Naruto: Tales of Ashihara
The Shinden Saga – Arc 4: The Otsutsuki War
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Chapter 158 – Goddess of Beauty
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As the battle is about to begin at the gate of Konoha where the army of the Hokage is held back by the Otsutsuki clan, the rest of the Shinobi Union has to resume the plan and face one of the Shinden without its greatest guardians.
In the Land of Earth, the ninjas of Kumo, Suna and Kiri are gathering and uniting their divisions to circle the occupied village of Iwa. Having left her hiding barrier to reveal herself and witness the Union's arrival, Yasona Otsutsuki looks down at the thousands of clueless ninjas who were forced to come here by their faith in their villages. She is not surprised, as she was warned about this ambush, yet is relieved not to see or sense Sasuke Uchiha anywhere nearby.
Instead came for her only soldiers to whom just her image and energy is enough to invoke fear. Only the highly skilled sensory ninjas, able to sense natural energy, can detect her chakra, and they all step back in sync as they do. By this aura, some among them, veterans of the 4th great ninja war, are reminded of the feeling that the infamous Juubi gave them.
The Mizukage, Raikage and Kazekage are standing behind their army corps, desperately waiting for Konoha to join and free them from doubts. While some, like Takeshi Minamoto, have already accepted the fact that no more reinforcement is coming, others still hope for a space rift to appear somewhere. To end this pointless wait, the Kazekage delivers a message transmitted in his mind just now by Ino Yamanaka.
"… Fellow Kage, unfortunately… I've just been informed that the Hokage and his troops won't be able to join us." he declares, causing much disdain. "They've been intercepted by the Shinden at the entrance of their village."
"What?" exclaims Chojuro. "Why do we learn this only now? Why were they still not departed?"
"But they were on the way!" Aoki yells in confusion. "They told us just a few hours ago that they reached this land!"
"It seems we all fell victim to a Genjutsu. Both on our side and their side." Gaara adds.
"All? Even Sasuke Uchiha?" Shinki asks his father. "Can't he at least make his way here with his Dojutsu?"
"He's being personally blocked by one of them."
Now feeling uneasy about this, Shinki looks at Aoki and they share a worried gaze. Chojuro, still doubtful, looks at Takeshi to get his opinion on it. To his surprise, the ninja in black shows no sign of surprise.
"This was predictable. Didn't I tell you, Takeshi?" Tentoki the white tengu says in his host's mind.
Yet, the Minamoto does not recall such words. All he remembers is Sojobo foreseeing the all out battle that is about to take place. Since the Daitengu appeared in his soul, it has become hard to be attentive to Tentoki.
More worried about the Hokage's situation right now, Darui asks to clarify one essential point.
"Kazekage, is the Hokage also busy? Is he finally up against…" he says without even finishing his words.
"… Yes. Naruto is fighting the Dragon Sage as we speak." Gaara answers as he looks toward the rising moon in the sky, on which the said battle is taking place.
"I see. Then it leaves us no choice." the Raikage decides. "His fight is what will decide the outcome for all of us. But meanwhile, we gotta follow his lead. Let's not leave it dull here. Our efforts will also determine the fate of the Union. If we can't save Iwa from the invader without Naruto's help, then we don't deserve to be saved by him."
"What a great take!" they all hear a tempting voice calmly say.
Up in the sky, the Kage see the goddess of beauty, temptation and mischief come down to them. She stops to levitate above them, with the grouped divisions of the 3 villages between her and the Kage. Shinki looks around confusingly, noticing that all the army corps that were scattered around Iwa are suddenly all before them in line. Did Yasona do that? How did it happen? They were told about her powers and this doesn't seem to be any of them.
In Takeshi's mind, Tentoki questions the same thing. But these wonders are interrupted by the goddess who addresses the Kage, with a voice as clearly audible as if she was speaking right into their ears.
"So the yellow fox isn't here, huh? What a shame. I really would have loved to meet him in person… But anyway, since your hero's absent, I assume you've considered simply pledging allegiance to me."
