Chapter 24 (Patreon)

After lunch, Naruto hurried back to the woods.

To anyone watching, he appeared to be training alongside fifty shadow clones. In reality, he had created one more to take his place.

His real body used the Flying Thunder God Jutsu to teleport elsewhere and find a secluded spot.

Once he was certain no one was nearby, he opened his status panel.

Host: Naruto Uzumaki (Male; wearing sunglasses)

Age: 12

Combat Level: Chūnin

Chakra Natures: Wind, Water, Earth (Granted by the Sage Body)

Special Title: [Killing Heart]

Bloodlines:

Uzumaki Sage Body (Level 4; God-tier Bloodline)

Deidara’s Explosion Release (Level 1; Kekkei Genkai)

Skills:

Uzumaki Sage Body Abilities (Perfected): Vast Chakra Reserves, Adamantine Sealing Chains, Mind’s Eye of the Kagura, Heal Bite, Sealing Talent

Deidara’s Explosion Release Techniques (Beginner): Clay Ants

Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu (Mastered)

Transformation Jutsu (Perfected)

Clone Jutsu (Perfected)

Substitution Jutsu (Proficient)

Enhanced Chakra Control (Beginner)

Flying Thunder God Jutsu (Intermediate)

Impure World Reincarnation (Untrained)

Tandem Paper Bombs (Untrained)

Bringer-of-Darkness Jutsu (Untrained)

Hashirama Senju’s Wood Style Jutsu (Untrained)

Tobirama Senju’s Water Style Jutsu (Untrained)

Basic Taijutsu (Proficient)

Basic Genjutsu (Proficient)

Basic Ninja Tool Throwing (Proficient)

B-rank Wind Style: Hurricane Jutsu (Beginner)

C-rank Wind Style Jutsu (Proficient): Great Breakthrough, Gale Palm

C-rank Earth Style Jutsu (Proficient): Underground Projection Fish, Subterranean Voyage, Headhunter Jutsu, Hiding Like a Mole Jutsu

C-rank Water Style Jutsu (Proficient): Wild Water Wave, Water Prison Jutsu, Water Clone Jutsu

Items:

[Bloodline Upgrade Scroll] ×1

Naruto turned his attention to the System Shop, considering what he could get for two hundred points.

Alongside the B-rank jutsu, there were Skill Upgrade Scrolls, Bloodline Upgrade Scrolls, and something he hadn’t seen before—a Skill Fusion Scroll.

[Skill Fusion Scroll: Combines two perfected skills into a supernatural ability.]

“What?!”

Naruto couldn’t quite contain his surprise. He already had plenty of perfected skills. Did that mean a single scroll was all he needed to obtain one of these abilities?

Just the description made him eager to see how powerful it would be.

“Which two should I combine? No... first, I need to decide what kind of ability I want.”

He was planning to act under a different identity in the shinobi world. After considering that for a moment, he addressed the system.

“System, what would I get if I fused my perfected Clone Jutsu and Transformation Jutsu?”

[Ding! The resulting supernatural ability would be: Shapeshifting.]

“Shapeshifting? Like Sun Wukong’s seventy-two transformations?”

[Ding! The transformation abilities are similar. However, this ability does not grant any of Sun Wukong’s other powers.]

Shapeshifting went beyond disguising his appearance. An attack wouldn’t force him back into his original form, and more importantly, it could conceal the Nine-Tails’ chakra inside him, keeping even powerful sensory ninja from detecting it.

That was what Naruto wanted most.

He smiled.

“System, spend one hundred points on a Skill Fusion Scroll, then use it to create Shapeshifting!”

[Ding! Fusion complete. Supernatural ability acquired: Shapeshifting.]

[Ding! Congratulations, Host! You have acquired your first supernatural ability. Bonus reward: Skill Fusion Scroll ×1.]

“Ha! I knew you wouldn’t let me down!”

Still grinning, Naruto looked through his remaining skills.

“System, what would I get if I combined my perfected Adamantine Sealing Chains and Sealing Talent?”

[Ding! The resulting supernatural ability would be: Immortal Binding Rope.]

“That sounds like one of the treasures from Journey to the West. Could it be just as powerful?”

