The Summoning Jutsu was a fascinating art—its range stretched from C-rank tools to S-rank taboos.
At the pinnacle stood the Reanimation Jutsu—Edo Tensei, an S-rank kinjutsu that defied death.
At the bottom, C-rank variants: summoning weapons from scrolls or storing gear in seals inscribed on bracers or belts. For instance, Sasuke Uchiha, during his battle against Danzo, summoned shuriken directly from a seal on his wrist.
Tsukasa Kaede's current Summoning Jutsu? Squarely C-rank. He lacked both the chakra reserves and the animal contracts required for more advanced versions.
But what he summoned now... was different.
THUMP. THUMP. THUMP.
The coffin burst upward from the earth like a hammerhead rising from the sea, its lacquered black wood slamming shut against the barrage of senbon needles.
"A coffin?" Jifu, the Mist chūnin, narrowed his eyes in confusion. He had never seen a summon like that before. It didn't matter, he thought—whatever trick it was, a mere genin from Konoha couldn't possibly pose a threat to him.
CREAK…
The silence shattered.
The nailed coffin groaned under the pressure of movement from within, the senbon strikes having awakened what slumbered inside.
Rotten pinewood split open with a heavy crash as the lid smashed to the dirt, revealing what lay sealed inside.
A body. But not merely a corpse.
It was a horrific masterpiece of rot—its neck twisted unnaturally, the jaw hanging crooked like it had been cracked and set wrong. Its eye sockets had decayed, but two ghastly, pale eyeballs stared out from within. Dried black blood streaked its entire frame, and a fist-sized hole yawned in the chest, exposing fragmented viscera—organs long ruined, half-missing, shriveled with time.
"From the uniform... it looks like an Iwagakure shinobi," Jifu muttered, shock bleeding into revulsion. "Wait, is that... a corpse?"
No—it moved.
The dead thing's eye twitched.
Then it stepped forward.
One leg lifted out of the coffin.
Then the other.
It walked.
"You sick freak! That thing's dead! What kind of jutsu is this?!" Jifu howled. His instincts screamed that he was either hallucinating—or staring into the maw of a forbidden art.
"This jutsu…" Kaede said calmly, one hand locked in a seal, "is designed to kill people like you. And honestly, it's the first time I've tested it on a healthy target."
He guided the zombie forward with carefully channeled chakra, manipulating it like a grotesque puppet.
This was his first time using Corpse Release in real combat. He'd tested it in secret before—but never like this.
Being on corpse transport duty had its perks. Konoha threw piles of cadavers at him. Most were low-value, unnoted. Perfect test subjects.
And with stealth, care, and a knack for working outside Hyūga patrol routes, he'd been able to experiment freely—only activating the jutsu deep in forests, far from prying dōjutsu.
This particular corpse? A former genin. Weak. Unremarkable. Killed in some forgotten skirmish. Kaede had quietly embedded a zombie virus chakra tag inside the body while pretending to process it for delivery.
He'd done this more than once.
Now he had a few viable zombies—barely—but enough.
Jifu didn't like the look of the creature. Too risky. Better to eliminate it from range.
"Water Style: Water Jet Vortex!"
A raging spiral of water slammed the zombie's chest, ripping away rotted flesh and knocking it to the ground.
"That's your trump card?" Jifu laughed, forming hand signs as he charged Kaede. "You think that'll save you?"
Kaede retreated. He couldn't outpace a trained chūnin. Not without tricks.
"Corpse Release: Decay Detonation. Drink deep."
The fallen zombie's body hissed—then erupted in a massive explosion.
BOOM!
Dust and splinters whirled through the trees. Kaede shielded his face with an arm and dove backward, rolling to shield the wounded behind him.
That zombie had been rigged—its bones inscribed with explosive seals, detonated via chakra threads woven into the limbs.
The trick had taken him weeks to develop.
The smoke cleared.
Jifu still breathed.
He'd used Water Style to deflect the worst of it—but his body was wrecked. Flesh torn, blood soaking his gear, half his face seared beyond recognition.
Chucks of rotted meat—zombie remnants—stuck to his burned skin like wet paper.
"You're... damn... bastard…" Jifu wheezed, eyes wide with disbelief. "You think this... this freak show wins you anything?"
Kaede stared at him coldly, stepping in front of his unconscious comrades.
"For a chūnin who survived the Second Shinobi War, I'll remember your name. You've earned that much. Be honored."
Jifu's lips quivered with rage and horror.
That he—he, a seasoned shinobi—was defeated by this. By him.
"You want to keep going?" Kaede said, narrowing his eyes. "I can always summon another."
His zombie arsenal only had three more fully rigged units, each stashed in different points of the Fire Country forest—prepared for emergency deployment.
A costly investment.
Missions were rare. Pay for medics? Pathetic. Even during wartime, where explosive tags were subsidized, extra purchases nearly bankrupted him.
Fifteen tags per zombie.
Kaede was practically broke.
Still… he dreamed of upgrading Decay Detonation. Maybe one day it could mimic Chain Explosive Tags, enabling an infinite bombardment loop.
He pictured a battlefield swarming with zombies, each darting across terrain and triggering recursive explosions, erasing everything in their path.
He even had a name for the technique—Infinite Decay Detonation.
Or maybe something more ironic: Blessings Unlimited.
But for now, it was just a dream. Chakra. Time. Research. He lacked it all.
"…He fled. Good."
Kaede relaxed his hand, releasing the seal on his palm.
He watched the shadow of the retreating enemy vanish.
On the surface, he had only barely repelled the enemy.
But in truth?
He'd won.
A chūnin. Gravely wounded. A perfect candidate for future use. If Kaede could collect the corpse after death, it would be worth the chakra it cost.
"I still can't cast Corpse Release freely… Not enough chakra. Not even close. Just maintaining one technique is taxing. Advancing the art is nearly impossible like this."
He glanced at his comrades. Still alive. Still breathing.
"…And I didn't have to use them. That's good. They're not zombies yet."
His fingers flicked into a release seal.
"Kai."
The zombification procedure embedded in the wounded was dissolved.
For now.
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300 Stones in this story = 1 Bonus chapter in every fanfic currently translated