Chapter 8 Danzo's Threat
Nine-Tailed stared at Shukaku with ill intent.
Shukaku swallowed hard, then desperately blew on the bars of its cage.
"Let me out! Let me out! I don't want to be with this stinky fox!"
It desperately pleaded with Naruto.
Naruto spread his hands and said to Nine-Tailed, "Kurama, don't play with it until it's dead. I still have a use for it, otherwise, I won't help you unseal the Eight Trigrams Sealing Style."
With that, he was about to leave the sealing space.
"Kid, what did you say? You're going to help me unseal the Eight Trigrams Sealing Style!"
Nine-Tailed quickly called out to Naruto.
Naruto nodded.
"Of course, otherwise, why would I keep you? So you can watch a live broadcast inside my body?"
Nine-Tailed looked at Naruto, falling into deep thought.
This brat, from his initial weakness and mischief to his current strength and mystery.
Who knows how many secrets he still hides.
But looking into his eyes, Nine-Tailed could be sure that Naruto wasn't lying.
He nodded, and his body once again merged into the darkness.
"Kid, I hope you don't go back on your word."
Naruto smiled faintly, then left the sealing space.
As soon as he returned to reality, he felt a sense of exhaustion.
Continuously using Conquerors Haki and Eight Trigrams Sealing Style, even he couldn't quite handle it.
He sat weakly on the ground, while Gaara lay quietly in the distance.
He stared at Naruto with resentment.
"You! Why did you stop me?"
Naruto didn't try to reason with Gaara as he did in the original story; he simply said, "Because you were going to hurt my comrades."
With that, Naruto stood up, but stumbled and almost fell.
Just then, Kakashi appeared in a flash.
He directly supported Naruto's body.
Kakashi looked at Naruto and asked with concern, "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine, my Chakra is just depleted. I need some time to recover."
Sakura, carrying Sasuke on her back, also arrived beside Kakashi and called out, "Kakashi-sensei."
"You all did very well."
Kakashi affirmed them, Naruto and Sasuke didn't mind, only Sakura lowered her head in shame.
After all, she hadn't done anything.
At this moment, Kakashi looked at Gaara and said, "This was a misunderstanding. Orochimaruassassinated the Fourth Kazekage, and you were all used by him."
"Now Konoha has thwarted Otogakure's plan. I hope you can go back and explain the situation to Sunagakure."
Gaara was unmoved by Kakashi's words, only chewing on Naruto's reply.
"Comrades?"
He thought of his older brother and sister, who, to protect him from being captured, desperately escorted him away and then selflessly stayed behind to hold off the pursuing enemies.
At this moment, a system prompt appeared in Naruto's mind.
"Ding! Congratulations, Host, for completing the mission: Defeat Shukaku of the Sand."
"Mission reward: Drunken Fist."
Then, a series of training images appeared in Naruto's mind.
That wasn't the Drunken Fist Rock Lee used in front of Kimimaro.
It was the Drunken Eight Immortals Fist.
The various fist styles of the Drunken Eight Immortals—Lu Dongbin, Tie Guai Li, Han Xiangzi, Zhang Guolao, and others—were all thoroughly mastered by him.
"The form is drunk, but the intent is not; the fist is drunk, but the heart is not!"
Naruto suddenly understood the true meaning of the Drunken Eight Immortals.
This was far more powerful than Rock Lee and Might Guy's set.
Soon, Naruto returned to the Village with Kakashi.
The Village was quite startled by Otogakure's attack.
However, Orochimaru's goal was to seize power, not to destroy the Village.
So, he didn't harm ordinary people.
Only the death of the Third Hokage cast a shadow over the entire Village.
Naruto was sent back home, and after a night of rest, his Chakra was fully restored.
At home, he tried to use Shukaku's power once.
A potted plant in his house quickly lost its water and turned to sand.
But Naruto's influence was limited to this.
He fell into thought. Was it because he was naturally not close to earth-attribute Chakra?
That shouldn't be the case; he had Shukaku with him.
Naruto then made several more attempts and found that as he experimented, the earth-attribute Chakra in his body continuously increased, and the power of Shukaku he could manipulate also grew.
Naruto generally understood; although he had a lot of Chakra in his body, he had too little earth-attribute Chakra.
"It seems I need to go find some earth-attribute Ninjutsu."
It was a rainy day, and everyone in the entire Village wore black attire to attend the Third Hokage's memorial service.
The Third Hokage had always been a kind old man in the eyes of the villagers.
Everyone was deeply saddened by his passing.
Only Naruto, distracted, lagged at the very end of the procession.
"You died too easily. You embezzled so much of my father's property, and dying like this is letting you off too lightly."
Naruto grumbled inwardly.
At this moment, a person dressed in strange Ninjaattire appeared behind him.
"Naruto, come with me!"
Although Naruto saw that outfit for the first time, based on his knowledge of the original story, he recognized it as the uniform of a Root Ninja at a glance.
"Old fox, you finally couldn't wait any longer, could you?"
Danzo's ultimate goal his entire life was to become Hokage, but Hiruzen Sarutobi's existence prevented him from realizing this dream until his death.
He followed the Root Ninja to a secluded thatched hut.
No one would have expected that the gathering point for Root Ninja would be such an inconspicuous thatched hut.
An old man dressed in a kasaya and with a bandaged head sat in the center of the supplies.
It was Danzo.
Unlike Hiruzen Sarutobi, Danzo had an aura that kept people at a distance.
He slowly opened his eyes and stared at Narutowith hawk-like gaze.
"Let me introduce myself. My name is Danzo, and I am the leader of the Root Organization."
His tone was cold, like a scorching wild dog.
"Naruto, tell me everything you know."
Danzo's tone was sinister and cold.
If it were an ordinary brat, they might have been scared out of their wits.
Unfortunately, he was facing Naruto.
"Tell you what?"
Naruto asked indifferently.
Danzo was startled, then looked at Naruto, his imposing aura softening considerably.
"Very good. To remain calm under my imposing aura is truly impressive."
He paused.
"Of course, it's how you defeated Shukaku. Don't tell me that with your meager abilities, you could defeat Ichibi Shukaku."
Danzo was convinced that Naruto was the most unstable bomb in the Village.
He guessed that Naruto's defeat of Shukaku was likely due to the power of Nine-Tailed.
If Nine-Tailed went out of control, it would bring devastating destruction to Konoha Village.
If Naruto's answer was unsatisfactory, he would not hesitate to eliminate Naruto as an unstable factor.
Naruto, however, shrugged and said, "You mean that toad? I just sealed him."
Danzo's eyes, which had been half-closed, suddenly widened.
"Sealed... sealed!"