Naruto: The Chosen Undead-Chapter 150 - no.149 Dark Souls

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Chapter 149 Everyone has an Agenda

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Kakashi was stressed. More than usual.

Naruto had been missing for five days.

Five days of silence.

Five days without answers.

Five days of fear that he could no longer ignore.

They had exhausted every option.

Team 8 had tracked Naruto's path until the trail simply vanished, as if he had been swallowed by the earth itself. Hinata had scoured the surrounding area with her Byakugan, but found no lingering chakra. Kiba and Akamaru had hunted through the woods, their noses pressed to the soil, but they caught no scent. Not even the faintest trace of Naruto. Shino had sent his insects into every crevice, every hollow, every corner of the forest.

There was nothing. It was as if Naruto had never existed at all.

Kakashi had even summoned his pack of ninken. If they could not find the boy, no one could. But even they returned empty-pawed, ears low, eyes solemn. No evidence. No struggle. No signs of battle. Just... gone.

The possibility of assassination by Zabuza loomed in the back of Kakashi's mind, grim and ever-present, but he refused to accept it. Not yet. Sasuke had told him Naruto had gone off to train alone. That stubborn streak of Naruto's was enough to believe he had truly done it. The boy was reckless, but not weak. If someone had come for him, he would have fought. He would have made noise. He would have left a mark.

So Kakashi held onto that belief, unwilling to let go of the boy's defiant spirit and strength.

In the meantime, the rest of the group pushed themselves harder than ever. Training consumed every waking hour.

Kiba had begun learning a fire-style technique. Sasuke, unsurprisingly, was getting stronger with lightning chakra. Kakashi had started easing him into the first stages of Chidori.

Sakura had made perhaps the most dramatic improvement. Under Kurenai's careful eye and with Hinata's support, her chakra control had improved to the point where she could now regulate her new strength. No more exploding training logs from accidental punches.

Hinata's Gentle Fist had evolved from a purely defensive form into a more assertive, offensive style. Kurenai was pleased to see the change, not just in Hinata's technique, but in her demeanor. The once-shy girl was growing more confident, more at ease around others, and was finally beginning to step beyond the safety of her comfort zone.

Shino remained quiet, composed, and unnervingly efficient. He trained harder than anyone and said less than everyone. Kakashi did not worry about him. Shino would be ready.

And yet, all the while, there was silence from Gato's side. It was the kind of quiet that promised violence just beyond the horizon.

Kakashi stood outside the washroom, listening to the sound of water sloshing. Sasuke was inside, gently cleaning Oscar, who sat motionless in a shallow basin of warm water. The small crystal lizard looked... depressed. Its normally alert eyes had dulled. Its posture was low. Slack. Even animals, it seemed, missed Naruto.

Kakashi opened his mouth to check on Sasuke, but stopped as Oscar suddenly perked up. The lizard blinked and started chirping.

A moment later, a scream echoed from downstairs.

Tsunami.

Kakashi's instincts roared. He moved in a blur, vanishing down the hallway and materializing in the main room with a kunai already half-drawn.

What he saw stopped him cold.

Naruto stood on the dining table, grinning with both arms stretched wide like he had just taken a bow on stage. He struck a ridiculous pose, his face lit with mischief.

Kakashi stared. "...What in the world?"

Everyone else was frozen.

"Uh... Naruto?" Kiba asked, his voice almost hesitant. "What are you doing?"

Naruto blinked. "Cool entrance?" He hopped off the table, rubbing the back of his neck as Tsunami slowly lowered herself into a chair, hand over her heart. "Sorry, Tsunami-san. Didn't mean to scare you."

Sakura had not moved. Then, suddenly, she did. She stormed forward, grabbed Naruto by the front of his armour, and pulled him close.

"Where have you been?!" she screamed, her voice cracking. "You disappeared! You didn't leave a note, you didn't say anything! We thought..."

"Huh? Didn't Sasuke tell you? I said I was going to train."

From the hallway, Sasuke grunted. "I did. I just... didn't expect you to vanish for five days."

Naruto gave an easy shrug. "Well, I did say I was gonna come back stronger."

With a grin, he brought his hands together into a seal.

There was a puff of smoke and the room was suddenly packed with shadow clones. They stood on the walls, the ceiling, the floor. Some were upside down, others mid-flip, all of them beaming. Each began cycling through different techniques.

"What the hell...?" Kiba muttered, a bead of sweat sliding down his neck as he realized just how much Naruto held back when they fought.

Hinata clapped softly, pride blooming in her chest.

