Being a rogue ninja is worse than being Hokage.

Naruto stood up again.

The mere act of standing still was enough to arouse vigilance and restlessness among the Konoha members and Obito.

“Unlike myself three years ago when I fled Konoha in a sorry state, I now have complete control over the Nine-Tails.”

Faced with Obito's questioning, Naruto gave an affirmative answer without hesitation.

His words were filled with pride in the power he now possessed.

"...Now I can do anything I want to do."

The Jinchūriki of Konoha, whose living space is oppressed, whose personal needs are ignored, and who hate everything and destroy without hesitation.

After lying low for three years and accumulating power, he reappeared in the ninja world, his words and actions filled with hatred for the past.

This is a perfectly normal mindset for a Jinchūriki.

But this is a lie.

The way Naruto is currently using the Nine-Tails' chakra is called "Nine-Tails Chakra Mode".

One of the criteria for judging the performance of a perfect Jinchuriki is whether the Jinchuriki can directly obtain controllable Tailed Beast Chakra from the Tailed Beast itself.

The tailed beast chakra in Naruto's "Nine-Tails Chakra Mode" is not "actively given" by the Nine-Tails.

It was Naruto who... forcibly seized it with the help of Karin's Adamantine Lock.

Naruto is now able to directly use a large amount of Nine-Tails chakra from the Nine-Tails' main body, which is sealed by the Eight Trigrams.

However, it is not yet possible to completely seize and freely use the Nine-Tails' chakra.

Whether a Jinchuriki can fully utilize the Tailed Beast's chakra is also one of the criteria for judging a perfect Jinchuriki.

For most Jinchuriki, in order to fully utilize the chakra of the Tailed Beasts, they must understand each other and be of one mind with the Tailed Beasts.

In the original story, Naruto also became a perfect Jinchuriki through this method.

During the Fourth Shinobi World War, Naruto's actions finally moved Kurama, allowing it to let go of the hatred that had accumulated over countless years.

Tell Naruto the name "Kurama".

Naruto's perfect Jinchuriki mode is known as the "Kurama Link Mode".

It is not the current "Nine-Tails Chakra Mode".

However, the typical performance of the two models is not significantly different in essence.

As long as there is no actual confrontation, using it merely as a deterrent is not enough to make Obito immediately notice anything amiss.

Obito was unaware of Naruto's information.

Naruto, on the other hand, knew Obito inside and out.

Naruto then deliberately guided Obito's thinking, leading Obito to speculate that Naruto was already a perfect Jinchuriki.

This is because Obito himself understood what a perfect Jinchuriki should be like.

The perfect Jinchuriki that Obito knew was—

—The Fourth Mizukage, Yagura Karatachi.

Obito, disguised as the "ghost of Madara Uchiha," used his Sharingan to control the Fourth Mizukage, Yagura Karatachi, who was connected to the Three-Tails, for many years.

As the perfect Jinchūriki of the Three-Tails, Yagura Karatachi's use of Tailed Beast chakra was not as good as Naruto's at the present.

The Eight Trigrams Seal that seals the Nine-Tails was slightly opened by the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, allowing Naruto, as the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki, to practice controlling the Nine-Tails' chakra through these small amounts of leaked chakra.

Naruto was able to use the Tailed Beast Cloak simply by relying on the Nine-Tails' chakra that was deliberately leaked out by the Eight Trigrams Seal.

Naruto, who is now using the golden Nine-Tails chakra which is clearly stronger than the Tailed Beast Cloak, is demonstrating an astonishing amount of controllable Nine-Tails chakra.

The amount of chakra from the tailed beasts was so vast that it was as if the Nine-Tails was continuously providing Naruto with chakra through its sealed body.

This would naturally lead Obito to make a misjudgment.

The reason Naruto dared to deceive Obito in this way was naturally due to Naruto's remarkable achievements against the Akatsuki organization during this period.

After he and Sasuke easily killed Hidan and Kakuzu, the immortal duo.

However, when faced with support from Konoha, he revealed that he had never used the Tailed Beast Cloak against the Akatsuki organization, indicating that he had already begun a scheme to mislead the enemy with information.

Not only is he misleading Konoha, but Naruto is also misleading the Akatsuki organization.

The composition of the Akatsuki organization is extremely difficult for the five great nations to obtain intelligence about.

But for Naruto, he probably knew more about the Akatsuki organization than Obito Uchiha, who had been planning it for a long time.

The four members of the Akatsuki organization who perished in a short period of time at the hands of Naruto and Sasuke, Orochimaru's death, Kakashi's Sharingan being stolen...

