***A/N****
Hello guys!
Yep... I'm not dead. đ
I was just dumb enough to leave my laptop at the airport... and, somehow, smart enough to also forget my WebNovel password, so I couldn't even log in on my phone.
Anyway, after what felt like an eternity, I'm finally back! Let's get these chapters rolling again. đ„
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Chapter 89: The Jashin Cult (7)
[Itachi Uchiha's POV]
The smell of copper and voided bowels filled my lungs.
I stood perfectly still on the scorched earth. My Sharingan was deactivated, yet my dark eyes recorded every single gruesome detail of the slaughter unfolding in front of me. Thirteen immortal zealots lay on the rocky ground. They were choking on their own blood. Their bodies convulsed in violent, unnatural rhythms. They had willingly severed their own vocal cords and sliced their own throats.
My heart hammered aggressively against my ribs. My breathing was shallow and forced.
I was suddenly nine years old in body but four years old in my mind. The heavy scent of blood forcefully dragged my consciousness backward in time. I was standing in the pouring rain of the Third Shinobi World War. My father, Fugaku Uchiha, had brought me to the battlefield to teach me the true nature of our reality. He wanted me to see the cost of peace. I remembered the endless fields of broken corpses. I remembered the Iwa shinobi missing his legs, begging for water. I remembered offering him my canteen, only for him to try and slit my throat with a kunai. I remembered the absolute, crushing weight of senseless death.
It had traumatized me. It had forged a deep, burning hatred for conflict deep within my soul. I became a pacifist in the shadow of that massacre.
I looked at Naruto.
He was four years old. He was the exact same age my little brother, Sasuke, was right now. Sasuke cried when a training shuriken nicked his finger. Sasuke needed our mother to hold him when thunderstorms shook the Uchiha compound.
Naruto stood at the edge of a massive, molten crater he had just created. He had personally vaporized forty men and ordered the grisly suicides of thirteen more. He did not look away from the dying cultists. His blue eyes were perfectly calm, utterly devoid of fear, pity, or disgust. He looked like he was watching rain fall on a quiet pond.
The High Priest was the only enemy left standing.
The fanatic had dropped to his knees. He ignored the dying gasps of his followers. He raised his bloodstained silver dagger high into the air. His eyes were wide and completely unhinged. He stared at the four-year-old boy with a level of absolute worship that made my stomach churn.
"I offer my pain to the vessel!" the High Priest screamed. He slammed the silver dagger deeply into his own left thigh.
He did not flinch. A horrific, euphoric smile stretched across his face. He twisted the blade inside his own muscle tissue, letting out a heavy sigh of pure pleasure. He ripped the blade out and instantly plunged it into his left shoulder. Blood soaked his ruined cloak.
"I offer my eternal suffering to the living god!" he shouted again, stabbing himself in the stomach.
I tightened my grip on my short sword. My mind raced, trying to comprehend the sheer madness of the situation. What exactly did these religious fanatics see when they looked at Naruto? They believed in a god of slaughter and absolute destruction. They saw a blond toddler annihilate an army with a single jutsu, and they immediately accepted him as the physical incarnation of their dark deity. They were offering their lives and their excruciating pain to a child who had not even entered the ninja academy.
The High Priest stabbed himself a fourth time, driving the blade right below his collarbone. He looked at Naruto for any sign of approval. Naruto simply blinked, his expression remaining completely indifferent.
The High Priest let out a final, ecstatic laugh. He raised the dagger to his own throat and sliced deeply. He collapsed backward onto the bloody dirt. His limbs twitched for a few moments before he finally went still.
The battlefield was entirely silent.
Behind us, the silver glow of the Wood Dome began to fade. The dense chakra dissipated into the air. The thick wooden walls uncoiled and sank rapidly back into the earth. Kinoe stepped forward. The Root operative looked at the molten crater and the pile of bleeding bodies. He did not say a word.
Hideki stumbled out of the vanishing dome. The official fell to his hands and knees. He vomited violently onto the rocks.
When he finally finished heaving, Hideki slowly raised his head. He looked at Naruto. The grown man was completely terrified. He was shaking so violently his teeth chattered. He looked at the small boy the exact same way a prey animal looks at a starving tiger.
Naruto turned away from the dead High Priest. He looked at Kinoe, then at me, and finally at the trembling official.
"Let's proceed with the mission," Naruto said. His voice was perfectly steady.
*
*
*
The next two days of travel passed in absolute, suffocating silence.
