Naruto: Boruto Returns to Shippuden

Chapter 169 Investigation

Upon hearing Kurama's contemptuous words, Naruto responded to Kurama's provocation with a loud voice without hesitation.

"Of course! No matter what, Sasuke will always be an important comrade to me. It's just that he's temporarily bound by the invisible shackles of hatred." Naruto paused for a moment, then continued, "But! I will definitely bring him back to Konoha! I speak my mind and keep my word. That's my unwavering ninja way!"

Naruto always firmly believed that no matter how far Sasuke went, or how deeply Sasuke's heart was shrouded in the shadow of hatred, he would do everything in his power to bring Sasuke back from that endless darkness and take him back to Konoha Village where they grew up together.

Kurama seemed completely unconcerned about Naruto's passionate declaration, instead giving a disdainful snort and responding to Naruto in a sarcastic tone: "Come and show off to me when you've actually achieved your bold words, brat. Perhaps, before you truly succeed, you will be devoured by my power and controlled by me."

At this moment, Boruto looked at Kurama and said, "Kurama, I know you hate the entire ninja world right now, but one day we will make you acknowledge us!"

Boruto, through Kurama's angry exterior, sensed a deeper emotional fluctuation, one that was very similar to what he had just seen in his father's childhood memories of self-entertainment—a profound loneliness.

The Nine-Tails clearly expressed its dissatisfaction with Boruto's words. Its voice echoed in the air, deep and resonant: "Hmph! You ninjas are all the same, without exception, selfish and self-serving, always scheming about how to tame me and use my power to achieve your goals!"

Kurama believes that ninjas only see the power of the tailed beasts, but ignore the dignity and feelings of the tailed beasts as living beings. In the history of the ninja world, the tailed beasts have always been regarded as weapons in war, used, controlled, and even feared. This singular pursuit of power and disregard for the essence of life has made the tailed beasts extremely disappointed with the entire ninja world.

At the moment when its emotions reached their boiling point, the Nine-Tails' anger erupted like a volcano, uncontrollable. It slammed its sharp claws into the cage that imprisoned it, venting its boundless rage. However, its power could not shake the sealing technique in the slightest.

At this moment, the Nine-Tails stared at the cage before it, its thoughts drifting back to the distant past. Recalling the ninjas of past generations who had tried to control and wield its power, an uncontrollable rage surged into its heart once more.

"Nine-Tails, you are just an unstable creature lacking intelligence. The only one who can guide you is the Uchiha. You tailed beasts are nothing more than servants of those with ocular powers."

"Nine-Tails, your power is too great. I'm sorry, I can't let you continue to roam freely."

"Nine-Tails, you attract hatred whenever you use your power. Stay quietly inside me."

“Nine-Tails, I can be sure that neither of us is lucky. You can imprint the world, but I can imprint you.”

......

Whether those ninjas acted out of arrogance or out of desperation, in Kurama's eyes, they were no different from what Kurama was doing; they were just different manifestations of human selfishness.

As its thoughts wandered, Kurama's gaze slowly shifted to Naruto before it. Its face twisted, revealing a fierce expression: "As long as hatred, anger, and other negative emotions still lurk deep within your heart, no matter how sturdy the cage, it cannot truly bind me! You will ultimately be unable to avoid being controlled by my power!"

As the Nine-Tails' roar gradually faded into the distance until it completely dissipated into the air, Boruto and Naruto's consciousness also detached from the Nine-Tails' consciousness. The scenery around them began to blur, and the dark cage began to appear illusory.

When Boruto opened his eyes again, his consciousness had returned to his body, and he was back on the battlefield.

At this moment, Xin Ya suddenly felt the binding force on Seven-Tails Naruto's body loosen. The Tailed Beast Chakra that had been spreading around Seven-Tails Naruto's body began to slowly contract inward, gradually flowing back into the Bagua Seal in his abdomen, and gradually dissipating from his external Tailed Beast form.

As the tailed beast chakra gradually receded, Naruto's tailed beast form gradually faded away, and his body returned to normal. No longer controlled by the power of the Nine-Tails chakra, and without the power support brought by the tailed beast form, he began to slowly lose his balance in the air, falling to the ground like a falling leaf.

Boruto rushed forward as Naruto fell, opened his arms and caught him steadily. With Boruto's cushioning, the two landed smoothly on the ground together.

At the same time, Jiraiya saw this scene and quickly walked to the two of them. He then began to carefully examine Naruto's injuries. At this moment, Naruto's entire body had been severely burned by the appearance of the Nine-Tails' cloak, and his skin was covered with serious burn marks.

Although some of his skin began to gradually heal itself, the injury was still very serious, with flesh and blood mangled and blood constantly gushing from the wound, staining Boruto's clothes and dripping slowly down Boruto's arm.

Boruto gently placed the badly injured Naruto on the ground. Then, Boruto disappeared from the spot and reappeared with a backpack in his hand.

The backpack contained their pre-prepared first-aid kit. He then began to treat and clean Naruto's wounds, and then bandaged them to try to alleviate Naruto's pain.

Looking at Naruto's miserable state, Gamabunta sighed, "Naruto's physical strength is not yet able to fully adapt to the enormous burden brought by the Tailed Beast Cloak. It's still too difficult for him to control the Nine-Tails' chakra."

Boruto frowned at this. He had only slightly activated one of the Four Symbols Seals, which caused the Nine-Tails' chakra to surge wildly. The Nine-Tails' power quickly took over and was thus controlled by it.

Jiraiya's expression was solemn: "This time I misjudged the situation. I oversimplified the matter of unsealing the Nine-Tails."

