Chapter no.87 A Hero? A Monster? A Legend (Patreon)

The woods were quiet.

Not peaceful, just quiet. The kind of quiet that comes after something breaks.

With Tazuna's house now a pile of rubble, Team 7 and Team 8 had relocated deep into the forest. The camp they made wasn't much. Just tarp-covered tents and string-bound tripwires surrounding a clearing barely wide enough to stretch in. But it was defensible. That was enough.

A modest fire cracked in the center. Tazuna sat beside it with Inari curled against him, the boy finally asleep, his breathing soft and uneven. Sakura slept nearby, smiling faintly in her dreams. Somehow, her sleep remained undisturbed even as the firelight flickered across her cheeks. Tsunami stirred a pot over the fire, the scent of stew drifting on the air.

Away from the warmth and quiet conversation, the shinobi stood in a separate ring of trees. Four bodies lay before them. The Hōzuki Family and Aoi Rokusho. Their features were sealed beneath preservation cloths, each wrapped in bands and marked with talismans.

Oscar circled the tarp once, then stopped and jabbed a claw at the hole in Kazan's chest, still faintly steaming in the cold.

Naruto gave him a half-smile and a thumbs-up. "Getting cocky now, huh?"

Oscar gave a soft snort, puffed out his chest like a proud little dragon, then trotted off to pounce on Akamaru's tail.

"How much bonus is this gonna get us?" Kiba asked, rubbing his hands with a grin.

Naruto blinked. "What are you talking about?"

"You probably don't know this," Kiba said, glancing at him, "but the Inuzuka clan supplies a lot of Konoha's hunter-nin."

"Hunter-nin?" Naruto turned to Kakashi.

Kakashi nodded. "The Hunter-nin Corps, also known as the Corpse Processing Team. They're part of the ANBU. Their job is to track down missing-nin and eliminate them. Haku wore the uniform of a hunter-nin from Kirigakure."

Naruto and Sasuke both made thoughtful sounds.

"Anyway," Kiba went on, clearly excited, "my sister told me that when a regular ninja brings in the body of a missing-nin or even an enemy shinobi, they get a bonus. And we've got three bodies for the Konoha Forensic Division."

Sasuke frowned, glancing at Kakashi. "Isn't that different from what you taught us before? With Gōzu and Meizu, we had to behead them, bury them deep, layer the grave with animal carcasses to mask the scent."

"That method works for ordinary ops," Kakashi said, snapping his book shut. "But when clan shinobi are involved, the rules change. These bodies are preserved with a sealing jutsu and stored in scrolls. They're shipped back to Konoha for analysis."

"Analysis?" Naruto echoed.

"The Konoha Forensic Division studies the corpses for chakra signatures, herbal traces, unique ninjutsu, even genetic traits," Kakashi explained.

"The teams study the bodies to understand enemy techniques and develop counters. And if we're lucky, they might even be able to rework the Hōzuki Clan's Liquidation Technique for our own use."

Everyone fell silent.

"You mean..." Hinata started, eyes wide.

Kurenai stepped in. "Yes. Thanks to Team 8's kills, Konoha might be able to replicate the Hōzuki techniques. Maybe even create a new Hōzuki branch within our village."

That hit hard. The idea of a new clan, born from a single mission, settled over the group like a weight.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed. "Is that why the ANBU has a special division to hunt missing-nin? To keep village secrets from leaking?"

Kakashi nodded. He saw the fire in Sasuke's expression and knew exactly who he was thinking about. Sasuke was already imagining the hunt for Itachi.

"Looks like you're finally getting your first paycheck," Naruto said, nudging Oscar with a grin.

Oscar, the crystal lizard, closed his eyes and let out a pleased chitter, his crystals glinting in the sunlight as he swayed gently side to side. He was already imagining the shiny things he could hoard or maybe trade for snacks. Who knew what lizards liked to buy?

"Too bad you guys won't be getting the big bonus," Kiba smirked, folding his arms behind his head.

Before he could say more, Naruto flicked him hard on the nose. "Doesn't matter, dog breath. Money isn't everything."

"Says the guy who's literally broke," Kiba snapped back, rubbing his nose.

Naruto raised his hand, clearly ready to retaliate again.

"Alright, cut it out. No fighting," Kurenai said, stepping between them. "And Team 7 will be getting a separate reward for recovering the Sword of the Second Hokage."

"Wait, what? We have to give the sword back?" Naruto cried, visibly annoyed. "But Sasuke killed the guy who used it. That's called finder's keepers, no?"

Kakashi sighed, already feeling the headache forming behind his eyes. "Naruto, the man stole the sword. It was never his to begin with. That blade is a village treasure."

Naruto crossed his arms and pouted. "What's the point of a weapon if you're just gonna stick it in a museum and never use it?"

"Tell that to the Hokage," Kurenai said with a shrug.

"Oh, I will," Naruto said defiantly, then turned to Sasuke. "Don't worry, teme. I'll make sure the old man hands over that sword to you."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "Doesn't matter. I already have the claymore."

Naruto stared at him. "Bullshit. That claymore melted when you channeled both fire and lightning chakra through it. You fried it."

Sasuke didn't respond.

"Also," Naruto continued, "wasn't your whole deal about power? The Lightning Blade of the Second Hokage is practically made for you. You'd be stupid not to take it."

"And how exactly are you going to convince the Hokage to just hand over a Senju relic?"

"I'm gonna talk to him. Calmly. Persuasively," Naruto said with exaggerated patience. "And if that doesn't work... I'll guilt trip him until he cracks."

He broke into a devilish grin, laughing to himself while the others exchanged a collective sweatdrop.

"And if that doesn't work?" Sasuke pressed.

"Then stop whining. I'll get your claymore reforged and reinforced. You'll be able to run fire and lightning through it without turning it into a liquid."

"Hn," Sasuke said, clearly tempted.

"Or better yet," Naruto added with a shrug, "I'll just get you a better sword from Lordran."

Everyone turned at once.

"Naruto, the Sword of the Second Hokage is a masterpiece," Kakashi said, unusually serious. "It was crafted by the finest smiths of the era. It allowed a chūnin to fight on par with a jōnin. That's not something you just replace."

Naruto tilted his head, unimpressed. "And? My Drake Sword came from Lordran. That thing's tougher than any blade this village's ever seen. And that's not even one of the top-tier weapons. You've seen the Black Knight arsenal, right? And don't get me started on the legendary stuff that Andre always says he wants to make..."

He trailed off into a full-on monologue, rambling about cursed blades, divine-infused axes, magic swords, and the nameless blacksmith deity.

No one could keep up..

"Hn," Sasuke said again, unsure whether to be annoyed or impressed.

Naruto clapped a hand on his teammate's shoulder. "So relax, teme. Whether it's the Hokage's prize sword or something even better from Lordran, your big brother Naruto will make sure you're armed like a damn boss."

"You're younger than me," Sasuke said, his eye twitching.

Naruto grinned wider. "Details."

Oscar chittered approvingly and tried to climb onto Naruto's shoulder, possibly voting in favor of the Lordran option.

"Anyways, give me back the claymore," Naruto said, holding out his hand expectantly.

Sasuke pulled the weapon from his storage seal. What he produced, however, was no longer a proud greatsword. The hilt remained intact, but the blade had melted off in a twisted, jagged mess that was charred and warped, like it had barely survived a volcano.

"Yikes. Yeah, that thing's cooked. I'm pretty sure Andre could work his magic on it. If he doesn't laugh at us first." Naruto casually tossed it into his inventory. "But until then, you're gonna need a replacement."

As Team 8 sealed the corpses in their respective scrolls, Naruto turned his eyes to the sky, humming to himself like he was thinking of lunch. Then he snapped his fingers.

"Oh! I've got just the thing."

From his inventory, he pulled out a longsword. It wasn't flashy, but it had weight, presence, and clean craftsmanship.

The blade was straight, double-edged, and tapered to a lethal point. The crossguard was a no-nonsense bar of steel, gently curved to catch and deflect strikes. The grip was long enough for a two-handed swing, wrapped in dark leather for a firm hold, while the round pommel at the end provided perfect balance and could knock a guy out cold if used right.

Naruto held it up with both hands. "Ya know, I made this sword myself."

Everyone turned.

"You what?" Kiba said.

"Made it myself," Naruto said proudly. "Andre, the old blacksmith I trained under, told me to forge a proper battle-ready sword as my final test... well, here it is."

Sasuke stepped forward and took the sword from Naruto. He gave it a test swing. The balance felt right. The arc was clean. It cut through the air with a crisp whoosh.

"This is... better than the claymore," Sasuke admitted, surprised. "The swing feels stronger too."

Naruto puffed out his chest. "I don't wanna brag, but yeah... it kinda is."

Sasuke gave him a look. "This shouldn't be a substitute. A blade like this deserves to be used."

Naruto waved his hand. "It doesn't matter if a sword is weak or strong, flashy or plain. If it does its job, if it cuts when it needs to, it's a real sword. Use it if you want. Or maybe we'll get lucky and the old man will hand over the Second Hokage's sword after all."

There was a pause.

"...Thank you," Sasuke said quietly, his voice almost too soft to hear.

Naruto blinked. The others exchanged glances. Even Kiba stopped chewing on his protein bar.

Then Naruto smiled wide and clapped Sasuke on the back. "Aw, don't get all sentimental on me, teme. We're teammates. Brothers in arms. Partners in crime. Buddies who cover for each other when stuff explodes."

The warmth in the air was real until Naruto opened his mouth again.

"Oh, by the way," he added casually, "I named that sword the Bastard Sword. So it's totally appropriate. A bastard wielding a bastard sword."

Sasuke's expression froze. His grip on the sword tightened. "I knew I shouldn't have trusted you."

"It's just a name!" Naruto shouted, laughing as he ducked the swing Sasuke aimed at his head.

"You named it that on purpose!"

"You're damn right I did!"

Team 8 burst into laughter as Naruto took off running, with Sasuke chasing him at full speed, red in the face and ready to commit violence.

"Come back here and fight me like a bastard!"

Naruto shouted over his shoulder, "Come on! I named it after you out of love, you ungrateful bastard!"

Kiba nearly fell over laughing. Hinata covered her mouth, giggling. Shino adjusted his shades but even he looked amused.

Kurenai sighed. "This is what happens when you don't separate them."

Kakashi, still unfazed, flipped a page of his orange book and muttered, "Thank god Sakura's not here. One more idiot and we'd legally qualify as a circus act."

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Around dinner time, Sakura stirred from her rest. She sat quietly by the fire, her eyes fixed on the flames, but her mind somewhere far away.

"Here you go, Sakura," Naruto said, walking over with a steaming bowl of stew in his hand.

She took it with a faint hum, then flinched as the hot bottom of the bowl burned her fingers. She didn't complain, just held it in her lap and stared at the food like it was a puzzle she couldn't solve.

"I noticed your axe got wrecked in the fight," Naruto added as he sat down beside her. "Don't worry, it's an easy fix. I'll even reinforce it, make sure it can handle your freakish strength next time."

He grinned at her, waiting for some kind of reaction. A joke, a glare, a shut up, Naruto. Anything.

But Sakura said nothing.

Naruto's smile faded. "Something wrong?"

Still no answer.

Sasuke sat down across from them, folding his arms. "Staying quiet isn't going to fix it. Naruto might be an idiot, but he's probably your best bet at figuring out what's happening."

Sakura glanced between them, unsure where to even start.

"One step at a time," Kakashi said gently, handing her a cup of water. "We all felt that… presence at the bridge."

Sakura gave a small nod and drank slowly. After a long moment, she spoke.

"Okay, so… you know how sometimes you have a voice in your head? That little voice that whispers the stuff you don't want to hear? Like… doubts. Fears. The parts of you that suck?"

"Hn," Sasuke muttered.

"Yes," Kakashi said calmly.

"Nope," Naruto said, honestly.

Sakura's eye twitched, but she moved on. "Well… I've always had that voice. I called it Inner Sakura. My private self, the one who screams when I'm too scared to. But after the fight today… it's like that voice isn't just in my head anymore. It feels separate. Like another person living inside me."

The campfire crackled.

Naruto blinked. "Is it... because of the humanity I gave you?"

Sakura slowly nodded. "I think so. I don't know for sure. But she's real. And when I saw her fight... she was a berserker. Wild. Uncontrollable. She laughed while ripping people apart. She didn't feel like me at all. But what if that's the real me?"

"No, she's not," Sasuke said firmly.

"How do you know that?" Sakura asked. Her voice cracked. "What if I've been pretending this whole time? Pretending to be composed, kind and helpful. What if I'm just a fake wrapped around something ugly? Something violent. What if I'm just playing the role of the good kunoichi and I've been doing it so long, I forgot it's not even real?"

Her hands tightened around the bowl. "What if… I don't deserve to be part of this team? A cog that is too unpredictable."

The silence was heavy. Then Kakashi leaned forward.

"Sakura," he said quietly, "everyone has shadows inside them. Feelings we don't like. Impulses we pretend we never had. That doesn't make you a fraud. It makes you human. You're not fake. You're conflicted, and that's a sign you're still fighting for who you want to be."

Sasuke gave a nod.

"Plus, the role of the unpredictable wild card is Naruto's."

Sakura snorted a little, the tension in her shoulders loosening.

Naruto scratched the back of his head. "You know... when I woke up after the dragon thing. When everything changed. I felt the same. Like I wasn't... me anymore. Like I'd lost something important and didn't even know what it was."

He grew quieter, more serious.

"But someone helped me. My senior in Lordran, Sir Seigward... he told me something that stuck."

Naruto looked up, eyes calm now.

"What makes you who you are... isn't your body, or your blood, or even what's inside your head. It's your actions, your ideals, and your memories."

He leaned toward her.

"So tell me, Sakura. Are you still the brave kunoichi who swore to be the cog that keeps Team 7 running?"

She hesitated, then slowly nodded.

"Are you still Sakura, who swoons over Sasuke for no damn reason?"

A tiny smile tugged at her lips. "...Unfortunately."

"Are you still Sakura, our frontline seal barrier specialist?"

"I'm... not on that level."

Naruto squinted at her. "Sakura."

"Okay, okay," she said, rolling her eyes, "I'm working on it."

Naruto grinned. "There we go."

Sakura sighed and looked into her bowl. "Yeah... that helped. It really did clear up my mind."

She paused, then glanced at him again, more hesitantly this time. "Still… why did the humanity I got give shape to her? Why that side of me? The rage, the brutality, the part that didn't hesitate?"

Naruto didn't answer right away. Neither did Sasuke or Kakashi.

Because that was the real question, wasn't it?

What did it mean when the part of you you always thought was just a voice… became a person? What did it mean when the part you kept buried turned out to be real?

"Don't worry," Naruto said, waving it off. "I'll ask around in Lordran."

