Naruto: The Chosen Undead-Chapter 133 Naruto

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Chapter 133 The Archer's Choice

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Tsunami stood amidst a crowd that trickled like water into the heart of the broken village. The buildings were charred skeletons, the earth blackened and torn. People limped, leaned on one another, carried the wounded. Burned clothes, bandaged limbs, eyes still wide with the memory of fire. But they were alive.

Then came the sound.

Thwip.

An arrow fired into the sky, vanishing into the clouds which... turned gold a moment later as the arrow hit the Estus Flask.

A hush fell as golden rain began to descend. Light shimmered across the air like threads of silk catching sunlight. Tsunami blinked against it, then gasped. The burns on her hands—gone. The ache in her ribs—eased. A warmth unlike anything she'd known poured through her, foreign and familiar all at once. Around her, others cried out.

"It's the Archer."

"The Archer of Providence!"

She turned, heart hammering, and saw him. Standing tall atop a broken rooftop, silhouette framed in the shimmering haze. The same figure from whispers and rumor, now made real—brought forth by fire and fury, and now, healing rain.

Tsunami didn't know when it started, only that it was. The crowd began to kneel. Slowly, like a tide falling into place. Not in respect. Not in duty.

In reverence.

In worship.

Naruto stood above it all, watching them. Not with pride. Not with satisfaction. With confusion. He didn't want this. He'd come back only to do what he thought was right. Just like when he cut down the gangs. Just like when he destroyed the ship. Just like when he wanted to heal the injured.

But to the desperate, even a shadow can look like salvation.

He understood now why they gave him the name. The Archer of Providence. He was about to leave, but something in the distance caught his eye. A faint glimmer. The golden pulse of a soul drop.

Naruto leapt.

He landed beside a body—burned, motionless, surrounded by torn cloth and ash. The red-haired woman who had stood tall during chaos.

Red.

When he reached for the soul, the HUD bloomed before his eyes.

[ Soul of Hanaōgi Uzumaki acquired. ]

He didn't move.

Another Uzumaki. That close. That near. And now… gone. He didn't feel some sudden flood of grief... he hadn't known her. Not really. There were no memories to mourn, no bond to break. But something still twisted in his gut. A sharp, dull ache behind the ribs.

She was family. And he could've brought her back. To Konoha. To something more than this.

Maybe they could've started something, rebuilt a name that barely survived in whispers and birth records. Maybe she would've known more about the clan. The real history. The things he never had answers to growing up.

Shit… he thought, jaw tightening. I never even thought that far. Never stopped to wonder if others were still out there.

He glanced at the crowd still kneeling in the golden rain, eyes settling on the women grieving around Hanaōgi's body. It hit him then how selfish the thought had been. She didn't matter because she was an Uzumaki.

She mattered because she was someone to the people who truly knew her.

"How did she die?" Naruto asked, deepening his voice with chakra until it echoed across the ruined street.

One woman stepped forward. "She gave her chakra to the kunoichi from the Leaf. So she could make the barrier. So we could live."

Naruto nodded slowly.

Another voice called out, trembling. "Before she died… she said she wanted to know what you thought. About the name. The Archer of Providence."

Naruto paused, glancing over his shoulder. A long silence. The golden rain still fell. "…I like it."

Naruto was about to leave when he noticed the crowd had gathered around him. Dozens of eyes locked on him—some wide with awe, others brimming with the quiet weight of expectation. As he stepped forward, the people parted like water around stone. The silence that followed unnerved him more than their worship.

Then came the voice from a boy, maybe twelve. "Are you going to kill Gato?"

Naruto stopped mid-step. He glanced around, watching how the crowd leaned in, as if the answer would be a promise. As if it would rewrite their future. "I don't know," he said, and then threw the weight of the question back at them. "Maybe you should."

The boy blinked. "But… I'm just a kid."

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Naruto turned his gaze to a nearby woman, her arms crossed over a mended shawl, clutching it like a shield. "What about you, then?" he asked. "You could do it if he can't."

She shook her head, almost ashamed. "I'm… not strong enough."

His eyes slid toward a cluster of men. But none of them met his gaze. They looked away. At the ground. The sky. Each other. Anywhere but at him.

Naruto scoffed. "Maybe I'll do it then," he muttered. "But I'm busy."

The silence that followed was different. Heavier. Like a weight settling on the crowd's shoulders. "You have the power to stop Gato!" someone shouted, desperate now.

"And you don't?"

No one replied.

He turned slowly, scanning the crowd. Anger simmering beneath the surface. "I saw a boy, half your age, sitting on a rooftop this morning with a slingshot in his hands, trying to protect the only family he has left. I didn't hear him say, But I'm just a kid. He just did it."

He jabbed a finger toward the woman.

