Naruto looked at the busy ninja around him, and a plan suddenly formed in his mind.
He asked Temari curiously, "If I help preserve these Wood Release trees, will you give me some Tailed Beast Chakra?"
"What?" Temari stared at Naruto in surprise and couldn't help complaining. "I mean, you…"
"Originally, if you had asked directly, Gaara might have given it to you. But since you want to help, then help first."
Naruto: "…"
So the key point was honesty?
Even so, Naruto didn't regret it.
After all, this task wasn't difficult for him.
Naruto formed hand seals and began gathering Chakra.
Wood Release erupted from his body.
The tips of the Wood Release gradually took on humanoid shapes, continuously extending outward from Naruto.
In the end, they scattered around him like celestial maidens tossing flowers.
Temari glanced at them and asked, "Wood Release Shadow Clones?"
Naruto nodded. "Yes. I gave them a lot of Chakra. Aren't you lacking Earth Release and Water Release ninja? They can handle it."
There were more than twenty clones, and Naruto had infused each of them with a massive amount of Chakra.
After hearing this, Temari shook her head slightly.
As a ninja herself, she understood the basics.
"Creating Wood Release without sufficient earth and water in the environment will consume even more Chakra," Temari said seriously. "Can these clones really sustain themselves?"
Naruto exhaled slowly, suppressing the sense of weakness caused by his Chakra nearly being drained.
Seeing her concern, he answered directly, "My main body currently has about thirty percent of its Chakra left. The remaining seventy percent is split among these twenty-plus clones."
"Still, percentages aren't very intuitive."
After all, ten percent of one hundred million and ten percent of one hundred were completely different concepts.
He added casually, "If these clones don't use ninjutsu, they'll be able to personally witness our wedding."
Temari's eyebrows twitched as she once again reassessed Naruto's Chakra reserves.
She suddenly recalled how other women might react in such a situation.
So Temari deliberately softened her voice. "Big brother, you're amazing~"
Naruto's face twitched. "Stop that."
Temari: "…"
It wasn't that Naruto disliked gentle girls, but Temari was usually straightforward and sharp-tongued. Her sudden change in tone, combined with her terrible acting, only made Naruto feel uncomfortable.
Temari sighed. "Alright, let's go. I'll take you to Gaara."
…
"So that's how it is?"
Gaara stood with his arms crossed, looking at the two of them.
After hearing their explanation, he asked with concern, "Will this cause any consequences?"
Ever since Naruto had sealed Shukaku, Gaara's temperament had improved greatly.
Although some emotional scars remained, he had begun to care about his siblings' opinions again.
As for the village—though he didn't truly feel attached to it—he understood his role.
Perhaps… resignation was the right word.
Hearing Gaara speak this way, Temari asked in surprise, "Gaara, since when do you care about things like that?"
"You're right…" Gaara smiled faintly, but the smile carried a hint of sadness.
Perhaps deep down, Gaara once wanted to be an obedient, good child.
But being questioned like this by his own sister still made him feel a little lost.
Naruto noticed this, stepped forward, and patted Gaara on the shoulder.
"Gaara, dwelling on the past won't change anything. You should focus on living well in the present. Try finding something you enjoy—cultivating a hobby is the key to happiness."
He shrugged lightly. "No matter how you live, you're still living. So why torture yourself?"
Gaara stared at Naruto blankly, then murmured, "Is that so…? Th-thank you for the advice."
Naruto nodded. He closed his eyes, then opened them again.
A pair of Mangekyō Sharingan appeared in his eye sockets.
Temari and Gaara both froze in shock.
Temari inhaled sharply. "Naruto?! You're actually… an Uchiha?"
"Not exactly," Naruto replied honestly. "This is just a power I obtained by accident. Don't panic."
Then he looked at Gaara. "Brother-in-law, I'm going to enter your Sealing Space next so Kurama can extract Shukaku's Chakra. Relax your body and mind."
Even if Gaara didn't cooperate, Naruto could still force his way in—just like Sasuke once invaded Naruto's Sealing Space with his Mangekyō Sharingan.
But doing so would harm the Jinchūriki's body and mind and was extremely rude, so Naruto still gave a warning.
Gaara nodded, giving his consent.
Using his ocular power, Naruto drew both his own and Gaara's spiritual energy into the Sealing Space within Gaara's body.
Every Tailed Beast's Sealing Space was different.
Naruto's Sealing Space resembled a sewer.
Gaara's, however, was a vast desert.
At the center of that desert stood an iron cage, within which Shukaku was imprisoned.
Compared to Kurama, Shukaku's situation was even worse.
The sealing power binding him was extraordinarily strong.
Even Kurama couldn't break it, and Shukaku—who specialized in sealing techniques among the Tailed Beasts—was equally unable to weaken it.
At that moment, Shukaku lay motionless on the ground, staring blankly at the sky.
Unable to interfere with Gaara in any way, Shukaku was bored out of his mind.
With his personality, his sanity should have collapsed long ago.
The seal prevented him from moving or speaking.
So even when Naruto and Gaara's spiritual forms appeared, Shukaku didn't notice at all.
Until Naruto spoke.
"Hey, Shukaku."
"Kurama came to play with you."
Shukaku was startled.
Then he heard that sentence again—Kurama came to play with you—and his heart skipped a beat.
This kind of thing shouldn't be said!
Terrible luck!
Kurama was now so powerful that he didn't even feel like a Tailed Beast anymore.
Shukaku absolutely didn't want to play with that stinking fox.
But no matter how terrified he was, he couldn't respond.
Because he still couldn't move or speak.
Naruto stepped forward and successively unlocked several seals on the cage.
Shukaku suddenly felt his body loosen and let out a shrill cry.
"This great me has finally—huh?!"
Just as Shukaku stood up, a massive fox paw reached in from outside the cage.
The paw was even larger than Shukaku himself.
It grabbed him firmly, suppressing his Chakra with sealing power and preventing him from using any ninjutsu.
Like that, Shukaku was dragged straight out of the iron cage by Kurama, his face filled with complete confusion.
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