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Chapter 210 The Rune That Calls to the Age of Ancients
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[ Name: Naruto Uzumaki ]
[ Level: 53 →103 ]
[ Souls: 2,129 ]
[ Required Souls: 16,820 → 82,135 ]
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[ Attributes ]
[ Vitality: 12 → 30 ]
[ Attunement: 12 ]
[ Endurance: 11 → 40 ]
[ Strength: 30 ]
[ Dexterity: 20 ]
[ Resistance: 12 → 15 ]
[ Intelligence: 20 ]
[ Faith: 25 ]
[ Humanity: 1 ]
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[ Stats ]
[ HP: 616 → 1100 ]
[ Stamina: 93 → 160 ]
[ Equip Load: 51.0 → 80.0 ]
[ Poise: 46 ]
[ Bleed Resist: 98 → 160 ]
[ Poison Resist: 79 → 109 ]
[ Curse Resist: 30 → 50 ]
[ Item Discovery: 100 → 158 ]
[ Attunement Slots: 2 ]
[ Defenses ]
[ Physical DEF: 217 → 268 ]
[ VS Strike: 213 → 264 ]
[ VS Slash: 238 → 268 ]
[ VS Thrust: 217 → 268 ]
[ Magic DEF: 165 → 200 ]
[ Flame DEF: 146 → 201 ]
[ Lightning DEF: 139 → 189 ]
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Naruto stared at the glowing screen only he could see, rereading the numbers for what felt like the dozen time. I know the Uzumaki were famous for their life force but fifty levels is ridiculous. His fingers trembled slightly. Vitality, endurance, resistance… all of them had skyrocketed beyond anything he had ever imagined possible.
And yet the gift had a price. His other stats, the ones he needed to grow as a fighter, now stretched behind an impossible wall of eighty thousand souls. Each point so far away it might as well be unreachable.
How am I supposed to level anything now, eighty thousand for one point…
Oscar flicked him sharply with his tail, a silent reminder that now was not the moment to complain. Naruto winced and nodded. They were sitting on Gamabunta's broad back, riding toward the camp. The morning air was quiet, broken only by the heavy rhythm of the toad's footsteps.
No one had spoken to him since they found him on the altar.
Naruto lifted a lock of his hair. Red. A deep, clear, unmistakable Uzumaki red. It caught the sunlight like burning silk. He swallowed, then tried to break the silence.
"Kakashi sensei, why did my hair turn red?"
"I dunno."
"Really? You usually know everything..."
Before Kakashi could answer, Sakura's voice cut through the air with a sharp edge. "Naruto. Please do not do that."
"Do what…?"
"Act like nothing happened," she whispered. Her hands were clenched tightly in her lap. "Not after what you put us through."
Naruto opened his mouth, then closed it.
Jiraiya spoke from the front, his tone quieter than usual, stripped of humor. "You are not that dense, kid. You can feel the tension just as well as I can."
"You are right," Naruto said softly. "I get it. I know I scared you. All of you. I should not have disappeared. I should not have lied. I should have trusted you." His throat tightened, but he pushed the words out. "I am sorry. Truly."
Oscar bowed his head with a soft sound of agreement.
Kakashi finally looked at him over his shoulder. "You have always kept secrets. I accepted that. But the scale of what you hid from us… it is larger than anything I imagined."
"I did not want to drag you into my mess."
"And you think we are not already in it," Sakura whispered, her voice cracking. "When we saw you hanging from that tree… bleeding like that… I really thought…" She swallowed hard. "I thought you were gone."
Jiraiya's voice came next. "Your actions forced us into a situation we did not understand. You could have died, brat. And none of us would have known why."
Naruto nodded slowly.
A silence followed.
It was Sasuke who finally broke it. "You are stronger."
"What?"
Sasuke's sharingan spun slowly as he studied Naruto's chakra network. "Stronger than yesterday. Stronger than last night. Your chakra is dense."
"That is the result of the Uzumaki rite. It changed my body and my chakra."
He raised his hand and formed a Rasengan. Except this time the sphere swelled, unrestrained, the chakra compressing and folding on itself like a storm. It grew to the size of a football, humming with dangerous intensity.
Jiraiya's breath caught. "That is… that is the scale of an Odama Rasengan."
The Rasengan shattered suddenly. A violent burst of wind tore outward. Kakashi grabbed Sakura and anchored Sasuke to keep them from flying off Gamabunta's back. Oscar was not so lucky. The blast sent him flying.