"Of course not." the Kazekage denies, speaking for everyone. "We're still gonna fight and chase your conjuring from these lands."
"Well, that's too bad!" she answers as she comes down to the ground. "You're here for a showdown then. In that case, let's start by sorting out those worth my time."
As she says this, just as she sets foot in front of the crowd of ninjas, Mira Fuhatsu, kunoichi of Suna, notices the unnatural sound of her heels landing thanks to her super hearing. Yasona's shoes didn't simply land on solid ground, but rather triggered something.
"Take cover!" Mira screams, an instant before what she foresaw happens.
Ohoma Gatsuhi
Using her Hijutsu, Yasona spreads her red chakra like a ripple through the soil and lets it curse all the ninjas it devours. Just with a caress of her aura through their feet, the soldiers fall one after another, with all their senses silenced.
Having heard the warning of his teammate, Shinki and his father hurry to deploy their defense and protect their allies.
Sabakuha
Gaara forms a wall of conducting sand that hides and covers the Kage and those nearby, being only Aoki and Takeshi. Shinki, more focused on his ranks, tries to save the ninjas of Suna, but due to the distance he first has to send his iron sand through, his barrier only has time to take shape and protect his teammates Mira and Shakiro, and some long shots and puppeteers standing close.
In the back of Kumo's ranks, Yukai, the pupil of the Raikage, notices his mentor taking cover and hurries to join him, as he sees no way to protect himself nearby. In his hurry, not sure of how the enemy's jutsu could affect them, he just grabs the arm of Killer B, standing next to him, and drags him to join the Kage, outrunning the wave.
Behind the Kazekage's wall, Takeshi hears the white tengu urge him to take action as well.
"Takeshi! White wall!" Tentoki recommends, which his host immediately executes.
He runs first by instinct toward his friends from Kiri but sees them taking care of themselves already. For Kokoro, Suigetsu and others, this situation reminds of the dismantling wave of Hyakki Otsutsuki, which they could avoid by leaping off the ground. So they do the same here to dodge Yasona's curse. Yukiko makes sure to pull Kaori's arm and lift her up with her, to not let her in a situation similar to the one that made her lose a leg 2 years ago.
Since Kiri's men react by themselves, Takeshi instead hurries toward the closest division, being Kumo's. There, he heads toward familiar faces that he remembers seeing during his fight against the Chimera and unleashes his cover.
Koton – Shiroi Kekkai
He lets the light he emits in his back become solid to form an ephemeral wall that blocks the red chakra of Yasona.
While these various defensive initiatives happen in the blink of an eye, the curse of Ohoma Gatsuhi runs through the crowd and immediately neutralizes every single person who's still unprotected. These are over a thousand elite ninjas put to sleep in an instant. The mystic wave doesn't get past the barriers raised by Gaara, Shinki and Takeshi but it does shatter them before being stopped.
Takeshi, whose barrier can only take shape behind him and requires that he stays on the ground, is unprotected. In a selfless and careless effort to save as many ninjas as he can, he foolishly lets the curse catch him and trips face first into the ground. Yet, surprisingly, he rapidly stands up afterward, only fazed for a second and seemingly unaffected.
As the remaining ranks of the union, only about 30 including the leaders, discover in utter shock the consequences of what can even barely be considered a first move, the goddess of beauty is intrigued only by Takeshi. Spreading Ohoma Gatsuhi like that is indeed not enough to affect the likes of her clan, but she didn't expect a human to have a body and chakra strong enough to withstand it as well. Could this man be the lover of Sakitsuki, that Naobi asked her to spare?
Chojuro sees that a handful of his ninjas managed to leap off in time, but also that his fearless, mindless selfless ninja in black simply tanked the strike and resisted the curse. He knows that Takeshi's actions reflect his inner sadness and that the power that saved him is a burden to him, but he's still glad that it can be of help here. Despite the significant reduction of the army, the Mizukage stays hopeful.