Shino's gaze drifted toward the drake sword at Naruto's side. His insects, normally calm and obedient, were unsettled. Several buzzed furiously inside his jacket, trying to avoid the faint aura that blade gave off.

Predatory.

Kurenai chuckled as she watched Naruto cycle through hand seals with one hand, effortlessly. "So he's the quiet prodigy hiding in plain sight," she said under her breath. "Who would've guessed?"

Tazuna, Inari, and Tsunami stared, speechless.

Then Naruto turned and met Sakura's gaze. Her eyes shimmered, brimming with emotion. Equal parts fury, relief, and something she couldn't quite name. She took a sharp step forward, fists clenched at her sides. But before she could say anything, Naruto closed the distance and pulled her into a lopsided hug with his one good arm.

"Tch. Come on, Sakura," he said, smirking. "It wasn't that long."

"Five. Freaking. Days," she growled into his shoulder. "I nearly punched a tree thinking you were dead!"

"Relax. For me, it felt longer. Trust me, time flows weird when you're on a magical training arc."

"You could've left a note!"

"I left Sasuke!"

"That's worse!"

Naruto chuckled, still not letting go. "Speaking of getting stronger..." He eyed her arms and smirked. "You've been working out."

She blinked. "Wait, don't..."

Too late.

Naruto gave her a hearty squeeze and lifted her clean off the ground, holding her like a kettlebell with legs.

"Put me down!" she shrieked, flailing. "You orange loving ape!"

"Wow. Look at you!" he said, voice exaggerated. "You've got biceps now! Kinda."

When he finally set her down, she staggered, red-faced, and immediately smacked his shoulder—not hard, but hard enough to feel. "Idiot," she muttered, huffing.

"Good to see you too," he replied, grinning wide. Then his gaze landed on Sasuke. "Well, looks like someone's been slacking," Naruto said. "You might actually be the weakest on the team now."

"Hn," Sasuke said, utterly unimpressed. "Physically, maybe. But I don't need to bench press trees to beat you."

"Oh really?" Naruto raised an eyebrow. "That sounds like someone compensating for twig arms."

"At least I didn't disappear for five days and make everyone cry."

"I didn't cry!" Sakura said.

"Yes you did," Sasuke said as he placed Oscar on the floor.

Naruto knelt down and opened his arms. "Oscar, come here, buddy."

The little crystal lizard didn't move. In fact, he turned away, his tail twitching in annoyance.

"What's wrong...?"

Kakashi stepped forward. "Naruto... while you were gone, Oscar was a mess. He curled up into a ball and bit his tail. Wouldn't eat. Wouldn't play. Just... waited."

Sasuke added, "He wouldn't even look at anyone. Just kept climbing to the highest point in the safehouse to stare out at the woods."

Naruto lowered his head, guilt flooding through him. "Oscar..."

Slowly, he reached into his inventory and pulled out a longsword, gently placing it on the ground between them. "I got this for you."

Oscar didn't move.

Naruto inhaled, steadying himself. Then he spoke. "When I named you Oscar, I wasn't just being cute. I gave you that name because I wanted a partner. Not a pet. A partner. Someone who'd fight beside me, walk with me through all this madness."

Oscar looked up.

"I should've taken you with me. I should've trusted you to come with me, even if it was dangerous. But I didn't, and I'm sorry."

He held out his hand again, palm up. "But I'm back now. And I've got my ninjutsu again. Which means we can really start training. You and me... what do you say?"

There was a long silence. Then, slowly, Oscar padded forward. His little feet tapped against the floor. He reached Naruto's hand and gently pressed his chin into the palm, nuzzling it with a soft trill. Naruto smiled through the burn in his eyes and scratched along the side of Oscar's jaw the way the lizard liked.

"I missed you, too," he whispered. "Let's never do that again."

Oscar chirped softly, curling his tail around Naruto's wrist.

Kakashi folded his arms and gave Naruto a long look. "So... where exactly did you go off to train?"

"Oh, you know. After I mopped the floor with Sasuke..."

"Lies," Sasuke coughed, deadpan.

"I headed to the Darkroot Garden and fought this giant, glowing butterfly alongside the smartest girl I've ever met."

"Giant butterfly?" Shino asked, brow twitching.

"Girl?" Sakura and Hinata echoed in unison, then glanced at each other.

"Yep," Naruto said proudly. "She was a time traveler. Helped me understand how to use magic and then disappeared back to her era."

He waved his hand like it was no big deal.