The dynamic of the group had shifted permanently. Hideki treated the journey like a march to the executioner's block. The official walked with his head bowed. He never spoke unless directly addressed. If Naruto happened to glance in his direction, Hideki would instantly freeze and avert his eyes. The official had realized the four-year-old child was the undisputed apex predator of their group.
Itachi walked near the rear of the formation. The young Uchiha looked awfully calm. His face was a perfect, emotionless mask. He moved with standard shinobi grace. It was a highly trained coping mechanism. He had locked his trauma and his shock away in a heavily guarded vault deep within his mind. He focused entirely on scanning the tree lines and monitoring the road to avoid dwelling on the molten crater they had left behind.
They finally emerged from the dense forests. The capital city of the Land of Hot Water spread out before them in a valley basin.
It was a vibrant, bustling metropolis that stood in stark contrast to the dark violence of their journey. Thick plumes of white steam rose constantly from massive iron grates set into the cobblestone streets. The architecture featured slanted green roofs and brightly painted wooden facades. Merchants yelled out prices from open-air stalls. Civilians in colorful robes walked casually along the wide avenues. The smell of sulfur and sweet cooking spices filled the humid air.
The Konoha team escorted Hideki directly to the central administration complex located in the heart of the city.
A plump, well-dressed official waited for them at the main gates. He smiled warmly as the group approached.
"Ah, Hideki!" the plump official greeted enthusiastically. "You made it back safely. How was the travel through the border forests? Any trouble with bandits?"
Hideki stopped walking. He stared blankly at his colleague. Hideki swallowed hard. He refused to look the plump official in the eye. Instead, Hideki slowly turned his head and cast a quick, terrified glance at Naruto standing quietly nearby.
"The journey was completely fine," Hideki lied. His voice was entirely hollow. He bowed stiffly to the Konoha team. "Your service is complete. I will go inside now."
Hideki practically ran up the stone steps and disappeared into the administration building. He wanted to put as many thick walls as possible between himself and the blond boy.
The plump official looked confused by his colleague's bizarre behavior. He shrugged it off quickly. He reached into his silk robes and pulled out a small leather pouch.
"The Hidden Leaf will receive the final payment transfer through standard courier channels," the official explained to Kinoe. "However, the Daimyo instructed me to provide a small, immediate reward for your hard work. You boys look like you need a bath."
He handed Kinoe three small wooden tokens painted with gold kanji.
"These grant you free access to the Imperial Steam Pavilion," the official said warmly. "It is the most exclusive hot spring in the capital. Enjoy the waters. You have earned some rest."
The team accepted the tokens and navigated through the busy streets toward the resort. The Imperial Steam Pavilion was a massive, walled compound built directly over a natural thermal vent. The interior featured polished bamboo floors, paper sliding doors, and the constant, relaxing sound of running water.
They were directed to a private changing room adjacent to the outdoor stone pools. Kinoe and Itachi began to unfasten their shinobi gear.
Naruto sat down on a small wooden bench. He slowly untied his dark sandals. He stared blankly at the bamboo wall in front of him.
He was not actually looking at the wall. He was reading a translucent blue screen floating directly in his line of sight. The system notification had appeared two days ago, right after the High Priest had supposedly bled to death in the ruined camp.
[Ding!]
[System Notification: Jashin Cult Canon Direction Altered.]
[Target: Jashin Cult.]
[Status: Turned 1 of the five High Priests into misunderstanding that the host is the physical incarnation of Jashin. This misconception will greatly affect the entire Jashin cult network.]
[Divergence Level: Slightly Significant.]
[Calculating Rewards...]
[Reward: 120 Fate Points.]
Naruto read the words carefully. He analyzed the specific phrasing chosen by the system.
He remembered the slaughter vividly. He remembered the youngest sister driving a dagger into her own brain. He remembered the High Priest stabbing his own chest and slicing his throat. He had watched the man bleed out onto the dirt.
Naruto closed the blue screen with a simple mental command. He pulled his brown tunic over his head and set it neatly on the wooden shelf.
The system logic was absolute. If the High Priest's misunderstanding was going to greatly affect the entire Jashin cult network across the continent, the High Priest needed a way to communicate that misunderstanding to the other branches. Dead men could not send messages. Dead men could not spread a new religious gospel.
Naruto walked toward the sliding door leading to the hot springs. A cold, calculated thought settled into his mind.
The High Priest was still alive.
****A/N***
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