Taruho put all his fury and strength into the blow, his blade whistling through the air as it slashed viciously at Naruto.
Yet Taruho and his sword passed straight through Naruto's "body" without meeting any resistance.
Having committed all his strength, Taruho could not stop his momentum. He could only watch helplessly as he hurtled toward the hard floor.
Thud!
With a dull impact, Taruho crashed to the ground. His sword flew from his hand and skidded across the smooth tiles with an ear-piercing scrape.
He struggled to get up, but the impact, humiliation, and anger left him momentarily powerless.
Naruto did not even turn around. He merely offered an offhand assessment in an utterly flat voice. "Admirable courage, but a little stupid."
To him, attacking out of sheer reckless bravery despite knowing the hopeless gap in their strength certainly demonstrated loyalty and courage, but it also showed a lack of basic reason and judgment. Was he not afraid of angering him?
With that, he paid no further attention to Taruho on the floor and walked straight up to Shion's throne, where he stopped.
Shion's heart raced. She could distinctly feel the invisible yet immense pressure emanating from him, and those scarlet eyes were fixed on her from mere inches away.
She forced herself to remain composed, but her faintly trembling fingertips betrayed her fear.
Looking at the fourteen-year-old Miko before him, who affected maturity but could not hide her youth, Naruto felt something indescribably strange about her earlier declaration of "I'll go with you" and the look in her eyes now. They seemed to contain a resolve he did not fully understand.
Still, he had no time to examine those details right now.
"Something about this still feels a little strange," Naruto said candidly, tilting his head slightly. "But