Naruto reacted instantly. His palm eye snapped open, and invisible force rippled from it. Oscar froze mid fall, suspended in the air before being drawn safely into Naruto's arms. The boy held Oscar close, then spoke, "I know I owe you more than apologies. And I will give you answers. All of them. But right now… please… let me have a moment to breathe."
Everyone had agreed to let the boy rest.
It was quiet for a few minutes until Naruto said, "Sakura, you are staring at me a little too much."
"It is not fair."
"What is not fair?"
She motioned wildly at his hair. "This. Every time something big happens, you come out looking even prettier. Your hair gets longer, shinier and softer. Meanwhile mine gets frizzy if the wind sneezes at me."
Naruto blinked at her, then a small, sheepish grin tugged at his lips. Before Sakura could react, he leaned forward and pulled her into a hug. Unfortunately, he forgot one tiny detail.
"Gah Naruto. Spine. Spine," Sakura wheezed as her arms flailed helplessly.
"Sorry. Sorry. I forgot. I keep forgetting I am stronger now."
Sakura coughed, straightened her back with a wince, then glared at him through watery eyes. "You think. You nearly folded me like a futon."
"My bad… so, um… will you still fix my hair?"
"Yes, you big oaf. Just sit down before you break something else. Or someone."
Oscar chirped in agreement.
Naruto obediently shuffled forward and sat in front of her. Sakura moved behind him, lifting his hair with gentle fingers, combing through the new red strands with practiced ease.
Sasuke suggested, "Give him pigtails."
"That would actually be adorable."
"Red haired pigtails would be very stylish," Kakashi said from behind his book.
"And throw in some bangs while you are at it," Jiraiya said proudly. "Trust me, I know these things. Women love a good bang..."
Jiraiya dodged a kunai to the head. Meanwhile Naruto turned scarlet from the teasing. He grabbed Oscar and squeezed him like a stress ball, burying his face in the lizard's side for emotional support as the teasing continued.
Oscar chirped sympathetically.
Sakura laughed softly, her voice warm. "Relax, Naruto. I am not actually giving you pigtails." She brushed through the strands with careful, soothing motions. Then she paused. "Oh. Naruto, look here."
She gently pulled a small section forward.
A thin streak of gold.
Naruto froze completely.
His hand reached up, trembling just slightly, and brushed against the lingering blonde. His breath caught. The red felt right… it felt like Mito, like Kushina, like home. But the blonde… that was his father. That was warmth. That was memory.
"You still have some of your old color hiding in here."
"Sakura… can you make the blonde more visible?"
"Do you want a streak of blonde in your red hair?"
"I want… both. I want the red and the yellow together. I might be an Uzumaki, but I am also my father's son. I want both sides of me to be there. I want… all of me to count."
Sakura's expression softened at Naruto's words, her hands pausing in his hair. Sasuke allowed himself the faintest hint of a smile. But the adults exchanged quiet, uneasy glances.
His father's son…? Does he know?!
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After breakfast, Naruto let out a loud burp before clearing his throat. "With my belly full, I want to sleep for a week, but I will not be able to close my eyes until we talk this through. So… let us get these questions out of the way."
The morning light did nothing to dispel the underlying tension.
Sasuke asked, "What exactly happened to you in the center of the island."
Naruto inhaled slowly, gathering his thoughts. "The Uzumaki have a rite of passage passed down from the founder of the clan."
Sakura frowned. "So... you hang yourself to prove that you are a man?"
"No, the hanging just pushes you into a state between life and death. That state lets you meet the Shinigami. He seals special chakra onto your soul. That awakens your potential." Naruto paused. "It is not something meant to be spoken about lightly. I am telling you because you deserve to know why everything went insane last night."
Despite everything he had shared, everyone could tell Naruto was still holding back the deeper parts. And none of them were shameless enough to expect otherwise. Clan techniques, rites, the inner workings of a bloodline… those were not things freely given. They all understood that what he had told them was already more than most would ever reveal.
Sakura raised her hand slightly. "Then… how did you even know how to do this? You said before you did not know anything about your clan."
Naruto looked down at his hands for a moment. "You remember that illusion graveyard Kakashi sensei showed us?"
They nodded.
"Well… Mito Uzumaki left a piece of her soul there. A guide for any Uzumaki who ever found the place. She helped me understand just enough to attempt the rite. The rest… I figured out along the way."
Kakashi leaned forward slightly, serious now. "Naruto. If you had no guidance until then… why keep all of this quiet. You could have told us something. Anything."
