How Kurama Leads Naruto Astray

Usually, when someone says a line like that—unless they're Naruto—there's gotta be a black luxury car waiting to ruin the trip.

Too bad for the enemy: Naruto right now is so strong that even if you brought a machine gun or a shoulder-fired RPG, you wouldn't scratch his Six Paths defense.

They were in a hurry to get back, so Naruto entered Kurama Mode and flew everyone toward the Hidden Leaf using golden Kurama. By the time the moon was glowing softly in the night sky, the group finally arrived.

Then Kankuro froze. He stared at the huge crater in front of him and kept rubbing his eyes, thinking Naruto was planning to bury them here.

If it weren't for the Hidden Leaf's gate still standing over there, Kankuro probably would've already started planning his escape route.

The moon gave off a soft glow, and a faint chill in the wind brushed over everyone.

At this time of night, they were usually at home enjoying the warmth. But now, they were just standing quietly on an open field, feeling lost.

The stars around the moon were dim and barely visible under its light—just like the way they felt inside.

Golden Kurama landed in front of Tsunade, and as it slowly faded away, Naruto's voice came through right away: "Granny Tsunade, hurry up and help them!"

Tsunade should've been mad seeing Naruto fall from the sky like that, but instead, she just let out a quiet sigh. "I don't have the energy to scold him right now."

Standing nearby were Hashirama Senju, Tobirama Senju, Uzumaki Mito, and Uzumaki Kushina. Sasuke stood there with his arms crossed, looking amused. Sakura covered her mouth to hide a giggle. Jiraiya looked like he was questioning reality itself.

Naruto had just landed when everyone turned to look at him. He froze on the spot.

"What the hell!" Kurama yelled, eyes wide in shock. "Big Tree Guy! The root of all evil! Lady Mito! Red-Hot Habanero! Why are those four here?!"

And that wasn't all. Kurama also saw Hiruzen Sarutobi tied up on the ground, looking helpless, and Uchiha Madara staring coldly at the Hokage Rock without saying a word.

What was going on? Was this some kind of ghost party?

Naruto didn't recognize most of them. The real reason he was frozen wasn't because of the others—it was Kushina.

Almost the moment he landed, Kushina had rushed past everyone and thrown her arms around him in a tight hug without a word.

"Naruto!" Kushina's eyes were teary, but not from sadness—from joy.

She hugged him tightly, eyes full of emotion, as if she wanted to burn every detail of his face into her memory.

"M-Mom?" Naruto was stunned. But he instinctively wrapped his arms around her too, at a loss for words. "Why are you here…?"

"It's the Edo Tensei," Kurama figured it out right away.

"Something must've happened after we left. Orochimaru probably used the Edo Tensei to summon them."

As for how they broke free from the jutsu's control—well, with Mito and Kushina here, who could really control them?

And Hashirama and Madara? Not a chance. Even in the original story, those two could break free from control, even when they weren't at their peak. And don't forget, Tobirama—the guy who invented the jutsu—is here too.

Honestly, the fact that only Hiruzen Sarutobi was still sealed said everything you needed to know.

Thinking about that, Kurama snorted with a mocking smile. "Ridiculous. Trying to control this bunch? You're two hundred centuries too early for that, Orochimaru."

Uzumaki Mito's young and beautiful face showed a warm and gentle smile that didn't match her age. She looked at Kushina and Naruto and nodded. "So this is Kushina's son? Not bad at all. I can feel the unique chakra of the Uzumaki clan inside him. He must've trained in Adamantine Sealing Chains too."

"Yeah, pretty impressive. His chakra feels great," Hashirama agreed with a nod.

Tobirama gave Naruto a sharp look up and down, then glanced at Sasuke, and finally said, "A typical brat. But between the two, Uchiha Sasuke, I think you've got more potential."

Tobirama saying something good about an Uchiha was the biggest praise he could give Sasuke.

"…Yeah," Sasuke nodded a little.

