Chapter 476: "That's the Direction of My House!"
Naruto and Sasuke truly deserved to be called a pair of ill-fated lovers.
Sasuke no longer needed to summon Manda to block Deidara's self-detonation, now it had turned into Naruto summoning Kurama to block a high-pressure water cannon.
Once upon a time, there was such a story.
A woodcutter heard the tale of a fox repaying kindness, so he deliberately set animal traps all over a snowy mountain, hoping to catch a fox that would owe him a favor.
Hard work paid off, he finally met one.
After rescuing the fox, he returned home and waited patiently.
But after several days, no beautiful fox woman came to repay his kindness. Instead, every day there was a steaming bowl of white porridge waiting for him.
After enjoying the porridge for several days, the woodcutter went out and heard the story of the "shell girl" (like the legend of the grateful snail maiden).
He wondered: 'Was the fox secretly repaying him by cooking porridge while he was away?'
So the woodcutter returned home early and secretly observed.
What he saw was a male fox in the kitchen cooking.
That is the story of "losing Jingzhou through carelessness."
As expected, karma comes full circle.
In the story, an evil male fox repays kindness with betrayal, causing the woodcutter to lose everything through negligence. However, in reality, it was the Nine-Tails fox named Kurama who ended up losing everything due to a moment of negligence because of Naruto.
"Tailed Beast Ball!"
Naruto, controlling the Nine-Tails, fired the thing in its mouth toward the distant sky.
Naruto had not yet mastered the use of the Tailed Beast Ball. Here, when he shouted "Tailed Beast Ball," it was actually the same situation as during the Chunin Exams when he fought Kiba—holding a balloon filled with… well, something useless, and shouting "Rasengan."
This move of Naruto's carried a certain resemblance to his father, Namikaze Minato, when he teleported away a Tailed Beast Ball.
At the same time, it also carries the same issue as redirecting a Tailed Beast Ball.
Transferring the Tailed Beast Bomb out to sea implicitly means moving it to a place where it won't harm innocent people.
But is there really such a thing as "no innocents" in the ocean?
That was a Ten-Tails level Tailed Beast Ball with an enormous blast radius. What if there were small island clusters from the Land of Water or the Land of Lightning nearby?
What if there were fishermen out at sea?
Even if none of that existed… What about the fish?
When Minato teleported one, he once killed billions of fish in an instant. And later, when he was reanimated through Impure World Reincarnation, he was shocked to discover he had become public enemy number one in the deep sea, any time he entered water, every aquatic summon and fish-like creature would attack him with suicidal determination.
Similarly, Naruto fired the "Tailed Beast Ball" toward the distance.
But a Tailed Beast Ball always has to land somewhere.
Even if it explodes in the air, it still falls like rain somewhere below.
"Eh? Grandma, isn't that the direction of our house?!"
Tamaki, who had just squeezed to the very front of the crowd with Cat Granny, witnessed this horrifying scene.
As mentioned earlier, the two of them lived outside Konoha in an abandoned town called the Sora-ku (Sky District).
Naruto didn't even know Cat Granny and Tamaki, so how could he possibly know that people, and cats, still lived in those ruins?
"Haa."
Naruto intercepted the high-pressure water cannon aimed at the villagers, let out a breath of relief, and deactivated his Tailed Beast Cloak before landing back on the ground.
In the mental space, Kurama finally felt that annoying lump of pressure disappear and his convulsing body slowly stopped.
But Kurama still didn't stand up. Under the worried stares of the other tailed beasts watching nearby, two lines of tears slowly rolled down his face.
"Kurama, cheer up. We tailed beasts were forged through battle, don't embarrass yourself."
Shukaku teased him, clearly enjoying the show.
Normally, Kurama would have already snapped back. But now, Kurama just wanted silence. Don't ask who "Silence" is.
Seeing that Kurama wasn't responding, the other tailed beasts scattered back to their own corners and left him alone.
After they left, Kurama showed a dark expression.
As the central manager connecting all tailed beasts, a so-called "permission monster", he directly opened a private channel that no other tailed beast could hear, sending a message to Naruto.
[Naruto, next time you can try borrowing the power of other tailed beasts too. I'll just assist with support. You should get more familiar with their abilities.]
A very normal suggestion.
"Got it. Thanks for the advice, Kurama."
"Also, Kurama, don't worry. If something dangerous like today happens again, you'll still be the first one I think of."
Naruto said this sincerely, genuinely touched by Kurama's friendliness.
[…]
Kurama had no idea how to respond to that last sentence.
He could only silently pray that the next "danger" would not be this kind of danger.
"Naruto… w-what happened to me?"
"Woof woof."
Kiba's voice suddenly came from the other side.
Naruto snapped back and looked over, then immediately froze.
Kiba was covered in fur all over his body, with two animal ears on his head. Behind his head was Akamaru's dog face, and the "woof woof" just now had clearly come from that second mouth.
The earlier two-headed dog fusion was already bizarre enough, but this current state… was on another level entirely.
On top of that, Kiba had dog-like claws for hands and even a tail.
He looked like the failed result of someone trying to absorb natural energy from ninja hounds.
Of course, the ninja dogs didn't have anything like the Sage Arts inheritance of the Three Great Sage Regions. That much was certain.
The key point was that Kiba's current "Sage Mode" state had a very fitting description.
A term that almost everyone present, even ordinary Konoha villagers, could immediately think of.
Furry.
Everyone's expression toward Kiba and Naruto changed instantly.
"Kiba, amazing! You've also mastered Sage Mode now! Remember this feeling, you'll become a legendary ninja who stands alongside me and Jiraiya-sensei!"
Naruto ran over excitedly and gave Kiba a big hug.
"Huh? Sage Mode? Me?"
Kiba was confused.
But when he heard what Naruto said, he still felt happy.
Stand alongside Jiraiya-sama, one of the Legendary Sannin?
Was that kind of thing actually possible?
After all, Kiba's personality was very similar to Naruto's. But while Naruto had the Nine-Tails as his partner, Kiba only had Akamaru. That was the difference between them.
That gap had led Kiba to overestimate himself while underestimating his actual abilities, having confidence in speech but not matching strength.
Kiba knew this about himself. But it wasn't something he could easily change. He had already accepted his mediocrity.
But now?
He had actually… mastered Sage Mode?
"Yes!" Naruto said excitedly, grabbing Kiba's dog-like hand, "Kiba, try your strength, speed, and sensing abilities. Didn't they all increase a lot?"
"Uh… I'll try."
Kiba's brain was still rebooting, so he just followed Naruto's instructions mechanically.
The first thing he tested was his ninja hound specialty, sense of smell.
He took a light sniff.
His eyes immediately lit up.
"Naruto, did you just eat shit? No, wait, that's the scent of that talisman!"
Naruto: "..."
Naruto felt like Kiba was doing this on purpose. He had already said something similar earlier when there weren't many people around while saving him. Why was he acting like he just discovered it now?
This was outright ingratitude!
Then don't blame him for being impolite.
(End of this chapter)