Chapter 62
"Playing hide-and-seek with everyone, playing games together…"
"You all treated me as a friend… I… I'm really… really happy yo."
"Thank you for letting me become your friend."
"I was always a mistaken existence. I can't let myself affect your futures because of me."
"I have to say goodbye to everyone… I won't forget you yo."
As he spoke, a faint white light already began to emanate from Yuta's body.
The binding of Edo Tensei came from the forced contract signed when the caster performed the technique.
One of the conditions to break it was the liberation of the reincarnated soul's lingering attachment.
At this moment, the soul possessed a powerful will strong enough to break free from the contract's shackles.
Yuta's attachment was loneliness.
And the friendship they gave him had already filled that void.
"Yuta!"
"Don't go! Yuta!"
"Yuta, I prepared so many snacks for you!"
"We finally rescued you."
"We… are good friends…"
In the tear-filled eyes of the children, Yuta's body was gradually cracking apart.
Watching Yuta smile, tears couldn't help flowing from their own eyes.
But Yuta simply extended his hand: "But it would be better if you all forgot about me yo."
"What nonsense are you saying? How could we possibly forget you?" Everyone cried out.
"If you don't forget, it'll be very painful yo!"
Suddenly, a powerful blue light burst from Yuta's hand.
This was his ability—to make anyone illuminated by the light forget all memories related to him.
The conditions for activation were quite strict, but the children who trusted Yuta perfectly met them.
Xuanming could see that the Edo Tensei was automatically releasing, and the technique Yuta unleashed carried no malice.
That intense blue light rippled outward like water.
Shikamaru, Ino, Chōji… all the children's bodies simultaneously went limp and silently collapsed on the riverbank, falling into deep sleep.
Naruto was the only one still standing.
But even his figure began to sway, the world spinning in his senses.
A cold, hollow feeling spread from deep within his mind.
Something very important… was disappearing.
A name, a smiling face, a memory that had just happened—it was rapidly becoming blurred.
Years of cultivated mental acuity screamed warnings inside his brain.
He was forgetting Yuta.
"No…"
Naruto clutched his head with both hands, gritting his teeth desperately, trying to resist the irresistible amnesia.
"Y… Yuta…"
Each time he spoke the name, it faded faster.
No—he couldn't forget!
"Fox Sage!"
In the final moment before his consciousness sank completely, Naruto mustered every last ounce of strength.
"Save… Yuta!"
The instant the words fell, the world before his eyes plunged into darkness.
Naruto also fainted.
At the same time, Yuta's dust-formed Edo Tensei body completely disintegrated amid his smile.
A translucent spiritual body in Yuta's image rose from the living sacrifice and flying ash.
Yuta glanced at his unconscious friends on the ground, a trace of reluctance on his small face.
This was fine.
The painful memories—he would carry them away alone.
The spiritual body began to rise slowly. The pull from the far side of the world was calling him back to the Pure Land.
At that moment, Xuanming's figure appeared in Yuta's vision.
Golden hair, red robe, fox ears, nine tails.
Xuanming followed Yuta's soul, floating parallel in the air.
Xuanming's form appeared far more solid than Yuta's soul, surrounded by faint glowing light, as though he did not belong to this mortal world.
Yuta's eyes suddenly widened.
"F… Fox?!"
He cried out in shock, his small face full of astonishment: "Could you be… the Fox Sage that Naruto always talks about?"
Xuanming looked at him calmly and gave a slight nod.
No unnecessary greetings—he went straight to the point: "Naruto hopes I can save you."
Yuta froze.
"Do you want to stay?" Xuanming asked.
Stay?
Yuta's soul body trembled. Of course he wanted to!
He wanted to keep playing with everyone, eat the best ramen in the village, become their eternal friend.
He lowered his head, voice filled with unshakable sadness: "If… if I stay, I'll bring trouble to everyone."
"Trouble? So you do want to."
The corner of Xuanming's mouth curved slightly: "It's fine. When Naruto asks me for something, that becomes the most important thing right now."
"How about I give you a different way to live?"
There was no time left for Yuta to fully understand the meaning.
Xuanming seized the moment and began the procedure.
If they chatted any longer, Yuta would be sucked back into the Pure Land.
A slender, pale hand ignored the soul's ongoing ascension and rejection by reality.
It grabbed Yuta's spiritual body in one motion.
Buzz!
The world in Yuta's eyes instantly transformed.
Soon he found himself pulled into a strange space.
Thick walls surrounded him on all sides, shallow water pooled underfoot.
Far ahead stood a dim cage made of massive red iron bars, radiating a terrifying, heart-palpitating aura.
Around the Eight Trigrams seal inside Naruto's body, the pull from the Pure Land noticeably weakened.
Giving Xuanming much more time to work!
Sealing techniques could affect souls to a certain degree; sufficiently powerful ones could even seal a soul permanently.
Xuanming released his grip, letting Yuta's soul float outside the cage.
In the outside world,
Xuanming took control of Naruto's unconscious body, guiding him to slowly sit cross-legged.
BOOM!
An invisible suction force suddenly erupted with Naruto's body at the center!
Vastly more majestic natural energy converged from all directions.
The air around Naruto thickened as natural energy rushed frantically into his body.
Inside the seal space, the massive influx of natural energy was all channeled by Xuanming directly into Yuta's soul.
Yuta's spiritual body began turning transparent at a visible speed, transforming into condensed cloud-mist vapor.
According to various pieces of information and deductions in Xuanming's memory,
cloud-mist transformation itself was the 'sage transformation' of Yuta's clan.
But those who turned into shinobi-world weather could not carry soul consciousness in their bodies.
It meant abandoning their ego and merging into nature.
From a human perspective, losing the self equaled death.
Xuanming let out a soft hum, seemingly displeased with this path.
"Without an 'I' as foundation, no matter how much natural power one influences, it only becomes part of the world."
With that, chakra from Xuanming's main body surged out from the seal cage.
This was purified red-gold chakra after blending with Xuanming's spiritual energy.
Stable, calm, vast…
Full of vitality, like the newborn sun.
This purified Nine-Tails chakra quickly poured into Yuta's body in the midst of cloud-mist transformation.
Tailed beast chakra was split from the Ten-Tails.
Created by the Sage of Six Paths using Yin-Yang Release.
Yin Release shapes form, Yang Release grants life!
Xuanming still could not perform the Sage of Six Paths' Yin-Yang Release—that was the pinnacle of chakra nature manipulation.
Since the technique was insufficient, he would make up for it with sheer volume.
Chakra inherently represented equivalent life force.
This time it wasn't to disperse the natural energy around Yuta, but to preserve Yuta's human ego during the cloud-mist process.
This was the alternative method Xuanming had been contemplating these past few days to save Yuta.
The method wouldn't work on just anyone.
Only a soul like Yuta's—naturally favored by the world—had any chance of succeeding.
Everything that needed to be done had been done. He could only hope Yuta's consciousness could maintain its self during the transformation.
The Sage of Six Paths had guarded the Pure Land for so long—one more soul like Yuta shouldn't make much difference, right?
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