Chapter 55
After receiving Xuanming's affirmation,
Naruto became bolder this time.
He was no longer satisfied with generating just a wisp of breeze at his fingertip.
Instead, he tried to draw even more of the now-active natural energy into his body.
"So comfortable…"
The cool sensation flowed through his meridians. The feeling of merging with heaven and earth made him want to sink into it completely.
Even though Xuanming had once warned him about the danger of natural energy,
that soul-nourishing comfort still caused Naruto's rational defenses to loosen unconsciously.
"A little more… just a little more…"
Naruto greedily absorbed the surrounding active natural energy.
In the dazzling, kaleidoscopic sensory world brought by natural energy,
gradually, he forgot time and forgot that he was still human.
He felt himself becoming extremely light, as though he would turn into a wisp of wind, a patch of cloud, and completely merge into this vast heaven and earth.
However, in the outside world,
Hinata Hyūga—who had been quietly watching nearby—suddenly sensed something wrong.
"Naruto-kun?"
Hinata called softly.
Seeing no response from Naruto—he remained seated cross-legged with a strange smile on his lips—
Hinata soon noticed the next abnormal change.
Uzumaki Naruto's entire body began to look strange.
His form took on a semi-transparent, misty, cloud-like haziness.
"What… what's happening?"
Hinata's heart began to panic.
The veins around her eyes surged. Hinata activated her Byakugan to observe Naruto's change.
In an instant, her field of vision expanded.
And in that black-and-white view, she saw a sight that terrified her.
In normal vision, a person's body should have a stable outline with chakra meridians running throughout.
Ninja relied on those meridians to transport and utilize chakra.
But right now, Uzumaki Naruto's body—where clear chakra flow should have existed—
was being madly filled by large amounts of strange, multicolored energy pouring in from outside.
Zooming in closer,
that energy looked like countless tiny snakes frantically burrowing into every cell of Naruto's body.
As though they intended to completely replace the existence called "Uzumaki Naruto."
In Hinata's eyes, Naruto's human outline was fading.
It seemed that in the next second he would scatter completely and become part of the cloudy background in her field of vision.
"Naruto-kun… is going to disappear?"
She wanted to reach out and wake him, but looking at his misty, cloud-like body that seemed like it would disperse at the slightest touch,
her outstretched hand froze in mid-air. She didn't dare make contact.
What exactly was happening?
"Wuu…"
At that moment, Yuta—who had been playing with Akamaru not far away—suddenly seemed to sense something.
Another faint change in the weather.
Because of how deeply that impression had been burned into him, he quickly guessed something was happening.
"Naruto!"
Yuta dropped the branch in his hand and rushed over noisily.
When he reached the tree and saw Naruto's already half-transparent body,
his big, originally anxious eyes instantly filled with huge tears.
"Naruto… don't… don't turn into a cloud!"
"Waaah…"
As Yuta cried, drizzling rain began to fall without warning.
The raindrops hit Naruto's transformed body and passed straight through.
"What's wrong? What happened?"
Because Yuta's emotions directly affected the weather,
it immediately alarmed the others.
The Ino-Shika-Cho trio, along with Kiba, Akamaru, and Sakura, all ran over.
When they saw Naruto's current state, everyone sucked in a cold breath.
"No, this isn't right." Shikamaru looked at Yuta's breakdown and felt a surge of unease.
"Hey… what happened to Naruto's body?"
Kiba rubbed his eyes in disbelief: "Is this some new ninjutsu?"
"It's like… he's about to disappear." Sakura's voice trembled.
Yuta squatted in front of Naruto, crying heartbrokenly: "He'll die… if he turns into that, he'll die!"
"My clansmen… some of them were like this…"
Yuta wiped his tears, voice shaking: "Just like Naruto, their bodies suddenly became like this…"
"And then?" Ino asked nervously.
Yuta pointed at Naruto—who was turning into mist—and cried even harder: "Gone! Completely gone, never coming back!"
In this innocent child's memory,
some of the elders had been exactly like this—their bodies turning to mist, eventually becoming part of the weather in the shinobi world.
Forever merged with nature, but at the cost of completely losing their identity as "people."
This was the crisis his clan members had always faced.
He thought Naruto was about to die the same way.
"Completely disappear?" Shikamaru was shocked. He began calling out: "Hey! Naruto, wake up! Wake up quick!"
The calls from the group of friends echoed through the rain curtain Yuta had summoned.
Watching the panicked children below, Xuanming—who was floating above the treehouse—did not panic like the others.
In truth, everything was under his control.
Since he was teaching Naruto to absorb natural energy, of course he had made full preparations.
He couldn't really let this silly kid play himself to death.
Testing whether Naruto could restrain himself also conveniently let him personally experience the danger of natural energy.
"What a greedy little fool."
Xuanming sighed, his tone carrying a trace of helpless gentleness.
It was understandable to lose control of the amount during his first absorption of active natural energy.
Xuanming lightly clenched one fist. His body passed through the treehouse and floated down from the tree.
He aimed a solid knock at the head of Naruto—who was still smiling obliviously, unaware that his body was nearly dissipating.
Dong——
At the same time, Xuanming's main body inside Naruto countered the assimilation of natural energy for him.
Pure Nine-Tails chakra roared out from the seal at Naruto's abdomen.
It swept through his meridians and surged in all directions!
This domineering chakra washed through Naruto's body.
It scattered, diluted, and absorbed most of the uncontrolled natural energy that had gotten out of balance due to the mismatch between body, mind, and natural energy.
In the outside world,
Naruto's body—which had been on the verge of complete cloudification—suddenly shuddered.
The sensation of imminent dissipation vanished.
The mist instantly reconverged. His originally hazy body became solid once more.
"It hurts, it hurts!!"
Receiving a solid knock on the head, Naruto's eyes flew open. He clutched his head with both hands, tears of pain springing out: "Fox Sage! Why'd you hit my head! It hurts so much!"
Seeing Naruto wake up and his body return to normal,
"Waa—thank goodness yo!"
Yuta saw Naruto was okay and immediately broke into a tearful smile.
He threw himself forward and hugged Naruto around the neck.
As Yuta stopped crying, the rain around them began to dissipate.
The surrounding little friends all let out relieved breaths.
"Naruto, you almost disappeared just now—did you know that!"
Kiba's shout reached Naruto's ears first.
Akamaru at his feet barked twice, as though complaining that Naruto had scared him too.
Soon the others each voiced their worries.
Though the noisy chorus made Naruto a bit dizzy, he quickly understood.
Naruto looked down at his own palm.
Recalling that light, carefree sensation from earlier, a cold sweat broke out on his back.
"So… I was that close to danger just now?"
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