Chapter 10: Chapter 10 The Past Was The Past, The Present is The Present
"Hey, you. You caused such a big scene just to end up in the hospital?"
Kurama lay on the ground, its head resting on its paws, its expression full of confusion.
"What do you know? Mind your own business, Kurama." Naruto replied, lying on the ground with his eyes closed, letting out a disdainful snort.
"Mind my own business? Speaking of which, you're always going on about how 'no cheats, no future' and 'a little cheat doesn't count.' So, what exactly is a 'cheat'?"
Hearing this new term again, Kurama felt a bit puzzled. Recalling all the strange things Naruto had muttered in the seal space, it couldn't help but ask.
Naruto suddenly sat up, still with his eyes closed, but a sly smile crept onto his face.
"Do you really want to know?"
'This brat!'
Kurama stared at Naruto's smug face, unsure what kind of mischief he was up to now.
"Whatever. Suit yourself," Kurama said, turning its head away with a huff.
"In that case, let me show you."
"You better pay close attention."
As he spoke, Naruto slowly opened his eyes.
The tsundere Kurama, though pretending to look away, kept its peripheral vision locked onto Naruto. Suddenly, its fur stood on end, and its entire body jerked upright. The fox was completely startled.
"Is this a Genjutsu? Since when?"
Kurama instinctively assumed it had fallen under a Genjutsu and immediately went on guard, its eyes fixed on Naruto's.
When Naruto opened his eyes, his once sky-blue irises were now a deep crimson. Within those blood-red eyes, three tomoe spun rapidly before connecting into a line, forming a vertical pupil resembling a fox's eye.
This development had completely caught Naruto off guard. The system had initially given him a one-tomoe Sharingan, which he was supposed to upgrade himself.
But what he hadn't expected was that, upon obtaining the Sharingan, the memories of his past five years began flashing through his mind like a storm.
The overwhelming malice, the abyss-like suffering, combined with his rigorous physical training and the mental fortitude of two lifetimes, had directly awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan.
Who would have thought that, after over a year of transmigration, he'd finally 'packed his bags?'
The past was the past, and the present is the present.
Previously, no matter how you looked at it, his strength had been the result of his own hard work. Sure, he had borrowed a bit of Kurama's power, but overall, it was his own effort.
However, that kind of training, while yielding rapid progress at first, would eventually slow down. And in fact, his current strength had already hit a bottleneck.
After all, in the original story, Naruto's power had several explosive breakthroughs thanks to the Nine-Tails' Chakra and Sage Mode. Right now, he couldn't freely use the Nine-Tails' Chakra, and he had no way to train in Sage Mode.
So, it is difficult for his strength to make much progress.
But now, things were different. He had 'packed his bags.' With these eyes, even if he didn't use them, the physical and mental enhancements from awakening the Mangekyo Sharingan had already far surpassed his year and a half of grueling training.
Plus, with the two Unique Dojutsu of these eyes, he now had the strength of a Super-Kage, 'If those idiots still didn't wise up, I could take them all to the afterlife. Not even that old bastard could stop me.'
'Sure enough, no matter how hard you work, it can't compare to cheating. Hard work can't beat bloodline, and bloodline can't beat cheating.'
'If I, Uzumaki Naruto, couldn't succeed with hard work plus bloodline plus cheating, who could?'
'Everything I had achieved today was the result of my own hard work.'
"Heh heh heh, hahahaha, HAHAHAHA...…"
In the dead silence seal space, a low, hoarse laugh suddenly broke through. It seemed to rise from the depths of an abyss, echoing around them, growing louder and more unrestrained until it became a maniacal cackle.
This laughter was filled with endless madness, relief, mockery, and ecstasy.
'Now, the tables had turned.'
"This brat…"
Kurama realized this wasn't a Genjutsu. Naruto had truly awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan. But as it watched Naruto's maniacal laughter, it couldn't help but mutter.
"Why does he remind me of that bastard Madara Uchiha?"
Kurama muttered to itself. The more it looked, the more it felt something was wrong. Suddenly, its eyes widened. It stared at Uzumaki Naruto and thought about some things in the past.
'I remembered that neither Namikaze Minato nor Uzumaki Kushina had Uchiha blood. So, how had this bart suddenly awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan?'
Kurama felt like it had stumbled upon a blind spot in the story, and the implications were terrifying.
'Ugh, my head hurts. Feels like my brain's about to explode.'
'But his hair is exactly the same as that guy Namikaze Minato.'
'And he was definitely born by Uzumaki Kushina.'
'And the Uzumaki bloodline in this brat's body is genuine.'
It suddenly occurred to Kurama that Kushina seemed to have a good friend in the Uchiha Clan and often went to play with the Uchiha Clan.
'Could it be... a blonde Uchiha?'
Kurama felt its CPU overheating. Its fox head was practically steaming, 'Humans and their complicated relationships were too much. Sure enough, Tailed Beasts were so much simpler.'
"Hey, it feels like you're thinking something really rude, Kurama."
Kurama was still lost in its mental storm, its fox face cycling through a range of human-like expressions. Naruto swore he'd never seen a fox make so many human expressions before.
"Cough, cough." Kurama coughed awkwardly, scratching its head with a paw. After all, even for a fox, thinking about which parent might have cheated right in front of the kid was a bit embarrassing.
"Anyway, kid, what's the deal with your Mangekyo Sharingan? I've never seen you with a Sharingan before."
Naruto smiled and said confidently: "The past was the past, and the present is the present. This is cheating."
'Awakening the Mangekyo Sharingan = cheating?'
Kurama was baffled.
However, Naruto's equation is actually not wrong. The Sharingan was essentially a cheat. After all, awakening the Mangekyo Sharingan could give the Ninja more power in an instant than a lifetime of training.
"Enough about that." Naruto suddenly jumped up from the ground and looked at Kurama with a provocative look.
"Kurama, let's spar."