Maybe because she heard everyone talking, Kushina's face turned a bit red as she let go of Naruto. Then she smiled happily and pulled him by the hand. "Naruto, let me introduce you to everyone."

Kushina brought Naruto to Mito and said, "This is my grandma—Grandma Mito. You should call her great-grandma."

"G-Great-grandma!" Naruto scratched the back of his head, looking a bit embarrassed.

"Good boy." Mito smiled with squinted eyes. "But you can just call me Grandma or Granny. Great-grandma sounds a bit too awkward."

Naruto paused for a second and instinctively looked at Kushina.

Kushina didn't seem to mind, but Tsunade rolled her eyes. "Grandma, can you spare a thought for how I feel?"

Funny thing—Tsunade called Mito grandma because Hashirama was her grandfather. Kushina called Mito grandma too and called Tsunade "big sis," meaning they were of the same generation. But Naruto called Tsunade "granny" and Kushina "mom."

Jiraiya was in the same generation as Tsunade, but he was also Minato's teacher. Kushina also called him Jiraiya-sensei, and Naruto was Jiraiya's student too. So technically, Naruto and Minato were of the same generation. And since Minato was Hokage, just one generation younger than Hiruzen Sarutobi, that would technically make Naruto and Jiraiya the same generation too…

Forget it… seniority and generations are already a total mess!

Hashirama looked at Naruto, smiling warmly. "Yeah, names like that really are a pain. Just call us how Mito suggested. That's fine."

Tsunade twitched at the corner of her mouth. What could she even say? Nothing. There was nothing she could say.

Even Kurama couldn't stand it anymore. "I really hate to interrupt your little heartwarming moment, but have any of you thought about Gaara? I think we might still be able to save him."

Naruto slapped his forehead. "Crap, I totally forgot about Gaara!"

"You're such a great friend," Kurama said with a sigh and a shake of his head.

Naruto ignored the sarcasm and looked at Kushina with an apologetic smile. "Sorry, Mom. Now's not the time to talk about this."

Then he turned to Tsunade. "Granny Tsunade, Gaara's been poisoned. I'm using the Six Paths Yang Power to keep him alive for now, but I need you to cure the poison."

But Tsunade just waved him off. "Something like that? Let Shizune or Sakura handle it. I've got more important things to do."

Konoha was in a complete mess. She'd just been scolded by Tobirama for ages, and now she was still thinking about how to argue back at him—there was no way she had time to focus on saving someone.

"Uh…" Naruto blinked and turned to look at Sakura, who was secretly giggling nearby. "Um, Sakura-chan\~"

Sakura wasn't really doing anything right now. She couldn't really jump into this group's "movie," and she'd seen enough as a bystander. So when Naruto signaled her, she nodded right away. "Got it. Where's the patient?"

"I left him near the Konoha Hospital." Naruto pointed back in the direction they came from.

The hospital was gone now, but he still remembered roughly where it used to be. That's also where the injured from this war had been taken. There were medical ninja there too, but Kurama said none of them could probably handle Sasori's poison—that's why Naruto came to find Tsunade.

"Understood." Sakura gave a slight bow to everyone around her. After getting a few smiles in response, she turned and walked toward the hospital ruins.

Kushina watched her leave with curious eyes. Then she leaned close to Naruto and whispered, "Naruto, is that girl your girlfriend?"

Naruto blinked. "Oh, right. Mom, your real body's memories and chakra memories aren't the same. So you wouldn't know. My girlfriend is…"

He cleared his throat and then said seriously, "My girlfriend's name is Hinata. She's the daughter of the Hyuga clan. I can sense her chakra over at the Hyuga side. She should be with her clanmates now."

"Hyuga Hinata?" Kushina's eyes lit up, and she said excitedly, "I wanna see! I wanna see!"

Kurama pointed at her and shouted, "Hey! What's a woman in her twenties doing acting like a cute little girl?!"

Naruto: "…"

No wonder Mom beat you up so badly back then.

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