Early in the morning, during breakfast, Naruto Uzumaki excitedly shared what had happened the previous night with his companions.
This immediately left both of them stunned.
"So last night, Lord Four—Lord Minato brought Lord Kei to see you, and they're going to help solve your Nine Tails problem?"
Naruto Uzumaki nodded repeatedly, grinning. "Yeah! You guys didn't see what it was like—it really shocked me. I never imagined the Nine Tails in this world would be such a super beautiful, elegant onee-san! She's so kind, and her voice is so pleasant to hear. If only my Nine Tails were like that..."
As he spoke, he even sighed emotionally, a faint blush appearing on his face—clearly reminiscing about his time with Miss Tamamo-mae.
That fragrant scent, combined with her every gesture, left a deep impression on Naruto Uzumaki.
His reaction immediately made Sakura Haruno alert. Like Sai, she found it unbelievable and couldn't picture the Nine Tails as a beautiful and elegant woman.
After all, the Nine Tails had long been established in Leaf textbooks and village lore as a natural disaster, a monstrous force of hate that killed countless villagers. That image was deeply etched into the minds of people from the other world's Leaf.
And for Sakura Haruno and Sai, the impression was even more profound. They had personally witnessed Naruto Uzumaki go berserk because of the Nine Tails—that was a true monster of terror. Even Orochimaru had been sent flying by Naruto when he had four tails unleashed.
That natural-disaster-level terror was practically a psychological shadow to them.
Now Naruto was telling them that the Nine Tails in this world was a beautiful onee-san—how were they supposed to wrap their heads around that?
Sai and Sakura Haruno couldn't help but exchange glances, each seeing confusion and disbelief in the other's eyes.
Clearly, this subversive statement had stalled their thoughts—people can't imagine what they've never seen. Their impression of the Nine Tails was too vivid; they simply couldn't picture anything else.
Especially after Naruto described Miss Tamamo-mae as having fox ears and nine tails, all covered in pure white fur.
Frankly, that kind of appearance was indeed a bit too advanced for the shinobi world.
Then, Sakura Haruno's sense of crisis welled up again—because she knew Naruto's current expression all too well. Wasn't this just like how he used to look at her when he was simping all day long?
Although after everything they'd been through, Naruto no longer acted like that toward her, and they had truly become trusted companions, she still carried some complicated feelings due to the past.
So now, seeing Naruto look like he was about to start simping for Miss Tamamo-mae, Sakura instinctively felt a sense of caution.
However, that emotion came and went quickly. Maybe a few years ago, the younger her would've been annoyed at this—unable to accept her simp liking someone else. Even if she didn't like him, the feeling of something that was hers being taken would have bothered her.
But now, after all she'd been through, the grown-up Sakura Haruno would never stop a comrade from chasing his own happiness.
Just...
"Um, Naruto, even if this Tamamo-mae Nine Tails onee-san you speak of is really beautiful, she's still a tailed beast, not a human. So... you should probably think it through a bit more carefully..."
The implied meaning was essentially that humans and demons walk different paths—a gentle warning.
But Naruto couldn't pick up on the nuance. Scratching his head in confusion, he asked, "Huh? What's wrong with a tailed beast? What's the problem?"
Those confused eyes still held a pure kind of foolishness.
Seeing this, Sakura Haruno realized Naruto had completely missed the point. After thinking it over, she figured that Naruto and the Nine Tails in this world were fated to have no future together—after all, they would eventually return.
So she let it go. Whatever happens, happens.
Sakura Haruno waved her hand. "It's nothing. As long as you're happy."
Naruto scratched his head, still puzzled by Sakura's odd behavior. But being carefree as he was, he didn't dwell on it. He immediately pulled out the admission tickets he got yesterday and told the two about today's new game launch event.
Learning that this was a major event for this world's Hidden Leaf, the two grew quite interested. Since they already had tickets in hand, they certainly wouldn't refuse to go.
So after finishing breakfast, the three set off together toward the venue—they didn't even have to worry about where it was or ask for directions. There were signs everywhere pointing to the venue, and plenty of people were already heading that way. All they had to do was follow the crowd.
At that moment, music was already echoing throughout the Hidden Leaf—it came from the event venue. Various speakers played celebratory music announcing the new game's release.
Many people who had managed to get tickets were rushing to the venue, afraid to miss this grand event. Some ticket scalpers were even looking for wealthy people who didn't have tickets but wanted to attend, hoping to make a quick profit.
Of course, they had to be careful. The Hidden Leaf's Game Association had been cracking down on scalpers, and many had already been caught and severely punished.
After all, scalpers were always hated by event organizers, and in a world with supernatural power like the shinobi world, cracking down on them—while not easy—wasn't exactly hard either.
Thus, the remaining scalpers were all extremely cautious, selling only a few tickets here and there to make a little money. The greedy ones had already been taken by the Leaf authorities.
As they walked along, the three were constantly amazed by the sheer number of people—it was unbelievable. Compared to this world's Hidden Leaf, even the festival celebrations of their own village felt small-time in comparison—just too few people.
Currently, the Leaf had a permanent population of over 100,000. While that would only count as a small town compared to Earth's Huaxia, globally, it was already a sizable real-world city.
And that was just the permanent population—when including temporary residents, the actual number was close to 200,000.