"No need to panic." he reassures his fellow Kage. "None of these ninjas are dead. And we still have enough to take on the enemy."
"Really? What delusional thoughts are making you feel like you are still in position to fight?" Yasona asks as she elegantly steps toward them, over the bodies of the defeated.
"This won't be my first hopeless battle for peace." Gaara answers, referring to his fights as a young Kage against Madara Uchiha.
"Neither is it our first celestial." Darui adds, following the Kazekage. "Just gotta figure out how she compares to Kinshiki Otsutsuki."
"Wow! This is insulting. Are you really comparing me to that old geezer?" Yasona says with a sassy tone. "You're lucky I'm gentle, because if he could beat your asses all together, you better prefer to avoid seeing what I could do. I am a Shinden, chosen among the gods to rule over creation. In fact, I'm the only one of the council who's actually entitled to this."
"… That's dull." the Raikage answers, showing his lack of concern resulting from his career of conflict with the Otsutsuki.
"Oh, you think so? You think you have the right to be funny, right now? You think you're a war head who's seen enough horrors and violence? Then I won't beat you, kill you or make you grieve. I'll just humble you, and show you the kind of shame that will keep you from sweet sleep even in 50 years, if you little goblins even live this long."
"Enough!" Shinki exclaims. "Suna, engage!"
The troops of the Kazekage, reassured by the confidence of their leaders, follow orders and go first against the enemy. As Yasona walks among them, the members of the Shirogane clan and other puppet masters circle her and unleash their marionettes that dance around as she watches enthusiastically. The puppets stop and all expel continuous wind streams that cross each other and close together to block the goddess who keeps staring, unimpressed. From the crossing air jets, Mira Fuhatsu takes advantage.
Taiton – Tatsumaki
Using her kekkei genkai, she merges the winds and creates a large tornado that engulfs and devours Yasona, in a hope to trouble her and open to a follow up by another nation. However, the goddess of beauty stands still in the eye of the tornado, and dispels it with a simple hand movement.
Futon – Ura Tatsumaki
Using wind release, she reverses the stream of Mira's tornado and makes it her own, making it grow significantly in the process and repelling all the puppets around. Tangled in their own string, the puppet masters are carried by the wind as well and have to rapidly let go of their weapons to save themselves.
"Must be a shame. Using the great Taiton only to be surpassed by simple Futon." Yasona mocks Mira before ending her storm.
Once most puppets have been shattered by the wind, the tornado is stopped, only for the one in the middle to be greeted by the next attack of the Union. It is coming from Kiri this time, and is a massive water wave that slides through the land and takes over to engulf the goddess who happily stares at it.
Much to frustrate the ninjas, she bangs her head around to swing her hair around her body and, in that movement, lets all her clothes vanish before the water strikes. Turning around romantically as she holds her hair together, she enjoys this jutsu as a sudden shower before she opens her Byakugan and gazes right at Suigetsu who takes form in the wave as he tries to stab her with the needle of Nuibari. Having seen him, she raises her long arm to catch his ankles before he can strike and holds him still in the air. With this physical touch, she absorbs his chakra to force him to dispel his Suika, and causes the wave to fall apart. She absorbs the water on her to nourish her perfect skin and hair and dry herself, and lets her clothes appear again behind her hair as they fall back in place.
"That's interesting. You can liquefy yourself but only into simple water? It's like Kubo's Ekika, but with a lot more weaknesses." she describes his ability. "I hope you enjoyed those few seconds against my body."
"Dammit! You damn creep!" Suigetsu exclaims as he notices that he can't even land kicks on the giant woman by swinging his legs under her long arms.
"Ssshhh… Calm down,…" she gently whispers as she lays him down on the ground while taking his senses away one by one with Ohoma Gatsuhi. "Let me put you to sleep. I'll wake you up when it's time to submit."
