Mount Myōboku, Ryūchi Cave, and Shikkotsu Forest.
These were the three great sacred lands of sage arts within the ninja world.
The true rulers of those places were not humans, but summoned beasts who had mastered senjutsu.
Mount Myōboku was one such hidden realm within the vast world, the holand of the toads.
And at this mont—
High above Mount Myōboku, the enormous Great Toad Sage sat slumped in place when a low murmur suddenly escaped him.
"Hmm…"
He slowly opened his clouded eyes while muttering to himself.
"There's been a change… strange… I can't see clearly."
A small toad nearby imdiately lifted its head, preparing to notify the other sages.
Their ancient ancestor would occasionally awaken from slumber and deliver prophecies. Every single prophecy concerned information capable of shaking the entire ninja world.
But before the little toad could leave, the Great Toad Sage mumbled to himself for a while longer before suddenly widening his eyes.
"T-This is…"
The startled little toad jumped in fright and fell onto its back.
"Great Ancestor! What happened?!"
"This is incredible… absolutely incredible…"
The Great Toad Sage ignored the question entirely and continued clicking his tongue in amazent.
Not long afterward, more toads practicing sage arts within Mount Myōboku gradually arrived one after another.
Among them were the highly respected elder toads, Fukasaku and Shima.
The two stepped forward and looked at the still-muttering Great Toad Sage with confusion.
"What's wrong with Great Ancestor?" Fukasaku asked suspiciously.
"Don't tell he's finally gone completely senile?"
"You're the senile one!"
Hearing such disrespectful words, the Great Toad Sage finally snapped out of his daze.
Looking at the gathered toads below him, he spoke in a deep voice:
"Just now… I saw the future."
"Does it concern the ninja world?" Fukasaku imdiately beca serious. "Should we inform Jiraiya?"
"No. It has nothing to do with him."
The Great Toad Sage's previous prophecies had always concerned the Child of Prophecy, so the gathered sage toads initially assud this would be the sa.
But the words that followed instantly shocked them all.
"I saw…"
"A completely new inheritance of sage arts being born within Konoha!"
"Natural energy!"
Minato Namikaze recognized the pure energy condensed before Kurama at a single glance.
His teacher, Jiraiya, had once taught him the sage arts of Mount Myōboku. Though Minato had never been particularly skilled at them, he had still learned the basics.
Sage Mode involved combining natural energy with chakra, creating a unique form of senjutsu chakra within the body.
Unlike ordinary chakra, senjutsu chakra could not be gathered continuously during battle. Once depleted, Sage Mode would end, and the process placed imnse strain upon the user's body.
Yet senjutsu chakra could multiply the power of ninjutsu several tis over, even surpassing the normal limits of ninjutsu entirely.
Techniques using senjutsu chakra were known as Sage Art techniques.
But the natural energy currently gathered before Kurama gave Minato a strange feeling.
Though still weak, this energy carried a sensation similar to chakra itself slowly growing.
And more importantly—
Out of the corner of his eye, Minato glanced toward the cage ford by the combined Four Symbols Seal and Eight Trigrams Seal, along with the sealing talisman above it that clearly indicated the seal remained perfectly intact.
Kurama was still sealed.
He didn't even possess a physical body.
So how was he extracting natural energy inside Naruto's ntal world?
In Minato's eyes, the Nine-Tails had beco increasingly mysterious.
Although the things Kurama told him sounded unbelievable, Minato Namikaze was no ordinary person. Naturally, he could tell the fox wasn't fabricating stories.
After all, the future Kurama described was rely a possible future.
If they changed things now, they could still alter fate.
And Minato himself had already begun doing exactly that.
Still…
He couldn't fully understand the current Kurama.
Back then, Kurama told him the Ōtsutsuki clan possessed the ability to absorb chakra.
As beings ford entirely from chakra itself, Tailed Beasts were naturally at a severe disadvantage against the Ōtsutsuki.
That was why Kurama dragged Minato out to guide Naruto personally.
At first, Minato assud everything depended entirely upon Naruto's growth.
Yet during this period, Kurama had rarely interacted with Naruto directly anymore.
So what exactly was he doing?
And now…
Seeing this natural energy condensed before him, Minato developed a bold suspicion.
Only…
"Nine-Tails-sama…"
Minato revealed a helpless smile.
"Has my seal on you already beco completely aningless?"
"How could that be? This old man is obviously still trapped inside the seal without freedom."
Kurama instantly denied it.
Yet anyone could hear how unconcerned he sounded regarding the seal itself.
There wasn't even the slightest trace of resentnt toward being imprisoned.
Honestly, Minato felt the Nine-Tails seed perfectly content remaining inside the seal.
Of course, his emotional intelligence wasn't low enough to actually say that aloud.
Kurama's good mood ca quickly and vanished just as quickly.
After displaying the natural energy, the giant fox simply lay back down motionlessly once again.
For nearly two years now, the relationship between Kurama and Minato had always been like this.
After a few occasional conversations, both of them would return to silently focusing on their own matters.
Ever since learning about the future, the pressure weighing upon Minato's heart had never disappeared.
And he believed the sa was true for Kurama, who had sohow returned from that future through a twist of fate.
Because according to the information Kurama provided—
Within that future ninja world, there was practically no individual force capable of independently opposing the Ōtsutsuki clan.
Even Naruto and Sasuke, after receiving power from the Sage of Six Paths and fighting together, could barely contend against a single opponent.
And if not for Isshiki possessing a fatal weakness, they might not have won even after sacrificing Kurama.
For soone as battle-hardened as Minato, his first thought upon hearing this wasn't how to deal with a single enemy.
Instead—
What if the Ōtsutsuki invaded in groups?
Minato Namikaze had earned the title of Konoha's Yellow Flash amidst mountains of corpses and endless war.
He understood warfare better than most.
In the future Kurama described, the entire ninja world didn't even qualify to wage a true war against the Ōtsutsuki clan.
And the Ōtsutsuki would never forever arrive in re groups of two or three.
One man and one beast—
Both searched for a way to break the deadlock in their own ways.
Neither Kurama nor Minato needed sleep anymore due to their current chakra-based existence.
Still, as a forr Hokage, Minato naturally understood the importance of balancing work and rest.
In other words, even if they no longer required sleep, they still needed other thods of relaxation.
For example—
When Minato taught the two beginners foundational ninja lessons at night, his ti interacting with Naruto allowed him to relax sowhat.
anwhile, Kurama devoted nearly all his ti to his own plans, aside from occasionally observing the outside world through Naruto's perspective during the dayti.
And the reason behind everything was simple—
Both of them understood that the future Kurama experienced had been far too hopeless.
They had to change everything.
They had to reach a new future.
And regarding that point—
Neither of them needed to say it aloud.
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