I, Naruto Uzumaki, don't need your approval.

Moreover, he knew about the bet between Hinata and his uncle Hiashi and wanted to make his uncle lose this time.

After winning the battle, Hinata happily went to Hiashi's side, sweating profusely, and said, "Father, I won. Shouldn't you keep your promise and let me bring Naruto home to play?"

Hiashi Hyuga glanced at his eldest daughter, sighed softly, and nodded.

He didn't want to tell Hinata that the Jinchuriki Hinata wanted to invite hadn't appeared on the streets for several days, which was not a good sign.

Either the Jinchuriki has been changed, or Naruto is undergoing training with the Anbu and Root.

Either way, it's not good news for Hinata. She might become negative and revert to her old timid and cowardly personality.

But there's always a day when secrets can't be kept. Hinata will go back to school sooner or later, and she'll find out about this eventually.

Chapter 77 Notifying Jiraiya

After the holiday, it was time for the Ninja Academy to start.

Hinata and Sasuke, returning to school, were looking forward to seeing Naruto, but when they arrived at the classroom, they were surprised to find that Naruto was absent.

Sasuke and Hinata exchanged a glance, their eyes filled with worry.

After asking other classmates without success, the two went to the teachers' office and found their homeroom teacher, Iruka.

After understanding the students' purpose, Iruka also said with a puzzled look, "I don't know where Naruto is either. Just now during class, I was about to ask you where Naruto went."

"However, speaking of which, there hasn't been any news about Naruto in the village lately."

Upon hearing this, Hinata and Sasuke exchanged glances. They had been spending their holidays at home training diligently and hadn't had time to pay attention to the rumors circulating outside. They never expected that Naruto would just disappear like this.

What should they do if they really can't find Naruto?

Seeing the two looking dejected, Iruka sighed softly and said, "Go back to class first. After school, I'll take you to find the Third Hokage. He should know where Naruto went."

"Alright, Iruka-sensei, remember to let us know..."

Left with no other choice, Sasuke and Hinata returned to the classroom.

After school, Iruka took Hinata and Sasuke to the Hokage Building, where they met the Third Hokage in his office, where he was handling official business.

The Third Hokage extinguished his pipe and uttered the prepared words.

“I know why you’ve come. You’re here for Naruto, aren’t you? He’s passed the test and officially become a genin. I’ve sent him out on a mission.”

“So Naruto has already graduated…” Upon hearing this, Iruka fell silent.

It's a good thing that Naruto graduated early, but he always felt that graduating too early wasn't good for a ninja's psychological development. However, as a teacher, he respected his student's choice.

Hinata glanced at the Third Hokage and said softly, "Hokage-sama, when will Naruto come back? Everyone in the class misses him, and I want to see him too."

"I don't know the exact time either, but I'll let you know if I have any news, so don't worry too much."

"But..." Hinata was about to say something when Sasuke interrupted her:

"Alright, alright, it's good that Naruto is alright. He's so strong, it's the enemy who suffers when he's on a mission, we don't need to worry about him. You should take care of yourself, Naruto hates weak people the most."

After receiving news that Naruto had graduated and become a ninja, Iruka left the Hokage Building with two students.

Just as Hinata was about to return to the Hyuga clan's territory, Sasuke blocked her way and said with an uncertain expression, "Byakugan girl, you should have noticed that something is wrong too."

Hinata said weakly, "Sasuke, you mean there's something wrong with Naruto becoming a ninja."

Sasuke nodded and said with certainty, "The Hokage said Naruto wasn't here because he graduated early and became a genin, but Naruto couldn't possibly not inform us of something this big... unless Naruto has already left the village."

At this moment, Hinata seemed to remember something and said, "That's right. The picnic Naruto held at the end of last semester was like a farewell party. I thought it was really strange at the time."

Sasuke gave Hinata a deep look: "I didn't realize you were so observant. I thought you'd just blush when you saw Naruto, but it turns out you're actually quite useful."

"Tell me, why are you so eager to find Naruto?"

Hinata said dismissively, "Naruto promised me he would come to my house to play after school starts, but I didn't expect him to break his promise. It really hurts me."

After a pause, Hinata looked at Sasuke and asked bluntly, "So, Sasuke-kun, what brings you to see Naruto-kun?"

