"Hm?"
"This is awesome—thanks, Sasuke!"
The second Naruto saw Kushina in front of him, his face lit up with pure delight.
Earlier, to make sure Naruto's mind stayed focused entirely on him and to preserve the purity of the Asura chakra in the cells Naruto produced, Sasuke made the genjutsu world contain nobody but himself.
At first, Naruto nearly broke down.
It wasn't that there was only one Sasuke in the illusion world.
It was that EVERY SINGLE PERSON Naruto met in that damn illusion was Sasuke!
It gave Naruto the weird feeling that Sasuke somehow stole his Shadow Clone Jutsu.
Every day, the first thing Naruto did after waking up in the illusion was think of ways to beg Sasuke.
And the content of his begging kept changing.
At first, he begged Sasuke to let him out, saying they could talk things over and he'd agree to anything.
As time went on, his demands gradually got way lower.
Eventually, he just begged Sasuke that if nothing else, he could at least add a little variety to the illusion.
Anything but every single person having Sasuke's stupid face!
So now, when Naruto saw Kushina and Rin, he naturally assumed Sasuke finally took pity on him and granted his request.
What? This isn't inside the genjutsu? How is that even possible?
When he was put under, he clearly was in a small cabin outside Amegakure.
Yet now, after waking up, he somehow ended up here.
And the clothes he was wearing were ironclad proof that this was definitely still an illusion!
Most importantly of all, Sasuke was nowhere around.
'If the genjutsu got dispelled, then Sasuke—the guy who cast it—should be nearby, right? So yes, this is obviously still the illusion world!'
Naruto was thrilled and rubbed his hands together eagerly.
In fact, over the last two days, he already figured out how to fully enjoy himself inside the genjutsu world.
Even though all the people were Sasuke, the food wasn't.
Naruto enjoyed a glorious feast of ramen in the illusion world.
Granted, even the ramen was still made by Sasuke.
Naruto's original plan for today was to wake up, raid a restaurant for a mountain of instant noodles, and go to town on them again.
He didn't expect Sasuke to take another step back today and finally restore the illusion's people to normal!
As Naruto pondered what to do today, he paid no mind to the mother standing in front of him.
'That's just something the illusion created, so why bother?'
...
Meanwhile, Kushina's face was full of worry.
Had that slap just now been too hard? Had she actually smacked Naruto stupid?!
"Naruto, are you okay? You…"
"Quiet woman! Don't interrupt my thinking." Naruto waved his hand impatiently.
Kushina: "..."
'Has Naruto reached his rebellious phase?!'
"Whatever. I'll stick to the original plan and go enjoy a massive pile of instant noodles first." Naruto rubbed his hands together like a damn fly and revealed a weirdly gleeful, shit-eating grin.
Kushina stared at him in bewilderment.
'Does eating instant noodles really require this much planning?'
While Kushina was distracted, Naruto stepped forward and felt something snag his foot.
Looking down, he saw it was his own pants.
Naruto nudged them around with his foot a few times, violently kicked them away, and then hopped right out of the display window.
"This outfit actually looks pretty nice!"
Naruto thought of his favorite ninjutsu, quickly formed hand seals, and POOF—transformed into a blonde girl with twin ponytails.
Of course, he was still wearing the dress from the display window.
"Hehe~ It's so breezy and comfortable! So this is the joy of wearing a skirt. Being a girl is great!"
'Come to think of it, why does Sakura-chan almost never wear dresses? Actually, now that I think about it, I can barely remember seeing any kunoichi wear skirts…'
Muttering all sorts of strange crap to himself, Naruto happily skipped away into the distance.
Kushina was dumbfounded.
Naruto was already strange enough before—what exactly happened to him over the last few days?!
His mental state was now unsettling enough to be genuinely terrifying.
Kushina even wondered whether Menma from the limited tsukuyomi somehow crossed over into reality!
"Kushina-nee, don't panic. I think I understand what's going on." Rin hurried forward, helping Kushina step away from the shattered display window.
At the same time, she apologized to the boss who ran out in alarm, paid for Naruto's dress, and covered the damages to the display.
"After I was revived and finished my health check, I chatted with Makoto and the others about a few things. Naruto and Sasuke came up too. They were probably helping Sasuke try to awaken the Rinnegan. I got curious once and checked the surveillance footage. Naruto was placed under genjutsu by Sasuke. So Naruto's behavior just now was probably because he still thinks he's inside the illusion world, and that made him let loose." Rin patiently explained what she thought was the most likely situation.
"So that's what it is…" Hearing that, Kushina let out a massive sigh of relief.
But very quickly, her expression stiffened again. "Wait. If he let loose because he thought it was the illusion world… doesn't that mean those were his REAL thoughts, with no filter at all?!"
Whether drunk words were true words or nonsense, no one could say for sure.
But if Naruto thought this was all inside a genjutsu, then the weird crap he mumbled to himself had to be genuine, didn't they?!
"Th-that… actually makes sense." Rin looked extremely awkward.
After spending all that effort comforting Kushina, it now seemed like she only uncovered an even bigger, weirder problem.
"Forget it, there's no point in overthinking it. I need to hurry and stop Naruto before he does something too outrageous." Kushina glanced at Rin and sighed.
She felt she was still too soft!
Look at Rin.
Rin got reanimated and personally witnessed her two grown-up male teammates getting way too close in a hospital room, yet her emotions barely wavered at all!
All Rin showed was respect and blessings.
Maybe when Kakashi and Obito got married, Rin would even be willing to attend as a freaking bridesmaid!
And what about herself? Just because Naruto sincerely said he wanted to be a girl and liked wearing cute clothes, she couldn't handle it?!
She's too soft!
As the Nine-Tails jinchūriki, she ought to have a heart as steady as a rock!
...
"HEY! You haven't paid yet!"
"Pay? Uzumaki Naruto never pays for stuff!" Naruto came running excitedly out of a restaurant with an armful of instant noodles, while the boss chased after him in utter despair.
Kushina could only helplessly go over with Rin and pay for everything first.
After paying and apologizing, they turned to look for Naruto again.
This time, he darted right into one of his old favorite specialty restaurants, the kind that sold all sorts of odd little gadgets and novelty items.
Naruto was intensely curious about everything in there.
Sadly, back then, even if he drained his frog wallet, he could only afford one set at a time.
He needed to rely on Shadow Clone Jutsu just to make enough copies of things for all his clones to use.
But now it was different. He was in the illusion world. He could explore whatever the hell he wanted!
"Excuse me, what's this?" Naruto picked up a small green bottle and asked the boss.
"That's medicated oil. It's quite strong. You can use it for insect bites, or to help wake yourself up and clear your head…"
The boss was still giving a careful explanation when Naruto, with no instruction at all, uncapped the bottle, poured a little onto his palm, and dabbed some right onto his hand and began jerking off.
"..."
"Goddamn! That's one of the best release i experience so far!" Naruto sucked in a sharp breath, his eyes instantly lighting up!
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