Naruto: The Chosen Undead-Chapter 135 - no. Dark Souls

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Chapter 135 The Darkroot Garden

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Naruto stepped into the Darkroot Garden. Shadows writhed between the glowing flowers. Somewhere in the distance, he heard the sound of an Ent, its vine-like appendages gliding over a puddle of water.

He equipped the Crest Shield, its metal surface catching the faint glow of the nearby flora as he prepared for impact. Chakra flowed toward his feet, anchoring him in place as he braced himself like a mountain. The first lash came fast. A whip of vine cracked against his shield, jarring his arm but not breaking his stance. Naruto gritted his teeth, eyes narrowing as he pinpointed the source. With a sudden burst of movement, he vaulted into the air, the Ent's tendrils slicing his afterimage.

The shield shifted mid-leap into a sleek spear. With a grunt, Naruto hurled it like a javelin, nailing the Ent to a nearby tree. Before it could scream, he landed beside it and placed a palm to its chest.

You split a waterfall, this thing is nothing compared to that, Naruto thought as he sent a blast of wind chakra forward.

[ You have acquired ]

[ 100 Souls ]

[ Bloodred Moss Clump ]

Naruto exhaled and collected his weapon, tucked it into his inventory, and scanned the mist-heavy woods. To his right, the forest sloped into the abyssal Darkroot Basin, but his path led forward into the garden.

Way of Focality hummed a soft warning.

Naruto spun, catching a blur of movement in the corner of his eye. He ducked and rolled as a vine shot past, narrowly missing his face. He drew his crossbow in a single motion and fired. The bolt struck home, glinting as it embedded in the dark. Naruto followed it, footwork fluid as water, and leapt into a flying kick.

The Ent's body crumpled under the blow, tumbling backward and over the edge into the chasm below.

Naruto advanced cautiously now, walking the edge of the deep ravine, where fog clung to the rocks like ghosts. He paused as he reached a wide, moss-laced stone bridge. Beyond it, veiled in swirling mist, the vague silhouette of a building emerged.

"Yeah," he muttered, eyeing the distant shape. "I'll check that out. If the divine blacksmith is there..."

Angular and narrow, it stood at the far end of the stone bridge like a forgotten chapel abandoned mid-prayer. The fog wrapped around its spire like mourning cloth.

Then, the light changed.

A pale greenish-white glow began to pierce the mist, not from the building, not from the ground, but from above. It filtered through the fog like moonlight, but too focused, too cold. A shimmer... no, a presence glided silently across the sky.

Naruto froze mid-step.

There was something crystalline about it. As if pieces of moonlight had been forged into form and given thought. Way of Focality buzzed against Naruto's temple, its warning delayed, uncertain. The thing turned—he could not explain how he knew that, only that it now faced him. The pale light intensified, not blinding but deep, like a memory surfacing. His chakra stilled in his veins. His thoughts slowed. For one horrifying moment, Naruto wondered if he was being seen through.

A faint hum built in the air—not vibration, not noise, but a kind of resonance, like the air remembering a song it was never supposed to hear.

A white laser shot forth from the sky as Naruto sprinted down the uneven path as fast as his chakra-enhanced legs could carry him. The dirt beneath his feet was slick with moss and loose pebbles. To his left, the drop into the chasm yawned wide, waiting like an open mouth for any mistake.

Above, that unnatural flapping intensified.

Then a lance of searing white light tore through the fog behind him, striking the path with a deafening explosion. The ground heaved beneath his boots, stones leaping skyward, earth screaming as a chunk of the cliffside disintegrated under the pressure. The heat scorched the back of his armor. He pushed forward, teeth grit, lungs burning.

Suddenly, his foot was caught by something. A vine curled around his ankle. From the side of the path, an Ent began to emerge, dragging itself from the ground like some restless corpse. Its bark-covered arms reached for him, dragging him toward its gaping maw of thorny teeth.

"Damn it!" Naruto snarled.

He drew his hand axe and, with a flash of steel, hacked through the vine. He backflipped away just as another green energy spear roared down from the sky.

The Ent was obliterated while Naruto did not have time to look back.

A low hum began above, then it descended.

A massive orb of bluish-green light plummeted from the fog-shrouded sky, flickering like a star in convulsion.

Naruto snarled and changed his weapon to the Drake Sword. As the orb closed in, his body spun in a wide arc.

He slashed upward.

