"Wahhh—!"
Naruto was so terrified by nma's words that his soul almost left his body. He sprang up from the ground as if electrocuted, his hands moving at lightning speed to frantically pat himself down all over, his face a mask of sheer horror.
Only after confirming that all his 'key components' were still intact did he let out a long, shaky sigh and slump back onto the ground, feeling as though he'd just walked back from the gates of hell.
"False alarm, false alarm…" He mumbled, patting his chest, cold sweat beading on his forehead.
anwhile, the instigator, nma, watched Naruto's exaggerated reaction and finally couldn't hold back a burst of laughter tinged with mischievous glee.
"Pfft… Hahahaha…"
The laughter instantly made Naruto realize he'd been tricked!
"Hey—!" Naruto jumped up like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, his face a mix of anger at being toyed with and lingering fear. He clenched his fists.
"You jerk! What kind of joke is that?! That's not funny at all! Do you know how scary that is?!"
Although Naruto himself often used the Sexy Technique to turn into a beautiful woman to prank Iruka, Kakashi, or even the Third Hokage, those were either to attract attention or for specific tactical purposes.
But to actually beco a real girl himself…
Just thinking about it gave him the creeps. Absolutely not!
After venting his frightened anger, Naruto finally got a chance to properly look at the guy who'd pranked him.
The other party seed about his own age, with spiky black short hair, a handso face, though not annoyingly so like Sasuke's, and a smile still lingering at the corner of his mouth. At this mont, nma maintained an appearance similar to the fifteen-year-old Naruto.
Looking at that face, that inexplicable sense of familiarity welled up in Naruto again, even stronger than before.
But no matter how hard he racked his brains, he couldn't rember where he'd seen this person.
Naruto shook his head, temporarily pushing down his confusion, and looked around.
Only then did he realize he was in a huge, well-like underground space, surrounded by rough stone walls and scattered stone tablets, with a few holes above letting in light.
The environnt was unfamiliar and eerie.
"Um…" Naruto scratched his blond hair, his face showing confusion and wariness as he looked back at nma. "You… who are you, really? And where is this place? I rember I was chasing Mukade…"
Hearing Naruto's question, nma deliberately put on an appropriately puzzled and reproachful expression, slightly frowning. "What? Have you really forgotten already? Don't tell you actually damaged your brain when you fell earlier?"
"Huh?" Naruto was dumbfounded by this shifting of bla, his mouth hanging open.
He vigorously rubbed his temples, desperately searching his mories.
'Could it be soone I t during those three years traveling with Pervy Sage, in so town or on so mission?'
'Impossible! If it was a Ninja my age, and so… uh, kind of annoying, I'm sure I'd rember!'
Naruto couldn't figure it out, his face so scrunched up in thought it seed about to burst.
Watching Naruto's brain overload, practically smoking, nma's eyes flashed with mischief. He decided to add more fuel.
He sighed, using a tone mixing disappointnt, concern, and 'how could you' reproach, saying:
"Ah, seems you really took a hard fall. Forgetting your own older brother completely."
"O-o-older brother?!"
The power of this sentence surpassed even the earlier 'you're a girl now' joke!
Naruto's eyes widened bigger than dinner plates, his jaw almost hitting the floor, his entire body petrified!
He stood frozen for several seconds, then snapped back to reality as if to reconfirm sothing. He looked nma up and down several tis, thoroughly, as if trying to find evidence of the words 'older brother' on him.
"What are you talking about?!" Naruto practically shouted, his voice distorted by shock and absurdity. "I've been alone since I was little! Where would I have an older brother?! D-don't joke around like that!"
But then, Naruto narrowed his clear blue eyes, eyeing nma suspiciously, his gaze like that of soone scrutinizing a shady con artist.
"Hmph, since you claim to be my brother, then tell , what's my na?"
The playful smile on nma's face faded slightly, replaced by a thoughtful seriousness.
He didn't directly answer Naruto's question. Instead, he tilted his head slightly upward as if pondering sothing, then said in a tone that puzzled Naruto even more, slowly:
"Alone, huh… I see. So it seems, we are not on the sa world line."
