The deep, resonant pulse Kaito had sensed as he drifted off wasn't ambience. It was a warning. A tremor, subtle but growing, vibrated through the moss beneath him, jolting him awake. His Namikaze-enhanced perception snapped the world into agonizingly sharp focus before he'd even opened his eyes. Every grain of dirt on the cave floor, every fissure in the rock wall, the slow drip of condensation from the ceiling – all screamed for attention.
'Movement. Heavy. Close.'
His breath hitched, frozen in his throat. Chakra Sense, pushed to its limit (<< Chakra: 48/50 >>), painted the world outside his meager sanctuary in pulses of energy. The warm life signatures of insects and small birds were gone, replaced by a terrifying void. Something massive was moving just beyond the vine curtain, its chakra not absent, but contained, coiled tight like a spring. And it radiated cold, predatory hunger.
A low, grinding scritch-scratch echoed from the other side of the rock. Like giant blades scraping stone. The vines covering the fissure entrance trembled.
'It knows I'm here. How? The Safe Zone… supposed to lower detection…' Panic, cold and sharp, tried to claw its way up his throat. 'Hana. Focus. For Hana.' He forced it down, the image of his sister's hollow cheeks anchoring him. 'Fight or flight? Flight. Void Step… but where? Blind teleport in an unknown forest? Suicide.'
Fight. The decision crystallized with brutal clarity. He had nowhere to run. His hand closed around the heaviest branch he'd gathered – rough, splintered wood, barely two feet long. Pathetic. His gaze darted to the pouch containing the chanterelles. 'Useless.' Then, to Hayate's scroll tucked securely inside his tunic. 'No time. No idea how to use it.'
The vines parted with a dry rustle.
It wasn't a mammal. It wasn't anything from the Naruto lore he remembered. A head, larger than his torso, filled the fissure entrance. Chitinous plates, the deep purple-black of rotting meat, gleamed dully in the faint light filtering through the disturbed vines. Below two clusters of cold, multi-faceted yellow eyes, mandibles the size of butcher knives clicked together, dripping viscous, greenish saliva that sizzled faintly where it hit the moss. Its segmented body, thicker than his thigh, stretched back into the gloom outside, countless spindly legs scrabbling against the rock. Its ID pulsed crimson above its head:
<< Forest Centipede (Ancient) - Level 5 >>
'Level 5! Ancient?!' Terror spiked, icy and paralyzing. The bandits had been Level 1 and 2. This… this was a predator of the deep woods. Its chakra signature wasn't chaotic like the bandits'; it was a cold, focused point of hunger and malice. The Safe Zone's detection dampening hadn't hidden him; it had merely made the beast curious enough to investigate thoroughly.
The centipede lunged, impossibly fast for its size, a blur of chitin and dripping venom. Kaito's world didn't slow down; it exploded with sensory input.
*'Mandibles open – 47-degree angle. Target: center mass. Leg coordination pattern: right-front cluster pushing hardest. Venom trajectory: splatter zone high-left.'*
His Namikaze reaction speed and Battle Adaptability fused. He didn't think; his body flowed. He threw himself sideways, not just dodging, but angling his roll to put the centipede's own bulk between him and the venom spray. The massive jaws snapped shut on empty air where he'd been a fraction of a second before, the sound like rocks cracking. Hot, acrid venom splattered against the cave wall behind him, eating into the stone with a sickening hiss.
'Too close! Too damn close!' He scrambled to his feet, heart hammering against his ribs like a trapped bird. The branch felt laughably inadequate in his sweaty grip. The centipede, enraged by its miss, writhed further into the fissure, its segmented body scraping loudly, filling the small space. Its cold eyes locked onto him.
<< Basic Substitution: Failed! >> 'No valid natural material within range!' The notification flashed uselessly. He was cornered.
It lunged again, a piston-strike of its front segment. Kaito ducked under the whistling mandibles, the Namikaze perception showing him the exact micro-movements of its attack. He saw an opening – a split second where the armored plates near its head gaped slightly at a joint. He swung the branch with all his strength and desperation, channeling the raw, terrified energy coursing through him.
CRACK!
The branch shattered against the incredibly hard chitin. Pain jarred up his arms. The centipede barely flinched, but the impact did make it recoil a fraction, its head pulling back. 'Not enough! Need to hurt it!'
