superior naruto

Naruto: "Would the Nine-Tails take the initiative to save me?"

Kurama (Nine-Tails): "Hmph! I wouldn't care about your life or death if it weren't for the fact that I'd die if you did."

Naruto: "Uh... Thanks, Teacher Nine-Tails..."

Still, Naruto couldn't shake the feeling that something was off.

He didn't sense the usual anger radiating from Kurama. People often say the eyes are the windows to the soul, but compared to the eyes, the soul itself can't lie.

Naruto had seen Kurama's rage before. When the Nine-Tails learned that the Four Symbols Seal couldn't be used to unlock the Eight Trigrams Seal on Naruto, the fury it displayed was apocalyptic.

Now, Kurama's body had visibly shrunk, indicating a significant loss of soul power. Such a thing should have made Kurama even angrier, but...

Kurama isn't angry... That's strange...

Kurama: "Naruto, don't recklessly mix chakra attributes in the future. If you pass out again, you might not wake up."

Naruto: "..."

Naruto felt an odd sensation on his forehead, as if something foreign was there. He subconsciously reached up to touch it.

It felt different from the rest of his body.

Looking down, Naruto saw a mark on his forehead.

It was a circle with a pentagram inside. The lines were a mix of light gray and silver, with golden threads connecting the points of the star.

What is this?

Naruto couldn't make sense of it, so he asked Kurama, "Teacher Nine-Tails, what's this mark on my forehead?"

Kurama: "I haven't seen it. I don't know."

Kurama's attitude was definitely suspicious.

Naruto examined the mark more closely. The points of the pentagram seemed to correspond to the five basic chakra natures. Two of the points were discolored—wind and water attributes.

This must have something to do with my chakra attributes.

But why did this mark only appear after fusing ice release? It hadn't shown up when he combined wind and water.

Could it be related to combining kekkei genkai?

Kurama: "Hey, brat! Did you hear me? No more devouring souls! It's dangerous!"

Naruto: "Yeah, I got it."

"Teacher Nine-Tails, is my soul power stronger or weaker now than before?"

Kurama: "Naturally weaker, but... it's more refined."

Naruto: "Refined? Is there a difference in soul power quality?"

Kurama: "Of course. Cultivating the soul is about cultivating spiritual power. The stronger your will, the stronger your spirit, and the purer your soul power. Externally, this means better chakra control. Internally, it means a more refined soul."

Naruto nodded, absorbing the information. It seemed soul power wasn't just about quantity—it also had a qualitative aspect.

Kurama: "So, don't recklessly devour others' souls. It'll make your soul impure, weaken your chakra control, and cause instability. It's not good for you."

Devouring souls makes the soul impure... But my soul power feels purer now.

This contradiction made Naruto suspicious. It seemed Kurama didn't want him to devour souls—or more precisely, didn't want him to fuse chakra attributes.

And the reason his soul power had become purer...

Naruto touched the mark on his forehead.

Things just got more interesting...

Naruto's consciousness returned to the real world. He opened his eyes and looked around.

The beheading sword was gone.

Naruto moved his body, feeling no discomfort, and got out of bed.

Has the sword been taken away?

It contained rare living steel, something Naruto had planned to use to forge his own weapon.

Naruto: "Multiple Shadow Clones!"

Twenty-five clones scattered into the night, searching the forest near the explosion site and where Zabuza had fallen.

One of the clones eventually found the beheading sword.

When the clone returned with the sword, Kakashi was awake.

Kakashi: "Do you like that sword?"

Naruto, who was about to seal the sword in a storage scroll, was startled by Kakashi's sudden question.

Naruto: "If I sell it, I could get a lot of money."

Kakashi: "Sell it? If you want to keep it, that's fine. But don't carry it around. It'll only bring unnecessary trouble."

Trouble... Like the Hidden Mist Village.

Naruto nodded and sealed the sword in the storage scroll using the chakra sealing technique.

Kakashi: "How did you figure out Zabuza was in a state of false death?"

Naruto hesitated. Explaining this would be tricky.

Naruto: "Intuition. It didn't make sense that someone we'd fought so hard to defeat was finished off so easily by a kid."

Kakashi: "Intuition is good. Sometimes, it's intuition that saves lives."

Did I just... bluff my way through that?

That night, Kakashi and Naruto talked about the Fourth Hokage. Naruto listened intently.

The next day, the team reviewed the battle.

Kakashi then assigned them a training task: chakra control—tree climbing.

Naruto had no trouble with this, having practiced it in secret.

Hinata, as a Hyūga, had long mastered such techniques.

Sasuke, after understanding the principle, succeeded with focus and determination.

The three quickly moved on to the next step: walking on water.

Thanks to his refined soul power, Naruto's chakra control had improved. He succeeded after a few attempts.

Naruto then began training in chakra nature transformation.

Two hundred clones practiced wind release, while another two hundred practiced water release.

For wind release, Naruto continued practicing by cutting leaves.

For water release, he practiced by manipulating the river's flow.

Meanwhile, his main body trained with weighted equipment, running back and forth on the water.

Naruto aimed to reach a 500-kilogram load to open the first of the Eight Gates.

Currently, his weighted equipment was set to 25%, or 205 kilograms.

The intense pain from the twenty-two detonation tags had stimulated his body, and Kurama's chakra had repaired and strengthened it.

Doubling his current load to meet the requirement would take at least three months.

This made Naruto even more skeptical of Kurama's claim that he could achieve it in one month.

But Naruto didn't press the issue. Whatever method Kurama had in mind probably wasn't pleasant.

A month passed in a blur of training.

Kakashi's injuries had mostly healed, and Tazuna's bridge was finally completed.

During this time, Gato's men had caused some trouble but eventually gave up.

After all, the Land of Waves was a small, economically backward country. For businessmen like Gato, the cost of continuing outweighed the benefits.

On the day the bridge was completed...

Hinata: "Naruto, Kakashi-sensei is calling us."

Naruto: "Coming."

This was also the day they would return to Konoha.

As for the bridge's name, Naruto had suggested calling it the "Kakashi Bridge."

Naruto: "Funny..."