"Who am I?"
The boy shrugged and spread his hands, looking utterly unconcerned.
"I'm Naruto, Senior Obito."
He tilted his head. His horizontal pupils, characteristic of Sage Mode, narrowed slightly. The red markings around his eyes looked like two glowing brands in the night, giving him an indescribably eerie appearance.
"You don't recognize me anymore?" he drawled, his tone almost flippant. "Didn't we destroy Konoha together back then? How heartless of you~"
His lazy voice drifted lightly through the dead-silent forest.
Yet it made both men present change their expressions.
The White Zetsu tissue on Obito's body writhed frantically, repairing the bloody hole the Rasengan had blasted through his back.
Ignoring his injury, he fixed the Sharingan behind his mask on the boy's face: the blond hair, the whisker marks, and the red-and-black robes...
Minato Namikaze tightened his grip on his Kunai. He had indeed used the Flying Thunder God to retreat several yards at the last moment. Now, as he stared at the familiar red markings around the boy's eyes, his heart sank.
That was Mount Myoboku's Sage Mode.
But who was this person before him...?
[ Ding! The world's central supporting character, Minato Namikaze, and major antagonist, Obito Uchiha, are experiencing intense emotional fluctuations. ]
[ Roleplay progress for Naruto Uzumaki (Darkened Limited Edition) has increased by 5%. Current synchronization: 5%. ]
[ Keep it up, host, and unlock full privileges like "Nine-Tails Chakra Mode" and "Six Paths Yang Power" soon~ ]
Lin Zi—or, as he was now, Naruto Uzumaki—heard the emotionless mechanical voice in his mind. His face still wore that infuriating grin, but inside, he was already dragging the system's ancestors back eighteen generations out of their graves to whip them.
Yesterday, he'd been an ordinary college student lying in his dorm and watching Naruto. Today, because he'd been bound to this lousy roleplay system, he'd been kicked straight into Konoha's battlefield.
And the worst part was how stingy the system was.
It said he'd be playing Naruto Uzumaki, but all it had unlocked was Sage Mode.
Nine-Tails Chakra Mode, Six Paths Mode, Yang Power, Truth-Seeking Orbs... They were all locked behind permissions, completely out of reach.
"At least I know Naruto by heart."
Lin Zi gritted his teeth. Since transmigrating, he'd spent six whole hours crouched in this damned forest, motionless as he absorbed Natural Energy, all to wait for this very moment—Minato versus Obito, the central scene of the Nine-Tails' rampage.
He needed to rack up progress.
Back when he'd followed the anime, the villagers and higher-ups in Konoha had made him so furious he'd felt sick.
Discrimination, ostracism, bullying, hiding his identity... Naruto had suffered so much in the original story that even watching through a screen had made Lin Zi want to smash his keyboard in frustration.
Well, things were different now.
Since he'd become this darkened version of Naruto, it was time to collect every debt they'd left unpaid, with interest.
Lin Zi raised his eyes. His horizontal Sage pupils swept over Obito's tiger-skin Mask, then settled on Minato's face, which was written with wariness and confusion.
Suddenly, he smiled. It was an innocent-looking smile, yet it brought the temperature of the entire forest down several degrees.
"Don't be nervous, Father."
He winked at Minato, his tone as light as if he were discussing what to have for dinner.
"I'm here this time..."
"To take care of this masked piece of trash for you. Am I right, Senior Obito?"
The wind, the insects, and the stream in the forest all fell silent in that instant.
It was as if some more domineering force had stolen every sound away. Natural Energy surged toward the boy's feet as though summoned by a king, and even the surrounding plants visibly wilted for a moment.
Lin Zi grinned, the red markings around his eyes shining sharply in the dark.
"Little Obito, I know you can use Space-Time Ninjutsu," he said softly. "But unfortunately..."
"Your Uncle Naruto uses Natural Energy. It can counter your disgusting White Zetsu, at least a little."
"Shadow Clone Technique!"
Poof! Poof! Poof!
Puffs of white smoke burst open as five or six Lin Zis charged in from all directions. Each one had a swirling, brilliant-blue Sage Art: Rasengan in his palm, and they struck at Obito from different angles.
Obito scoffed and turned intangible.
The Shadow Clones and their Rasengans passed straight through his body, as if he were an illusion that wasn't really there.
Obito was about to counterattack when his Sharingan suddenly contracted.
Something was wrong.
They were all Shadow Clones? Where was the real one?! Where had the chakra from that Rasengan gone?
"Over here."
The voice sounded right against the back of his neck, close enough for Obito to hear the speaker breathing.
The blood in Obito's body turned cold. From the corner of his eye, he saw a puff of white smoke burst behind him—Substitution Technique!
A fist shot out of the smoke, wreathed in dense Natural Energy. It gave off a deep, resonant sound like a frog's croak.
Sage Art: Frog Kumite!
Boom!!!
The punch slammed squarely into Obito's back.
His still-unhealed wound burst open. He was sent flying as though struck head-on by a battering ram, plowing a trench dozens of yards long through the forest before crashing into an old tree so wide that three men couldn't encircle it. Only then did he come to a battered stop.
The Sage Chakra in the punch shattered the White Zetsu tissue trying to repair him, spraying white mucus from beneath his black robes.
Lin Zi walked over to Obito and crouched beside the Masked Man, who was half dead and embedded in the tree trunk.
"That was easy."
He patted the tiger-skin Mask with a cheerful smile, his voice casual.
"Killing you is no different from crushing a stray dog on the roadside."
"Your harassment is over. Crawl back into your rat hole. I've got someone to save, so I don't have time to play house with you."
Obito couldn't hear him—or, rather, even if he could, he couldn't answer.
The moment he'd hit the tree and come to a stop, he had activated Kamui. A space-time vortex spun frantically, as if he were running for his life. He didn't even leave behind a threat before vanishing back to his lair.
"Kamui is such a damn cheat."
Lin Zi stood up, dusted off his knees, and pursed his lips. "Can't win, so you run. I'm so jealous."
He turned to Minato Namikaze, who had remained silent the whole time.
"Hey, sorry about that. I guess this is technically our second proper meeting."
He pointed at his stomach. His smile faded a little, and the red markings around his eyes glimmered faintly in the night.
"The last time I saw you was when I'd just unsealed this big guy inside me."
"Minato, we need to go save Mom. We'll need your strength to seal the Nine-Tails."
Before Minato could organize his thoughts enough to speak, Lin Zi had already turned away. He became a golden blur and raced toward the rampaging fox demon inside Konoha.
As he ran, he lowered his head and pressed a hand against his stomach. His voice was so soft it sounded like he was talking to himself.
"Seeing you in this world so full of life... You're getting a little itchy for a fight too, aren't you?"
"Come out!"
"Nine-Tails!"
Boom!
The earth split open and dust billowed into the sky. Vast swaths of forest were uprooted.
Crimson chakra erupted from Lin Zi like a volcanic blast, gathering in midair, taking shape, and growing.
A second Nine-Tails fox made its grand entrance!
It threw back its head and howled, its roar shaking the clouds. Its four claws shattered the earth as it charged furiously toward its rampaging counterpart in the village.
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