Perhaps Naruto's laughter was a bit too loud…even Koushirou, who was teaching his students in the dojo, heard it.
With a swoosh, the sliding door to the guest room opened.
"Naruto-sama!? You're back again?"
Koshiro wasn't surprised when he discovered Naruto disappeared into the guest room the next day.
Given Naruto's status and habits, it was likely that his visit to Shimotsuki Village had just been a brief stop.
Since he hadn't been able to meet his father, Kouzaburou, it wouldn't have been strange for him to leave the next day.
But seeing Naruto suddenly reappear in the guest room was another matter entirely.
'And… why the guest room?'
'Shouldn't he have entered through the main gate of the dojo instead?'
"Yo, Koushirou! Long time no see!"
People feel refreshed when good things happen. After returning to the One Piece World, even though the air composition was nearly the same, Naruto felt like breathing was somehow easier in this world.
The Ninja World was filled with too many secrets, too many conspiracies. Even the hatred he carried was shadowed by countless people.
Simply put, the atmosphere there was too depressing.
In that world, Naruto was the Nine-Tails' Jinchuriki, burdened with vengeance and the responsibility of changing the world.
But here, Naruto was just a free-spirited wanderer sailing the seas.
"You must be joking… It's only been three days. Did you leave something behind?"
That was the only possibility Koushirou could think of.
After hearing the other party's words, Naruto fell silent for a second before casually lifting [Mushoukou] at his waist.
"Yeah, my sword still needs maintenance and polishing."
Hearing this, Koshiro was stunned at first, then he chuckled.
"Haha, that's right. It seems you left in quite a hurry last time."
Koshiro nodded and immediately took Mushoukou from Naruto's hands.
"In that case, if you trust my skills, I can take care of the maintenance for you."
"Of course. I'm sure you've learned quite a bit from old man Kouzaburou."
"Ahaha, I'm ashamed to admit it, but my talent for sword forging is rather lacking. I can only handle minor tasks like cleaning and polishing."
Though he spoke modestly, Koushirou's skills were far from as lacking as he claimed.
After all, Mushoukou was made of special materials, and its unique blade required particular techniques to maintain properly.
Watching Mushoukou carry Mugenkou toward the sword room, Naruto stood still for a moment.
'Three days, huh...'
'It seems that my guess is correct.'
The intervals between his disappearances across the two worlds were growing longer.
From instantaneous transitions at first, to a day-long gap, and now three days.
Naruto didn't know how long these intervals would stretch before finally stopping.
Just like he didn't understand the mechanics behind his 'crossing' in the first place.
After all, every time he crossed over, it happened when he was drunk and unconscious.
'Wait…'
"Nine-Tails? Did you see how I crossed over?"
Naruto suddenly closed his eyes, focusing his consciousness into the Sealing Space within him.
"How should I know…"
Kurama grumbled reluctantly, clearly unwilling to answer.
Not that Naruto could blame him. From Kurama's perspective, the 'crossing' really did happen in an instant, so he had no clue either.
"Is that so? I was just thinking that if you cooperated, I might let you out for some fresh air or something."
"Tch… you think I'd fall for that?"
Seeing that the Nine-Tails wasn't in the mood to talk, Naruto simply shrugged and left the Sealing Space.
Kurama's feelings toward Naruto weren't exactly warm, but they weren't entirely hostile either.
Though he had to admit, this brat was full of peculiarities, unlike the other Ninjas who only saw him as a monster-
But ever since Naruto learned the truth about his parents' deaths, he hadn't been particularly friendly toward Kurama either.
However, when Naruto said he would let him go out for 'some fresh air' this time, he was not really teasing the Nine-Tails.
During their last father-son heart-to-heartalk, Minato had mentioned the seal on Naruto's body.
It was a dual Four Symbols Seal, specifically, the Eight Trigrams Seal, created by Minato and reinforced by Kushina's remaining Adamantine Sealing Chains.
Minato understood that forcibly suppressing Kurama's rampages had its limits.
Therefore, when Minato was still Hokage, he studied the methods used by Kumogakure to deal with the Jinchuriki.
So, in truth, he was aware of the concept of the [Perfect Jinchuriki].
However, neither the previous Jinchuriki, Mito, nor Kushina had been able to truly 'break the cycle of hatred and build mutual trust'.
But after witnessing his son's extraordinary experiences firsthand, Minato felt that such a miracle might just be within Naruto's reach.
Thus, he advised Naruto to interact more with Kurama when possible, even suggesting that he loosen the seal under the right conditions.
If Naruto was just a little brat who couldn't even control his emotions, Minato would never have brought this up.
But with the current Naruto, there was at least a glimmer of hope.
Unfortunately, just like all the previous Jinchuriki did not trust the Nine-Tails, Kurama did not believe in Naruto either.
And so, he missed a rare chance to 'stretch his legs'.
Koushirou's polishing and maintenance didn't take too long.
Naruto had only returned from his crossing world that morning, and by the afternoon, his sword was already restored.
Sliding the now crystal-clear blade back into its sheath, Naruto boarded a small boat kindly provided by Koushirou.
Though Koushirou was puzzled by the request, he still agreed to lend Naruto the boat.
There was no helping it… Momoo wasn't foolish enough to wait around near Shimotsuki Village.
In fact, it had fled the moment Naruto stepped onto the island.
Standing on the shore, Naruto declined Koushirou's invitation to stay with the vague excuse, 'If I keep lingering in the East Blue, who knows who might come after me next?'
Only once Koushirou, who had come to see him off, was out of sight did Naruto sit back down at the bow of the boat.
'Wait… Had I forgotten something?'
'That's right!'
It finally hit Naruto.
Earlier, he'd been so caught up in successfully outsmarting Orochimaru that he'd completely overlooked an experiment he still needed to conduct.
Glancing at the boat's slow speed under the sail, Naruto figured now was the perfect time.
Summoning Technique!
He was going to summon a giant toad to pull the boat, just like Jiraiya did, 'Toads from the Ninja World should be able to swim in the sea, right?'
Naruto, who had no real concept of the average size of toads from Mount Myoboku, didn't realize just how reckless his plan was.
He bit his finger, formed a seal, and began to use the Summoning Technique.
But unfortunately, the attempt failed. Naruto could feel his Chakra being drained, but the summoning seemed to be blocked by something.
'Let's try this one instead…'
He formed the handseals again, this time attempting to summon his other contracted creature, Gyumaru.
But the result was the same… The Summoning Technique was successfully activated and his Chakra was drained, but nothing appeared before Naruto.
It seemed the Summoning Technique couldn't be used across worlds… at least, not with Naruto's current level of power.
Clenching his fist, Naruto could faintly sense a 'barrier' of sorts.
'It's not that it's impossible… just not enough yet.'
Just as Naruto was pondering ways to improve his Summoning Technique, the sky suddenly darkened.
He looked up, thinking it was a dark cloud that had suddenly appeared.
Instead, what he saw was a massive chunk of earth… no, more accurately, a small island!