"It's all the Nine-Tails' fault!"
In response to being beaten up by the Nine-Tails' Jinchūriki, the enemy insisted that the rampage was due to the beast's negative influence and claimed temporary insanity. By this logic, he should receive a lighter sentence.
Oh, wait—it's the ninja world. Never mind then.
Just as the three were about to clean up the battlefield, Kakashi appeared out of nowhere, as always.
He was dragging several unconscious enemies by the arm, his gaze toward Team 7 mixed with pride and worry.
Of the three, he was most concerned about Naruto.
"So it is the Nine-Tails influencing him?" Kakashi wondered internally.
This had been his theory lately—Naruto's increasingly erratic behavior might be due to the Nine-Tails' manipulation.
He decided to report this to the Third Hokage in secret later.
Damn that fox.
"Sorry I didn't jump in earlier," Kakashi said. "I needed to figure out if the enemy's target was Team 7 or Mr. Tazuna. But Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke—you did great!"
He gave them a thumbs-up and helped tie up the still-breathing enemies.
Then he turned to Tazuna. "Mr. Tazuna, I'd like a word with you in private."
The enemy's strength and numbers were far beyond a standard C-rank mission. This was serious.
Seeing this, Naruto immediately got up and scratched his butt. "Ah! Perfect time for a bathroom break. Cough, cough!"
He winked at Sakura.
Sakura facepalmed. Could you try to come up with a decent excuse? What, you want me to poop with you or something?
She thought about it, sighed, and said she needed to go too—then ran in a different direction.
Soon, the two met up.
Naruto whispered, "Something's off. Don't you think that attack was too weak?"
Sakura nodded. "Yeah. It's like a newbie in Dark Souls putting all their points into Strength—looks scary but useless."
Even though this wave of enemies was stronger than the last, it still barely scratched them.
"You think Zabuza sent them?"
"No. Zabuza doesn't have that kind of manpower. But Gato does."
Gato—the criminal businessman. In the original story, he hired Zabuza to kill Tazuna and stop the bridge project so he could control the Land of Waves' shipping routes.
"But this doesn't help him at all," Naruto said. "It's just feeding us EXP."
"Only two possibilities," Sakura said.
"Either the guy behind this hasn't watched Naruto… or he has other plans."
"Let's hope it's the first one," Naruto sighed.
The two of them quickly went over other possible scenarios and hurried back.
They didn't want to be gone too long and raise suspicion.
Before returning, Naruto created a shadow clone and sent it racing back to Konoha to stock up on deadly ninja tools.
Back at the group, Kakashi explained the situation.
It turned out Tazuna couldn't afford a higher-ranking mission, so he lied and said it was a C-rank.
Naruto and Sakura immediately forgave him—especially when Tazuna got all teary talking about his family.
Naruto pounded his chest and promised to protect his daughter no matter what!
As for Tazuna's grandson… meh.
Tazuna was so touched he almost cried—and quietly added Naruto to his personal blacklist.
But this actually aligned with Naruto and Sakura's goals. They wanted to wipe out the threat before it grew stronger. If they couldn't kill it, they'd at least uncover the truth.
Sasuke, hands in pockets, said coolly, "These guys were never a threat to begin with."
"Well, if you insist," Kakashi said, scratching his head. "Let's keep moving."
As they walked, Naruto's mind drifted into his mental space.
After this fight, he realized he could now move and communicate with the Nine-Tails mentally without slowing down in the real world.
The dim atmosphere, the heavy breath of the Nine-Tails—none of it bothered him anymore.
Back home again~
"Nine-Tails, I'm disappointed in you." Naruto opened strong, voicing deep dissatisfaction with the fox's rent payment—i.e., chakra.
"Oh? Didn't you just defeat all your enemies using my power?" the fox sneered, eyes gleaming.
Finally, the Nine-Tails thought. I've returned to the battlefield. This kid's just proving he can't resist me.
"Let me put it this way," Naruto sat cross-legged. "Your chakra is like some dog crap on the side of the road. It stinks, but I can still use it as fertilizer."
"WHAT DID YOU SAY?!" the Nine-Tails growled, its massive body swelling with rage.
"Quit yapping. You're loud," Naruto said, casually cleaning out his ears. "Why do you mix your hatred into your chakra?"
"Hmph. I am hatred," the Nine-Tails said. "But my chakra doesn't contain hatred. It just draws out the hatred already inside you."
Naruto calmly replied, "You're the yo-yo of hatred. You've been toyed with by humans so many times your rage just kept growing."
"In reality, you came from the Sage of Six Paths splitting the Ten-Tails. And the Ten-Tails' power came from the chakra fruit of the God Tree."
The Nine-Tails froze. It hadn't expected this boy to know so much.
Just like last time, the boy easily exposed the lies hidden in its words.
After a long silence, the Nine-Tails finally asked, "Just who are you?"
"I'm your landlord," Naruto said coolly. "Next time, give me purer chakra—or forget about ever leaving the seal."
He paused, then added, "Don't underestimate the Fourth Hokage. And don't underestimate the Eight Trigrams Seal."
Before the fox could reply, Naruto exited his mental space.
That's enough.
To master the Nine-Tails' chakra, Naruto knew he had to do more than just pressure it—he had to demonstrate his own worth and bring them onto equal footing.
Once he could get a steady stream of purified chakra, he'd start practicing tree climbing, water walking, and eventually, the Rasengan.
Of course, shuriken techniques were also on the list. He wanted to test out the Uchiha-style shuriken throwing.
A few hours later, Naruto sensed something, pulled out a kunai, and startled a white rabbit into fleeing.
A snow rabbit—used for the Body Replacement Technique.
"Zabuza's here," Sakura whispered to Naruto, who nodded and gave a hand signal.
His shadow clone in the rear was ready.
Boom!
A sharp gust tore through the air.
"DOWN!" Kakashi shouted. Naruto shoved Tazuna's head down, Sakura and Sasuke ducked in sync. They narrowly dodged a massive sword.
A shirtless man, tall and muscular, mask on face, emanating killing intent.
The mist grew thick. The Hidden Mist Technique reduced visibility to almost zero.
The clone didn't use explosive tags to disperse the fog. Naruto decided to let Kakashi follow the original script and wait for Haku to show up.
Meanwhile, the real Naruto narrowed his eyes, closely watching Zabuza.
So far, he couldn't tell if anything was different. He'd have to wait and see what Zabuza did next.