Abandoned Training Ground

The Abandoned Training Ground was near Konoha's western wall.

Years ago, it had been used for basic genin training. Later, the ground had collapsed, leaving the terrain uneven, and the site had been abandoned. Weeds grew knee-high, several wooden posts stood crooked, and faded kunai marks still scarred the targets.

The man in the white medical coat stood in the center of the grounds.

He was wounded. A sharp weapon had torn open his left shoulder, and his right leg was bleeding too. Yet there was not a trace of pain in his smile. The Black Ring Mark on his forehead flickered like an open eye.

Naruto stood at the edge of the Wellhead.

Jiraiya, Kakashi, and the two Kumogakure ninja spread out behind him, cutting off any escape.

Kakashi stared at the man's face.

"He's not from the hospital."

Jiraiya frowned.

"His Chakra is a mess. It's like someone forced something belonging to another person into him."

The man smiled at those words.

"As expected of Lord Jiraiya, one of the Sannin."

Naruto looked at him.

"Name."

The man tilted his head and thought for a moment.

"My original name no longer means anything."

Naruto raised his hand.

Nine-Tails Chakra formed a fox claw and shot toward him.

The man did not dodge.

The fox claw clamped down on his shoulders and forced him to his knees.

Bones cracked.

Blood spilled from the corner of the man's mouth, but he kept smiling.

"You're in a hurry."

"Because you know I have answers."

Naruto walked up to him.

"I can find answers in a corpse."

The smile on the man's face finally faded a little.

"You won't let me die that quickly."

Naruto looked at Jiraiya.

"The Sealing Scroll."

Jiraiya already had it ready.

But the black ring on the man's forehead suddenly lit up, and dark markings surfaced across the entire training ground.

They were not explosive tags.

It was a Reverse Summoning Array that had been buried long before.

Kakashi's expression changed.

"Fall back!"

The ground split open, and black, mudlike Chakra surged from the cracks, winding toward everyone's ankles like countless slender snakes.

One of the Kumogakure ninja reacted instantly, unleashing a burst of Lightning Release Chakra that severed a swath of Black Sludge.

But the severed Black Sludge did not dissipate. Instead, it clung to the Lightning and crawled up his arm.

The Kumogakure ninja screamed, black rising in his eyes.

He turned his kunai on his companion and thrust.

Kakashi flashed over with the Body Flicker Technique and struck the back of his neck with a knife-hand blow, severing the Black Sludge's connection with Lightning Blade at the same time.

Jiraiya flung toad oil across the ground, then used Fire Release to burn a clear circle.

The Black Sludge writhed in the flames, shrieking like a crying infant.

Naruto stood in the center without retreating.

Nine-Tails Chakra unfurled behind him, and three tails slammed into the ground at once.

Boom!

The surface of the training ground was forcibly ripped up.

The summoning array buried beneath it was exposed.

Three black bone spikes were embedded at the array's core.

Pinned to the ground by the fox claw, the man's smile deepened.

"The faster you tear it open, the more stable the rift becomes."

Naruto looked at the array's core.

Those three bone spikes were not made of ordinary material. Their surfaces carried the same tainted presence as the stone tablet. They were absorbing Nine-Tails Chakra and everyone's emotional fluctuations.

Jiraiya saw it too.

"Naruto, don't strike the array's core directly with Nine-Tails Chakra!"

Naruto withdrew his tails.

The man coughed up blood.

"Too late."

Half the array's markings on the ground were already glowing.

The Black Sludge coalesced into a vague shadow at the array's core.

The shadow had no complete facial features, only a pair of tiny eyes, as though it were peering at the world through a crack underground.

Inside the Sealing Space, the Nine-Tails bristled.

"Kid, that's the scent!"

Naruto stared at the shadow.

"Who are you?"

The shadow did not answer.

The man spoke for it.

"He is someone who has seen the truth."

Naruto crushed the man's other shoulder beneath his foot.

"I wasn't asking you."

The man's face twisted in pain, yet he still laughed hoarsely.

"Names don't matter. What matters is that you've already come this far."

"Konoha lied to you."

"The Advisor burned your mother's letters."

"Danzo wanted to turn you into a tool."

"Sarutobi threatened you with children."

"The Uchiha were victimized, the Hyuga were sold out, and Kumogakure took advantage of the chaos."

"What makes a village like that worth staying in?"

Kakashi's expression darkened.

Jiraiya could also tell this was no ordinary attempt to sow discord.

This thing was repeating facts Naruto had uncovered himself.

It did not lie.

It merely strung the facts together in the most vicious way possible.

Naruto looked down at the man.

"Finished?"

The man froze.

Naruto raised his hand, compressing golden Sealing Jutsu into a small spike in his palm.

"I'm investigating them because they owe a debt."

"Not because you want to enjoy the show."

He drove the golden sealing spike into the Black Ring Mark on the man's forehead.

The man's laughter abruptly turned into a scream.

The black mark on his forehead was forcibly torn open, and a wisp of black lingering will was dragged out of his body.

The shadow at the array's core immediately writhed, trying to pull the lingering will back.

Jiraiya formed hand seals with both hands.

"Toad Mouth Bind!"

The earth surrounding the training ground rose like a living thing, forming walls of flesh that sealed off the array's edges.

Kakashi activated his Sharingan, copied the supporting seal Jiraiya had cast, and suppressed the formula around one of the bone spikes.

Naruto seized the chance.

Instead of bombarding the array's core with tailed beast Chakra, he used the Uzumaki Sealing Technique to lock the array down in reverse along its markings.

The golden formula covered the black markings inch by inch.

The shadow at the array's core let out a shrill howl.

The ring mark on the man's forehead cracked.

At last, genuine terror appeared on his face.

"No... you can't seal it! He'll see me!"

Naruto paused.

"Who is he?"

The man's eyes darted wildly.

"The black one... from underground... he said he could give voice to all the hatred of the dead..."

Before he could finish, the shadow at the array's core abruptly thrust out a hand of sludge and pierced the man's chest.

The man's pupils dilated.

The shadow was silencing him.

Naruto grabbed the back of the man's neck and pulled him free of the sludge hand.

The bloody hole in his chest was deep, but his heart had not been destroyed.

Jiraiya immediately used a seal to contain the wound.

Blood kept pouring from the man's mouth, and his gaze grew unfocused.

Naruto pressed his hand against the man's forehead.

"One last question."

"Who sent you to Minato's Old Residence to take the bell?"

The man forced a few words from his throat.

"Yakushi... orphanage..."

Jiraiya's expression changed.

"Yakushi Nonō?"

The man's pupils began to lose focus.

"Not her... one of the children she left behind..."

The shadow shrieked and retreated into the array's core.

All three bone spikes exploded at once.

The training ground collapsed, exposing an old tunnel below.

At the far end of the tunnel, a small white snake swiftly slipped into the darkness.

Kakashi's gaze sharpened.

"Orochimaru's snake."