Before the transport ship even docked, Naruto jumped off the deck.
He landed on the boardwalk at the Konoha port, causing a splash of water.
The Root member behind him wanted to follow, but he raised his hand to stop him.
"Don't worry about me, you go back and rest."
"But Commissar, your injury..."
"I'm fine. I believe in the resilience of Jinchūriki and Uzumaki Clan."
Naruto turned around without stopping.
The black windbreaker was still dripping, and the blood on the bandage had solidified into dark red.
He walked straight through the port and walked deeper into the village.
It was dark at night and there were no people on the street.
Occasionally, a patrolling ANBU flashed by. When he saw his figure, he immediately knelt down on one knee and saluted.
Naruto ignored it.
There was only one thing on his mind.
That Black Rod.
The broken Black Rod left behind by Pain.
When Yagura picked it up on the battlefield, Naruto felt it.
The Death God Rune on the back of my hand was so hot that it felt like it was going to burn through the skin.
That is no ordinary chakra materialization product.
It represents something very ancient.
First Arsenal's door is closed.
Naruto walked to the door and pressed the encryption button on the wall.
Two beeps.
The heavy metal door slowly rose.
"Commissar?"
There were two guards in protective clothing standing behind the door. They were stunned for a moment when they saw Naruto's appearance.
"Where is Ancient Iron?"
"It's on the third underground floor, but it's two o'clock in the morning..."
"Get him up."
Naruto walked in, and the sound of footsteps echoed in the empty corridor.
The guards looked at each other and immediately picked up the communicator.
Three floors underground.
Ancient Iron The patriarch is wearing a coat, his hair is messy, and his eyes are sleepy.
But when I saw Naruto, my sleepiness disappeared instantly.
"Commissar, you are..."
"There's something I want you to analyze."
Naruto took out a sealed bag from his pocket, which contained the broken Black Rod.
It is about a finger long and has fine cracks on the surface.
Ancient Iron took it and his eyes immediately became focused.
"This is..."
"Pain's weapon."
Naruto is sitting on the chair next to the experimental table.
"I want to know what it is made of, what characteristics it has, and whether it can be copied."
"Thank you for your hard work, I will give you a bonus."
Ancient Iron was shocked, nodded sharply, turned around and walked towards the experimental platform.
He opened the sealed bag, used tweezers to take out Black Rod, and placed it on a metal tray.
Then press a button on the edge of the test bench.
Buzz--
A blue beam of light hung from the ceiling, covering Black Rod.
That's Chakra Spectrometer.
Able to analyze the chakra structure and elemental composition within matter.
The beam was scanned three times.
A string of data pops up on the screen.
Ancient Iron stared at the screen, frowning more and more.
"Wrong."
"What's wrong?"
"The material of this thing..."
Ancient Iron raised his head and looked at Naruto.
"Not any metal known to Shinobi World."
"It's not even metal."
He zooms in on an area on the screen.
That is the microstructure diagram inside Black Rod.
Not a crystal lattice, not a molecular chain, nor any known arrangement of elements, but a twisted, living thing.
"This is chakra materialized."
Ancient Iron's voice is very low.
"But it's not an ordinary chakra manifestation."
"Ordinary chakra manifestations, such as Magnet Release: Iron Sand of Sunagakure, or Wood Release wood of Konoha, their essence is still material."
"But this..."
He pointed at the screen.
"The essence of it is energy."
"An energy that is forcibly solidified into a physical entity."
Naruto stared at the twisted thing on the screen.
"Energy?"
"Yes."
Ancient Iron Switch to another analysis interface.
"And the energy is weird."
"Its wavelength and frequency are completely different from normal chakra."
"Normal chakra is stable and regular."
"But this..."
He called up a waveform graph.
It was a crazy beating curve, like what it looks like when an electrocardiogram is abnormal.
"It's twisting."
"Always twisting."
"Even if it has broken, even if it has left the user, it is still twisting."
Naruto stood up and walked to the experimental table.
He reached out and wanted to touch the Black Rod.
"Commissar, wait!"
Ancient Iron wanted to stop it, but it was already too late.
Naruto's finger touched the surface of Black Rod.
Instantly.
A cold tingling sensation came from the fingertips.
It's not physical pain.
It's spiritual.
It was like countless needles were piercing into the depths of his consciousness.
It was so hot that it felt like it was burning through the skin.
Naruto gritted his teeth and did not let go.
He closed his eyes.
In the spiritual world.
Nine-Tails was lying behind the sealed iron fence, staring at him with huge eyes.
"Little devil."
Nine-Tails's voice is deep.
