Uzumaki Naruto walked down the street, twirling the Third Hokage’s pipe in his hand.
Looking at the vast, white expanse around him, he felt a bit dizzy.
He realized he didn’t know the way at all.
Since he was born, he had only left the house once.
Heaven knows where Hinata was squatting and crying right now.
To be honest, he felt like crying too.
What if he missed her just because he didn’t know the way?
He would die of grief if that happened.
That stinky old man, the Third Hokage, didn’t even think to give him a map or anything.
Next time, he’d find an opportunity to slip some medicine into his food.
Hmm, just enough to make him run to the bathroom for half a day would do.
After all, he was an old man; too much might actually kill him.
If he did die from it, he’d probably have to run away with the fox spirit in his belly.
Just as Uzumaki Naruto was pondering how to drug the Third Hokage, a sound of crying reached his ears, making him shudder and tremble twice.
He was in a place where not a single soul could be seen; all around him were only flickering streetlights and houses with their lights turned off.
The sudden crying made him think of some supernatural novels he had read in his past life.
But thinking that it might be Hinata, he swallowed hard, mustered his courage, and carefully wobbled toward the source of the sound.
Soon, he saw a little girl in a kimono squatting on the ground, sobbing quietly.
Seeing this, he slowly let out a breath of relief.
It was good that it wasn’t one of those things.
Uzumaki Naruto collected his thoughts and stepped forward.
“Why are you crying here?” Uzumaki Naruto wobbled over to the girl and asked.
The girl looked up, stunned, and her crying stopped.
Before her stood a little blond boy wrapped up like a rice dumpling, with a gentle smile on his face.
“Where is your home?” Seeing the girl didn’t speak, Uzumaki Naruto asked again.
The girl reacted this time; she shook her head, and tears welled up in the corners of her eyes again.
“How about you come with me?
I’ll take you home.” Uzumaki Naruto took off two layers of his clothes to put on Hinata, then took a hamburger he had made for practice from his system space, handed one to Hinata, and kept one for himself.
He reached out and took Hinata’s hand, walking along unsteadily while eating his hamburger.
As for where the Hyuga Clan was?
Who cares?
He had found his wife anyway.
In the end, Hinata remembered the location of her home and led the way to the Hyuga Clan, otherwise they might have been wandering the streets until dawn.
After delivering Hinata to her doorstep, Uzumaki Naruto took off his scarf, wrapped it around Hinata, stuffed two more hamburgers into her hands, and then waved goodbye with a smile.
“Next time you’re unhappy, come find me here.
My name is Uzumaki Naruto, and I’ll take you out to play.” Uzumaki Naruto placed a hand-drawn, simple map marking his home’s location into the pocket of Hinata’s clothes and wobbled away.
Leaving Hinata standing there, staring blankly at Uzumaki Naruto’s departing figure.
Back home, Uzumaki Naruto peeled off layer after layer of his coat, let out a long sigh, took a bath, and collapsed onto his bed.
Just as he closed his eyes, he felt something wet beneath him.
He opened his eyes immediately and saw the familiar iron gate, along with the Nine-Tailed’s disdainful gaze.
“Kid, you are truly too weak.” The Nine-Tailed started with a taunt, leaving Uzumaki Naruto stunned.
That’s not right, is it?
We haven’t seen each other for a year, and you’re taunting me the moment we meet?
Do you really think I’m easy to bully?
Uzumaki Naruto scrambled up from the ground and immediately rolled up his sleeves, wanting to go up and give the Nine-Tailed a few slaps.
But looking at the Nine-Tailed’s massive mouth, and then at his own small frame, he realized he probably wouldn’t even be enough to fill the fox’s teeth.
However, seeing the fox’s slender figure and recalling some things that transmigrator predecessors he had read about had done, his eyes rolled, and he thought of something.
Immediately, he took out a pile of bricks, pre-mixed concrete, some yellow soil, a cement trowel for smoothing, and a small bucket for the concrete from his system space, and began to build a stove.
