msmithbooks Chapter 363: I woke up and became an Otsutsuki.
Chapter 363: I woke up and became an Otsutsuki.
The last frame of her memory was when she teamed up with Uchiha Sasuke to completely engulf Otsutsuki Urashiki with that ridiculously long-named Rasengan and left the battlefield.
Naruto's vision gradually cleared, and the first thing he saw was an unfamiliar ceiling.
Why... am I lying in bed?
He felt a sense of bewilderment. Was the battle over? Had he simply collapsed from exhaustion? That couldn't be the case.
Immediately afterwards, an extremely strange and undeniable feeling came from the area around my right eye.
It wasn't pain, but rather an awkward feeling... that a strange energy source was stuck there, and was uncontrollably and continuously consuming a considerable amount of chakra.
Although it did not harm him for the time being, it continued to drain his energy, causing physical discomfort.
Naruto frowned, almost as if his mind was racing, wanting to "shut down" this pointless waste of energy—
That continuous sensation of chakra being drawn out actually came to an abrupt end! The "idling" of the unfamiliar energy source stopped.
Inside the ward, the crowd, who had been dead silent because of the strange change in Naruto's right eye, were now staring at the pair of heterochromatic eyes with confusion and vigilance. The left eye was blue and the right eye was black and gold, especially the one that emitted a non-human golden light and had a pitch-black background.
Even the well-traveled Jiraiya, who had been in the ninja world for many years, had never seen such peculiar eyes.
However, just as they were filled with doubt and uncertainty, something even more unexpected happened.
The strange color on Naruto's right eye, which had just opened and was still filled with confusion, quickly faded, returning it to its normal state.
Naruto himself noticed the change in his eyes, but he was more puzzled as to why everyone else was staring at him with such shocked and complicated looks.
"...Are you...Naruto?"
A woman's voice, tinged with hesitation, worry, and lingering fear, cautiously broke the eerie atmosphere in the ward.
Kushina Uzumaki took half a step forward, her blue eyes, similar to Naruto's, fixed on him, wanting to confirm whether the person who had woken up before her was still the son she knew.
"Huh? Why would you ask such a question?"
Naruto was even more confused by the question, and he propped himself up on his arms to sit up.
"What happened? How did I get here?" Naruto's voice was hoarse from just waking up, but his tone and expression were no different from usual.
This perfectly natural reaction was like a powerful stimulant, instantly energizing everyone who cared about him.
Clear, intermittent sighs of relief echoed in the ward.
Uchiha Satsuki, who was closest to Naruto, finally felt a huge weight lifted from his heart when he heard Naruto's familiar voice.
The next instant, she stepped forward, stretched out her arms, and hugged Naruto tightly, as if she were using all her strength, as he had just sat up!
Naruto was taken aback by the sudden hug, but when he felt the girl in his arms tremble slightly, he immediately realized that something terrible must have happened while he was unconscious, making her worry.
He subconsciously raised his hand and patted Zuoyue's back, silently comforting her in this way.
Beside him, Boruto watched as the "master" of this world tightly embraced another "father," but more than that, he was concerned about the strange change he had just caught a glimpse of.
He quietly approached Uchiha Sasuke and lowered his voice, "Mr. Sasuke... that eye just now..."
Sasuke's voice was deep, "Hmm. Although the color is different... it's very similar to your power."
At that moment, Naruto, who had just comforted Satsuki and was still trying to recall and sort out the situation, suddenly heard a voice full of terror and hysteria coming from the depths of his heart.
"No—!!! What...what is going on?! Was the reincarnation...successful?! Why...why am I still trapped here?!"
That voice sounds familiar... It's Urashiki Otsutsuki.
------
After a thorough and detailed examination at the hospital, which confirmed that Naruto's physical functions, chakra circulation, and even mental fluctuations were basically stable, and that apart from the mysterious black diamond-shaped mark and the unknown changes in his eyes, there were no other obvious hidden dangers, Naruto didn't even have time to say a few words to his mother before he was "forcefully" "borrowed" by Uchiha Sasuke and taken to a relatively secluded forest outside Konoha Village.
