When everyone saw the mountain of paperwork Uzumaki Naruto had to deal with after becoming the Seventh Hokage, smiles appeared on their faces.
It became even more amusing when they realized that being Hokage left him with so little time to raise his son properly. He couldn't even attend his daughter's birthday in person and had to send a Shadow Clone Jutsu in his place.
More absurdly, the Shadow Clone Jutsu became so exhausted that it couldn't even maintain itself.
Jiraiya and Tsunade, however, nodded with understanding.
They had personally watched the Third Hokage go through the exact same thing.
Hatake Kakashi also remembered how Sarutobi Asuma, who had been in the same graduating class as him, used to argue with the Third Hokage as a child.
Asuma had also thought there was nothing special about the Third Hokage and resented him for neglecting his family.
It was almost identical to the situation between Boruto and Naruto.
"I absolutely can't let things become like this."
After seeing the conflict between his son and grandson, Namikaze Minato immediately began thinking about how he would get along with Naruto in the future.
Things definitely couldn't end up this way.
But when Uzumaki Boruto said Naruto had been lucky because his grandfather had died early, meaning Naruto never had to experience the joy of having a parent constantly around, Minato became furious.
How could he not understand how desperately Naruto had longed for his parents?
Boruto might have spoken out of anger, but at heart, he simply didn't appreciate how fortunate he was.
Uchiha Sasuke, who had also lost his father as a child, shook his head as he watched.
He was around Uzumaki Boruto's age now and would soon face the Chunin Exams himself.
Seeing Boruto take his living parents for granted filled Sasuke with instinctive dislike.
Had the future Sasuke not appeared and inspired such obvious admiration from Boruto, proving the boy possessed at least some good judgment, Sasuke would have already given him a massive failing mark.
Still, many people found it ridiculous that Sasuke, supposedly Uzumaki Naruto's closest friend, didn't even recognize Naruto's son.
Could those two really be called friends?
Naruto's son was already in his teens, yet Sasuke had no idea who he was.
Then again, once everyone remembered that Uchiha Sasuke didn't even recognize his own daughter, it somehow made sense.
What exactly did the future Uchiha Sasuke do outside the village all day?
In the video, Uchiha Sasuke tossed the Kaguya's Scroll he had recovered from Otsutsuki Kaguya's palace onto Uzumaki Naruto's desk, where Naruto was still working late into the night.
"What's this?" Uzumaki Naruto asked in surprise.
"I brought it back from Kaguya's Palace."
Only then did Uchiha Sasuke open the door and step inside.
"Sasuke."
Uzumaki Naruto brightened at the sight of his friend.
He opened the Kaguya's Scroll, only to find that he couldn't understand a single thing written inside.
"I've got a really bad feeling about this."
"Even my Rinnegan can't decipher it. There was also someone who caught my attention, but he wasn't following me," Uchiha Sasuke explained.
Uchiha Itachi frowned as he listened.
Sasuke had barely explained anything.
What did he mean by someone who caught his attention?
The fact that two people capable of matching Sasuke had appeared was already an extremely serious problem.
"Fine. Looks like I won't be going home tonight. Let's figure out what this Kaguya's Scroll says first," Uzumaki Naruto said.
"I also met your son. He's exactly like you used to be."
Uchiha Sasuke tossed Uzumaki Naruto's old clothes to him.
"No, he isn't like me. He's actually more like you."
Uzumaki Naruto's reply made the middle-aged Uchiha Sasuke pause.
"No. That kid isn't like the old you either. His clothes are always brand-new. Maybe we're the ones who have fallen behind the times."
Uchiha Sasuke shook his head.
"That's not true. The essence of a ninja never changes. Your son is no exception."
After leaving Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke was stopped on his way home by Uzumaki Boruto, who begged Sasuke to take him as a student.
Sasuke refused.
He told Boruto to learn Naruto's Rasengan first.
Because of that, Uzumaki Boruto went to find the grown Sarutobi Konohamaru in the middle of the night and asked him to teach the Rasengan.
The process was naturally difficult.
After Boruto encountered setbacks, Tono Katasuke approached him and gave him a capacitor-type Scientific Ninja Tool.
When Seventh Hokage Naruto watched Uzumaki Boruto use the Scientific Ninja Tool to cheat and perform the Rasengan, deceiving Sasuke into accepting him as a student, his entire expression darkened.
His greatest fear had come true.
Someone had obtained a Scientific Ninja Tool and begun neglecting his own training because of it.
Had Uzumaki Boruto learned the Rasengan through his own effort and merely kept the Scientific Ninja Tool as a hidden trump card, Naruto wouldn't have objected.
In that case, the Scientific Ninja Tool would be no different in essence from his Nine-Tails or Uchiha Sasuke's Sharingan.
But Boruto couldn't learn the Rasengan on his own, then used a Scientific Ninja Tool to cheat.
That was something Naruto couldn't tolerate.
