Chapter 351: You're Not Allowed to Insult Kurama
["Naruto, it's time to use the power of that stinky tanuki and that stinky octopus! Hurry! She's about to start regenerating!"]
The moment Naruto shattered Kushina's reanimated body, the Nine-Tails immediately spoke up.
"Ah?"
"What do you mean, stinky cat and stinky fish… Kurama, why didn't you say this earlier?"
Naruto, still holding his Rasengan stance, didn't react right away.
[If I'd told you earlier, wouldn't you have acted with malice?]
"…That's true."
[The 'stinky tanuki' is the One-Tail, and the 'stinky octopus' is the Eight-Tail. Those two left a portion of their power inside your body.]
[They're completely inferior to me in every other aspect, but when it comes to sealing techniques, something only the weak rely on, they do have some skill.]
[Hurry up and use their power to seal this inherently evil red-haired woman. Otherwise, once she fully recovers, she'll just start fighting you again.]
The situation was "urgent", so the Nine-Tails skipped the nonsense and directly guided Naruto step by step.
It knew full well that what it was doing could be exposed at any moment.
But it didn't care.
In fact, that was exactly what it wanted.
It was killing two birds with one stone.
If it didn't get exposed, it could keep guiding Naruto and get revenge on Kushina.
If it did get exposed, Naruto would develop distrust toward it, and then it wouldn't have to worry about the Great Toad Sage's prophecy anymore.
Perfect plan!
As expected, it, the Nine-Tails, the smartest of all tailed beasts, capable of coming up with such a flawless solution.
"Alright, I'll try…"
Naruto summoned two shadow clones to help, attempting to form a "special Rasengan."
But he quickly failed.
The Rasengan had originally been developed by the Fourth Hokage based on the Tailed Beast Ball.
If Naruto had already mastered the Rasenshuriken and then learned the Tailed Beast Ball, the other Rasengan variants would come naturally.
But at his current level, he hadn't even developed the Rasenshuriken yet. He couldn't even infuse wind chakra into the Rasengan, let alone combine it with the tailed beasts' Magnet Release or ink.
With no other option, Naruto settled for the next best thing, forget the Rasengan and just spray directly.
One of his shadow clones came over and hoisted Naruto onto its shoulder again.
Naruto adjusted his aim… and switched "ammo."
Pfft!
Black octopus ink sprayed out, shooting toward Kushina, who was in the middle of regenerating and unable to dodge.
"That's enough. Let's stop here."
A voice suddenly rang out.
After the ink finished spraying, Naruto pulled up his waistband again and noticed that a large section in front of him had been blocked off by a wall of trees. The top of the wall was even covered with branches and leaves.
What was this? Wood Style?
And that voice just now sounded familiar…
"Was that Brother Shiromo?"
Naruto scratched his head.
But with the tree wall blocking his view, he couldn't be sure yet.
He started to move around it to take a look.
At this point, the Nine-Tails fell silent.
It knew that since Shiromo had appeared, its plan was effectively over.
Fortunately, it had been clever enough that even this outcome was part of its plan.
Still… it was a bit of a shame. It hadn't had enough fun yet.
---
On the other side.
It was indeed Shiromo who had intervened.
He stomped on the ground, activating Gold Experience. The sand beneath his feet transformed into rapidly growing trees, forming a wooden wall that blocked the ink.
Shiromo had absolutely no intention of touching that stuff.
Sure, this was ink and not the earlier "toad oil", but just thinking about where it came from was enough to make him feel sick.
"Thank you."
Kushina, whose reanimated body had mostly recovered, let out a sigh and thanked Shiromo.
Naruto's methods were endlessly creative, she should have been happy about that.
The problem was, all those methods had been used on her. That made things… complicated.
Thankfully, Shiromo stepped in. Otherwise, who knew what kind of torment she'd have to endure next?
"…Uh."
"Hm?"
Seeing Shiromo's strange expression, Kushina became puzzled and glanced down.
Everyone knows that when apologizing, you're supposed to show sincerity…
But Shiromo hadn't expected that apparently, you had to "show" something when expressing thanks too.
Of course, it wasn't that Kushina did this intentionally, it was simply a side effect of the Impure World Reincarnation technique.
In the original story, Naruto and Killer Bee defeated the masked man's Six Paths Jinchūriki by first attacking the reanimated Yugito. During the brief moment while her body was regenerating and her clothes hadn't yet recovered, the ever-perverted Killer Bee carefully observed and identified the position of the black rods.
Similarly, there's the classic scene where Uchiha Madara shows his "beloved."
He deliberately let himself be hit by Ōnoki's Dust Release, causing half of his reanimated body to be blown apart.
As his body slowly regenerated, and before his clothes recovered, Madara turned around and showed the Five Kage the face of Senju Hashirama embedded in his chest.
In other words, when a reanimated body is destroyed, it regenerates from the inside out.
So, during Kushina's regeneration…
…it was very awkward.
Kushina felt like her head was about to explode.
Earlier, she was even considering whether to let Shiromo use "medical examination" to revive her.
But now, there was no need to think about it anymore.
He'd already seen everything.
At this point, being seen again didn't really matter.
This was all Naruto's fault…
Kushina ground her teeth. If she didn't beat Naruto up, she wouldn't be able to vent her anger.
A few seconds after Kushina fully recovered, Naruto climbed over the tree wall and jumped down.
"Brother Shiromo, it really is you. Did you bring this bad… uh, red-haired woman here?"
Naruto walked over, looking curious.
He still hadn't given up, he was planning to win the match while Shiromo wasn't paying attention.
"She's your mom."
"?"
Naruto, who had been about to make a move, froze.
His mom?
So that bad… woman hadn't lied to him?
Tap.
Shiromo flicked Naruto on the forehead, and Naruto lost the match.
But Naruto no longer cared about winning or losing.
His mind was filled with everything that had just happened.
There was no reason for Shiromo to lie to him.
If this red-haired woman really was his mother, then didn't that mean the blond guy in his mental space who claimed to be his dad… really was his dad?
Wait…
Then what about Kimimaro? Was he his dad or not?
Naruto felt a headache coming on.
He couldn't tell anymore, he really couldn't.
Forget it.
He'd just ask directly.
Naruto cautiously began verifying everything with Shiromo.
Shiromo answered each of his questions one by one.
Meanwhile, Kushina stood to the side, looking up at the sky and letting out a long sigh.
As his mother, Naruto hadn't believed a single word she said. He'd even fought her for quite a while, using all kinds of disgusting methods against her.
But when Shiromo spoke, Naruto believed everything.
Why?!
"But why? Why did Kurama tell me she was a bad woman who stole his chakra?"
Naruto asked in confusion.
"The Nine-Tails? So it was the Nine-Tails stirring up trouble? That explains it! That damned Nine-Tails, an inherently evil, depraved fox…"
The moment Kushina heard this, she immediately understood and began angrily cursing.
"Don't insult Kurama! Kurama, my partner, is the coolest!"
Naruto interrupted Kushina's rant.
(End of this chapter)