Ring, ring, ring!
As the bell rang, Naruto slowly opened his eyes.
Truthfully, even Naruto had not expected his very first attempt at meditation to take him directly into meditative absorption.
His first attempt at visualization had succeeded as well.
At that moment, he had genuinely felt as though he had become a grass carp, swimming through a water-like void.
His entire mind and body had been immersed in that wonderfully comfortable, peaceful, and refreshing sensation.
As for the benefits…
First, Naruto felt that his five senses had become noticeably sharper.
His mind had also grown calmer.
With his heightened senses, everything around him seemed much clearer than before.
His chakra control also appeared to have risen another level.
Then there was his body.
Naruto felt more comfortable and relaxed, and his control over his own body had improved as well.
For now, those were all the changes he could clearly perceive.
Oh, right.
There was one more change he had almost overlooked.
Naruto had found the path leading into the Nine-Tails’ sealed space.
Of course, his mental cultivation was still slightly lacking.
Naruto estimated that after entering meditative absorption a few more times, he should be able to follow that path directly into the Nine-Tails’ sealed space.
In short, Naruto felt great right now.
Absolutely great.
His entire body seemed filled with strength.
“I did it! I did it! I successfully refined chakra! Yes!”
At that moment, one of the little brats shouted excitedly.
Clearly, just as Naruto had expected, the boy had not taken meditation seriously at all.
Even while supposedly meditating, he had continued concentrating entirely on refining chakra.
And his success was destined to make the other children even more competitive.
They would take meditation even less seriously now.
Naturally, Naruto had no intention of reminding them.
“Naruto, it looked like you actually succeeded at meditation just now. Did you gain anything from it?” Shikamaru asked.
“Mm. My five senses became a little sharper,” Naruto replied with a nod.
“Huh? Meditation can do that?” Shikamaru asked in surprise.
“Uh… meditation didn’t have any effect on you?”
Naruto knowingly asked the obvious.
“It did. My thoughts just became clearer,” Shikamaru replied.
“Isn’t that still an effect? Maybe our constitutions are different, so meditation affects us differently,” Naruto said.
“Maybe you’re right.”
Shikamaru nodded.
“No way. You two are talking like this is actually real. Don’t tell me you really got something out of meditation?” Ino asked suspiciously.
“Of course not. I’ve never heard of anyone actually getting results from meditation,” Ino said, rolling her eyes.
“Maybe you have too many distracting thoughts,” Naruto replied, shaking his head.
“Probably. Who can meditate without having distracting thoughts?” Ino said.
“You could try focusing on just one thing. Like how I always meditate on ways to defeat a certain enemy,” Shikamaru suggested.
“Tch. I’m not sitting around stupidly doing that,” Ino said with obvious disdain.
Everyone had their own way of living.
Naruto did not say anything more about it.
But he himself intended to continue meditating.
Naturally, from then on, Naruto deliberately stopped meditating at school.
Instead, he moved his meditation sessions to his home.
However, perhaps his state of mind was not right or perhaps there was some other reason, but no matter how he meditated at home, Naruto never managed to enter meditative absorption again.
He later tried at school as well.
The result was the same.
Clearly, Naruto still had not fully grasped the key to entering meditative absorption.
His visualization of the grass carp, however, became increasingly proficient.
Even so, the increase in his mental energy was nowhere near what he had gained from that single instance of meditative absorption.
In fact, visualization sometimes left him slightly fatigued instead.
Clearly, Naruto had yet to fully perfect either his meditation or visualization methods.
The general path was correct, but it was still full of bumps and potholes.
Naruto quickly adjusted his mindset.
And eventually, perseverance paid off.
At the end of that month, Naruto finally succeeded in entering meditative absorption for the second time.
This time, he gained a much clearer understanding of how he had achieved it.
Naruto was confident that within a year, he could reach the stage of constant absorption.
And sure enough, after entering meditative absorption this time, Naruto could very clearly feel that his mental energy had grown.
Immediately afterward—
Naruto entered the Nine-Tails’ sealed space in one go.
“Kurama, we finally get to meet properly.”
Naruto arrived in the sewer-like sealed space and looked at the enormous iron gate before him, as well as the pair of gigantic fox eyes staring from behind it.
“Brat, you actually managed to enter here using your own power?”
The Nine-Tails stared at Naruto in astonishment.
“Well, you couldn’t bring me in yourself, so I had no choice but to find a way in on my own,” Naruto replied with a faint smile.
“Brat! Just how do you know my name? And how do you know about the Ten-Tails?”
The Nine-Tails immediately slammed its paw against the iron gate as it demanded an answer.
Boom!
The enormous force made the gate thunder violently, radiating an intimidating pressure.
“You presumably know that the Sage of Six Paths was the Ten-Tails’ Jin chūriki,” Naruto said calmly.
“Who the hell are you?! Why do you know things even I don’t know?”
The Nine-Tails stared at him in horror.
“I’m Naruto Uzumaki.”
Naruto smiled faintly.
“As for why I know these things… I simply do.”
“I imagine that over the past thousand years, aside from the Sage of Six Paths, there have only been two men in the shinobi world who truly frightened you.”
“One was known as the God of Shinobi.”
“And the other as the .”Asura of the Shinobi World
Naruto continued speaking calmly.
“Hmph! Who said I was afraid of them?! If it hadn’t been for—”
The Nine-Tails snorted arrogantly, only to abruptly cut itself off halfway through.
“If it hadn’t been for what?”
Naruto smiled.
“If the First Hokage hadn’t used Sage Art: Wood Release: True Several Thousand Hands, you wouldn’t have been beaten down like some domesticated little fox?”
“Brat… do you want to die?”
Having one of its most humiliating memories exposed, the Nine-Tails immediately glared at Naruto with blazing fury.
“Save the empty threats.”
Naruto remained completely unfazed.
“If you could get out, you would have come out and killed me long ago. Unfortunately for you, you can’t.”
“So you might as well stop making threats before they turn into a joke.”
“Brat!”
The Nine-Tails became even more furious from embarrassment.
“The First Hokage beat you like you were a tame little fox. Madara Uchiha had it even easier.”
Naruto smiled faintly.
“All he had to do was look you in the eye. Whatever he told you to do, you had to do.”
“After all, your resistance to genjutsu is pretty terrible.”
“Brat… what exactly are you trying to say?”
The Nine-Tails had never expected Naruto to show no fear of it whatsoever.
Although it was still burning with rage, there was nowhere for that anger to go.
In the end, it could only force itself to calm down and ask the question.
“It’s simple.”
Naruto smiled.
“If you’re extracted from my body, I’ll definitely die.”
“And if I die, you die too.”
“Sure, you’ll eventually revive.”
“But you wouldn’t want Shukaku laughing at you over it, would you?”
“You even know about my grudge with Shukaku?”
The Nine-Tails stared at Naruto in astonishment.
“Do you know Ashura and Indra?”
Naruto casually spoke two more names that made the Nine-Tails’ eyes widen in shock