Chapter 632: Advice from the Gang

Even while Obito fantasized about the future, his hands never stopped moving.

With Karin nowhere around, he immediately stepped forward and began extracting the Seven-Tails’ chakra from Fū.

As for how long Tailed Beast extraction was supposed to take—

In the original story, Akatsuki had needed ages to extract Shukaku from Gaara.

But during the Fourth Shinobi World War, extracting portions of the Eight-Tails and Nine-Tails had happened almost instantly.

Not long ago, Dark Naruto had used Reaper Kiss to drain the Tailed Beast chakra from Gaara, and that hadn’t taken very long either.

Unfortunately, none of those examples helped Obito.

He couldn’t access the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path right now.

He didn’t know Reaper Kiss.

And he certainly didn’t possess the Uzumaki clan’s bloodline.

All he could do was use his own body as a container and slowly pull as much of the Seven-Tails’ chakra into himself as possible.

The efficiency was—

pathetic.

Obito froze awkwardly.

He had spent all this time fantasizing about his brilliant future plans and somehow forgotten the most basic problem.

And this would be an issue in the real shinobi world too.

Inside Engraved Tsukuyomi, Obito avoided using his authority over the Demonic Statue because he didn’t want to alert this world’s Nagato.

In reality, however, he had already lost access to the statue entirely.

Different causes.

Same problem.

The only difference was that, in the real world, he could drag someone into Kamui and spend as long as necessary extracting their chakra in private.

He couldn’t do that here.

There was an absurdly powerful lunatic trapped inside the Kamui dimension.

If Obito caused even a little too much commotion, Isshiki might show up and tear him apart again.

So the extraction had to happen outside.

And outside—

Karin could come back at any moment.

Obito had only managed to pull out a tiny amount of chakra and was already considering giving up and leaving when—

The flow suddenly intensified.

It was like he had gone from sipping through a straw to having someone blast a high-pressure water cannon straight into his mouth.

The violent influx made Obito’s entire body ache.

But he endured it.

More accurately—

Black Zetsu endured it.

Obito’s body had already been half-dead after Isshiki’s earlier attack. He was only still alive because Black Zetsu’s thousand-year lifespan was keeping him going.

So if this new influx damaged his body?

Black Zetsu could take the punishment.

For the first time, Obito realized just how useful Black Zetsu actually was.

Honestly—

far more practical than White Zetsu.

Then another thought occurred to him.

That itself proved Black Zetsu’s origins were anything but ordinary.

Ōtsutsuki Kaguya was the Rabbit Goddess, the Goddess of the Moon.

And Black Zetsu was essentially a mass of her will she had left behind before being sealed.

Still—

Obito quickly realized this was not the time to think about that.

The real question was:

Why had the chakra flow suddenly increased so much?

At this rate, he was about to obtain all of the Seven-Tails’ chakra.

Obito looked toward Fū.

Sure enough—

she was cooperating voluntarily.

“So you really are the legendary masked vigilante who travels the shinobi world helping people!”

Fū was already crying from emotion.

“I can’t believe that after what we did to you, you still came back and repaid evil with kindness by removing this man-eating monster from inside me!”

“Thank you so much!”

“Uh…”

Obito hesitated for barely a second.

“Yeah. Exactly.”

He shamelessly accepted the praise.

So Fū’s habit of eating people had been caused by the Seven-Tails influencing her?

Then was she naturally this weak?

Or had most of her strength been tied up suppressing and resisting Chōmei?

Obito had no idea.

Nor did he care anymore.

He just needed to finish extracting the Tailed Beast and get out.

Fū might not be evil by nature.

That didn’t mean Karin was harmless too.

Karin didn’t have some Tailed Beast inside her to blame for anything.

“All right, no need to thank me.”

Once the extraction was complete, Obito struck a deliberately cool pose.

“I’ll be going now.”

“Don’t bother seeing me off.”

Fū had now escaped the influence of the “man-eating monster” and, thanks to this world’s bizarre rules, had even gained an extra life.

Obito left without another word.

He had originally intended to use Kamui.

Then he reconsidered.