"…"
Naruto: "???"
nma's enigmatic, riddle-like response added frost to Naruto's already chaotic brain.
He felt his thoughts had entered a maze with no exit, completely unable to understand what the other was saying.
'World line?'
'What was that?'
'What did it have to do with having a brother?'
However, nma, looking at Naruto's face, which had grown even more dazed from overthinking and seed about to sprout question mark bubbles, couldn't help but chuckle softly again.
He actually disliked it when people talked in riddles, but occasionally being the one to talk in riddles and ss with soone, especially this 'brother', felt pretty good?
Moreover, he already had a plan in mind.
After Minato arrived, perhaps he could give these two a little shock.
Just then, nma's ears twitched slightly. He raised his head, looking up at the five light-admitting holes above.
Faint, chaotic sounds ca from outside, as if many people were moving about.
"Let's head up first," nma said, his tone returning to flatness. "It seems to have gotten 'lively' outside."
Naruto now also pricked up his ears, indeed hearing vague, bustling noises like a marketplace.
Before he could think further, he saw the mysterious youth who claid to be his 'brother' float up into the air without any support, then slowly rise towards a larger hole above!
"Wow! F-flying!" Naruto was shocked again. He quickly shouted, "Hey! Wait for !"
Before his words finished, he was already charging towards one of the stone walls. His feet rapidly kicked against the rough wall surface. With a few agile leaps, he scrambled up to the hole like a nimble monkey.
He saw the hole was covered with a glass pane. Without thinking, he kicked it!
Bang!
The glass shattered.
Naruto sorsaulted and landed steadily on the ground outside the hole.
When he stood up and saw the scene before him, he froze in place once more, his mouth agape enough to fit an egg.
What t his eyes wasn't the desert ruins he rembered, but a lush, verdant park!
Shady green trees, flourishing flowers and plants, even a small artificial stream babbling through.
Yet, this beautiful park wasn't naturally ford… it was surrounded by countless towering, strangely shaped tal or stone towers!
These towers stood densely packed, piercing the sky like a forest of steel and rock. Sunlight was cut by the tower bodies into countless fragnted beams, casting down onto the greenery below, creating a strange and oppressive sight.
"T-this place is…?" Naruto felt like he was dreaming. He rubbed his eyes hard, but the scene didn't change.
"I rember I was tracking Mukade in the ruins of Roran! Where on earth is this?! Did that altar teleport to another country?"
Naruto suddenly rembered the guy who could fly and quickly looked around.
Soon, on the side of a high tower above, he spotted that black figure.
nma was currently 'walking' up the nearly vertical tower surface towards higher ground as if taking a leisurely stroll.
"Hey! Don't you run!" Naruto yelled, imdiately channeling Chakra and leaping up.
He agilely jumped and rebounded between the high towers, his movents swift and fluid. He quickly caught up to nma, landing on a protruding platform of a slightly shorter tower beside him. He planted his feet on the tower wall, his body parallel to the ground, urgently asking nma: "Hey! Wait up! Where exactly is this place?! I rember I should be in Roran!"
nma stopped walking, hovering in mid-air. He looked down at Naruto and gave the answer: "This is Roran."
"Huh?! Impossible!" Naruto imdiately refuted, pointing at the green trees and tall towers around. "Roran is a desert ruin! How could there be towers this tall, and so many trees?!"
nma pointed in a direction of the city.
He instinctively pointed towards a direction where yellowish sand could vaguely be seen.
Naruto followed his direction, gazing into the distance. Through the gaps between the layered towers, he indeed saw the endless expanse of yellow sand far away!
He looked down again at this lush, vibrant city greenery beneath his feet, his face filled with imnse contradiction and confusion. "But… in the desert… how can there be so many trees and grass?! How is that possible?!"
nma looked at Naruto's incredulous expression, his tone carrying a hint of helplessness as he explained: "Roran, also known as the [Land of a Lost Towers]. They were originally just a nomadic tribe surviving in the gap between the Land of Wind and the Land of Rivers. But within a few short years, relying on a special power, they developed into what you see now."
