Naruto: The Chosen Undead-Chapter 131 Naruto

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Chapter 131 Humanity in Her Veins

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Sasuke and Kakashi flickered into the market just as another cannonball shattered against the radiant shell of Sakura's barrier. The sky thundered, fire bloomed, and debris scattered like ash in the wind. Below, villagers were fleeing. Mothers clutched their children. Elders limped over broken planks. Men dragged the wounded.

Kakashi didn't hesitate. Hands blurred into signs.

"Lightning Release: False Darkness."

From his mouth, a lance of lightning exploded forward. It speared a cannonball midair, detonating it harmlessly in the sky. Another flick of his fingers. Another flash of destruction. He began sniping the cannonballs one by one, threading lightning through smoke and flame with surgical precision.

Sasuke bolted toward the center of the impact zone. He landed near the collapsed barrier—cracked, flickering, and smoking. Sakura lay behind it, so close to death. Red knelt beside her, one hand resting on Sakura's shoulder. The faint glow of chakra was still passing between them.

Red looked up with a weak grin. "So. You're the reinforcements, huh? Bit late, but I guess we all are sometimes."

Sasuke's Sharingan activated instinctively. He could see it... her chakra burning out like the last ember of a dying fire, barely enough to keep her upright.

"She's strong," Red rasped without turning. "Didn't scream once. Just stood there while the sky tried to fall. I felt her slipping... so I gave her what I had."

"You're dying."

Red coughed, but smiled. "Feels like it. Though funny... this is the first time I've ever felt like I was doing something right."

"You saved her. You saved a lot of people."

"Then maybe... maybe I wasn't just a warm body after all."

Her hand slid off Sakura's shoulder. She collapsed to her side with a groan. Sasuke moved forward, caught her head before it hit the ground. He knew she didn't have long. "One last thing," she whispered. "Can you tell the Archer something for me?"

Sasuke nodded.

"I gave him the name. Thought people needed something... a myth to believe in. A little fear in the hearts of the monsters. I just wanted to know... what does he think of it?"

Sasuke glanced down, his Sharingan fading slightly. "He's never used a bow in his life."

There was a pause.

Then Red let out a hoarse, wheezing laugh. "Heh. Figures. That's so stupid it's perfect."

"He'll get over it," Sasuke said quietly.

"What's his name?" she asked, voice slurring.

"...Naruto Uzumaki."

Red turned her face toward the sky, eyes half-lidded. Her lips curved. "Uzumaki, huh... maybe in another life." Her eyes slipped shut. The smile lingered.

Sasuke watched her chest rise once. Then still. "Thank you." He turned back to Sakura, pouring chakra into her fading coils.

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While Kakashi destroyed the cannonballs in midair with laser-precision bolts of lightning, and Sasuke worked furiously to stabilize Sakura, Naruto erupted from the water in a spray of mist and blood. He landed on the deck of the warship with a thud that echoed across the river. His Zweihander was already swinging.

The blade cleaved through the panicked crew with terrible ease, but Naruto's eyes narrowed.

There was no fight in them. These weren't mercenaries or soldiers. They were men in their late fifties, gaunt, ragged, some barely holding onto the ropes and rigging. They looked more like former fishermen than warriors pressed into service.

Naruto's stomach twisted.

He didn't stop. He couldn't afford to. Not with what was coming. Boots slamming on metal, he dropped into the underdeck. There, in the ship's control room, a balding man stood trembling beside a console covered in switches and a long-range communication device crackling with static. A voice buzzed through it. Cold. Dismissive. "So, you made it to the drop-off point. Guess it's time to use the explosives."

The trembling man's eyes widened. "We had a deal, Gato! You said you'd..."

"I don't deal with dead men." Click.

Naruto stepped into the room like a storm contained in flesh. His Zweihander pressed against the man's neck, almost lazily. "Tell me what he's planning. Now."

The man swallowed hard, sweat pouring from his brow. "You're too late. The whole ship's cargo is nothing but thousands of explosive tags that will destroy this entire village. It doesn't matter. Nothing matters anymore."

Naruto's expression darkened.

His hand dropped to the Drake Sword.

Without another word, he swapped weapons and slashed upward, blasting open the ceiling of the ship, daylight pouring in. Grabbing the man and the device, he shot upward with a roar, chakra flooding his vocal cords as he bellowed across the sky: "Explosives in the ship!"

Kakashi moved in an instant, hands weaving with frightening precision.

"Water Release: Water Formation Pillar!"

The river roared to life.

Water spiraled upward, wrapping the warship in a dense circular wall—a curved, rising barricade of compressed liquid force, shielding the shores and the fleeing villagers behind it.

Mid-air, Naruto twisted, eyes glowing with fury. He could feel the unstable chakra within the ship, ready to blow.