"The woman who died behind you, she didn't say she was weak. She gave everything. Every drop of chakra in her body to protect people she barely knew. She didn't ask for thanks. She just acted."

He swept his hand across the crowd. "And the old man building your bridge? He knew Gato would come for him. He still works, knowing he might not live to see it finished. He dares anyway."

Still, they said nothing. Naruto turned, about to leave, thinking maybe—just maybe—he'd said enough to make them reflect. Maybe they'd understand. "It doesn't matter what you say. You're still going to stop Gato."

That did it.

Naruto's jaw clenched. His brow twitched. And without hesitation, he pulled out his crossbow in a single motion and fired. The bolt struck the speaker clean through the thigh. The man collapsed with a guttural scream, writhing in the mud. Panic rippled through the crowd as people stumbled back, eyes wide in horror and disbelief.

Naruto shot the man because their entitlement was the thing that enraged him more than anything else.

After all he had done, after the blood on his hands, after the weight of the decisions he couldn't take back, they still looked at him like he owed them something. As if he existed for them. As if the world would right itself if they just believed hard enough that someone stronger would come along to fix it.

The man's scream cut through the silence, and the crowd recoiled in horror. But Naruto didn't flinch. He didn't apologize. He didn't explain himself. Because what came next wasn't a justification.

It was a damnation.

His glare swept across the crowd like a blade. His voice rose, sharp with fury that had been simmering since the moment he first saw those broken, desperate eyes looking at him like a god.

"You're in pain. You've got two choices. Leave the arrow in and let the wound rot. Or pull it out, bleed, and survive."

He stood up, raising his voice.

"I have the power to heal him. Just like I might have the power to stop Gato. But ask yourselves... why should I? Why are you waiting for me to fix what you've let fester?"

He pointed to the crowd, sweeping his hand wide.

"You could've hired a shinobi yourselves. You could've organized. Pooled resources. You could've fought back. But you didn't."

His voice cracked through the silence like thunder.

"You let yourselves believe that evil rules by strength. That if you kneel low enough, the storm will pass over you. That if you bleed quietly, maybe the knife won't find your throat. You endure... but you do not live."

His breath misted in the cooling air.

"I've seen true monsters," he said, softer now. "I've fought them. I've been one. But the most dangerous thing in this world isn't hatred. It's the belief that you have no choice."

Naruto reached into his inventory and pulled out the Homeward Bone. Golden light flared beneath his feet. "But you do have a choice. Just don't wait for another me to make it for you."

And then he was gone… consumed by light… leaving behind a stunned crowd, and the echo of a truth none of them could unhear.

The wet squelch of torn muscle caught the attention of the crowd as the man on the ground gritted his teeth and yanked the arrow from his thigh. Blood poured, then slowed… the heat of the golden rain working its way through his tissue, sealing the wound but leaving a scar.

A reminder.

Maybe that was what the Wave needed to learn. Pain wasn't optional. Scars weren't something to be ashamed of. They were the price of movement. Of living for something instead of surviving for nothing.

A hush lingered before a murmur rose in the crowd.

Then footsteps.

"Where are you going?" a child's voice rang out to the man who still held onto the arrow in his hands.

"To the Daimyo's court. If I have to beg and crawl and starve, I'll ask him to act. Gato's gangs are gone. Maybe that's enough for him to care again."

"Will that work?" the child asked.

The man shook his head. "Don't know. But it's better than waiting to die."

Tsunami stood motionless as the crowd formed and faded into the distance, their footsteps swallowed by the mud and ash. But in her heart, she felt it... the Wave was rising.

Then a soft thud behind her.

She turned. Naruto was crouched there, steam curling off his shoulders, his lone hand resting on his knee.

"Tsunami-san," he said gently, almost like a question. "You alright?"

She blinked, surprised. "Oh… Naruto." Her voice trembled, but she straightened. "I saw everything. What you did. What your team did. You saved us." She hesitated. "Is Sakura…?"

"She's alive," he said with a nod. "Barely. But we managed to heal her. She'll recover. She's strong."

Tsunami exhaled slowly, tension draining from her shoulders.

"I'm here to walk you home. Inari's worried."

They began walking side by side, the ruined marketplace slowly falling behind them, swallowed by mist and silence.

Then Tsunami stopped. "I owe you an apology," she said, not looking at him. "For what I said... back then. When you stopped those thugs. I told you not to get involved. That fighting back would only make things worse."

She inhaled through her nose. "But the truth is—I wasn't afraid for the village. I was afraid for myself. I've been afraid for so long, I thought it was normal. And I pushed that fear onto you. Onto all of you."

Naruto didn't interrupt. He just walked beside her, listening.

"If you and your team hadn't acted today..." she trailed off. "There'd be nothing left. So... thank you. And I'm glad my father has people like you watching his back. Hopefully, when the bridge is made, this nightmare can be over."