Just as she gets rid of him, she senses the clouds getting denser above her head. The other ninjas of Kiri, together with Aoki from Kumo, have started a rainfall that is rapidly turning into a thunder storm. Yasona flies up and looks at the lightning building up in the sky, curious to know what attack they're gonna make out of it.
Then, from her advanced sense of touch, she notices that Kiri's attack actually already started. The rain drops falling upon her feel sharp. It appears that the soldiers of the Mizukage expected her to fall under mere rain blades that can't even get through her skin.
"Um… Are you sure you've faced celestials before?" she asks, surprised that they even try that, before being alerted by a loud roar of thunder that gets her attention. Looking up, she sees a strike coming and hurries to leap away.
Raiton – Lightning Dragon
It is Yukai, in the back of the crowd, who couldn't stand seeing Aoki get on the move while he was sitting back. So he took advantage of the thunder and formed a lightning dragon that came rushing down on the goddess. However, she moved fast enough and managed to get away before it landed.
"Yukai?" Darui exclaims, only now noticing his pupil and Killer B behind him.
"Homie why didn't you use the Black Lightning?" B complains to the young ninja. "It's twice as fast, with twice the chance of striking!"
Yukai doesn't answer, embarrassed. He instead stares awkwardly at Yasona, whose attention was drawn to him. Since no one else follows on this attempt, she is given time to talk.
"So that's your attack plan? Just throwing random elements at me? Well, two can play this game, you know? Since we're taking turns, I guess I'm up next."
As she says this, she lets herself be brought down by gravity and, as soon as she reaches the ground, slams her long pointy nails into the ground and infuses it with her chakra.
Doton – Kozo Pureto
Under the ninjas' feet, the ground suddenly slides away, merging and separating them into different groups. As they see plates forming and flowing in between each other, Shinki understands what happened earlier when the armies were brought to stand in front of the Kage. In this movement, they also see the mountains in the far distance crawl toward them and get in the way between the separated groups.
As these movements happen, Shinki hurries to keep teammates in range and grabs them with iron sand limbs to bring them close to the Kage, and is isolated with them. Now forcibly split into different groups, what remains of the Union's army have to figure out their own communication.
Chojuro confusingly looks around, wondering if his ninjas managed to stay safe, as he is now alone with the Raikage and the people of Suna. Darui stays focused on what matters.
"Stay calm. She seems to have no interest in killing any of us for now, so she probably spared everyone."
"Yome, can you get a visual on the enemy?" Gaara asks one of his kunoichi, who has a Dojutsu allowing her to see in extreme far distances. Hearing these orders, Yome immediately proceeds to look where she can through the mountains and sees Yasona levitating and looking at what she did.
"Mira, can you hear the others?" Shakiro, Shinki's second teammates, asks.
Using her advanced hearing, Mira fails to find any sign of the other ninjas, and only slightly hears the voice of Yasona mumbling something. The goddess of mischief is actually just humming a melody to trigger the one who can hear her. Getting a hold on the situation, Shinki stands up and gives a plan to the Kazekage.
"Father, we should use this to our advantage. It's perfect to set up our combined great mausoleum prison seal."
"What's your plan?" Gaara asks.
Just as Shinki begins to explain his idea, Yome and Mira are given a warning as they're still focused on Yasona. Way too far for eyes other than Yome's to see, the celestial looks directly in the kunoichi's direction and waves, showing that she can see her just as well, even without using her Byakugan. This frightens Yome who turns off her Tomegan and falls back. Mira, confused by that, receives the same message when she hears the whistling stop to be interrupted by a quiet spoken message.
"Tell your friend that his plan won't work." Yasona gently says, after hearing all that Shinki said.
Shocked to discover that the enemy's hearing is greatly superior to hers, Mira shakes her head and falls back as well before warning Shinki.
Somewhere else between the mountains, Kokoro is with the ninjas of Kiri and Aoki, and Yukai and B who somehow were carried to the same plate. Only 2 remaining fighters from Kiri are missing here. The Mizukage and Takeshi. Knowing that her prodigy student is the Union's best weapon on this battleground, she calls for him.
