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Chapter 89: The Jashin Cult (6)
Naruto stood suspended on an invisible floor of highly compressed wind. He looked down at the trapped mercenaries illuminated by the violent orange light. The dense sphere of spinning fire chakra in his right hand roared with the intensity of a trapped beast.
The heat radiating from the Spiraling Meteor distorted the very fabric of the air. The temperature climbed so rapidly that the dry brush on the canyon floor instantly caught fire. The rocky ground directly beneath Naruto began to turn a sickly black. The stone cracked audibly under the sheer pressure of the rising thermal energy.
He held the blazing sphere for three long seconds. He gave the surviving men just enough time to comprehend the exact nature of their doom.
Naruto simply turned his wrist and let the miniature sun fall.
The Spiraling Meteor descended with terrifying velocity. The intense rotational force of the chakra core gripped the surrounding air currents. It pulled itself downward, leaving a thick, spiraling trail of white smoke and warped gravity in its wake. The sound it made was deafening. It sounded like the sky itself was tearing apart.
Koji looked up at the descending nightmare. The veteran mercenary leader dropped his heavy battleaxe. He made absolutely zero attempt to run. The blast radius was clearly too massive. He closed his eyes and accepted his complete erasure from the mortal world.
The Spiraling Meteor hit the exact center of the mercenary formation.
For a fraction of a second, the world went completely silent. The dense chakra core compressed violently upon impact.
Then, the sphere detonated.
A massive dome of blinding white fire expanded outward at a speed the human eye could barely process. The jutsu was a colossal, fiery grinder. The spinning white-hot flames gripped the heavy iron breastplates, the rusted broadswords, and the flesh of the mercenaries. It twisted and incinerated everything at a cellular level in a matter of milliseconds.
The initial detonation birthed a devastating concussive shockwave.
A solid wall of superheated air ripped through the canyon. The shockwave hit the large boulders surrounding the camp and instantly shattered them into fine dust. It tore through the thick tree line, uprooting massive ancient pines and snapping their thick trunks like dry twigs. The shockwave carried the white-hot flames outward, turning the immediate area into a swirling vortex of total annihilation.
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Inside the silver-coated Wood Dome, Kinoe dropped to one knee.
The Root operative slammed both of his hands flat against the wooden floorboards. He channeled every single drop of his available chakra into the defensive structure. The shockwave hit the dome like a physical hammer swung by a giant. The entire structure groaned under the immense pressure.
Hideki covered his head and screamed. The sheer volume of the explosion outside vibrated deep within his chest and rattled his teeth.
Despite his absolute terror, Hideki could not force himself to look away from the thin horizontal slit Kinoe had purposefully left in the wooden wall. He watched the absolute destruction of an entire private army.
Hideki saw the wave of white fire consume the screaming men. He saw their heavy iron armor melt into glowing slag before they were completely vaporized. The intense heat bled through the thin gaps in the dome. It instantly dried out his throat and singed his eyelashes.
Suddenly, a loud cracking sound echoed over the roar of the fire.
Hideki stared in absolute horror as a thin, jagged fissure appeared on the interior wall of the dome. The silver soul energy Naruto had infused into the wood was incredibly strong. The sheer, overwhelming destructive force of the Spiraling Meteor (Rasen Ryūsei) was still threatening to break through.
Kinoe gritted his teeth: Dark blood dripped slowly from his nose. He forced more chakra into the wood, desperately patching the microscopic fractures before they could spread. The silver glow of the dome flared brightly, resisting the white fire attempting to consume them.
Hideki huddled on the floorboards, completely paralyzed by a profound, world-altering fear.
He had requested an escort from the Hidden Leaf Village for this highly dangerous political mission. When Konoha assigned a team of young teenagers, Hideki had felt deeply insulted. He believed the Hokage was mocking him. He believed the leaf village did not care about his survival and had simply sent standard academy graduates to fill a quota.
Hideki realized the absolute absurdity of his own ignorance.
Konoha did not send children. They sent weapons of mass destruction housed in small bodies. He was watching a myth come to life. He was witnessing a level of raw, catastrophic power that belonged in the forbidden scrolls documenting the era of the warring states. The blond boy floating in the sky was an apex predator hiding in human skin: He was a walking natural disaster. Hideki realized with chilling clarity that if the Leaf Village decided to turn its true military might against the Land of Hot Water, absolutely no one in the country could stop them.
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Outside, the roaring flames finally began to subside.
The blinding white light faded away. It was replaced by the dull, angry red glow of scorched earth. A massive crater dominated the center of the clearing. The crater was perfectly smooth, fifty feet wide, and completely lined with glowing, molten glass where the intense heat had literally melted the rocks into liquid.
Of the thirty or so mercenaries who had been caught in the blast radius, absolutely nothing remained. There were no bodies. There were no bones. There were no broken weapons. They had been completely erased from existence. A faint, sickening smell of ozone and burning carbon hung heavily in the air.
Naruto stepped down from the invisible staircase. He descended smoothly through the thick, swirling smoke. He landed softly on the edge of the glowing crater. His brown tunic was completely untouched by the flames. He looked exactly the same as he had before the slaughter began.