Sasuke clasped his hands in front of his chest, his eyes gradually turning dangerous: "Unlike you, who's obsessed with love, I'm here to train with Naruto. I need to get stronger as soon as possible and kill that man."

"Which man?" Hinata asked, puzzled. She was unaware of the tragedy that had befallen the Uchiha clan.

Sasuke snorted and said, "This has nothing to do with you, but since our goal is to find Naruto, we've formed an alliance to share information. I suspect Shikamaru and Choji probably know about Naruto's departure."

Inside the office, after Iruka and the others left, the Third Hokage turned to the Anbu members beside him and asked, "It's been a week, haven't you brought Naruto back yet?"

The Third Hokage's idea was simple: he wanted to find the defector Naruto.

Then, after a sincere apology, everything returned to normal. Naruto was different from the other Uchiha who had defected; he was Minato's child and the only candidate to become a Jinchuriki.

The ANBU member lowered his head and said, "The Jinchuriki's counter-tracking ability is too strong. One team tracked them for three days before discovering that the Jinchuriki they were tracking was a shadow clone. We couldn't distinguish between the real body and the clone at all."

The Third Hokage frowned, then said, "Isn't there a Hyuga ninja in the team?"

The ANBU member said with a wry smile, "Even with the Byakugan, it's impossible to distinguish between the real body and the shadow clone. The Jinchuriki has already been able to integrate the Nine-Tails' chakra into the clone, and I suspect that the Jinchuriki possesses long-range sensory abilities and has been toying with us all along."

Upon hearing this, the Third Hokage fell silent, then waved his hand and said, "Let's temporarily suspend the mission of bringing back the Jinchuriki. There's no need to waste time on this. You have more important things to do. Go now."

"Yes, Third Generation Lord." The ANBU member left the office.

Picking up his pipe and relighting it, the Third Hokage opened a drawer and took out a long-sealed file with a toad-shaped pattern on it.

Immediately afterwards, the Third Hokage used the scroll to perform a summoning jutsu and summoned a small toad.

The little toad is one of the ways to contact Jiraiya. Of his three former disciples, Jiraiya is now the only one he can command.

Although Jiraiya also disapproved of his actions, he had always worked diligently for the village.

Since his own methods of teaching Naruto had failed, he had no choice but to ask Jiraiya for help, since Jiraiya had long wanted to take over Naruto's guardianship anyway.

He stuffed the handwritten letter into the toad's mouth and watched as the toad used a reverse spirit communication spell to leave.

The Third Hokage felt a significant weight lifted from his shoulders, finally able to begin dealing with the village's major affairs.

In addition to sending people to investigate the Uchiha remnants who have defected, the Iwagakure and Kumogakure villages on the border have recently begun to stir, extending their reach to the small ninja villages near the Land of Fire.

These small ninja villages are dispensable to Konoha and are not considered important.

However, preventing these small countries from siding with the other four major ninja villages is extremely important for Konoha.

Chapter 78 Minato Namikaze

In the wilderness of the Land of Fire, Naruto is having an outdoor barbecue.

Besides Naruto, the outdoor barbecue also included an unidentified bird, a wild boar, and a rabbit.

They were all unlucky guys who were hit by a wind-style chakra release while Naruto was training his wind-style chakra, and accidentally ended up in Naruto's luxurious lunch.

Naruto expressed his deep apologies and then ate several large bowls of food with tears in his eyes.

Similar scenes have occurred countless times in the past two weeks. The leftover meat is packaged and sold in nearby towns, allowing Naruto to make a small profit and fill his meager savings.

Besides his wallet getting fatter, he also gained a lot of insights into Wind Release ninjutsu and made some modifications to the ninjutsu.

For example, it expanded the casting range of regular Wind Release ninjutsu, reduced the size and power of Rasenshuriken, and enhanced its speed.

Of course, all of this was inseparable from Danzo's help. The battle with the Wind Release master Danzo benefited Naruto greatly, and his Sharingan copied many powerful Wind Release ninjutsu.

After lunch, Naruto extinguished the fire and took out the Book of Sealing from the sealing scroll.