A massive crescent of wind screamed through the air and struck the orb dead center. It split down the middle with a crack like thunder, and from within, a spiral of energy burst outward. White and blue light surged in every direction, a violent maelstrom of brilliance that swallowed the forest whole in a moment of unnatural daylight. As the light died down and silence returned to the Darkroot Garden, not a trace of Naruto could be seen.

The scorched path where the orb had exploded still glowed faintly, steam rising from shattered stone and melted moss.

And above, the creature drifted silently through the clouds, its vast form folding back into the mist like a dream retreating from dawn. For a breathless moment, the Moonlight Butterfly emerged—its crystalline wings pulsing with pale green light—before vanishing into the fog. But beneath the destruction, hidden away, a quiet breath stirred.

Naruto waited.

He crouched deep within the hollowed burrow the Ent had once used to ambush prey, shielded by roots and stone. Dust fell in fine lines through the cracks above as he stayed perfectly still, pressed close to the earth. He did not move for several minutes. Not until the pressure in the air lifted. Not until the silence felt natural again.

Naruto considered turning back, returning to Andre, reclaiming his ninjutsu, reforging his strategy, but something held him here. A question that had no words. A weight that had no form.

He waited a little longer, watching the sky. No glow. No flapping. No hum.

Then, finally, his gaze shifted to a structure half-hidden behind moss and fog. Broken stone walls rose from the earth. Two of them stood side by side, the last memory of a building long fallen. Vines clung to the stone like scar tissue, and a massive, gnarled tree towered above the ruins, leafless and hollow. The shadows it cast were crooked and restless beneath the moonlight.

Then—a shimmer.

At the base of one wall, an orange light flickered. A soapstone message.

[ ?: Illusionary wall ahead! ]

Naruto approached slowly. He did not speak at first. Just reached out, fingers brushing the surface of the stone.

They passed through.

He exhaled. Alright... let's see where this leads.

Stepping through the illusion, he emerged onto a narrow ledge carved into the cliffside. The remains of another structure lay scattered around him—chunks of carved stone, collapsed beams, and timeworn sigils half-lost to erosion. Wind whispered through broken windows that no longer stood.

And at the far end of the ledge, just before the edge of the chasm—a bonfire.

"...Who hides a bonfire behind an illusion?" he murmured. "And how many more of them are out there?" He looked at the nearby walls, then back at the fire. "I should start hitting more walls in Lordran."

And with that, he knelt and lit the flame.

Naruto let out a low chuckle, eyes half-lidded as a stream of memories returned from his shadow clones. They had been experimenting while he fought and found something clever. While most ninja needed a partner to mirror hand signs in tandem for one-handed jutsu, Naruto did not need anyone else.

He had himself.

Hundreds of himself.

Clones could form half-seals, matching his motions and flow in perfect synchronicity. Together, they could complete even the most complex jutsu without ever using both hands.

A grin crept across his face. At least now I've got options.

The fire crackled softly behind him as he stood, stretching before stepping from behind the illusion wall. His boots brushed moss and loose soil with practiced quiet, every movement measured. Ahead, another stone wall stood, solid and worn, its surface rough, cold to the touch. Naruto pressed his hand against it, half-expecting it to vanish like the last.

But instead, the wall reacted.

At its center, a circular indentation pulsed faintly, and within it hovered a dull, glowing orb. Around the stone, delicate patterns curled outward, spiraling in unnatural arcs that twisted with subtle motion. At first, they looked like vines. But the more he stared, the more they seemed... wrong. They did not grow from stone or root.

They rose like tendrils from the abyss itself.

"...Creepy," Naruto muttered, trying to push against the surface.

[ Locked by some contraption. ]

"Of course it is." He sighed, already sensing the barrier sealed not by a mechanism, but by magic.

He turned and took the left path deeper into the forest.

The trail narrowed, walled in by ancient trees. Some stood like guardians, towering and still. Others had fallen long ago, now moss-covered monuments to time forgotten.

Naruto slowed as the path split ahead.

The left route vanished into a deeper fog bank, dense and still. The right opened into a clearing, small and encircled by earthen walls that rose just high enough to obscure anything behind them. In the center of the clearing, a figure slumped forward.

A corpse, clad in destroyed armor, its breastplate cracked and tarnished. Above it, a glowing orb of soul-light hovered, pulsing faintly. It beckoned like a flame in the dark.

Naruto narrowed his eyes.

"That's the most obvious trap I've ever seen, dattebayo."

Still, he moved forward, confident.

The moment he crossed the edge of the clearing, the ground erupted. Vines burst from the soil as Ents lunged from their burrows, five of them, claws ready, fangs gleaming beneath gnarled bark.

Naruto launched himself skyward in a burst of chakra.