Itachi stood near the reinforced Wood Dome. He coughed softly, waving the thick smoke away from his face. He deactivated his Sharingan to conserve his chakra. The young Uchiha looked at the massive, molten crater. He then looked at Naruto. A deep, heavy silence fell between them. Itachi had always been hailed as the ultimate prodigy of his generation. He fully understood now that he was standing in the shadow of something entirely different.
The two cultists fighting Itachi had stopped their assault the exact moment Naruto dropped the blazing sphere.
The young man with the rusted arm-blades and the youngest sister with the solid blood whip stood completely frozen near the tree line. They had survived the blast only because they were standing on the extreme outer edge of the encirclement. Their skin was badly blistered from the radiant heat. Their immortal bodies were already rapidly healing the severe burns.
They did not move to attack Itachi. They did not look at the glowing crater. They kept their wide, terrified eyes fixed entirely on Naruto.
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On the southern edge of the battlefield, the High Priest of Jashin stood completely still.
The heat wave had singed the edges of his heavy dark cloak and burned away his eyebrows. He completely ignored the physical damage. He dropped his three-pronged black spear onto the rocky ground. The weapon clattered loudly in the quiet clearing.
The High Priest began to tremble violently. It was a tremor born of pure, unadulterated religious ecstasy.
He stared at the blond boy standing at the edge of the molten glass. The High Priest dropped to both knees. He pressed his hands together in a tight, desperate prayer. Tears streamed down his pale, soot-covered face. A massive, fanatical smile stretched across his mouth, exposing his teeth to the glowing light of the crater.
"I see it now," the High Priest whispered. His voice was hoarse from the smoke. It carried an undeniable tone of absolute worship. "I was blind to the truth. I thought you were the final sacrifice required to complete the ritual. I was a fool."
The High Priest raised his head. He looked directly at Naruto's cold, emotionless blue eyes.
"You bring the fire of absolute purification," the High Priest shouted. His voice echoed across the silent, ruined canyon. "You bring the death of dozens with a single motion of your hand. You feel absolutely no pity. You feel absolutely no remorse. You are the embodiment of the divine slaughter!"
The surviving cultists slowly turned their heads to look at their leader. The thirteen zealots, including the young man and the youngest sister, listened to the High Priest with rapt attention.
"Lord Jashin has finally descended upon this cursed earth!" the High Priest screamed. He threw his arms wide open toward Naruto. "He walks among us in a vessel of flesh and blood! He has come to witness our devotion personally!"
Naruto did not respond. He simply rested his hand casually on the hilt of his Kanto blade. He watched the fanatic scream at the night sky.
The High Priest lowered his arms. He looked at his fellow cultists. The massive smile vanished from his face. It was replaced by an expression of extreme, solemn duty.
"My brothers and sisters," the High Priest commanded. His voice was no longer frantic. It was smooth, authoritative, and completely terrifying. "Mortal blood from the unbelievers is no longer sufficient. It is a severe insult to offer the blood of weak mercenaries to the living god standing right in front of us."
The cultists nodded in perfect unison. They completely understood the dark logic of their leader.
"To honor the physical manifestation of divine slaughter, we must offer the purest pain available," the High Priest declared. He reached inside his burned cloak and drew a highly polished, wickedly curved silver dagger. "We must offer our own immortal suffering. We must show him our absolute devotion."
Itachi gripped his short sword tightly. He was confused by the sudden shift in the enemy's behavior. He prepared to intercept a coordinated attack.
No attack came.
The thirteen surviving cultists did not charge at Naruto. They did not weave hand seals. They did not attempt to activate their blood curses.
Instead, they all reached into their cloaks and drew their own ceremonial silver daggers.
The young man with the rusted arm-blades looked down at his permanently altered limbs. He let out a wet, guttural laugh. He raised his right arm, positioning the rusted iron blade directly against the side of his own neck.
The youngest sister dropped her solid blood whip. The weapon splashed onto the dirt, turning back into ordinary liquid. She gripped her silver dagger tightly with both hands. She placed the sharp tip directly beneath her chin.
Every single cultist standing in the clearing assumed a similar position. They stared at Naruto with eyes full of absolute, deranged worship.
"For the glory of the living god!" the High Priest roared. He raised his own dagger high into the air.
"For the glory of the living god!" the thirteen cultists chanted in perfect synchronization.
Without a single fraction of hesitation, the thirteen zealots dragged the sharp blades violently across their own throats.
The sound of tearing flesh and gushing blood filled the quiet canyon. Massive fountains of dark crimson sprayed into the night air. The blood rained down onto the scorched earth, sizzling against the hot rocks. The young man with the arm-blades completely severed his own vocal cords with his rusted weapon. The youngest sister drove her silver dagger deep upward into her brain before slicing her throat outward.
Because they possessed the unnatural immortality of the Jashin ritual, they did not die instantly. They collapsed onto the rocky ground, choking, gurgling, and drowning in their own blood.
Their bodies twitched and convulsed violently in extreme agony. They felt the absolute peak of mortal suffering. They embraced every single second of it with fanatical smiles plastered across their dying faces.
They bled out slowly on the dark earth. They sacrificed themselves entirely to the blond boy watching them with cold, indifferent eyes.