"The reason I did not tell you… the reason I lied," Naruto said slowly, "I am sorry for that. Truly. But I made a promise. Someone came to me after we became Team Seven. He told me he knew my parents. He said he could tell me about my mother… about the Uzumaki… if I proved I could keep a secret for a month."
He exhaled, shoulders easing as if a weight slid off them.
"I trusted him. Back then, I wanted answers so badly that I held onto anything that might lead me to them. That is why I kept quiet."
Jiraiya asked in such a serious tone that everyone straightened their back. "Who?"
Naruto reached into his pouch and pulled out the worn journal, turning it once in his hand before offering it to Kakashi. "I do not really know who that guy is. He said he was a friend of my parents."
"Is this man from Lordran?"
"I do not know," Naruto answered honestly. "Said they trusted him with their legacy, so I trusted him too. But with Gran Gran Gran Mito's help, I figured out he was trying to steer me somewhere. Maybe even use me. I still have no idea who he actually is."
Naruto's voice tightened as he finished, "He only gave me an alias. He called himself the Hawk."
Kakashi and Jiraiya exchanged a long, dark look.
Danzo.
Naruto gave a weary smile. "We can deal with it when we return to the village. There are… a lot of things involving me we need to talk about."
Nobody argued.
The silence that followed felt like it stretched for miles.
Naruto rubbed his face. "If any of you have more questions, ask them now. The moment my head hits something soft, I am out."
Oscar yawned in agreement.
Sasuke opened his mouth, then shook his head.
"Is Minato truly connected to Lordran?" Jiraiya finally asked, unable to hold the question in any longer.
Naruto nodded. "Yeah. That part was true. I found the Fourth's kunai on Artorias's grave. And Alvina told me that Minato Namikaze and a redhead came to Lordran." He shrugged slightly. "But everything else about the Nine Tails and Uzushio was a lie."
"What?"
Kakashi stopped mid step. Every answer they got only seemed to open five new questions. The word Lordran hung over them like a curse.
Sasuke crossed his arms, brow furrowed. "What exactly happened to the Nine Tails then?"
"It is probably somewhere in Lordran," Naruto replied.
Everyone froze.
"WHAT?!"
Naruto winced at the collective scream. Oscar chittered irritably and flicked his tail, so Naruto scratched the little lizard's head to calm him. "Why are you all surprised?" he said. "You told me yourselves the Nine Tails escapes when its jinchuriki dies."
Another wave of silence hit, then…
"Huh?"
Naruto's eye twitched. "Do not ask me how because I do not know. But Lordran is covered in the curse of the undead. You die, then respawn at the bonfire. I died in Lordran and probably released the Nine Tails somewhere."
This time the silence was so absolute that even the wind seemed unsure if it should move.
Team Seven had long since adapted to Naruto saying outrageous things. But this… this was on a different level. Even they found themselves holding their heads, trying to understand the sheer weight of what they had heard.
"How many times have you died?" Sasuke asked. He immediately regretted asking the moment the words left his mouth.
"Stopped counting after the first twenty deaths," Naruto answered casually.
Everyone froze again.
"At least this explains why you are so insane," Sakura muttered, half incredulous, half joking.
"Hey, I would argue the Uzumaki clan was just as insane as me," Naruto said, puffing his chest a little.
Kakashi rubbed the side of his head. Everything Naruto said kept repeating in his mind, looping like a broken genjutsu. Each detail was absurd, impossible, unbelievable… yet Naruto said it with such casual sincerity that Kakashi found himself asking a terrifying question.
Has he been telling the truth every single time we asked?
A few minutes of stunned silence passed before Naruto finally spoke. "Kakashi sensei… do you have any chakra paper?"
"Why?"
"Well, I figured I might as well check if anything changed. You know… while you all try to process everything I just told you."
Kakashi sighed in that tired, resigned way only he could manage. He pulled out a stack of chakra paper and handed it over. Everyone leaned in just a little, grateful for the distraction.
Naruto pressed the first sheet between his fingers.
The paper split cleanly down the middle.
"Wind," Kakashi noted calmly.
One half burst into flame, but the fire burned dark inky black with faint flecks of gold twisting inside the flames like embers of twilight.
"Fire," Jiraiya murmured. His brows furrowed as he watched the strange coloration. That was not normal fire nature chakra.
The remaining paper reacted all at once as one side crumbled into dirt and the other side became damp and soggy.
Sakura gasped. "Earth and water? At the same time?"
Kakashi frowned thoughtfully. Two changes in one paper… that is usually the sign of a kekkei genkai.
