Chapter 218: God? (1)
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Neji yawned. It's been three minutes since the battle started. The match between Chiyo and Sasori was bad since Sasori was just playing with the old woman, and additionally even the family drama was bad.
Even Kurai was bored on his shoulders.
"Hey!" He heard Sakura whisper to him, poking him with an elbow. "Can you at least try to look worried?"
Neji deadpanned at her. "I don't see any reason to." He said. "She's a Sand Ninja, and I am from the Leaf. Also, she asked us to not step in herself."
"..." Sakura tried to say something but in the end decided against it. "So you mean you will help her if she allows?"
"Why not?" Neji shrugged. "Though I am certain that you, her arch nemesis' pupil, can convince her."
"..." from the looks of it, she didn't like his sarcastic tone.
Neji laughed and patted her head, even as she glared at him with slightly flushed cheeks. This time around, Sakura didn't have the biggest impression on Chiyo since she first failed to save Kankuro herself, and later made a fool out of herself in front of Itachi. So the old woman didn't trust her enough to meddle in this battle.
"It's fine, I wouldn't let her die at the very least." Neji lied, withdrawing his hand back from her head, only to be pulled by a pouting Hanabi who put his hand on her head.
Hah.
Neji didn't mind.
In any case, he lied to Sakura just now. He wouldn't really mind letting Chiyo die.
Looking at the battle, Chiyo fighting with her life in the line, narrowly avoiding death a few times, Neji noted something weird about himself.
He… felt nothing.
Seeing an elderly trying her best to survive, Neji felt absolutely nothing in his heart. He suspected bringing down a fully civilised planet with a worldwide thunderstorm – that just so happened to kill his (and his girls') friends, classmates, acquaintances, and so many innocents – did succeed in ruining the last bit of his humanity. Ah, fuck.
'...Oh well. It is what it is.' Neji sighed. 'No point in running from the truth, I guess I am a heartless monster now, who only cares about certain people from the opposite gender.'
He was never a hero, but he was never a villain either. Until bringing down the MHA world with his own two hands, that is. He was sure a small part of civilization would have survived even after the nuclear war ended, but he had completely erased that possibility by himself. He guessed he might even get a title like [World Ender] if he were to bring down a few more planets.
'Like this one right here.'
…Neji released a deep sigh.
"...Onii-sama? Is anything wrong?" He heard Hanabi's worried voice, noticing he hadn't been patting her.
He smiled and leaned down, hugging her softly. "No, I just realised something unpleasant. I am fine otherwise."
"Unpleasant?"
"It's nothing."
Sakura eyed him from the side, looking slightly confused yet worried, but Neji didn't heed her.
'No, it doesn't matter.' Neji decided. 'I am here to find my girl and leave. In the meantime, it doesn't matter if I bring down this world too for a bunch of big levels.'
He stood up, patting Hanabi in the back and striding forward. "Granny, stand back. You're going to die."
"Huh? Neji Hyuga, I want everyone out of this-"
"He's your grandson, but he's also an international terrorist. Shut up and back down." Neji used a wave of telekinesis to throw her at Sakura. "Kurai, I think we better do this together."
"Yes, Papa." Kurai nodded, her voice low, probably because she felt his emotions. She must share the same feeling as him, if her own emotions were to be believed.
She raised a finger, her claw sticking out as Neji pressed his against it.
Immediately, a -Psssh- sound went aloud.
Light shone from the point of their fingers, blue and golden blinding everyone, and mana dust of similar colour sprayed in all directions. When everything cleared, Neji stood with two white cat ears on his head and a glossy silver draconic tail lashing behind him.
"...Nice tail." Sasori said, breaking the silence. "It would suit my puppet a lot."
Neji didn't give him heed and rather checked his stats. 15,960,000 MP. That's… a bit more than enough for this. With Kurai's 200x and his 100x Mana boost from their racial perks, the fusion reached a total of 20,000x mana boost. It was outrageous, but it worked.
"Now, die!" the puppet yelled, rushing at him.
Neji didn't like the puppet's crackly voice, so he teleported above it and slammed his tail down on it.
-Bang!
With a massive bang, the grotesque puppet splattered into blits of wood and metal, spraying all over the cave, and narrowly missing Sakura and Chiyo as Neji cast a [Automatic Barrier] around them.
