Kaede, following behind Megumi, stopped and turned her head toward the entrance of their house. A smirk played on her lips as she looked at him. "We have an unwanted guest."
Confused by his mother's attitude, Megumi wondered who the guest could be. Just as he was about to enter, he received a message from his system.
[Host IQ is -200]
[Your summons drew unnecessary attention]
"Stay inside and don't come out without my permission," Kaede told her son before grabbing her sword and heading out to see who they were and what they wanted.
"Mom, I can store my summons in your shadow so you can call them by name," Megumi replied, his voice laced with worry.
Kaede accepted his request, as this was the trust she wanted from her son. "Okay, but Mama will be fine." Megumi summoned the Divine Dog and Nue. "Obey whatever she says, okay?" he ordered his shikigami before letting them blend into his mother's shadow.
"That's good for now," he sighed, wiping unseen sweat from his forehead.
In front of their house stood four masked men in dark gray uniforms.
"What do you want here?" Kaede asked with a tone of disgust, seeing their rude demeanor.
"We noticed a summoned bird and have been ordered to bring it and its owner in for disturbing the village," one of the Root members said, showing no respect for the woman in front of him.
Kaede, already at a boiling point, took a deep breath. "Care to show me your Hokage's order scroll?" she demanded, after all, she had been a squad captain before. She assessed the situation, her hand reaching for the hilt of her sword. "Leave. This is noble clan property."
"Are you planning to betray the village?" a Root member said, signaling his companions to attack her.
Kaede, hating this organization with a passion, unsheathed her sword and charged at the Root members.
Clank! Clank!
The sounds of metal striking metal echoed. Kaede held them off, but one of the Root members formed hand signs.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu!" He spat a large burst of fire from his mouth.
Luckily, Kaede reacted in time, using a Substitution Jutsu to retreat and form her own hand signs.
"Water Release: Water Severing Wave!"
Boom!!!
The front yard was a mess. After seeing his comrades fall, one of the Root members fired a signal into the sky. Kaede saw him but couldn't stop him from calling for backup.
Immediately, eight masked Jōnin appeared, surrounding her. Kaede wasn't concerned for her own life, but for how Megumi would survive this. Suddenly, she noticed her shadow was different, immediately realizing someone had taken steps to ensure her safety.
"Divine Dog!"
"Nue!"
The Root members were confused. The woman was coughing up a mouth full of blood and shouting names. They expected an ambush, but no one appeared.
"Wrap this up. We need to report to Lord Danzō."
A Root member walked closer to Kaede. She tried to fight back, but a kunai pierced her shoulder. As he was about to finish her, the Root ninja suddenly felt dizzy. He saw his body without his head and knew he was dead, killed at a speed he couldn't sense.
A Few Minutes Earlier…
"Wow, that was so close, you know," Megumi said, lying down.
[Focus. I don't want you to die yet.]
"..."
[You can defeat her without using your shikigami.]
Megumi sat up, hearing the system say something interesting. "What do you mean? How can I?"
[Your dōjutsu I created for you was based on Tōji Fushiguro's Black Eyes during the Shibuya Incident, where he was a threat to even the strongest.]
"Does that mean I'm basically a mindless lunatic? I'm not Tōji Fushiguro with no cursed energy," he muttered to himself.
[Will you let me finish?]
[It's true that Tōji Fushiguro had no cursed energy, but his Heavenly Restriction made him a very dangerous person.]
[Now, your dōjutsu allows you to think straight without struggling with decision-making, and it works similarly to a Heavenly Restriction.]
[Why do you think you survived the lightning strike to your shoulder?]
Megumi, still listening to the system's analysis, was interrupted by the sound of fighting, which scared him. He wondered why his shikigami wasn't responding to her.
[She has no cursed energy, so she can't control them.]
Megumi was angry that he hadn't thought of that. He immediately went into his mother's room to get his sword. He found a black katana under her bed. "If I fuse the blade with cursed energy, can it withstand it?"
[Yes, it's forged with very rare material. But why would she waste so much to get you what you don't deserve?]
Megumi closed his eyes. When he reopened them, they were black, and black tattoos had appeared all over his body. He grinned, teleporting from his mother's room to where a Root ninja was about to kill his injured mother. He cut off his head without hesitation.
His killing intent was so overwhelming that the Root members took a step back with each step Megumi took forward. He turned to his mother and called out the shikigami he had stored in her shadow. The black and white wolves appeared, and then a large bird appeared next to them, hooting loudly.
"Protect my mom this time," he said to the wolves. He then turned to the Root members and grinned like a predator watching its prey in a desperate situation.
He moved at a speed so great that the Root members could only react after they had already crashed into a tree.
He wasn't attacking wildly; he was targeting the strongest ninja among them. One member tried to be a decoy for his teammates to retreat but was surprised that this little kid wasn't after him. As he tried to change directions to the Root base, a black wolf jumped out of his shadow, grabbing the Root ninja by his neck and ending his life in a brutal manner, giving him no chance to struggle.
Megumi noticed one of them was casting hand signs. He took just a step.
Twak!
"Ahhh!!!!"
The Jōnin's hand was cut off from his shoulder. At that moment, they knew that they had just awakened a god of death.