Naruto grinned wide, pumping a fist triumphantly. "Yes. I have four. Four chakra natures." He pointed at Sasuke and Sakura, absolutely glowing with pride. "I have more chakra natures than you guys."
"Real mature, Naruto."
"Oh please," Naruto shot back, "you totally teased me when you learned you had two and I had one."
Sakura crossed her arms and looked away, cheeks puffed out. She did not deny it.
Sasuke asked, "What about lightning?"
"Huh. I guess… I did not get that one for some reason."
Kakashi said in a tone that suggested he was already done for the day, "You say that as if there is a reason that you awakened four other natures without issue."
"I can think of a few reasons."
"But still no lightning," Sasuke said with the kind of smug calm that made Naruto's left eye twitch.
"Who even needs lightning? I already have my Sun Bro lightning spear."
Sakura questioned, "Wait… how can you use a lightning jutsu if you do not have a lightning chakra nature?"
"You can use a jutsu without matching the nature," Sasuke answered flatly.
"It is not a jutsu," Naruto said, wagging the talisman at them. "It is a miracle from the god of war."
Sasuke gave him a pointed look. "Why can nothing in your life ever be simple?"
Oscar was the first to turn away from the conversation. His tail twitched with visible irritation as he waddled toward the tents, exhausted and done with all the human drama. He only wanted sleep, warmth, and maybe a kiss on the head. Preferably in that order.
As he passed the leftover chakra paper, something made him pause.
Naruto's dried blood, streaked across the discarded sheet, began to glow and shimmer like silver.
Oscar froze, pupils narrowing to slits. A low, uneasy chirr trembled in his throat. Something about that glow felt ancient, older even than Lordran's first flame.
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Meanwhile, the adults were having their own thoughts about the morning's chaos.
"What do you think of all this, Jiraiya sama?"
Jiraiya's brows were knit tightly. "Honestly… we do not have enough information to say anything definitive. Minato never mentioned Lordran. Not to me, not to Ma and Pa, not to anyone. But at least now we have some idea of what happened to the Nine Tails. If Naruto is right, we have time before the fox reforms."
"And Danzo? His attempt to tamper with Naruto's heritage?"
Jiraiya's expression darkened. "Danzo is a tricky man to read. Could be manipulation. Could be recruitment. Could be something even worse. Either way, we cannot handle it here. We will need the Third's counsel once we return."
Kakashi's gaze drifted to Naruto and Sasuke, who were bickering half heartedly with Sakura mediating. "Should we tell Naruto about Danzo then?"
"Eventually," Jiraiya said. "But not now. The boy is exhausted. Let him have some peace."
"All right… and Minato sensei? Will you tell him?"
"Yes, he is ready to know."
Kakashi glanced sideways. "But… what if he already knows?"
Before Jiraiya could answer, a pressure rolled through the camp.
It was subtle at first… then impossible to ignore.
Everyone froze.
The sensation that washed over them made no sense as contradictions layered on contradictions.
Cold, yet strangely warm. Silent, yet thrumming like a distant roar. Dangerous enough to raise every instinct… yet comforting in a way that made the skin prickle.
Then came the sound.
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
Like water falling onto earth, but each drop echoed deeper than the physical world should allow, like it fell into something vast and hollow. All eyes swung toward the chakra paper Naruto had tossed aside.
The halves of paper warped and twisted together, earth and water chakra reacting in a way none of them had ever seen… spiraling inward, weaving, reshaping.
"Is that… wood chakra?" Kakashi whispered as he saw the tree form.
Its bark was the color of ash, etched with sharp, angular lines that resembled weathered stone. The trunk and limbs looked less like something grown and more like mineral rock molded into the shape of a tree.
Sakura swallowed hard. "Kakashi sensei… earth and water chakra combine to form Wood Release, right? That is how it works?"
Kakashi did not answer immediately. Because yes, that was the basic theory. Because no, this should not be happening. Because absolutely not, chakra paper was not supposed to behave like this. A thin sheen of sweat gathered on his temple. He forced himself to nod, but even that felt uncertain.
Sasuke scowled, jaw tight enough to crack. "This cannot be happening. Naruto should not have Wood Release."
Everyone turned to look at him.
"He should have Scorch Release."
Everyone decided to ignore him.
"How… how is this still possible?" Jiraiya muttered. "Only the Senju had Wood Release."
"The Uzumaki and Senju are still cousin clans," Kakashi reminded him.
"Name one Senju besides Hashirama who actually had it," Naruto challenged.