"You didn't think of doing that before giving it to me?" Sakura said dryly.

"I did ask," Naruto said defensively. "But most of the people I met didn't know much about humanity. This time, I've got someone smarter to ask. Griggs. He's a real nerd. Probably reads books for fun."

"Thank you," Sakura said sincerely.

She looked down into her bowl. "Is there a spoon?"

Suddenly, Oscar waddled over and gently dropped a spoon at her side.

Sakura blinked. "Thanks, Oscar," she said, patting his head before digging in.

The stew wasn't anything special. But for the first time since waking up, she didn't feel alone. Whatever was happening inside her, Team 7 wasn't going anywhere.

Not now. Not ever.

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After dinner, the night shift was up.

Normally, it would've been Kiba's turn... part of his punishment for getting into a fight with Naruto at the start of the mission. But the Inuzuka had argued loudly again that his punishment only applied to guarding the house, not the camp. After much groaning and a very dramatic straw draw, Naruto and Hinata were stuck with night duty.

The stars winked high above them through the breaks in the trees. Their campfire crackled softly in the distance, casting dancing shadows against the tents. But out here, just past the ring of light, it was quiet. Only the night breeze rustled the leaves, and the occasional soft chirp came from Oscar, who nestled against Naruto's shoulder.

Naruto had deployed shadow clones around the perimeter, each one alert in a different direction. That left the real him and Hinata time to kill, so they decided on a quiet game of archery, taking turns with the longbow.

"You know," Hinata said as she drew the bowstring and let her arrow fly, "I still can't believe this mission is almost over."

The arrow thudded into the target. Solid hit. She exhaled.

Naruto stood a few feet away, eyes on the sky as he gently tossed Oscar into the air with both hands. A moment later, he used subtle bursts of telekinesis to slow the lizard's descent and float him back down, to the creature's visible delight. Oscar chirped happily and curled his tail, already squirming to be tossed again.

"Things always come to an end, Hinata-chan," Naruto said softly as he set Oscar down. Then he picked up the bow and fired as his arrow split Hinata's cleanly down the middle. "But yeah… feels weird, huh?"

Hinata laughed softly and scooped up Oscar, tossing him skyward. "Weird doesn't cover it. This mission... I don't know what to even call it. I feel like I've changed so much."

"You have," Naruto said with a grin. "At least you're not stuttering every time I say your name."

Hinata flushed bright pink. "N-N-Naruto-kun...!"

They both burst into quiet laughter, the kind you have to bite back so you don't wake the others. Oscar landed gracefully in Hinata's hands, tail flicking.

Hinata drew the bow again, eyes narrowing with focus. She fired, and her arrow split Naruto's dead center.

"Nice shot," Naruto admitted, blinking.

Hinata handed the bow back and exhaled deeply. "I'm glad for everything that's happened. Even the hard parts. I feel stronger now."

"You are stronger," Naruto said, his voice more grounded now. "It shows. You've come a long way, Hinata."

There was a beat of silence between them, peaceful but weighty.

Then, as if summoned by the mood, Oscar climbed up onto Naruto's shoulder.

Hinata smiled at the sight. "You know, Naruto-kun…"

"Hm?"

"I really am thankful. For a lot of things. But mostly… for showing me that I don't have to be afraid of moving forward anymore."

Naruto blinked, scratching the back of his head. "I mean… I didn't really do anything. I just ran my mouth. You're the one who actually listened and put it into practice."

"Maybe," she said softly. "But sometimes… hearing it from someone else makes all the difference. You gave me something I couldn't find on my own."

Naruto gave her a warm, lopsided smile. "Well… I'm glad it helped, then."

They fell quiet again. The stars glittered above them like pinpricks in the black sky.

Hinata looked over, eyes gentle. "Can I ask you something?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you think… we'll stay like this? Even after the mission ends? Team 7, Team 8, everyone?"

Naruto didn't answer right away. He looked out into the forest, the breeze brushing his face.

"I hope so," he said finally. "But even if we change, even if life pulls us apart... I think what we've got here? It'll always stick. Even if we're not together, it doesn't mean we're not still connected."

Hinata nodded quietly. "I hope so too."

Naruto leaned back, looking up at the stars again.

"Besides," he said, "when things get crazy again, which they will, you'll probably be the one dragging my butt out of whatever fire I threw myself into."

Hinata giggled. "Deal."

Oscar chirped in agreement.

Suddenly, the air shifted.

She stepped closer to Naruto, eyes narrowing. "Zabuza is approaching the camp," she said quietly.

"I know," Naruto replied. His hawk-eyes locked on a shadow moving through the trees. "Two hundred meters. Coming in slow. He's alone."

"I'll wake the others."

"No."

Hinata looked back at him, unsure. "Naruto..."

"Let's check it out. Just us," he said, already moving toward the trees. "I've got a plan."

Hinata hesitated for only a second. The intensity in his expression silenced her argument. She nodded. "Alright. I trust you."

The trio moved quietly, stepping into the dark forest. Leaves whispered underfoot. Oscar, sensing the tension, clung tightly to Naruto's back, unusually quiet. Then, from the shadows ahead, a figure emerged.

The Demon of the Hidden Mist stumbled into view, dragging one foot behind him, shoulders slumped. His massive blade wasn't on his back, it was dragging behind him, the tip carving a shallow line through the dirt. He was breathing hard, blood streaking down his arms and soaking through the wrappings on his chest. His eyes were unfocused, wild.

Naruto stopped in his tracks, Hinata by his side.

One glance, and Naruto knew. He's been in a fight. A bad one.

Zabuza coughed, blood flecking his lips. He looked at them, and for a moment, there was something strange in his eyes. Not hatred. Not bloodlust.

Just… desperation.

"So…" Naruto drawled, resting a hand on the pommel of his blade. "You're not gonna attack us, no-brows?"

Zabuza's voice was hoarse but steady. "No. I need help."

Hinata's eyes narrowed. She didn't lower her stance, chakra still humming beneath her fingertips, but she stayed silent, letting Naruto take the lead.

"Well, that's new," Naruto said, quirking a brow.

Zabuza didn't waste time. Between strained breaths, he laid it all out: the ambush, the betrayal, Guren's sudden arrival, Gato turning on him, and worst of all, Haku's capture. When he finished, the woods were dead quiet.

"Man... I don't know if I should laugh or pat you on the back."

Zabuza bared his teeth. "You can do whatever the hell you want. Just get me to your sensei. I need backup."

Hinata opened her mouth, hesitating. But Naruto raised a hand, just a slight gesture. I've got this.

"Yeah, that's not happening."

Zabuza's patience snapped. Instantly, the clearing flooded with murderous bloodlust, thick and suffocating. Hinata tensed, muscles coiled, ready to strike—but Naruto didn't flinch.

He yawned.

"Don't give me that look, no-brows," he said, waving lazily. "Let's think this through. You limp into camp, half-dead, and beg for help. You think Kakashi-sensei's just gonna roll out the welcome mat for the guy who tried to carve us up this morning?"

Zabuza's glare could've split stone.

"You want our help?" Naruto said. "You'll need more than a sob story. You need something impossible."

"You offering that?"

Naruto smirked. "Maybe. I'm offering me."

"Just you? You think you are enough?"

"I don't know, you tell me." Naruto shrugged. "I can convince Kakashi to actually listen. I can heal you. I'm technically a healer. I can get you back on your feet. Fast."

Zabuza's eyes narrowed. "...Is that why Kakashi was that strong?"

"Now you're getting it."

Zabuza stared at him for a long beat. Then: "What's your price?"

Naruto held up one finger. "First, you're going to lead me straight to Gato. I want him dead. Personally."

Zabuza grinned despite the pain. "That, I can live with."

"Second…" Naruto glanced at Oscar, who blinked like he already knew where this was going. "Hand over your sword. Kubikiribōchō. I think it would suit me better."

There was silence.

Zabuza studied him, expression unreadable. Then, without a word, he dropped the giant cleaver at Naruto's feet with a heavy thud.

"I've come to learn what actually matters," Zabuza said, voice low but sincere. "A sword can always be replaced. Someone precious… can't. The blade is yours, if it means Haku lives."

Naruto blinked. He hadn't expected that. He picked up the massive weapon and gave it a curious look. "So does this sword have anything special to it?"

"It absorbs iron from the blood of its victims to repair itself," Zabuza said.

Naruto made a face. "That's… gross."

Then, with zero hesitation, he dropped it and kicked it back toward Zabuza like it was a bad birthday gift.

"Changed my mind. Don't want it."

Zabuza's eyes flared. "Then what the hell was the point of asking?!"

Naruto shrugged. "Thought it was a cool blade. Turns out it's a creepy blood sword. Also, I wanted to test you."

Zabuza's eye twitched.

"I needed to know if you still saw Haku as a weapon," Naruto said, folding his arms. "Or as a person. Glad to see it's the latter now, no-brows."

Zabuza stared at him. Then, for the first time all night, he let out a low, rasping laugh. "You little bastard. You remind me of someone I used to be."

"Yeah? Well, I'm not interested in who you used to be. I'm interested in who you're gonna be next."

Hinata let out a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding. Oscar chirped in approval.

"Can we talk less and just move?" Zabuza grunted. "You talk to your sensei, heal me enough to fight, and let's go."

Naruto didn't say a word. He reached into his pouch and pulled out a glowing talisman. Before Hinata could ask what he was doing, he slapped it against his palm. A burst of golden light exploded outward, washing over the clearing like a rising sun.

Zabuza staggered, eyes wide, as the light surged through him. Cuts vanished. Blood rewound. His muscles steadied, breath came easier. Strength returned like a crashing tide.

"What… the hell was that?" he muttered, flexing his fingers like he couldn't believe they still worked.

Hinata stared, stunned. Her Byakugan flared, picking up the golden energy mending flesh, bones, and chakra flow at a speed that shouldn't be possible. "Naruto-kun…"

"The part where the Archer of Providence patches up the Demon of the Mist," Naruto said, voice calm as his hair fell into his eyes. He turned, his grin lazy but dangerous. "And they team up to take down Gato."

Zabuza hesitated.

Everything in his instincts screamed that this kid was dangerous. More dangerous than any shinobi he'd faced in years. And now he realized why. It wasn't just the raw strength or the strange healing jutsu Naruto could perform. It was the way he thought.

Zabuza wasn't stupid. He could see it now.

The words Naruto had thrown at him during their first battle. Words Zabuza had dismissed then but now understood. Naruto was dangerous because he didn't live by the rules of shinobi. He lived by his own rules. His own ideology. And worst of all… he had the strength to back it up.

Before Zabuza could answer, Naruto's face turned strangely solemn.

Zabuza grunted. "What about your sensei and the others? You gonna convince them?"

"I mean, we could…" Naruto shrugged. "But honestly? I'd rather not deal with Leaf politics right now. Unless you're scared to try it with just me and Oscar."

Zabuza growled low. "I'm not scared. But it doesn't hurt to stack the odds."

"Too late." Naruto jerked his head toward the treeline. "It's just me. You. Oscar. And maybe Hinata if she wants in."

"Arrogant little bastard," Zabuza said, cracking his neck. "Fine. Let's see if Haku was right about you. That boy always saw something in people."

In the blink of an eye, Zabuza's blade swung up in a vicious arc meant to cleave Naruto in two.

But Naruto didn't flinch.

He responded with a brutal, two-handed swing that collided with Zabuza's Kubikiribōchō with a deafening crack!

The two blades stopped just short of impact, hovering centimeters from each other. A shockwave erupted from the clash, blasting leaves and dirt outward in a circle around them.

Hinata gasped, bracing herself against the pressure, heart pounding. Naruto is on another level now.

Zabuza clicked his tongue. Frustrated. Impressed. In that single moment, he knew: if they actually fought to kill, it wouldn't be an easy win. Not for either of them.

"...Fine," Zabuza muttered, stepping back. "We'll do it your way."

"Great!" Naruto turned with a grin. "Hinata, you wanna come?"

"Hey, hey... we didn't agree on your little girlfriend tagging along," Zabuza snapped.

"Hinata's Byakugan will help us spot traps, enemy placements, and maybe even Haku. You want him saved or not?"

Zabuza growled but didn't argue. "Fine."

Naruto looked at Hinata. "Up for a nighttime rescue mission?"

Hinata smiled, her eyes steady and calm. "Someone's gotta pull you out of the fire, right?"

While Naruto was glad Hinata had volunteered to come along, he couldn't shake the uneasy knot forming in his gut. He glanced sideways at her as they waited in the clearing. The moonlight reflected off her pale eyes, but her stance was calm and focused. She was ready.

Still, he couldn't help himself.

"Hinata," Naruto said seriously, his tone shifting as he formed a shadow clone beside him, "listen. If anything happens, anything, I need you to run."

Hinata blinked. "And fire support arrows from cover, right?"

"Sure," Naruto replied, already forming the clone. "But if it comes down to choosing between helping me or staying safe, you pick yourself every time. Got it?"

Hinata gave a reluctant nod, even as the clone stepped toward her and unfurled a scroll. From the scroll, it produced a Lordran caliper compass. A tool used by blacksmiths to measure proportions with fine accuracy. The clone adjusted it with care, gently positioning it to measure her shoulders, waist, hips, and limbs while referencing the scroll like a trained artisan.

Hinata stiffened, going bright red. "U-Um… is this necessary?"

"Completely," the clone said, professional to the core. "Andre's work demands precise specs for optimal protection and comfort."

"Trust me. By the time we run into enemies, you'll be wearing gear better than some jōnin."

Zabuza narrowed his eyes at the whole process. "Wait a second...? You're having custom armor made right now?"

Naruto nodded. "Yeah. The clone's gonna return to Lordran. Andre's the blacksmith there. Best I've ever met."

Before Zabuza could process that, the clone shimmered in golden light and vanished with a flash of soul energy.

Zabuza blinked. "Is Lordran some kind of summoning realm?"

"Pretty much," Naruto said, already pulling out a pouch. "Now hold still."

He sprinkled golden Repair Powder over the Kubikiribōchō. The worn, chipped cleaver hissed faintly as glowing particles seeped into its metal. The edge reformed. Scratches vanished. The blade looked freshly forged.

Zabuza stared at it. Then at Naruto. Then back at the blade. "...Am I in a genjutsu?"

"Nope," Naruto said.

Hinata smiled softly.

Zabuza held his sword up, turning it in the moonlight. "This blade was ruined in the Mist Purge. It hasn't looked this clean in years. I've reforged it six times and it's never come out like this."

Naruto, already fishing through another pouch, said casually, "Don't worry. It'll hold. Still not a fan of the blood-drinking part, but hey."

Zabuza blinked again. Just who was this kid?

Then Naruto turned to Hinata. "Give me your hand."

She obeyed quietly, her blush still lingering. Naruto slid a silver ring onto her finger.

It was the Wolf Ring.

