"Brat! You think I want to stay here!?"
The Nine-Tails' roar reverberated throughout the sealed space. Naruto clapped his hands over his ears and turned away in annoyance — thanks to Carl, he wasn't afraid of the Nine-Tails anymore.
Then Carl spoke up suddenly,
"Someone's coming."
Naruto froze. Carl raised a hand toward him; a powerful repulsive force exploded from his palm and Naruto was flung backward. When he came to his senses he was already back outside — before him was his darkened room.
...
Outside, rain pattered softly. Inside the room it was so quiet Naruto could only hear his own breathing. Thinking of Carl's earlier warning that someone had arrived, a chill crept over him.
He hurried to his feet to switch on the light. At that moment a streak of lightning flashed outside the window and illuminated a figure, and Naruto cried out in alarm.
The silhouette vanished with the lightning. Naruto snapped on the light and, before he could relax, found himself again swallowed by shadow.
He turned stiffly. Standing before him, cloaked in black, was a figure wearing a cat-faced mask. Even through the mask Naruto felt the cold gaze beneath it.
The masked man looked down at Naruto, then — without warning — brought a hand in a chopping motion for Naruto's neck. The speed was far beyond what Naruto could react to.
Just as the blade of the masked man's hand was about to strike, time seemed to freeze. A black gleam swirled in Naruto's clear blue eyes. In the next second the vacant expression on Naruto's face vanished and was replaced by absolute calm.
Carl's in.
Slap!
The masked man's wrist was gripped by Carl, a series of cracking sounds followed as bones protested. The masked man groaned, trying with all his strength to wrench his hand free. Carl didn't stop — his grip suddenly loosened — and the masked man staggered backward, clutching his wrist, until he hit the wall.
He had no time to care about his injured wrist. Looking up at the mockery on the face of the "Naruto" in front of him, he cried out in alarm,
"Nine-Tailed Fox!?"
Carl made no move to correct him. He stepped slowly toward the masked man who was pressed against the wall, and said as he approached,
"You're from Root, aren't you — Danzo's people? Getting impatient already?"
At being called out so plainly, the masked man was struck with terror. The Nine-Tailed Fox knew Danzo-sama? How could that be??
Still, as a member of a covert organization he wouldn't reveal himself outright — he chose silence.
Carl didn't care. He raised a palm that exuded dense black power and grinned wickedly,
"I've heard those in Root like to talk about darkness. I wonder how much you actually understand about true dark power?"
Beneath the mask the man's face had turned ashen.
He was filled with regret. He had thought his operation clean and decisive — move in without a sound and take action. He shouldn't have waited until Naruto turned his back — but he never expected Naruto to be able to "slice the Nine-Tails in a second."
The Naruto who was possessed by the Nine-Tails had just had his strength verified by the Third Hokage today, he was not someone a lowly Root operative could handle. The force Naruto had used to control the man's wrist made that clear.
A decided look crossed the masked man's eyes. Danzo-sama had ordered him to spirit Naruto away in secret — now that mission was completely ruined.
And failure for this mission had clear consequences: Root must never be exposed. He had only one choice left — suicide.
Thoughts racing, the masked man decisively drew a kunai and plunged it toward his own heart. But his movement could not escape Carl's eyes.
Carl appeared before him in an instant, snapped his fingers, and a broken kunai spun through the air.
The masked man then tried to bite down on the poison pellet hidden in his mouth, but Carl's palm struck the side of his jaw and dislodged it.
With no options left, the man attempted to resist. The darkness underfoot suddenly transformed into jagged shadowy spears that impaled his limbs, leaving him utterly unable to struggle.
Carl crouched and looked down at the masked man lying in a pool of blood. He said slowly and deliberately,
"Danzo- — always so impatient. No wonder he could never be Hokage."
Hearing Carl insult Danzo-sama, the masked man trembled with rage. He tried to say something, but with his jaw crooked he could only make guilty, muffled sounds.
Carl paid him no mind and continued, talking to himself more than to the man,
"So what did he want from me? Let me guess… ah — that blood-trace screening to hunt down Dark Release users. Wanted to drag me into Root and use secret techniques to force out the method of training Dark Release? The Third Hokage probably doesn't even know about that. Of course, even if Danzo managed it, I doubt the Third would actually deal with him properly — blood-trace screening, huh? Tsk, that would be a tasty prize."
At Carl's words the masked man felt his heart drop — obviously his objective in capturing Naruto had been almost completely exposed by this "Nine-Tailed Fox."
Suddenly a thought flashed into the masked man's mind.
Has Naruto's consciousness really been restored during the day? If the intelligence the Nine-Tails is showing now has been feigned all day — could it be that it's been pretending from the morning until now??
If that were true, then the trouble wouldn't be limited to Danzo — the whole Leaf might suffer catastrophic losses.
Realizing this, the masked man no longer wanted to die. This was an extremely important piece of intelligence — at the very least he had to report it to Danzo-sama, maybe even to the Hokage.
Carl lifted his hand and peeled the mask off the man's face, revealing a young man's visage. With a flick of his finger Carl plucked the poison pellet from the man's mouth, then roughly set the man's jaw back into place.
Carl studied the man's face and mused,
"Not a bad head — even this kid's body could be crushed in one hand…"
The masked man's eyes widened in terror. No matter how strong his nerves, he was close to breaking — in his eyes the thing before him was not a human but a demon fox. He stammered,
"Y-you're going to eat…?"
Carl paused, then realized the man thought he'd be eaten. He chuckled,
"I don't have that kind of taste. Just feeling a bit fidgety. Tell me your name — maybe I'll consider leaving you in one piece."
"N-no! Don't kill me, my name is Terai…"
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+100 chapters on p@treon/tambeerg