Thanks to the siphon effect, population growth was rapid. And this was even with the Leaf having imposed restrictions on population flow. If they'd fully opened up, the Leaf could've become a super city with over 500,000 people within a year, even in a feudal-era shinobi world.
Don't think that's nonsense. In a feudal world like the shinobi world, the biggest limitations on population movement were food and safe travel. But the Leaf had solved those. As long as outsiders had enough money or rations, they could safely reach the Leaf via official roads.
Bandits and brigands, once rampant, had already been wiped out—at least within the Leaf's controlled territory.
In the past, they couldn't be wiped out because there wasn't enough incentive. But now, with the Leaf offering hefty rewards, many freelance shinobi took up the work and helped clear them all out.
As a result, the thousand-kilometer radius under the Leaf became a literal "land of peace," with former threats completely purged.
And for the ordinary people in these regions, once safety was no longer a concern, all they had to do was deal with local nobles or elders—and they could head to the Leaf to work. The village had plenty of opportunities and jobs.
Under such conditions, it was only natural for the Leaf's population to grow exponentially.
In fact, the Leaf's senior leadership was already on the eleventh version of the village expansion plan. All of it stemmed from their lack of experience and preparation—they simply hadn't anticipated such rapid development after the initial growth phase.
Now, to handle the looming food problem, Tsunade had already approved a large area of land to be converted into farmland, planning to use plant growth stimulants developed by Orochimaru for large-scale agriculture.
Thanks to the existence of ninja—a supernatural workforce—these farms were being turned into massive shinobi-era-style agricultural zones. To ensure future development, they were all located at least 50 kilometers from the Leaf.
As a side note, these decisions were all proposed by Minato Namikaze after further studies. His training made him well aware of how rapidly a city could develop post-industrialization. That's why the farming zones were placed so far away.
To ensure food could be smoothly delivered to the village, railroads and concrete roads were being built in tandem. These projects also brought in large numbers of laborers, with ninja serving as substitutes for machinery, effectively creating a shinobi-world version of infrastructure-mania mode.
With all these efforts, the Leaf's current pace of development was only natural. No wonder the Daimyō of the Land of Fire was terrified—it truly was a revolutionary endeavor that made traditionalists reject and fear it.
But unlike Earth's historical revolutions, here in the shinobi world, the driving force behind change was currently the strongest violent organization.
None of this was known to the three transmigrated Naruto Uzumaki and his companions. All they saw was how thriving this world's Hidden Leaf was. The population far surpassed that of their own, and the vibrance was undeniable—filling them with envy.
Sakura Haruno and Sai only felt a sense of longing and melancholy, thinking their Hidden Leaf could never become like this. But Naruto Uzumaki was fired up—full of drive.
"Just wait! Once I become Hokage in our world's future, I'll make sure the Hidden Leaf develops just as well as this one!"
The hot-blooded youth clenched his fist and made a passionate vow in his heart.
And judging by the Boruto-era Hidden Leaf, Naruto did achieve it.
Though to be fair, what he achieved was only up to the level of the Hidden Leaf they were now witnessing—a mere fragment of the true supercity this world's Leaf was destined to become.
At the same time, on another street near the venue, Kakashi Hatake, Obito Uchiha, and Rin Nohara were waiting.
The three little ones were waiting for Nawaki.
After all, today was the promised day to meet IRL and attend the new game launch together—and this was the place they'd agreed to meet.
But after waiting a while with no sign of Nawaki, they couldn't help but feel anxious and worried—was he going to ghost them?
Just then, the silhouette of a girl appeared.
She had twin blonde ponytails, a cheerful and cute appearance, sapphire blue eyes, and wore an orange tracksuit and pants—radiating a sporty vibe and boundless energy.
Her beautiful eyes and swiveling head scanned the sea of people around her as if searching for someone.
Scenes like this didn't attract much attention from passersby. On a big event day like this, plenty of people were separated and looking for their friends. At most, some people found the girl adorable and stared a little longer.
But no one dared act up—because the Hidden Leaf had assigned large numbers of personnel for patrol and security.
Although previous game events had gone smoothly, some public safety and moral issues had cropped up. Learning from those experiences, this time's security was even stricter. Quite a few pickpockets and suspicious people had already been arrested—no one wanted to be the next unlucky fool.
Soon, Obito Uchiha spotted the blonde twin-tail girl among the crowd, showcasing the powerful perception of his Three-Tomoe Sharingan.
His eyes lit up as he leapt and shouted, "Over here! Naruko-senpai, over here!"
The voice reached the twin-tailed girl, and she instantly spotted the jumping Nawaki. Her eyes sparkled as she dashed through the crowd to join the trio.
After reuniting, "Naruko" cheerfully greeted the three, while they stared in awe—"Naruko" looked exactly like the avatar from the game.
Obito and Kakashi even walked up to poke and pinch in disbelief, marveling at how lifelike she felt.
"Naruko" laughed proudly. "So? Amazing, right? I was shocked too—it's exactly like the real thing!"
The two nodded furiously, still poking and pinching in amazement.
Only Rin Nohara broke into a cold sweat, quickly pulling the two back and scolding them, cheeks red. "Cut it out! People are watching..."
Hearing this, the group turned and saw a crowd staring at them in astonishment, eyes practically saying: "Kids these days, huh!" "Should we report them to the patrol unit?" "Are they going to arrest the boys or the girl?"
After all, Obito and Kakashi's behavior toward "Naruko" had definitely sparked... certain thoughts.
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