Its spindly leg, like a spear tipped with obsidian, lashed out from the side. Kaito saw it coming – the leg tensing, the joint flexing – but his body, exhausted and battered, couldn't quite match his perception's speed this time. He twisted, avoiding a direct impalement, but the sharp tip scored a deep, burning gash across his ribs.
<< HP: 64/100 >>
<< Status Effect: Chitin Venom (Mild) - HP -1/sec. Reduced Stamina Regeneration. >>
Pain, white-hot and nauseating, exploded through his side. He cried out, staggering back against the cold cave wall. The venom burned like acid, sapping his strength. The centipede scented blood and weakness. It let out a high-pitched chittering sound, mandibles clicking eagerly. It reared back for the kill strike.
'No! Not here! Not like this!' Despair warred with fury. Hana's face flashed before him, not hungry, but broken if he failed. 'The scroll! Hayate's scroll!' It was a desperate, insane thought. He yanked it from his tunic, the intricate seal burning under his Namikaze-enhanced Fuinjutsu comprehension. He saw the layers, the containment fields… and in his panic, he saw something else – a potential weakness in the spatial anchoring of the central kanji. A point of instability.
He had no chakra to spare for a proper technique. No knowledge. Only instinct amplified by bloodline and desperation. As the centipede's head shot forward, mandibles gaping wide, Kaito didn't dodge. He threw himself towards it, under the descending jaws, and slammed the sealed scroll directly against the joint he'd struck earlier, aiming precisely for the point of spatial instability his affinity revealed.
<< Chakra: 45/50 >> 'Do something! Anything!'
He poured not chakra, but raw, focused will through the scroll, into that perceived instability. 'Disrupt! Tear! Unravel!'
FZZZT! CRACK!
A sound like shattering glass mixed with tearing fabric erupted. The scroll in his hand flared with unstable blue-white light. A localized spatial distortion, a miniature vortex no larger than his fist, ripped into existence right where the scroll met the centipede's armored joint.
The effect was catastrophic – for the centipede. The incredibly tough chitin didn't just crack; it shattered like cheap pottery around the distortion. Greenish hemolymph, the creature's equivalent of blood, sprayed out in a viscous jet. The centipede shrieked, an ear-piercing sound of agony and shock that echoed painfully in the confined space. Its entire front segment convulsed violently, thrashing away from the sudden, inexplicable wound, smashing its head against the cave ceiling. Rock dust showered down.
Kaito stumbled back, stunned, the now-useless, charred remnants of the scroll falling from his numb fingers. 'What… what did I just do?' It wasn't a jutsu. It was… a forced malfunction? A fuinjutsu backlash weaponized by his bloodline insight? The spatial distortion had already collapsed, leaving only a gaping, jagged hole in the centipede's armor, pumping vital fluids.
The beast was grievously wounded, but far from dead. Its pain fueled its rage. Yellow eyes blazing with mindless fury, it ignored the gushing wound and lunged again, this time with terrifying, wounded speed, aiming to crush him against the wall with its bulk.
Kaito's perception screamed the trajectory. 'Impact in 0.8 seconds. Crushing force fatal.' He had no weapon. No scroll. Low HP. Venom burning. But he had one desperate gamble left. Void Step.
He didn't try to go far. He focused every ounce of his remaining will, his chakra, his Namikaze heritage, on the space behind the charging centipede's head segment. 'Five meters. Just five meters! BEHIND IT!'
<< Chakra: 35/50 >>
<< Void Step: Activated! >>
Space folded. The world lurched sickeningly. One moment he was facing death by crushing chitin, the next he was stumbling, disoriented, behind the massive creature, the stench of its ichor and venom thick in his nostrils. The centipede slammed headfirst into the cave wall where he'd been standing, rock cracking under the impact.
'Now! While it's stunned!' Pure, adrenaline-fueled instinct took over. He saw it – the vulnerable, fleshy underside at the base of its head, exposed as it reeled from its own crash. He snatched up a large, jagged shard of rock that had fallen from the ceiling. No finesse. No technique. Just raw, desperate strength fueled by terror and the need to survive. He drove the rock shard down with all his weight and momentum, aiming for the soft tissue beneath the shattered armor plating.
THUNK-SQUELCH!
The shard sank deep. The centipede's thrashing became a violent, uncontrollable spasm. Its shriek cut off into a wet gurgle. Its massive body heaved once, twice, then collapsed, twitching, onto the cave floor. The multi-faceted yellow eyes dimmed. The crimson ID flickered and vanished.