Today, Boruto could use cheating to gain Uchiha Sasuke's approval and become his student.
But what would happen when he encountered a truly terrifying enemy?
Could he still rely on a little cleverness then?
The more Uzumaki Naruto thought about it, the angrier he became.
He felt that his failure to properly discipline Boruto had led directly to this result.
The others also frowned as they watched.
At heart, they all belonged to the older generation of shinobi.
Even Uchiha Sasuke, young as he was, thought the same way.
Power gained through cheating could never truly be controlled.
It was just like when Sarutobi Konohamaru demonstrated the Rasengan earlier.
He couldn't even control the technique or aim it properly.
Could that really be called his own strength?
Obviously not.
Before anyone could voice their dissatisfaction with Uzumaki Boruto's cheating, the scene changed.
Otsutsuki Momoshiki and Otsutsuki Kinshiki, the same two who had fought the future middle-aged Sasuke, had already arrived in Kumogakure.
They captured the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki directly and even forced the Eight-Tails to reveal its true form.
"The Eight-Tails? Uncle Bee!"
Seventh Hokage Naruto cried out.
Who had the power to injure the Eight-Tails so badly?
"So Chakra has been scattered in this form," Otsutsuki Momoshiki said from his seat on Otsutsuki Kinshiki's shoulder.
"The God Tree has already fallen, and there is no trace of Kaguya Hime," Otsutsuki Kinshiki replied. "It appears that the creatures of this planet have obtained knowledge they were never meant to possess."
His words practically revealed their identities.
"Otsutsuki!"
Seventh Hokage Naruto reacted first.
The others had little understanding of the God Tree or Kaguya Hime, so they were still trying to guess who these two were.
Seventh Hokage Naruto was different.
He had truly fought members of the Otsutsuki before.
Otsutsuki Kaguya, in particular, remained the strongest enemy he had ever encountered.
Now that he looked closely, the clothing worn by these two was almost identical in style to Otsutsuki Kaguya's.
He remembered what Kaede Kitahara had written about the Otsutsuki and understood immediately.
These two were Otsutsuki.
No wonder they could fight the current Sasuke on nearly equal terms.
They had only exchanged a few simple Taijutsu blows before ending the battle.
Perhaps they had sensed how troublesome Sasuke was and decided not to continue.
Sasuke wasn't a Tailed Beast, so they had no interest in him and didn't want to suffer heavy losses fighting him.
Was that the reason?
Then these people had also come for the Tailed Beasts?
No.
More precisely, they had come for the Ten-Tails and the God Tree.
They were clearly here to reclaim the Chakra Fruit.
Otsutsuki Kaguya had once tried to do the same thing, but Naruto had stopped her.
During that battle, he had also learned that the Sage of Six Paths had divided the Chakra Fruit into the nine Tailed Beasts.
In other words, now that these Otsutsuki had captured Uncle Bee, Naruto would definitely be one of their future targets.
The Eight-Tails was naturally extremely powerful.
Among the Tailed Beasts, it was second only to the Nine-Tails.
Yet now it had been pinned against a cliff wall.
That alone was terrifying.
The Eight-Tails immediately gathered a Tailed Beast Ball and fired it at Otsutsuki Momoshiki.
After swallowing a Chakra Pill, Otsutsuki Momoshiki sneered.
"Looks like there's no choice but to reclaim them one at a time."
A Rinnegan suddenly opened in his palm.
In an instant, it absorbed the Tailed Beast Ball.
Everyone's eyelids twitched.
They were far too familiar with that ability.
Jiraiya, in particular, understood it all too well.
"A Rinnegan too? Are these people related to Nagato?"
Jiraiya watched the eye open in Otsutsuki Momoshiki's palm.
It had absorbed something as terrifying as a Tailed Beast Ball without difficulty.
Jiraiya had seen Tailed Beast Balls before.
Although the Eight-Tails' Tailed Beast Ball couldn't compare to the One-Tail's, it was still horrifyingly powerful.
Yet this man had absorbed it casually.
"No. He's even more troublesome than Nagato's Rinnegan."
Jiraiya's eyelid twitched as he stared at the humanoid creature with an eye growing from his palm.
When Otsutsuki Momoshiki returned the Tailed Beast Ball with twice its original power, Jiraiya became certain.
The Rinnegan might have grown in the strange location of Momoshiki's hand, but it was unquestionably more dangerous than Nagato's.
The returned attack was even more terrifying than the Tailed Beast Ball fired by the Eight-Tails.
It blasted apart the Eight-Tails in an instant, revealing the aged face of Killer Bee, the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki, within.
Killer Bee had been in the prime of his life back then.
Now he had entered old age.
"So highly concentrated Chakra exists inside human bodies in the form of Tailed Beasts. That accounts for everything."
Otsutsuki Momoshiki extracted the Eight-Tails from Killer Bee's body and instantly refined it into several Chakra Pills.