Hinata gasped softly as the ring touched her skin. Because she felt it. This was different than chakra. Her breath slowed. Her balance shifted, as if the earth itself had anchored her. Curious, she activated her Byakugan.

Her vision adjusted, then widened in silent awe.

This energy wasn't chakra. It didn't flow through her tenketsu or surge along familiar pathways. Instead, it formed a layer of almost invisible armor that wrapped around her body like a second skin. It shimmered in strange patterns she couldn't read, woven like invisible steel.

"What are you doing?"

"Making sure she doesn't die," Naruto replied. "She's precious to me. Just like Haku is to you."

Hinata's fingers curled around the ring, holding her hand close to her chest. She couldn't find the words, but her eyes said everything.

"...Aren't you two a little young to be tying the knot?"

Naruto blinked. "What?"

Hinata, on the other hand, turned her head slowly, her expression darkening. Her chakra flared in a way Zabuza immediately recognized as dangerous.

Zabuza took a tactical step back. "Right. Touchy topic. Got it."

Naruto, as usual, remained blissfully unaware of the implication as he had slid the Wolf Ring onto Hinata's ring finger. He summoned several more clones, this time lining them up around the camp perimeter.

Zabuza watched the scene unfold without breaking a sweat. He exhaled slowly. "...Kid."

Naruto turned. "Yeah?"

Zabuza looked at him, really looked at him. "I've been around shinobi my whole life. Fought jōnin, ANBU, and missing-nin. Killed more than a few. But I've never seen one genin pull this much weight alone. You're a walking logistics division."

Naruto shrugged. "I do my best."

"No," Zabuza muttered, more to himself now. "You're dangerous. And not because of your power. Because you're prepared. You're the kind of soldier that turns wars."

Naruto blinked. "Cool."

"And yet you're still an idiot."

"Oh, by the way," Naruto said, casually pointing at Zabuza's face, "congrats."

"...On what now?"

"Your eyebrows. They grew back."

Zabuza froze. His hand shot up to his face. Sure enough. Very faint, very thin brows had returned. "What? No. That's not... these were burned years ago. My whole forehead needed grafts."

"I told you, I'm a healer," Naruto said with a grin. "Apparently even for eyebrows."

"...So now I'm stuck with baby brows?"

"Would you prefer thick catepillars?"

Hinata snorted. She couldn't help it.

"I swear," Zabuza muttered, gripping his sword, "if I wasn't morally obligated to get Haku back alive, I'd cleave you in half."

Naruto smirked. "So would half the people I know."

"Let's just go," Zabuza growled, turning toward the woods. "Before I start questioning reality."

"By the end of tonight," Naruto whispered to Hinata, leaning in with a grin, "I guarantee Zabuza's gonna need a drink, a nap, and maybe a support group… all because of me."

Hinata giggled, covering her mouth as Zabuza growled ahead of them, already regretting every life choice that led to this moment.

With that, the group slipped into the forest's embrace, vanishing beneath moonlit branches and whispering leaves, completely unaware they were marching straight into a night so chaotic, bloody, and insane that even Zabuza would one day swear he hallucinated half of it.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

"So this was your hideout?" Naruto asked, stepping through the overgrown brush and onto what remained of the raised wooden platform.

It had once been a sturdy treehouse. Now it stood shattered and torn apart. Thick wooden beams were split like matchsticks, and scorched fragments of kunai-studded walls littered the forest floor. Blood had dried in dark smears across shattered floorboards, and one half of the structure hung limply off a snapped support cable, creaking with every gust of wind.

"This was one of Gato's safehouses," Zabuza said grimly, stepping over a broken plank. "He gave it to me to operate out of during the mission."

The Mist-nin crouched beside a collapsed portion of the wall, running his fingers over a pink crystal shard embedded in the wood.

"The fight ended fast," Zabuza muttered, eyes scanning the ruined hideout. "Too fast. I was still tied up dealing with Guren's lackeys… but from the damage here, I don't think Haku even stood a chance."

Naruto hummed in thought, but his attention drifted toward Oscar, who was standing rigidly near a broken door. The little lizard's body glowed faintly under the moonlight, his glassy eyes locked onto a jagged pink crystal that had sprouted from the wood like a diseased tumor.

Naruto raised a brow. "Oscar…?"

Oscar chirped, crouching low as if preparing to pounce.

Naruto smirked. He could tell the crystal lizard was more than eager to square up with Guren. Looks like someone wants to fight a fellow crystal user, Naruto joked under his breath.

I wonder if Guren drops a special soul like Shisui and the Moonlight Butterfly.

The idea intrigued him more than it should've. Would her soul give him something unique? Armor? A technique? Maybe even an upgrade for Oscar?

He was mulling it over when a rustling in the nearby bushes drew their attention. Both Naruto and Zabuza shifted instinctively, hands moving to their weapons until a familiar voice called out.

"Sorry for the delay," Hinata said as she stepped into the clearing.

Naruto blinked.

Gone was the cream-colored hooded jacket. Her upper body was covered in a sleeveless, dark brown tunic reinforced with overlapping square metal plates across the chest, each bordered in a faint golden trim. Lighter straps crisscrossed the torso for added support. Her shoulders were bare, but her arms were wrapped in shining golden bandages from biceps to fingertips that were flexible but durable.

Around her waist, a thick leather belt held multiple pouches that were all wrapped in the same golden threadwork. Below, a split skirt hung down in patterned panels of deep black with diamond-shaped designs in muted gold and silver. The skirt split open slightly at the sides, revealing loose-fitting black pants tucked into dark, tightly-bound boots laced to her knees.

Naruto whistled. "Wow."

Hinata gave a shy smile and spun slowly on the spot. "How do I look?"

Naruto gave a thumbs-up, a proud grin on his face. "Like a badass. Andre really outdid himself."

Zabuza groaned loudly. "Can you two not flirt in a battlefield?"

Naruto chuckled but nodded. "Right, back to business."

Hinata straightened. "Actually… I've already been working. While you two were checking the wreckage, I've been using my Byakugan to track Haku's chakra."

Zabuza turned sharply, eyes widening. "You what?"

Hinata didn't hesitate. She unrolled a scroll across a flat stone nearby. With swift, precise brushstrokes, she sketched a topographic outline of the surrounding forest. Her finger traced several elevation marks and finally stopped on a cliff edge.

"Two hundred meters southeast. There's an underground facility hidden in the cliffside near the shoreline," she explained. "I only caught it because Haku's chakra flickered briefly. There are other chakra signatures too—five, maybe six, moving inside."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Seriously, why does Gato have so many secret hideouts?"

"Because his entire empire runs off illegal smuggling, human trafficking, drug rings, you name it," Zabuza said bitterly. "These places? They're where the real money flows."

Naruto sighed. "Figures. Alright. We move in, but not blind. We'll approach quietly, and Hinata scouts again before we decide how to enter. Sound good?"

Zabuza paused, watching them with a critical eye.

He had expected to be the leader. But here these genin were taking initiative, executing recon, coordinating tactics like seasoned professionals.

"Hold up," Zabuza muttered. "Exactly how many missions have you two been on?"

"This is our first one," they said in perfect unison.

Zabuza stared at them like they'd just announced they were summoning the Sage of Six Paths. "What the hell are they feeding genin in Konoha?"

Naruto said with a grin, "Mostly depression and instant noodles."

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

It was 2:00 a.m. when the fog began to roll in.

It hugged the coastline like a second skin and slithered through the rocks without a sound. The two guards outside the compound barely paid attention. Mist was common this close to the sea. Then they heard it.

Thud… drag… thud… drag…

Footsteps. Heavy. Deliberate. A rhythm of something ancient and unrelenting.

Out of the gray emerged a figure, tall and hulking, dragging a monstrous cleaver behind him.

One guard reached for his blade. The other snapped through hand signs, voice cracking: "Ninja Art: Banshee Wail!"

A spiraling screech of chakra-infused sound blasted upward, shattering the stillness. It was a warning flare.

Zabuza didn't slow down; not because it was his usual style, but because Naruto's plan called for noise. Chaos. He was the distraction, and his job was to make damn sure everyone in that compound knew the Demon of the Mist had returned.

The first guard charged, and Zabuza's sword swung from the mist like a whispering guillotine. One clean arc. One body down. The second turned to flee. He didn't make it two steps before Zabuza's boot caught his spine and folded him over like paper.

The bodies hit the ground together.

And then, the real welcome began.

From the walls of the compound, a dozen razor-edged crystal vines burst outward.

Zabuza ducked, dodged, and vanished into the mist. The crystals sliced through air and struck nothing.

"...So you really came back." Guren stepped out. Her expression was unreadable, but her eyes burned with quiet malice. "I expected you'd die in the forest like a wounded dog," she continued. "Alone and out of chakra. Too proud to crawl."

"I didn't come to fight you."

"Of course not," she murmured. "You came for the boy."

She stepped forward once, letting the crystal beneath her grow taller. "Haku was efficient. Loyal. Beautiful in form, even in defeat. It was such a shame you turned him into a failure."

Zabuza's grip on the Kubikiribōchō tightened, but his expression remained still.

"I'm not here to talk," Zabuza replied. "I'm here to take back what's mine."

"Nothing here belongs to you. Not anymore. Not Haku. Not your pride. Not even your name."

Zabuza's voice dropped an octave, low and heavy with intent. "Then I'll take it back by force."

She raised her hand and made a lazy snapping motion.

"Gozu," she said, almost gently. "Break him."

Gozu flickered forward, his body already bulging with twisted muscle. His jutsu was grotesque—it was an unstable mimicry of Akimichi techniques warped through experimentation and forbidden medicine.

Zabuza didn't move.

Crack.

A single arrow tore through the fog like a sniper's shot.

The large arrow struck Gozu with the force of a lightning bolt.

He didn't dodge. He didn't even try.

Arrogant in the power Orochimaru had gifted him, Gozu believed his body could take anything. He'd crushed boulders barehanded. Torn through armor. A single arrow? He scoffed. But the moment it pierced his chest, a shrill whine cut through the air. A vibration, so fast it blurred to the eye, began to ripple through the shaft. The wind chakra embedded in the projectile cut on the molecular level. It destabilized the bonds holding his cells together.

Gozu had time to widen his eyes.

Then his upper half simply… vanished.

Gone in an instant. The arrow tore straight through his torso, atomizing everything from the sternum up in a spiraling burst of force. Chunks of liquefied flesh sprayed into the mist like red vapor.

Smoke still trailed from the gory mist.

Guren stood motionless atop her crystal spire, expression unreadable. For a moment, she didn't speak. Then: "That wasn't you."

Zabuza exhaled slowly, mist coiling tighter around his shoulders like a shroud. "No. That's the part you didn't account for."

Guren's lips parted slightly but only to exhale as she twisted midair, narrowly dodging an arrow whistling straight for her head. She landed in a crouch, one hand slamming against the earth.

Earth Style: Seismic Sense.

The chakra pulsed outward through the ground like sonar. Guren's senses lit up. Every footstep, every breath, every subtle shift in weight around her transmitted through stone and soil. She smiled coldly.

"This is your plan?" she called, voice echoing through the mist. "You and two genin? I was expecting the full Konoha circus. Not this. What did you do, Zabuza? Kidnap them? Threaten them?"

Zabuza didn't respond.

He moved.

Not like the bloodied, stumbling wreck she remembered. This was the Demon of the Mist.

Guren flew back through the air, twisting midair as she landed in a crouch, boots dragging a furrow into the ground. Behind her, in the cover of the impact and fog, two shadows slipped past the defenses.

Naruto and Hinata were inside.

The trap was working.

Zabuza had drawn out Guren while selling the lie with just enough fatigue to be convincing. And now the real mission was already in motion.

Zabuza stepped forward again, blade resting on his shoulder, mist curling around his boots like smoke from an old battlefield.

"You should've fought me on the water," Guren snapped, rising to her feet. "Maybe then you'd give me a real challenge."

The mist thickened.

"You love the sound of your own voice..."

His blade swung wide, slicing through fog and memory, and for the briefest moment, Guren's senses screamed.

"...Let me show you how beautiful your screams can sound."

WHAM!

The Kubikiribōchō came for her throat but crystal flared across her body just in time. A layer of gleaming pink armor, jagged and smooth like diamond glass, caught the blade mid-swing. The force still launched her backward, boots tearing twin grooves through the dirt as she skidded to a stop.

Hands flying through seals, she snapped her fingers.

Crystal Style: Crystal Spiked Armor!

Guren's body glowed briefly before jagged pink thorns exploded from her crystalline shell, launching in every direction like a storm of razors.

Zabuza didn't dodge.

He burst into a splash of water hitting the stones.

A water clone.

She didn't waste a breath. Spinning on her heel, she looked toward the entrance of the compound.

The Zabuza standing there was real. She knew it instantly.

The Kubikiribōchō swept upward with killing intent, aiming to cleave her in half. She twisted, just barely avoiding the blow, backstepping as the blade carved a trench in the ground where she'd been.

"You know," Guren said as she regained distance, breath steady, eyes sharp, "those two genin you snuck inside? They're going to die in there if this is your grand strategy."

Her voice was casual, but her tone was probing, deliberate. She didn't understand the plan, and it bothered her. No backup, no reinforcements, just two kids and him.

Zabuza didn't answer right away. He simply lifted his blade and rested it on his shoulder, mist curling once more around his boots like a patient predator coiling to strike.

Guren narrowed her eyes. "They're just genin. You're throwing them into a fortress full of my people and you're out here playing bait? What exactly are you trying to pull?"

Zabuza gave a shrug.

Guren's lips pressed into a thin line.

Suddenly, from the mist, a piercing beam of concentrated blue energy cut through the fog, hitting Guren dead center. Her crystal armor shimmered briefly before exploding outward in a spray of fractured light and vapor. Zabuza blinked, squinting against the sudden burst.

"What the hell was that?"

Smoke billowed out across the water.

From the haze, Guren emerged. Her dress was in tatters, her second crystal skin gleaming like refined diamond under the moonlight. Her chest heaved, but her footing was sure. That attack had power behind it. Chakra, yes, but something else too. Something foreign. Her eyes immediately locked onto the source.

The lizard.

One magic gun was still steaming from the last shot, the other humming with renewed charge. He fired again. Two rapid pulses of blue energy lanced through the fog, forcing Guren to twist and flip to avoid them.

Guren landed on a shattered crystal platform, panting softly. Her thoughts churned despite herself.

That thing... it's using some kind of crystal release. But it's not mine. The structure's different. The refractive pattern doesn't match any I've seen. Is it a bloodline? A mutation? A foreign variation?

She clenched her jaw, forcing her mind back to the fight.

Focus. You're a soldier of Orochimaru. Curiosity is for the lab. This is the battlefield.

"Crystal Style: Crystal Clone."

