"Lamp?"
Uchiha Shinji raised an eyebrow.
He was a Lampbearer, and the mysterious voice identified itself as the "Lamp." So, doesn't that mean the mysterious voice is the very lamp he carries?
In other words,
The mysterious voice, which had always been elusive and unresponsive, was actually his own treasure, something that belonged to him alone.
"Is it because my permissions were too low that I couldn't control it?"
Shinji gradually began to understand.
The mysterious Lampbearer's method of invading the ninja world and the Lamp Trace that was left behind were all abilities of the lamp that the enemy carried.
Which means, all these strange and powerful abilities that the opponent could currently use—Shinji might be able to achieve them as well once his own permissions increased.
Thinking of this, he asked the mysterious voice, "What permissions do I have right now?"
[A Junior Lampbearer can conceal their own Lamp Shadow.]
Hearing this, Shinji was taken aback. He then recalled how during the first invasion when he fought the Hand Demon, the Hand Demon had immediately recognized him and referred to him as "Light". Similarly, during the recent encounter, Rui had nearly outright identified him as a Lampbearer.
He had found this strange before.
Now, it made sense. Apparently, beings from outside the ninja world could potentially see the lamp shadow on him and identify his true status.
But now that he could hide his lamp shadow, it was good news.
At least he no longer needed to worry about being immediately identified by invaders.
[A Junior Lampbearer can block external contamination.]
This one was easy to understand.
While knowledge, items, and information from other worlds are poisonous to the ninja world, as long as they are in Shinji's hands, they won't affect the world.
For example, the Breathing Technique he had been practicing or the spider-silk thread he now held.
With his ability as a Lampbearer, he could block the contamination these items would otherwise cause to the ninja world.
[A Junior Lampbearer can recruit up to two attendants. Attendants can block external contamination.]
Shinji's eyes lit up.
With the ninja world now anchored by the mysterious Lampbearer, more and more demons were bound to invade. Soon, he would be overwhelmed.
That's why, when he was being surrounded by the Natagumo Family, the thought of recruiting some helpers had crossed his mind.
However, after learning that anything from other worlds was toxic to the ninja world, he had put the idea of recruiting helpers aside.
Now, upon discovering that recruiting attendants was part of the Junior Lampbearer permissions, his thoughts immediately revived.
Having understood the permissions granted by his rank, Shinji began to clean up the battlefield.
The mountain stream was in complete disarray, and there wasn't a single intact spot in sight. The stones and trees had either been shredded into pieces by Rui's blood webs or smashed into rubble by Shinji's Susanoo.
However, since Rui had already been incinerated by Amaterasu, all traces of his existence had been wiped clean, leaving not even a scent behind.
The only thing that remained was the small bundle of silk thread in Shinji's hand.
So, despite the mess around him, there wasn't much left to clean up.
"Right, and then there were those Hidden Leaf shinobi..."
Recalling the Hidden Leaf shinobi who had been controlled by Mother Spider, Shinji frowned.
All of those shinobi had seen the demons and were even controlled by them, meaning the demons' information was now stored in their memories.
According to the Lamp, this meant they had already been contaminated and would gradually turn into anchors between the two worlds, pushing the ninja world closer to collapse.
When Shinji reached the place where the Leaf shinobi had collapsed, his expression changed.
Before him, where the shinobi were supposed to be, there were only puddles of blood and scraps of flesh.
It was clear that before the four demons had pursued him, they hadn't spared the Leaf shinobi and had brutally devoured them.
Shinji sighed softly, then, with a swift movement, vanished from the scene.
Swish. Swish.
Not long after Shinji left, two figures descended into the forest, accompanied by the sound of the wind.
Both were dressed in the attire of the Hidden Leaf's Anbu. One of them, wearing a fox mask and having silver hair, was none other than Kakashi, who had been sent to investigate.
His team consisted of four people, split into two groups.
Because Kakashi's group entered the mountain from the other side, they arrived later than the group that had been killed by Rui.
The other Anbu, after surveying the bloodstains on the ground, called out, "Captain, we've found something!"
Kakashi, who had been standing guard a short distance away, immediately rushed over and found the ground covered in blood, resembling a slaughterhouse. His brow furrowed.
The Anbu touched the blood on the ground and immediately lowered his voice, "It's still warm. This happened just moments ago."
Kakashi quickly bit his thumb, swiftly forming hand signs before pressing his hand to the ground. "Summoning Jutsu!"
Poof.
A puff of white smoke billowed up!
When the smoke cleared, eight ninja hounds of various sizes stood before Kakashi.
He immediately pointed to the bloodstains on the ground and said, "This should be a battlefield. Can you pick up any scents?"
The eight ninja hounds sniffed around and then all looked in the same direction.
"Let's go!"
Without hesitation, Kakashi gave the order, and the ninja hounds immediately pursued the scent.
Before long, Kakashi, the accompanying Anbu, and the eight ninja hounds arrived at the location where the two Anbu had been killed by Rui.
Seeing the gruesome remains of their comrades, Kakashi and the other Anbu's expressions grew solemn.
The sight of their brutally slain comrades made them realize that the enemy who had attacked the Kikyo Mountain Outpost was not ordinary. But death wasn't an unusual thing for shinobi—they were long used to it—so they didn't dwell on it. They immediately resumed following the trail.
Soon, they reached the mountain stream where Shinji and Rui had fought.
"This… What happened here?"
The Anbu was shocked.
The stream looked as though a massive battle involving hundreds or even thousands of shinobi had taken place. Trees were shattered, stones were broken, and everything was in ruins.
However, what was even more puzzling was the absence of bodies, blood, or even a single leftover ninja tool.
In a way, it was eerily clean.
Kakashi was equally shocked and turned to his ninja hounds.
The eight ninja hounds quickly spread out, sniffing around the stream.
Moments later, they regrouped, and the leader of the pack, Pakkun, spoke up, "We're still only picking up the same scent."
Kakashi immediately asked, "Only one source of scent?"
Pakkun nodded, "Aside from the fallen, there's only one scent remaining."
The accompanying Anbu was puzzled. "Was there only one attacker?"
Sitting down on the ground, Pakkun raised a paw, "All I can say is that we only detected one scent in the battlefield."
Kakashi thought for a moment and asked, "And where did they go?"
Pakkun pointed back to the direction they came from. "Their scent was moving back and forth between the forest battlefield and this stream."
Kakashi frowned. "And then?"
Pakkun raised his paw again, "It disappeared!"