I hurried to join the battlefield with a few additional ANBU, leaving the others to continue searching the Forest of Death. I had assumed the enemy would be there, rather than coming to face Naruto, as they had been doing these past few days, but it seemed I had been wrong.
As I arrived on the battlefield, my gaze fell upon her, and my breath caught for a moment. The girl who should have been dead was standing next to a masked man with green hair. I quickly scanned him, analyzing his posture, trying to understand his role in this situation.
Was he an ally? A manipulator? For now, it mattered little. What mattered was her.
Both of them were surrounded by beasts... The beasts native to the Forest of Death. At least that solved one of the mysteries I was facing tonight.
"Oh, it's jiji… You still remember me?"
Hearing that familiar, childish voice, I looked up and called her name, my heart tightening despite myself:
"Narume."
But she immediately cut me off. Something Narume would never have done in the past.
"Oh, you do! That makes me so happy!"
I could have almost believed it if we were in any other situation. I stared at this face I hadn't seen in four years, a sense of unease creeping in. Was it really her? An illusion? A puppet?
There were many techniques that could manipulate a body, from simple chakra threads to Edo Tensei. I thought of the latter as I looked at the girl before me, but something told me it couldn't be that.
The child's voice snapped me out of my thoughts:
"You know, jiji? Naruto doesn't seem to remember me. I even walked around the village, but I was ignored. It's really strange... Do you know why that happened?"
The fact that she could imitate Narume so well disturbed me deeply. It led me to a suspicion: the person before me was the real Narume, not just in body, but in mind.
A shiver ran down my spine. This shouldn't be possible, as it narrowed down the responsible techniques to just one in my knowledge: Edo Tensei.
But I would have time to think about that once this situation was resolved. For now, I chose to play along with her game:
"Can you explain what's going on, Narume? And who is this man?"
"Ah, him, he's my new friend."
She paused, as if to observe me, before giggling:
"It seems it's easier to make friends when you're dead than when you're alive."
She raised her hand and muttered:
"Undead Rest."
All the ANBU immediately took defensive positions. I watched carefully, alert for any movement, my body tense despite myself.
All the beasts... or rather, most of them, collapsed to the ground, their bodies decaying at an accelerated rate. A dark mist began to escape from them, spreading.
We quickly distanced ourselves, and seeing the effects of this mist, I was glad I had ordered the evacuation of all civilians in the area.
The wood of some nearby buildings began to rot. The trees were dying, and the mist continued to spread.
Such a technique... How could she have acquired such power?
How could she cause these phenomena without any fluctuation of chakra?
Just as I was about to intervene, the mist suddenly recoiled, converging into Narume's outstretched palms. It compressed into spheres of varying sizes.
Narume dropped the first one to the ground, then launched the second at the last of her beasts still standing. The first only caused the ground to rot slightly, but the second was swallowed by the bear, which let out a roar and began to swell.
By the end of the process, it now stood fifteen meters tall.
Narume then took on a falsely wise expression and declared:
"To hang around with us this long, you must be quite lonely, jiji... Come with me. I can promise you'll make plenty of friends."
"Is that why you're here? To drag your brother into death?"
As soon as I spoke these words, her expression changed, revealing a cold anger. But she calmed down almost immediately and replied in a detached voice:
"No. It's only you I want to take with me... and also your lover, the scarred one... and why not a few villagers too. You know... the ones who have been the "kindest" to us?"
By now, her face was completely apathetic, a mask devoid of humanity. Then, in a tone that almost seemed thoughtful, she added:
"Yet, I will thank you. Thanks to you, Naruto finally made some friends... but tell me, jiji... wouldn't it have been better if that had happened sooner? Couldn't you have acted a little earlier?"
At this point, I realized that she knew far more than she did when she died.
As soon as she finished speaking, her bear charged at us, followed closely by the man with green hair.
This made me reconsider his true position in all this, but it seemed that the conversation was over.
I heard Narume speak again, but the sound of the bear's charge drowned out her voice.
The bones of all the beast carcasses shattered, diverging before converging toward us in a conical area. I reacted immediately.
Doton: Great Mud Wall.
A 20-meter-long and 8-meter-high wall rose up and protecting us.
The bones shook the wall under their bombardment, but reinforced by my chakra, it held firm. Only to be shattered by the rampaging bear.
I saw Tenzo enter into a confrontation with the man with green hair.
The bear then unleashed a breath of black energy toward us, the consequences of being in contact with such energy had already been proven.
I quickly formed hand seals to stop the bear; it wasn't the true adversary here, but it was the most troublesome one.
I pointed my palm at the bear as a sealing network appeared before me, but before I could complete it, Narume appeared in front of me. I hadn't perceived her movement.
She tried to touch me, but I grabbed her with one hand while completing the seal with the other.
I then heard her say: "Dehydration."
A wave of energy ran through my arm, drying it out and weakening me severely. Halfway through, I channeled my chakra to counter this energy.
Narume pulled away from me, leaving her arm in my hand, dried out.
I then noticed the complete absence of bones in that arm.
She landed near the bear, placed her hand on it, and said, "Lopsided Duel."
A growl was heard as a giant serpent emerged from the ground at the position of the ANBU who had been guarding Naruto.
This made me understand why Narume had poured that black energy sphere on the ground. She had planned for this.
From the serpent's mouth, another Narume emerged and screamed: "Pain Wave."
An invisible fluctuation passed through me before transforming into a dull pain. The ANBU holding Naruto, already injured, collapsed.
Narume seized her brother and disappeared, reappearing next to her companion.
He touched her, and I heard the Narume behind me say, "Lopsided Duel."
This time, Narume and her companion vanished with Naruto.
The bear disappeared in the same way, ignoring the traps the ANBU had set.
This made me realize the last detail: "She can teleport."
I then turned my gaze toward the remaining Narume, who was missing an arm.
She smiled at me. A smile that sent a chill down my spine as she whispered:
"Corpse Explosion."
"Meat Clone Self-destruction."
I quickly formed hand seals at a speed I didn't know I was capable of, enveloping her in a barrier of earth. That was enough to control the clone's explosion.
Another detonation rang out from the other side of the battlefield. Turning around, I saw a massive structure of wood.
Tenzo must have contained the serpent's explosion.
I watched the destruction around us. This battle had been a total defeat. The only consolation was that I knew Narume wouldn't harm Naruto.
But we needed to find them before the other villages realized our Jinchuriki was missing.
I then noticed the police forces and other shinobi approaching us.
It irritated me deeply: "Couldn't they have come a little earlier?"
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Hello everyone, it is violetu
It's just that the updates were daily.
But I'm still a student so they'll be more spaced out starting today.
About one or two a week.
The purpose of this chapter is just to give this information.
I didn't want to leave it at that.
Thank you for your understanding and I hope you enjoy the chapter.
Ps : Depending on my time and your luck, there will be a tomorrow