The night had passed for Naruto, now it was daytime on the rooftop of the building where he had to take refuge to avoid causing more trouble than had already happened yesterday, especially considering his brief encounter with that woman who was hurling weapons from those strange golden circles towards his clones. From the memories of those who had the misfortune of receiving them, each weapon either decapitated them or struck them directly in the heart, killing them instantly.

It was something he really didn't want to experience. While he had already received a Chidori directly to the heart once, luckily that day it had missed its mark thanks to Kurama's help, which healed him to prevent him from dying of blood loss. But if one of those weapons hit him, it would surely mean certain death, especially considering the speed at which they were coming towards his clones. So for now, he preferred to avoid that woman if possible, or at least until he found the woman he had to help at the request of that mysterious woman.

But for now, he wouldn't waste any more time thinking about that woman. Right now, he would have to leave the building to gather information about the place where he was now to get an idea of where the individual that woman had told him to find might be. Although, upon further thought, that strange woman hadn't given him any description or even the name of who he had to find. In simpler terms, he was clueless on his own.

Letting out a sigh, he looked outside the building where he was, watching as people began to leave their houses and set up their stalls, probably getting ready to start selling their food. Speaking of food, his stomach growled, demanding sustenance for the day. Remembering that he was in a new place that wasn't the Elemental Nations or any place he knew, he would have to find his own food somewhere in this kingdom or village. While he could steal from some of the stalls, he didn't want to attract the attention of the guards, so it was better to search the kingdom or village in one of the areas where he could see vegetation.

Not wasting any more time, before descending from the rooftop of the building, he reverted to the previous form he had used to enter this kingdom or village before the attack of those strange things. With the successful transformation, he descended from the rooftop of the building, making sure no one saw him leave there, and began to walk down the street of vendors, who only glanced at him for a few seconds before returning to their tasks, ignoring him or not paying more attention than necessary.

Walking around the kingdom or village for about half an hour in search of something to eat, he could see people rebuilding houses along with the stalls that were destroyed yesterday in the attack of those strange things he had faced. Although he had wanted to help, he refrained from doing so to avoid attracting attention and just continued on his way to find something to eat. But at the rate he was going, he wouldn't find anything. So, slipping into the alleys of some empty areas, he quickened his pace to search faster.

Taking a quick look around where he was running, he could see people cooperating with each other to rebuild the houses, which wasn't something you would have seen steps back. His run lasted until he had reached one of the walls of the city of Uruk. Actually, from where he had spent the night, he wasn't too far from the west wall of the kingdom or village of Uruk. So, facing the wall, he began to climb it until he reached the top, where he could have a better view. Fortunately, not far from the wall, he could see what looked like a forest.

If he calculated the distance roughly, he would say that the forest was about a kilometer from his current position. Walking at the pace of a villager, he would probably arrive in about a day and a half, but if he went at shinobi pace, it wouldn't take much longer, maybe about two hours. So, making that decision, he jumped off the wall and began to run away from it, starting to run through the sand.

Time skip two hours -

Well, he definitely hated these damn sands. Throughout his journey to the damn entrance of the forest, he had to deal with creatures that looked like overfed worms and the same things he had faced the day before, which filled him with sand everywhere and made the path more difficult to cross than he had planned. But shaking his head, he just started to enter the forest to investigate and see if he could find something to eat. If luck was on his side, he hoped there would be a lake or something similar where he could take a bath because since he had arrived in this place, he had still been wearing the same clothes.

Walking through the forest, he could see that it was quite silent, only hearing the wind and the occasional animal that passed quickly before hiding. Venturing further into the forest out of curiosity, his luck finally seemed to change because now in front of him was a lake where he could take a bath to remove all the sand he had collected from the walk here.

Not wasting any time, he removed the top and bottom of his clothes, leaving him in his boxers. He entered the water and started to remove the sand from his hair and other areas. After spending a few minutes in the water, he looked towards where his clothes were and, taking advantage of the lake, started to wash them in the same place for a few minutes until they were clean. After that, he left them on the branch of a nearby tree to dry.

