Chapter 26: The Color Orange is Off-Limits

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Several months later, Naruto turned ten. Between joking around with classmates, training, teasing the little loli, and provoking Kurama, his life was quite fulfilling.

Inside the seal's mindscape, Naruto and the fox prepared for their first shogi match.

Kurama had been getting fatter, and there was no need to explain why—everyone understood. Reflecting on it now, Naruto recalled that in the anime, Kurama wasn’t red but rather an orange-red color.

This realization made Naruto understand why Kurama was so fat. The color orange was simply off-limits, much like how it was with tabby cats. After all, "Big Tabby" was a serious matter.

Kurama embodied this truth perfectly.

On the wall were large nails, and the shogi pieces had circular notches to hang on them. One side of the pieces was painted black, the other red, while the secret silver pieces were blue.

Each move took a long time because neither party was familiar with the game, despite understanding the rules.

For one, Naruto struggled to handle the oversized pieces, especially since they were hung high up.

Currently, Kurama would think for a moment, use its chakra hand to pick up a piece, and make a move.

Naruto, on the other hand, used scaffolding. He’d set up the scaffolding, climb up to move a piece, position it carefully, then climb back down. Only by stepping far away could he see the entire board clearly.

Thus, Kurama watched as Naruto repeatedly climbed up and down. Each move took ten minutes, and after twenty moves, it finally lost patience.

“Brat, extend your left fist over here,” Kurama growled low, like someone roasting skewers.

Deep in thought about the game, Naruto instinctively extended his fist.

Turning his head, he realized that both he and Kurama now had their fists pressed together.

Chakra connected, their thoughts intertwined.

“How can I possibly lose to a fox?”

“How can I possibly lose to a brat?”

Both were beginners, so their desire to win was strong. Their thoughts aligned perfectly, along with some vague ideas about future moves.

The fists separated, and the connection broke.

This game was over—they already knew how the rest of the moves would play out. There was no point in continuing. Time for a new game.

Golden chakra erupted from Naruto’s body, patchy and incomplete but still radiant.

“What is this?” Naruto stared at his glowing hands. Kurama’s chakra was insane! In the anime, he only knew it as a powerful buff, but now he realized it was like adding pages to a book.

To compare, Naruto’s total chakra at age ten was like a bucket of water, Kakashi’s was a drop, and Kurama’s was an entire lake. In terms of quality, Naruto’s was water, while Kurama’s was tar…

It was just too powerful.

“Brat, let’s start the next game,” Kurama said nonchalantly, as if the chakra didn’t belong to him but was something he’d picked up.

“Oh.” Mimicking the anime, Naruto shaped Kurama’s chakra into claws and slowly reached for a piece. Then, the claw accidentally punched through the wall, shattering a section of stone.

“Brat, did you do that on purpose?” Kurama glared furiously.

“Sorry, big fox. Let me practice a bit—I couldn’t control it,” Naruto apologized sheepishly. He hadn’t even used much force, yet he’d pierced straight through the stone wall…

“Brat, you’re too weak. You can’t even control such a small amount of power,” Kurama taunted, a hint of pride in its voice.

Naruto didn’t respond. Instead, he used his chakra to grab the mithril rod Kurama had previously used for writing and began practicing. The mithril was incredibly sturdy—it couldn’t be crushed.

Neither Naruto nor Kurama paid much attention to the chakra situation. Kurama had a high level of affection for Naruto and didn’t care about sharing its chakra.

As for Naruto, he knew the seal’s gate existed and that he couldn’t use Kurama’s chakra outside the mental space. Even breaking the seal wouldn’t help—did he think Minato’s key was just a toy?

Naruto even joked that Kurama had finally started paying rent and covering food expenses after freeloading for eight or nine years.

But how should he use this powerful chakra? As Naruto trained with the mithril rod, he began to think.

Maybe he could create a mahjong set? Two-player mahjong could be fun, and if there weren’t enough players, shadow clones could fill in.

Yes, he decided. First, he’d make a mahjong set.

