Task completed: Escape!
Received a 'Beginner Skill Experience Scroll'. You can now log out of the Underground City at any time.
Naruto glanced at the pop-up window in front of him, his peripheral vision catching the hexagonal icons beside it. Among them, the previously dim 'Log Out' icon emitted a faint, pure white glow.
His gaze interacted with 'Item', and the item bar immediately popped up. Besides the Underground City key from the Goblin Slayer world, there was now an additional scroll inside.
Beginner Skill Experience Scroll
Quality: Green
Description: This is an incredibly convenient scroll with magical power. It can increase skill proficiency, allowing you to quickly master a skill without the hard work and tedium of practice. Definitely worth owning!
"Looks good."
Naruto's thoughts stirred, and he dismissed the various pop-up windows from his sight, bending down to pick up the shuriken stuck in the Goblin's body.
"Even though it's a zero-cost item that didn't cost me a single penny, I can't waste it."
Naruto wiped the blood from the shuriken with the Goblin's tattered brown short shirt, then put it back into his Ninja tool pouch. He then searched the corpse again, finding nothing valuable, before finally stopping his efforts.
"These Goblins are really poor."
"The three of them look like scouts, gathering information."
Naruto turned his head to look at the village outside the forest.
Wooden houses were scattered across the plains, with rolling grasslands, intermittent wooden fences, and crisscrossing paths. Farmers in coarse linen clothes tilled the fertile fields, and ordinary women drew water from stone wells to wash clothes. Because there was no wind, the smoke from cooking rose straight up, drifting into the azure sky dotted with a few white clouds.
Peaceful, harmonious.
It was Iron Water Village.
Naruto frowned, unable to imagine the hellish scene of Goblins raiding Iron Water Village at night, killing, burning, and plundering.
"The Goblins lurking near Iron Water Village have been eliminated by me. When I settle the mission later, I can tell the old village chief to be careful of Goblin attacks."
"For now… I need to go back first."
Naruto brought up the 'Log Out' icon and chose to exit the current Underground City.
"About to exit."
"10… 9… 8…"
Along with a countdown, a faint circle of white light appeared around Naruto. As the countdown gradually ended, the light grew brighter and brighter, finally reaching a blinding intensity. In that instant, he instantly vanished from his original spot.
A gentle breeze blew, leaving only three green Goblin corpses on the ground.
…
Konoha Village.
In a small, neatly arranged, and quite comfortable and cozy room, Naruto, returning from the Underground City, appeared out of thin air and stood steadily on the floor.
"I… I'm back…"
Naruto was briefly disoriented, but immediately recovered and checked his surroundings.
"As expected, I'm still in the same spot. I guess the coordinates won't change when I enter the Goblin Slayer world later."
The curtains hadn't been drawn, and the strands of hair he'd placed on the doors and windows before leaving hadn't moved.
Naruto breathed a sigh of relief.
Was he being a bit too cautious?
He looked at the clock on the wall; only an hour had passed.
"I definitely spent more than an hour in the Goblin Slayer world. My stomach was so hungry I even ate a Military Ration Pill, so it was probably three or four hours."
"That means the time flow in the Underground City is different from the Fire Shadow World."
Naruto slapped his left palm with his clenched right fist, thinking excitedly, "In the future, I can use the time difference to cultivate, which is equivalent to having three times more time than others."
However, Naruto didn't get carried away with his joy.
The fact that he felt tired and hungry in the Underground City showed that the time passing truly affected him.
If he stayed in the Underground City for three years, Naruto wouldn't just age one year; he would genuinely age three years.
This meant Naruto would "shorten his lifespan" by three times compared to people in the Fire Shadow World!
"There must be a way to solve the lifespan problem. For now, the top priority is still to increase my strength."
Naruto remembered seeing many books and scrolls in the training room when he tidied up his room. Perhaps he could learn several Ninjutsu.
Training room.
Naruto unrolled a Ninjutsu scroll, his expression becoming strange.
The scroll contained hand seals and a Chakra flow diagram for the human body, but the problem was that the scroll recorded a C-rank Ninjutsu—Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!
As a Ninjutsu passed down through generations of the Uchiha Clan, although it wasn't exclusively mastered by the Uchiha Clan, it wasn't something a little kid like Naruto could buy.
It was clearly fake.
Naruto opened several other Ninjutsu scrolls, his eyelids twitching.
Things like Earth Release: Earth Flow Wall, Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet, Wind Release: Violent Wind Palm—which of these wasn't a C-rank or even B-rank Ninjutsu? They were hard to buy at street shops, and the Ninja Academy certainly wouldn't teach them, unless one joined a prominent clan or raised their Ninja rank to gain higher qualifications to learn.
"Hah, it's really hard for ordinary Ninja to learn powerful Ninjutsu besides the Three Body Technique."
Naruto threw aside the scrolls, spread his arms, and fell backward, lying sprawled out on the tatami in the training room.
Staring at the square ceiling lamp, an idea flashed in Naruto's mind.
"That's right!"
Naruto suddenly sat up.
"I'm not an ordinary Ninja!"
"Since the Ninja Academy and the library don't have them, I'll go to the Third Hokage's house to look. Hiruzen Sarutobi is known as the 'Professor of Ninjutsu'; he's bound to have many Ninjutsu scrolls, and there's also the Scroll of Seals, which records the Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu."
Naruto's eyes grew even brighter.
Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu was simply too important.
It could create physical clones with a certain degree of resilience, and upon dispelling them, the clones' memories and experiences would return to the main body.
Isn't this a divine skill for grinding levels and learning skills!
"In the original story, Mizuki tricked me into stealing the Scroll of Seals to learn it. Now, I'll just go directly to the Third Hokage's house to learn."
The Hokage's house, others couldn't easily enter, but couldn't he?
Easily finding the room where the Scroll of Seals was kept, Naruto sat on the floor and began to read it openly and boldly right there.
As long as he didn't take the Scroll of Seals away, who could do anything to him?
Getting straight to the point, he first looked for and began to learn the Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu.
As for the Four Symbols Seal, Edo Tensei, Eight Gates, and Mutual Exploding Tag, while he was tempted, Naruto understood the principle of not biting off more than he could chew.
Compared to them, what he needed most was still the Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu.
Heaven knows how awesome it would be to level up using Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu!
He dared not imagine!
He simply dared not imagine!
As an A-rank Ninjutsu, its difficulty goes without saying, but for some unknown reason, as if by fate, Naruto, who couldn't even master the basic Clone Jutsu, gained mastery over the Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu with divine assistance.
After completely mastering the Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu, Naruto spread out more of the Scroll of Seals, turning his gaze towards Edo Tensei, when an old cough sounded behind him.
Naruto turned around to see an elder wearing a white Hokage robe, a red Ninja uniform underneath, and a Hokage hat. His hair and beard were white, and his face was covered in wrinkles. He stood with his hands behind his back, having been there for an unknown amount of time, looking down at him.
Perhaps due to the lighting, the hat cast a shadow that covered most of his gaunt and aged face, combined with the aura developed from long years in a high position, made him appear imposing without anger, even somewhat eerie and terrifying.
Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi!