Chapter 439: What's a Hidden Village?
"No recollection of her whatsoever. She doesn't even look like a Konoha shinobi — and her whole fighting style doesn't read like a shinobi's at all. Pure hand-to-hand combat? That's... but then why isn't there even the faintest trace of chakra?"
Hiruzen, Konoha's former Third Hokage, frowned as he watched the fight unfold nearby, his weathered face etched with equal parts confusion and wariness.
The confusion came from having no idea who this intruder was, why he'd invaded Konoha, what his actual goal might be, or what gave him the nerve to act this brazenly.
Beyond that, he also had no idea who Umaru was. As far as Hiruzen could recall, Konoha had no such person among its ranks.
The wariness, meanwhile, stemmed from how genuinely powerful this intruder appeared — especially given his body's ability to transform into flame, almost like some kind of bloodline limit.
And those eyes — weren't those... weren't those a Sharingan?
Could this man be a member of the Uchiha clan?
That didn't add up, though. If he really were Uchiha, why would he be reckless enough to invade Konoha this openly?
Sure, the Uchiha were known for their volatile temperaments, prone to extremes — but that hardly meant they lacked any sense whatsoever.
And the Uchiha clan had been under Konoha's constant watch regardless. Hiruzen's brow furrowed deeper as he sank into thought, his inner reasoning known to no one else.
Well — no one except Ryū, who could read minds through Observation Haki. Though he wasn't about to go snooping into Hiruzen's head for no reason, especially not someone as thoroughly outmatched as the former Hokage.
In the Naruto world, Hiruzen technically occupied a position near the very top of the power hierarchy. But measured against the Dimensional Chat Group's own ranking system... he'd probably just barely scrape into Tier 5, if that.
Boom. Boom.
Deafening explosions kept ringing out one after another. Credit where due, this Reincarnation Space Obito could actually take a hit.
Not that it mattered — no amount of durability was enough to beat a Dimensional Chat Group member. In under five minutes, he'd already been reduced to a critically wounded, half-dead wreck, his life force fading fast, his body a mess of injuries.
Damage on that scale would've killed an ordinary person in under a second.
And, in the end, this Reincarnation Space Obito did, in fact, die.
He'd never stood a chance against Umaru alone, let alone with Eriri standing by as backup.
And beyond even those two, Ōtsutsuki Kaguya and Ryū — both considerably stronger still — had been watching the whole time.
That he'd managed to survive five whole minutes said plenty about how many survival trump cards he'd packed into this fight.
Not that it mattered in the end. The moment the Dimensional Chat Group's quest-completion notification popped up, it meant exactly one thing — he was already a corpse.
"Well, that was a complete background role for me this time around. Umaru-chan's strength really is terrifying, honestly — shame she's so lazy about it. If she actually put in the effort, she'd still be Tier 4, maybe even pushing toward Tier 3," Eriri remarked, watching from the sidelines.
From start to finish, all she'd really done was pull the main-world's Obito free from the Reincarnation Space Obito's grip.
After that, she hadn't had much of a chance to actually fight — Umaru had handled the whole thing single-handed.
Still, beyond playing background role for most of it, she'd at least picked up a bit of real group-quest experience out of the whole affair.
Glancing over at the still-unconscious Obito, Eriri's expression turned faintly strange. One was a character from a derivative work, the other the character from the original source — and both were, somehow, the exact same person.
A genuinely unusual situation, honestly. She wondered whether the Dimensional Chat Group might someday produce some parallel-world version of herself, too.
The thought, as bizarre as it was, had her shaking her head quickly, brushing the whole idea aside.
Nah, better not jinx herself with that kind of thinking — a mere Tier 5 member like her couldn't handle whatever "flag" that might set off.
On the ground, Umaru gave the "humanoid object" in front of her a light kick — a mess of mangled flesh that barely still resembled a person at all.
Seeing no reaction whatsoever, she let out a disappointed sigh, wiped a bit of blood off her small, pale fist, and felt a small swell of pride creep in.
Huh, I really am pretty strong, aren't I. After spending so long in the Dimensional Chat Group, Umaru had generally come to think of herself as one of its weaker members.
And, honestly, that assessment wasn't wrong. Sure, she sat at the very top of Tier 5 — but Tier 5 all the same.
Four whole tiers sat above her. Looked at that way, she'd always been firmly in the group's lower bracket.
Not the absolute bottom, mind you — that honor belonged to Tier 6: brand-new members like Chika or Tanjirō, still essentially ordinary people.
Just then, her fine brows drew together, and she turned toward a young man standing nearby.
It was Minato, dressed in his Hokage's ceremonial robes. Umaru had no idea who he was — her own world, Himouto! Umaru-chan, had One Piece as a known series, but no Naruto.
Facing the unknown, powerful girl's direct gaze, Minato cleared his throat lightly, glanced down at the "humanoid object" on the ground, and felt an unmistakable chill crawl up his spine.
"May I ask... which hidden village you hail from?" Minato kept his tone as amiable as he could manage. Showing hostility toward a powerful, unknown figure like this would've been a genuinely poor move.
"Hidden village?" Umaru tilted her head, looking every bit the picture of pure, innocent cuteness — a far cry from the "humanoid combat monster" who'd just beaten an intruder half to death.
Then she asked a question that, to Minato, sounded genuinely absurd: "What's a hidden village?!"
Minato froze, mouth opening slightly, ready to explain the concept — only to catch himself mid-thought. Did this world actually have someone who didn't know what a hidden village was?
If she'd been some small child, sure, that might've made sense. But the girl in front of him looked to be sixteen or seventeen at least.
In Konoha, kids that age were already fighting on the battlefield!
And given how overwhelmingly powerful she clearly was — someone at that level, not knowing what a hidden village even was?!
...