Yes, in the system’s view, this pile of construction materials also counted as kitchenware.
After all, to cook, you need a stove, right?
It was quite magical.
Seeing that Uzumaki Naruto was ignoring it, the Nine-Tailed became immediately annoyed.
“Hey, kid, I’m talking to you.” The fox slammed the iron cage and shouted angrily.
“Quiet, can’t you see I’m cooking?” Uzumaki Naruto didn’t even look up, continuing to busy himself with his work.
“Cooking?
Are you planning to eat stones?” The fox watched Uzumaki Naruto working with a puzzled look.
It knew what cooking meant, but it didn’t understand what Uzumaki Naruto was doing.
“If you don’t understand, don’t talk.
You’re always fussing about, disturbing my work.”
The Nine-Tailed was so enraged by the retort that it immediately wanted to swat the kid to death, but its curiosity made it hold back.
It decided to see what on earth the kid was up to.
Soon, the stove was finished.
It was a double-burner stove.
Uzumaki Naruto surrounded the edge of the stove with bricks, took out a torch and firewood, placed them on the bricks, sprinkled some gasoline, and lit the fire, using the high heat to speed up the concrete’s setting.
Well, all these things were classified under the kitchenware category in the system shop, which was very strange.
There were also many other messy things inside: induction cookers, microwaves, ovens, air fryers, and even gas cylinders.
The electrical appliances couldn’t be used because there was no electricity here.
The gas cylinders were too dangerous; if the fox went on a rampage and accidentally blew one up, he’d be finished.
So, he could only use firewood to light the fire for cooking, and the stove he built was the old-fashioned wood-burning type used in his village in his past life.
While the stove was drying, Uzumaki Naruto took out a table and a pile of ingredients, starting to chop vegetables for preparation.
After finishing the cooking, he used a fire extinguisher to put out the fire ring and collected all the waste into the system’s recycling bin, which was very environmentally friendly.
Then, he placed the torches and firewood into the two fire inlets, took out two pots, one for washing rice and cooking it, and the other for stir-frying.
Watching Uzumaki Naruto take out all kinds of things like magic, the Nine-Tailed was completely dumbfounded.
It had never seen anyone capable of producing so many things.
It didn’t speak, just watched Uzumaki Naruto bustling about, jumping up and down.
Soon, a rich, fragrant aroma drifted into its nose, making its mouth water uncontrollably.
“Hey, kid, what is that you’re making?” The Nine-Tailed quietly gulped down some saliva and asked.
“Good stuff you’ve definitely never eaten before.” Uzumaki Naruto said, quite proudly, while cooking.
Soon, a pile of delicacies was ready: iron pot stewed goose, sweet and sour pork, and pork stewed with vermicelli.
The main focus was on large portions to keep one full, mainly intended to tempt the fox.
As for the side effects of the dishes, it wasn’t actually important, as the improvement to the fox was negligible.
The fox had never eaten anything before; this kind of steaming hot, overwhelming fragrance was something the fox had never experienced.
Even though it had seen the Six Paths Sage eat before, the food back then was relatively bland and lacked such an overpowering aroma.
Watching Uzumaki Naruto eat until his mouth was covered in oil, the fox’s saliva was almost dripping onto the ground.
“Kid, is it good?” The fox asked while swallowing its saliva.
Honestly, even though it was a Chakra aggregate, it was actually experiencing hunger and an impulse to eat.
But it couldn’t be bothered to think about that now; its eyes were only on those delicacies.
“You mean this?
I’ll eat it for you to see.
Mmm~ so delicious.” Uzumaki Naruto picked up a piece of meat and waved it in front of the fox.
Seeing the fox’s eyes follow the meat, he knew his goal had been achieved.
Then, he smiled slightly, put the meat into his mouth, and sighed with a particularly flashy flair.
“Kid, let me have a taste, will you?” The fox wiped the drool from the corner of its mouth with its paw, its face showing a hint of ingratiation and shyness.
After all, having lived for thousands of years, asking a child for food was somewhat embarrassing for a fox, but the smell was truly irresistible.