There was not one.
Sakura sat down. "So… why did Naruto unlock something only the First Hokage ever had?"
"Because Hashirama awakened it with the Uzumaki Clan's rite of passage as his soul had the potential for it." Naruto placed his palm against the mineral tree. A soft ripple of energy passed through it, and the wood flickered before disappearing into his inventory in a quiet wash of light.
[ Item: Archtree ]
[ Description: Titanic, ash colored tree of stone. Said to be neither fully alive nor fully dead, but a creature of the age of ancient.
These monoliths were kin to the Everlasting Dragons. Dragons nested within their hollows, slept beneath their roots, and wandered their endless canopies as if the trees and beasts were one lineage of the same primordial world.
Be warned that the blood of the abyss shall be the soil to these trees, and home to the everlasting. ]
Did I awaken Wood Release because of my dragon scale?
The question sat in Naruto's mind like a stone in still water, sending ripples through every thought as he lay awake in the dark. He had slept for almost an entire day after the Rite of Passage, but now his eyes refused to close.
The Rune awakens the potential of the soul.
And his soul… bore a dragon's scale, making it a part of him. So logically, the Rune would affect the scale as well.
Was that why he awakened Wood Release? Was it even Wood Release? Or was it something closer to the dragons than to Hashirama? Archtree Release? Archwood Release?
Naruto pushed open the tent flap and stepped outside, the long strands of hair catching moonlight like crimson threads.
"Going somewhere?"
Naruto reacted on instinct. In one breath, he spun with the Zweihander materializing into his grip in a shimmer of light and swung downward with enough force to cut a horse in half.
Jiraiya deflected the flat of the blade with the back of his hand. "Easy there, brat. I know you have been through a lot, but I prefer to keep my limbs."
Naruto exhaled shakily and dismissed the sword. "Do not sneak up on me like that, Lustmolch."
"What does that even mean?"
"In the language of Catarina, it means dirty old man."
Jiraiya stared at him. "Hey now. I stopped peeping after the whole Tsunami incident."
"You are absolutely planning something."
"Oh, absolutely. I am going to master genjutsu," Jiraiya declared with far too much enthusiasm, "and then I will have a shadow clone cast illusions on me. Pure, uninterrupted… research."
He broke into gleeful cackling at the thought.
"Good luck with that, Pervy Sage."
"So. Really. Where are you going at this hour?"
"I want to check the genjutsu graveyard. After everything that happened… I need to see if it is still there."
Naruto formed the first hand seal. His chakra surged like a tidal wave and lost control instantly, crackling violently in his system. He hissed and dropped the seal.
"That," Jiraiya said, pointing, "is what happens when you go from a lake to an ocean overnight. Your chakra pool has multiplied several times over. Your control needs time to catch up. Skip the big techniques for now."
Naruto clicked his tongue and stared down at his trembling hand. The veins under his skin pulsed with chakra so dense it felt like a physical weight.
"I guess I will walk then. Might as well… take it slow."
"Hold up. You are not going alone."
"You do not have to follow me, you know."
"Oh, I absolutely do," Jiraiya replied without hesitation. "Last time I let you wander off on your own, you hanged yourself."
"…Fair."
The two walked in silence for a long while. Not awkward, exactly, but heavy. They did not know each other well, and both could feel the quiet tension hanging between them. By the time they reached the ruins, the moon hung high.
"As expected of Mito sama. The craftsmanship in her fuinjutsu is flawless. Beautiful."
"Good. If you had said anything weird about my Gran Gran Gran, I would have hit you in the boingloings."
"…Boingloings?" Jiraiya repeated slowly.
"It is the Catarina word for…" Naruto stopped halfway, seeing Jiraiya's look.
"No it is not. You just made that up."
"And you fell for it."
Jiraiya snorted and shook his head. "Brat."
Naruto stepped forward, staring at the broken temple with a strange mix of pride and sadness. "Pervy Sage… I am not good enough at fuinjutsu yet. Can you check if everything is still working?"
"Sure," Jiraiya said. He crouched down and spent several long minutes examining the stonework, the lingering lines, and the stabilizing seals carved into the earth. His brows furrowed, then relaxed. "It all seems intact. Nothing collapsed after Mito sama passed on."
Naruto let out a shaky breath of relief. "Good. I was worried the whole thing might fall apart when her soul left."
"So what now?"
Naruto hesitated, then asked, "Is there any way I can take this fuinjutsu back with me?"
