The Allied Forces' search-and-rescue ships cut through the murky waves, heading back toward the Land of Iron. A heavy atmosphere hung over the deck. Kakashi watched the shrinking silhouette of the island, which looked as though a giant beast had gnawed through it, his lone eye filled with unshakable exhaustion. Darui and Kurotsuchi stood beside him, equally silent. The terrible cost of the battle overseas weighed on every heart.
Inside the cabin, the medical ninja worked desperately to save the wounded. Naruto, Killer B, and Gaara had suffered grievous injuries, their chakra in disarray, and remained deeply unconscious. Ling refused to lie down. He sat against the cabin wall, letting the medical ninja treat the wounds that had torn his flesh open. His face was pale as paper, but his eyes were unusually clear, filled with profound sorrow and a faint, indescribable tremor of emotion.
The hollow, searing pain deep within his soul reminded him all too clearly that Tobirama, who had been both mentor and friend ever since Ling had crossed into another world as a child, had burned away the last of his soul to protect him, vanishing completely from existence. The weight of that sacrifice almost robbed Ling of the ability to breathe.
Yet at the very instant that remnant soul had vanished completely, he had distinctly felt an ancient mark stir deep within his Soul Origin-a mark that had lain dormant for so long he had nearly forgotten it!
It was an extraordinarily complex mark that combined the Flying Thunder God Formula with a soul contract. It gave off an aura of the same origin as his mentor Tobirama's, yet older and more profound. Back when Ling had been gravely wounded and near death, his mentor had forcibly activated the Dragon Vein to take him through