Chapter 52

While Naruto was being experimented on, Hinata was busy building connections for Naruto and creating a positive image in the Lands.

The appearance of such a power entity was only positive when there was an enemy available. Once the enemy was out, the hero became the problem for majority of people.

Usually in the story of the hero, the normal citizens would love the hero even after the battle was over. However, in Naruto's case it wasn't true because unlike the hero he hadn't been known around the world in a positive light.

It was a good decision by Naruto to travel around the world over the months after the war as it had helped people see the real him, and not get influenced by authorities that were against him.

However, there was still the problem of discrimination based on power and chakra. Majority of the world couldn't make chakra and the people with chakra continued to treat them like second class. Naruto's existence only made things worse for those people as the chakra users with superiority complex only increased.

The propaganda by the authoritative figures demonizing Naruto only made things worse, as they put forth the worst case scenarios in front of everyone.

The people were watching carefully but one mistake by Naruto would cause an eruption as he was the center of the world now.

With how things were going, Naruto would have become hated by the majority. So, it was necessary for Hinata and others to create positive public relations for him since Naruto had still to understand such concepts properly.

He was a great warrior, but he was still only starting to grasp the meaning of being a leader and his role in the bigger picture.

Maybe it was this stress that made him open to serving a king. Nonetheless, Hinata continued to use her clans power to build the path for him.

Many of the noble families connected to the Hyuga clan agreed to supporting Naruto, and through those connections she had finally made contact with the most important person in the Land of Fire.

Fire Lord Zuko had accepted her request for a private audience, so Hinata and decided to visit along with her father.

Zuko was the biggest obstacle to Naruto in the Land of Fire since he despised the Shinobi, just like most of the other Elemental Lords. It was the fear of the power of the Shinobi. It was the fact that the Kage could easily ignore their orders and only followed what they desired.

At least before Naruto's appearance, the Land of Fire was slowly bridging the gap between Shinobi and the army. But, now there was hope of that ever happening. Naruto was an anomaly, a monster that broke the order of the world.

It was too much power in one hand, and there was no one available to put a resistance against him. It was one point that most powers agreed, like the Raikage and Tsuchikage.

Entering the Palace of the Fire Lord, they were guided towards the garden by the royal guards. The palace occupied an area of more than a few miles and it was place where the Royal Guards stayed unless given a task.

The royal Guards were the strongest warriors under the Fire Lord. However, these people weren't that strong in front of Hinata as they were just normal Jounin level even with all the mechanical enhancement done to them.

Hinata's power wasn't public knowledge so it was easy for her to slip through and meet up with important people without putting them on guard.

Looking at the young man sitting while drinking tea with his grandfather also known as the Army commander Iroh, Hinata felt he was a kind and calm person. He didn't look like someone that would be against Naruto.

Greeting the leaders with respect, Hinata and Hiashi took a seat by the permission from Zuko. Iroh offered them tea and watched them with a friendly smile.

"Are you here to convince me that Uzumaki Naruto isn't a threat? If so, you should desist from this futile endeavor as I only have a few minutes to spare." Zuko sipped tea while casually dropping the bomb of a statement. From his words it was clear that he was confident about his opinion and none could change it.

The question was expected but Zuko's to the point attitude was not. Usuallu people would start with pleasantries and slowly move to the topic.

Nonetheless, it didn't matter. At least he was willing to give them a chance for an explanation.

"Greetings my lord, I am happy to be in your royal presence. My name is Hinata Hyuga and I am close friend of Uzumaki Naruto.

I believe you have already collected data on him, so you should be aware of his situation. I will present some clear proofs of his character.

First, Naruto Uzumaki has always been the vessel of the Kyuubi as you are aware. The Kyuubi could communicate with him and he could have fallen to his words since Konoha treated him like the plague. They hated him and feared him, it would be understandable if he destroyed Konoha. However, he didn't and even put his life on the line for it.

He answered hatred with love and fought for people that meant nothing to him. Furthermore, he fought in multiple other regions without any reward in mind.

This should be proof enough that he isn't someone swayed by petty things and has a naturally good disposition.

Second, Pain killed everyone in Konoha and the most important person to Naruto. Master Jiraiya was like a father to Naruto, and Kakashi was a close friend and teacher to him. These two people along with many of his close friends died that day, but he didn't lose himself and even chose to bring the criminal to the law instead of executing him on the spot.

Most of us would have killed him and tortured him for it, but Naruto didn't kill him and promised to send criminals to prison where they would receive their punishment according to the law.

