The once-quiet expanse of Worth Woodsea was now a battlefield, echoing with the clash of magic and steel. The allied guilds fought fiercely against the swarm of dark wizards, their forces scattering across the dense forest as the enemy executed a calculated strategy.
It was a full-scale war.
Oración Seis' hidden allies—smaller dark guilds that had long lurked in the shadows—now revealed themselves in overwhelming numbers. They attacked in coordinated waves, forcing the alliance onto the defensive. Bit by bit, the guild members were pushed apart, drawn into individual skirmishes that threatened to divide and conquer them.
Naruto found himself at the center of one such ambush. Under normal circumstances, these numbers wouldn't have fazed him. His speed, strength, and sensory abilities could have easily overwhelmed their forces. But the enemy had come prepared.
Boom!
A series of crystalline lacrima bombs exploded around him, releasing thick clouds of pure ether. Naruto's senses flared wildly as the concentrated Ethernano flooded the area. It wasn't an ordinary attack—these weren't just explosions, but precision weapons meant to overload his heightened perception.
His sensory abilities, which usually allowed him to track and react to opponents with pinpoint accuracy, were now drowning in an ocean of magical interference. The sheer density of Ethernano clouded his awareness, disorienting him and scrambling his ability to pinpoint enemy movements.
His body instinctively siphoned the ambient Ethernano, trying to stabilize itself, but the enemy had anticipated this. More ether bombs were hurled his way, their concentrated magic forcing him to expend more energy just to keep himself from being overwhelmed.
Naruto clenched his fists as he gritted his teeth against the onslaught. His natural ability to drain and regulate Ethernano was being turned against him—his body was forced into a cycle of constant absorption, preventing him from focusing on his attackers.
He caught a brief glimpse of Wendy and Carla through the haze, but another explosion erupted between them, cutting them off from his sight.
"Damn it…!" Naruto growled, bracing himself as another wave of pure ether bomb-laced lacrima detonated around him.
The enemy wasn't just fighting him—they were controlling the battlefield, isolating him from his allies, and forcing him into a war of attrition.
And for the first time in this battle, Naruto realized they weren't just aiming to defeat him.
They were trying to trap him.
The battlefield was a storm of chaos, but Naruto had no choice but to fight through the overwhelming interference. Even with his Sage Mode active, his sensory abilities were in complete disarray. The sheer amount of Ethernano saturating the air exceeded anything he had ever absorbed before. Months of passive draining had never brought him close to this level of forced intake, and his body was struggling to keep up.
More ether bombs detonated around him, further clouding not only his Ethernano-based senses but also his sight and hearing. Every breath he took was thick with unstable magic, feeding his body an overabundance of nourishment, and it was beginning to take its toll.
His modified tetragram seal, designed with two crucial points—one that hosts his chakra source and the other Ethernano, a substitute for Kurama's lost presence—was beginning to destabilize. The formula worked as Naruto syphons his surrounding with his pseudo permanent Sage Mode to amass Ethernano, a natural energy into one of the points inside the tetragram seal, however his battle with the smaller dark guild members have drown him with it that it overloaded him with Ethernano, fortunately his body adapted to it with the excess Ethernano converting into chakra, maintaining a delicate balance as the excess converted Ethernano began to be housed in the Chakra point. But the sheer excess of Ethernano being forcefully absorbed was throwing that balance into chaos. His body, adapting instinctively to the influx, started shifting its equilibrium, and his movements grew sluggish, as if every fiber of his being was weighed down by the very energy meant to sustain him.
He clenched his fists, forcing himself to keep moving.
The relentless barrage of ether bombs seemed endless, hammering him down, stripping away his usual precision. It was only after a grueling exchange—his body aching, his seal burning, and his movements hindered—that the enemy's resources finally ran dry.
As the storm of magic settled, Naruto steadied his breathing. His vision cleared slightly, but Wendy and Carla were gone. They had been taken. And he hadn't even realized when.
His grip tightened.
He had let it happen.
A wave of silent fury surged through him, and with one last burst of power, he pushed through his impairment. His movements were rough, unrefined, but unstoppable. One by one, he drained the remaining dark wizards of their strength, their bodies collapsing into unconsciousness as he siphoned them dry, rendering them incapable of resistance.
Then, as the last opponent fell, a voice cut through the fading echoes of battle.
"Naruto."
His entire body froze.
That voice—
It was impossible. It couldn't be.
Slowly, his gaze lifted, and there he stood.
Jiraiya.
His mentor, his father figure, the man who had shaped him. He looked exactly as Naruto remembered—white hair, confident grin, those sharp but kind eyes filled with wisdom and mischief.
Naruto's breath hitched. His chest tightened.
"P-pervy sage…"
This wasn't real. He knew it wasn't real. He had made peace with Jiraiya's death long ago.
First of all, how would they able to extract such vital information away from him?
The blonde's eyes met his late mentor's.
Confusion, Sadness, Nostalgia, Rage, ran in his guts.
And yet—
His eyes burned, his vision blurred. Tears spilled before he could stop them, unbidden and raw. His mouth curved into a trembling smile, caught between sorrow, joy, and rage.
Memories crashed over him like a tidal wave. The first time they met. The countless training sessions. The stupid jokes. The wisdom hidden beneath Jiraiya's carefree bravado. The pain of losing him.
But this wasn't his master.
As much as his heart longed to believe, his mind refused to accept it.
Then he saw it—the dark lacrima in the imposter's hand.
Naruto's eyes widened.
"No—"
Darkness swallowed him whole.
In an instant, his body was encased. He had no time to react, no time to break free.
The last thing he saw before his vision was completely consumed was the false Jiraiya's triumphant smirk.
Gemini, the Zodiac Key, had played its hand.
And Naruto had fallen right into their trap.
The realization came too late.