Shindenshin no jutsu
Using the abilities of the Yamanaka, inherited from her tengu, she reaches Takeshi's mind. On another plate of soil, the Minamoto is silently looking around, ignoring those around him and the painful voice of Amabie who yells to him that her abilities can make them escape.
"Tentoki, it's me, Kokoro. Where are you? Where is Takeshi?" Kokoro speaks in his mind.
"We are with the ninjas of Kumo." the tengu answers. "I assume you are with Yukiko and Kaori. Do you have a plan?"
"I don't know… Maybe Takeshi should head straight to Iwa. If he can get help from their ninjas, we could get an advantage."
Takeshi, hearing this conversation in his mind, stands up and prepares to do just as suggested, but Tentoki stops him.
"Not so fast. This won't do any good if you run in blindly. That woman is fast enough to dodge a thunder bolt, she may even be on par with you. You need an opening."
Kokoro, on her side, thoughtfully stares down and lets her students figure out what's on her mind.
"Are you in touch with Takeshi?" Kaori asks, as she pulls her prosthetic leg back in place before standing up.
"We need to get him past the enemy. He's the only one who can get past her right now." Kokoro answers.
"But what can we do? We can't land any hit on her. She's just dodging everything." Another kunoichi of Kiri says.
"Well I know one damn thing she won't dodge." Yukai says, getting their attention.
"Uh? You!" Yukiko exclaims, only now remarking his presence. "I know you! You're that boy from the Chunin exam. You helped us pass the first part, and helped us again in the maze… You look different, maybe because you have a beard?"
Yukai, startled by this odd reunion, also recognizes the girl who gave him the clue to solve the written exam. Flattered to be recognized, he shyly looks away to avoid blushing and smiling. Annoyed by this scene, Aoki hits him on the head and brings him back to reality.
"What the hell is up with you, Yukai? We're facing an alien goddess! Stop acting so innocent!"
"Yukai of Kumo seems to have an idea." Kokoro says to Tentoki, who immediately gets enthusiastic.
"Yukai? Did you say Yukai? Great!" he exclaims. "Of course he has an idea! If he's here, I know exactly what to do. Takeshi, I'm gonna give you the instructions for the ninjas who are with you here. Kokoro, give my orders to Yukai. Who else is there?"
"Um… Aoki, the Raikage's daughter. What remains of our squad, and the brother of the 4th Raikage."
"Killer B is also here? Okay, tell him to follow my lead too."
Yasona Otsutsuki crosses her arms, tilts her head and squints as she didn't hear any of the ninjas say a word for the last few minutes. Thinking that she better interrupt this break by taking action herself, she suddenly hears the scream of a funny manly voice.
"Hell Yeah, Baby!" it sings before a mass of red chakra can be seen shining out of one of the isolated plates.
Biju Modo
From behind the mountains emerges Gyuki, the 8 tailed ushioni, who crawls up the hills and peaks with its arms and tentacles. This apparition startles and amazes the celestial.
"Huh? What? Is that one of the Biju?" Yasona yells out loud, not shy to show her honest enthusiasm.
The monster bends over and reaches into a pit between the mountains with his hand. He then raises his closed hand from there and lays it far back before throwing it forward with all its strength. At the peak of its move, Gyuki opens his hands and tosses the squad of Kumo that he grabbed from their plate. Flying all together toward the enemy, they synchronize themselves to strike.
Raiton – Jibashi / Raiton – Ikazuchi / Raiton – Denki Shuriken / Raiton – Raikyu
The elite of Kumo, Atsui, Ru, W, Aoki and clones of Narui, use various jutsu for the same purpose: blast lightning bolts through the rain toward the target as soon as they're close enough. This great effort is easily stopped by the goddess who simply uses Futon to push the air and water before her to create an empty space in which the electric charges can't progress.
