Mount Myōboku never turned out its lights.
But as Lin Ye stepped over the boundary marker on slick, moss-covered stones, a translucent gray-purple canopy shrouded the thousand-year-old immortal mountain. Even the sound of the waterfall plunging into the deep pool seemed muffled. The young toads along the path no longer hopped about reciting Senjutsu formulas. Instead, they squatted in rows on the stone steps, gazing up at the enormous, constantly pulsing figure of light atop the mountain.
The figure was a young man.
Blond hair, orange clothes, and a radiant smile everyone in Konoha knew by heart.
Only that smile had been stretched a little too far, and the corners of his eyes held a trace of compassion and sanctity that did not belong to Naruto.
"Stop shedding blood for the hidden villages." Fake Naruto spread his arms, his voice rolling on the mountain wind into every toad's ears. "Ninjutsu is a curse. Chakra is a chain. Come with me, sever your contracts, and you can return to a clean world without war-just as Lin Ye promised me."
At the foot of the mountain, a few Grass Ninja street children who had wandered in were kneeling beside the stream, kowtowing and laying their freshly issued emergency rations at the feet of Fake Naruto's projected image. Sage Fukasaku stood on a pine branch beside the boundary marker, fury tightly suppressed within his wrinkles. His throat bobbed several times, but he said nothing.
"Don't attack." Lin Ye held back Sage Shima, who was itching to fling toad oil. "He's now a lawful beneficiary of the Summoning Contract. Soval used the residual chakra signature Naruto left on Mount Myōboku years ago to sign a new 'Fake Blood Contract.' As far as the rules are concerned, the toads on this mountain really do think