Two copies of herself burst out from her shoulders, sprinting to flank Zabuza as she launched into the air.

Midair, she formed a new blade that was sleek, curved, and glowing with deep blue chakra. Below, Oscar locked onto her movement.

The lizard's tail twisted and whipped upward, crystals rapidly forming into a spiked club, and launched it.

CRACK!

Blade and club collided. But the instant they touched—

BOOOOM.

The opposing energies of magic and chakra reacted violently, a pulse of pure force erupting from the clash. Guren was flung backward, skidding across the surface of the water, landing hard in a three-point stance. Water sprayed high around her.

That wasn't normal.

She rose slowly.

His crystal energy destabilized mine. It's incompatible... and volatile. If they touch again, the blast might take us both out.

The mist thickened as Zabuza moved through it like a silent ghost.

Her heartbeat quickened. She turned slowly, forming a lance of crystal in her left hand, holding it low like a spear.

CLANG!

His blade came from the right. She blocked just in time, the impact shaking her bones. Zabuza disappeared again into the fog. She spun, eyes darting as she couldn't see anything in the Hidden Mist Jutsu.

CLANG! From behind. Then the left. Then above.

Each blow came without warning. His footfalls were silent, his strikes precise, aiming not for brute force but for weak spots in her guard.

Zabuza was a hunter, and she was prey.

He closed in again, but this time not swinging for her head. He faked high before pivoting low. She jumped back, barely avoiding a sweep meant to take her legs out from under her.

Guren gritted her teeth. "You're relentless."

Zabuza said nothing. His breathing was slow, even, as if the mist itself was sustaining him.

Another beam fired from Oscar, this time from a different angle. Guren ducked low, the shot cutting clean through her previous position and disintegrating a distant stone.

Damn it, she thought. That summon's using the mist like a cover. One hit and I'm dead.

She slammed her palm into the water.

Crystal Release: The Gods' Crossings.

A series of sharp, vine-like crystals erupted from the lake's surface, forming a long path of piercing, needle-like growths.

Zabuza leapt upward, then spun, using the flat of his blade to slice through the incoming barrage like a scythe through tall grass. But the attack was just to pin his attention.

Oscar was the real target. He reacted instantly, firing a precise beam that intercepted the incoming crystal growth mid-flight, detonating it in a burst of shattering shards and chakra smoke. Suddenly a massive hexagonal shuriken made of crystal flew through the mist, spinning with deadly force toward the lizard. Oscar saw it coming, eyes narrowing, then fired.

BOOM.

The crystal projectile exploded midair, shattered by a perfectly timed beam.

But Guren wasn't done.

She curved around from the side like a viper.

Crystal Release: Crystal Wheel!

A disk-shaped formation grew beneath her, lifting her above the water. With chakra-enhanced speed, she zipped across the lake like a buzzsaw, closing in on Oscar.

Crystal Release: Crimson Fruit.

A red crystal orb formed midair, snapping shut around Oscar with near-instant speed in a perfect sphere. Inside, the lizard spun, slamming its tail against the walls. No cracks. The orb shimmered with reinforced layers.

You blast it, Guren thought coldly, you kill yourself.

"Let's see what Lord Orochimaru can learn from dissecting you," she whispered. She pressed both palms to the orb and began layering more crystal around it.

WHAM!

The Kubikiribōchō came down like a guillotine.

Guren barely blocked with her crystal-armored arm, the impact sending a shockwave through her body. "You're starting to annoy me," she muttered.

Before either could land another blow, the orb began to glow.

"...You little shit," Guren muttered. "You're going to kill yourself."

The orb detonated.

White-blue light ripped outward, blasting both jonin backward in twin shockwaves. Guren tumbled across the water, armor cracked. Zabuza slid back, sword anchoring him. Smoke choked the air as both Zabuza and Guren prepared for their next clash. But then they felt it.

A sudden ripple of pressure within their own chakra networks.

ROOOAAARRR.

The roar cracked the night wide open, shattering the silence and ripping the mist apart like paper.

From the haze stepped something monstrous.

Oscar was no longer a small lizard. His crystal mecha form stood tall on two digitigrade legs, a living sculpture of serrated crystal and thrumming blue energy. The Ravenous Crystal Lizard had fully awakened.

Zabuza exhaled a low whistle. "Of course... Naruto would summon something like this. Like having a summon with a kekkei genkai wasn't ridiculous enough, now it's a walking fortress with a transformation sequence."

Oscar didn't wait.

BOOM!

He charged, each step pounding across the surface of the lake so fast it was as if he were sprinting on solid ground.

Guren's eyes snapped wide. She slammed a hand to the surface.

Crystal Release: Tearing Crystal Falling Dragon!

The lake itself shimmered and rose, crystallizing mid-motion into the shape of a massive serpent. The dragon's jaws gaped open, razor-sharp scales glittering. But Zabuza was already there.

"Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu!"

His dragon surged forward, crashing into the crystal serpent with a deafening explosion of steam, mist, and jagged shards. Amidst the chaos, Guren suddenly found herself directly in the beast's path.

Her hands flew up.

Crystal Release: Needles!

Dozens of long, gleaming shards formed around her, shooting at Oscar like a storm of pink and white razors. But Oscar roared again and vaulted skyward, twisting midair like a predator with impossible agility.

Above the battlefield, the mist began to reform.

Zabuza had used the chaos to recast the Hidden Mist Jutsu, cloaking the area in a dense, suffocating veil.

Guren narrowed her eyes, knowing neither she nor Oscar could see anything now. But Oscar didn't have a problem. He had Soul Sight.

Guren moved silently, body low, taking careful steps—only to freeze. She felt something above her.

Oscar's tail was already aligned.

From midair, a blue beam of light screamed downward. It hit the water right beside her, detonating in a pulse of concussive force and instantly crystallizing the entire section into a domed shell around her.

FWASHHH... CRACK!

A massive crystal sheet erupted where Guren had stood, shimmering like a frozen lotus.

Oscar landed hard on the lake, mist swirling around his claws.

Zabuza grunted, blade resting on his shoulder. "So... what the hell are you?"

Oscar growled twice. Low. Sharp.

Before either could say more, the lake rippled as a new chakra wave surged through the battlefield.

It was vile.

And it was coming from the crystal shell Oscar had just created.

Guren exploded upward.

Chunks of scorched crystal and water flew in every direction as her body regenerated in real time, skin knitting itself back together, blood sizzling as it was reabsorbed. Dark markings slithered across her flesh like ink in water.

The Curse Mark had activated.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

A few minutes earlier, Naruto and Hinata landed silently in the shadows of the stone corridor.

The air was cold, the walls damp. Flickering lanterns cast long shadows across the floor.

Hinata's eyes pulsed as her Byakugan flared to life, veins rising around her temples. "Ten chakra signatures," she whispered, scanning the area. "Haku's in the third room to the left… but he's covered in heavy suppression seals. He's not moving."

Naruto gave a tight nod. "Then we move fast."

Suddenly, a noxious gray smoke began to flood the hallway, seeping out from vents in the ceiling and floor.

"Two incoming," Hinata said sharply, her tone shifting.

Out of the haze came a stretching limb, whipping toward her like a slingshot. Hinata stepped aside, pivoting smoothly while deflecting the limb with a fluid strike. But the enemy flew toward her like a spring, feet-first.

Double flying kick.

Hinata blocked the blow with crossed forearms, her boots scraping against stone as she was pushed back.

"Wow," the attacker said in a voice too casual for a fight. "That felt like kicking a wall. You always this sturdy, little girl?"

He landed in a crouch. Despite his slender, androgynous build, his posture was confident. He wore a full-body slime suit, only his painted face visible, with eyes unnervingly wide and lips smeared with deep green pigment. A few tufts of pale pink hair poked out from his hood.

[ Name: Nurari ]
[ HP: 250/250 ]

Naruto was already moving when a barrage of kunai whistled through the air from down the hall.

[ Name: Kigiri ]
[ HP: 255/255 ]

Kigiri's gas mask gave his appearance an eerie silence. Dull purple hair framed his masked face, and his dark cloak rippled in the smoke.

Naruto calmly raised his talisman.

"Force."

A sudden omnidirectional shockwave blasted outward from his palm. The kunai stopped in midair, then spun away like leaves in a storm. Nurari stumbled, hit by the miracle, momentarily stunned just in time for Hinata to strike.

She surged forward, stance locked. "Eight Trigrams: Sixty-Four Palms!"

Her palms shot forward in precise, rapid strikes of 2… 4… 8… 16… 32… 64!

Each blow targeted specific chakra points, disrupting flow, shutting down mobility. But her hands hit a slick, sticky barrier.

"What?"

Her palms were coated in a mucus-like slime, thick and clinging, resisting her chakra penetration. It was like trying to strike through wet glue.

"Gross," she muttered, grimacing.

"Birdlime membrane," Nurari grinned. "A little gift from Lord Orochimaru."

Before he could twist away, Naruto's Eye of Calamity snapped open.

Nurari was yanked back mid-sentence. "Wha—?"

Naruto caught him by the back of his neck. "Too slow."

Shunk.

A single thrust from his rapier pierced clean through Nurari's back and out his chest. The man's eyes widened in shock, then dimmed.

[ HP: 0/250 ]

Kigiri didn't hesitate.

"Fire Style: Exploding Flame Shot!"

He snapped his fingers.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Three flaming orbs shot through the hallway, arcing toward Naruto.

But Hinata was already moving. Her fingers glowed with chakra thread lines, like a puppet master. Her Byakugan tracked the trajectory of each flaming orb with mathematical precision.

Flick—Flick—Flick.

Each chakra thread struck a specific point mid-trajectory, changing the spin and velocity of the fireballs, redirecting them off course. They splashed harmlessly into the walls with bursts of flame.

Kigiri blinked as Naruto was gone.

A whisper of motion passed beside him, then silence.

THUNK.

Kigiri's body slumped.

His head rolled away a second later. The last thing he saw was the reflection of his decapitated face in Naruto's gleaming Zweihander and the knight's back already walking away.

[ Kigiri – HP: 0/255 ]

"Thanks for covering my back," Naruto said as he absorbed the flickering soul fragments of the two enemies.

Hinata gave a quiet nod, knowing full well Naruto didn't need help with them. Still, she appreciated his politeness.

"Hinata, can you check on the others?" Naruto asked, slipping his rapier back into its sheath.

She closed her eyes for a second, letting her Byakugan pulse once more. "Most of them are talking... relaxed or thinking. No one's alarmed."

Naruto's eyes narrowed. "That means they think we're just regular genin. They assumed those two would kill us, and someone must've sensed our presence the moment we stepped inside."

"They don't know what happened yet," Hinata added.

"There's a guy with a bat summon," she continued. "It's using echolocation."

Naruto nodded. "So the bat scouted us. Makes sense. Let me know right before it screeches again. I'm going to move before its next ping gives away that we're still alive."

Hinata wasn't sure what he meant by move, but nodded anyway.

Naruto quietly unequipped the Elite Knight armor, replacing it with the Steel Armor Set.

A full-body metal suit encased him, gleaming in the dim corridor light. The steel was blue-silver, polished, heavy. His helmet had a narrow eye slit and a feather-like spike protruding from the top. The chestplate was layered, dense, reinforced at the joints. His arms and hands vanished beneath smooth metal gauntlets. A tattered black cloth hung beneath the metal skirt, brushing against his greaves. The armor groaned slightly as he moved like a juggernaut built for defense, not speed.

Hinata tilted her head. "Isn't that too heavy?"

Naruto didn't answer. He slipped on the Bellowing Dragoncrest Ring, and suddenly his entire body began to vibrate. A low hum filled the air as wind chakra flooded into the armor, dancing across the metal like ripples over water.

With her Byakugan active, she could see it clearly. The chakra wasn't just flowing, it was vibrating, fast and unstable like a storm held together by sheer will.

Wind chakra isn't supposed to behave like that, she thought. It's supposed to cut, not tremble. This shouldn't even be possible.

The level of elemental control Naruto displayed wasn't just advanced, it felt unnatural. Like he was twisting the nature of chakra itself into something new. Something dangerous.

"Hinata," Naruto said, his voice low. "The moment I move... close your Byakugan."

She blinked. "Why?"

"Because what I'm about to do will scare you. I'd rather you not see it."

Hinata's face tightened. "No."

He turned his head.

"I don't want to look away anymore," she said, her voice clear. "I've spent too long avoiding the cruel side of the world. I need to face it. I won't live in ignorance."

Naruto held her gaze for a moment longer. Then nodded. "Don't say I didn't warn you."

A few seconds passed.

Hinata gave the signal. The bat had just used echolocation.

Naruto vanished and what happened next shattered Hinata's view of the world.

She had seen punishment.

She had endured punishment.

Hinata had stood in the Hyūga compound's cold wooden corridors, the silence pierced only by the sickening thud of flesh against flesh as branch family members collapsed under discipline. She had been struck herself, pain flaring behind her ribs as the Gentle Fist stripped her of chakra and breath. She had watched her father glance past her like she was nothing. She had watched her mother fall into a coma, and lived with the weight of her cousin's hatred ever since.

She thought she understood violence. She thought she understood fear.

But this... this wasn't violence. This wasn't fear.

This was annihilation.

In an instant, Naruto exploded from the shadows, steel armor humming with raw energy. He wasn't running... he was tearing through space. The chakra around his body vibrated so violently her Byakugan blurred just trying to keep up. Wind chakra wasn't supposed to behave like this. It wasn't supposed to buzz like lightning or slice like diamond-tipped saws. It wasn't supposed to erase people from existence.

But it did.

The first man didn't scream. His lungs were gone. Naruto passed through him like a cannonball, and his body simply collapsed into slurry. Before the chunks hit the floor, Naruto had already moved on, just a blur of silver and velocity.

The second guard raised a hand in warning. No time for defense, no time for jutsu. One second he was standing, the next his torso peeled open like wet paper, spine shattered, heart misted across the wall.

A woman shouted. Steel flashed. The hallway echoed with a wet pop as her head gone, a crimson geyser spattering the stone ceiling.

Hinata dropped to the floor behind him, eyes wide. Her breath hitched. Not from fear of him... but from awe. From disbelief. From witnessing something so far beyond what she thought possible that her mind struggled to process it. Her Byakugan picked up flickers of life ahead, then nothing. Gone. Naruto didn't fight people. He erased them. He shattered them at the molecular level.

Every strike was a violent equation that ended in zero.

And yet there was no joy in his face. No hatred. No bloodlust. Only focus. Calm. Like a butcher on the clock, cleaning the slaughter floor.

Naruto glanced back.

Hinata hadn't moved.

"Told her to close her eyes," he muttered under his breath.

The last of Guren's shinobi stood ahead of him, trembling. His partner had just been turned into paste between Naruto's armor and the wall. The only reason Naruto hadn't done the same to Rinji was because the Bellowing Dragoncrest Ring combined with Fist of the Peregrine had dropped his HP too low. One more impact, and he might've died along with him.

