Chapter 83: The Train Strikes
"All right, I'm taking the job. From this moment on, you're my client."
Naruto nodded solemnly, arms cradling Koyuki Kazahana as he braced to sprint after his teammates.
An icy, snow-laden breath still clung to the tunnel mouth, its lingering chill cutting to the bone.
Just as their silhouettes melted into the gloom, a sudden change erupted behind them—on the rails sealed beneath thick ice.
A deep, oppressive rumble rolled closer, like a slumbering steel behemoth waking beneath the frost and roaring.
A train?
Naruto recognized the approaching sound.
It was the first time he'd heard it since arriving in the Ninja World.
The noise came not from inside the tunnel but from the direction they'd come—the snowy plain fading into white.
The frozen rails beneath them gave a faint yet heart-stopping crack.
The ice sheathing the tracks began to melt at a speed visible to the eye.
Cold meltwater gathered into trickles that ran along the rail grooves.
This was no natural thaw.
"It's the train—he's here!"
Koyuki Kazahana's voice shot up, raw with terror; her body tensed in Naruto's arms, nails digging into his jacket.
She knew the omen only too well—the death-knell horn of the Shinigami himself.
It was Kazahana Dotō and his all-devouring steel monster!
Naruto didn't hesitate.
The instant her cry left her lips, he spun toward the tunnel entrance.
His gaze pierced the darkness, already seeing the smoke-belching colossus tearing through the snow and racing toward them.
Without forming seals, he raised his right leg, flooding it with massive Chakra, and slammed it like a hammer into the cold rock floor.
Vacuum Attack: Earth Transformation!
BOOM—
Earth-natured Chakra exploded from his heel, savaging the ground beneath.
The power wasn't mere destruction; it carried the will to reshape the land itself.
In an instant—
the earth writhed,
the walls grew.
Solid rock on both sides of the tunnel mouth lurched inward as though seized by an invisible giant, crushing and compacting.
Monolithic stone slabs ground and cracked, piling higher and tighter at impossible speed.
The once-wide tunnel mouth clenched like a fist; living stone surged and fused.
In a single breath the entrance to the snowy world outside simply vanished.
In its place stood a brutal, jagged new cliff of damp, fresh-broken stone.
It severed the rails, sealed the tunnel, and split inside from outside in one airtight stroke.
That adamant wall was the single earth-shaking blow that had rewritten the terrain itself.
Barely a heartbeat later—
WAAANNHH!
A deafening whistle—furious, ruinous—ripped through the air and slammed into the newborn cliff.
CRASH!
Metal shrieked and stone burst; the whole tunnel convulsed.
Dust and rubble rained as Dōtō's train, thundering with storm-force, smashed head-on into the miraculous barrier.
Blinding sparks flew; the locomotive's nose caved, wheels screamed and spun, filling the air with scorched, acrid smoke.
The iron beast had been brutally, utterly stopped by a wall conjured from thin air!
Koyuki Kazahana stared at Naruto's calm face in disbelief.
Incredible… is this what a Ninja can do?
To alter the very landscape at will.
Is this… the power of a Ninja?
The power that can move mountains, redirect rivers—and stand against a steel titan?
Awe surged through her; for the first time she glimpsed the terrifying, majestic iceberg of the Ninja World.
"Naruto! Are you all right?!"
An urgent, familiar shout echoed from deeper in the tunnel, accompanied by rapidly approaching footsteps.
Kakashi burst from the shadows first, his usually half-lidded eyes sharp as he scanned Naruto and Yukiyuki. Satisfied they were safe, he stared at the sealed tunnel beyond.
Sakura and Sasuke skidded to a halt behind him, equally stunned.
"Wh-what is this…?!"
Sakura clapped a hand over her mouth, gaping at the sheer rock face where a passage had been moments before.
Only a fresh-scented, craggy cliff now blocked their retreat.
"I'm fine,"
Naruto answered, as though he'd done nothing of note.
He gently set Koyuki Kazahana down and nudged her toward Sakura.
"Client—take care of her, Sakura."
"Leave her to me!" Sakura said, steadying the still-shaky princess.
But in that fleeting instant of hand-off—
BOOM!
A roar far wilder than the train's impact split the air.
The supposedly invincible cliff shattered at its heart, blasted apart by unimaginable force.
Boulders turned to flying gravel, and a shock-wave of dust and stone howled down the tunnel.
"Watch out!"
Kakashi barked, leaping in front of the group and flashing through seals.
Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall.
A stone rampart carved with dog heads rose, catching the flying debris.
Dust and rubble drummed against it, filling the tunnel with chaotic thunder.
Through the swirling haze a tall figure emerged, radiating suffocating pressure.
He stood atop the warped, smoking wreck of the locomotive, the train's crumpled nose beneath him like a broken throne.
Twisted steel and rising steam framed a scene straight from a nightmare.
The man wore full-body Chakra armor—jagged, metallic, glinting with cold silver veins that made him look a war-machine risen from the abyss.
Those flowing patterns cast him as something more than human.
His icy, greedy eyes—bright with cruel amusement—locked onto the suddenly pale Koyuki Kazahana like a viper eyeing prey.
A low, mocking voice—supremely confident—cut through the settling dust, every word an ice-spike to the heart:
"Well now, my dear niece… long time no see."
The newcomer was none other than Kazahana Dotō!
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