Obito wants to kill Loquat Jūzō?
Naruto wondered if he had heard that right. In his memory, Loquat Jūzō was originally from Kirigakure. Because he was dissatisfied with the absurd rule of the Fourth Mizukage, he defected and eventually joined the Akatsuki.
Logically speaking, Jūzō's situation was similar to Kisame Hoshigaki's, so he should be considered one of Obito's trusted men.
But if that was the case… why the hell did Obito want to kill him?
Naruto frowned slightly, then suddenly thought about the mission where Itachi Uchiha and Jūzō attacked Kirigakure. In theory, Kirigakure was already under Akatsuki's control, so there was no need to send people there to investigate the tailed beasts.
The most likely explanation was that there were factions inside the Akatsuki.
One faction followed Pain (Nagato), and the other secretly answered to Obito.
Although Jūzō technically belonged to Obito's side, he had probably figured out that Obito was the one secretly manipulating the Fourth Mizukage, Yagura. That manipulation was the reason Kirigakure had turned back into the brutal "Blood Mist Village."
If Jūzō discovered that truth, it made sense why he would risk everything to return to Kirigakure and expose the conspiracy behind the scenes.
After thinking it through, Naruto nodded slightly toward Obito, silently agreeing to his condition.
Obito stared at Naruto for a moment. Then he activated Kamui. His body slowly twisted into a vortex, disappearing from sight.
The next moment, he appeared behind Naruto, raising a kunai and slashing down without hesitation.
Unfortunately for him, Naruto had already seen it coming.
Naruto clenched his right hand, and the Wind Release chakra instantly formed the sharp aura of a slicing gale, lashing outward like a whip.
Everything in its path—reinforced concrete walls, wooden desks, chairs, cabinets—was sliced clean in half.
At the same time, a Rasengan formed in Naruto's other hand.
"Still planning to cooperate?" Naruto asked calmly.
Obito remained in his intangible state, letting the wind blades pass harmlessly through him.
"Cooperation requires strength," he replied coldly. "And besides… killing so many of our men means you have to pay a price."
With that, Obito stepped back and vanished into another swirling vortex, leaving the Mizukage Building behind.
After Obito left, Naruto sent out several shadow clones to search the building for loot—scrolls, intel, money, anything not nailed down.
Hey, a ninja had to fund his operations somehow.
Meanwhile, Naruto stared at the spot where Obito had disappeared, deep in thought.
Inside his body, Kurama (the Nine-Tails) couldn't hold back anymore.
"Naruto, why didn't you attack that masked bastard just now?" Kurama growled. "Instead you chose to cooperate with him. He's the main reason your childhood was such a miserable mess—and he's our enemy!"
Naruto's expression turned serious.
"Kyuubi, believe me, I want to kill that guy more than you do."
"But now isn't the time."
"I'm not confident I can defeat him yet. And even if I could push him into a corner, I still can't stop him from escaping with that damn space-time technique."
"More importantly, the Uchiha clan has a forbidden jutsu called Izanagi that can temporarily rewrite reality."
"Space-time ninjutsu… and Izanagi…"
After witnessing Kamui, Minato Namikaze sighed quietly. His expression was complicated.
Naruto's guess was correct. The masked man who attacked Konoha years ago was the same person controlling the Fourth Mizukage. And his ultimate goal was to gather the Nine Tailed Beasts and revive the world-destroying monster Kurama once mentioned.
Having an enemy like that lurking in the shadows was a massive threat to both Konoha and Naruto.
This was also one of the main reasons Minato had always opposed Naruto leaving the village. As the Nine-Tails Jinchūriki, Naruto would inevitably attract dangerous people the moment he stepped outside Konoha.
And given Naruto's young age, without proper guidance, it would be easy for him to go down a dark path.
But now…
Minato had to admit something.
Naruto had already developed a mature mind and considerable strength. Some of his decisions were still a bit rough around the edges, but he could no longer be treated like a child.