Naruto gave a quiet nod. "About that…"

"What?"

"I don't think this ends with the bridge getting built."

Tsunami's brow furrowed. "What do you mean?"

"What's stopping Gato from blowing it up the moment it's done?"

The realization hit her hard. Her steps faltered.

"Then what are we going to do?" she asked. "What does the Archer of Providence say now?"

"You figured it out?"

Tsunami shrugged with a faint smile. "Not really. But thanks for confirming it."

"Guess I walked right into that one."

He paused, looking ahead at the road winding through the trees. The humor faded from his face, replaced by something colder. Steadier.

"Well… I'm going to kill Gato."

She blinked in surprise. "But you said..."

"I'm doing it because I want to. Because I've made my own decision. Not because anyone expects it of me."

Naruto took a deep breath.

"But Gato will have guards. Zabuza… maybe even stronger ones next. But that's fine. I've got a plan."

"What kind of plan?"

"I'm going to get so strong that no one... not Gato, not Zabuza, not anyone can stop me."

And when he smiled, wide and earnest, Tsunami saw the ghost of her husband in that expression—raw, reckless hope wrapped in stubbornness. Kaiza had once smiled like that, too.

She chose to believe in him the same way.

"What's your favorite food?"

"Uh… ramen? Why?"

Tsunami brushed a damp strand of hair behind her ear. "I'm not a fighter. Not a kunoichi. I'm just a housewife. But I can cook. So let me do what I can. I'll keep you fed while you train. I'll keep hope alive—in my home, in my family, and in you all."

Naruto's grin widened, softer now. "That's the spirit, dattebayo."

Just as they reached the edge of the clearing, Tsunami gave him a sideways glance.

"…Also," she said, lifting an eyebrow, "how are you an archer with only one arm?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

She laughed, light and free for the first time in a long while.

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Author's Note:

This chapter is—without question—one of my favorite ones to write so far. It brought together so many threads I've been slowly weaving in the background, and for the first time, I feel like the emotional weight landed exactly where it needed to. Writing this was equal parts thrilling and cathartic. It was a chapter that gave the spotlight to characters often brushed aside, pushed them to their breaking points, and asked: what does it really mean to stand in the face of helplessness?

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1. Red & Tsunami – From Background to Backbone

Red wasn't even supposed to be a big deal originally. Her name? A playful nod to the readers. "Hey, she's red-haired. Is she an Uzumaki?" Wink.

But the further I wrote, the more I realized: this world is full of characters who could have mattered… if only someone had let them. Red mattered to her people. She mattered in the darkest hour.

Her soul drop being that of Hanaōgi Uzumaki was the twist I'd been saving. Her death will echo into the future—especially when Naruto eventually meets Karin. That's all I'll say for now.

As for Tsunami—I'm genuinely proud of her arc in this chapter. From someone who accepted powerlessness as a fact of life… to someone who stood tall, side by side with a new generation of fighters. Her final moment, walking beside Naruto and offering what she could, might've been quiet—but it was everything.

What did you think of her transformation? Did it feel earned?

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3. Estus Flask Lore – Fire Keeper Souls

This is something I didn't realize until recently—and it honestly blew my mind.

In case you didn't know, here's a bit of the translated lore:

Japanese Description Translation:

"There is a dark legend that goes like this:

The green bottle is born from the souls of the Fire Keepers. They live to protect the bonfires, and even after death, they continue to protect the heat."

Chinese Translation:

"In the Dark Heritage, there is also the following passage:

The green bottle comes from the soul of the Fire Keeper. They guard the campfire when they are alive. Even after death, they continue to guard its temperature."

Aestus, of course, means "heat" in Latin—which really ties the theme together. These aren't just potions. They're literal crystallized warmth—concentrated soul-heat, gifted by the Fire Keepers themselves.

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4. Who's Gato Hiring Next?

I want your help here.

Now that the warship's gone, and Gato's cruelty has been laid bare, you can bet he's pulling every string he's got. But I haven't fully settled on who he's bringing in next.

Give me your ideas. This is the fun part.

That's it for now!

As always, I appreciate you all taking the time to read, comment, and just come along for the ride.

—Adam

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[ Personal Note: First off, thanks a ton to all of you for sticking with this story. Seriously, you guys are awesome. Now, if you're interested in supporting me on P@treon, let me just say that over there, I post these massive 5k-word chapters. But heads up, if you're jumping to P@treon, you'll need to start from Chapter 63, since that's where this chapter lines up with the content there.

To everyone here just reading along, please don't forget to leave a comment! Honestly, your comments make my day, and they let me know you're as invested in this story as I am. So yeah, thanks again, and I hope you have an amazing rest of your day!