[ Name: Rinji ]
[ HP: 300 / 300 ]

Rinji had dark brown hair, black eyes, and a loose-fitting purple vest that exposed his chest. Bandages wrapped around his midsection. A faded blue poncho draped over his shoulders, and tan pants tucked into dark brown sandals. Despite his usual laid-back, calculating attitude, the massacre had left him pale and shaking.

"I don't know what kind of freak you are," Rinji barked, trying to steady his voice, "but you're not human. You're a damn monster!"

Dozens of bats burst from the shadows behind him, screeching as they circled the room. Their bodies pulsed with chakra as they unleashed a wave of high-frequency sound.

Naruto's vision wobbled. His balance slipped. "Oh..." he muttered, narrowing his eyes. "You're using sound to mess with my equilibrium."

Rinji's fingers twitched, but a glimmer of something other than bloodlust sparked in his eyes.

"Wait... wait, listen," he said quickly, eyes darting between the twitching corpses on the ground and Naruto's face. "I'm not with Guren! Not really! I didn't sign up for this, I was forced into this whole thing."

He took a cautious step back.

"They used me in sound experiments. I didn't want this, alright? I never wanted to hurt anyone. We can team up! You want Guren dead? So do I! I can help you... please..."

Naruto didn't move.

Rinji's breathing picked up. "I'm not your enemy! I'll tell you where the others are. I'll give you intel. I... I know stuff! I was just surviving, same as you!"

Naruto blinked once. Then slowly, he started running.

Staggering. Off balance. Listing like a drunk.

Rinji's panic shifted into hope. "Yes! That's it—"

Perfect.

Rinji reached for a kunai.

Schlik!

A thin silver rapier burst through his eye socket and out the back of his skull. Rinji's body jerked once. Then dropped like a sack of meat. Dead before the neurons had time to fire.

Naruto stepped forward, wiping the blood from his blade with a soft snort.

"Equilibrium tricks might've worked on someone else," he said flatly, "but unfortunately for you… I was wearing the Rusted Iron Ring."

The dull, unassuming band shimmered faintly on his finger. It anchored him, ensuring solid footing even on unstable terrain. Rinji's technique was clever, but in the end, it only gave Naruto an excuse to act.

The stumble?

All bait.

Another fool, lured in by false weakness.

Naruto's shadow clone emerged beside him with a puff. "Room's cleared. What now?"

Naruto stared at Rinji's corpse for a second longer. "Bag the soul drops. Bring Hinata. We're almost done here."

The clone nodded and vanished.

[ Great Heal Excerpt has been attuned. ]

[ Force Miracle removed. ]

Moments later, the clone reappeared, cradling Hinata gently in a bridal hold. Her eyes were half-open, darting but unfocused. Her breathing was shallow. Her lips moved slightly, but no words came out. She looked like she was trying to speak or scream but couldn't remember how.

The clone looked shaken. "What happened to her?"

Naruto didn't answer right away. He stared at her face, the way her fingers twitched slightly, the way her pupils didn't quite track movement.

"She was there," he finally said. "She saw all of it. What I did to those people."

The clone looked back down at her. "Shock?"

Naruto nodded once. "Her body's reacting, but her mind hasn't caught up. I think she dissociated. Her brain just… shut down. Like it's trying to protect her from what she saw."

He exhaled, jaw tight.

"She got her first kill just a little while ago. That alone messes with you. But what she saw after… that wasn't just death."

The clone nodded. "So, what now?"

Naruto exhaled. "While I was training in Lordran, I asked Sir Siegmeyer what the difference was between a regular heal, an Estus Flask, and a Great Heal Excerpt. He told me the Estus heals the body. A normal Heal miracle does the same. But the Great Heal... it can soothe the mind. The Church of the Way of White used it for warriors, paladins, nobles who came back from war with demons."

Then he paused.

"Wait. Why are you even asking me this? You're a clone."

The clone smiled. "Maybe I just thought you needed to say it out loud."

Naruto went quiet.

"...Maybe. I've been wondering. If Hinata broke from seeing that, and I didn't feel anything, not even a flicker of guilt... what does that make me?" His voice lowered. "Has Lordran changed me so much? Or is this my draconic side leaking through?"

"Maybe both," the clone said. "But you do feel guilty about Hinata. That means you're still you. Don't forget that."

Naruto nodded slowly. "Thanks. Reminders help."

He placed a hand on Hinata's forehead and cast Great Heal Excerpt. A soft, blinding white light enveloped her. When it faded, she blinked rapidly and put a hand to her head.

"How do you feel?" Naruto asked.

"...Weird," she said slowly. "Like something… huge happened. But now it's just fragments. I feel like I have memories of memories."

"Probably just a side effect," Naruto said casually. "That smoke guy might've slipped something into the air. Toxin or genjutsu trigger. You just dozed off."

Hinata stared at him for a second, then gave a small nod.

"Anyway," Naruto said, standing up and turning. "Let's go free Haku."

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

In the next room, Haku hung limp from thick chains embedded into stone. His body was a roadmap of violence. Bruises bloomed across his skin like dark flowers, and dried blood caked his mouth and chest. Dozens of talismans clung to his bare torso, pulsing faintly with sealing chakra.

Still, his one visible eye cracked open, bloodshot and glassy.

"...Na...ru...to...?"

Naruto stepped forward, slow and steady, eyes softening despite the gore still wet on his boots.

"You look like shit."

"Naruto-kun," Hinata interrupted quickly, her Byakugan already scanning the trapwork. "There's a hidden network of fūinjutsu. If we just pull them out, he'll detonate. I can disarm it, but I'll need a minute."

Naruto nodded. "It's all you."

As Hinata knelt, placing her fingertips carefully near the seals, Naruto crouched beside Haku. The boy's chest rose in shallow breaths.

"Why?" Haku rasped. "Why… are you… here?"

Naruto shrugged,"You'll have to ask your boss. No-Brows came limping into our camp like a kicked dog. Practically begged us to help you."

Haku blinked, confused.

One of the tags shimmered under Hinata's hand, then hissed as it disintegrated into ash. She worked methodically, disabling each seal one by one. The room stayed quiet except for the soft burn of chakra unraveling.

Once the last tag was gone, Naruto gripped the chains and snapped them like wet twine.

Haku dropped forward, but Naruto caught him with one arm, gently easing him to the floor.

"Still breathing. That's a good start."

He pulled out a talisman, slapped it to Haku's chest, and activated a Heal miracle. Warm golden light spread across Haku's body. Cuts sealed. Bones reset. Bruises vanished. By the time the glow faded, Haku looked untouched, but wide-eyed and trembling. He raised a hand to his chest in disbelief. "...This shouldn't be possible."

Naruto smiled.

Then bonked him lightly on the head.

"Naruto!" Hinata gasped.

"What?" he said, shaking his hand out. "I healed him before the punch. That makes it fair."

Haku blinked. "That was for...?"

"For tricking me into thinking you were a pretty girl."

Haku blinked again. "You thought I was pretty?"

"You thought he was pretty?" Hinata snapped at the same time.

"Irrelevant," Naruto said quickly, flustered. "So why'd you trick me?"

Haku chuckled, voice hoarse but playful. "I like seeing people's reactions."

Naruto gave a slow nod of respect. "As a fellow prankster... you have my respect."

"Thank you," Haku said with a bright, almost unfairly beautiful smile.

"Hey, fool me once, shame on you... wait, no..." Naruto paused, face screwing up as he realized he'd just admitted it again.

Hinata sweatdropped. "This conversation is ridiculous."

But the lightheartedness died the instant all three of them felt an enormous surge of chakra from outside, thick and oppressive.

"Zabuza," Naruto muttered, his expression sharpening. "He's fighting Guren. And she just went all out."

He reached into his inventory and pulled out a spare rapier. He tossed it to Haku.

"That'll serve you better than acupuncture needles."

Haku caught it smoothly, spinning it once in his palm. "I'll make it work."

The three turned toward the exit, moving with purpose now, their steps steady and silent.

Their mission had changed.

It was no longer just a rescue.

It was time to end this.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

The waves rolled beneath them like a living beast, black under the night sky, frothing silver where wind met water. Mist blanketed the ocean in a thick sheet, but it did nothing to hide the killing intent radiating between them.

Guren stood on a floating crystal platform, her form outlined by the pulsing black veins of the Curse Mark's first phase. Her body shimmered with a protective lattice of pink crystal armor. Her lips curled into a smirk as she sent a clone to distract Oscar while she dealt with Zabuza.

"Didn't think you'd actually meet me out here," Guren said. "I assumed you'd keep hiding in your fog."

"I am the fog," Zabuza said darkly and disappeared.

Guren instantly shot backward.

Zabuza's blade sliced through the space her torso had occupied a second earlier. She twisted in midair, landing on a thin spear of crystal she conjured from the sea surface, then launched a crystal barrage in a wide arc. Dozens of needle-thin projectiles screamed through the mist, exploding on contact.

Zabuza was gone again. Mist surged in unnatural waves. Guren gritted her teeth.

Then the sea erupted.

Water Style: Five Hungry Sharks tore from the sea like summoned beasts, their jaws snapping with chakra-fueled fury. They homed in on Guren from below.

She didn't flinch.

Her hands clapped together in a sharp seal.

Crystal Release: Jade Crystal Blade Dance.

Twin crystal scythes erupted from her forearms with a jagged gleam. As the sharks lunged upward, Guren spun midair like a cyclone of death, her blades cleaving through the water constructs one after another. Mist and spray exploded around her as she descended, straight toward the shadow of Zabuza.

With a shout, she brought both blades down, aiming for his neck like a reaping goddess.

SPLASH!

Zabuza's body burst into water the instant her scythes hit.

Water Clone Explosion.

The clone detonated in a high-pressure column of water and chakra, catching Guren mid-fall and blasting her skyward. Her crystal armor splintered along her ribs and shoulder, hair whipping violently in the force.

And the moment Guren's boots touched the ocean's surface, arms burst from the water, wrapping around her legs like iron chains.

Water Style: Double Suicide Drowning Jutsu.

Zabuza dragged her down beneath the waves.

Darkness swallowed her.

The water wasn't just cold, it was dead. Light faded instantly as she was yanked deeper, the sea pressing in from all sides. Her limbs thrashed, bubbles escaping her mouth as panic clawed at her mind. The deeper she sank, the blacker it became. No sound. No direction. Just the crushing weight of the abyss and the Mist-nin pulling her into oblivion.

Zabuza had trained for this. Years spent mastering breath control, learning how to drown others long before he drowned himself. If this jutsu completed its course, she would die, and he would simply pass out.

She knew it.

And in that realization, fear turned to rage.

Guren's armor responded first as long, jagged spikes of crystal erupted from her legs, slashing outward like sea mines. Zabuza was forced to let go, retreating as the needles cut through the water, breaking the hold.

She surged upward.

But she didn't even make it halfway to the surface before the sea around her hardened.

Water Style: Water Prison Jutsu.

Zabuza's chakra coiled around her like a snake tightening. The pressure was unbearable. Her limbs refused to move. Her lungs screamed. She couldn't breathe. Couldn't swim. Couldn't escape.

The Demon of the Mist was waiting for her to go still.

She was going to die.

Unless the seal on her back ignited. Guren didn't hesitate. She welcomed it. Called for it.

Version Two: Curse Mark Release.

For one terrifying second, the sea began to boil. The water prison trembled. The entire black ocean glowed red as Guren's body was overtaken by Orochimaru's corruption. Vile chakra poured out of her like sludge from a broken dam, melting the jutsu around her.

The prison shattered like glass.

Guren exploded from the ocean surface, airborne in a spiral of steam and red mist.

Zabuza surfaced as well, gasping, but when he saw her, he froze.

Over the pitch-black waves, under the moon, Guren floated like a monster. Her skin had turned a cold, stone-gray. Her once-short hair now cascaded to her thighs, dark blue and alive with chakra. Her eyes were slate gray, and four curved, pink crystal rams' horns had sprouted from her skull like a crown.

She exhaled, steam trailing from her lips.

"Lord Orochimaru… I am honored to be your blade," she whispered, voice reverent and broken.

Zabuza clenched his fists, fatigue eating at his muscles. Jutsu after jutsu made it so that he was almost out of chakra. And she had only just begun.

But before the fight could resume, a sharp chime rang out behind Guren.

A mirror of ice formed in midair, casting a cold glow.

CRACK!

Haku shot out like a bullet, rapier drawn, striking for Guren's throat. She twisted midair, narrowly dodging, and Haku landed in front of Zabuza with a calm grace, body lowered in a protective stance.

Guren blinked in disbelief.

"What the hell am I looking at?" she muttered. "How is this possible?"

"Haku..." Zabuza said, voice rough with things he couldn't say yet.

"We can talk later, Zabuza-sama. Right now, we finish this."

Zabuza's tired eyes softened. Then he gave a short grunt and raised his blade.

"You don't have to call me 'sama' anymore, partner."

"Zabuza-chan?"

"Don't push it, brat." Zabuza snorted.

Crystal Release: Crystal Rainstorm Burial.

Dozens of spears burst from the ocean beneath them as long, spiraling javelins of pink-tinted crystal that shot upward with incredible speed. Each one tracked with precision, aiming to impale the duo from below.

Zabuza reacted instantly, slamming his Executioner's Blade down in a circular arc.

Water Style: Water Encampment Wall.

A massive dome of water burst around him and Haku, shielding them for a second.

Then they moved.

Zabuza charged. Haku vanished.

Like a well-oiled machine, they danced around Guren's attacks. Zabuza went in first, blade gleaming, crashing into Guren with a series of brutal overhead swings. His movements were wild but calculated, forcing Guren to block and parry, not giving her the chance to weave hand signs.

But Guren wasn't idle. With every clash, her arms gleamed brighter as the Jade Crystal Blade Dance activated again, her forearms edged with curved scythe-like extensions. Sparks flew as they clashed, blade against crystal, muscle against power.

Ice Release: Thousand Flying Needles of Death.

Haku appeared midair from an ice mirror, his rapier extended in one hand, the other casting his jutsu. Razor-thin needles shot toward Guren from every angle. She twisted, flipping backwards.

Crystal Release: Shattering Prism Barrage!

Dozens of jagged crystal shards burst outward in a shockwave, intercepting most of the needles. Haku dodged midair, launching himself into another mirror.

Zabuza didn't let up. He ducked under her spinning blade, grabbed her by the arm, and slammed her into the water surface with bone-breaking force. But her cursed form absorbed the impact. She twisted beneath him, a spike bursting from her back and nearly skewering his neck.

He rolled off just in time.

Guren rose. Her chakra surged.

Crystal Release: Adamant Dome.