"Then I got a blacksmith to teach me his secret taijutsu. After that, I found this underground, flooded city. Learned magic from a guy stuck in a cage hanging off a cliff. Fought an undead dragon. Trained for fifteen days straight. And now I'm back."

Silence fell across the room like a thick fog. No one spoke. Most of them assumed Naruto was either exaggerating, delirious... or straight-up bullshitting. His story didn't just sound insane, it also didn't add up. Fifteen days of training crammed into five? A time-traveling witch? A dragon? It was easier to believe he'd just hit his head.

"He truly is your student," Kurenai murmured, glancing at Kakashi.

"Oh, please," Kakashi scoffed. "At least my excuses are grounded in reality."

"You said yesterday that you met a red-haired girl who was half-fish," Kurenai said, arching a brow. "She fell in love with you, gave up her voice to become human, and now you're trying to help her turn back into a mermaid because you, quote, weren't ready for that kind of emotional commitment, which is why you needed to sleep in until the afternoon."

"You can't disprove any of that," Kakashi said smoothly, flipping a page in his orange book.

"Back to Naruto. If what he said is even half true, that place he mentioned... the Darkroot Garden... sounds like a summoning realm."

Kakashi's visible eye narrowed slightly as his mind raced.

If Naruto had made a contract with some unknown summoning clan, then maybe... that would explain everything. The equipment that made no sense. The strange rings. The jutsus that should've taken years of careful control and bloodline talent to master. Unknown individuals that influenced Naruto's life and his ideology.

It would also explain Oscar.

It was certainly more believable than the absurd idea that Naruto had been a secret genius all along, manipulating everyone for years, only to suddenly start making careless mistakes. Or the even wilder theory that he'd been secretly trained by someone like Danzo, hidden in the shadows until now. Summoning clans were rare—rarer than Kekkei Genkai. And if Naruto had made a contract, it might finally explain the impossible.

Across the room, Kurenai leaned forward and asked the question Kakashi had been dancing around. "Tell me, Naruto... can you summon anything?"

"Yes," Naruto said, thinking Kurenai was referring to Solaire's white sign soapstone rather than an actual summoning jutsu.

Kakashi's jaw nearly unhinged. It was that easy?

Kurenai frowned slightly. "And... do you know what kind of clan it belongs to?"

Naruto shook his head, confused by the question.

Meanwhile, Kakashi wasn't sure what alarmed him more—the fact that Naruto might be lying, or the fact that he might be telling the truth. Because if Naruto had gone to a summoning realm and still claimed he didn't know, that meant he was hiding something. And given the stuff he'd been using, that was unsettling.

Kakashi needed to investigate more, as he finally had a solid lead in solving Naruto's mysteries.

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Inside a hideout tucked away in the misty forests of the Wave, Zabuza sat cross-legged against the wall, the report Haku had compiled spread out in front of him like a battlefield map. Candles flickered, casting jagged shadows across his face as he scowled.

"This isn't good," he muttered, his voice gravel rough. "Kakashi alone was bad enough. But now a second team? A Hyūga?" He spat to the side. "That brat's eyes cut through my mist like paper."

Across the room, Haku sat quietly, legs tucked beneath him, delicately holding a small hand-sewn doll in the shape of a hooded figure with a bow.

Zabuza raised a brow. "What the hell is that?"

Haku smiled softly, twirling the little doll in his fingers. "It's the Archer of Providence. They're everywhere now. The people are calling him a savior."

"Another damn symbol to rally behind."

"You know..." Haku's voice was gentle, thoughtful. "He kind of reminds me of you."

"Don't be stupid."

"No, really. You both fight from the shadows. You both aim to strike down tyrants. You want to return to the Mist and take Yagura's head. Isn't that the same kind of hope the people are putting in this... archer?"

Zabuza snorted and turned away. "I don't care if he's my long-lost twin brother. He's just another threat. And right now, we're outnumbered and outclassed."

"There are too many to face directly. Even if we take Kakashi out, the Hyūga girl alone has shattered half of our strategy. And there are other stronger fighters like Uchiha and Naruto."

"Then we even the field."

Haku tilted his head. "You mean... hire more mercenaries?"

"Not us," Zabuza said with a smirk. "Gatō."

"You want him to bring in more shinobi?"

"In a sense," Zabuza said. "I want Gato to help us bring in a jonin-level shinobi. Someone strong enough to stall the Hyūga's team while we deal with Kakashi."

Haku frowned, folding his hands in his lap. "And you think he'll agree to that?"