Finally, he received great power during the war and experienced tragedies along with mass destruction. Nonetheless, he didn't change and still remains humble. He has not looked down on anyone, nor does he command others.

Even now he is willing to serve under a lord and only aims to better the world. If he was truly a threat, all these tragic events would have caused a negative change in him.

You can check the validity of my statements and you won't find any lie within. The reality is that he is a kind person and there are only theoretical possibilities of his downfall."

The others listened patiently and let her finish her piece.

"I see. It still doesn't solve the problem. Why should any one trust a person with such power? Tell me, is there anything or anyone capable of fighting him in the worst case scenario. Or, is he willing to share half of his power with me and serve me with utmost loyalty?" Zuko's enquiry gave her a pause as he was asking really difficult questions, but questions that most wanted answers to.

At the moment there were the immortals that could easily stop Naruto, and even the other Jinchuuriki plus Toneri could put a stop to him after growing along with him. There was also the fact that the Otsutsuki existed and Naruto was mostly needed to resist their threat.

But, should she share such information with them.

Taking into account the fact that the Fire Lord was a good leader and someone who could play a important part in their lives, Hinata decided that he deserved to know about the threat of annihilation.

"There are threats only he can fight against. We are not the only ones in this vast universe, and our enemies are the ones that changed humanity."

Her words made Zuko stop and put down his tea as he finally showed some real interest.

"Do you mean the Immortal Queen is real?" Kaguya was known as the Immortal Queen of the Golden Age that brought the world out from destruction and her son was the one that changed the path of humanity by giving them the chakra system.

"Of course, she is the one that Uzumaki Naruto defeated in the war. And, she is not the only one of her kind. Her people will come for us, as they target every other species with intelligence and destroy our world. They wish to cultivate us like crops before eating our existence."

"Do you have any proof of this claim?"

"There are multiple witnesses to this incident, but are you willing to believe in what we saw."

Zuku didn't answer her question and looked at her properly for the first time. The girl was a lot different than what his sources provided.

"Show me"

With his permission, Hinata showed him what she knew.

"Is this enough proof to give him a chance?"

"For now, I will give him a chance. Tell him to keep on his toes as all of us are watching." With those words Zuko picked up his tea and indicated for them to leave.

"My lord, thank you for your time." Hinata and Hiashi left with those words.

"It isn't easy to play this game, Zuko. I am proud of you for taking the difficult steps." Iroh spoke after they had left and praised his grandson for his decision.

"It isn't a difficult step, grandfather. I believe in him." Zuko smiled, dropping his cold persona. In front of the duo he had showed that he was against Naruto, but in reality it was the opposite.

With his data, Zuko had already decided that Naruto was someone he wanted to keep close. They hadn't met personally, but he had seen Naruto helping out in his region.

However, he needed to show resistance to keep Naruto on track. If everyone started to nod to him, he would slip and fall. Plus, he needed to see who was planning to take drastic steps to take out Naruto. The golden shinobi was too strong, so anything that would harm him would devastate the world itself.

"But, I didn't expect that there will be more threats. I guess, I was too optimistic about the peaceful future now."

"Well, life is always like this. Whenever there is a good thing, there will always be some disaster on the horizon. I will have people collect data on the legends and see what we can do."

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On the other hand, Ino was helping out Lee and Gai with their experiments. With her increase in power from becoming the chosen one of Hecate, The Master of Magic, Ino's abilities had grown greatly and she had learned many new skills in the time she had spent in the immortal world.

Ino could now create a complete replica of the world around her and it would react as the real one would. It meant that Gai and Lee could use their 8 gates without any problem.

Just like Hinata and others, Ino was finding ways to help save the world and didn't spend the whole day fawning over her new love. Though, she did think of surprising him with the things she had done.

After the meeting with the Immortals, Ino felt a lot closer to him and saw the potential to close the gap. It was highly unlikely that she could reach his level, but she wouldn't be fodder with the right amount of effort.

It all depended on her willingness to endure all kinds of inhumane torture for power, since such power wasn't going to come to any of them naturally.

Looking at the green beasts of Konoha burning their life force, she was reminded that Naruto was being experimented on. She knew there wasn't any threat, but that fact put a foul feeling in her heart.

Nonetheless, she understood why he did it and there was no point in arguing about it. There was no danger and it was necessary for the survival of humanity.

Other than helping out the green duo, Ino had been collecting experience through the minds of others. This meant she was becoming an expert in things with minimum effort and time. Through this experimentation, Ino could help new Shinobi reach expert level in a matter of months.

Her experiment was new, but with the data collected from Naruto's knowledge and experience as a base her library was starting to grow. At the moment there were a few books, but with time there would be thousands.