Kushina clearly had a lot of questions and worries she wanted to share with her son, but Jiraiya seemed to understand something. He stopped Kushina from following him and only said one sentence: "Just remember to bring Naruto back safe and sound later."
The village is currently in a state of chaos and needs to be rebuilt. The evacuated villagers need to be guided back to the village in an orderly manner and reassured. All entrances and exits need to be strictly checked to identify spies who may take advantage of the chaos to sneak in or try to leak information.
However, it would be a pipe dream to completely conceal the news of that legendary battle that had taken place almost right at the village entrance.
In the forest, far from the hustle and bustle of the village, Naruto finally had time to calm down and face the dramatic changes that had occurred within him.
When he opened his palm and saw the dark, deep black rhombus mark in his palm, he understood what had happened to him.
I almost... was possessed?!
A wave of intense fear sent a chill down his spine. But what followed was gratitude for his parents and the Nine Lamas.
At the most critical moment, it was their desperate efforts in the deepest recesses of their consciousness that successfully sealed and isolated the intruder.
According to Minato, Urashiki's power had been forcibly integrated with his body, but Urashiki's soul, personality, and consciousness were completely imprisoned by the Bagua Seal.
Now he exists inside himself like a prisoner... His body is getting more and more "lively," Naruto couldn't help but make a self-deprecating joke.
Before the lingering fear had completely subsided, he "heard" from the depths of his heart Pu Shi's frantic roar filled with despair, collapse, and resentment.
However, the noise was quickly silenced by Kurama—Naruto wasn't interested in what "gentle" methods Kurama used to shut Urashiki up.
"Now, try to control that eye that just appeared." Uchiha Sasuke interrupted Naruto's thoughts. They were standing by a clear lake. Boruto insisted on coming along, and Uchiha Satsuki, who was standing closely beside Naruto, was also present. Everyone's eyes were focused on Naruto.
Naruto nodded, focusing his attention on his right eye. A strange sensation, like calling upon some new "organ," washed over him, but he could sense that this calling wasn't forced, but rather more like... an granted authority.
With a slight thought—a sudden change in the right eye!
The clear blue color faded, the whites of the eyes turned pitch black, and the pupils turned gold, exactly the same as the unconscious state they had shown when they woke up.
Naruto looked down and, with the help of the calm, mirror-like surface of the lake, clearly saw his reflection. His left eye was as blue as usual, but his right eye was a strange black with a golden hue.
...Although heterochromia is still pretty cool, Naruto feels that he's out of his chuunibyou phase.
It's not like the Rinnegan, but it's similar, though not Boruto's Jōgan either...
"How are you? Do you feel anything unusual? Do you experience any discomfort or aversion?"
Sasuke asked a series of questions, carefully observing every change in Naruto's expression and the flow of his chakra.
"...Hmm, once I take control...there's not much of a hindrance, it's like using my own eyes."
Naruto carefully sensed it, and then a mixture of novelty, strangeness and disbelief appeared on his face. Although the situation was dangerous, to Naruto, it was as if he had gained a powerful cheat code after waking up.
"I think... that's how it's used?"
Naruto spoke uncertainly, and the golden light in his right eye suddenly intensified!
The next moment, in the air where his gaze fell, space quietly tore open a crack! The crack rapidly expanded, forming a pitch-black portal with an unfathomable depth inside!
It was the same space-time ninjutsu that Urashiki Otsutsuki had used, belonging to the bloodline limit—[Yomotsu Hirasaka]!
While everyone's attention was completely drawn to Naruto's newly acquired ability, no one noticed that in the shadows of a hidden cliff in the distance, a strange creature, half black and half pale, stared with horror and fear at the blond boy by the lake who had opened Yomotsu Hirasaka with his heterochromatic eyes.
Black Zetsu dared not linger any longer, and his figure silently and swiftly disappeared underground, vanishing without a trace.