Waiting for his clothes to dry, he looked around to see if there was anything edible, but all he could see were trees and bushes of unknown plants that he wouldn't risk eating, even with Kurama to heal him. So, that gave him an idea. He could put to the test a training he had in mind for a few months. So, not wasting any more time, he sat on the ground in a meditative position to start absorbing natural energy from the environment. To his surprise, the natural energy of this forest was much purer than that of Konoha for some reason.

With purer energy in the environment, it took him half the time it would take to enter Sage Mode. Testing some movements in the lake, he could see how the natural energy of this forest enhanced his attacks more than natural Sage Mode. But now that it was confirmed, he began to channel chakra through his palms, causing the yin seal on his palm to glow faintly due to its use, and started to make hand seals.

Finishing with his manual seal execution with his right hand where the yin seal was, he touched the ground, letting his chakra flow through his arm to the ground for a few seconds. Removing his hand from the area where he put it, he watched as a tree began to grow slowly from the spot until it reached its maximum maturity, now revealing a fully mature apple tree.

Smiling at his work, he took an apple to examine it for a few seconds to see if it had any strange alterations. Seeing that it had none, he took a bite to check its taste, and he wasn't disappointed. It tasted just like an apple.

What he had done was combine the Water and Earth natures with the help of the yin element to result in the Wood element. It was something he had seen with Captain Yamato in the past and hadn't understood very well at first until now that he had done his own training with some shinobi to expand his repertoire of skills. While it was true that his primary element was Wind, after the war with the help of Six Paths Sage Mode, he gained access to the five elements, something he didn't waste to expand his jutsu repertoire.

With the help of the Leaf shinobi who didn't hesitate to help their hero who saved them from ending up in an eternal dream and becoming white Zetsu, he remembered during his training how Captain Yamato had explained to him how to use the Wood element with the help of the Water and Earth elements. So with access to those elements, he wanted to replicate the Wood element, which he had achieved to some extent, but since it wasn't attuned to those elements, it took its toll, consuming almost or more than half of his chakra.

That's when he had the idea of using Sage Mode as the catalyst for the elements. By consuming natural energy, the use of other elements not properly trained was easier, and the chakra consumption was less than it would cost him to just make a tree like the one he had just made.

But stopping remembering past events, he had just finished eating his third apple, letting out a satisfied sigh for finally satisfying some of his hunger, because he couldn't think of anything else when a noise happened behind him.

Turning around in case it was an enemy or a wild animal, what he found was a woman "whose beauty transcended gender," with long hair that "gently shone in a light green color" and an appearance that gave the impression of being sixteen years old.

In front of the mysterious woman who had appeared out of nowhere, he remained silent, admiring the beauty of the woman, one that he had rarely seen in his life since the war and during his training.

Very few times had he been static in front of a woman during his life, although that could be because at that time he was on his self-imposed mission to rescue his friend from the darkness where he had sunk and because of his childhood crush on Sakura, even though the crush was more because she was one of the first people to recognize him as Naruto and not just as his friend/companion Kurama.

Of course, there had been more beautiful women he had encountered that he hadn't noticed until after the war, such as the Mizukage Mei Terumi, a very beautiful woman with a slender figure, reddish-brown hair that reached her ankles, a bun tied with a dark blue band, two locks of hair, one covering her right eye and two crossing over her chest, just below her chin. Her eyes are light green.

And one with whom his godfather had engaged him without him knowing before he was born, if he remembered correctly her name was Shizuka, a girl with white skin of medium height who looks notably curvy and a considerable bust. She has green eyes and long black hair down to her waist, which she has in a high ponytail style with short bangs. Normally, she wears a light green kimono, while on missions, she has a black forehead protector and also the uniform of her village but hers is gray, with an armor protector on her right shoulder, gray gloves, and an opening in her shirt that reveals her cleavage.

But he snapped out of his memories because of the words of the woman who now had him facing her with her hands on his cheeks.

?: Enkidu...

And end of the chapter.