At the moment, it was connected to her so she was also trying to make the library region connected to the real world and independent from her existence. Human life was fragile and death was always unexpected.

Getting back to Gai and Lee, Ino had improved her taijutsu skills by adapting to their memories and experience. And, she was greatly interested in their project.

It would truly help humanity leap a thousand miles and put them far beyond their current state of power.

However, it wasn't looking easy even after she had given them Naruto's experience as a Sage. According to Lee and Gai, the Ninth Gate was called Earth.

It meant that they were supposed to connect to the planet itself, so the Sage mode would help in this aspect. However, they had to connect to the earth after opening the 8th Gate. And, using any gate alongside any other ability was impossible because of the outflow of unstable chakra.

Opening the gates wasn't easy and it was especially terrible for people with above average chakra. Even for someone like Lee, he had to train a lot to endure the constant pain from the Gates.

Once someone opened the eight gate, they only had one second before their life force would be extinguished. In the worst case scenario, they would explode from the overwhelming power of the primordial chakra.

After seeing what had happened during the war, everyone had come to the conclusion that there was a big secret hidden within them. There was no possible way for a human to fight against an immortal by just removing the limiters.

It meant that the chakra within humanity was special and its powers were limited by the gates as the body couldn't handle the strain.

Only after understanding the fact that chakra system came from the Sage of Six Paths could one realize that it all made sense.

The chakra system inside humanity was a gift from the Sage, and it was an exact replica of his chakra system. Though every person had the genetics and talent for making different amount of chakra, the chakra itself was very potent in its unleashed form.

The real form of the chakra was most likely chakra closely resembling the chakra of the Sage. It surely meant that the Sage had thought of arming humanity with an ability to fight against the Otsutsuki from the start.

However, he had left it as a silent gift for humanity to discover on its own. At the moment, only 10 percent of humanity could make chakra through the chakra system while the rest didn't train for it or were blessed with low life force and spirit to make a usable amount of chakra.

It was made worse by the fact that most chakra users ending up killing each other, further lessening the chances of children being born with good genetics.

The discovery had given hope to everyone and revised the opinion of most researchers, and warriors. With this knowledge, most ninja were encouraged to train even further beyond to unlock their full potential.

However, it all depended on Gai and Lee now. No, it all depended on Lee. He was the one with the lowest amounts of chakra and with great experience with the gates.

Regardless, she had seen Lee die hundreds of time from the immense pain. He was still unable to build any connection with the earth.

Gai had tried as well, but the result was the same. So, Ino decided to further help them. With her connection to Naruto, she had fully grasped Sage mode and with her change in power it was easy for her to use it.

"Let me give you a helping hand." Ino said as she called upon the nature energy and let it flow through around Lee instead of absorbing it and changing it into Senjutsu chakra.

It was helpful, but Lee couldn't connect to the energy at all and with more gates opening he couldn't focus because of the pain.

The pain from the Eighth gate was impossible to define, and the energy released was impossible to control. It was like a tsunami crashing against a small boat.

However, he endured as it was his ninja way. All his life he had endured the pain to make a way in the world of the powerful. He had finally arrived at the top, only to find that the path was longer than anyone had known.

Regardless, he wasn't one to give up after knowing such a thing. He only felt his spirit burn with fervor at the challenge.

"THIS PAIN SHALL GIVE ME STRENGTH!" Lee roared as he tried to find the connection to the world.

It was extremely difficult because of the chakra outflow, so Ino helped him by shutting down his pain receptors forcefully and seeing through his body.

With both minds on the task, they found a silver of the nature energy and tried to grasp it.

Just as Lee extended his hands to grasp the unknown power, he felt the green energy crash into his raging chakra.

Lee exploded on impact, and the experience sent Ino reeling back in horror.

"Bloody hell" Ino tried to catch her breath as Gai patted her back to help her calm down while Lee was collecting himself from the experience.

It was worse than anything he had felt. But, he was smiling as he had gotten closer to his goal. He had seen it.

"I HAVE SEEN IT. I HAVE TOUCHED IT. SOON, SOON…" Lee couldn't continue as he collapsed from the mental strain and his real body was bleeding from the head and nose.

"I think we should take a break. Lee needs more training to handle that energy before he can open the Ninth gate." Ino spoke as she showed Gai what they had seen. Without any further explanation, Gai understood the situation.

Though they had failed for the thousand plus times, they had finally seen some hope. Gai and Lee left happily while Ino decided to find Naruto and get him to help her relax by going on a date alone.

"I deserve some reward for enduring this torture."