Naruto: Just Want To Be A Death God

Naruto exited the world of consciousness.

Karin asked nervously, "How's the Nine-Tails doing?"

After the dark Nine-Tails had completely transferred into Naruto's body, the little Nine-Tails that had been moving around outside disappeared instantly. This made her a bit worried.

"They're fighting," Naruto replied casually.

Karin's brain stalled for a second. "Huh?" she exclaimed, caught off guard.

F-Fighting?

Was the conflict that serious?

But why was Naruto reacting so calmly?

"The Nine-Tails' powers didn't fuse?" She finally processed the situation and cautiously asked, "Are they now fighting for dominance?"

"Shouldn't you do something, Naruto?"

Naruto smiled. "That's just their way of communicating. Don't worry, it's not a bad thing."

"There's no negative impact. Let them mess around."

Karin nodded, relieved.

The way he spoke made the word "fighting" sound almost like playful roughhousing.

Naruto stood up, closed his eyes, and formed a hand seal, fully activating Sage Mind's Eye, searching the mountain for the "lab" that the Second Hokage had mentioned.

It was hidden in a natural cave near the mountaintop, cleverly concealed.

Even after all these years, the barrier left behind by the Second Hokage was still active.

However, the sealing techniques that formed the barrier were based on Uzumaki clan knowledge.

For the two of them, breaking it wasn't difficult—just tedious due to the number and complexity of seals.

"The Second Hokage's sealing arts are incredible. All these years, and it still wasn't found," Karin commented as she looked back. From here, she could faintly see the Hidden Leaf Village. "If the Second Hokage hadn't mentioned it, who would've guessed that Uchiha Madara's corpse was hidden here?"

She pulled out a scroll and held it tightly, her eyes full of anticipation.

Uchiha Madara.

A ninja powerful enough to go toe-to-toe with the "God of Shinobi" Hashirama Senju.

Surely, something useful to Naruto could be extracted from his corpse.

When the final seal was undone—

Naruto pushed open the door and stepped inside.

The space wasn't large, the furnishings simple: just a lab table, some dirty equipment, and a perfectly intact cultivation chamber standing upright.

But… both of them froze when they looked at the cultivation tank.

"Where's Uchiha Madara?" Karin asked.

Through the glass, the tank appeared completely empty, containing only half a tank of nutrient solution.

The person who was supposed to be inside—was gone.

Naruto shook his head.

Karin walked over and tapped on the glass.

Clink-clink.

The nutrient solution rippled slightly from the vibration.

The tank was completely intact.

She looked around the room, but apart from this tank, there didn't seem to be anywhere else a body could be stored.

"Did it rot away?" she mumbled in disbelief.

Naruto frowned, deep in thought.

Decades were enough time for a body to decay.

But even if the tank had failed and the body had rotted, there should at least be bones left—how could it completely vanish?

Could someone have discovered where the corpse was hidden and, upon learning of the Second Hokage's death, sneaked in and taken it?

If so...

Why go to the trouble of making it seem like the barrier was untouched? That's unnecessary.

The Second Hokage was dead. No one else knew of this place.

Breaking in forcibly would've been easier.

So, the possibility of "an outsider taking Madara's body" was slim.

The "decay" theory was also almost impossible.

Which left only one possibility...

"Uchiha Madara never died," Karin slowly said, arriving at the same conclusion as Naruto. It was something they had suspected from the start.

"But if Madara didn't die, how did he get out of here?" she stared at the empty tank, placing her hand on it.

"Genjutsu," Naruto said softly, offering an answer. "The Sharingan is well-suited for illusions."

"And Madara would definitely know how to use it."

"Maybe Hashirama was fooled from the beginning. The one he 'killed' wasn't really Madara—or maybe he only thought he killed him," Naruto analyzed. "And what the Second Hokage got wasn't Madara's real body either."

"Just a shadow clone."

"And when Madara learned of the Second Hokage's death, he dissolved the clone."

"Or maybe... there was never anything here at all."

"The Second Hokage might've only thought he acquired something and sealed an illusion inside the tank."

"Genjutsu can do all that?" Karin was stunned.

Is... is that still even ninjutsu?

Naruto nodded. "Deceiving the five senses, distorting perception."

"That's the pinnacle of Genjutsu."

He thought of Aizen.

That man possessed the ultimate "deception ability."

If it were him, achieving this level of illusion would be effortless.

