Chapter 52: Orochimaru's Arrival, Nawaki's Sacrifice, Tyrant's Awakening, and Naraku's Gains
In the distance, Orochimaru stood atop Manda's head, gazing at the distant phantom. He knew Nawaki was in grave danger and anxiously urged Manda forward.
Unfortunately, Manda's tail seemed stuck in place. It turned to Orochimaru and said: "I feel a great danger ahead. How about we don't go? I just remembered—I still have a snake at home I haven't eaten yet. I'll head back first!"
"Puff!"
With that, Manda turned into smoke and disappeared. Orochimaru wasn't too angry about Manda leaving. He simply leaped onto a tall tree, looking into the distance, muttering to himself: "Nawaki… I hope you're okay. Naraku, what exactly is this terrifying armor? Why does it undergo such a change?"
Afterward, Orochimaru left a clone to stop the teammates behind him, then rushed alone toward the center of the battlefield at full speed.
Meanwhile, Kakuzu, standing in place, felt unprecedented pressure. His legs trembled slightly without control—as if a creature at the bottom of the food chain instinctively felt fear when facing a top predator.
In just a moment, the original Nawaki had completely transformed into an enormous mass of flesh. The previous armor had turned into pieces of hard scales covering his body.
Finally, an extremely terrifying creature resembling a green Western dragon appeared before everyone's eyes—only this dragon had a relatively short neck.
The dragon's body was massive, covered in pale green scales that glittered with cold light. Its eyes burned like flames, radiating endless killing intent.
This was Incursio's new form—Wood Dragon Form!
The giant dragon flapped its wings and slowly rose into the air.
Kakuzu saw the situation was bad and immediately turned to flee.
The giant dragon glanced at the situation below. The entire logistics unit had been almost completely slaughtered.
"ROAR!"
With the dragon's first roar, trees surged up, wrapping all the Konoha ninjas inside.
Seeing the enemies wrapped in wood and completely unable to break free, even the dumbest Iwa ninja now knew this monster was beyond their ability to handle.
"Run!"
"Where's the commander?"
"Forget it—run!"
The Iwa ninjas fled in terror, but their efforts were doomed to be futile. With the giant dragon's second furious roar, the earth shook violently. Countless thick tree trunks burst from the ground like a forest rising from nowhere. Some pierced straight through Iwa ninja bodies like sharp spears; others formed huge cages that tightly trapped their enemies. Either way, they swiftly took the Iwa ninjas' lives.
In just ten seconds, the once-noisy battlefield fell deathly silent. All Iwa ninjas had perished. But this wasn't the end.
The giant dragon in the sky seemed to have exhausted its last bit of strength. Its massive body could no longer sustain flight and fell powerlessly toward the ground.
"Boom!" With a deafening crash, the giant dragon slammed into the ground, kicking up dust and broken wood.
Suddenly, Hashirama's power appeared on the dragon's surface. It turned out the previous Hashirama power, while being devoured, had also influenced the evolution.
Now, facing the completely defenseless Nawaki and Tyrant, Wood Release coiled around the giant dragon's surface.
Then it began shrinking continuously, eventually turning into a small human—none other than Nawaki.
Tyrant, unwilling to give up, was once again suppressed by Wood Release and reverted into a transformation longsword. At the spot where the First Hokage necklace gem used to be on the sword, a new energy crystal now lay quietly.
As the wood that had wrapped the Konoha ninjas suddenly cracked open, everyone emerged from the wood. They stared blankly at the countless giant trees around them, and at the enemy corpses impaled on them, completely shocked.
Orochimaru had rushed to the spot where the giant dragon had fallen. When he saw Nawaki lying on the ground, his heart tightened. But when he felt Nawaki's chest still warm and heard the slow yet strong heartbeat, he let out a sigh of relief.
Only then did he turn his gaze to Incursio on the other side, murmuring: "What kind of weapon are you exactly!"
Miya and Hisa, who had emerged from the wood, were stunned to find their injuries had somehow healed.
Miya, seeing Nawaki lying on the ground, ran over with tears in her eyes.
Orochimaru looked at the girl clinging to Nawaki and raised an eyebrow.
Hisa scratched his head and gave Orochimaru a silly grin.
At the edge of the forest, a mass of black threads with a nearly broken mask appeared under the moonlight, slowly and determinedly crawling away into the distance.
...
Meanwhile, Naraku was still sound asleep.
The next day, Naraku noticed several system notifications.
Ding...
[Nawaki has reached Advanced utilization of "Incursio." Talent Replication activated: Senju clan physique – Intermediate] [Nawaki has reached Top utilization of "Incursio." Talent Replication activated: Wood Release power – Intermediate]
Ding...
[Senju Nawaki has caused A-grade "Incursio" to evolve into S-grade (Pseudo) "Incursio: Wood Dragon"]
As the Intermediate Senju clan physique and Intermediate Wood Release power were extracted, they poured continuously into Naraku's body. Naraku clearly felt a powerful force spreading through him.
His muscles tensed, bones making faint cracking sounds, as if his entire body was undergoing a transformation.
At the same time, Naraku's eyes underwent a strange change. His originally black pupils turned red as the Sharingan activated. The tomoe in his eyes began spinning at astonishing speed.
Naraku waited nervously.
He knew—this was the sign that his Sharingan was about to evolve into the Mangekyō Sharingan.
However, just then, the spinning speed suddenly slowed, as if it lacked power.
Naraku wasn't too disappointed. After all, he had awakened his Sharingan without really suffering much hardship.
Think of Obito—half his body was White Zetsu, a genius who awakened double tomoe right from the start, yet still needed the collapse of killing his beloved to awaken the Sharingan.
He knew he was only one step away from the Mangekyō. As long as he continued growing stronger step by step, he would soon evolve it.
Naraku looked at the wooden sprout on his finger and murmured: "Nawaki, you really brought me quite a few surprises! As expected—Incursio really suits you best! It seems Incursio fused with Wood Release! And even awakened a dragon form! Nawaki! You really do have a bit of protagonist halo!"
"Hahahaha! Hahahaha! Hahahaha!"
In this moment, Naraku couldn't help but let out the bright, sunny laugh of a young boy.
What Naraku didn't know was that before fainting, Nawaki had unleashed one final devastating blow, wiping out all the Iwa ninjas. Right now, Naraku's Dead God Hall was densely packed with Iwa ninja brothers.
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