"This fuinjutsu is not something you can just copy onto paper. It is woven into the very foundation of the ruins. If you want to bring it with you, the only way is to seal the entire temple itself into a scroll."
"Let us do that."
"No way. That would take too long and too much chakra."
Naruto straightened, eyes serious. "I have the time. And I have the chakra."
Jiraiya looked at him for a long moment, gauging him, then sighed. "Fine. I will inscribe the sealing array. You will provide the chakra."
Naruto nodded.
"Alright then. Give me a moment."
Jiraiya reached into his sleeve. Naruto expected a normal brush. Instead, Jiraiya pulled out a brush taller than he was, a massive ink bottle the size of a bed, and an absurdly large scroll that unrolled for what felt like several hundred feet.
Naruto sweatdropped. "Where did you even get all of that?"
"These are for when Boss Bunta wants to write poetry."
Naruto blinked… then Jiraiya casually tossed him a smaller scroll.
"And here is my attempt at it."
Naruto opened it.
Inside was the most unhinged poetry he had ever seen.
"The moon glistens bright
Upon her damp lily pads
Oh hop, hop, my love."
"Her croak calls to me
Beneath the sacred wetlands
I long for her slime."
"Two frogs in the mud
Bound by destiny's ribbit
Clutch me, tadpole queen."
"How did you even write this?" Naruto asked, half horrified, half impressed. "What does this even mean? Her croaks echo across my lonely pond, stirring my tadpole heart? What possessed you?"
"Ah, that one is a personal favorite. I imagined myself as a frog serenading Tsunade… who was also a frog. Very poetic, very symbolic."
"…That explains too much and not enough at the same time."
Naruto dropped the scroll onto his lap like it had personally offended him. After a moment of silence, he sighed and asked, "Oi, Pervy Sage… can I ask you something serious?"
Jiraiya paused mid brushstroke, eyebrow twitching at the sudden shift in tone. "…Sure, kid. What is on your mind?"
Naruto fiddled with the edge of the scroll. "When do you think someone should reveal a secret? Like… a big one."
Jiraiya's brush froze.
Naruto did not miss it.
"…Oh?" Jiraiya said after a beat, forcing a teasing lilt into his voice. "That the kind of question a boy asks when he has a crush on a girl? Planning to confess? Want this old sage to give you some romance tips?"
Naruto gave him the most deadpan expression a human could muster. "No. This is not about a girl. And you are the last person I would go to for romantic advice."
Jiraiya clutched his chest dramatically. "Ouch. My pride."
"Your pride is not real. Anyways, answer my question."
"A secret should be told when you are ready to give the whole truth. Not just the parts that are convenient. Not because someone asks, not because you feel cornered, but because you are ready to share everything that comes with it."
Silence.
Naruto waited for Jiraiya to say something… anything… to take this chance. To explain their relationship. To say something about his father. Even a flimsy excuse like I will tell you in Konoha would have been something.
But Jiraiya said nothing.
And Naruto knew the spymaster had already put the pieces together. So why not say it? Why keep pretending?
In a fit of anger, Naruto's chakra rippled, cracking the stone beneath his feet as everything he had been holding in finally snapped.
"ENOUGH!"
Jiraiya whipped around.
Naruto's voice shook. "Jiraiya… tell me about my parents. Tell me why every answer I get comes from ghosts and strangers instead of you."
His breathing hitched.
"Tell me… what… I am to you."
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Author Note: And with that, I leave you on a cliffhanger. First, I want to apologize for the late update. This chapter was supposed to come out on November 12, but I ended up getting sick and then had some real life things to deal with. I hope the wait was worth it. Now let us get into the Q and A.
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Q: Is the fifty level stat buff something everyone gets when they obtain a Rune?
Answer: Normally, no. The Rune on average gives around a twenty point boost. The reason Naruto received such an absurd jump is because his astral form, the dragon, literally drank from the senjutsu well. I think it is pretty obvious why a giant hundred meter dragon can hold far more chakra than a human.
Since this topic has popped up a few times, I will address it here: Some people are concerned that Naruto is becoming too overpowered for the Chunin Exams, or that the exams will not be a challenge anymore.
This concern comes from thinking too strictly in canon terms. My fanfic is going in its own direction after the exams. Even the exams themselves will be different from canon. The fact that multiple villages, major and minor, are participating should be hint enough. And Naruto is not going to be facing average genin or chunin. The exams will involve big threats, political schemes from Danzo, Orochimaru's interference, and unique challenges.
Characters like Gaara are not going to be nerfed for the plot.