Zabuza gave a cold smile. "We'll make it sound cheap. Just one jonin. Tell him it's cost-effective. Either this shinobi dies fighting Konoha, or if they survive, we kill them afterward. No loose ends."

Haku didn't reply at first. His gaze dropped to the floor, uncertain. He didn't like it. But after a long pause, he nodded. "Understood."

Zabuza's voice was quiet as he turned away. "We play smart, Haku. That's how we win. No honor in death... only victory."

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Gatō poured himself a glass of expensive Earth Country whiskey, the kind meant to be sipped under chandeliers and false laughter. The bunker he sat in was no less decadent: steel walls masked behind imported silk, a floor of polished obsidian tiles, and guards posted at every entry point like statues of death.

It was the safest place in the Land of Waves.

Because Gatō didn't trust anyone. Not his soldiers. Not his captains. Not even the whore who'd just left his bed.

Especially not Zabuza.

He took a long sip, let the burn remind him he was still alive, and glanced at the blinking red light on the far wall: an incoming call.

He didn't answer right away.

His eyes drifted toward the far wall of the room, where a large map of the Land of Waves was pinned. It had been drawn by his own cartographers, updated monthly to reflect the ever-shrinking free territory left in the hands of the locals. Entire villages erased. Ports absorbed. Trade routes choked off until there was only one source of power left.

Him.

He hadn't just wanted to conquer the Land of Waves. That would be too crude, too easy. No. He wanted to own it. Own its people, its air, its future. Its despair. He wanted to be the god of this land, the only name the children whispered when they cried.

That was the point. That had always been the point. And now, some old man and a few shinobi were trying to rewrite his story.

He set the glass down. Hit the call.

Haku's voice came through, calm and formal as always. "Zabuza-sama has a proposal. He wants a jonin-level shinobi to stall the second Konoha team while he handles Hatake."

Gatō said nothing for a moment, swirling the amber in his glass.

"I'll think about it," Gatō said, voice smooth and cool. "Tell him I'll give him my answer by tomorrow."

"Understood," Haku said.

The line went dead.

Gatō chuckled softly and drained his glass. As if Zabuza had any say in the matter.

The truth was, Gatō had lost faith in the so-called Demon of the Mist the moment his blade failed to kill a single Konoha shinobi. Not even a child. Not even a bridge builder. All that money... for what? Injuries and excuses.

So Gatō had taken matters into his own hands.

He had sent a letter.

A single letter, sealed with the last favor he would ever dare call in.

To one of the most terrifying men he had ever met.

Orochimaru.

Even thinking the name made the back of his neck crawl. But power was power, and right now, he needed it. Because if there was one thing Gatō understood, it was that monsters didn't fight out of loyalty.

They fought for purpose.

And Orochimaru's monsters? They didn't need gold. They needed blood. The letter was gone now. Hand-delivered, no trail. And all Gatō had to do was wait. Wait for the monsters to come. And when they arrived?

Zabuza would die. So would the Konoha shinobi. And the bridge would burn.

Let Zabuza believe he was still calling the shots. Let him think Gatō was generously offering reinforcements. Let him scheme and plot and whisper with his masked apprentice. None of it mattered. Because Gatō already had his answer. Already had his final play.

He poured himself another drink, the whiskey sloshing into his glass like liquid gold, and leaned back in his chair, the warm lamplight gleaming off his tailored cuffs and jeweled rings.

His gaze drifted to the far corner of the room, where a crude sketch of a figure stood pinned to the wall.

A hooded archer.

The Archer of Providence.

The people's hero. The mask. The myth.

It made his lip curl.

"I'll love breaking you the most."

As he stepped out of the chamber, a maid passed by—head bowed, trembling. Gatō paused. Let his gaze linger.

Hungry. Ugly. Cruel.

"Maybe I'll indulge tonight," he said under his breath, before moving on, silk shoes tapping against the floor like clockwork counting down the end of Wave.

But his mind wasn't on her.

His thoughts were fixed on the coast, on the tide, on the shore where the monsters would land.

Who would Orochimaru send?

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[ Personal Note: First off, thanks a ton to all of you for sticking with this story. Seriously, you guys are awesome. Now, if you're interested in supporting me on P@treon, let me just say that over there, I post these massive 5k-word Chapters. But heads up, if you're jumping to P@treon, you'll need to start from Chapter 72, since that's where this Chapter lines up with the content there.

To everyone here just reading along, please don't forget to leave a comment! Honestly, your comments make my day, and they let me know you're as invested in this story as I am. So yeah, thanks again, and I hope you have an amazing rest of your day!