Chapter 5: I Can't. 

To prevent Naruto from using the Sexy Jutsu to break his defenses, Kurama wisely chose to speak first, "I can teach you, but what can you offer in return?"

Although it wouldn't matter if he broke his defenses for a moment, Tobi was still watching. He could break his defenses, but not in front of someone he knew. Otherwise, the first thing he'd do after leaving Naruto's body would be to carry a train station to the moon and find Otsutsuki Toneri for a mutual destruction.

Of course, that's just one reason. The real reason is that Kurama has things to do. Knowing the future, he doesn't want to be caught by that traitor again.

"Return?" Naruto replied blankly, "Is there something you need?"

"No." Kurama squinted his eyes, "But I need you to do me a favor, and only you can do it."

Naruto instantly got excited, pounding his right fist on his chest: "No problem! As long as it's not betraying Konohagakure or..."

"Relax, I won't make you do anything that would damage Konohagakure's reputation or harm you and your friends." Kurama grinned, pointing at the seal in front of him, "I need you to tear a small corner of this seal."

That's right, you don't need to tear it all off, just a small gap will do. This way, Kurama can seep his chakra out, achieving the effect of Naruto's outburst in the original story, controlled by him.

Naruto's smile froze. How could he agree to that? He's not stupid. Kurama is sealed inside him, and with Kurama's immense power, if the seal is really torn open a bit, it wouldn't take long for him to completely break the seal and appear in the outside world again.

However, Kurama also knew what Naruto was thinking: "I can promise you that unless you want me to, I won't forcibly take over your body, nor will I intentionally reveal my chakra, and I won't harm others while you're not paying attention."

"Besides, I can't run away because when this seal is broken more than eighty percent, your father will appear and seal me again, so you don't have to worry about that." Kurama laughed wildly, "In exchange, anytime you want to borrow my chakra, I'll give it to you. Also, after the seal is torn a bit, I can give you more chakra."

"How about it, quite a good deal, right?"

Naruto frowned: "Are you really that easy to talk to? What if you're lying?"

"You can ask your pervy sage, the key to unlocking the second seal is in his hands." Kurama wasn't surprised by Naruto's attitude.

Actually, Naruto only had one seal on him, called the Eight Trigrams Seal. But this seal wasn't just the symbol on the surface; it was the Eight Trigrams pattern hidden beneath the symbol. To unlock this seal, you can't just tear off the symbol.

To give the future Naruto the power to fight that 'Uchiha Madara,' Minato left a passage on the Eight Trigrams Seal, allowing Kurama's chakra to flow out of the seal but not too much. The purpose was to help Naruto get familiar with Kurama's power as he grew up.

And the symbol's function was to limit this passage, allowing the amount of chakra that could flow out to be within Naruto's body's acceptance range. So even if the symbol was completely torn off, it would only fully open the passage, releasing all of Kurama's chakra, but it wouldn't let Kurama break the seal.

Breaking a high-level seal like the Eight Trigrams Seal can't be done in just a few years. The real seal also needs a key to unlock.

Tearing a corner would let more of Kurama's chakra flow out. Right now, the amount of Kurama's chakra Naruto can accept is about the level of the demon fox cloak without tails. If a small corner is torn, it should reach the level of three or even four tails.

Of course, at that time, it wouldn't be Naruto himself controlling his body, but Kurama. Right now, Naruto probably couldn't even handle one tail.

Kurama looked down at Naruto, his eyes reflecting Naruto's figure: "How about it?"

"..." Naruto's smile disappeared, becoming a bit heavy.

After thinking for a while, he still shook his head slightly: "I need to discuss this with the pervy sage."

"Fine." Kurama wasn't in a hurry, this kind of thing couldn't be rushed, "But I need to tell you, with your current physical state, you'll probably be unconscious for... about three days."

"Then I'll practice Ninjutsu here during that time!" Naruto clenched his fists.

Honestly, watching a kid like Naruto practice Ninjutsu wasn't very interesting. In the sealed space, he couldn't use summoning techniques, and Naruto didn't know other types of jutsu. What he could practice were Taijutsu and the basic three techniques, as well as shadow clones.

Ninjutsu was fine, just keep practicing. But Taijutsu... without someone to spar, practicing Taijutsu alone wouldn't show much progress.