Karin nodded without doubt. Since Naruto said so, such an unbelievable Genjutsu must indeed be possible.

"If Madara is still alive," she tilted her head in amazement, "he must be what—over ninety, maybe even over a hundred years old?"

"Such longevity."

Naruto didn't react. It wasn't surprising to him.

Ordinary people could live to seventy or eighty. With the right techniques, ninja could live much longer.

One of the Sannin, Tsunade, was said to possess eternal youth.

And being a little over a hundred...

All the Shinigami he'd met were older than that.

"But if he's lived this long and deceived both the First and Second Hokage—what's his goal?" Karin grew more puzzled.

Naruto shook his head.

He hadn't met the man yet—how could he know his thoughts?

But considering the Akatsuki's goal was to collect Tailed Beasts...

Maybe it had to do with unifying the ninja world?

"We'll ask him directly once we catch him," Naruto said softly. "He killed my parents. He won't escape."

"But for now…"

"Let's clean this place up. Since it already has facilities, we'll stay here for a while."

"I've got something I want to study."

With a flip of his hand, he summoned a scroll.

The one used to seal the "Shinigami."

They cleaned off the lab table.

Karin went outside to gather firewood and prepare dinner.

Naruto opened the scroll and released the seal.

The so-called "Shinigami"—a demon—drifted out of the scroll, still as dull and expressionless as before.

"Can you understand me?" Naruto asked it.

There was no response.

It stretched its arms out wide, staying in the same motion, dazed.

Naruto drew his blade and cut off one of its arms.

No reaction from the demon. It didn't seem to feel pain.

Naruto observed it.

This was completely different from the conscious, godlike being he had imagined. Dull and stupid—like a stone with a different form and existence, utterly devoid of self-awareness.

What was this thing?

He spent an entire week focused on the matter.

When the final conclusion was drawn, and his research on the demon complete, Naruto dismissed it.

"Did you figure out what it really is?" Karin asked, finishing the last line of her record notes.

Although she was the one documenting the experiment...

She barely understood anything written—most of the terminology was unfamiliar.

She had no idea what the numbers represented or what the strange formulas meant.

It felt like an entirely different system of knowledge.

"It's not a living god," Naruto shook his head. "I thought it might be a soul—but that's not the case."

"It's basically the same as the Nine-Tails—a pure energy entity."

"But while the Nine-Tails is chakra…"

"That demon is..."

"A mix of natural energy and chakra."

As for its soul—

It didn't have one. What Naruto had initially sensed as "soul force" was just the spiritual power the jutsu caster used to activate the technique.

Karin nodded thoughtfully.

"It probably once had consciousness," Naruto said, frowning as he read a set of notes. "But for some reason, it lost its mind, lost its soul, and turned into pure energy."

The result of his research puzzled him.

"It should have once had a soul."

"Natural energy existed before chakra," Naruto said softly.

"And back then, with only natural energy and soul, it could have been called a 'god.'"

"But after chakra replaced the soul…"

Though he had no hard evidence, Naruto had a strong intuition:

The cause of the demon's current state might very well be chakra.

To put it less kindly—

He felt like chakra had parasitically consumed the demon.

"Chakra really is a mysterious form of energy." Naruto didn't jump to conclusions—he just shook his head in awe.

He genuinely believed that.

Some of chakra's applications were truly baffling—especially concerning souls.

Take "Edo Tensei," for example. The Second Hokage had never studied the Pure Land, yet could perform a jutsu that forcibly dragged souls out of it—without triggering opposition from the Sage of Six Paths.

Meanwhile, Naruto—

Had merely tried to keep souls temporarily in the world using triple-layered barriers, and the Sage had forcefully broken his seal.

That difference—

Came down to the fact that Naruto's method didn't involve chakra.

While "Edo Tensei" was based entirely on chakra.

Karin nodded with a look of understanding.

"Let's go," Naruto said, glancing at the now-empty cultivation tank.

Karin packed up their gear, sealing it into a scroll, and followed behind. "Where are we going next?"

Naruto thought for a moment. "Let's head to the Land of Lightning."

"We'll look for the real waterfall my father mentioned."

"And while we're there, we'll try to gather information on the group called 'Akatsuki.'"

"Uchiha Madara... I really want to meet him now."

"Oh, and didn't you want to learn how to do scientific recording? I'll teach you too."

Karin responded with cheerful enthusiasm.

(End of Chapter)