By the time Minato Namikaze reminded Naruto to use Shadow Clones to burn through the excess chakra inside him, Naruto already felt as though he had eaten more than thirty bowls of ramen in one sitting. He was so stuffed he was about to throw up.
Once Minato gave the order, Naruto ignored the chakra overflowing from his body and freely converted all of that excess into Shadow Clones, releasing it all at once!
Poof, poof, poof...
It sounded like popcorn exploding from a pot.
The endless bursts spread outward, laying down what looked like a golden-orange carpet in every direction!
A vast army of Naruto Uzumakis poured forth without end!
Within barely a dozen seconds, their numbers had already surpassed the future Allied Shinobi Forces, and the golden-orange tide continued spreading into the distance!
"Hey, hey, are you serious?!"
Adult Obito was completely dumbfounded.
So this was the God Tree's chakra reserve?!
And it wasn't just him. Even Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha stared in shock.
Tobirama Senju broke out in a cold sweat. "I never imagined Shadow Clones could be used like this..."
"Wasn't that the ninjutsu you developed?" Izuna still couldn't resist taking a jab at him. "And you insist you and your brother are biological siblings. You really fall short in both chakra reserves and physical strength, Tobirama."
"But I have a brain, so I'm not easily fooled."
"..."
That damn mouth of Tobirama Senju's.
Sooner or later, Izuna was going to find something to stuff into it and shut him up!
While the two were bickering, Naruto's Shadow Clones had already spread several thousand meters away in an unbroken mass, stretching so far that the end was no longer visible.
"Hey, don't tell me you're seriously planning to make six hundred billion Shadow Clones?"
Young Obito deliberately poked at his future self's sore spot.
Thanks to the six hundred billion explosive tags and six hundred billion red bean cakes, Adult Obito now felt nauseous on reflex whenever he heard the number six hundred billion.
No.
At this point, even hearing "666" made his stomach turn.
Naruto said, "I didn't decide on a number, dattebayo! I'm just trying to use up all this chakra before I burst!"
["This works! Naruto, keep increasing the number of Shadow Clones. I need to burn through some of my chakra using your clones too!"]
"Huh?! Kurama needs to use up chakra too?!"
Deep within Naruto's subconscious, the Nine-Tails sat cross-legged with his paws pressed together and let out a low growl.
The next instant...
The entire golden-orange carpet spread across the land was suddenly dressed in crimson!
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
Every Shadow Clone was wrapped in a red Nine-Tails cloak!
"Hey, hey, hey! I don't even know Senjutsu yet, dattebayo!"
["What does this have to do with Senjutsu?! I'm simply granting chakra to each of your Shadow Clones! Tell those brats over there to get ready too. I've got a little too much chakra on my hands..."]
Naruto reluctantly passed Kurama's words on to everyone else.
In the next instant, Madara Uchiha, Hashirama Senju, Tobirama Senju, Izuna Uchiha, Minato Namikaze, Kakashi Hatake, Obito Uchiha, Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno, Rin Nohara, Young Obito, and Young Kakashi were all wrapped in Nine-Tails cloaks.
Even Indra, Ashura, and Hamura Ōtsutsuki received one.
This power-up...
Really was being handed out to everyone.
Because the God Tree had been frantically draining the life force of nearby animals and human settlements, Naruto also found many small animals collapsed along the way, along with an entire village whose inhabitants had fallen unconscious.
Without thinking much about it, Naruto returned the chakra converted from their stolen life force.
Not only did the animals and humans regain their vitality, Naruto inadvertently opened their chakra pathways as well, accomplishing decades ahead of schedule what Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki, the Rikudō Sennin, was originally supposed to do in the future.
Before long, Naruto's enormous army of Shadow Clones had spread all the way from the Land of Ancestors into the Land of That.
The Land of That's soldiers, who had only just been beaten by Team Minato and Team Kakashi, immediately assumed Naruto and the others had broken their word and were now leading an army to invade their country.
"That brat got even stronger?!"
"He looks even more like a monster now!!"
"Where are all of these people coming from?! There are already more of them than the entire populations of the Land of Ancestors and the Land of That combined, aren't there?!!"
"What the hell is he trying to do?!"
"Don't tell me that idiot Emperor of the Land of Ancestors finally got smart and hired those 'ninja' to wipe out the Land of That?!"
Seeing how badly his Shadow Clones had frightened them, Naruto hurriedly explained that he was only passing through.
In the middle of the night...
With Naruto bouncing around everywhere in such high spirits, no one in the entire ancient era was getting any sleep.
Of course, the God Tree's tremors had already reached them anyway.
The people of this ancient age knew very little about such things and believed the Tree God had been angered. When they saw the blazing "red carpet" rolling toward them from afar, they even mistook it for lava flowing from a volcanic eruption.
Aside from General Genbu and General Suzaku of the Land of That, who had already been beaten to tears, Naruto encountered countless people who dropped to their knees the moment they saw him, trembling as they begged the Tree God for mercy.
Naruto was utterly speechless.
His Shadow Clones hurried over one after another to help the ancient people back to their feet.
Unfortunately, Naruto had no idea Kurama had left the chakra-sharing function active the entire time.
As a result, every person Naruto helped up received chakra as well.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...
Now this really was the flame of hope spreading across the entire world.