"I might as well tell you the result directly. This Black Rod is the product of Yin-Yang Release. It is not unusual for the owner of Rinnegan to make something like this. This thing is very basic from the perspective of Yin-Yang Release, but... this thing alone has a different taste from what I remember. It is slightly deviated... Although it is not much, it cannot be ignored."
"What does it smell like?"
"Rotten."
Nine-Tails narrowed his eyes.
"Dead."
"And..."
It paused.
"Crazy, not ninja madness, but something deeper, like crawling out of the cracks in the world."
Naruto Open your eyes.
The finger left Black Rod.
Ancient Iron looked at him nervously.
"Commissar, are you okay?"
"It's okay."
Naruto moved his fingers.
My fingertips are still numb.
"Continue analyzing."
"I want to know if there is anything left inside this thing."
"Psychic fluctuations, chakra marks, anything abnormal."
Ancient Iron nodded and turned around to operate the instrument.
He changed the device.
That's Elemental Decomposition Spell Array.
Ability to decompose matter into its smallest units and extract the remaining energy information.
Black Rod was put into the center of the magic array.
Ancient Iron Hands Hand Seals, infused with chakra.
The magic array lights up.
Rays of light intertwined into a network, wrapping Black Rod in it.
Then.
The light begins to shrink.
Fine cracks appeared on the surface of Black Rod.
It's like it's being stretched open from the inside by something.
Beads of sweat broke out on Ancient Iron's forehead.
"There is something..."
"Inside..."
"It's very weak, but..."
He suddenly increased his chakra output.
The light of the magic array skyrocketed.
Black Rod completely shattered.
Turned into a ball of black powder.
The powder hung in the air for a moment.
Then it condenses into a tiny, almost invisible point of light.
The light spot was trembling.
As if alive.
Ancient Iron reached out and used a special chakra container to collect the light spots.
He put the container under the microscope.
Zoom in.
Zoom in again.
An image of light spots appeared on the screen.
That's not a point of light.
It's a twisted, smoke-like thing.
It rolled and struggled in the container, trying to escape.
Ancient Iron stared at the screen, his voice trembling.
"This is... a mental wave."
"But not human."
"It's not Tailed Beast either."
"Its frequency..."
He pulled up the data.
"Its frequency is completely opposite to normal mental fluctuations."
"Normal mental fluctuations spread outward and are stable."
"But this..."
"It's shrinking inward."
"Devouring."
"Swallow what?"
Naruto stared at the screen.
"Everything."
Ancient Iron looked up at him.
"It's swallowing the chakra around it, swallowing the light, swallowing the heat."
Naruto was silent.
He remembered those things in Warhammer World.
Warp, Chaos.
Those monsters that crawl out from the gap between reality and spirit.
Their essence is distortion.
Distort physical laws and distort spiritual will.
"Seal it."
Naruto's voice is very cold.
"Use the highest level Sealing Jutsu to seal this container."
Ancient Iron nodded.
"Understood."
"Also."
Naruto turned around and walked towards the door.
"Except for you and me, no third person is allowed to know about this."
"Yes."
Naruto walked out of the laboratory, the corridor was very quiet, the only sound was his footsteps.
He took out his encrypted communicator and pressed a button.
"Zero."
"Here."
The voice of Zero came from the communicator.
"Start network-wide intelligence collection."
"Focus on the behavioral patterns of top leaders in various countries."
"Any abnormal decision-making, any abnormal remarks, any sudden policy changes."
"Record all."
"Yes."
Zero paused.
"Commissar, do you need specific objects to monitor?"
"All ninjas above Jonin level."
Naruto walks into the elevator.
"All the core officials of the Daimyō's Palace, all the elders who hold real power."
"Don't miss a single one."
"Understood."
The elevator door closes.
Naruto leaned against the wall and closed his eyes.
The wound on my chest still hurts.
But what made him more uneasy than the pain was the twisted mental fluctuations.
There is something like that hidden in Pain's Black Rod.
What about Pain himself?
What about the other members of Akatsuki?
What about the sudden betrayal of Ōnoki and Raikage?
All clues point in one direction.
Something is permeating this world.
Not an enemy on the surface.
It's something deeper and more hidden.
The elevator reached the first floor.
The door opens.
Nara Shikage stood outside the door, holding a document in his hand.
"Commissar."
"Say."
"The latest information on Iwagakure and Kumogakure."
Deer Shadow Open the file.
"After the war, instead of converging, the two villages accelerated their military expansion."
"Ōnoki secretly summoned all Jonin-level combat forces of Land of Earth for closed training."
"The content of the training is unknown, but according to the report of the spy we placed at Iwagakure..."
He paused.
"The training intensity is very high."
"Abnormally high."
"Three Jonin fainted on the spot because they could not bear the intensity of training."
