Chapter 18: The Jinchuriki of the Nine-Tails Must Be Imprisoned!

[T/N: Check out our new novel— Douluo: Unrivaled God General, Fooling Qian Renxue At The Start (search by name, it's from our 2nd webnovel account.)]

After summoning Danzo to his office, the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, found himself once again embroiled in an argument.

The topic remained the same: the future of Konoha's jinchuriki, Naruto Uzumaki, and the control of the Nine-Tails within him.

Hiruzen was quick to shut down the rumors that Danzo's Root division had spread among the villagers. He issued Danzo a final warning—if he so much as thought about targeting Naruto again, there would be no regard for past alliances.

Danzo responded with a cold scoff, and their verbal sparring intensified:

Danzo: "Sarutobi, you will regret this."

Hiruzen: "Danzo, I am the Will of Fire!"

But once dangerous rumors take root, they're nearly impossible to fully contain...

"I heard that brat hangs out near the eastern woods."

"We have to grab him and bring him to Lord Hokage!"

"Right! For the safety of the village, Naruto Uzumaki needs to be put under strict supervision!"

"Yeah, it doesn't matter if he's the Fourth Hokage's son!"

The villagers, already swayed by the words of Danzo's operatives, were now completely consumed by fear and suspicion. They refused to listen to reason, driven by the belief that capturing Naruto was the only way to protect the village.

Hundreds of Konoha villagers, armed with makeshift weapons, began marching towards the woods by the river, intent on confronting the young boy.

"My family died that night in the Nine-Tails' attack. I can't let something like that happen again!"

"Same here! I had just finished building my house when that cursed fox destroyed it!"

"That kid is too dangerous!"

"Bind him up!"

"Yes, and lock him away!"

Sasuke, who was on his way home from school, noticed the approaching crowd and stopped in his tracks. He knew immediately that something was wrong. That annoying guy, Naruto, was in trouble.

Sasuke glanced at the angry mob, shook his head, and continued walking towards his home.

But after a few steps, an image of Naruto being tied up, or worse, burned by this crazed mob, flashed in his mind...

"Damn it! What the hell am I thinking?! Why should I care what happens to him?!"

Though he muttered those words, Sasuke's legs had already begun carrying him towards the woods where Naruto was, taking a shortcut so he could arrive before the mob did.

As he sprinted down the narrow path, his heart raced. The landscape blurred behind him, but it still felt too slow.

'Faster! I need to be faster!'

'That idiot Naruto—he can only lose to me, not to these fools!'

Sasuke knew that if the mob caught Naruto, there were only two outcomes: permanent imprisonment or death. And for reasons he couldn't fully understand, he didn't want to lose a good rival that easily.

---

Meanwhile, completely oblivious to the commotion in the village, Naruto stood in front of a felled tree, eyeing the giant log with a puzzled expression. His gaze drifted inward toward the giant fox sealed within him.

"Hey, big fox…"

"Can we, I dunno, change up the training regimen a bit...?"

He had just chopped down a tree with a trunk wide enough for two grown men to encircle, and now Kurama wanted him to carry the thing for "weighted training."

'Seriously?'

He was only six and a half years old—a kid! How could a child be expected to lift a tree that probably weighed at least two or three hundred pounds?

"Stop whining!"

"Lift that thing already. If you don't swing it a hundred times, you're not going home today!"

Naruto: ...

Honestly, Naruto began to suspect that Kurama might actually be trying to kill him with training.

Maybe he'd be better off training under Might Guy... At least Guy-sensei trained within human limits, unlike Kurama, whose idea of training seemed to be: If it doesn't kill you, keep going until it does. [T/N: What doesn't kill, makes you stronger.]

If anyone else had been Kurama's student, they'd probably be peeing blood within three days...

Naruto looked down at the massive log, his eyes wide with disbelief. How the hell was he supposed to lift this thing?

Slowly, he squatted down, circling the tree several times, searching for an angle to lift it. Despite his superhuman constitution, there was no way to do it without a solid grip.

After some thought, he punched a few indentations into the log, creating handholds for himself.

"Heave—!"

With a low grunt, Naruto lifted the log, inch by inch, off the ground.