A dome of ultra-dense crystal encased her instantly, reflecting moonlight in rainbow glints. Zabuza backed up, raising his sword.

"She's hardening up," he growled. "Haku!"

"On it."

Ice mirrors formed in a full circle around the dome. Haku zipped through them, building momentum. His rapier lit up with chakra.

"Piercing Fang!"

He drove the blade into the dome's weakest seam. It cracked. Zabuza followed up immediately with a Water Style: Great Waterfall Jutsu!

A tidal wave smashed the dome apart, sending crystal shards flying into the air like razors.

Meanwhile, watching the chaos unfold from atop the cliffs, stood Naruto and Hinata.

"Should we interfere?" Hinata asked, her Byakugan eyes tracking the movement below. "Zabuza and Haku are in sync as they've trained together for years. If we jump in now, we might throw off their rhythm."

Naruto didn't respond. His eyes were locked on the floating system window in front of him.

[ Name: Guren ]
[ HP: 400 / 600 ]

Without hesitation, he pulled out his massive greatbow with one hand and began weaving hand signs with the other. A dozen shadow clones puffed into existence, each equipped with identical bows. He turned to Hinata.

"You're leading this unit. Pin Guren down. Keep her guessing."

Hinata nodded sharply, slipping into a calm, focused state. She took a breath, but before she could speak again, Naruto unsheathed his Uchigatana and, without flinching, pressed it to the side of his neck.

"Naruto-kun, what are you doing?!" she gasped, her voice cracking.

"Preparing," he said flatly, and dragged the blade across the skin. Blood welled up instantly, but he was precise, avoiding arteries just enough to trigger what he needed.

Hinata's hand shot up to her mouth as she choked on a gasp.

A faint crimson aura burst to life around Naruto's body as the Red Tearstone Ring activated. Naruto used a clone to preserve the low-HP state, then slammed an Estus Flask into his belt. The golden light healed the wound, but the red aura remained, crackling around his body like rage given form.

He clenched his fist.

Perfect.

"Naruto-kun…" Hinata said softly, stepping forward, her trembling hand brushing the newly healed skin on his neck.

"Sorry for the scare," Naruto said, trying to sound light. "I just needed the ring to kick in."

But as he looked at Hinata, he couldn't shake the feeling gnawing at his gut. Bringing her here might've been a mistake. Moments like this made him realize just how much Lordran had warped him. How far he'd drifted from being… normal.

"I'll keep you safe," Hinata said, more to herself than to him.

Naruto gave her a thin smile. "Well, if I've got the eyes of Hinata watching my back, what could possibly go wrong?"

He raised his catalyst and, in a blur, flickered down to the battlefield.

Below, Oscar was locked in battle with one of Guren's crystal clones. Naruto raised his hand and fired a Soul Arrow. The clone dodged only for the arrow to curve mid-air and slam into her head, shattering her into sparkling shards.

Oscar turned, sniffing the red-tinged air, and gave a low growl.

"Yeah," Naruto muttered, stepping onto Oscar's back, "I was thinking the same thing."

In response, Oscar's crystals shifted, forming a hardened saddle and footholds. The lizard growled again, crouched, and prepared to charge. Naruto turned his head and shouted: "Haku! Get Zabuza out of here and use the flask! I'll continue this."

Haku didn't hesitate. He flickered in, grabbed the half-conscious Zabuza, and disappeared in a swirl of mist.

Naruto lowered the visor on his helmet with a heavy clang that echoed like a bell toll across the battlefield.

Above the black waves, as the mist receded like a curtain drawn back by unseen hands, the sea stretched wide and silent beneath the pale gaze of the moon.

At the center of it all, Naruto stood atop Oscar, whose crystalline scales glistened like fractured stars. The red aura of the Tearstone Ring flared around him, pulsing with lethal intensity. It painted his elite knight armor in bloodlight, making him look less like a shinobi and more like a harbinger summoned by the night itself. In his grip, the Black Knight Halberd caught the moonlight and drank it, the edge gleaming with a promise of death. Oscar's massive form shifted beneath him, the crystal beast silent and poised, forming a perfect silhouette against the endless sea.

And for one suspended heartbeat, the entire battlefield stared in silent awe.

A rider and his steed carved from a fairytale.

Guren hovered over the water, her crystal armor fracturing from the pressure of the last exchange. Her breath came hard, fast. Below her, the surface rippled and then the tide surged.

Oscar lunged left, and the halberd carved wide as Guren ducked under it.

Crystal Release: Growing Crystal Thorns!

The halberd's arc cleaved apart one of her growing crystal thorns before it reached full formation.

A crack of displaced air as Naruto fired a Soul Arrow. The projectile curved unnaturally mid-flight, catching Guren off guard. It detonated as it connected with one of her shoulder-mounted crystals. The explosion shattered half her armor and sent her skidding across the water.

She didn't hesitate. With a single breath, she kicked backward and formed a dense field of overlapping thorns behind her to slow Oscar's advance.

Naruto dipped low, dragging the halberd behind him. Oscar feinted right, then pivoted hard. A claw slammed the sea. A burst of speed. The weapon carved upward in a brutal rearing swing.

Crystal Release: Crystal Encampment Wall!

Guren brought up a crystal wall to block. Too slow.

The halberd slammed into it, cracking the surface. The kinetic force didn't break through entirely, but it disrupted the wall's repair function. A flick of Naruto's catalyst sent another Soul Arrow to the weakened spot.

This time, the wall exploded.

Guren was already midair, spinning.

Her palms flared with chakra as she conjured five overlapping crystal prisons in the air, catching Oscar mid-leap.

Naruto jumped off before impact, flipping through seals.

The water hissed as Wind Bullet lanced forward, a tight compressed spear of air. It collided with the crystal prisons just as Oscar released a beam of magic, crystal spines erupting in all directions. The prisons burst in a hail of shrapnel.

Naruto landed, one foot on Oscar's spine. The halberd twirled in his hand and swept out as Oscar charged again. Guren countered with a massive wall of red crystal from her labyrinth technique, but Naruto didn't aim to break it rather, he used the curved surface as a springboard, pushing off at blinding speed.

Guren spun around, too late. Naruto was already behind her. The halberd swept low, forcing her to leap. Midair, her eyes flared as crystal thorns erupted from beneath, targeting Oscar.

Oscar dropped beneath the waves just as Naruto flickered forward.

Their clash was brutal. Halberd met crystal blades with sparks flying, screeches ringing out as steel scraped against hardened chakra. Guren spun with vicious grace, the edge of her blade carving a line across Naruto's armor. He didn't flinch.

The shoulder slam landed with brutal force, cracking into her midsection and staggering her. In the same breath, Naruto brought the halberd up in a vicious arc. It tore through the air and through Guren's defenses.

The blow sent her hurtling back, a gash stretching across her torso, blood splashing on the sea like paint across canvas. The only reason she wasn't cleaved in two was the reinforced, senjutsu-infused crystal armor that flared to life across her body, absorbing the worst of the damage.

[ Name: Guren ]
[ HP: 100 / 600 ]

She rose slowly, breath ragged, shoulders trembling—but her eyes still sharp with fury. Behind Naruto, Oscar reared with a thunderous hiss, crystals along his back glinting in the pale moonlight. Naruto lowered his halberd, pointing it like a knight calling judgment.

Guren spat blood and muttered through clenched teeth, "So this is the power of the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki…"

The sea beneath them lit up in eerie red as she clapped her hands together.

Crystal Release: Jade Crystal Labyrinth Technique.

Crimson crystal flowers bloomed across the water. One by one, they exploded into growth as walls of red crystal spiraled upward, twisting and spreading until the entire battlefield became a disorienting maze of mirror-like surfaces and shifting light. The labyrinth shimmered with clones, illusions, reflections so thick it could confuse even the Byakugan.

But high above, on the cliff, Hinata gave a silent command.

Archer-clones loosed their arrows.

Hundreds of them.

The sky turned black with steel-tipped bolts. A rainstorm of death fell from above, piercing the crystal canopy. Walls cracked. Reflections shattered. The maze fractured under the sheer volume and force, like stained glass under a hammer.

Zabuza finished his hand signs.

Water Style: Water Fang Bullet.

The surface of the sea convulsed. A drill-shaped jet of water erupted, spiraling toward Guren with lethal speed. At the same time, Haku flickered between ice mirrors, a blur of silver and momentum, his rapier slicing the wind.

Hinata exhaled as her arrow soared, aimed directly at Guren's blind spot.

Naruto and Oscar surged forward, in sync.

There were no illusions and no hiding. Just the end, drawing closer.

No... not like this... Guren's breath hitched. Her body tensed. She felt like a cornered animal—and a cornered animal always bites back.

"Lord Orochimaru… I won't fail you," she muttered, forcing chakra into every limb.

She bit down hard. Blood spilled across her lip and then, she gambled everything.

Pressure Points of Harm and Death.

Two of her body's gates flared open. A toxic rush of life force surged into raw power. Her skin shimmered with energy as veins pulsed and her muscles bulged unnaturally.

Crystal Release: String of Glory.

A massive prism of jagged crystal enclosed her completely. The sea roared as the prism lifted into the sky, floating on raw force. It spun slowly, cold and radiant, untouchable.

The wave of attacks collided as Hinata's arrow splintered, Zabuza's water drill fizzled, Haku's rapier bounced with a spark, and Naruto's halberd rang out uselessly. The prism was nearly invincible and it was rising.

Naruto's eyes sharpened. Hawkeyes read the angles. He saw a gathering point of chakra at the prism's tip, a weapon being aimed. And it was locked on Hinata.

"Oscar!" Naruto shouted.

The crystal lizard reared, mouth glowing. Naruto threw his arm forward and channeled every drop of chakra into Oscar's crystal mech.

Magic met chakra as the air cracked and pressure crushed down on the battlefield.

The prism fired first.

A beam of concentrated chakra and natural energy sliced downward.

Oscar roared as a stream of soul-magic breath erupted upward.

The beams clashed midair.

Light split the sea as the sky turned red and violet. Neither beam gave ground. The sea churned beneath them, caught between titanic forces.

Naruto gritted his teeth. He could push harder but Oscar would be the cost. His partner's crystal suit groaned, fracturing.

Hinata stepped forward as her Byakugan saw the weak point in the prism. She loosed one arrow. It struck right at the fault line in the prism's flow. A sharp crack echoed. Then another. Then a web of them.

The beams stopped.

Oscar's suit finally gave out. Armor exploded in a thousand fragments as the true lizard within fell.

Naruto caught him midair.

"Good job, bud," he whispered, kissing Oscar's head. "Let's leave the rest to them."

Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu.

Zabuza's final hand seal locked into place. A serpent of water exploded from the sea, snarling through the mist. Haku followed, layering his own chakra into the technique—ice spreading like veins through water, crystallizing the beast mid-flight. The dragon wrapped around Guren's cracked crystal prism and hardened into a towering spire of ice.

Ice mirrors formed in a spiral around it.

Haku blurred between reflections, rapier jabbing precise, relentless holes into the tower's surface. Each strike chipped away at its stability like a ticking clock. Zabuza charged next. The aura of the Demon enveloped him. His blade swung wide, cleaving through the tower in a single, earth-splitting strike.

Silence followed.

The tower collapsed in a storm of shattering ice and shimmering pink fragments. No body. No scream. Just sparkles of broken crystal drifting across the shore.

Zabuza exhaled. "...Is she dead?"

Naruto clicked his tongue, scanning the field with Hawkeyes as he found no soul drop.

Hinata landed beside them. "That kunoichi used a reverse summoning technique. Just before Zabuza's blade landed, I saw her bite her tongue. The seal flared. Space twisted. She slipped away."

"Coward," Naruto muttered.

"No," Zabuza growled. "That was smart. Faking your death to retreat? That's a shinobi who knows when they're outmatched."

He turned to Hinata and gave her a nod. "But too bad for her… we had a real Byakugan user on the field."

Hinata frowned. "What do you mean by real?"

Zabuza looked her dead in the eye. "In the Mist, we once stole a pair of Hyūga eyes. Implanted them into one of ours. They worked but not like you. The difference is night and day."

Hinata stood frozen. Her breath hitched. A cold weight settled in her chest. So even that can be taken… and still mean nothing.

Haku landed beside them, silent until now. "What's next?"

Naruto rubbed Oscar's head absentmindedly, then looked at Zabuza. His tone hardened. "Where's Gato?"

Zabuza hesitated. "He stopped talking to me directly after that Archer of Providence torched his gang. Started using radio only. But..." he nodded at Haku, "I had Haku do some digging."

"Just get to the point," Naruto said flatly.

"He's hiding in the Daimyō's palace," Haku answered.

Naruto's jaw tightened. His eyes darkened. "Of course he is."

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

It was around three in the morning when Naruto and his group arrived at the Wave Country's Daimyō Palace.

The moon hung low over the sea, silver light catching the edges of the great fortress nestled atop the terraced hill. Built like a citadel, not a home, the palace loomed over the landscape. White stone walls rose like cliffs, crowned with curved, black-tiled roofs stacked in tiers. Crimson banners hung from the corners, limp in the salt-laced wind. Lanterns flickered in alcoves, struggling against the creeping mist that licked at the earth below.

And at the base of the slope, just before the drawbridge that led to the gate, was a crowd.

Hundreds of them.

Most wore rags and patched clothes. Some held pitchforks or sticks. Others bore signs made of planks with scrawled pleas like Justice for the Wave or Save Our Nation. A few just stood silently, carrying nothing but a child on their hip and a hopeful look in their eyes.

They had come after the Archer of Providence had wiped out Gato's men in a single night. They came not in defiance, but in hope. Not hope in the Archer.

Hope in their Daimyō.

Hope that, with Gato's iron grip broken, the man who bore their flag and title would finally listen. That now, finally, he would speak for them. Act for them. That had been weeks ago and yet they stayed.

Some from desperation. Some because they had nowhere left to return to. Others because, once they had begun waiting, they didn't know what else to do. What if leaving meant missing the one moment something might change?

They slept in circles, backs to the wind, leaning on each other to stay warm. They boiled roots, shared fish, told stories in low murmurs.

And they watched the palace above.

"They've changed," Naruto murmured. "The first time I saw them, they couldn't even look Gato's thugs in the eye."

Zabuza followed his gaze, one hand resting casually on the hilt of his sword. "Now they're standing outside a fortress they could never breach, waiting for something they don't even know will happen."

"That's the thing," Naruto said. "They still came."

Zabuza snorted. "Fools and hope. Same flavor."

Behind them, further up the slope, Hinata—disguised with a perfect Transformation Jutsu—stood in quiet conversation with Lady Kiku and her son. Haku remained nearby, subtly adjusting the boy's collar.

"How do you wanna do this?" Zabuza asked, glancing back at the civilians they had just saved.

"We walk through the front gate."