Mid-air, he pulled a kunai from his pouch, already prepped with an explosive tag. He flicked his wrist and sent it sailing down into the heart of the ambush.

Thud.

Click.

BOOM.

A thunderous explosion shook the clearing. Fire and shrapnel tore through bark and vine, the blast engulfing the entire group of Ents before they had the chance to reach him.

Naruto landed lightly on the far side of the clearing. "...Obvious trap," he muttered, brushing ash off his shoulder, "but nothing can trap the great Naruto Uzumaki."

He turned his eyes back to the soul orb still hovering above the corpse, now finally unguarded.

Grabbing the soul, Naruto turned toward the remaining path and soon found himself standing at the edge of a vast, enclosed grove. A hidden garden cradled by ancient, overgrown walls. Trees loomed like silent sentinels, their branches heavy with mist. To his left, a line of luminous flowers shimmered faintly, weaving a glowing trail deeper into the fog.

Follow the flowers, right? he thought, recalling the cryptic orange soapstone message.

But just as he began to step forward, something caught his eye.

Lying still on the forest floor was a massive figure, half-buried in moss, its form vaguely humanoid. As Naruto approached, the shape took clearer form: a hulking stone knight, its jagged armor layered in moss and time. Though smaller than a Titanite Demon, it radiated the same oppressive aura. A round, weathered shield leaned beside it, and a massive stone sword rested across its lap. The knight's helmet was carved without any visible face, featureless and blind like a forgotten statue.

Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m freewebnσvel.cøm.

Then it moved.

With a sound like a landslide groaning to life, the stone knight stirred. Its limbs shifted, weight pressing into the ground as it stood. Dust and bits of lichen crumbled from its joints. Naruto instinctively reached for a smoke bomb, ready to create distance, but then something made his blood run cold.

The knight's hands glowed with an all too familiar radiance. An aura similar to his own miracles, but colder, older, and warped. It raised its arms toward the sky, and a ripple of light shimmered above it like a mirage bending reality.

Naruto's instincts screamed.

He tried to leap away, only to feel time lurch around him. The world did not freeze... he slowed. His breath caught in his throat. Chakra flow sluggish. His muscles delayed. Even his thoughts dragged like they were submerged underwater. He fought to unsheathe the Zweihander. The weight felt multiplied, his fingers sluggish on the hilt. Naruto barely ducked beneath a sweeping slash of the stone greatsword, the blade parting the air with a deep whoosh that rattled his bones.

Then came the shield bash.

A wall of stone and force slammed into him. His body launched backward, smashing into a thick tree with a sickening crack. Bark split. Wood groaned. Splinters rained like knives.

Naruto dropped to the ground in a heap, his vision swimming, his lungs desperately clawing for air.

The fog shifted again. Trees bent and groaned as more stone knights lumbered into view. One directly ahead, dragging its blade like a butcher preparing the slab. Two from the left, shields raised. Another from the right. And then behind him, the thudding steps of a fifth, boxing him in.

To make matters worse, the earth beneath him writhed.

Ents.

Vines burst from the soil, twisting like skeletal fingers. Bark armored limbs reached for him, hungry and methodical.

Naruto's pulse pounded in his ears. Surrounded. Outnumbered. The miracle's slowing effect still chained his limbs. Strangely enough, the stone knights were not preparing and coordinating an attack.

Two stone knights closed in from the flanks, shields raised in unison, creating a living wall. A third trailed behind them, sword lifted, waiting for a clean strike. And behind them all, the fifth stood still, its hands glowing again with that twisted divine light.

Naruto's pulse spiked as the world crawled around him, caught in the miracle's time distortion. Stone knights advanced in perfect formation, Ents closing in behind.

Pinned. Outnumbered. Slowed.

Feels like a good time to die and respawn, he thought bitterly.

But hell no.

If he was going down, he would go down swinging.

With a grunt, Naruto raised his Zweihander into high guard, muscles straining against the drag of slowed time.

"Come at me, you bastards!"

Suddenly a hum rolled through the grove, a sound low and resonant, vibrating in his bones like the pluck of a colossal harp string.

Naruto blinked.

His chakra pulsed, not sluggish this time, but sharper, faster. As if that hum had cut through the miracle's slow time effect.

Crack.

The knight's head exploded in a burst of stone and oozing black ichor. Its helmet shattered, the miracle unraveling in a hiss of fading light. The glow flickered, then died completely as the casting knight crumpled to its knees.

Naruto did not stop to question it. Something... someone... had saved him.

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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 64, 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!