But as she is blinded by the wall of thunder in front of her, she notices too late another attack passing through, a thousand times faster than the others.
Koton – Kobaku
Yukai, who was also thrown by Killer B with his friends, waited before throwing his own attack. A hundred laser beams, resulting from the blast of a light orb, strike Yasona together and shine bright to overload her sight as they do. Blinded and confused, she is however not hurt until the next strike comes in.
Bijudama
B and Gyuki hurried to prepare a chakra bomb that they fire as a beam to hit the fazed celestial. Though it wasn't enough to seriously hurt her, it still strikes strong and fast enough to make her lose grip on her levitation. Yasona falls to the ground where she lands on her bent legs and receives another blitzing strike to the face.
Koton Shunshin
Just as she raises her eyes, she sees the up close masked face and white shining hair of Takeshi who throws his knee into her face. To protect her looks, she manages to stop this kick with her palm but is still sent flying, wondering about this peculiar ninja. For some reason, Takeshi brings to her mind the memories of a woman she knew in the past.
As she portrays the ninja's handsome face in her mind, she confirms to herself that he must be Saki's boyfriend, and therefore the one she shouldn't harm. But this doesn't change anything to her. She didn't intend on hurting anyone anyway. Just subdue them. And she'll have to do so to this man as well. But when she stops mid-air and looks forward, she doesn't see the ninja in black who hurried past her.
With her Byakugan, she finds him right as he plunges into the barrier around Iwa. Ready to go after him, she's blocked by the squad of Kumo who now reaches the ground and gets back into action. While she fights them off with little effort, she notices the Biju in the background tossing another squad to her. It's the ninjas of Kiri, among whom Yukiko arrives right on her with an attack.
Shakuton – Kajosatsu
The kunoichi pushes a flaming orb into the abdomen of the goddess, whose body is dried out by the jutsu only to recover in an instant as she gets a hold on Yukiko's shoulders.
"Sorry, girl, but bodies like mine don't depend on hydration. The natural energy within and around me constantly keeps me fueled. It is all I need, and you surely can't dry that out."
After these words, she deactivates Yukiko's body just like she did to Suigetsu and everyone before. She then prepares to turn around and chase Takeshi, ignoring those in her way, but is stopped again by sand projectiles coming from the sky, along with a black lightning bolt in the shape of a panther.
It is the Kazekage, the Raikage and what remains of Suna's army, who made their way here thanks to Shinki and Gaara's sand platforms. Seeing all those who are still standing unite before her, Yasona forgets about Takeshi for now.
"Aww… You want me to play with you first?" she mockingly says. "Fine!…" she adds, staring with a smile at Hachibi who joins the army by crawling to her.
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Inside of Iwa, Takeshi is blitzing through the streets and buildings, hoping to find the Tsuchikage somewhere. He obviously first goes through her mansion, but only notices the changes to the decoration and purpose brought by Yasona. To his surprise, he also sees a few ninjas, those who submitted to their new queen. He can't blame them, and won't oppose them either. So he keeps going without leaving them time to notice him running by.
While he runs around looking for the familiar face of any Iwa-nin he may know, he sees the Daitengu appearing to him again, at the gate of the village's ninja academy, here to guide him to his fate.
He rushes into this building and goes around the empty dojos and classrooms until finding a concealed staircase. There, lying alone on the ground, he finds an unexpected acquaintance. It is Fuyuko Yamanaka, who should be in prison in Konoha but is instead lying there unconscious. How curious to find him here. Sojobo comments in Takeshi's soul.
"It's amusing to see him all grown up." he says, as he remembers him being the 11 year old to whom he gave Ryutoki's seed.
"Is that Fuyuko?" Tentoki exclaims, unaware of Sojobo's comments. "How did he end up here?"
"Is that him?" Amabie says, which startles Takeshi and feels once again like a cold blade in his heart. "So he's got blond hair? He just dyed them black?" she comments, noticing the few leftovers of dark taint on his hair.