Zabuza blinked. Then scoffed. "You are the worst ninja I've ever met."

"Why, because I don't sneak around like a rat?"

"No," Zabuza said, straightening. "Because you're making a political statement. That's what this is. You're throwing off the whole shinobi thing just so you can say to the whole damn country, I don't answer to lords. They answer to me."

Naruto tilted his head. "Am I wrong?"

"Doesn't matter. It's stupid."

"I'd say it's brave."

"I'd say it's gonna get you shot."

"I've been shot at before."

Zabuza rolled his eyes. "I say we do this the old-fashioned way. Climb the wall, sneak through the shadows, take out the guards."

Naruto hummed. "Yeah. But talking to the Daimyō and having him lead us to Gato… means Gato can't pull anything stupid like biting down on poison or blowing himself up."

Zabuza raised a brow. "You think that old noble is gonna help us?"

Naruto smirked. "He will. After I talk."

Zabuza groaned. "If you're gonna talk, then at least don't sound like some brat from Konoha."

"Got any tips?"

"Actually…" Zabuza cracked his neck. "Yeah. You ever heard of Ghostmouth Technique?"

Naruto raised a brow. "That's not ominous at all."

"It's a low-level sound manipulation jutsu we used back in the Mist," Zabuza explained. "Basic principle: infuse chakra into your vocal cords, then adjust the tension and frequency. You're not just changing pitch, you're shifting how the sound leaves your throat. Makes it echo differently. Trickier than it sounds, but not too hard."

Naruto's eyes gleamed. "Wait, wait... so I can change my voice?"

"With practice. You start by channeling chakra along the airflow. Think of it like tuning a string. Too loose and the voice goes low, too tight and it goes high. Add pressure through your diaphragm and…"

He trailed off as Naruto cleared his throat and said, in Zabuza's exact gravelly drawl: "We go in loud. Smash the gate. Make the cowards piss themselves."

Zabuza blinked. "...You picked that up way too fast."

"You picked that up fast," Zabuza muttered, genuinely taken aback. This brat… If Naruto could adapt this quickly, maybe he really was more of a prodigy than even Haku.

Naruto grinned and shifted his tone again, perfectly mimicking Haku's gentle voice. "So… do I call you Zabuza-sensei now?"

Zabuza gave him a deadpan look. "I don't care."

Naruto dropped his voice low and just a little too deep. "Zabuza-chan."

A chill went down Zabuza's spine. His eye twitched. "One more word, and I'm throwing you off this cliff."

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

It was supposed to be a reign of peace.

Daimyō Honda Tadakatsu stood in the high chamber of the Wave Country's palace, hands clasped behind his back, the sea wind seeping through the cracks in the shuttered windows. The moonlight cast long bars of silver on the polished stone floor, but it did nothing to soothe his nerves.

A ruler should not tremble in his own hall. And yet...

He had once believed he could outmaneuver men like Gato. That coin and compromise would be enough. That all it would take was a few delays, some hidden letters, a signal to the right village at the right time.

But that was before Gato took his wife and child.

It happened so fast, he thought, bitterness clawing at his chest. One night, they were on a ship to a diplomatic summit across the sea. The next, the vessel was declared lost. A storm, the reports said. A tragic accident.

Only he knew the truth: Gato had staged it. He had intercepted the ship, taken his family, and left just enough wreckage to make the story believable. Then came the terms: comply, or the boy dies. Disobey, and his wife would be made an example of.

The Daimyō had watched, powerless, as Gato's merchants turned to thugs, then slavers, then tyrants. Every week, new edicts were passed with his seal: taxes that broke backs, arrests that made mothers scream, and food diverted to criminal stockpiles. And all the while, the people suffered and whispered, not knowing their leader was chained by love and cowardice.

He wanted to believe he'd done what he could. That the day the bridge was completed would be the day everything changed.

But then he arrived.

The Archer of Providence.

No one knew his name. Only that in one night, Gato's gangs were annihilated.

At first, Tadakatsu thought it was a miracle as Gato began to unravel. The crime lord had always been callous, but now he was unhinged. He ranted to shadows, accused his own guards of treason, refused food for days. He moved into the palace with a dozen retainers and slept with weapons under his pillow.

It was clear, then: Gato's empire was a house of cards, and the Archer had kicked in the door.

Tadakatsu hadn't slept the entire day.

Not for lack of trying but because Gato hadn't, either.

The old merchant had been pacing the halls like a rat in a collapsing ship, gibbering half-thoughts to himself and grinning like he'd won some game no one else was playing.

He'd stopped carrying his sword.

That worried Tadakatsu more than anything.

The man who once held his wife and son hostage, who carved a criminal empire from the bones of the Wave's people, had suddenly stopped guarding himself. He spent his days muttering in the gardens. He hadn't touched a meal. He hadn't left the castle in a week. And yet, for the first time since arriving, Gato looked almost… happy.

He's planning something.

No doubt.

Tadakatsu's thoughts churned. There are Konoha shinobi in the country; multiple teams, from what I've gathered. If I could just get word to one of them… maybe one squad could take Gato out, and another could save Kiku and our son. But it was a gamble. Gato had informants tucked into every corner of the castle. Every whisper risked exposure. Every slip could doom the only thing Tadakatsu had left.

Still… he was close to acting.

He had already begun drafting the message. The wax seal was half-pressed when it happened.

A swirl of mist rolled through the grand hall of the castle like smoke from the underworld.

Dozens of palace soldiers raised their muskets and then… they appeared.

Honda Tadakatsu focused on the woman and child before him... and hesitated. "How... how do I know you are truly my wife and son?" he asked, voice brittle. "How do I know this isn't a genjutsu?"

"Do you remember the night of our arranged marriage, my lord? You told me we'd be divorced by morning. That you had no interest in a stranger chosen for you."

Lady Kiku took a slow step forward, eyes never leaving his. "That night, I sat by the window, telling a story to my maid. You were just outside, listening. When I stopped, you asked me to continue."

She paused, letting the moment hang.

"I said we could talk about divorce tomorrow, so why bother… but you wanted to hear the rest of the story."

The Daimyō's breath caught.

"You asked me what it was about," she said softly. "And I told you that it was the story of my life. You said…" Her voice trembled slightly. "You said if I'd let you, you'd listen to that story for the rest of yours."

She stepped closer, and her voice lowered into something gentler. "So tell me, my lord… do you still remember how it goes?"

Tadakatsu froze. For a moment, the months and burdens fell from his shoulders. Wordlessly, he crossed the courtyard in two strides and folded them both into a trembling embrace.

As he leaned in, Kiku whispered sharply into his ear. "Be warned, my lord. The Archer is here. Do not challenge him. Gato tried… and now Gato has nothing."

Tadakatsu's spine stiffened. He let go, signaled his guards with a sharp gesture. "Escort them to the royal physician. Now."

The soldiers bowed and immediately led Kiku and her son from the courtyard.

The Daimyō turned to Zabuza and, to everyone's shock, bowed deeply. A gesture rare for a man of his rank. "You've returned my family to me. For that, I owe more than thanks. You may have saved this nation."

But before he could say more, a palace samurai stepped forward, half-drawing his blade.

"My lord, this man is Zabuza Momochi. A rogue from Kirigakure. He worked for Gato. He attacked the bridge builder."

Zabuza barely glanced at him. His voice dripped with disdain. "Yet here I am with the one who saved your lord's wife. What does that tell you, little samurai?"

The samurai gritted his teeth, hand on his hilt.

"Go ahead. Draw. Let's see if your head doesn't roll to your lord's feet."

Tension coiled in the courtyard like a drawn bowstring.

Tadakatsu stepped forward, raising a hand. "I believe the Archer of Providence is involved in this."

Zabuza caught the cue instantly. "Yeah. We've come to deliver justice… and Gato's the target."

The Daimyō exhaled, understanding the game now. "Then where is he? Where is the Archer?"

He got his answer when the castle itself seemed to scream.

Across the halls and towers, cries echoed as Gato's hidden spies and agents fell one by one, their throats cut. Shadow Clones moved like wraiths through the mist, guided by the commands of Hinata's Byakugan.

And then, he arrived.

Naruto dropped into the courtyard like a hammer from the heavens, clad in dark leathers and a porcelain mask. On either side of him landed Haku and Hinata. The soldiers froze. Even the monk beside Tadakatsu took an instinctive step back.

The Daimyō swallowed, hard. He turned to his retainers, voice quiet but firm. "We go to the bunker. I'll guide them myself."

The monk's brow furrowed. "My lord, your safety..."

"If they wanted me dead," Tadakatsu said, voice thin, "I don't think I could stop it."

No one argued.

Not when death walked among them… and wore a mask.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

The group descended into the palace's underbelly. Lanterns guttered against the damp air, casting long shadows over ancient tapestries and empty suits of armor. Every step they took echoed like a verdict. The deeper they went, the quieter the palace became, as if the building itself held its breath.

"I must say," the Daimyō ventured, his tone diplomatic, "I'm something of a fan of your work, Archer-sama."

Naruto said nothing.

The Daimyō tried again, forcing a laugh. "You know… normally, a man of my rank doesn't lead others through his own halls."

"Normally," Naruto said without turning, "you don't let a crime lord take your wife and child while your people starve in the dirt."

The words were flat.

The samurai guards shifted. One, younger than the rest, reached toward his hilt. "I advise you to speak with respect..."

A sudden shift. Naruto's next words rang out in a crisp, refined female voice, "Respect is not owed. It is earned."

The samurai froze.

Naruto stopped. "Your people were crying. You were silent."

Then a young boy's voice, barely a whisper: "We asked you for help."

Finally, he turned around. The porcelain mask gleamed.

"And you turned away."

Zabuza let out a low, half-snickering grunt. "Kid, you keep talking like that, I might start following you."

The Daimyō's voice strained. "I was forced. Gato… he had my wife. My son. He made demands."

"Then you were a man caught in a trap," Naruto said, his tone now matching the Daimyō's exactly. "That's fine. That's forgivable."

He took a step forward, voice shifting again, this time mimicking the old woman from the village gates. "But what about after? After the Archer broke his armies?"

He paused. The silence was deafening.

"You didn't send word to Konoha. You didn't reach out to another village. You didn't even whisper to a courier."

Now his voice was his own again. His next words hit like a knife.

"You didn't try."

The Daimyō's face flushed; not just shame now, but the cracking of pride. "You think it was that simple?"

"It never is," Naruto said, stepping closer. "But you still had a choice. And when I wiped out his men and he slithered into your castle to lick his wounds, you let him."

Another step. The mask was inches from the Daimyō's face now. The air between them charged.

"Your nation was burning," Naruto said quietly, "and you warmed your hands by the fire."

The silence afterward was heavier than stone. No guard moved. No one spoke. The only sound was the quiet crackle of a nearby torch and the slow beat of guilt settling in.

Even the Daimyō, a man groomed for power, bred for dignity, could find nothing to say.

Naruto broke the silence once more, softer now. "You wanted to be a ruler without having to choose. But choosing is the job."

The Daimyō swallowed, his voice barely audible. "What would you have done?"

Naruto looked at him.

"Anything."

And then he turned, walking toward the final set of doors, leaving behind only silence. Finally, they arrived at the core of the bunker. Gold filigree lined the doors, the air heavy with damp stone and old secrets. Hinata stopped before one of the rooms, her eyes scanning.

"He's in there," she said. "He's pretending to sleep. The room's warded, but sloppily. No guards."

Naruto and Zabuza stepped forward together, side by side, stopping just in front of the door.

"I'm gonna kill the bastard," Zabuza muttered, cracking his neck. "For stabbing me in the back. And I'm getting my money."

"I'm gonna talk to him. For every family he ruined."

Behind them, Haku's voice broke in casually. "Why not take turns?"

Naruto and Zabuza exchanged a look. "Rock, paper, scissors?"

Zabuza gave a nod. "One... two... three..."

The Daimyō and his guards sweat-dropped as Naruto threw rock and Zabuza threw paper.

Naruto clicked his tongue. "Tch. Fine. You get first go."

Zabuza grinned like a shark behind his bandages and pushed the door open. The sound of startled shouting, followed by several gunshots, echoed through the hallway. Then came the distinct, meaty thump of Kubikiribōchō carving through flesh.

A scream followed. "AAHHHH MY HAND!"

"You guys might want to wait outside," Naruto said to the Daimyō, who shook his head.

"No. I want to hear every scream. That bastard deserves worse than death."

Naruto shrugged. "Suit yourself."

He reached into his pack and pulled out a small lacquered box, popping it open to reveal a worn but complete chess set.

"Want to play something while Baby Brows is in therapy mode?" Naruto asked.

Hinata and Haku both nodded, settling around the board.

"What is this?" Hinata asked, studying the unfamiliar pieces.

"Chess," Naruto said. "It's a game from Catarina that Sir Siegmeyer taught me during my training. He's terrible at it."

"How do we play?" Haku asked, tilting his head.

Naruto opened his mouth to explain when another blood-curdling scream tore through the door. It was followed by a thud and what sounded like a small avalanche of limbs hitting the floor.

"OI!" Naruto shouted back. "Baby Brows! I swear, if you kill him before my turn, we're throwing hands!"

Zabuza's only response was another wet, cleaving chonk.

Naruto winced. "That sounded like a knee. Damn it, that was gonna be my opener..."

He looked back at the board. "Anyway. Where were we?"

Hinata moved her pawn. "Your move."

From behind the door, Gato screamed again.

Naruto smiled. "Man, this is the most relaxing game of chess I've ever played."

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Zabuza took his sweet time torturing Gato, really savoring it. "You can come in."

Naruto opened the door without hesitation, completely ignoring the stench, which made a butcher shop smell like a candy store in comparison.

He shut it just as quickly.

"...Is he even alive?" Naruto asked after seeing what remained of Gato. The man looked like he'd been fed through a meat grinder and spat back out.

Zabuza casually glanced at the clock. "For about ten more seconds."

Naruto gave him a look. The man had clearly found some kind of loophole to prolong the torture without technically killing him. With a sigh, Naruto held out his hand and cast Heal. The glow washed over what remained of Gato, flesh and muscle knitting back together until he looked like a pathetic, shaggy-haired little man trembling on the floor.

Naruto blinked. "Wow. You're... way less impressive than I thought you'd be."

Gato's eyes bulged, twitching in every direction like a cornered rodent. Sweat poured down his face, soaking through his filthy collar. He whimpered something incomprehensible, mouth too dry to form words.

Then, without warning, he lunged.

His trembling fingers wrapped around a jagged shard of broken porcelain. Before anyone could stop him, he plunged it into his own throat with a guttural scream. Blood erupted in a wet spray. He fell to the ground, thrashing and gurgling, eyes wide, choking on his own blood. His legs kicked uselessly. His face twisted, not in pain, but in relief. This was escape. This was freedom.

Naruto didn't move.

