Chapter 48 (Patreon)

“Who are you?”

Orochimaru’s voice was hoarse. His arms hung uselessly at his sides, and his snake-like eyes remained fixed on Naruto’s female double.

“Me? Take a guess.”

The masked woman blinked at him, her eyes bright with amusement.

“Are you here to kill me?” Orochimaru asked coldly. “Do you think you’re capable of it?”

She laughed, then answered seriously. “I don’t want to kill you. But that doesn’t mean I can’t.”

Orochimaru broke into a harsh, wild laugh.

“You think I can’t still kill you?”

“Then watch closely. I have two fireworks displays for you.”

By now, Konoha had reached the third stage of its emergency response. The surviving civilians, including the elderly, the infirm, women, and children, had been moved into shelters. The village’s shinobi were beginning their counterattack.

Jiraiya had arrived in time as well. He summoned a giant toad, crushing the three-headed snake beneath it.

The fighting was concentrated in two main areas.

One was near the village wall, where the Sand and Sound shinobi had been using the three-headed snake to smash through Konoha’s defenses while they fought alongside it.

The other was around Shukaku. A large number of Leaf shinobi were trying to contain the One-Tail and stop him from destroying the rest of the village.

On the rooftop, Naruto’s double formed a seal with one hand. Her eyes curved into a smile as she watched Orochimaru.

“Art is an explosion!”

Near the three-headed snake and Jiraiya’s giant toad, clay spiders burst from the ground. They emerged across an area stretching hundreds of meters around the two enormous summons and sprang at the Leaf, Sand, and Sound shinobi.

Most had no time to react.

Boom!

Explosions thundered across the battlefield.

At the same instant, the Leaf shinobi surrounding Shukaku were attacked by another swarm of clay spiders.

A second series of blasts tore through their ranks.

The two enormous explosions killed a large number of Leaf shinobi and wiped out almost all the invading Sand and Sound ninja.

Every death added to Naruto’s system points, and Asura Field mode doubled the rewards.

Hidden in the shadows, Naruto grinned from ear to ear. He nearly gave away his position by laughing.

Outside the barrier, Kakashi and the others immediately understood. The masked woman with red hair was the one responsible for the explosion that had injured them in the stands.

The Hokage’s guards and the ANBU made another connection. She was also the culprit behind the two bombings in the village a few months earlier—the woman believed to be a descendant of the Uzumaki clan.

Damn it. Konoha had suffered one disaster after another.

The Third Hokage was dead. A large number of Leaf shinobi had been killed or seriously wounded.

Orochimaru and Sunagakure were already formidable enemies. Now this mysterious, powerful woman had joined the attack as well.

Orochimaru stared at the distant explosions. His pupils narrowed sharply.

“You’re Deidara… from Akatsuki?”

Sasori of the Red Sand and Deidara had pursued Orochimaru not long before, following his defection from Akatsuki. He was all too familiar with Deidara’s methods.

The masked woman laughed.

“Go on, guess. Now, do you still doubt that I could kill you?”

Orochimaru fell silent.

Whether she was Deidara or someone else, she clearly possessed strength on a Kage’s level.

Even if she failed to kill him, she could cause him considerable trouble. Escaping today would be difficult enough without her standing in his way.

He studied her for a long moment before speaking again, his voice rough.

“What do you want?”

She wanted something from him. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have spent so much time talking.

“Hand over the snake summoning contract from Ryūchi Cave.”

There was clear interest in her voice.

That had been part of Naruto’s plan from the beginning. The Sword of Kusanagi was only one of the things he intended to take from Orochimaru. The other was Ryūchi Cave’s summoning contract.

He already had a contract with the toads of Mount Myōboku. Now he wanted one with the snakes of Ryūchi Cave as well.

Orochimaru’s eyes narrowed.

Many people knew he summoned snakes. Far fewer knew the name Ryūchi Cave. Even Kabuto, his trusted aide, would only learn about it much later.

Who was this woman?

He did not agree immediately. His gaze shifted to the ANBU waiting outside the barrier, then to Jiraiya seated on the giant toad in the distance.

He could only sigh inwardly. In his current condition, he had little room to refuse.

If surrendering the contract would let him escape, so be it.

Orochimaru spat out a scroll and offered it to her.

Naruto’s double was wary of a trick. She created a shadow clone to take the scroll and unroll it, checking that there were no traps.

Once it had been inspected, she decided to test the contract herself.

She bit her finger and wrote her chosen alias in blood: Menma Namikaze.

Then she pressed the bloodied fingertips of her right hand onto the scroll, leaving all five prints beneath the name.

A familiar connection formed—the same sensation Naruto had felt when his original body signed the contract with Mount Myōboku.

The hand seals for Summoning Jutsu were the same regardless of the contract. As a boy, Jiraiya had used the seals Hiruzen taught him before signing a contract and accidentally ended up at Mount Myōboku.

“Summoning Jutsu!”

Boom!

A giant python appeared beneath the masked woman’s feet, hissing as its forked tongue flicked out.

She laughed in satisfaction.

“Very good! You can leave now, Orochimaru.”

She waved him away.

Orochimaru gave her a dark look. The Sound Four released the Four Violet Flames Formation, gathered around him, and began their retreat.

“Whoever you are, I won’t forget what happened today.”

With that final threat, he quickly disappeared from sight.

The Hokage’s guards and the ANBU split into two groups.

The guards pursued Orochimaru, but Kidōmaru of the Sound Four spat out a web that blocked their path with ease.

The ANBU rushed onto the rooftop, intent on killing the masked woman.

She gave them a cheerful wave and vanished with the Flying Thunder God Jutsu. Naruto’s original body disappeared at the same time.

Before long, under Jiraiya’s leadership, Shukaku was forced back into Gaara’s body.

Jiraiya placed a Five Elements Seal on Gaara, disrupting his chakra control. Unable to properly use his chakra, Gaara could only rage helplessly as he was taken into custody.

Naruto had never reached out to him or spoken the words that would have changed him. Gaara remained as he had been before, unstable and consumed by the urge to kill.

…

Konoha had driven out the invaders, but the Konoha Crush had left the village with devastating losses.

Shukaku had destroyed just under half of Konoha. Many shinobi had died fighting him and the invading forces, while ordinary villagers had suffered terrible casualties of their own.

Even members of the Konoha Twelve had been caught in the explosions at the exam arena. Tenten, Chōji, Ino, and Kiba Inuzuka had survived, but all four were seriously injured.

Hinata alone had remained at a remote training ground under the protection of Naruto’s shadow clone. She hadn’t suffered so much as a scratch.

Sakura, Shikamaru, and Rock Lee had escaped the blasts because Kakashi had sent them after Sasuke. Shino Aburame, who had secretly followed them, had also avoided the explosions. Neji had already been taken to the hospital after his match and was spared any further injury.

Worst of all, the Third Hokage was dead. Konoha had lost its leader, and the village’s future was uncertain.

The person who had gained the most from the invasion was Naruto.

No one knew it.

The ANBU assigned to watch him had seen Naruto chase after Sasuke and remain with him. They had no idea that the boy they were watching was another shadow clone.

There was nothing to make them suspect the real Naruto.

Now he was at home, excitedly studying the points displayed by his system. With everything he had earned, his strength was about to rise dramatically.

But what should he spend them on?