The rain had hardened into icy needles, driven sideways by a wind that moaned through the skeletal branches of Konoha's western forest. Mud sucked greedily at Naruto's worn boots, each step a labor against the deepening mire and the heavier, invisible weight dragging at his core. The Rinnegan's constant drain was a cold, gnawing void within him, amplified by the bone-deep exhaustion of his journey and the confrontation at the tower. Every shadow seemed to pulse with latent threat, every rustle in the undergrowth a potential blade. His enhanced senses, a curse as much as a gift, screamed a warning a fraction of a second before the attack.
Four figures materialized from the dripping gloom like phantoms coalescing. Root ANBU. Their blank porcelain masks, devoid of features, reflected the scant, murky moonlight, turning them into emotionless specters of death. They moved with chilling synchronicity, silent except for the whisper of wet fabric and the faint *shink* of drawn blades. Naruto's Rinnegan parsed them instantly: two perched high in the canopy, kunai glinting; one buried beneath a mat of sodden leaves, chakra suppressed to near invisibility; the leader, radiating cold command, poised behind a moss-slicked boulder ten paces ahead.
"Target confirmed," the leader's voice hissed, electronically distorted, cutting through the drumming rain. "Lethal force authorized. Eliminate the Jinchūriki and secure the Rinnegan."
*Fire Release: Great Dragon Flame Technique!*
The signal was given. From the canopy, one of the Root ninja erupted. Hands flew through seals with blurring speed. A torrent of searing orange fire, roaring like an enraged beast, tore through the rain, illuminating the forest in a hellish, flickering glow. It surged towards Naruto, a wave of incineration meant to erase him and the evidence of their ambush.
Naruto didn't flinch. He didn't dodge. The swirling rings of the Rinnegan blazed with sudden, intense violet light, the outermost ring locking onto the oncoming inferno. He raised his right hand, palm outward, not in defense, but in cold, calculated absorption.
**Preta Path: Chakra Absorption!**
The air before his palm warped violently. The roaring dragon of flame didn't strike him; it *collapsed*. It twisted, shrank, and funneled into his outstretched hand like water vanishing down a cosmic drain. The searing heat, the destructive force – all consumed by the Rinnegan's insatiable hunger. The forest plunged back into near-darkness, leaving only the hiss of steam rising from the scorched ground and the shocked silence of the Root operatives.
"Impossible!" The gasp came from the ninja in the canopy, a crack in their disciplined facade. "That's Nagato's—!"
**Shinra Tensei: Almighty Push!**
Naruto didn't let them finish. His left hand snapped forward. There was no grand gesture, only a focused, brutal expulsion of will. The air *cracked*. An invisible tsunami of pure repulsive force detonated outwards from his palm.
The effect was catastrophic. Ancient trees directly in front of him *splintered* like kindling, trunks exploding into showers of wet wood pulp. The earth itself buckled upwards, tearing great furrows in the mud. The Root ninja who had unleashed the fire was caught mid-leap, his body smashing against the trunk of a massive oak with a sickening crunch of bone, his mask shattering as he fell limply into the churned mud. The agent buried beneath the leaves was hurled upwards like a ragdoll, limbs flailing grotesquely before impacting another tree with devastating force, landing motionless. The leader's boulder shield cracked, massive chunks shearing off, but it held enough to spare him the full brunt. He was slammed backwards, skidding through the mud, but remained conscious, scrambling to his feet.
The leader, quicker than the others, used the momentary chaos. He lunged from behind the shattered remnants of his cover, not with ninjutsu, but with blinding taijutsu speed. A chakra-sealed tantō gleamed wickedly in the gloom, aimed with lethal precision at the base of Naruto's spine – a killing blow.
*Clang!*
The sound was jarringly metallic. Naruto's hand, moving faster than sight, snapped back and caught the blade *bare-handed*. Not on flesh, but on something harder. Thin, black rods – receiver rods – slid like serpentine fangs from the sleeve of his other arm. They pierced the Root leader's wrist with unnatural ease, sinking deep.
The leader screamed, a raw sound of agony and disbelief. His body convulsed violently, not just from the physical wound, but as his chakra was forcibly, agonizingly *drained* through the rods. His muscles locked, tendons standing out like cords on his neck. His eyes, visible through the slits in his remaining mask, bulged with terror as he stared into the cold, swirling voids of the Rinnegan.
Naruto yanked the paralyzed operative closer, ignoring the man's choked gurgles. The rain plastered Naruto's hair to his forehead, streamed down his face, washing away none of the chilling intensity in his gaze.
"Message for Danzō," Naruto whispered, his voice a rasp that carried effortlessly over the storm's roar. It held no rage, only a terrifying, absolute certainty. "His stolen eyes," he leaned in, the Rinnegan seeming to drink the light from the operative's own terrified eyes, "are next on my list."
He released the tantō. His free hand shot out, fingers clamping around the Root leader's throat with crushing force. The man's choked scream died instantly. A sickening, wet *crunch* echoed sharply in the sudden lull of the storm, unnervingly final. The leader's body went limp, held upright for a moment only by Naruto's grip, before collapsing into the churned, blood-streaked mud.
Silence descended, broken only by the relentless drumming of the rain and the hiss of steam from scorched earth. Naruto stood amidst the devastation, breathing raggedly. The burst of power had cost him; the drain intensified, a fresh wave of dizziness threatening to pull him under. He scanned the clearing with the Rinnegan. Two crimson smears marked where his Shinra Tensei had struck. The third operative lay broken against the tree. The leader was a crumpled heap.
His gaze fell on the leader's scattered gear. Among the mud and debris, a scroll case gleamed dully. It wasn't standard issue. Dark leather, reinforced with steel bands, sealed with a complex hexagonal pattern that pulsed faintly with chakra – an encryption seal far beyond typical Root protocols. Naruto bent, ignoring the protesting ache in his muscles, and picked it up. The seal resisted his touch for a moment, sparking weakly, before the Rinnegan's power overrode it with contemptuous ease. He unrolled a section just enough to see the stylized, archaic script within and a partial map fragment. The heading, written in dense, coded characters, resolved in his perception: **Ōtsutsuki Ruin Survey: Sector Gamma**.
A cold, humorless smile touched Naruto's lips, invisible in the downpour. He tucked the scroll securely inside his tattered jacket, next to the fading ember of Kurama's presence. The ghosts whispered of a distant moon palace and a cold, waiting threat. The price of this night's blood had been steep, but the payment… the payment might just buy a sliver of hope forged in hellfire. He turned his back on the carnage and vanished into the rain-lashed trees, leaving only the dead and the deepening storm as witnesses to the Root's bloody price.