Konoha eleven will also get their own power ups in ways that make sense for this version of the story.
Point is: do not worry about Naruto getting stronger. The story is planned out, and I know exactly how I want everything to unfold. Just enjoy the ride.
And also yes, this is an OP Naruto story. While Naruto will have a lot of obstacles in the exam and outside of it, he will still be OP.
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Q: Why does Naruto have blonde hair in the seals instead of pure red?
So I want to clear something up right away because I have seen a few comments worried that I am removing Minato's side of Naruto. Trust me, I am not doing that at all.
Yes, Naruto getting red hair is a big visual shift, but it does not mean Minato's legacy suddenly vanished. Naruto still has Minato's blue eyes, he still uses the Rasengan, and in the story Minato is still the benchmark that people compare DS Naruto to. In fact, Minato's connection to Lordran is a bigger piece of the plot than some of you realize, and that will be explored later.
So no, I am not removing anything about Minato just because Naruto's hair changed color.
Some of you suggested the idea of Naruto having blonde tips or streaks, and I sat with that for a bit. I ended up liking the idea, but not the flame like blonde tips. They looked way too tacky for what I wanted. So I decided Naruto would still have some blonde mixed into his red hair. Normally you cannot see it at a glance, but if you comb through it or if the light hits right, the blonde is there.
It is subtle, but it is important to the theme. Naruto will embrace both sides of his heritage.
Hope you guys like that direction.
Edit: A lot of you brought this up, so I want to confirm it clearly. Yes, DS Naruto will learn the Flying Thunder God. Yes, he will learn Uzumaki clan fuinjutsu. And yes, he will get even more techniques tied to both sides of his heritage. I have said before that I want Naruto's character in this story to reflect both where he comes from and what he has become.
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Q: How does Naruto have Wood Release?
Alright, this is probably the biggest talking point of the chapter. A lot of you were confused about Naruto's wood release. So let me clarify.
First of all, it is not technically Wood Release. Not in the Hashirama sense.
Canon Wood Release converts chakra into life. It makes trees, vines, plants, and in Hashirama's case entire forests. Some users make smaller vegetation or binding techniques. At its highest level, it is a life giving force that controls natural growth.
Naruto's version is not that.
His wood is stone wood. It is more like the archtrees of Dark Souls than normal vegetation. These archtrees predate the cycle of life and death. They existed in the Age of Ancients. They are closer to primordial formations than plant growth.
And yes, there were hints to this throughout the story:
When Haku first found Naruto naked in the forest, there was a stone wood flower beside him. That was the very first hint.
When Naruto met the mushroom people of Oolacile, they described his presence as being like that of a tree. In Dark Souls, the mushroom people live inside or near archtrees, so that comparison was deliberate.
The description of Naruto's Rune is based on the Yggdrasil Rune from Norse mythology. And since there are theories that archtrees can hold up or connect entire worlds, you could say that Naruto's Rune was another hint toward his Archtree Release.
I retconned Hashirama's Wood Release to come from the Rune. Since Hashirama's lineage is tied to Ashura, and since Naruto was once an Ashura reincarnation before Lordran changed his soul, this made Wood Release a potential trait lurking in his soul.
But because Naruto's soul has the dragon scale fused into it, the Rune awakened that part in a very different direction. Instead of regular Wood Release, Naruto developed the ancient version. The primordial form.
So his wood does not function like the Senju's. It is older and weirder. And stronger in some ways.
Now the real question: what should I officially name it?
Do we go with Archtree Release, which sounds more mystical and Dark Souls aligned? Or Archwood Release, which sounds more like a kekkei genkai name?
I am honestly torn, so I want to hear your opinions.
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Q: Can you explain the lore of Archtrees?
So, first things first: we actually do not know much about archtrees. Shocker, I know.
Archtrees are one of the oldest mysteries in the franchise. There are many theories about them, including the idea that they hold up or connect entire worlds. And honestly, if you look across FromSoft's games, some variant of an archtree or a giant world tree keeps showing up. That is why some fans believe every FromSoft world is secretly connected.
It also does not help that Elden Ring Nightreign exists, which makes people go, Oh, so the Dark Souls multiverse is real after all. Whether you believe that theory or not, or whether you think archtrees are literal world pillars or just ancient lifeforms, let us get into what we actually know about them in Dark Souls.
Archtrees are enormously tall and wide primordial trees that tower up to the skies and reach deep into the earth.