Takeshi kneels and analyzes him thoughtlessly. Seeing this man again, after his wish, his prophecy, came so close to reality is troubling, but it doesn't even faze the Minamoto.
"He's in the same state as the others." Makura remarks, referring to the ninjas' they've seen succumb to Yasona's powers.
"Good. We can use him to understand how her ability works and see if we can counter it." Tentoki adds.
Doing as demanded, the ninja in black observes the chakra flow and mind of the fugitive without initiating contact with him. As he does so, he finds the obvious traces of Yasona's energy holding onto his spirit and shape.
"It is a negative aura forcing a boundary between his mind and his body." Sojobo explains what he figures out. "Both are still intact, but they've lost all connection. This connection is senses. They're obstructed by a curse."
"It is Jujutsu." Fear Itself spells out the Daitengu's conclusion for Tentoki and Amabie. "His mind and body are disconnected."
"Hmm… Interesting. Did Sojobo tell you that?" Tentoki asks mistrustfully before moving on. "Anyway, if he's right, how can we reconnect them and/or break the curse?"
"Amabie's Genjutsu could work." Sojobo whispers in Takeshi's ear, aware that he'll dislike the idea.
The Minamoto squints and forces himself to ignore it until the mermaid herself catches on to this idea.
"Hey, wait a minute. If his mind and body are still there, maybe my chant will affect him?" she exclaims. "I sing into his mind, but the body is affected."
Makura and Tentoki look at the mermaid, then at Takeshi, knowing that he'll rather ignore it as usual. The yamabushi, looking at Fuyuko on the ground, remembers what he wanted, and what put him in this state. All details lead him to remember Hyakki, and the voice of Amabie forces him to remember the sensation of Tokiwa's fading strength as she was holding his hand for the last time.
Noticing the worried gazes of his tengu, he sighs and acts in ignorance. He simply sits and touches Fuyuko to get in touch with his sleeping mind. As all the Yamanaka's senses are numb, it is only when Takeshi appears to him as in a dream that he reacts.
"What the hell? What are you doing here?" he yells.
"… I should ask you the same." Takeshi answers in a mistrustful and menacing tone.
"Me? I'm just taking a nap, can't you see?" Fuyuko replies ironically, before showing clear disgust. "No seriously, before you do me like you did my sis, can you just hear me out?"
Takeshi doesn't answer, and stays silent, waiting for an explanation.
"See I'm actually here to get back to prison. Some loli space goddess made me escape without my consent, so I came here to be sent back to Konoha. But as you can see, the local Chun-li cosplay queen can't help me. So I had to help her first and I ended up here after I ran into that other lust machine."
"Where is the Tsuchikage now?" Takeshi asks.
"Apparently right there, a couple dozen meters underground. But I couldn't dig through."
Hearing this remark, Amabie swims around in Takeshi's mind, hoping to be noticed as her ability obviously would be much helpful here. But he keeps painfully ignoring her. Fuyuko looks at the thoughtful face of Takeshi and sighs, realizing what will happen.
"So is this some kinda scene where the two sworn enemies are brought to work together against a common evil?"
To stop this mind exchange, Takeshi spreads his aura within Fuyuko, overwhelming him for a moment, to the point where he believes he's being consumed. But then, after an obscure short silence, he just hears a feminine voice whisper to him "Break free."
Suddenly he wakes up, in his fully functional body and crawls away from Takeshi in confusion. After a second, he realizes something different. In his mind, he's startled by the presence of the blue mermaid happily swimming around in this new environment.
"Hahaha! So you're Fuyuko? I hope you're funnier than Takeshi." Amabie sings in her new host's mind.
"Her power will let you swim through the ground and find the Tsuchikage." Takeshi, who just handed her over to him, explains. "And with another ability that she used just now to wake you up, you can free all the cursed people you find."
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End of Chapter 158 – Next Chapter: Naruto's plan