After a brief moment of thought, he made his decision.

“System, fuse them!”

[Ding! Fusion complete. Supernatural ability acquired: Immortal Binding Rope.]

New memories and practical experience flowed into Naruto’s mind, giving him the knowledge he needed to train and use both abilities.

He extended his right hand.

A black and gold rope, roughly one meter long, appeared in his grasp. Dense, intricate markings were faintly visible along its surface.

A wild boar happened to be passing through the grass ahead of him. Naruto flicked his hand toward it, and the rope shot forward, coiling around the animal.

The boar tried to struggle, but it couldn’t move.

“Ha! This thing really is powerful. Now I just need an enemy to test it on.”

At that moment, Naruto sensed three ninja making their way toward the Hidden Leaf from the direction of the Land of Wind. They were moving covertly.

“Ninja from the Land of Wind? Could they be...?”

The approaching Chūnin Exams came to mind, followed by Orochimaru’s plan to destroy the Leaf.

Are these Sand ninja heading over to take part in the Konoha Crush?

The thought stirred his interest. If so, they had just delivered both practice opponents and more points straight to him.

After determining their route, Naruto set up an ambush one kilometer ahead of them. He placed dozens of Flying Thunder God marks on the surrounding trees and ground.

To carry out the Konoha Crush, the Hidden Sand was preparing to send more than two hundred elite ninja into the Land of Fire. They would travel in small groups and conceal themselves near the Hidden Leaf until the time came to attack.

Sagame Koizumi led this particular group. He was a jōnin, and his two teammates were elite chūnin.

All three were eager to take part in the operation.

The Sand and the Leaf had fought for generations. Their families had lost more people to Leaf ninja than they cared to count.

Now they could almost picture themselves bringing the Hidden Leaf to ruin.

In their eyes, the village had grown weak. The Third Hokage and Danzō were old, while Jiraiya and Tsunade were getting older themselves and spent most of their time away from the village.

Under the leadership of their young, powerful Fourth Kazekage, they were certain they could break through the Leaf’s defenses, plunder the village, and force it to surrender. Afterward, they would demand a fortune in supplies and resources as compensation.

The thought alone made Koizumi’s mouth water.

They were still running through the forest, indulging in that pleasant fantasy, when a black and gold rope suddenly appeared above Koizumi’s head and swept down toward him.

He was a jōnin, and his reactions didn’t fail him. He immediately used the Substitution Jutsu to escape, then moved apart from his two teammates and looked toward the direction the rope had come from.

There was no one there.

“Look out!”

Koizumi shouted to one of his teammates. The black and gold rope had suddenly appeared behind the man.

But his warning came too late.

The rope wound tightly around the chūnin, and an instant later, he disappeared.

This time, Koizumi caught a glimpse of their attacker—a masked woman dressed in black, with vivid red hair.

It was the form Naruto had taken using Shapeshifting.

With the Flying Thunder God Jutsu, he had appeared behind the enemy, bound him with the Immortal Binding Rope, and teleported ten kilometers away with his captive.

The bound Sand ninja couldn’t use his chakra at all. Even his physical strength was gradually draining away.

Like prey caught in a trap, he could only watch as his captor drove a kunai into his neck.

Naruto wiped the blood from the blade, then teleported back to Koizumi’s position.

The entire process had taken just two seconds.

Koizumi hadn’t left. Still on guard, he was searching the area for his missing teammate when the masked woman appeared nearby again, the black and gold rope in her hand.

He and the remaining chūnin immediately attacked her with ninjutsu.

Their attacks had barely begun when she vanished again.

No—she hadn’t simply fled. In that same instant, she had appeared three meters behind the other elite chūnin.

Naruto flicked the rope forward. Though it had been only one meter long, it suddenly extended to five meters.

The chūnin had just begun to react, trying to get away, when the rope wrapped around him and pulled tight.

Then both he and the masked woman disappeared.

Cold sweat broke out across Koizumi’s skin.

The enemy was like a predator lurking in the dark. He had no way of knowing when she would appear again.

And whenever she did, that black and gold rope was a death sentence. Neither of his teammates had been able to resist it.