Aqua whined, clutching Kazuma's green cloak. "Hey, Kazuma, what are we gonna do? If what he said is true, I can't go back to being a Goddess again!" Her voice trembled with a pleading tone.
A deep frown creased Kazuma's forehead when he heard Aqua's complaint. His face was a mix of annoyance and anger.
This girl!!!
"So what's actually going on?" Megumin asked, pouting slightly, which gave her cute face a petulant expression.
Kazuma tried to stop Aqua from pulling on his cloak by grabbing both of her hands. "Why are you asking me, you dumb Goddess! I'm the one who should be asking you that!" With a rough shove, he pushed Aqua away, making her stumble to the ground. He just scowled, annoyed, as he watched.
"Long story short, we're not in the same world anymore," Kazuma stated directly, cutting right to the chase.
"Huh? I can't understand if you say it like that out of nowhere. Explain it to me in detail," Megumin retorted sharply, clearly not satisfied with Kazuma's answer.
Her eyes then went to Darkness, who now had an expression like she was experiencing some kind of arousal. Damn it, I thought her mental issues were gone since she looked like a normal person earlier. Guess not.
"Kazuma. Is it true? Is it true that we've been transported to another world?" Darkness asked breathlessly, her face flushed.
This is going to take forever, Nagato thought. He'd already been talking with them for about ten minutes.
He needed to secure the Gedo Mazo as soon as possible. Before Obito tried anything with it.
"Guy named Kazuma, take your friends and get out of here," Nagato ordered firmly.
Hearing that order, Kazuma sighed with relief inwardly. I don't know why he's letting us go, but it's good news.
"Megumin, Darkness, and Aqua. We should get out of here now," he shouted, grabbing his backpack off the ground.
"Ehh? Is he letting us go?" Megumin muttered quietly, her eyes still warily watching the guy's movements.
Kazuma nodded in agreement. He walked over to Darkness and tapped her cheeks.
"Darkness, we're leaving now. Before that guy changes his mind," Kazuma whispered in a serious tone into Darkness's ear.
Darkness snapped out of her weird daze and immediately followed Kazuma from behind. Before completely leaving, she glanced back at the young man, then turned back to the road ahead.
As Kazuma and his group walked away, the surrounding area became quiet and silent once more.
He formed hand seals with incredible speed, then said, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu."
Suddenly, a white cloud of smoke appeared before him. After the cloud of smoke cleared, Pain Chikushodo, with its cute and beautiful face, stood before him.
"Watch over them," Nagato commanded simply. The reason he summoned Pain Chikushodo was to protect Kazuma and his group from wild animal attacks.
The first time he arrived in this forest, he'd seen many unknown, possibly dangerous, animal species. So to prevent anything unnecessary, he sent Pain Chikushodo to watch over Kazuma.
Pain Chikushodo nodded, and then immediately left Nagato.
"Alright, time to summon the Gedo Mazo." His pupils briefly flared up, then faded.
He took a moment to breathe, letting it out slowly. He quickly formed hand seals and then pressed them to the ground.
"Kuchiyose no Jutsu ~ Gedo Mazo."
Suddenly, an incredibly powerful tremor shook the surrounding area. He had to channel chakra into the soles of his feet to maintain his balance.
A deafening roar thundered through the air, causing birds in the forest to fly away in panic. Also, the presence of the Gedo Mazo drove away the animals in the area. To those creatures, its aura was utterly terrifying.
The ground under his feet began to show signs of cracking.
"This is dangerous." He jumped away to a safer location.
He watched the Gedo Mazo's enormous body emerging from the depths of the earth. The aura of chakra it radiated filled him with a mix of awe and fear. He still couldn't believe that something like that existed in the real world.
Seeing it with his own eyes was different than just watching it on a screen. This was the second time he'd seen the Gedo Mazo directly.
He formed some hand seals and then, he immediately moved the Gedo Mazo's summoning coordinates to this location.
…
At the same time, on the Shinobi Continent.
A figure with an orange spiral mask stood, gazing at the place where the Gedo Mazo Statue was supposed to be stored. But now, the place was empty.
"Nagato… turns out you're still alive."
He turned his attention to a creature that looked like a combination of an aloe vera plant and a human.
"How's it going? Have you been able to track the direction of its chakra frequency?" Tobi asked, who was now calling himself Madara Uchiha.
The creature shook his head. "It's too difficult to track it just by relying on the summoning chakra frequency... If we had the Kuroki Jushinki (Black Rods of the Rinnegan), we could pinpoint its location instantly."
"If we had that, I wouldn't have asked you to track the summoning chakra through Kuchiyose." After saying that to Zetsu, an anti-clockwise spiral vortex sucked him in.
…
Kazuma, Megumin, Darkness, and Aqua stared at the place they had just left behind, their faces filled with horror.
What the hell just happened? Kazuma panicked inwardly.
"Kazuma! That roar was terrifying… I've never heard anything so scary before!" Megumin exclaimed, pulling on Kazuma's green cloak. Both of her hands were trembling with fear.
Kazuma nodded in agreement. "Yeah, you're right. We need to get out of here now." He replied in a firm tone, even though his heart was racing with anxiety.
But even so, after they left this forest, where would they go? Based on Nagato's explanation, it seemed they were in Amegakure. It felt impossible to even leave this country, especially after losing their magic and skills.
Damn it, out of every place in the world, why did it have to be Amegakure, and in the era of Pain's leadership no less.
Kazuma, Aqua, Darkness, and Megumin quickened their pace, unaware that Pain Chikushodo was lurking somewhere, watching their every move carefully.
…