"Alright, no more jokes."
Naruto put away his smile and said in a serious tone, "Tomorrow morning, I will set off with Jiraiya to find one of the Sannin, Tsunade, and have her return to take over as the Fifth Hokage."
"After the new Hokage takes office, I will find a way to have her issue you an S-rank mission to infiltrate Orochimaru's forces for undercover reconnaissance."
"This way, you can leave Konoha legitimately, without needing to bear the stigma of a missing-nin, and without having to sneak away."
Sasuke asked, "An undercover mission? You want me to take a mission to go undercover at Orochimaru's place. How do you expect me to come back later?"
Naruto looked into Sasuke's eyes and said, "I will personally go and bring you back. No matter how hidden Orochimaru's base is, no matter how many Otogakure ninjas block my way, I will personally walk up to you and bring you back to Konoha. This is a promise."
"But I believe in you. Orochimaru, one of the Sannin, is just a transitional figure for you."
Sasuke opened his mouth to say something, but his throat felt like it was blocked by something, and he couldn't say a word.
After a long time, he said in a low voice, "Loser, is 'living up to one's words' your Ninja Way?"
"Yeah, living up to my words."
Sasuke took a deep breath, then asked the question he most wanted to ask at the beginning, "So, what exactly was that golden light?"
Naruto said, "Just consider it a special Kekkei Genkai of mine."
Sasuke nodded, not asking any further.
The amount of information he received tonight was enough to make his brain overload several times over.
From the Universe to races, to Naruto hiding his true strength, and finally to the two choices about the future, he needed time to digest it.
"Oh right, there's something I want to ask you."
Naruto scanned the mottled old Uchiha residence. "With such a large family estate, do you have any chakra conductive metal?"
"I want to craft some ninja tools, but this stuff is too expensive, and I don't have much money right now."
Sasuke thought for a moment and walked into the depths of the main residence. Soon, he came out holding a few pieces of metal.
"These were saved by the Uchiha Clan in the past, this is the last of it. Most of the clan's assets were sealed and kept by Konoha after the clan was wiped out. These are what I dug out from the ruins later myself."
Sasuke handed the pieces of metal to Naruto.
Naruto took the metal ingots, weighed them in his hand, and sighed, "As expected of a great clan's foundation, even in decline, one can still find so much chakra conductive metal."
"When I become the Hokage in the future, I will make Konoha return them to you."
Naruto looked at the sky and patted Sasuke on the shoulder. "There's a mission tomorrow, I'm off. Think carefully about the two paths, there's no rush to make a decision."
After saying that, he walked towards the gate of the Uchiha residence.
Sasuke stood in place, watching Naruto's back disappear.
"A race that devours planets... Loser, what exactly are you going through?"
—
After leaving the Uchiha residence, Naruto looked up at the sky.
At this time, most shops were already closed, but Tenten's ninja tool shop was different. Her father was the type of craftsman who would stay up all night quenching in the workshop to meet orders. The shop's closing time depended entirely on his mood that day.
Trying his luck was better than not having enough time before setting off early tomorrow morning.
Dong...
When Naruto pushed open the wooden door of the ninja tool shop, the bell on the door made a crisp sound.
There were no other customers in the shop. Tenten was sitting behind the counter, one hand supporting her cheek, the other hand absentmindedly drawing sketches of shuriken in the ledger. She only looked up when she heard the doorbell.
"Naruto? It's so late, why are you here?" Tenten's eyes lit up, and she closed the ledger and pushed it aside.
"Come in and sit—no, wait, don't sit yet. There's something I need to tell you. Those two Kunai you ordered last time were taken by people from the Anbu."
"They said they were picking them up on your behalf under the orders of the Third Hokage."
"It gave me a scare at the time. I thought you had committed some crime and were being targeted by the Anbu."
"However, before they left, they settled the remaining payment."
"Yeah, I've already received those two Kunai. Grandpa Hokage personally handed them to me."
Naruto sat down on the stool in front of the counter and took out the chakra conductive metal ingots from his ninja tool pouch, placing them on the counter.
"I came to see you today to trouble you with one more thing. Can you forge all of these into special Kunai just like the last ones?"
Tenten reached out and picked up a metal ingot to examine it carefully.
A moment later, she put the metal ingot back on the counter and raised her eyebrows slightly.
"This is indeed chakra conductive metal. Naruto, this is something you can't necessarily buy even with money. Where did you get it?"