He was carrying a large amount of Tailed Beast chakra now.

If he entered the Kamui dimension, would that make him far too obvious a target for Isshiki?

Everything they had seen earlier suggested that Isshiki possessed a particular obsession with the nine Tailed Beasts created from the Ten-Tails.

Better not risk it.

…

Naruto returned to Konoha and learned from Shizune that the war was still continuing.

Worse, it was beginning to look like the conflict might expand.

Naruto immediately decided on his next objective.

Before tricking his father into Kamui—

he would stop the war first.

The problem was that Naruto had absolutely no idea how to do that.

So naturally, he gathered his friends to discuss it.

And by “his friends,” what Naruto really meant was—

he wanted Shikamaru’s brain.

The Engraved Tsukuyomi version of Shikamaru had never gone through some clan competition that earned him the privilege of lazing around forever, so calling him out was easy.

Unfortunately, once everyone learned why Naruto had gathered them—

“What?”

Shikamaru stared at him.

“Naruto, you want to stop the war?”

“Why?”

“War’s great.”

“My mom and dad are both away, so I can slack off every single day.”

“Honestly, it’d be even better if they died on the battlefield.”

“Then I’d become clan head, and I could do whatever I wanted and spend every day doing absolutely nothing.”

Naruto stared at him in shock.

“Yeah.”

Chōji nodded in agreement.

“My dad is always competing with me for food.”

“If he goes early, more snacks for me.”

“Kiba?”

Naruto slowly turned.

Kiba looked downright excited.

“Once Mom and Sis die and I become clan head, I’m turning the Inuzuka clan into a ninja-cat clan!”

“And I’m changing the family name too!”

“From now on, I’ll be Catlord Kiba!”

He looked as though the glorious revolution was already within reach.

Naruto’s face twitched.

“Tenten… Ino… Sakura-chan…”

With difficulty, he turned toward the girls.

Surely the kunoichi had a slightly higher moral standard?

“Don’t even start, Naruto.”

Ino rolled her eyes.

“That biological father of mine should’ve disappeared ages ago.”

“He just had to organize the Ino-Shika-Chō formation and make our clan represent the ‘boar.'”

“Do you have any idea how many times I’ve been bullied because of that stupid title?”

“…”

Naruto slowly looked toward Sakura.

“Naruto, don’t mention my parents.”

Sakura’s expression turned irritated.

“They’re lowly civilians. They aren’t even shinobi.”

“I use StanCon brand hair oil now.”

“There’s already a thick wall between us. We don’t belong to the same social class anymore.”

“…”

Naruto’s gaze shifted to Tenten.

“My family’s the same!”

Tenten clenched her fists.

“I told them I wanted to start my own business and open a weapon shop, but they absolutely refused to let me sell scented kunai, glow-in-the-dark shuriken, or strawberry-flavored explosive tags!”

“They even told me to turn around three hundred and sixteen degrees and reconsider my life!”

“It was way too much!”

“Uh…”

Naruto wiped the sweat from his forehead.

“Sakura. Tenten.”

“Your parents aren’t even on the battlefield, right?”

At this point, Naruto was beginning to suspect something was seriously wrong with this world’s Konoha.

After the naturally kindhearted Uchiha clan had been wiped out—

what kind of people were left here?

“No, they aren’t.”

Sakura answered as though that were obvious.

“That’s why I’m hoping the enemy reaches Konoha.”

“Then maybe they’ll deal with my parents for me.”

“…”

Naruto looked at Tenten.

“My parents aren’t fighting either.”

Tenten smiled with suspicious innocence.

“But they’re weapons suppliers.”

“I’ve already decided I’m going to forge some documents and report them to Lady Hokage for treason.”

“I’ll claim they’ve been secretly selling military equipment to enemy villages.”

“Hehehe.”

“…”

Naruto finally understood.

Coming here to ask everyone for advice had been a terrible mistake.

With the moral standards of this group—

forget preventing the outbreak of a shinobi world war.

Even if absolutely nothing had been wrong to begin with, giving these people enough time to meddle would probably cause the entire situation to explode on its own.