After entering the bathroom and stripping naked, Naruto sank into the bathtub and comfortably enjoyed the warm water.
A moment later, he opened his eyes and spoke softly in an indifferent tone.
“Kurama, you wouldn’t want to become fuel for reviving the Ten-Tails, would you?”
“Brat, what did you just say?!”
In an instant, an astonished voice thundered directly through Naruto’s mind.
“Hmm?”
Naruto frowned instead.
“How do you know my name? And where did you learn about the Ten-Tails?” the Nine-Tails demanded sharply.
“What? You can’t pull me into that sewer?” Naruto asked with a frown.
“How do you know this place is a sewer?!”
Inside Naruto’s mindscape, within the sewer, the Nine-Tails raised its head and stared wide-eyed.
So the seal is still too strong?
“Forget it. If you want to know, then wait until you’re actually capable of pulling me into my mindscape. Don’t forget, everything I do is being monitored right now. I have no intention of getting myself killed.”
With that, Naruto stopped speaking.
No matter how furiously the Nine-Tails raged inside his body, Naruto ignored it completely.
After all, the seal was still far too strong.
Now that Naruto had refined his own chakra, the Nine-Tails’ chakra currently had great difficulty influencing him at all, much less dragging him into the mindscape.
Truthfully, the Naruto from the original story might have been someone with an unshakable will who trained himself to the limit.
But the transmigrated Naruto was not.
Having come from a comfortable modern society, this Naruto was a genuine lazybones.
If the Nine-Tails had not been so useless that even now it remained firmly suppressed by the Eight Trigrams Sealing Style, Naruto absolutely would have threatened it with knowledge of the future and made it work on his behalf.
For example, it could use Yang Release every day to strengthen his body.
After all, who told this fox to be the Yang half of Kurama?
That was precisely why Naruto had hurried to reveal his secret to the Nine-Tails the moment he successfully refined chakra.
Naruto and the Nine-Tails were bound together.
If one prospered, both prospered; if one suffered, both suffered.
There was little need to hide too much from it.
He simply had not expected this lousy fox to be so useless.
Helplessly, Naruto still had to rely on himself.
So in the days that followed, Naruto quietly incorporated tree-climbing and water-walking training into his everyday life.
For example, Naruto would pick up discarded shoes with loose or damaged soles and secretly use chakra to support them from underneath, making them function like normal shoes.
Because of that, Naruto developed a habit of sitting at the desk by his window and reading.
The blind spot beneath the desk was perfect for training.
He also practiced by coating the bathroom floor with oil.
Fortunately, Naruto only began doing that after reaching a certain level of chakra control.
Otherwise, if he had repeatedly fallen in the bathroom, the ANBU would have noticed something was wrong long ago.
When sleeping, Naruto also liked pressing himself against the head of the bed.
In reality, however, his feet were gripping the wall with chakra, keeping his entire body less than a centimeter above the mattress.
With a blanket covering him, it was extremely difficult to notice.
…
In short, using methods like these, Naruto completed both his tree-climbing and water-walking training.
Even while asleep, he could steadily maintain a stable output of chakra.
Of course, this was also because that lousy fox was simply too useless.
Even now, the Eight Trigrams Sealing Style remained extremely secure, preventing Kurama’s chakra from interfering with Naruto’s own chakra.
After successfully completing his tree-climbing and water-walking training, Naruto’s chakra reserves also underwent a tremendous increase.
Naruto felt that the amount of chakra he possessed was already no less than Kakashi’s.
At the same time, as his chakra control improved, Naruto felt as though he had grasped a trace of the essence behind Chakra Enhanced Strength.
He felt that he could instantly release a large amount of chakra through his fist at the moment of impact.
Naturally, because the ANBU were monitoring him, Naruto had never actually tested it.
But there was no doubt that from that day onward, Naruto could clearly feel his physical strength increasing by leaps and bounds.
Chakra Enhanced Strength would create too much commotion to practice while under ANBU surveillance.
However, his enormous chakra reserves and steadily improving chakra control made Naruto want to advance even further.
And so, every night, Naruto began holding a leaf beneath his blanket and practicing Wind Release nature transformation.
Wind was Naruto’s chakra nature in the original story, so there was no need to test it.
No one would have expected the current Naruto to have already reached the stage where he could begin practicing chakra nature transformation.
But in reality, with Naruto’s increasing chakra reserves, improved chakra control, powerful physique as the Nine-Tails’ Jin chūriki, and the mature mentality of an adult…
Taken together, he was more than qualified to begin nature transformation training.
Although ANBU surveillance forced him to practice in secret and greatly slowed his progress, there was one thing Naruto lacked least of all right now.
Time.
He had no money.
And there was practically no entertainment.
Once he finished earning enough each day to take care of his basic needs, all the remaining time could be devoted to training.
Thus, after only two years, Naruto could freely coat a kitchen knife with Wind Release chakra nature transformation.
Truthfully, reaching this level in Wind Release nature transformation was already at least comparable to a Tokubetsu Jōnin.
And after Naruto successfully mastered Wind Release nature transformation, his chakra reserves underwent yet another explosive increase.
At the same time, Naruto could feel the growth of his strength—and the emergence of Chakra Enhanced Strength—even more clearly.
It made him itch to find a massive boulder and smash it apart just to see what would happen.
But in the end, Naruto restrained himself.
And now, the annual enrollment day for the Ninja Academy had arrived.
“Grandpa Third.”
That day, Hiruzen Sarutobi once again came to visit Naruto.
“Hehe, Naruto. Grandpa brought you another present,” Hiruzen Sarutobi said with a smile.
“What present, Grandpa Third?”
Naruto immediately looked delighted.
“An invitation to enroll in the Ninja Academy,” Hiruzen Sarutobi replied with a smile.
“That’s amazing! Grandpa Third, I love you!”
Suppressing the disgust in his heart, Naruto’s eyes lit up brightly.
“Hehe. I knew you would like it. Naruto, I also believe that once you enter the Ninja Academy, you’ll definitely be able to make friends,” Hiruzen Sarutobi said.
“Mm!”
Naruto nodded vigorously, his face full of happiness.
Over the past three years, after being thoroughly tempered by the Third Hokage’s displays of affection, Naruto’s acting skills had long since reached perfection.
“Hehe. To celebrate you starting school, Grandpa has another present for you.”
The Third Hokage handed over a ninja tool pouch.
“This is a ninja tool pouch? Kunai! Shuriken! That’s awesome!”
Naruto’s eyes continued to shine.
“Hehe. These are kunai and shuriken specifically made for training. They’re wooden, but they’re made from a special material, so their weight is no different from real kunai and shuriken. Once you enter the Ninja Academy, make sure you study hard and become a powerful ninja,” Hiruzen Sarutobi said.
“Mm. I will.”
Naruto nodded firmly.