Jiraiya originally thought that the other tailed beast jinchūriki could become perfect jinchūriki, not to mention that the Nine-Tails sealed in Naruto's body was not the complete Nine-Tails, but only half of the Yang Nine-Tails that had been separated by Minato.

Minato deliberately divided the Nine-Tails' chakra into two attributes, Yin and Yang. He sealed only the Yin chakra of the Nine-Tails within his body using the forbidden technique of the Reaper Death Seal, while retaining the Yang chakra of the Nine-Tails.

He did this because he wanted to leave a portion of the Nine-Tails' power to his son, so that Naruto would have the opportunity to use this power to protect himself and Konoha in the future.

Jiraiya originally intended to use this time of training to help Naruto gain a deeper understanding and mastery of the Nine-Tails' chakra, and to effectively utilize this powerful force.

However, reality dealt Jiraiya a heavy blow. He had not anticipated that even in half-tailed beast form, the Nine-Tails' power would be so immense, which completely exceeded his expectations.

Gamabunta broke the silence, saying to Jiraiya, "Jiraiya, I must take my leave now. Summon me again when you need the sealing key." Jiraiya nodded slightly in response.

After Gamayori finished speaking, he began to shrink his scroll-shaped body, gradually returning to his original toad form, shrinking to a normal size. Then he leaped up and returned to Jiraiya's body.

After finishing everything, Boruto looked up, turned to Shinja, and said, "Shinja, thank you for your help this time."

Upon hearing Boruto's thanks, Shinya gave a soft snort, seemingly unconcerned about Boruto's gratitude. Then, it raised its head and slowly spoke:

"Huh? Who helped you? If I hadn't seen him eyeing me so menacingly, I wouldn't have made a move."

After saying this, Shinya's body began to blur, turning into a wisp of smoke, and then disappeared in front of Boruto.

Boruto stood there, his gaze following Shinya's figure as he turned into smoke and gradually dissipated. A faint smile appeared on his lips: What an unreliable guy.

Just then, Jiraiya turned his gaze to Boruto and asked a practical question: "Boruto, considering the current situation, you should be able to use your Flying Thunder God Technique to quickly get us out of this place, right?"

With Boruto and Jiraiya's initial treatment, Naruto's injuries were somewhat relieved, but his condition was still not optimistic, and he needed to be transferred to a place with complete medical facilities for treatment as soon as possible.

“No problem.” Boruto nodded after hearing Jiraiya’s suggestion.

Upon hearing Boruto's accurate reply, Jiraiya picked Naruto up from the ground.

Although he had just gone through a battle and had used up a lot of chakra, he still had enough chakra in his body to use the Flying Thunder God Technique to safely transfer them to a nearby hospital.

To ensure the safe release of the Bagua seal within Naruto and to avoid unnecessary interference, Jiraiya and Boruto chose a remote mountaintop as their location.

However, what they did not expect was that after the battle, the original hilltop was gone. The aftershocks of the battle leveled the hilltop, replacing it with a huge basin.

Boruto walked up to Jiraiya, put his hand on his shoulder, then took out his Flying Thunder God Shuriken and threw it towards a nearby village before leaving the devastated place.

Using the Flying Thunder God Technique, Boruto successfully carried Jiraiya and the unconscious Naruto to their predetermined destination through several teleportations, allowing Naruto to recover from his injuries at the village's medical facility.

......

Boruto and Jiraiya stood in the hospital room, their eyes fixed on Naruto, who was lying on the bed and covered in bandages.

Jiraiya was silent for a moment, then said in a deep voice, "It seems we can't act so rashly again. We need to investigate and understand how the other Tailed Beast Jinchuriki balance their Tailed Beast powers."

Boruto turned to Jiraiya and offered a suggestion: "Perhaps, after Naruto recovers from his injuries, we can consider sending him to Mount Myōboku to train in Sage Mode."

When Jiraiya heard Boruto's suggestion, he was slightly taken aback and seemed a little surprised, but he quickly understood Boruto's intention.

Jiraiya nodded knowingly and said, "You mean you want Naruto to train in Sage Mode at Mount Myōboku so that his body can withstand the strain of the Tailed Beast Cloak?"

After some thought, Boruto concluded that by training in Sage Mode chakra, he could not only master powerful natural energy but also greatly enhance his ninjutsu power and physical abilities. In this way, when enveloped in the Tailed Beast Cloak, his body would be more adapted to the load of that power, thus avoiding suffering such severe injuries again.

Jiraiya nodded slightly, indicating his agreement with Boruto's idea. He also believed that training in Sage Mode chakra was indeed a good method. Moreover, while Naruto was training in Sage Mode, he could use this time to gather more information about Tailed Beast transformation and understand how other Tailed Beast Jinchuriki controlled and used the power of the Tailed Beasts.

As Boruto and Jiraiya were discussing Naruto's plan to go to Mount Myōboku to train in Sage Chakra, a slight noise suddenly came from the hospital room. Naruto's eyelids twitched slightly, and then he slowly opened his eyes, waking up from his coma.

After hearing Boruto and Jiraiya's conversation, Naruto gave a wry smile and then firmly refused, "No, absolutely not!" Naruto was not mentally prepared to face the daunting food of Mount Myōboku.

Although Naruto initially refused, things did not unfold according to his wishes.

A few days later, Naruto's injuries had improved significantly and he had recovered to the point where he could train again. Jiraiya decided not to delay any longer and used Fukasaku's Reverse Summoning Technique to teleport Naruto to Mount Myōboku.

......