Two hours later, Naruto managed to gain basic control over Kurama’s chakra, though he couldn’t make large movements.

After repairing the shogi board, a new game began.

This time, Naruto used Kurama’s chakra to move the pieces. Since Naruto had broken the previous game, Kurama went first—and, predictably, Naruto won.

“Kurama, you’re too weak. I barely exerted myself, and you couldn’t win,” Naruto mocked, retaliating for Kurama’s earlier taunts.

“Damn brat,” Kurama gritted its teeth, unable to argue since it had lost.

Second game…

Kurama won.

“Brat, with my thousand years of experience, I let you win earlier, and you got so arrogant,” Kurama boasted smugly. It had finally won the second game—losing twice in a row would’ve been too embarrassing for a fox.

They played through the night, the matches roughly even.

One taunt after another filled the air.

The next morning, Naruto’s alarm woke him up. This was the first time in years he’d stayed up late—he’d gone to bed at 2:30 AM. Suddenly, he felt a sense of nostalgia from his past life: It’s only midnight? Let’s party for two more hours!

After breakfast, Naruto picked up Sasuke, and they began their training. Currently, their morning focus was on chakra nature transformation—releasing chakra into leaves to cut them.

After saving up money for a year, Naruto bought chakra test papers. His affinities were wind and fire. As for the extra fire affinity, Naruto felt it was innate, though he didn’t know why. Chakra was composed of spiritual and physical energy; his body hadn’t changed, but his mind had.

Sasuke’s training lacked direction until Naruto came along. Whatever Naruto did, Sasuke followed suit, and the next day, Sasuke also bought test papers.

Of course, there were things Sasuke simply couldn’t do. Dragging trees while running was something he couldn’t manage, even after trying. He could drag them but couldn’t run far.

In the original story, Sasuke trained alone without guidance. But now, with Naruto leading the way, Naruto might as well have said, “Master, follow me this way.”

Sasuke’s affinities were lightning and fire, unchanged from the original story.

Since Naruto didn’t fully understand wind nature transformation, he resorted to a crude method: mimic how the chakra test paper reacts.

So now, Naruto and his shadow clone each held a leaf—one worked on igniting it, while the other focused on slicing it apart.

Sasuke was proficient with fire, so he practiced lightning by making the leaf wrinkle.

Naruto told Sasuke that this method might not be entirely correct, but Sasuke didn’t mind. It gave him direction, which was better than aimlessly practicing as he had before.

Previously, Sasuke had progressed, but without direction. Now, he had both direction and motivation—and most importantly, support.

This support was incredible. For clothing, a few sets sufficed. For food, Naruto’s personal cafeteria was unmatched. For lodging, they returned to their respective homes. For transportation, there was the portal.

For ninjas, medical support was also crucial.

In terms of medical support, Naruto had almost reached the limits of Sasuke’s understanding. Physical injuries healed with a bite, and depleted chakra recovered instantly. Naruto’s abilities surpassed even the entire hospital of Konoha—at least, during his hospital stay, Sasuke had never seen such skills from any medic-nin.

Especially regarding chakra recovery—Sasuke envied Naruto’s seemingly bottomless reserves. Combined with his own, their consumption never seemed to run low, yet Naruto never complained about lacking chakra.

Though he didn’t say it aloud, Sasuke was deeply grateful to Naruto. They weren’t related, yet Naruto had always helped him.

In truth, Naruto himself didn’t know exactly how much chakra he had now. Without Kakashi around, there was no way to quantify it.

In the original story, Kakashi mentioned that when suppressing Kurama, Naruto’s remaining chakra was four times his normal amount; without suppression, it was a hundred times greater.

Now, Naruto trained far harder than in the original story, consumed enhanced foods, and no longer suppressed Kurama.

The icy-hot fox didn’t need suppression anymore. It ate and played every day, living the best life in all of the ninja world. It didn’t want to leave its cozy abode—it couldn’t face the public anyway.

Comrades, remember: the color orange is off-limits.

Chapter end