Konoha: Naruto of Sekiro

At Kurama's suggestion, Naruto attempted to use his chakra after the seal was released.

"This? What's going on?"

Naruto looked down at the golden chakra enveloping his entire body, his face a mask of astonishment.

Just as he was about to go outside to see his appearance…

Boom!

A massive crashing sound echoed throughout the cave.

Once the dust settled, a human-shaped tunnel had appeared in the stone wall. Naruto walked out of the tunnel, utterly bewildered, looked at the passage he'd made, and couldn't help but touch his face.

Strangely, it didn't hurt at all.

He swore that he had only exerted himself as usual just now, with no intention of unleashing a burst of power.

"Kurama, what's happening? How did my skin get so thick?" Naruto asked, looking at the golden chakra surrounding him.

He had thought the change in the Nine-Tails chakra's appearance was because the release of the Eight Trigrams Seal had restored the Nine-Tails chakra flowing into his body to its original form.

He never imagined that the boost this golden chakra mode provided would be even more terrifying than the Tailed Beast Cloak.

"I am different from the other Tailed Beasts. My chakra is closer to that of the Ten-Tails, the source of all chakra," Kurama explained, lying prone in the mental space. "Unlike Shukaku and those fellows, I can adjust my chakra to suit the nature of others."

"Is that so…" Naruto clenched his fist, feeling the immense, almost terrifying power within. "What terrifying strength."

"As long as you know." A slight smirk touched Kurama's lips. "How can those fellows compare to this old fox? Becoming my Jinchuriki is your greatest fortune."

"Looks like I saved the world in my previous life," Naruto laughed heartily.

Outside, Naruto carefully maneuvered his body outwards, afraid that another careless move would carve another human-shaped passage in the cave.

Outside the cave, puddles from yesterday's rain had yet to dry. Naruto used the water's surface to carefully examine his appearance.

His entire body was enveloped in golden Kurama chakra, as if he were wearing a golden Hokage's robe. Black lines, resembling the human body's meridians, flowed across his form. His hair spiked upwards, forming two horns similar to fox ears, and six black magatama were visible on his high collar.

Unlike the savage feeling given off by the Tailed Beast Cloak, in his Kurama Chakra Mode, he inexplicably exuded a sense of sacredness.

Although this sacred aura caught Naruto somewhat off guard, having more style was always a good thing.

"By the way, Kurama." Looking at his drastically changed appearance, something suddenly occurred to Naruto.

"Hmm?" Kurama looked at him inquisitively.

"Just how much chakra do you actually have?" Naruto asked.

In his experience, no matter how much chakra he needed, Kurama could provide it without fail. And judging from Kurama's condition, those chakra expenditures were like a mere drizzle, of no consequence.

It wasn't that he was arrogant, but having traveled to so many places and met so many people, he truly hadn't encountered any ninja with greater chakra reserves than himself.

"Haven't I told you before? Among all the Tailed Beasts, I am the closest to the source of chakra," the Nine-Tails said. "My base chakra amount is already substantial, plus I can rapidly recover my own chakra…"

"Understood." Naruto nodded frantically before Kurama could finish.

A veritable walking fountain of chakra! He thought to himself, looking at the large fox before him.

Naruto had just returned to his residence in Amegakure when Nagato sought him out.

"Weren't you guys going to eat?"

"After you startled us like that, who could still have an appetite?" Nagato retorted. "What happened just now?"

"???" Naruto was dumbfounded.

"Just now, you suddenly erupted with such powerful chakra. Was there an enemy?" Nagato looked him up and down. His clothes were neat, and he was unharmed—he didn't look like he had been in a battle.

It dawned on Naruto that it must have been the commotion he caused when releasing the seal. He quickly explained, "It's nothing. I was just experimenting with a ninjutsu. You should hurry back and eat." "Don't keep Yahiko and the others waiting too long."

"…" Nagato really wanted to ask just what kind of ninjutsu experiment could create such a disturbance. A forbidden jutsu?

But inquiring about ninjutsu was a major taboo among ninja.

"Then I'll head back first." Nagato vanished from the spot using the Body Flicker Technique.

"So envious." Watching the fluidity of Nagato's Body Flicker, Naruto couldn't help but click his tongue.

The more time he spent with Nagato, the more he understood how terrifying he was.

Most elemental ninjutsu, Nagato could basically learn them passably after seeing them just once. Non-elemental ninjutsu like the Body Flicker Technique and genjutsu posed no barrier to Nagato whatsoever. Even more terrifyingly, Naruto knew that Nagato had already begun researching Yin-Yang Release…

And it seemed he had made considerable progress…

It was just absurd! Perhaps, as Yahiko said, Nagato, wielder of the Rinnegan, was a born savior.

Glancing at the sky, and since he wasn't particularly hungry himself, Naruto thought for a second and decided to first write down the things his father had left him.

He wasn't sure if the memories in his head would disappear.

But transcribing them first, just in case, was never a bad idea.

If the memories in his head disappeared like chakra, he would truly suffer a great loss.

The ninjutsu knowledge of the Fourth Hokage! Even setting aside the conventional ninjutsu, there were quite a few S-rank forbidden jutsu: Flying Thunder God Technique, Reaper Death Seal, Four Red Yang Formation, Spirit Transformation Technique…

Learning any one of these forbidden jutsu would give him the confidence to swagger anywhere, wouldn't it? Naruto couldn't help but click his tongue again. Is this the depth of the number one hidden village in the ninja world…?

Truly terrifying! Worried that the memories might vanish, Naruto immediately transcribed the forbidden jutsu from his mind onto a scroll.

As for the other high-level elemental ninjutsu, truth be told, perhaps only the Wind Release ones would be of some use to him.

Looking at the scroll on the table, Naruto took out another blank scroll. With an ink-dipped brush, he neatly wrote spatial formulas onto it; storage scrolls were a derivative product of sealing jutsu.

He then sealed the scroll filled with forbidden jutsu into the brand-new storage scroll.

The cluttered desktop was instantly empty.

This type of storage scroll couldn't be used long-term. If the chakra within the scroll depleted, or if the formulas wore down, it would lose its storage ability and become an ordinary scroll.

But before such problems arose, it could be used repeatedly.

Of course, these issues applied to other ninja. For Naruto, who could create storage scrolls himself, it wasn't a major problem.

It was worth mentioning that due to the considerable difficulty in writing the formulas, coupled with their extreme practicality, the price of storage scrolls had always remained high.

Meaning, with his ability to create storage scrolls, aided by the Shadow Clone Technique, Naruto already possessed the capital to rapidly accumulate wealth and become a tycoon.

However, Naruto didn't have such a large financial need at the moment, so he couldn't be bothered with such things.

He'd rather spend the time learning the forbidden jutsu his father had left him. He was a man with lofty ideals and ambitions, after all.

To achieve peace in the ninja world, powerful military backing was essential.

He certainly didn't believe the Kage of the Five Great Hidden Villages would willingly sit down and talk peace with a ninja they could crush with their fingers.

Mere words alone wouldn't work. Relying solely on brute force was even worse.

The best method was to first pin the Five Great Hidden Villages to the ground and give them a good thrashing, then reason with them.