"Whoa…" both Sakura and Chiyo gasped. Hanabi in particular gawked at Neji's twitching ears.
Sasori, the real one, jumped out of the destroyed puppet, a small red-headed boy, as he glared at Neji with hatred.
"S-sasori!?" Chiyo's voice cracked as if she was having a heart attack while looking at her grandson. "He looks the same way he did decades ago… he has become a puppet himself!"
As it turned out, he did. Sasori opened his forearms apart, taking out a scroll that he opened and channelled chakra into. Neji didn't stop him, because he actually wanted this to happen.
-Poof!
Smoke rose from beside Sasori and a tall man with a fair complexion, short messy dark-blue hair and narrow yellow eyes, stood beside him. Except he wasn't human, but a puppet.
"I-its the Third!"
The third Kazekage, owner of the magnet release.
'Time to test it out.' Neji thought and snapped his fingers, watching as long thick translucent chains leapt out of the ground, wrapping around both Sasori and the puppet in a very tight and visibly painful manner.
"W-what?!" The puppet master yelled out. "The Uzumaki chains?!"
"No." Neji casually replied. "These are stronger."
Sasori resisted but was unable to break free. Of course, a puppet master like him didn't have a strong enough body to break free from these powerful spells, even if he was a puppet himself.
Kurai had retained all her spells even if she lost her Levels. So, obviously, in their Fusion state where they had enough mana, they were almost invincible in this world.
Neji cast a few more binding spells, and although Sasori tried to resist with his Chakra, he couldn't overwhelm Neji's mana-enhanced spells.
"What the…" Chiyo yelped from behind, while Sakura and Hanabi simply stared.
Neji walked towards the 3rd Kazekage's puppet and cast a [Blurred Barrier] on this part of the cave so that the three females couldn't see.
The puppet, unfortunately, didn't have any text box hovering over it. Meaning it was considered dead by the system, and killing it wouldn't give Neji exp. So… he was rather going to steal its Bloodline ability.
Neji placed a hand on the puppet's chest, while Sasori was yelling muffled curses at him, and activated «Mine». He wasn't sure if it would work or not, one because the target was dead (even though Sasori could use his powers), and second because it wasn't a Quirk he was trying to steal.
However, once the red energy plundered inside the puppet's body, and Neji sensed a familiar feeling through the energy, he grinned and pulled out.
[Ding! You have mined out the kekkei genkai, "Magnet Release"!]
[Either "Master Neji" or "Familiar Kurai" can receive the bloodline! Who do you wish to pick?]
[Ding! Master Neji has received the bloodline ability, Magnet Release!]
[Magnet Release - Level 7
Details: A nature transformation kekkei genkai, the combination of wind and earth. The user can generate a magnetic force which they apply to other substances for various purposes.
–As the description suggests, the magnet manipulation provided by this is very very low, as the weight and size limit is small. However, it does have a very wide range.
–CP Cost: Depends on the degree of manipulation. If provided with enough chakra, it can temporarily overclock its size and weight limit.]
Neji grinned, turning to Sasori as the puppet's body fell down on the floor, breaking apart.
"You understood what I did, right?" Sasori's eyes were horrified, as he struggled to break free. "Now, what do you think would happen if I use Magnet Release on your puppet body?"
Neji looked at the "core" of Sasori, a seal poking out of his chest. Then, even as Sasori tried to yell, Neji focused his attention on the metallic core and… curled his fist up.
-Crunch!
"ARGHHH!"
The core was flattened under Neji's magnetic authority, and Sasori, yelling out a painful scream, went motionless.
"..."
Neji cancelled the spell, [Blurred Barrier], as the girls gawked at the scene, observing Sasori's motionless body wrapped around the magical chains. When Neji cancelled the chains, his body fell down to the ground, face first, his fake cheeks cracking up once it fell.
[You have killed "Sasori" , a Mid-Tier 9 foe!]
[You have received 94,000 exp!]
[You have levelled up 37 times!]
[You have reached level 376!]
[Kurai has reached level 247!]
"S-Sasori!!" Granny Chiyo came running to the dead puppet-human, bringing him in a soft hug.
Hanabi came beside Neji and looked up. "Onii-sama… what did you do?"
