A Simple Shop Owner

Chapter 3

When the purged chakra had exited Naruto's body and entered nature once again, it had spread through the area he had been meditating in. The grass seemed to shine a brighter shade of green, the sunlight seemed to gleam brighter and the trees seemed livelier. It had actually put a smile on Naruto's face when he saw just how much the clearing had changed from the insertion of the natural energy.

Ever since then, Naruto had dedicated his Sunday mornings to purging small pockets of natural energy around the areas of Japan. From the top of skyscrapers to the middle of forests, Naruto always made sure to at least spend two hours purging as much of the planet's energy as he could. To be honest, the amount he managed to purge wasn't even a drop in the bucket when it came to the amount of tainted natural energy that was all around the world. But as a sage, he had to at least try to make a difference.

For the first time in the past hour, Naruto's chest moved as he inhaled a long breath. The morning sun was shining down on his form, illuminating his golden hair and giving him an almost ethereal appearance. The boy's chest slowly fell as he exhaled, unconsciously pumping another wave of the purified chakra back into the earth.

Deep inside his own inner consciousness, Naruto's eyes fluttered open. He immediately took in the abundance of nature around him. Enormous trees formed the outline of a massive clearing. In the distance, an active volcano could be seen erupting. A plume of black smoke was rising from the active mouth of the natural disaster. Above the stack of smoke, high up in the sky, were 8 planetoid object. They weren't big enough to be considered planets but they definitely weren't meteors or anything like that. Each of the planets had a set amount of moons rotating slowly around it, stretching from one moon all the way up to eight moons.

"How cliché of them." Naruto thought to himself as he stood to his full height. He allowed himself to stretch for several seconds even though it wasn't entirely necessary considering he was currently in his own mindscape.

When he had first arrived in the new world, Naruto had been almost completely alone. Lost with no idea where to go, most would've broken down and quit right then and there. Fortunately for the blonde-haired shinobi, he had the tailed beast sealed within him. The nine beast helped counsel him and guide him in his time of need. Their experience, inside and outside their containers, had given the boy and the beasts plenty to talk about and occupy his mind with. Their relationship had grown so much that Naruto allowed each of the beast to reign over a domain in his mindscape. Each of the domains were represented by the planetoid-esque objects in the sky. The number of moons rotating around the planetoids represented which tailed beast were located on it.

"It's not cliché. It's just an expression of their egos." A voice boomed out from behind the tree line. Naruto turned his body and looked on as a section of trees along the tree line began to shake. Slowly, a massive red paw came into view. Following the paw was a leg covered in red fur. The leg was connected to a slightly humanoid body. Attached to the body was the head of a fox, adorned with massive rabbit ears. The eyes held the pattern of the Rinnegan as the foxlike creature stared down at its container with a smirk on its face.

"Whole planets, though? Is that really necessary?" Naruto asked the giant fox. The beast let out a soft hum before slowly sitting down, leaning his head on his front haunches.

"My brothers and sister are thousands of years old and spent the majority of the past couple of centuries sealed away. And in most cases, where their sealing took place was not exactly the most pleasant of places. They only wish to have a place where they can stretch their legs and roam free." Kurama stated while looking down at his container. Naruto could only nod at the explanation as he was sure he would feel the same way if their positions were switched. He went to took a seat on the forest ground but just before his butt could hit the ground, a chair rose from the ground to catch him and propel him upwards until he was eye level with the fox.