Monsters Had Chakra Too

The once-calm lake rippled with waves, and Ichihashi was dragged beneath the surface in an instant.

Uchiha Naruto hurried to the lakeside and activated his Sharingan. Neither the darkness nor the lake water could obstruct his vision.

"Damn it! Another one of these things!"

He calmly observed the situation for a while before taking off his sunglasses and jacket, wrapping his phone in them, and tossing the bundle onto the bank. Then he leaped into the water with a huge splash.

Uchiha Naruto dove deeper into the lake. Nakano Park's artificial lake was shallow, less than five meters at its deepest point, but something seemed to be churning up the mud and sand on the bottom, leaving visibility abysmal. That posed no obstacle to Uchiha Naruto's Sharingan.

He saw something like a tentacle, as thick as an arm, wrapped around Ichihashi's ankle.

Ichihashi was bent over underwater, sawing at the tentacle around her ankle with a utility knife. But she was losing strength as she drowned. She choked on another mouthful of lake water, her eyes rolled back, and her limbs fell limp.

Uchiha Naruto quickly swam over, snatched the utility knife from her hand, infused it with chakra, and severed the tentacle around her ankle with one forceful cut!

Then he held Ichihashi and swam to the surface. With a few steps across the water, he sprinted over the artificial lake and reached the bank.

He glanced at Ichihashi in his arms. Her soaked hair hung loose across her chest, her eyes were shut, and her lips were pale. She had clearly lost consciousness.

"Croak!"

An unbearably ugly cry rang out as a monster chased them out of the artificial lake, charging menacingly at Uchiha Naruto.

The monster was an enormous toad the size of a small calf, with human hands and feet and an aquatic animal's webbing between its digits. Two bulging, soccer-ball-sized eyes sat atop its triangular head, and slime streamed down its black, bumpy back.

Thin trickles of crimson blood seeped from the corners of the Toad Monster's mouth. Its hands and feet scrabbled wildly at the ground, gouging furrows into it.

"What kind of monster is this? A Kappa? A Suiko? It looks nothing like either. A Giant Toad? It doesn't really match the description in the books, either." Uchiha Naruto studied the monster without taking his eyes off it.

Over the past few days, Uchiha Naruto had borrowed some books on Japanese monster lore from the library, but he still couldn't identify the Toad Monster.

That was hardly surprising. Japanese monsters were famous for their sheer variety, and even a folklorist specializing in them was unlikely to know every kind.

"Croak! Croak, croak, croak..."

With its tongue injured and its prey stolen, the Toad Monster looked furious. Threatening croaks kept pouring from its mouth before it opened wide and spat out a ball of water the size of a washbasin.

Holding Ichihashi, Uchiha Naruto leaped aside. The water cannon struck the two-seater bench behind him and smashed its backrest clean off.

Uchiha Naruto laid Ichihashi on the grass and turned around, his scarlet Sharingan gleaming with an eerie light.

"Is that all you've got? Then you're my prey now."

The Toad Monster opened its mouth and fired another water cannon. Uchiha Naruto charged straight at it without dodging, shattered the water cannon with a single punch, then jumped, sailing lightly above the Toad Monster's head. He raised his right foot high over his head and brought it crashing down on the monster in an axe kick.

The Toad Monster's eyes bulged violently, its already protruding eyeballs nearly squeezing out of their sockets.

Uchiha Naruto pinned the Toad Monster down and examined it closely, the two tomoe in each of his Sharingan spinning rapidly.

"This monster actually has chakra inside it?!"

The Two-Tomoe Sharingan could see the color of chakra. As the monster prepared to spit, Uchiha Naruto had seen traces of blue-black energy flowing from its abdomen into its mouth, where it converted them into a water cannon and spat it out.

Observing it up close, he felt even more strongly that this energy was extremely similar in nature to his own chakra.

Though impure and worlds apart from Uchiha Naruto's chakra in both quality and quantity, this peculiar energy seemed to be a degraded form of chakra.

"Unbelievable!"

It made sense that he had been granted chakra after arriving in this world with the Naruto system. But the fact that this world's monsters possessed chakra too, rather than some other kind of energy, surprised Uchiha Naruto.

While Uchiha Naruto was lost in thought, the Toad Monster, which his blow had knocked unconscious, came to. It bucked and thrashed like an enraged bull, trying to throw him off.

But Uchiha Naruto had already learned to walk up tree trunks in the Training Ground. He concentrated chakra in his feet and clung tightly to the Toad Monster's back.

Unable to shake him off, the Toad Monster tried to jump into the artificial lake with Uchiha Naruto still on its back.

At that moment, Uchiha Naruto pushed off with his toes and leaped into the air. He rotated upward through 180 degrees until his head pointed down, then formed hand seals.

"Great Fireball Technique!"

An enormous fireball engulfed the Toad Monster completely, evaporating the lake water into a vast cloud of mist.

[Kill complete. Calculating rewards]

[Water Release LV1]

[Ninja Jewel ×15]

Uchiha Naruto landed steadily on the water and walked back toward the bank, step by step. Moonlight spilled over the shimmering lake, and the handsome youth walking across its surface looked like a spirit of the lake.

Just as he had received the Shadow Imitation Technique after killing the Evil Spirit, Uchiha Naruto obtained Water Release after dispatching the Toad Monster.

Considering the chakra inside the monster as well, it hardly felt like a coincidence. Perhaps the monsters and spirits of this world had some connection to the Naruto game.

"Oh, right. How's the girl with the braids and glasses doing?"

Uchiha Naruto looked at the girl he had laid faceup on the grass. Though still unconscious, she was breathing steadily and seemed to be out of danger.

He returned to the bank and retrieved his phone, sunglasses, and jacket.

He dialed 119 to report that someone had nearly drowned in the park. After being told that help would arrive in ten minutes, Uchiha Naruto glanced back once more.

The nights were still cold in early April. As the night wind blew, the girl's lake-soaked body began to shiver.

After a moment's thought, Uchiha Naruto draped his jacket over Ichihashi, then turned and left.

His luck had been excellent today. Now he could advance to Chunin.