"Ōnoki did not let them rest, but ordered the medical ninja to treat them on the spot and then continue training."
Naruto narrowed his eyes.
"Where is Raikage?"
"Raikage sent a large number of spies to penetrate the Land of Fire border."
Deer Shadow Turn to the next page.
"The number is three times as high as before."
"And the mission of these spies is not to spy on intelligence, but..."
"Destruction."
"Destruction?"
"Yes."
Deer Shadow nodded.
"They are spreading the Konoha threat theory in several villages and towns on the border."
"It is said that Konoha is developing weapons of mass destruction, that Naruto Uzumaki is a war maniac, and that Land of Fire will annex other countries sooner or later."
"There are even spies disguised as Konoha Ninja, causing chaos in villages and towns."
Naruto sneered.
"They are preparing public opinion for total war."
"Yes."
Deer Shadow Close the file.
"One more thing."
"Land of Wind."
Naruto looks up.
"After Gaara purged conservative elders, three elders committed suicide while under house arrest."
"The autopsy report of Sunagakure shows..."
Deer Shadow's voice became solemn.
"They were in an extremely high state of mind before they died."
"There are weird purple lines remaining deep in the pupils."
"And..."
He paused.
"Their shadows are gone."
"What?"
"There is no shadow next to the body."
Deer Shadow looked at Naruto.
"Even under strong light, the corpse did not cast any shadow."
"It's like the shadow was eaten by something."
Naruto's fingers tapped on the communicator.
"Zero."
"Focus on observing the shadow of the person being monitored to see if there is any abnormal movement, shape distortion, or..."
Naruto paused.
"Smile."
"Understood."
Deer Shadow was stunned for a moment.
"Commissar, can shadows laugh?"
"Yes."
Naruto turned around and walked towards the office.
"If they're fed."
The office door is closed.
Naruto sat on a chair and opened a drawer on the table.
There is a black notebook inside.
That was the memory he brought back from Warhammer World.
About Chaos.
He opened his notebook.
First page.
Tzeentch.
Lord of Change, the god of conspiracy.
It confuses the ambitions of the wise, distorts the truth of knowledge, and turns the smartest people into the craziest lunatics.
Second page.
Nurgle.
Father of Plagues, the source of despair.
It uses pain to spread disease, leaving the strongest warriors to die of decay.
Page three.
Slaanesh.
The king of desire, the lord of corruption.
It seduces the senses, amplifies desires, and makes the purest soul indulge in pleasure.
Page 4.
Khorne.
The god of killing and the source of fury.
It incites violence, ignites rage, and turns the mildest of people into bloodthirsty beasts.
Naruto Close the notebook.
Ōnoki's obsession with "balance".
The paranoia of maintaining Shinobi World Order at all costs.
It's like the fear in my heart has been amplified by Tzeentch.
Raikage's passion for "power".
The urge to defeat the enemy regardless of the consequences.
It was as if Khorne had ignited the anger in my heart.
Even Pain is paranoid about "pain".
The kind of crazy idea that makes the world feel pain.
It's like the inner despair has been distorted by Nurgle.
Everyone is being amplified.
Your deepest desires and fears are amplified.
Naruto stood up and walked to the window.
Konoha is still sleeping outside.
The streets are deserted.
Only the street lights flickered in the darkness.
He stared at his reflection in the glass.
Behind the reflection.
His shadow is cast on the floor.
Stay still.
Naruto stared at that shadow.
I stared at it for a long time.
suddenly.
The encrypted communicator rang.
"Commissar."
Zero's voice is very urgent.
"Kirigakure has sent emergency information."
"Fourth Mizukage Yagura left a complete tape in the hospital, and he named you to listen to it yourself."
Naruto turned around and walked towards the door.
"Prepare the secret room."
Ten minutes later.
Konoha underground, in a completely soundproof secret room.
Naruto was sitting on the only chair. There was a tape recorder on the table. He pressed the play button.
There was a rustling sound of electricity, followed by the weak voice of Yagura.
"Naruto... I felt the same aura on Samehada of Kisame as the 'Masked Man' that controlled me back then..."
"But deeper, that's not Sharingan's Genjutsu, it's something that will 'eat' the darkness in your heart..."
There was a violent coughing sound in the recording.
Then came the panicked shouts of the medical ninja.
"Master Mizukage! Master Mizukage!"
The voice of Yagura sounded again.
Weaker.
"Kirigakure... there is something wrong with someone's shadow. Their shadow sometimes moves..."
The coughing became more violent.
"Will laugh..."
The recording stopped abruptly.
Only the rustling sound of electricity was left, and Naruto stared at the recorder.
Fingers drummed on the armrest.
Once, twice, three times.