This was the perverted nature of the system, combined with the fact that Uzumaki Naruto had intentionally added a lot of flavor-enhancing seasonings.
That scent could directly trigger the most instinctive desires of all living creatures; even the fox couldn’t resist it.
“You want to eat?” Uzumaki Naruto grinned and picked up a piece of meat, gesturing it towards the fox.
The fox nodded its head like a chicken pecking at rice, its eyes filled with longing.
“I can give you some, how about we make a deal?” Uzumaki Naruto smiled and tossed the meat into the fox’s mouth, though given the size, it was like an ant entering a human’s mouth.
It was only because Uzumaki Naruto had gone through a year of hard training, greatly improving his culinary skills, that the fox could taste anything from that tiny bit of meat.
“What kind of deal?” The fox savored the taste in its mouth, eyes squinting, looking completely satisfied.
“You teach me how to cultivate, and I’ll provide your three meals a day.
How about that?”
“…Change to something else.”
The fox’s answer significantly exceeded Uzumaki Naruto’s expectations; he hadn’t expected the Nine-Tailed to refuse.
“Why?
Are you afraid that if I become powerful, you won’t be able to take over my body?” Uzumaki Naruto put down his chopsticks and asked, looking at the Nine-Tailed.
“It’s not that, it’s, it’s…” The Nine-Tailed muttered for a long time but couldn’t manage to say what it was, the whole fox squirming uncomfortably.
“What is it?
Just say it!
How would I know if you don’t tell me?
You keep saying ‘it’s, it’s, it’s’—can I read minds or read faces?
Besides, I can’t read anything from your fox face anyway.”
Uzumaki Naruto was driven a bit crazy by the fox; surely this hard-won opportunity to get stronger wasn’t going to slip away again, was it?
“I don’t know how!” The Nine-Tailed was so stunned by Uzumaki Naruto’s retort that the whole fox froze for a moment, then it took a deep breath and roared it out loud.
Uzumaki Naruto was shaken until his head spun.
He shook his head vigorously, picked at his ears, and looked up at the fox with an unfriendly expression.
“If you don’t know, you don’t know.
Why shout so loudly?
If you roar me to death, who’s going to make food for you?
Also, what is it that you don’t know?”
“I don’t know your human cultivation methods.” The fox decided to just give up and let it be; it was already like this, it didn’t matter anymore.
“No way, you’ve lived for thousands of years and don’t know how to cultivate?
In all these years, you’ve never seen anyone else cultivate?” Uzumaki Naruto looked at the Nine-Tailed in disbelief, even forgetting his own identity.
“How do you know I’ve lived for thousands of years?” The Nine-Tailed looked at Uzumaki Naruto with suspicion.
“I saw it in a book.” Uzumaki Naruto was startled internally, but on the surface, he calmly spouted nonsense.
“Which book?
And one that records information about me?” The fox expressed disbelief.
“Why do you care so much?
Do you still want to eat or not?” Uzumaki Naruto went straight to threats, and the fox selectively skipped over the topic.
“I can only supervise; I really don’t know how to teach.
You should choose something else.”
“Teaching Taijutsu should be fine, right?
Don’t tell me you’ve never seen people fight.” Uzumaki Naruto rubbed his temples, feeling a bit of a headache.
“…How about I teach you how to read?
And I can supervise your training in the meantime, how about that?” The Nine-Tailed scratched its head in embarrassment.
It had seen the First Hokage and Uchiha Madara fight, but when those two fought, it was earth-shattering; it couldn’t teach that at all.
“…You, fine!
You win!” Seeing this, Uzumaki Naruto could only grit his teeth and accept it.
Actually, he had originally just intended to build a good relationship with the fox; cultivation was just a bonus—if it worked, it was a huge gain, and if not, it didn’t matter.
It was just that he never expected that the fox actually wouldn’t know how to teach.
It had lived for so long in vain.
If the Six Paths Sage knew, he wondered if he would be angered to death all over again.