It was a massive feat for a six-year-old.

"B-big fox! Can I put this down for a second? My back... it's itchy... I wanna scratch it..."

Naruto, looking very much like a weightlifter in the middle of a heavy lift, was turning red in the face, his breath coming in short bursts. It was clear that he was pushing himself to the limit.

On top of that, some leaves had slipped down his collar, making his back itch like crazy.

"Less talking, more swinging! Get to it!"

With Kurama's sharp voice echoing in his mind, Naruto gritted his teeth and began to swing the five-meter-long log.

At first, his swings were slow, each movement calculated to avoid losing balance or stumbling.

But as he continued, something strange happened. Maybe it was his Uzumaki lineage, or perhaps it was the influence of the Nine-Tails—either way, the log began to feel lighter, and Naruto's movements more fluid.

In no time, Naruto started feeling... awesome.

He was only six, yet here he was, lifting and swinging something that weighed more than a grown man!

As he swung the log faster and faster, his imagination kicked into overdrive. He began picturing himself as the legendary figure 'Naruto, the One Who Uprooted a Willow,' or as Sun Wukong, wielding a golden staff in a great battle against the heavens.

Because, after all, when a man has a big stick in his hands, he's bound to imagine all sorts of heroic scenarios. [T/N: Wellllllllllll]

With a five-meter log in his grip, Naruto's swings grew swifter and more elaborate, gusts of wind kicking up around him as he twirled the log like a helicopter.

Dust and leaves swirled in the air, forming a miniature cyclone around him.

"There he is! Over there!"

"Get him! We've got to tie him up!"

The crowd of over a hundred villagers charged towards Naruto's location. But as they approached, they were met with a powerful gust of wind that forced them to shield their eyes.

Sasuke, who had arrived just before the mob, hid behind a tree, his eyes wide with disbelief.

"Naruto Uzumaki..."

"Is he some kind of monster?!"

"How can he have that much strength?!"

Sasuke realized something then: Naruto didn't need his help at all.

The villagers, squinting against the flying debris, struggled to see through the storm of dust. And then they saw him—Naruto, a six-year-old boy, swinging a massive five-meter-long tree as if it weighed nothing.

It was... terrifying.

None of them had ever seen anything like it. In that moment, every single one of the hundred villagers wanted to turn around and leave.

They had no choice. One hit from that tree, and they'd be flattened like pancakes.

The Nine-Tails? Forget about it! No one wanted to deal with whatever this was.

"I... I think I left the stove on at home..."

"Yeah, my wife's about to give birth. I should go check on her."

"Damn it, I was supposed to pick my kid up from school!"

As the villagers began making excuses and backing away, Naruto noticed them for the first time. A mischievous grin spread across his face. Feeling playful, he swung the log a little harder, sending waves of wind toward the crowd.

The powerful gust knocked the entire mob to their knees, making them drop their weapons and tools in shock.

Naruto, unable to hold back his laughter, let the log fall to the ground with a thud. He sauntered over to the trembling villagers, who looked up at him in terror.

"Hey, old man..."

"Why are you guys kneeling on the ground?"

Naruto looked at their tools—scythes, hoes, shovels—and tilted his head in confusion. What were they even doing out here?

The villagers, remembering the sight of Naruto casually swinging a tree like it was a toy, shuddered in fear. They dared not reveal their true intentions, terrified that the boy might smash them into the ground.

One of the quicker-thinking villagers stammered out an excuse.

"It's... it's so hot today... The ground's cooler..."

"Yeah, yeah, that's it! The ground is much cooler!"

"Absolutely! Haha, gotta cool down somehow, right?!"

Naruto gave them a suspicious glance but couldn't make heads or tails of their behavior. It wasn't even that hot today...

Were all the people in Konoha this weird? Kneeling on the ground to cool off?

"You guys came all the way out here... with tools... to find me?"

Naruto asked again, now even more confused.

But in the villagers' minds, It seemed as if this boy had transformed into a man-eating beast. One wrong word, and they all felt they'd meet their end right there.

"W-we..."

"We're here to build you a log cabin!"

"Yes, yes, that's it!"

"How can you train here every day without a proper place to rest?"

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