Because the boy standing here… had already grown up.
After a moment of silence, Minato walked over to Naruto and Kurama.
"Kyuubi, Naruto's decision wasn't wrong," Minato said calmly. "When facing a ninja who has mastered space-time ninjutsu, unless you can kill them instantly, it's extremely difficult to defeat them."
"Temporarily forming an alliance is a reasonable strategy."
"However," he added, "I don't recommend using genjutsu to control the upper management of Kirigakure."
Naruto and Kurama both turned to look at him.
Kurama snorted and said sarcastically,
"Well, well… isn't this the Fourth Hokage? What's the matter? Feeling generous enough to give advice to a tailed beast and a runaway ninja?"
Minato ignored the sarcasm.
Naruto, on the other hand, muttered thoughtfully:
"Fourth Hokage… if the enemy is hiding in another dimension, would your Flying Thunder God Technique still work?"
"Another dimension?" Minato placed one hand on his hip and thought for a moment.
"I've never tried that before, so I can't say for sure. But… are you planning to use the Flying Thunder God to deal with the masked man?"
Naruto nodded without hesitation.
"That's the plan. If Flying Thunder God can reach other dimensions, dealing with that masked bastard will become a lot easier."
Minato nodded slowly.
"I can teach you the technique. But don't get your hopes up too much."
"Using Flying Thunder God requires extremely fast reflexes, and you must precisely grasp spatial coordinates. Even teleporting within the same space is difficult."
"Traveling between different dimensions… well…"
He paused, then shrugged.
"The risk is about the same as Tsunade-sama winning big at the casino."
In other words—pretty damn unlikely.
Before Minato could continue, he noticed Naruto giving him a strange look.
Minato quickly added,
"I'm not trying to discourage you. If you want to learn other ninjutsu or taijutsu, I can teach those too."
Kurama suddenly interrupted.
"Naruto has been able to sense people's hearts since he was a child. Minato… your attitude isn't exactly convincing."
"Are you secretly hoping Naruto will return to Konoha and protect the village after learning the Flying Thunder God?"
"Naruto can read people's hearts?"
Minato looked surprised—but not shocked.
In truth, he had no intention of forcing Naruto to return to Konoha. He genuinely planned to teach him the technique.
Kurama snorted and looked toward Naruto, who had fallen into deep thought.
Since childhood, Naruto had displayed many abilities that made absolutely no sense.
For example, suddenly mastering the Gentle Fist of the Hyūga clan…
Learning Uchiha-style Fire Release techniques…
Even knowing the whereabouts of Shisui Uchiha.
But those secrets never affected the relationship between Naruto and Kurama.
Trust didn't mean telling each other everything.
Just like Kurama would never reveal the ancient secrets of the Sage of Six Paths from thousands of years ago, Naruto also kept some things to himself.
However, Kurama had misunderstood Naruto's current thoughts.
Naruto didn't doubt Minato's sincerity.
Instead, he was thinking about something else—
The system.
Although the system wasn't exactly amazing, Naruto had been using it to judge other people's favorability toward him.
But since leaving Konoha, the system had malfunctioned twice.
Once with Uzumaki Ashina, the old patriarch of the Uzumaki clan.
And once just now.
In both cases, the system showed no favorability data at all.
This left Naruto with two possible explanations.
Either the system itself was malfunctioning…
Or the issue was related to Edo Tensei.
After all, both Uzumaki Ashina and Minato Namikaze were technically dead.
Yet Naruto also remembered an old saying in the ninja world—that there existed a place called the Pure Land, where the souls of powerful shinobi resided after death.
If that was true…
Then perhaps resurrection from death wasn't impossible after all.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You can visit my Patreon page:
Patreon.com/PhoeniXcel
I upload 2 chapters daily on Patreon!
There are 100+ advanced chapters available for you to read.
Your support would be greatly appreciated.
📢 Check out my new Naruto fanfic!
[One Piece: Pirate Chat Group]