"Dammit, (@ο@) waa—aaaaaah! Has Naru lost his mind? I'll get hit by that too!" Out of the corner of his eye, Jidu caught Naru's motion and felt his hair stand on end.
"Get out of here, now, or you'll die! Speed Mode! Mk. II!" Jidu immediately activated his Nen ability. His legs thickened and turned springy, and two pairs of small wings sprouted on each foot.
He bolted away at a preternatural, unbelievable speed.
What Jidu saw Naru doing wasn't much—Naru was just praying to the sky and bowing his head to the ground.
That alone didn't scare Jidu. The key was Naru's Nen ability. Naru's Nen is called "Bai Shen." No one knows the exact mechanism—basically it's a luck or fortune-type ability.
After "Bai Shen," several outcomes can occur. One is that Naru's combat ability skyrockets, boosted to an incredible level.
It's essentially a buff-type effect.
Another is that the enemy suffers a random curse. It might be slowed, weakened, or even aged, among other effects.
The last outcome is exactly what Naru was doing now.
It's a kind of heavenly punishment whose origin is unknown, but its destructive power is enormous. The punishment varies—lightning, wind, fire, and so on. At present, aside from a select few like the Ant King, anyone struck by it loses combat capability. If the target is weak and lacks special abilities, getting killed is normal. Most critically, the area of effect is massive.
Jidu had no desire to get half-killed for no reason, so he ran without hesitation.
Powerful as it is, the price is steep. Each time after Bai Shen, despite the different possible effects—empowering Naru, taking out an enemy, or crippling one—
the side effects are heavy. For a certain period, Naru will encounter misfortune no matter what he does.
The misfortune can be minor or major, similar to Tsunade's curse of always losing at gambling, but it's not limited to gambling. Whatever Naru does—even if he does nothing—bad luck strikes.
It's the kind of luck where you get shot lying down and calamity finds you at home.
In short, mishaps pile up. The duration correlates with the strength of the opponent he fought. Fortunately, the bad luck isn't area-wide; it targets Naru alone.
Otherwise Meruem would never allow Naru to use his Nen—otherwise the entire Chimera Ant clan could get dragged into disaster.
"Ahahahaha! Coward! Now you see how powerful Lord Hidan is, right? Don't run! I'm offering you to Lord Jashin!" Seeing Jidu flee in a sorry panic and not yet realizing why, Hidan cackled.
A cloudless sky suddenly split with a blinding blue bolt of lightning that slammed down onto scythe-wielding Hidan.
A searing white glare flooded everything for hundreds of meters.
"Hey, hey, Naru, what are you doing? Aren't you afraid you'll kill that guy?" Thankfully, Jidu was fast enough to be far away before the lightning appeared. Otherwise, one hit like that would have left him paralyzed for half a day at least.
"Hmph ╭(╯^╰)╮ he won't die." Naru said confidently, like he was reliable and Jidu wasn't.
"Lord Jashin… so scythes really do conduct electricity…" At ground zero after the strike, Hidan—charred black, hair standing on end—coughed out a puff of black smoke and toppled over.
A full-body paralysis of that level can't be shrugged off even with immortality.
And this bolt wasn't like a Lightning Release jutsu that his body could partly resist. Whatever this lightning was, it hit him all the same despite his so-called immortality. Now he was a prisoner of Jidu, Naru, and the rest, and the paralysis was so intense he couldn't move a muscle—moving his mouth was hard enough.
They tossed the completely paralyzed, helpless Hidan to a few Chimera Ant soldiers, and the leopard Jidu immediately scampered back to Naru to stir trouble again.
"Hey, Naru, look, look—we've completed the mission, and it's still early. How about we unwind a bit? Hit a lively spot and live it up? I hear the hot springs nearby are famous—why don't we try them?" He kept waggling his brows at Naru, laying it on thick.
For a naturally playful feline, being forced to stay put is torture. Just managing to stay in the Land of Water that long had been rare for Jidu.
"No. Don't even think about it. We need to finish the King's orders as fast as possible and deliver this guy to the King personally. And the King said this world is no less dangerous than the last one. The abilities may be less bizarre, but plenty of people wield destructive power. Didn't the King say there are many humans stronger than us here?" Naru flatly rejected Jidu's proposal. For the record, Naru wasn't transformed into a Chimera Ant in the Naruto world.
The Chimera Ant cyborgs in the Naruto world haven't truly matured yet. Some are gifted, but they're not real powerhouses—at most at jōnin level. Even though Chimera Ant transformation is a strong hack, hitting that level in a year or two is already outrageous.
Don't assume everyone has Naruto or Sasuke's monster-tier talent, power spiking like a rocket. Fully maturing in a few months or even a year or two is basically a no-go.
Even Naruto and Sasuke took three years to truly grow.
And the cyborgs are heavily talent-dependent. An ordinary person might cap out at soldier-ant level. Still, having a Chimera Ant body beats White Zetsu's spores.
"Tch, lame… gobble-gobble la-la! Aaaah, I'm bored to death. I don't care, I don't care, I wanna play." Childish as ever, Jidu made faces at Naru with his tongue out.
He finally threw a full-on tantrum, rolling on the ground.
"Ugh, what a massive idiot." Naru rubbed his temples with a helpless sigh, head pounding. Why did he have to work with such a clown? Strong as he was among the ants, this personality was exhausting.
"Jidu, if I hadn't used my Nen just now, how long would you have needed to handle him?" Because using his ability tanked his combat capability, Naru needed Jidu's help, so he decided to level with him.
"Mm, the guy's slow as hell, but he's pretty sturdy—takes a beating. And the King said he's got immortality and a curse-like ability that's a pain. Without your move, I'd have to go all-out for a long time. I don't have big, sweeping finishers, and opponents with partial immortality are my least favorite—so annoying." Jidu plopped down, fiddling with his tail, and started counting on his fingers as he spoke.
"But a human powerhouse of this level is just a shinobi from a small village. The King said there are plenty in the Four Great Villages who could wipe out most of us easily. Didn't the King tell you? When you can take three of his moves without dying, then you can roam as you please."
"Hey, hey, you're kidding, right? Forget three moves—one would kill me! I'd really die! The King is way too strong!"
"Ah~~ Lord Jidu just got out to see the world and has to go back already. Ah! That boring training—Lord Jidu will die of boredom~" Jidu put his nonsense to a tune and hummed under his breath.
"Horrible."
"Sniff, sniff…" Walking up front, Jidu suddenly halted and lifted his nose to the air.
"There's a human scent nearby… but there's something weird mixed in."
"Excuse me, gentlemen. The guy you're holding seems to be my new partner. Would you hand him over?" A figure appeared, head almost completely wrapped in a strange hood, only two pea-sized, bright green eyes visible.
An Akatsuki member—Kakuzu.
"Ah! Ah! Looks like something interesting is about to happen~ I can finally have some real fun this time~" Jidu's eyes sparkled with excitement. He could tell the man before him was strong—stronger than most squadron leaders.
"We're screwed. That bad luck hit way too fast. Damn it, I can't use my ability more than once a day. Otherwise it'll cause big trouble." Naru's face darkened at the sight of Kakuzu.
Does every random passerby have to be tied to their mission target—and be a tough one at that?
Naru's ability is powerful, but the constraints are even harsher. If he uses it twice or more in a day, the misfortune becomes a terrible calamity.
And if the earlier bout of bad luck hasn't played out and he uses "Bai Shen" again, the misfortune doubles.
All told, it's an ability that's amazing and infuriating in equal measure.
(End of Chapter)
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