Naruto didn't expose Nine-Tails. He tilted his head and deliberately used a tone of seeking an opinion to say, "Is it not good? That's true, all gold is too monotonous."
Before Nine-Tails could react, Naruto had snapped his fingers again.
Snap!
The golden space peeled off from all directions and was quickly filled by a brand new scene.
An open grassland with a blue sky and fluffy white clouds.
Nine-Tails lifted its head from its paws, looked at the endless grassland to its left, then at the endless grassland to its right, and finally looked up at the blue sky above.
Its tail swept across the grass, the sensation of the grass blades brushing against its tail feeling extremely real.
"Kid, you..." Nine-Tails's voice was filled with unconcealable surprise.
"Looks like you like it." Naruto clapped his hands, admiring his handiwork. "Let's leave it like this for now. These are the only two environments I can imagine at the moment. I'll change it for you later when I get some inspiration. Let's talk next time, Kurama."
Then, his consciousness began to fade from the grassland.
"This kid..."
Nine-Tails watched the spot where Naruto had disappeared, remaining silent for a long time.
Then, it slowly laid down, its front paws crossed over its chest, and its chin rested on the back of its furry paws.
The sunlight spilled onto its dark orange fur, feeling warm, and the breeze of the grassland brushed the tips of its ears.
Regardless of what this kid was planning, regardless of what secrets he had, at least that damned sewer that had trapped it for over a decade, had now turned into a place with grass, blue sky, sunlight, and wind.
Nine-Tails had to admit, this feeling wasn't bad.
Outside
Naruto slowly opened his eyes.
Naruto scanned the area. The fifty-plus Shadow Clone sentries he had set up were still at their posts, some crouching in the canopy, others hidden behind bushes, maintaining a defensive formation. Everything was exactly the same as before.
Naruto nodded with satisfaction, then slowly raised his right hand. Chakra condensed in his palm, then immediately began to rotate at high speed.
A few seconds later, a blue Rasengan appeared in his palm, emitting a low hum.
The flow of Chakra at the edge of the sphere whipped up a slight air current, causing the hair on his forehead to sway slightly.
Looking at the rotating Rasengan in his palm, Naruto nodded.
He had mastered the Rasengan in less than ten minutes, from theory to practice. This was his first true A-rank offensive Ninjutsu to date, and also his strongest single-target attack at this stage.
With the Rasengan, he had a trump card for a sure kill in close-quarters combat, no longer having to rely solely on fists and Shadow Clones to brute-force his way through like before.
Then there was the Flying Thunder God Technique, this one wouldn't be as fast.
Minato had taught him the complete formula diagrams and the essentials of spatial perception, but the calculation of spatial coordinates involved a large number of precise operations that required repeated practice to form muscle memory.
It wasn't that he didn't understand the principles. It was that while his brain understood, his hands still needed time to hone it.
Naruto's goal for himself was to carve the prototype of the first Flying Thunder God Kunai before the Chunin Exams. Even if he couldn't activate it stably for the time being, he wanted to at least practice the precision of the formula inscription until it was up to standard.
Fuinjutsu was even harder.
Adamantine Sealing Chains, Four Symbols Seal, Fire Sealing Method, barrier deployment, multi-layer nesting.
Kushina had stuffed the foundational framework of the Fuinjutsu passed down through the generations of the Uzumaki clan into Naruto's mind but Fuinjutsu was one of the most complex systems of techniques in the Ninja World.
The precision of writing every rune, the speed of every hand seal, and the unfolding sequence of every nested structure could only be achieved through a massive amount of time and sweat.
Naruto was very clear about this, so he didn't set any expectations for quick success with Fuinjutsu. He simply added it to his long-term training list.
In short, through this training, by consuming the Chakra left to him by Kushina and Minato, his self-preservation ability was more than a notch stronger than before.
When he first transmigrated, he had relied on Absolute Control and the on-the-spot burst of Nine-Tails Chakra to barely withstand Haku's Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals. Now, if he were to fight Haku again, he could win even without Nine-Tails Chakra.
After returning to Konoha, as long as he kept a low profile and didn't attract the attention of Danzo and Hiruzen prematurely, he could take missions step-by-step to earn money and improve his living conditions, while secretly training in the Flying Thunder God and Fuinjutsu, steadily building up his strength.
Once the Chunin Exams ended, Hiruzen died, and Tsunade took office, his situation would become much more relaxed. By then, he would have enough trump cards in his hand to develop however he pleased.
The future was promising.
Thinking of this, the corners of Naruto's lips curled up slightly, and the string in his heart that had been taut all this time loosened just a little bit.
He raised his hands and formed a release seal.
Poof, poof, poof, poof...
The fifty-plus Shadow Clones in the forest simultaneously turned into white smoke.
At the same time, the memories accumulated by the clones over this period flooded into Naruto's mind.
Five days!
He felt like not much time had passed in the golden space, but a full five days had already passed in the real world.
The images of memories flashed by one after another. Over these few days, villagers gathering herbs occasionally passed by the forest entrance, only to be politely turned back by Naruto's clones with the excuse that "Ninjas are performing a special mission ahead, passage is temporarily prohibited."
A few idle men were unconvinced and wanted to force their way in, but were politely escorted away by Naruto's clones using very restrained Taijutsu, and no one came by after that.
Apart from that, nothing major happened. In a small place like the Land of Waves, ever since Gato died, even samurai had become extinct, and the level of public safety had risen sharply.