Before Naruto knew it, humans and animals alike were being granted chakra left and right!
It was even more extreme than what had happened in their own Ninja World.
In the Ninja World, those who possessed chakra were descendants of ninshū and its various branches.
But now, Naruto had effectively shared chakra with nearly the entire ancient world...
"Aaaaaah!!! What do we do?! Kurama, you idiot, you idiot!! Why didn't you tell me the chakra-sharing function was still on?!"
["You're too loud!! Idiot! You're the bigger idiot! Did you ask me before you started helping them up?!"]
Sometimes Kurama really did seem like Naruto's guardian.
But whenever the two of them started arguing, Kurama became just as childish as Naruto, and he was every bit as petty.
Naruto narrowed his eyes suspiciously at the Nine-Tails.
"So what do we do now? I just stole Grandpa Six Paths' job several decades early."
["Well..."]
The tips of the Nine-Tails' tails swayed awkwardly.
["I'm a fox. How am I supposed to know the rules you humans follow?"]
What was with that completely irresponsible attitude?!
Where was the Nine-Tailed Fox whose mere presence had once made all of Konoha tremble?!
Had he gone through some kind of intensive training course at the Inuzuka Clan?!
With no other choice, Naruto's original body turned to his dad, Kakashi-sensei, and Tobirama for help.
Minato Namikaze glanced at the still-restless God Tree, whose roots were ready to steal Naruto and the others' chakra at any moment.
After thinking for a moment, he said, "This may actually be a good thing."
"A good thing?"
Naruto, Sasuke, and the others didn't quite understand.
Tobirama Senju turned toward Kannabi Bridge Minato. "You mean allowing the people here to become a counterbalance against the God Tree in the future?"
Kaguya wasn't present at the moment, so everyone could speak much more freely about possible ways to deal with the God Tree.
Indra was the first to object.
"You intend to bring ninjutsu into this ignorant and impoverished world? That will only cause the Shinobi World Wars to begin even earlier!"
Madara Uchiha and Sasuke Uchiha remained silent, but their thoughts were not much different from Indra's.
Indra continued, "I never should have developed something as dangerous as 'ninjutsu' in the first place! If ninshū had never gained ninjutsu, it wouldn't have become such a hopeless mess later on!"
"Brother..."
After everything Ashura had experienced, he had at least picked up a little of Naruto's ability to talk things through.
Composing himself, he finally voiced many of the things he had kept buried in his heart.
"You've seen it yourself since coming to this world, haven't you, Brother? Even without jutsu, even without the chakra Father shared with others, wars still happen here!"
Realizing that his tone had been somewhat disrespectful, Ashura lowered his head slightly and softened his voice.
"At least, I've always thought it was amazing that you could invent 'ninjutsu' when you were still so young, Brother. It made everyone's lives much easier, and it even saved my life once."
"Ashura..."
"In combat, ninjutsu, or knowledge, I'm nowhere near as good as you, Brother. I don't understand many complicated principles either. But I know one thing for certain. War has absolutely nothing to do with you inventing 'ninjutsu.' And peace can't be achieved simply by eliminating 'ninjutsu' or eliminating chakra!"
The others watched the two brothers argue.
Their pursuit of peace and the clash between their ideals were strikingly similar to Madara and Hashirama, and to Sasuke and Naruto.
"Obviously, peace is not something that can be achieved once and then maintained forever. By the same token, there can be no eternal enemies either," Tobirama Senju, political strategist extraordinaire, said. "Minato is right. This is a good opportunity to let the people of this world gain access to chakra earlier and use that power to restrain the God Tree's growth."
Hamura Ōtsutsuki nodded. "I agree."
"If this can prevent Mother from consuming the Chakra Fruit, then nothing could be better. As her son, I don't want to join forces with my older brother and personally seal Mother away on the moon for the sake of this world."
He looked up at the sky.
At this point in time, that bright white moon did not yet exist.
Madara Uchiha said, "And you think Kaguya Ōtsutsuki will simply stand there and watch?"
Kaguya had agreed to slow the God Tree's growth for now because she understood that she still wasn't prepared to face the members of the Ōtsutsuki Clan who would arrive once the fruit ripened.
That didn't mean she would patiently watch forever while the God Tree's growth remained stalled and no fruit appeared.
Hamura Ōtsutsuki said, "The main reason Mother's negative emotions were magnified after consuming the Chakra Fruit was her disappointment in the Emperor. We've already changed that. As long as we can help Mother regain her trust in humanity over the long period ahead, things can still change."
No one criticized Hamura Ōtsutsuki for the way he referred to the Emperor.
In the parallel world he came from, it had been that Emperor's weakness and incompetence that ultimately pushed Kaguya to such extremes.
"Do whatever you want, then."
Madara Uchiha said no more.
He was actually quite interested to see what Naruto and the others would do next, and what consequences their actions would bring.
He had to admit that the blond brat always managed to surprise him.
Well, honestly, most of those surprises were pleasant ones.
Madara wondered whether Naruto might once again do what he had done during the Warring States Period and bring about a different turning point in this world far earlier than history intended.
***
…
If you'd like to support my work and unlock advanced chapters, you can follow me on p-@-treon.
[email protected]/PinkSnake (100 Chapters Ahead).
You can also follow as a free member to read a few advanced chapters.
***