Chapter 634: For the Sake of Saving the Tailed Beasts

Everyone else on the front line assumed the three jinchūriki had gone off somewhere to fight.

Most shinobi had notoriously high offensive power and relatively poor durability, so nobody was reckless enough to approach the area where three jinchūriki were supposedly engaged in a devastating battle.

The only exceptions were people like Naruto, who also possessed Tailed Beast chakra for protection, and Obito, who could simply phase through danger.

Naruto stared at his father, Namikaze Minato, currently engaged in a very different kind of “three-hundred-round battle” with Rōshi and Han.

He sighed deeply and covered his eyes.

So this was his naturally questionable father.

Disgraceful.

If Naruto had known things would turn out like this, he felt he could have saved himself all the trouble of going to the Falls of Truth and separating his dark side.

A single Reverse Harem Jutsu probably would have been enough to lure his father straight into Kamui.

Of course, Naruto wasn’t judging Minato simply for being shameless.

Jiraiya and Kakashi were both extremely questionable in the real shinobi world too, yet Naruto still regarded them as important mentors.

What truly bothered Naruto was something else.

If Minato was already this close to both of Iwagakure’s jinchūriki, why had he come out here to enjoy himself while leaving everyone else from the village to keep fighting and dying on the front lines?

If their relationship was this good, why not end the war sooner?

Naruto genuinely couldn’t understand it.

Was this world’s Minato not only shameless, but also someone who simply didn’t care about Konoha?

He soon got his answer.

The private “battle” finally came to an end.

Minato leaned comfortably against a tree and began chatting with Rōshi and Han.

“We can probably enjoy ourselves here for another two or three days at most. After that, we’ll have to change locations.”

“It took this war starting for us to finally get away from that bastard Ōnoki’s control for a while.”

“I honestly wish the fighting would drag on longer.”

Minato raised an eyebrow.

“Can’t you two resist Ōnoki at all? You’re jinchūriki. Are you really willing to let him control you like slaves?”

Rōshi gave him a flat look.

“Easy for you to say. Why don’t you rebel against your Hokage?”

“…”

Minato immediately fell silent.

“Forget I said anything.”

From that exchange alone, it was obvious that this world’s Ōnoki had his own set of problems.

Unlike his real-world counterpart, this Ōnoki hadn’t allowed his two jinchūriki to distance themselves from the village at all.

Instead, he kept both Rōshi and Han firmly under his control.

How he managed that remained unclear.

Naruto knew almost nothing about Ōnoki, so he didn’t notice anything especially strange there.

What caught his attention were the comments about the battlefield.

Now he understood.

The three of them wanted the war to continue because only on the battlefield could they temporarily escape their usual restrictions and enjoy a little freedom.

How pathetic.

If Naruto hadn’t still had his main objective to complete, he almost wanted to jump down immediately and demand an answer.

Did their freedom really have to be built on everyone else’s pointless sacrifices?

There was another uncomfortable truth here too.

If you were a villain who did terrible things because of some tragic reason, people could forgive you and eventually redeem you.

But if you were supposed to be one of Naruto’s friends or allies and secretly did something terrible—even for understandable reasons—

then things could become much more complicated.

Naruto grew increasingly angry as he listened.

Still, he didn’t move yet.

He was waiting.

Waiting for Orochimaru’s medicine to finally reach their stomachs.

Naruto had already contaminated both sides’ food and water supplies.

After their private break, all three jinchūriki had gotten hungry and thirsty, rested for a little while, and started eating and drinking.

Once they were full…

Well.

The three of them quickly became restless again and prepared for another round of their strange “free-for-all.”

And this time, Naruto finally understood exactly what their game involved.

The three jinchūriki were playing something they called Tailed Beast Exchange.

All three had complete control over their respective Tailed Beasts and could fully transform.

So they took turns manifesting their Tailed Beasts, while the other two interacted with the summoned beast in increasingly questionable ways.

Naruto became even angrier.

Tailed Beasts weren’t slaves.

They weren’t toys.

They were friends!

How could anyone treat them like this?

Naruto also finally understood why nobody else on the battlefield had dared come investigate.

Originally, he had wondered:

Even if Konoha and Iwagakure’s shinobi were afraid of getting caught in the collateral damage, couldn’t they at least watch from far away?

And if they couldn’t see anything, couldn’t they listen?

A real battle between Tailed Beasts should have been deafening.

If the three jinchūriki were merely fooling around in human form, there wouldn’t have been enough noise.

That might work for a day or two, but eventually someone would become suspicious.

Now Naruto understood the solution.

By taking turns fully transforming, the Tailed Beasts really did appear.

And when the other two “attacked” one of them, the Tailed Beast would naturally cry out.

Wasn’t that enough to sound like a real battle?

Perfectly reasonable.

Nothing suspicious at all.

As for whether anyone might think those Tailed Beast cries sounded slightly unusual…

That was another matter.

After all, this shinobi world had supposedly been founded when the bond-type shinobi Hashirama Senju defeated the furry-loving Uchiha Madara.

Its culture had been built around bond-type shinobi ever since.

If someone openly said the sounds seemed strange, wouldn’t that risk exposing themselves as a furry-loving shinobi?

So if you weren’t going to say anything—

neither was anyone else.

“Why is that medicine taking so long?”

Naruto covered his ears and waited impatiently.

With his current strength, he could probably have challenged all three of them at once.

After all, this Naruto possessed more than just a perfect Nine-Tails Chakra Mode.

He also carried the Six Paths Yang Power given to him by the Sage of Six Paths.

And although Naruto hated thinking about how he obtained them, he also possessed fragments of chakra from all nine Tailed Beasts taken from the Sage’s remains, along with a small amount of Six Paths power.

Compared to Naruto’s real-world self, this Engraved Tsukuyomi version had slightly less chakra from some of the nine Tailed Beasts—

but had gained so much extra power in other areas that he was already stronger overall.

In practical terms, this Naruto had already reached roughly the level of his Fourth Shinobi World War endgame self.

If he genuinely pushed himself, Truth-Seeking Balls might start appearing behind him.

At this level, Naruto could already stand on roughly equal footing with Sasuke.

Of course, not with a Sasuke who had absorbed chakra from all nine Tailed Beasts into Susanoo.

Naruto still had one major weakness.

His Sage Mode depended on his ridiculous shortcut.

Kurama didn’t possess the necessary “key,” so the Nine-Tails couldn’t help him gather natural energy that way.

More importantly, this Naruto didn’t currently contain a conscious Kurama at all.

He only possessed raw Nine-Tails chakra.

So yes—

Naruto probably could have fought all three jinchūriki directly.

But he held himself back.

After all, he had already come this far.

He had already gone through the trouble of poisoning their supplies.

If he attacked before the medicine worked, wouldn’t all that effort have been wasted?

Besides, the Tailed Beasts had already suffered for a while.

They could endure a little longer.

Just like Naruto himself had endured everything that happened in that cavern earlier.

And there was another concern.

What if Naruto jumped down now, started fighting, and the laxatives suddenly kicked in halfway through?

What if someone launched some horrible emergency counterattack at point-blank range?

No.

Patience, Uzumaki Naruto.

You needed patience.

Naruto continued waiting.

At last, the three jinchūriki below began noticing something was wrong.

It was currently Minato’s turn to transform into the Nine-Tails.

Then his expression suddenly changed.

He grabbed his stomach.

“Oh no!”