"Why try so hard? It's useless! No matter how much you train, you'll never defeat Kado's subordinates!"
At the dinner table, Tazuna's grandson, a little boy named Inari, looked at the three exhausted from training and suddenly shouted at Naruto, Satsuki, and Sakura. His small face was filled with despair and grief that belied his age.
After saying these disheartening words, he abruptly turned around, tears streaming down his face, and rushed back to his room without looking back, slamming the door shut with a "bang."
Seeing this sudden scene, Sakura and Satsuki both looked confused and bewildered. They didn't understand why this child would say such discouraging things.
Tsunami, with an apologetic and worried expression, quickly got up and went to the room to comfort her son. After a while, Tazuna sighed heavily, then explained the reason to everyone in a hoarse voice.
The story's outline was similar to what Naruto remembered. The root cause of this child's constant weariness and sadness lay with his brave but unfortunate stepfather, Kaiza.
Kaiza, a man once hailed as a hero in the Land of Waves. To be honest, when Naruto read the original story, he felt that this man's inner strength and resolve, in some ways, resembled his father, Minato Namikaze... Sunny, righteous, and willing to step forward to protect others.
However, unfortunately, unlike reality, while Kaiza possessed the resolve and character of a hero, he did not have the powerful strength to match it, enough to change reality.
Later, when Kado tried to completely control the Land of Waves with capital and violence, Kaiza bravely stood up, attempting to organize resistance against the oppression of the Kado group.
However, this resistance ultimately failed. Kaiza was captured by Kado's subordinates, and to make an example of him and completely crush the will of the people of the Land of Waves to resist, Kado cruelly ordered Kaiza's public execution in front of many villagers...
At this point, Tazuna's voice choked, and tears involuntarily streamed from the corners of his eyes. It was clear that he had very deep affection for his son-in-law, and this grief was still deeply etched in his heart.
Although Inari acted like a tragic protagonist all day, even discouraging others who were working hard, which was indeed annoying, Naruto could still understand him.
In Inari's young heart, his stepfather Kaiza was the most powerful and courageous hero in the world, the most reliable presence.
This image was probably equivalent to the Hokage in the eyes of the children of Konoha Village, a being who seemed capable of solving all problems.
And it was such a hero, whom he regarded as his faith and pillar, who was easily destroyed and trampled by evil forces in front of so many people... This collapse of faith and immense trauma was enough to make a child completely lose confidence in "effort" and "resistance," falling into the abyss of despair.
However, Naruto couldn't help but inwardly complain, why do people in this world, especially these ordinary civilians, always lack the most basic understanding of the true power disparity among Ninja?
Kado, that guy, was clearly one of the richest men in the world, wealthy enough to rival a nation, yet the so-called "subordinates" he kept were almost all riff-raff like rogue samurai and street thugs who only bullied the weak and feared the strong.
The only formidable one, Zabuza Momochi, was someone he hired temporarily from outside for a hefty sum.
One could say that to completely overthrow such a person who only had wealth but no matching military strength to protect it, any one of the Five Great Ninja Villages would only need to dispatch a standard Jonin squad, which would be enough to perfectly resolve it. At most, it would be an A-rank mission in terms of difficulty and cost.
Perhaps it was also because the creator god didn't think so deeply when he first conceived the world of Naruto... A pure, unrighteous villain like Kado was probably the most standard "bad guy" archetype he could think of at the time.
However, Kado's demise is coming soon anyway. One of the richest people in the world, huh... Kakuzu should have a lot of "common topics" about "money" to discuss with Kado.
Naruto imagined that scene with a slightly mischievous delight.
After a while, Tsunami, having comforted her son, returned to the living room with an apologetic smile and began to quietly prepare dinner for everyone.
Perhaps because the recent story had made the atmosphere too heavy, during dinner, Tazuna, to lighten the mood, deliberately said in a relaxed tone, "Oh, this is wonderful. It's been a long time since it was this lively and I ate with so many people."
However, the dinner table remained silent, and no one responded. Everyone finished dinner in this slightly oppressive quietness.
During rest time, after everyone had gone to sleep, Naruto quietly went alone to the forest clearing where they had trained during the day.
He first formed a hand sign and created a Shadow Clone. This Shadow Clone immediately used the Transformation Technique, transforming into Menma, and then put on the fox mask that could block perception.
Once ready, the Shadow Clone activated the Flying Thunder God Technique, instantly disappearing to the "Ash" organization's base far away in the Land of Hot Springs.
Naruto's main body, meanwhile, began intense training alone. He focused on practicing complex sealing jutsu and controlling the Adamantine Sealing Chains. He planned to train until his body felt tired before sleeping.
The air in the forest was cool late at night, but the continuous exercise kept him from feeling cold. After another strenuous use of Adamantine Sealing Chains, until his Chakra was severely depleted and he was panting, a strong sense of fatigue washed over him. Naruto felt his eyelids growing heavier and simply lay on his back on the soft grass, gazing at the starry sky, and soon fell into a deep sleep.
Fortunately, sleeping does not directly cause a Shadow Clone to disappear. When a Ninja uses the Shadow Clone Technique, he or she distributes his or her Chakra evenly to each clone and the main body at once.
This allocated Chakra is like a "battery" used to maintain the clone's existence and activities. As long as this Chakra is not exhausted, or the clone is not subjected to a fatal attack, the clone will not disappear. Sleeping is a physiological action of the main body and the clone, not a Chakra-consuming attack.
Sleeping itself can even help restore Chakra; therefore, unless the main body is severely injured, leading to a disruption of Chakra circulation, normal sleep will not affect the already allocated Chakra output used to maintain the clone.
——————
The next morning, just as dawn was breaking, Naruto was awakened from his sleep by a gentle, soft voice.
"If you sleep in a place like this, you might catch a cold."
Naruto groggily sat up, rubbed his eyes, and indeed saw the person he expected.
It was a "girl" with beautiful long, straight black hair, wearing an elegant and simple kimono, with a delicate appearance and gentle demeanor... if Naruto didn't know his true gender.