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And then time skipped to after Gaara defeated Rock Lee in the Chuunin Exams.

Naruto is in Konohagakure Hospital. There is someone beside him

It wasn't Sakura, Sasuke, or Kakashi by Naruto's side, but Shikamaru.

These two guys had the potential to become comedians, especially Shikamaru, who always managed to do something unexpectedly funny in strange situations. But that's not the point.

When Naruto woke up, he felt hungry, and Shikamaru happened to have some fruit. Chouji had eaten too much barbecue and ended up in the hospital, unable to eat fruit. So Naruto suggested they go eat in front of Chouji.

The malice in his heart, you could say, was worthy of a good brother. Well done.

Unfortunately, when they got to the ward, they didn't see Chouji but an unexpected person. Seeing this, Kurama grinned again.

If there was any villain in the early stages of the Naruto series that left a deep impression, aside from Orochimaru, it would probably be the panda... I mean the sandstorm Gaara. The reason he left such a deep impression wasn't just because of his tragic past but also because of Rock Lee's explosive performance, one of the twelve strong of Konohagakure.

It's hard to explain how strong Rock Lee was, but if you had to rank the Konoha 11 at that time, Rock Lee would undoubtedly be first. With the opening of the five gates of The Eight Inner Gates, he could defeat anyone among the twelve strong, making him a monster.

And Gaara, who could defeat and even kill Rock Lee without injury, was a monster among monsters.

Of course, I know that Rock Lee kicked Gaara around like a ball, but despite that, Gaara didn't suffer any injuries other than the breaking of the sand armor on his body.

Not counting the concussion.

But that's not the point. The point is that Gaara, due to his father's wrong education from a young age, believed that no one else in the world mattered except himself. He wanted to become a Shura who only loved himself, so he was completely indifferent to things like family and friendship, even hating them.

When he almost killed Rock Lee, he was stopped by Lee's teacher, Might Guy. He didn't understand and asked Guy why he saved Lee. Guy said, "Because Lee is my most beloved subordinate."

It was this sentence that made Gaara feel an emotion he had never felt before in Guy's words. This emotion caused a violent psychological fluctuation in him, which might have been jealousy.

Without even realizing it, he was jealous that Lee had a teacher who loved him. But he didn't understand this love and thought everyone should love him. So he chose to destroy this love.

And the way to destroy it was to kill Rock Lee.

He stood by Lee's hospital bed, controlling the yellow sand full of the smell of blood, almost killing Lee.

If Shikamaru hadn't stopped him.

"You bastard!" As Shikamaru used the Shadow Imitation Technique to control Gaara's Setsuna, Naruto's anger couldn't be contained. He rushed forward and punched Gaara in the face without holding back, "What are you trying to do here!"

The dull sound of the punch echoed in the silent hospital room, accompanied by Shikamaru's muffled groan.

Gaara didn't seem hurt at all, while Shikamaru lightly covered his own face, with a hint of complaint, "Hey, Naruto, when the Shadow Imitation Technique is successful, if you hit the target, I'll move too."

The target hit by the Shadow Imitation Technique is forced to make the same movements as the caster. If the target is forcibly moved by an external force and the caster doesn't have time to release the technique, the caster will also be forced to make the same movements.

In other words, if the caster gets punched, it will be reflected on the target, and vice versa. Of course, the force is different.

"Ah, sorry Shikamaru." Naruto scratched the back of his head sheepishly; he really didn't know that.

But now wasn't the time to talk about that. Naruto turned angrily to Gaara beside the hospital bed, "What are you trying to do?"

The sand armor slowly fell from Gaara's face where he was hit, showing that Naruto hadn't held back at all.

But Gaara didn't care. His expression didn't change at all, as calm as a still pond, "I want to kill him."

"What?" Naruto instinctively clenched his fist.

Shikamaru's face was serious, "..."

What's with this guy? Why is he still so calm, even though he's under my Shadow Imitation Technique and can't move his body?

This guy... is different from the others.

Shikamaru's expression became grave, and chakra unconsciously gathered, "Why do you want to do this? You already won the match, right? Do you have a personal grudge against him?"

"There is no such thing." Gaara's voice was flat, "I just want to kill him, so I came to kill him."

The calm sea of sand had no waves, the coldness made one forget the scorching heat of the day, no ripples, unaffected by the wind, as still as a venomous snake.

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