Damaged and dilapidated, the Konoha of today was thick with the smell of gunpowder smoke left in the wake of battle. The weeping of women, the soft reassurances of men, the muddled innocence of children…
The young genin looked upon this scene, their expressions dazed. Was this still the Konoha they knew?
"This is war," Kakashi stated, his tone calm. This calmness was the kind born from detesting something to an extreme, to the point where no further emotion could be generated.
Shikamaru and the others looked thoughtful, seemingly gaining a deeper understanding of 'war,' a term they had once looked up to. The weight of strategic planning, decisive victories thousands of miles away, of valor and meritorious service, seemed to have made them overlook the fact that death and separation were the true main themes of war.
Naruto watched Kakashi take the others to the hospital to treat their injuries, then slowly headed towards his own residence. Perhaps it was due to his status as the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, but the relief housing the village had arranged for him, while not in a prime location, was situated relatively close to the village center. Thus, the recent war had not affected his dwelling.
The Naruto shadow clone gently pushed open the door and looked at his original body within the room.
"Did you find it?" the clone inquired.
Naruto shook his head slightly. Although the location Yakushi Kabuto had mentioned did contain a fair amount of important intelligence, it wasn't what he was looking for.
"Prepare yourself. The feedback this time might be a bit much," the shadow clone sighed. While the Shadow Clone Technique was powerful, its side effects were also considerable. As the number of clones increased, the burden on the original body increased proportionally. It was fortunate he was the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki; otherwise, such frequent use of shadow clones would have caused his body to collapse long ago.
"Ngh…" Naruto's face paled slightly. Although he had anticipated some pressure from this clone's feedback, truthfully, it was still a bit more than he had expected. Normally, the chakra a single shadow clone could bear would never exceed that of his original body, so no matter how many he created, the burden on the original would be within tolerable limits. But this time, due to Kurama's chakra support, the chakra consumed by the shadow clone had multiplied several times over, who knew how many, and the resulting pressure had naturally increased commensurately.
[Good thing this original body of mine wasn't doing anything major,] Naruto mused inwardly after a long moment. Even his monstrous physique had almost failed to withstand it; one could only imagine how immense the pressure generated by the shadow clone had been this time. However, it wasn't entirely incomprehensible. There had been the long chase, several battles, chakra depleted multiple times, and finally, under Kurama's reckless direction, he had even formed a Tailed Beast Bomb. The fact that his shadow clone hadn't dissipated directly could be considered a testament to its sheer tenacity.
In his mental space, Naruto complained to the large figure before him, "Kurama, you played a bit too hard this time."
"Your physical constitution is too poor. You couldn't even handle that little bit of my power before giving out," Kurama said, looking down at the jinchuriki beneath him with an expression full of disdain. He had never encountered a jinchuriki with such a poor physique. Whether it was the first jinchuriki, Uzumaki Mito, or the second, Uzumaki Kushina, weren't they all freaks of nature who had forcibly pinned him down in the seal space and forcefully extracted his chakra? This third jinchuriki was an utter Waterloo. He had even filtered out the negative emotions from his chakra, making the pressure on Naruto unprecedentedly small, yet he could only bear such a meager amount of power. If word got out, how could he ever hold his fox head high among the other Tailed Beasts?
"…I know. I'll increase my physical training regimen from now on." Naruto couldn't help but cover his face. It was indeed his fault. But what could he do? This body was only twelve years old; he simply hadn't dared to implement overly strenuous training plans, lest it affect the body's development. Give him three years, no, two years, and he was confident he could bear the weight of Kurama's chakra.
"You should have done so long ago! As my jinchuriki, and a descendant of the Uzumaki clan at that, can't you have a little confidence in your body's endurance?" Kurama didn't even know what to say anymore. Whether it was his identity as the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki or as a descendant of the Uzumaki clan, either one should have been enough to support Naruto undergoing overload training.
"Descendant of the Uzumaki clan?" Naruto was taken aback. 'Uzumaki,' naturally, was all too familiar—it was his surname, after all. But this was the first time he had heard that his surname was actually from a prominent clan.
"Your father was, at the very least, the Fourth Hokage. As the wife of the Fourth Hokage, your mother—how could her identity possibly be ordinary?" Kurama stated.
"…Is that so?" Naruto nodded slightly.
"By the way, are you able to communicate remotely with my shadow clones?" Naruto asked, recalling Kurama's assistance during the battle with Shukaku.
"Didn't I tell your shadow clone already?" Kurama sniffed disdainfully. "This is called Ninshu."
"Ninshu?"
"When the Old Man Six Paths was on his deathbed, he distributed his chakra to the people of the world. His original intention was to use chakra as a medium to promote mutual understanding and love among people, to achieve peace…" Kurama explained.
"The Sage of Six Paths?" Naruto said in surprise. He was familiar with this Sage of Six Paths, a frequent character in this world's myths—nine out of ten mythology books featured his name.
"Correct." Kurama nodded his great fox head lightly. "While the Old Man Six Paths was alive, and for a considerably long era thereafter, Ninshu was the mainstream. It's just that as time passed, the trust between people grew increasingly fragile, until one day, you humans actively severed this connection."
Naruto nodded slightly. One of the two major components of chakra was spiritual energy; as a medium for communication, it might indeed be better than language. He wouldn't pass judgment on the act of actively severing the direct connection of chakra—that is, abandoning Ninshu. Looking back at the past from the perspective of his current era, one might feel that abandoning Ninshu was a mistake. But he could only see this one unresolved problem; behind this problem lay thousands upon thousands of problems that were solved by abandoning Ninshu. Land, food, drinking water, mineral resources… The finiteness of resources, driven by humanity's infinite desires, was destined to trigger problems of one kind or another. Could the people of that era not see the benefits of Ninshu? Impossible. Wisdom might improve with the accumulation of eras, but intelligence itself does not. Abandoning Ninshu was likely a final choice made under the duress of such problems.
[In that case, Kurama can perfectly serve as a signal relay station.] Naruto looked at the great fox before him, his fondness for it growing with each passing moment. Low latency, high-efficiency information transfer, plus Kurama could also serve as a mobile power bank for his shadow clones—this opened up far too much operational space for him.
"What's with that look?" Kurama's fur bristled. Such a gaze was very unsettling for a fox.
"Oh! Nothing, nothing at all…" Naruto said with a sweet smile.