.
"My Observation Haki itself didn't grow stronger… but the sensing range suddenly increased by dozens of times."
"But why did it suddenly change like this?"
"How would I know?"
The Nine-Tails shook his head.
"However, I can think of two possible reasons."
"One is the influence of your improved Conqueror's Haki."
"The other is the Devil Fruit you just ate."
After recalling the sequence of events carefully, the Nine-Tails realized the change had happened right after those two things.
But between the two possibilities, he leaned more toward the first one.
After all, Naruto himself had felt that the improvement of Conqueror's Haki had caused some kind of change within him.
And now, although his Observation Haki hadn't grown stronger, its range had suddenly expanded dramatically.
That seemed to match Naruto's earlier feeling perfectly.
As for the Devil Fruit…
Although it was powerful, the Nine-Tails couldn't think of any reason why it would affect Observation Haki.
---
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