The archtrees were entities that existed in the Age of Ancients, alongside the Archdragons. In this state, before the First Flame brought any form of life and diversity, the world was undistinguished and consequently everything was made of ash colored rocks. Like dragons, archtrees were also made of stone and were half living, half mineral and simply existed without any changes. They covered the surface of the world, their roots kilometers deep with trunks reaching the sky. The rock wood of the archtrees was immensely capable of resisting magic.
Izalith and her daughters burned down the archtrees.
At some point the creatures that found the Lord Souls near the First Flame underground and developed their powers emerged to the surface with the intention of exterminating the dragons and conquering the world for themselves. During the war that followed, Izalith and her daughters used sorcery and their powers to manipulate flames and weaved great firestorms that scorched the very earth, destroying the archtrees and burning the dragons while Nito unleashed a miasma of death, rotting the archtrees and infecting the dragons, and Gwyn and his knights battled the dragons with their mighty lightning bolts. After the long struggle the Lords emerged victorious, exterminating most of the archdragons and archtrees, thus conquering the surface world for themselves.
The remnants of a forest of archtrees in the Ash Lake.
Despite the brutal conflict, several specimens of archtrees continued to survive, and in particular in the Ash Lake, an immense underground cave, many of them are still intact, offering shelter to one of the last examples of archdragon descendants, the Stone Dragon. Additionally, following the war against the dragons, Izalith developed her civilization underground, building the city bearing her name around the framework of a surviving archtree. The demons created by Izalith's Bed of Chaos would have used the tree's stone bark to forge their great hammers. The few archtrees that survived evolved into the giant trees found in Lordran, considered their distant offspring, and their wood still inherited the magic resistant properties of their ancestors.
The remnants of an archtree in the north of Drangleic. In the region of Drangleic, the lower remains of an archtree can be found in the north. Under the immense structures of the tree's roots the Shrine of Amana was built and it was inhabited by the maidens of Amana, while even deeper under the roots the Undead Crypt was located. Here the Fenito and Milfanito took care of the sleep of the undead and alleviated their suffering.
The remnants of an archtree at the end of the world.
At the end of the world, when the First Flame has reached the last crumbs of its power, the entire world has come to converge around its kiln. The last sparks of the First Flame are located inside an immense dead archtree, cleanly sliced in half and now empty inside. The Demon Prince took refuge inside this hollow tree after being defeated by Lorian and retreating beneath the earth.
It is also possible to theorize that the First Flame ignited itself within an archtree. In fact, the Kiln of the First Flame, which in Dark Souls was covered by the layers of structures in Dark Souls Three appears clearly, revealing that the First Flame was stored exactly in the center of an ancient archtree. Additionally, Izalith created her own copy of the First Flame within the archtree at the center of her city, thus likely attempting to replicate the original conditions in which the Flame had manifested itself for her experiment.
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Q: What does Archtree or Archwood Release actually do?
Alright, so this is the big one. And the honest answer right now is… I do not fully know yet.
Dark Souls barely explains archtrees outside of they are ancient, they are magic resistant, and they are connected to world geometry in weird ways.
For now, the only confirmed thing is that Naruto woke something up, and that something is not traditional Wood Release.
But the full set of abilities is still flexible, and I actually want your ideas for how it should evolve.
I have some possible directions, but I want this to be a community brainstorm. Throw me your ideas, no matter how weird or dumb they sound. I love reading them, and some of the best concepts in this fic came from comment sections.
To help get your imagination going, here are a few starter concepts:
Idea A: Archtrees absorb the nature of the soil they grow from. Example: if Naruto uses it in a silver mine, the archtree sprouts as silver wood with metallic properties.
Idea B: Archtrees are naturally resistant to magic or chakra. This means Naruto could go full mech mode and make stone wood constructs, wooden golems, or even armor that cannot be burned or cut by ninjutsu.
Idea C: Archtrees produce mushrooms instead of flowers. You know how Hashirama uses flowering trees and pollen to knock people out?
Naruto could create a forest of giant mushrooms that release spores based on mushroom resins.
Imagine spores that burn you from inside, or electrify your nerves, or poison your chakra.
Those are just a few ideas to help kickstart your creativity. I would love to hear what you all come up with. Anything goes. If you have a cool, insane, broken, or funny idea for Archtree Release, toss it in the comments.
I will read everything.
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That's It… For Now.
As always, I want to thank you all for taking the time to read, comment, and follow along with this story. Your feedback means more than you know, and it helps push me to make each chapter bigger, sharper, and more true to the worlds of Naruto and Dark Souls.
Until next time, Praise the Sun.
—Adam
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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 96, 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!