Tsubasa followed them into the academy, where many students and teachers bowed respectfully along the way. Passing through the ornately decorated corridors, they arrived at the pavilion in the backyard, where several familiar figures were drinking around a stone table.
Uchiha Fugaku, dressed in his clan uniform, was arm wrestling with Hyuga Hiashi bulging on their foreheads. Hizashi Hyuga was cheering them on from the side, while Shikaku Nara leaned against a pillar, closing his eyes to rest, playing with a blade of grass in his hand. Akimichi Chōza was the most down-to-earth, eating a grilled meat platter with his mouth full of oil.
"Hey, Immortal Venerable Tsubasa is here!" Chōza mumbled, quickly moving aside to make room for Tsubasa.
Fugaku and Hiashi released their grip simultaneously. The former straightened his slightly disheveled collar, while the latter demurely picked up his teacup. " Immortal Venerable."
"Stop with the pleasantries." Tsubasa picked up the sake bottle and poured himself a cup. " Fugaku, have your two little ones Fire Style in the neighborhood again lately?"
Fugaku's face stiffened. "Itachi was being disrespectful. I'll definitely teach him a lesson later."
"Stop lecturing him." Tsubasa took a sip of his wine. "That kid has a fire-attribute Spiritual Root; he's got the makings of Immortal Cultivation. Let him go to Ryūchi Cave and learn more about Senjutsu from Tenchu. Stop him from setting fires in the neighborhood with your daughter all day."
Fugaku chuckled awkwardly, " My Immortal Venerable, he's only two years old. I can't bear to let him go. Let's wait another two years!"
Hiashi nodded in agreement. "I think the Immortal Venerable is right. My child, who is only two years old, has already been sent to the Moon God Cult to cultivate Immortal Cultivation Senjutsu. If Hyuga Hiashi has the talent for cultivation, they should be exposed to Immortal Cultivation as early as possible."
As they were talking, Shikaku Nara suddenly opened his eyes. "Master, have you heard? The Shinobi World has been quite unsettled lately."
Tsubasa raised an eyebrow. "What's going on?"
"The patrol found several civilian corpses on the border between Thunder City and Moon City," Shikaku's voice deepened, "Their deaths were strange, as if something had drained their blood."
The atmosphere in the pavilion instantly became heavy. Kushina subconsciously touched her stomach, Minato grasped her hand, his eyes sharpening.
Fugaku frowned. "Are they remnants of the Vampire Clan?" Back in the Shinobi World unification war, the Azure Dragon Corps had dealt with those monsters who lived by drinking blood quite a bit.
"It's hard to say." Shikaku shook his head. "Those corpses didn't have the characteristics unique to the Vampire Clan. After mutating, they were very stiff and had high defense. They hopped around, and although they were very strong, they weren't agile. They were easily killed by ninjas and then burned."
Tsubasa tapped the table lightly with his fingertips, causing ripples in the wine in his glass. He recalled the zombies he watched on TV in his past life—could there really be zombies in this world?
A group of people were having a heated discussion about zombies. Tsubasa also gave his analysis of zombies, reminding everyone that zombies are divided into levels, and what they were talking about was probably the lowest level, the kind that had just mutated not long ago.
"I'll go to the border of Moon City in the Land of the Moon tomorrow." Tsubasa put down his wine glass and stood up. "You all go about your business and cultivate diligently."
As Tianyi walked out of the Kage Academy, the setting sun was painting Konoha in a golden-red hue. Tsubasa looked up at the towering Hokage Rock, where the statue of the Third Hokage appeared particularly solemn in the twilight.
A few more cherry blossoms fell from the street corner, clinging to the hem of his clothes. He gently brushed the petals away, turned, and walked towards his home in the village's Divine Weapon Pavilion. Now that familiar Naruto characters were appearing one by one, he always liked to wander around Konoha.
Tsubasa touched the border map that Shikaku had given him in his sleeve, and turned toward the teleportation array to the west of the village. According to Shikaku, the dozens of zombie corpses on the border of Moon City were discovered three months ago, and the elite ninja team sent by Konoha had already begun the clearing operation there.