"Magic." Neji smiled at Hanabi, starting to float in the air, turning to Sakura. "Also, pink gorilla, I feel like you should know this." Neji said, and even in this situation Sakura managed to muster the courage to try and punch him (failing of course). "No idea why, but Sasori told me about Orocuimaru's hideout in Village Hidden in the Grass. It appears that Sasori has a spy inside Orochimaru's ranks, and that spy and he are supposed to meet in 10 days from now on, in the Tenchi Bridge located in Village Hidden in the Grass."
Just for the sake of it, Neji decided to let that part of the canon timeline follow through. So he told the same thing Sasori said to Sakura in the original timeline.
As he had expected, Sakura had paused in her spot, her mind having gone blank.
"Consider me telling you as a repayment for not helping to 'save' your Sasuke three years ago. That's all, I should get going now." Neji started to move midair.
"Where… are you going?" Sakura asked, pulling herself out of her daze, looking at him anxiously.
Neji turned around, his face entirely serious,
"The Shukaku. It broke out." He looked down at her, watching her face distort in horror. "Also, both Gaara… and Temari are dead."
The room broke into a series of shocked cries.
—★—
'Shit, shit, shit!!!' Tears were trailing down Naruto's cheeks. 'You demon fox bastard! You backstab me when I need you the most!'
Gaara was dead. The Shukaku somehow broke the seal and came out of his body by force.
Temari was also dead, crushed under the Shukaku's feet once she tried to take Gaara's dead body out of danger's way, in the hope of at least burying him in one piece.
And this whole time, the Nine-Tailed Fox wasn't lending him any power at all! Not even the usual Chakra leakage that boosted his base chakra! The fox and he had made a deal around the Seal, so in turn of letting him use up to Six Tails of her power, she could control the leakage now. Now that stupid decision was costing Naruto his friends' life!
Kakashi-sensei was out of the game too, unconscious from chakra exhaustion when he tried to attack the One-Tailed beast using his Mangekyo eye. Amidst all this, the blonde Akatsuki was still alive, hiding somewhere around this place with both his arms destroyed.
Naruto was doing his best on his own, creating as many clones as he could with his limited Chakra and spam ‹Rasengan› at the giant sand beast. But the beast was intact. He had used a few of ‹Odama Rasengan›, and although it seemed to hurt the beast, Naruto couldn't spam that Jutsu with this little chakra.
"Bwahaha! I am finally free! Even though they took most of my Chakra, I will regain it over time! In turn! I am free!" The One-Tail laughed, casually slapping dozens of Narutos out of its way with its tail as it strode towards the direction of the Sand Village. "Just wait there, you disgusting humans, see what I do once I get my hands on you! Bwahahaha!"
The monster enjoyed his laugh as he strode through the forest, breaking thousands of trees and killing hundreds of innocent animals.
Naruto felt weak at this moment. So very weak. He fell down on his back, all his Shadow Clones vanishing in thin air for the lack of Chakra. He was exhausted. For the first time in his life, his Chakra had run out. Rasengan was a Jutsu that sucked out tons of Chakra, and without the Nine Tails' help, he couldn't keep spamming it forever.
'Fucking Fox…' Naruto cursed, his vision blurred as he forced himself to face the back of the leaving Shukaku. 'All your kind are the same. Disgusting mindless beasts.'
"Sorry, I am late." Suddenly a voice said, and although Naruto couldn't be sure who it was because of his blurry vision, he soon realised the man's identity from the fact that he was floating. "Had to take care of the blonde one that was lurking around." He said, throwing a blonde figure on the ground. "Now, let me take care of that thing."
Neji Hyuga moved through the air at a shocking speed, and as Naruto wiped his tears to see the fight, he saw two wings on Neji's back with his body rapidly enlarging in the air, turning into a huge beast himself.
Naruto heard a predatory hungry growl in his head, belonging to Kurama, and they both watched Neji turn into a huge glossy silver lizard-type giant, almost double the size of Shukaku before he crashed into the sand beast.
The white monster- no, Neji, stomped on the sand beast's throat, and then opened his mouth wide to fire a pristine white tailed beast bomb (beam) of his own.
"⟨White Dragon's Breath⟩"
A chill went down Naruto's spine even as part of the sand monster turned into glass from the sheer heat of the beam.
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