Naruto: My Progress in Konoha.

Chapter 1041 Summary
Fire Nation.

Northeastern region.

In that primeval forest.

Qingming's figure suddenly appeared.

'Eye roll~'

With a thought in mind, he activated his Byakugan and began to carefully observe everything around him.

Time passes minute by minute.

After a long while, once it was confirmed that no one had followed, Qingming finally breathed a sigh of relief.

At this point, he had almost finished what he needed to do in the 'Nine-Tailed Rebellion,' and everything related to him also came to a temporary end.

Reflecting on what he had done during the riots, Qingming couldn't help but marvel at the immense advantage that foresight brought.

Without the intelligence he remembered, he could never have achieved his goal so quickly and easily.

Indeed, this incident unexpectedly brought together a host of powerful figures, including Jiraiya, Orochimaru, and Uchiha Shisui, who were not previously known to the public.

Overall, however, the situation is still under control.

In the end, he successfully obtained the Nine-Tails.

That's right, after handing over one Nine-Tails, he still had one Nine-Tails in his possession.

Qingming reached out and took out the metal ball again. He probed it with his spiritual power and could see that a nine-tailed fox was sealed inside.

So what exactly happened?
It's very simple; he split the Nine-Tails in two.

Just like what Minato Namikaze did in the original timeline, he also divided the Nine-Tails into Yin and Yang parts, keeping the Yang Nine-Tails and returning the Yin Nine-Tails.

As for how to cut it?

This isn't actually that difficult, at least not for him.

Although the Nine-Tails appears to be intelligent, like a living being, in essence it is still just a mass of chakra.

Since it is chakra, given his current understanding and control over various types of chakra, as well as his superb sealing techniques, separating it is not a difficult task.

The division of the Nine-Tails was accomplished by the Wood Clone.

After evading the pursuit of Uchiha Shisui's shadow clones, the opponent used the 'Senra Bansho Seal' he cast on the metal sphere to split the Nine-Tails into two parts.

This is also why the Nine-Tails was extremely angry after he released it.

After all, no one would be happy to be divided in two for no reason.

Unfortunately, Qingming didn't care about its feelings at all.

To him, the tailed beast is just a tool; he wouldn't play any "heart-to-heart" games with Kurama like Naruto.

As for whether it's worth returning the other half of the Nine-Tailed Fox?
All Qingming can say is: It's worth it, very worth it!
First, by returning one of the Nine-Tails, he could realize his original plan: to save the lives of Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki.

In this way, Konoha will not experience major turmoil, and he will have a stable rear, allowing him to cultivate more peacefully.

Secondly, returning a Nine-Tails would also shift the attention of others, especially Obito Uchiha, back to Konoha, thus removing him from the spotlight.

Finally, and most importantly, we must stabilize Konoha and prevent it from going berserk.

As for Konoha discovering that Kurama (the Nine-Tails) was problematic, they spread the word everywhere.

The possibility is not nonexistent, but it is extremely slim.

Let's not even talk about the fact that family scandals shouldn't be aired in public.

This incident has already caused Konoha to lose face by being attacked in the village. If they continue to make a fuss about it, they will only be asking for trouble.

As one of the five great ninja villages, what will become of Konoha's prestige if such news gets out?
It would be better to turn the tables and publicize how Konoha thwarted the enemy's plot and protected the village's property.

Furthermore, Qingming's return of half of the Nine-Tailed Fox was already an expression of goodwill.

In this situation, if Minato Namikaze had any sense, he wouldn't deliberately draw attention to himself, lest he become displeased and retaliate against Konoha. After all, he still possesses half of the Nine-Tails; if he insisted on attacking Konoha, it would be a huge problem.

Therefore, Minato Namikaze and other high-ranking members of Konoha would never do such a thing.

Well.
At the very least, they won't do it openly.

As for what they do in private, Qingming has no say in that, nor does he care.

Through his conversation with Uchiha Shisui, his identity may still be a mystery to some, but to others, it is already well known.

Once these people have a clear understanding of the situation, they will naturally not act too aggressively. They will most likely adopt a conciliatory approach, gradually probing his thoughts.

Then, we'll figure out how to counter it.

But by the time they had everything ready, how much had his strength increased?

At that point, whether or not one's identity is exposed will be irrelevant.

Therefore, we should try to stall for as long as possible.

Of course, all of the above are just his one-sided thoughts; the actual outcome will depend on Konoha's reaction.

However, Qingming estimates that it's roughly correct.

Collecting his thoughts, he focused his attention once again on the half of the Nine-Tailed Fox in his hand.

After carefully sensing for a moment, he suddenly formed hand seals and unleashed the 'Chakra Absorption Technique'.

The next moment, he absorbed a large amount of the Nine-Tails' chakra into his body and then transformed it into his own chakra.

Time passes minute by minute.

About an hour and a half later.

Qingming stopped absorbing the Nine-Tails' chakra.

At this point, probe the metal sphere with your mental energy.

As you can see, the Nine-Tails' condition has weakened considerably compared to before.

Qingming sees this on the Four-Tails and Seven-Tails every day; it's just a reaction to their chakra being drained to its limit, and there's nothing seriously wrong with it.

Therefore, Qingming withdrew his spiritual power and sensed the newly added chakra in the alternate dimension between his eyebrows—six million points!
That's right, in just the past hour and a half, his chakra reserves have increased by six million points.

This number is four times that of the Four-Tails' 1.5 million points and six times that of the Seven-Tails' 1 million points, far exceeding them.

No wonder the Nine-Tails felt much stronger than these two tailed beasts.

Keep in mind that this is only half of the Nine-Tailed Fox.

If it were the complete Nine-Tails, the chakra it could provide him every day would probably exceed 15 million points, which is more than ten times that of the Four-Tails and the Seven-Tails!
"Oh, what a pity!"

Thinking of this, Qingming couldn't help but feel a little regretful and returned the half of the nine-tailed fox.

However, he only thought about it.

Compared to gaining an extra ten million chakra points every day, it's more important to divert other people's attention away from myself.

Moreover, six million points of chakra is not a small amount.

Previously, when he reached the pinnacle of the 'Wood Clone Technique,' he thought that he probably wouldn't need the larger capacity of the Wood Clone Technique.

Unexpectedly, it came in handy just a few days later.

At his current rate of chakra accumulation—six million plus seven hundred and twenty thousand—it would take him about a week to accumulate fifty million chakra points.

In this way, he would create four wooden clones almost every month to store this chakra.

This means his 'Wood Clone Technique' has been upgraded, making the created wooden clones more stable; otherwise, it would have been even more troublesome.

(End of this chapter)