He stood there, just long enough. He waited until Gato's heartbeat slowed to a crawl, until his skin turned clammy and pale, until the flicker of life behind those wide, horrified eyes was seconds from vanishing.

Heal.

Golden light surged.

Flesh stitched back together. The bleeding stopped. The shard slipped from Gato's limp hand. He gasped violently, like a drowning man yanked from the depths. His eyes rolled, lips quivering, breath sharp and shallow. But it wasn't relief in his face now.

It was terror.

Pure, paralyzing terror.

His gaze found Naruto, and the realization hit. He didn't even own his own death anymore.

His final escape was denied.

There would be no release. No end. Only more. More pain. More fear. More of him. And in that moment, Gato broke.

"My turn," Zabuza said, stretching his neck.

"What are you talking about?" Naruto asked.

"You took your turn. Letting him die. Letting him feel that dread. That hopelessness." Zabuza cracked his knuckles. "Now it's mine."

"That was just coincidence," Naruto replied flatly. He raised his hand and used telekinesis to yank Gato into the air like a ragdoll.

"Well, technically..."

"Technically, I saved your life and Haku's," Naruto interrupted. "So either shut up and let me have my turn, or we can fight for the prize: torturing Gato."

Zabuza raised his hand in mock surrender. "Whatever. Doesn't matter. I already used one of the most forbidden torture techniques. You can't top that."

"Can't I?" Naruto said, smiling.

Zabuza's eyes narrowed.

"Baby Brows," Naruto began, "what do you know about killing intent and its three stages?"

Zabuza crossed his arms. "Killing intent is residual yin chakra, leftover from past kills. There's A Sense of Danger, where your presence makes people's skin crawl. Then Illusory Killer Intent, where you trigger death hallucinations. And the third, True Intent to Kill. That one makes the victim believe they're actually dying. They feel everything your last victim felt."

Naruto nodded. "And what would you say mine's at?"

Zabuza let out a breath. "The last time we fought, it was Illusory Killer Intent. I have been meaning to ask, how the hell do you have that already?"

Naruto's eyes narrowed slightly. "I've killed a lot."

"Please!" Gato begged. "You're not like me! You're supposed to be a hero! You're the Archer of—"

Naruto leaned in close. "I'm not a hero," he whispered, voice like steel wrapped in frost. "I'm the one who promised you something."

He slammed Gato into a desk. Wood splintered. Bones cracked.

"Remember what I told you?"

Gato's broken face stared up, dazed and uncomprehending.

Naruto pulled his mask off. The eyes of a dragon bored into Gato's soul. "I told you I'd find you."

His voice dropped lower, colder.

"And when I did..."

Chakra began to flow in a dense cloud around Naruto.

"I'd show you what a real monster looks like."

Gato barely had time to think as Naruto released it.

Chakra surged out of him like a storm breaking its cage. The floor cracked. The walls trembled. Zabuza flinched as the hair on the back of his neck stood up straight. And all that killing intent, focused like a blade, pressed down on Gato.

The world changed.

Gone was the warm flicker of lamps, the soft rustle of silk curtains, the polished floor of a tyrant's den. In its place, a grey sea that stretched into nothingness. There was no sky, only layers of oppressive fog that choked the senses. And above that, deeper still, something vast stirred beyond sight.

Gato stood, if the word could be used, upon nothing. Stone that wasn't stone. Sea that wasn't water. A dreamscape, primordial and wrong.

Then they came.

First, the groaning rise of the Hollowed. A sea of the undead crawling from the fog like forgotten memories. Then, shadows above. The distant flap of colossal wings. The sky opened to reveal thunder of drakes. And at their head, fire. A scream of heat as the Hellkite Wyvern announced its arrival with a roar that shook the fog into shapes that should not be.

The air shimmered. Graceful wings like stained glass folded open, revealing the Moonlight Butterfly, its alien song reverberating in Gato's chest.

Rot came next.

The Undead Dragon lumbered through the mists, trailing viscera and vapor. The ground quaked with its every half-dead breath. From the sea, the Hydra slithered into view, its heads rising one by one in silent, serpentine judgment.

He turned to flee, but there was no escape.

More came.

The Taurus Demon stomped forward, eyes alight with smoldering rage. The Capra Demon followed, dragging its cleavers. Black Knights appeared beside them. And then the fog parted.

The sea boiled.

Something titanic stirred beneath.

A shadow moved against the stars that were not stars, wings unfolding wide enough to eclipse everything. And from the depths, with a slowness that mocked all mortal time, rose the Everlasting Dragon.

Its mere presence was absolute.

It stood among the others and they knelt.

Gato, a speck in this funeral procession of monsters, tried to scream. No sound came. His body was a vessel of static, a fractured husk of meat barely containing panic. The dragon's eyes locked onto him, and Gato understood. He was not a man. He was not a tyrant. He was not even prey.

He was irrelevant. Forgotten. A blink of existence in an age he had no right to witness.

And then the dragon spoke, not in words, but in soul.

Let this be your judgment, Gato.

The void accepted the decree and the monsters obeyed.

The Hollowed surged first, clawing at him with broken fingers and shattered teeth. Gato screamed, but the sound came out wet and gurgling as they tore through flesh like paper. One crushed his legs beneath its weight. Another gnawed at his eye. He died choking on his own blood.

Then he was whole again.

And the sky screamed.

The Hellkite Wyvern descended like a meteor, its maw wide with agonizing fire. The heat burned away thought, skin blistering and popping before the flame even touched. Gato ran, and then the fire took him. His lungs filled with liquid flame. He died screaming, his soul igniting inside his body.

Then he was whole again.

And the Undead Dragon reared above him, its breath a gust of rotted eternity. Flies poured from its chest cavity. Its half-rotten jaws opened wide, and the darkness inside devoured him. His bones cracked in places he didn't know he had. Its tongue coiled around his spine and snapped it like twine.

Then he was whole again.

The Capra Demon came next, its cleavers dragging through the fog with a sound that scraped the marrow. It didn't run. It simply appeared, swung once, and bisected him from shoulder to hip. He collapsed, trying to hold his insides in. Then the blade fell again.

And again.

And again.

He lost count after seven deaths.

The Hydra took him from behind. Teeth like blades pierced him from six directions. He was yanked into the air, limbs torn apart like boiled chicken. His heart still beat as he watched his own arms fall into the sea. The Black Knights came in silence.

One blade split his skull.

Another split his soul.

Then the Everlasting Dragon moved. It did not roar. It simply breathed. And Gato unraveled. He became ash. Then thought. Then nothing. Then ash again. Each cell, each strand of his being, was rewritten into pain, torn apart by the sheer gravitational pressure of a being older than gods.

He died a thousand deaths.

Then a thousand more.

Each monster claimed him. Each death taught him something new about suffering. The claws of the Hollowed. The fire of the drakes. The breath of dragons. The steel of knights. None of them gave him the mercy of finality.

Time stopped being real because pain was eternity.

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The sun rose slowly over the Land of Waves, casting soft golden light on a village that had once lived in the shadow of a tyrant. But this morning was different.

A crowd had gathered near the old docks, where the village square met the water's edge, where once, Gato's warship had threatened the people. Now, they stood shoulder to shoulder in stunned silence, staring at something impossible.

Something vindicating.

In the middle of the square stood a wooden pylon, and chained atop it in a crude iron cage was Gato.

The once-proud merchant lord, the monster who bought lives like produce, who crushed spirits with gold and gangs, was now a wretched husk of a man. His fine clothes were torn and fouled. His fingers were bloodied and raw from clawing at the bars. His eyes, once shrewd and predatory, were now wide with madness and rimmed with dark bruises.

He trembled constantly. Mumbled to himself in broken, terrified gasps. The dragon… the dragon god… he's still watching… oh gods, please, I didn't mean it… mercy… mercy…

Carved into the base of the pylon, clear and cold as steel, were the words:

Do not kill him. Let him suffer in fear.

At first, the people stared in disbelief. Could this really be Gato? The tyrant who stole their dignity and silenced their cries? The devil who made fathers kneel and mothers sell everything but their grief?

Some began to laugh, the sound hysterical and disbelieving. Others stepped forward with anger that had simmered for years. A stone flew. Then another. Soon, they pelted him with rotten old fruit, moldy bread, spit.

But still, the sign remained. Do not kill him.

Eventually, the frenzy ebbed and something worse took its place.

Apathy.

They stopped caring. Gato was no longer a monster. He was nothing now. Not a lord. Not a man. Not even a threat. He was just a pitiful thing that was quickly forgotten, ignored and starved of the fear he once thrived on.

Children played in the square without glancing at the cage. Vendors set up their stalls, refusing to offer him food or even scorn. Day by day, the tyrant was slowly erased. And one morning, many weeks later, someone noticed the cage was silent.

They peeked in.

Gato was still. Dead. Curled in the fetal position, his eyes frozen open in terror. Mouth agape in a silent scream. No one held a funeral. No one marked his grave. The villagers simply burned the cage, wood and corpse and all, without ceremony. The ashes blew out over the water and into the vast, uncaring sea.

Gato, the man who fancied himself a god, ended as nothing more than a stain no one would bother remembering.

Fitting, really.

The man who wanted to rule everything… wasn't even granted the dignity of dying on his own terms.

Irony is a bitch.

And justice, when delivered by dragons, is everlasting.

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Author's Note

Wow. That was a tough chapter to write. Mainly because I had to rewatch the Guren filler arc from Shippuden. And let me tell you, my brain went numb. So much of it was just… boring. The animation looked rough, the pacing was glacial, and by the end, I was ready to strangle half the cast.

Goddamn, I remember now why I hate filler arcs with a passion.

Hope you guys enjoyed my suffering. Now let's get into it:

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1. Special Souls – What Should Guren's Give Naruto?

In Dark Souls, special souls can be used to craft unique boss weapons. Like how the Moonlight Butterfly Soul can get you either the Crystal Ring Shield or the Moonlight Butterfly Horn. So it raises an interesting question:

What would special souls from the Naruto world give our protagonist?

If Naruto were to obtain Guren's soul, could he forge a weapon infused with Crystal Release? Or maybe an item that lets him use Crystal Release like a kekkei genkai of his own?

I'm opening this up to you. What do you think Naruto should gain from Guren's soul?

Yeah, yeah, I know what you're thinking.

But Guren got away!

Exactly. She's not dead. And that's because I've got big plans for her in the future. It'd be a total waste to kill her off in this arc when her potential hasn't even been tapped fully.

Let me know what you'd want to see from Guren later on—story beats, rivalries, evolutions, anything.

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2. Guren's Power Level

Let's not downplay it. Guren is a beast in the filler arc. In my opinion, she's absolutely Kage level. Her Crystal Release is one of the most busted abilities in the series. Here's a quick reminder of her actual feats in canon filler:

She can crystallize literally anything, even moisture in the air, to create an endless arsenal—dragons, walls, weapons, clones, etc.

She once sent out a chakra wave that instantly crystallized and shattered an entire squad of Orochimaru's subordinates.

She temporarily restrained the Three-Tails on her own.

She fought Kakashi, Yamato, Naruto, Shino, Sai, Kiba, Sakura, and Hinata all at once using crystal clones.

Would've killed Kakashi if not for Shino's bugs adapting to her crystals.

She could spar with base Rock Lee in taijutsu.

Completely blitzed Kabuto and restrained him (he wasn't going all out, but still).

Now, the Guren you saw in this arc is younger than filler Guren, about three years earlier. So she isn't quite on that level yet. But she's already ridiculously strong, especially considering she fought Zabuza, Haku, and Red Tearstone Ring–enhanced Naruto and Oscar.

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3. The Beam Clash

Yeah, yeah. I know one of the biggest criticisms near the end of Naruto was that it started feeling too much like Dragon Ball. And now here I am… throwing in a beam clash.

Why?

Two reasons:

A) It looks cool.
B) It's actually canonically possible.

In the filler arc, Guren uses Crystal Release: String of Glory, which is literally a laser made of chakra. And if we look at Naruto: The Last, chakra lasers are 100% a real thing in the universe.

So, yeah. Guren has a chakra laser.

Naruto and Oscar have their own soul-chakra laser.

Beam clash. Boom.

And in case you're wondering, almost every jutsu Guren used in this chapter is pulled from her filler arc. I didn't just make stuff up. These are "canon" techniques, even if filler canon.

Anyway, I hope you guys liked Guren's various fights throughout this chapter. She's not done yet.

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4. Healing Miracles and Soul Damage

In Dark Souls, you've got healing miracles like Heal, Great Heal, Estus, etc. They all do one thing: restore HP.

But from a storytelling point of view? That's kinda boring.

Then a reader on SpaceBattles hit me with a banger idea. What if advanced healing spells like Great Heal didn't just fix your body, but actually healed your soul?

Not just cuts or broken bones, but trauma. Emotional collapse. The psychological wreckage war leaves behind.

That stuck with me. Because it fits the tone of Dark Souls perfectly. A world where despair isn't just a feeling, it's part of the atmosphere. You don't just die over and over… you lose who you are, piece by piece.

So what if Great Heal didn't just top off your health bar, but kept your mind and spirit from falling apart? That would make the Way of White way more important than people give them credit for.

Maybe their miracles suck in gameplay… but lore-wise? They might be the only reason knights, paladins, and nobles haven't gone completely hollow after years of war.

That makes healing not just helpful. It makes it political. Spiritual. Dangerous.

It turns salvation into control.

And that? That feels very Dark Souls.

Now, about Hinata and how she's handling the trauma of what she saw Naruto do...

Naruto used Great Heal Excerpt on her. Basically, a weaker version of the full Great Heal. It didn't erase her memories. They're still there. But the connections are fuzzy. Blurred. Like they've been buried under mental fog.

She'll remember eventually. Once she's ready. Or if something forces her to face it head-on.

Either way, that's coming. Be patient.

Let me know your thoughts, as always.

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So… here we are. The end of the Wave Arc.

Honestly, I don't have a massive Author's Note planned this time because I feel like most of this chapter (and this arc) spoke for itself. That said, if you have any questions about specific moments, decisions, or foreshadowing, feel free to ask in the comments. I'll be happy to respond and nerd out with you all.

But now I want to ask you something.

What did you think of the Wave Arc compared to canon?

I know this arc has been a lot. I had so many threads, layers, and character moments I wanted to include. And yeah, I'll admit that led to some pacing hiccups here and there. But I genuinely tried to make this feel like something meaningful. Something different, without losing the spirit of Naruto.

And trust me, the ripples from what happened here?

They're going to crash hard into the Chunin Exams.

Things will not be the same.

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To everyone who stuck around for this wild, bloody, soul-filled ride—thank you.

Your support means more than I can say. I hope this chapter gave you a satisfying, horrifying, emotional payoff to everything we've been building.

Now, let me know your thoughts down below.

Let's talk about it.

— Adam