Compared to his daily training in taijutsu and ninjutsu, trying to break the seals on the Book of Seals was his daily routine, as he had long coveted the ninjutsu recorded there.

Soon, half an hour passed. Naruto put away the Book of Seals and looked around warily.

The Book of Seals contains a technique for location tracking. Under normal circumstances, he can block location tracking ninjutsu, but the blocking will temporarily fail during the process of breaking the seal, which will allow his group of ANBU to come looking for him.

This is also why he gave up teaming up with Shisui and let Shisui go to the Land of Whirlpools first.

The Anbu wouldn't kill him, a Jinchuriki, but they might not be so ruthless against the remnants of the Uchiha clan, since there are differences between rogue ninja.

After maximizing his perception, Naruto patiently waited for several hours, preparing to hone his combat skills with the Anbu.

Strangely, no Anbu came looking for him this time, which made Naruto wonder if the Anbu were planning something big, such as the Third Hokage personally leading a team to capture him.

After all, his daily activity range is only a few dozen kilometers, which is not much distance for a ninja whose average speed exceeds that of a train.

After having his shadow clones wait in place for half a day, Naruto still hadn't seen the arrival of the Anbu.

Feeling a bit bored, Naruto put the Scroll of Seals back into the scroll and headed towards the nearest town on the map. Upon arrival, he immediately put on the mask and transformed into Menma, then went on a spending spree in the town.

After playing around for a few hours, Naruto lay down in his hotel room and said to Kurama, "Ku-Tails, my suggestion is pretty good. As long as your chakra materializes, you can eat, drink, and have fun too."

Having drunk quite a bit of alcohol, Kurama (the Nine-Tails) looked rather tipsy and didn't really want to talk to Naruto.

Naruto arrived at the sealed space and stared at the Bagua seal for a long time before saying impatiently, "You've been observing me for over half a month. If you don't show yourself soon, I'm going to remove the sealing technique completely."

Naruto's voice echoed in the sealed space, where it seemed that only a human and a fox existed.

But Naruto knew that besides Kurama and himself, there was a third consciousness in the sealed space, namely Minato's chakra sealed within the Eight Trigrams Seal.

Half a minute later, Naruto walked straight to the cage and removed the Bagua seal from it.

As the Eight Trigrams Seal was broken, the cage binding the Nine-Tails also opened at that moment, and Minato Namikaze appeared in the sealed space with a helpless smile on his face.

Upon regaining its freedom, Kurama instantly sobered up and stared intently at Minato Namikaze.

On the night of the Nine-Tails' death, it had already regained its freedom, but Minato Namikaze used the Reaper Death Seal to cut it up and stuff it back into the Jinchuriki's body, losing its most precious freedom.

Naruto stared at the sunny and cheerful man in front of him. The man's smile was so infectious that it made people want to get closer to him.

Perhaps the reason Minato surpassed Orochimaru to become the Fourth Hokage was because of his sunny smile. After all, when achievements are roughly equal, humans are more drawn to a radiant sun than a cold, venomous snake.

While Naruto was staring at Minato, Minato was also staring at Naruto and Kurama.

Half a month ago, when a crack appeared in the seal, he had been silently observing the man and the fox, waiting for the Nine-Tailed Fox to break through the seal so that he could make his move and reseal the Nine-Tailed Fox in the cage.

But Naruto's relationship with Kurama was better than he had imagined; they seemed to have been friends long ago.

Becoming friends with a Tailed Beast means that the Jinchuriki has the opportunity to become the perfect Jinchuriki, which is the future he hoped for before his death. Naruto, who inherited the power of the Tailed Beast, protects the village under the guidance of the fire.

The expectation of becoming friends with the tailed beasts was successfully fulfilled, but Naruto left the village and became a rogue ninja.

Over the past two weeks, he witnessed the battle between Naruto and Danzo, as well as Naruto's private dealings with the Uchiha clan, and learned about the history after his death.

The conflict between the Uchiha clan and the Third Hokage was not unexpected by Minato.

Given their roles in the security forces and the Uchiha clan's unique personalities, a conflict with the village was inevitable. The Third Hokage and his allies had always wanted to prevent the security forces from threatening their position.

But Minato truly didn't expect Itachi to take action against his own clan.