" Immortal Venerable Tsubasa, are you going to the Moon Continent?" The young Konoha Jonin guarding the teleportation array was an unfamiliar face. Seeing him standing by the array's core and mentioning Moon Castle, he respectfully replied, "It's quite lively there now. Just yesterday, news came back to Konoha that the elite Konoha ninja team encountered... that zombie-like monster again in the Forest of the Moon."
Tsubasa took the array plate that activated the teleportation array, and lightly tapped it with his fingertip. Pale blue light patterns spread along the floor tiles. "Oh, you already know the news. How many teams went?"
"A dozen or so! Even bites from those hard monsters can mutate into that state," the Jonin swallowed hard, his voice low. "They say the ones in the Moon Forest are more ferocious than the zombies we found before. One Wind Branch Elite Jonin had his arm broken by one slap, the bone fragments were exposed, but that monster wasn't even scratched by Shuriken, shuriken, or any kind of Ninjutsu."
The teleportation array suddenly shone brightly, casting a long Kageko of Tsubasa. He turned back and smiled, "Don't worry, I'll go catch one alive for you to study." Before he finished speaking, he was already enveloped in a beam of light and disappeared into the center of the array.
When he opened his eyes again, he was in the Moon Castle. Tsubasa sensed the situation outside the Forest of the Moon and quickly flew to the ninja camp in the Moon Forest.
Upon arriving at the Moon Forest, the air was filled with the damp scent of grass and trees. Moon Continent was much cooler than Konoha, and the wind carried the chill of the mountain streams. In the distance, the Forest of the Moon resembled a dark green velvet cloth, obscuring half the sky. The place where Tsubasa landed was a temporary ninja camp, with dozens of green tents lined up along the edge of the forest. Several ninjas were squatting by the campfire polishing their ninja tools. When they saw him appear from the sky, the Kunai in their hands clattered to the ground.
"Heavenly... Immortal Venerable Tsubasa?" A ninja with a buzz cut suddenly stood up, his eyes wide open beneath his Forehead Protector. He was none other than Senju Nawaki, the captain of this squad. He rubbed his eyes and pinched his teammate hard. "Am I seeing things? What brings you here?"
"Let's see what you call zombies," Tsubasa said, walking to the campfire and sitting down. He picked up a half-cooked fish, brought it to his nose, and smelled it. " Little Shikaku said that quite a few of your ninja squads have been clearing out zombies here! Have you found any in the last couple of days?"
Nawaki scratched his head, his excitement fading considerably. He squatted down and pulled a sealed scroll from his backpack. "Don't even mention it," he said. "Besides finding a few destroyed, abandoned village houses and burning dozens of low-level, purplish-red undead, we didn't even see a single powerful Kageko. But look at this—" He spread the scroll out on the ground, revealing several rubbings of footprints. "These were found yesterday at the edge of the forest. The footprints are larger than those in the previous report, and the edges are tinged with a highly poisonous black aura, like... a high-level undead in action."
"Poisonous black aura?" Tianyi raised Tsubasa, tracing the mark on the rubbing with his fingertip. "Ordinary zombies have stiff knees and can only hop, so their corpse aura is weak. If it can leave a trail of corpse aura that lingers for a long time, then it's either mutated or of a higher level."
A simple-minded ninja nearby couldn't help but interject, " Immortal Venerable, have you really seen that thing? Do you know anything about this monster?"
"I've seen similar ones before," Tsubasa said, taking a bite of the grilled fish. It was crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, even more flavorful than the ones from the Konoha barbecue restaurant. "These things are called zombies, and they come in several levels. The lowest level is called Purple Zombie, whose body turns purple from corpse transformation. These are afraid of light and fire, and any Genin can easily handle them. Above that are white and black zombies, which are impervious to blades and spears. Above that are green and hairy zombies, which are covered in green and white hair, respectively. If they can fly and use magic, they're called Flying Zombie. If you encounter one, you'd better run for your life. And the ones above that are ones I'd run for my life for too..." He paused, looking towards the depths of the Forest of the Moon, "... those are the more troublesome ones."
Just then, a series of hurried footsteps came from afar, and a Sunagakure ninja stumbled over, his Forehead Protector askew and his face covered in mud. " Nawaki! Something terrible has happened! We found a cave in the forest, and inside... inside it is full of corpses!"
Nawaki suddenly stood up, casually shoving the grilled fish into the hands of the fat ninja beside him. "Lead the way quickly."