Furthermore, Karin of the Uzumaki clan, who can use the Adamantine Sealing Chains—Obito, who orchestrated the Nine-Tails' rampage sixteen years ago—naturally had no doubt about the Adamantine Sealing Chains' suppressive power against the Nine-Tails, having received it from Kushina Uzumaki.

After Naruto disappeared for three years and reappeared in the ninja world, his actions and the strength he displayed in a short period of time are remarkable.

All of this confirms the authenticity of the false information that "Naruto Uzumaki has become the perfect Jinchuriki in the past three years."

The reason Naruto revealed the "Nine-Tails Chakra Mode" at this moment.

This is naturally also to further solidify this "authenticity".

This was also to remove any possible obstacles before his plans regarding Sasuke were officially implemented after Itachi's death.

Just as Naruto had predicted, because Naruto and Sasuke had already cooperated.

Obito Uchiha's plan after killing Itachi with Sasuke's help might not be the same as in the original story.

The plan to lure Sasuke into darkness has likely been abandoned by Obito.

However, in the original story, Obito would lure Sasuke into darkness to seek revenge against Konoha, with the ultimate goal of capturing Naruto, who was the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki and was under Konoha's protection.

And Naruto now...

...right in front of Obito.

This time, Naruto had already lost Konoha's protection and was even regarded by Konoha's higher-ups as a rogue ninja who had to be dealt with.

If Hidan and Kakuzu's deaths were unexpected losses.

Sasori and Deidara, who had appeared in the forest not long ago and intercepted Sasuke and Naruto.

In Obito's eyes, the death of the artistic duo was an acceptable and predictable one.

The purpose was to further assess Naruto's strength in order to formulate a plan to capture the Nine-Tails.

Obito could attempt to capture Kurama at any moment.

Although a battle with Obito was also part of Naruto's plan, it was alright for him to engage in a tentative and probing confrontation with Obito at this moment.

Naruto, however, had no intention of confronting Obito head-on right now.

The premise for Naruto's anticipated direct confrontation with Obito is that Naruto has already installed another "Kamui" Mangekyou Sharingan on himself and Obito has lost the ability to use "Izanagi".

Otherwise, Obito, who possesses "Izanagi," which can reverse reality, could easily escape using "Kamui" after rewriting his own death.

It would also cause Naruto to reveal some of his information for nothing.

Therefore, Naruto needs Obito to conduct an assessment... to assess the chances of Obito attacking Naruto at this moment and defeating him.

Naruto's deliberate revelation of the "Nine-Tails Chakra Mode" will lower Obito's assessment of his chances of winning.

But Naruto wouldn't be so naive as to think that this would postpone his direct confrontation with Obito for too long.

This is not realistic.

Naruto doesn't need it either.

Naruto will need about a week...

Or two days...

It won't even take two days!

As long as the "Nine-Tails Chakra Mode" can intimidate Obito today and prevent him from decisively attacking Naruto, that will be fine.

Because today, Itachi Uchiha will definitely die at Sasuke's hands.

What Naruto needed was simply to use Itachi's death to keep Sasuke firmly by his side for a certain period of time.

Therefore, Naruto did not intend to fight using the Nine-Tails Chakra Mode, but instead went to scout.

The chakra directly taken from the Nine-Tails' main body allows Naruto to utilize the unique characteristics of the Nine-Tails' chakra.

That special perception ability is called "malice perception".

Compared to ninjas in the ninja world who use chakra for perception, the "malicious perception" in Nine-Tails Chakra Mode surpasses conventional perception abilities in depth.

What Naruto was investigating... was Zetsu.

It will definitely bring Naruto the expectations he needs.

If Zetsu complies with Naruto's expectations, then Naruto's plan will proceed more smoothly than anyone could have imagined.

And he certainly did not disappoint Naruto's expectations.

Naruto had only been in Nine-Tails Chakra Mode for a short time when a huge plant suddenly protruded from Obito's feet, causing Obito to briefly look away from Naruto.

"what is that?"

The people of Konoha also noticed the strange phenomenon around Obito.

They watched the Venus flytrap, which had slowly grown to about half a person's height, with great vigilance.

When the giant Venus flytrap "flowered," Obito was also slightly surprised.

Are you alone?

Obito's surprise quickly turned into inquiry.

There was only one pure white figure among the Venus flytrap plants.

It was a White Zetsu that used the Mayfly Technique to transmit information to Obito.

Black Zetsu, who originally shared a body with White Zetsu, did not arrive at this moment.

"Something unexpected happened; a third party got involved in the duel between Itachi and Sasuke."

White Zetsu subtly explained the reason to Obito.

If a third party appears at the site of the brothers' duel, then the possibility of a fourth or fifth party appearing will no longer be zero.