<< DEFEATED: Forest Centipede (Ancient) - Level 5! >>
<< EXP Gained! >>
<< LEVEL UP! Shade is now Level 2! >>
<< LEVEL UP! Shade is now Level 3! >>
<< Stat Points Available: 10 >>
<< New Skill Unlocked: Chakra Thread (Rank F) >>
<< Title Gained: Centipede's Bane >>
Kaito collapsed beside the twitching corpse, gasping for air like a landed fish. Pain from the gash on his ribs flared, the venom's burn a constant, sickening throb (<< HP: 58/100 >> | << Chitin Venom (Mild) >>). His hands were slick with green ichor and his own blood. The charred scraps of Hayate's scroll lay nearby. He stared at the massive, dead predator, then at his trembling, bloodied hands.
'I… I killed it. Level 5. With a rock. And… whatever the hell I did with the scroll.' A hysterical laugh bubbled in his chest, choked off by a wave of nausea from the venom and the coppery taste of fear. 'Hana… I'm still alive.'
He forced himself to move. 'Venom. Need to stop the bleeding.' He fumbled for the Makeshift Bandage in his inventory. It materialized in his hand – a simple roll of clean cloth. He clumsily tied it around his torso, gritting his teeth against the pain as the cloth pressed against the burning wound. << HP: 58/100 (Stable) >> 'Slowed the bleeding, not the venom.'
He pulled up his status, distributing the hard-earned points with shaking fingers, guided by desperation:
+3 VIT (To survive the venom and future hits) - 'Need endurance.'+2 STR (The branch breaking proved he needed raw power) - 'Hit harder.'+2 AGI (To better utilize his perception) - 'Dodge better.'+3 CC (The fuinjutsu incident screamed for better control) - 'Understand… that.'
<< New Stats: >>
<< STR: 10 | AGI: 11 | VIT: 10 | INT: 12 | CC: 8 | PER: 16 >>
The minor boost in Vitality seemed to slightly dull the venom's edge, or maybe it was just psychological. He examined the new skill:
<< Chakra Thread (Rank F) >>
*Manipulate a thin strand of raw chakra. Basic binding, sensing, or manipulation at close range (1m). Cost: 1 Chakra/sec. >>**
'Useful. Maybe for traps? Tripping? Need practice.'
Finally, the title:
<< Centipede's Bane >>
Slight intimidation effect against arthropod-type creatures. Minor reputation gain (or loss) with Forest denizens.
'Creepy crawlies might think twice. Good.'
He leaned back against the cold stone, utterly spent, listening to the forest sounds slowly return now the predator was gone. The Hidden Hollow no longer felt safe. The Safe Zone timer was still running, but the centipede had found him. 'How? Ancient… did it bypass the Safe Zone effect? Or is the Forest itself… aware?'
As he caught his breath, a new notification pulsed, different from the others – deep purple text scrolling slowly:
<< System Advisory: >>
<< Unorthodox Chakra Manipulation Detected (Spatial/Fuinjutsu Hybrid). >>
<< Warning: Crude spatial disruptions carry significant risk of backlash (Spatial Shear, Localized Collapse). Proceed with extreme caution. Mastery requires foundational understanding. Seek guidance. >>
<< Suggested Path: Mount Myoboku. Sage training stabilizes volatile energies and refines chakra perception to near-absolute levels. >>
<< Source: Jiraiya (Toad Sage) - Archived Advisory #7. >>
Kaito stared at the message. 'Jiraiya… So he is there. Or his knowledge is.' The warning was stark. 'Spatial Shear? Collapse? I nearly blew myself up with a scroll.' The message confirmed the danger but also the potential. Sage Mode wasn't just power; it was control. The control he desperately needed to harness his bloodlines and survive whatever the Forest – or the game itself – threw at him next.
He looked at the fissure entrance, now stained with green ichor. Dawn was still hours away. The centipede's carcass was a beacon for scavengers. He couldn't stay. Gripping his side, he pushed himself up. The journey to Mount Myoboku wasn't just about gaining power anymore. It was about learning to wield the terrifying, reality-bending potential he already carried before it destroyed him. He gathered his meager possessions, his eyes scanning the dark forest beyond the vines, now seeing not just trees, but a gauntlet of teeth and chitin waiting for the wounded heir of Senju and Namikaze. Step by agonizing step, Shade limped out of the hollow and back into the hungry embrace of the Forest of Death. The path ahead was soaked in blood, but he was still moving forward. For Hana.