He paused, looking at Naruto's still-baffled face, adding a slightly teasing remark: "What, don't you need to gather basic intel about your mission location before going out? That's a Ninja's basic skill when carrying out missions."
Naruto felt a bit embarrassed, habitually rubbing the back of his head, an awkward smile on his face. "Hehe… Intel, planning, those are usually Captain Yamato and Sakura's responsibilities. I mainly…"
Before he could finish, sudden changes occurred!
Swoosh swoosh swoosh—!
Three strangely shaped combat puppets suddenly shot out from the shadow of a nearby high tower!
These puppets were assembled from brown cylindrical or spherical parts, their arm and leg ends either blades or so sort of Chakra Emission Devices, cold light glinting on the blades.
"Huh?" Naruto, seeing these puppets, imdiately frowned, his face showing confusion.
"Strange… these puppets look like the ones that bastard Mukade controls, but… the details are different."
He pulled a kunai from his ninja tool pouch, holding it horizontally before his chest, his body slightly crouching, entering a combat stance, his eyes turning sharp.
However, to his surprise, these three aggressively approaching combat puppets completely ignored him. They locked onto nma hovering in the air!
The next instant, the three puppets attacked simultaneously!
One puppet fired a purple ray from a Chakra Emitter on its arm, another shot several high-speed rotating shuriken from a launcher on its arm, the last one was even more direct, its palm transforming into a claw as it pounced fiercely at nma!
"Watch out! These puppets' attacks are—" Naruto, seeing this, hurriedly warned.
Yet, before his warning could finish, he heard nma softly utter a few words:
"Shinra Tensei."
Hum—!
A terrifying, invisible repulsive force erupted from nma as the center, explosively spreading outwards!
Instantly, those three fierce attacks seed to hit an invisible wall!
All forward montum ceased abruptly!
Then, under Naruto's dumbfounded gaze, the repulsive force twisted and annihilated the chakra ray like a violent hurricane, sent the shuriken flying back the way they ca at even greater speed, while the pouncing claw puppet was slamd by an invisible giant hand. Its entire body jolted mid-air, then violently disintegrated!
The cylindrical and spherical parts composing it scattered and flew apart, clattering down onto the towers and ground below.
The other two puppets weren't spared either, grazed by the edge of the repulsive force, tumbling and crashing into distant tower bodies, parts scattering everywhere.
'Just one move?!'
Naruto remained frozen in his combat stance, holding the kunai, mouth slightly agape, his eyes full of shock.
In his ti, Jiraiya hadn't sacrificed himself yet, Pain hadn't officially invaded Konoha. He had never seen such a bizarre and powerful Jutsu!
"W-what kind of Jutsu is that… taking out those puppets with one move…" Naruto murmured.
However, the crisis wasn't over.
It seed to have triggered so alarm chanism.
The next mont, ear-piercing tallic screeches sounded from all directions!
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
It was like poking a hornet's nest. Dense combat puppets sward out from the windows, platforms, and shadows of countless surrounding towers!
They directly charged towards nma and Naruto's location like an army!
Looking around, a dark mass, their numbers probably exceeded a hundred!
"Hiss—!" Naruto sucked in a cold breath, feeling his scalp tingle.
Over a hundred combat puppets!
This was no joke!
He imdiately assud a more serious combat posture, the Chakra within him beginning to flow faster, preparing for a fierce battle.
anwhile, nma carefully observed these chanical constructs.
Under his insight, certain details of these puppets' joint designs, energy conduction thods, even their attack patterns faintly exuded a familiar style.
It was the technical approach of the puppet research departnt in his Land of Stars, combined with the Moon Otsutsuki Clan's puppet techniques.
'Indeed… the Mukade who ca to this era and took the na Anrokuzan is the Mukade from my world.' nma's mind was already certain.
He just didn't know where the 'Mukade' from Naruto's world went.
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