Naruto had learned something strange about the drake sword during his time in Lordran.

When infused with wind chakra, the sword cut with a near-invisible arc, launching blades of compressed air. But when channeled with pure chakra, something different happened. As Naruto brought the sword down with both hands, the air around it warped. Instead, a sound like a cracking stone echoed through the sky. A ripple tore through the atmosphere, visible only in the distortion it left behind, like glass breaking under pressure.

Then came the explosion. But it hit the downward shockwave like a bird slamming into stone. The blast flattened, compressed, redirected.

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The ship's hull shattered downward, the detonation forced into the water barrier Kakashi had summoned.

A geyser of steam erupted—white and deafening—but not flame. The water wall held, and as the explosive force hit the river, it rippled like an ocean quake, displacing the waves with thunderous restraint.

The ash was still falling.

Kakashi stood amidst the settling haze, one arm shielding his eye as he surveyed the battered remains of the market district. The shockwave had torn through rows of buildings like paper. Wooden stalls lay flattened. Rooftops caved in. One building still hissed as heat warped the stone foundation, its skeleton glowing faintly red beneath the choking steam. The river ran thick with char, carrying pieces of shattered wood and ash downstream.

We stopped it, he thought. But not without cost.

He didn't wait.

His hands moved on instinct—signs sharp despite the trembling in his fingers. "Lightning Style: Induced Thunderstorm."

A bolt snapped upward from his palm, splitting the clouds above with a deafening crack. Superheated pressure fractured the upper air as columns of smoke rose to meet the sky. Moisture, drawn and bound by the ash in the air, condensed all at once.

Within moments, it began to rain. Hard. Cold.

The fires hissed in retreat. Steam bloomed in ghostly sheets as the flames surrendered to the storm. Kakashi staggered. He caught himself, pressing one palm against a charred wooden post. His chakra reserves were bottomed out, and his muscles screamed for rest.

In a blur of movement. A splash of water naruto, landing beside him in a crouch. Over his shoulder was a man shaking violently. Kakashi gave the figure a glance but said nothing. Neither did Naruto. The boy's mouth was set in a grim line.

Then came footsteps. Running.

Sasuke blurred into view, soaked, wild-eyed, and cradling something. No... someone.

Kakashi's heart sank.

Sakura.

Her body looked like it had been dragged through the heart of a forge. Limbs limp. Skin blistered and peeling in places, raw in others. Her clothes had melted to her, a grotesque patchwork of cloth and flesh. Her lips were cracked. Her eyes fluttered.

Kakashi couldn't breathe for a second. "Where's the Estus?" he asked sharply, turning to Naruto.

Naruto hesitated. "I... I used the last one."

Sasuke's Sharingan flared, jaw tightening. "Then make more!"

"I can't. Not right now," Naruto said, his voice low, pained.

Sasuke stepped forward, anger about to spill from his mouth, but Kakashi stopped him with a hand to the shoulder.

"Control yourself," Kakashi said softly. "The Estus was the shortcut. If it's gone, then we stabilize her the traditional way."

Green chakra bloomed from his palms as he pressed them gently to Sakura's side. It wasn't fast, but it was something.

Naruto watched for a second, then reached into his pouch. When he opened his hand, Kakashi blinked and stepped back without realizing it.

There was something in Naruto's palm.

Something wrong.

A speck of complete darkness. Not black... more than black. It had no shine. No texture. No reflection. His Sharingan couldn't find the edges of it. It swallowed light and returned nothing. Like a wound torn in reality.

"What the hell is that?" Kakashi asked.

"This is humanity. I don't exactly know what it is, but it heals much better than an Estus," Naruto said.

The words alone should have felt absurd. But neither Kakashi nor Sasuke could muster a response. The Estus was already borderline mythical in its ability. For Naruto to say something surpassed it—and with such careless calm—left them stunned.

Sasuke, still cradling Sakura, pushed her gently between them. Her breathing was shallow. Skin still weeping from the burns. He didn't ask questions. He just trusted.

Naruto crushed the black fragment between his fingers.

It didn't crack.

It bled.

A thick, ink-like substance spilled out toward Sakura, as if drawn to her wounds. It clung to her burned skin like oil to cloth, sinking into the charred flesh.

And then... her skin twitched.

Bubbles rose. Not of pus, but of something cleansing. The blackened outer layers sloughed off like old scales, revealing angry red muscle beneath, and beneath even that, new skin began to form. Not perfect. Not instant. But alive. Veins reconnected. Tissue knitted. Her breathing deepened. Her fingers, curled into spasms a moment ago, uncurled slightly.

Sasuke and Kakashi stared as specks of black—tiny motes, smaller than dust—began to flicker across her chakra network, like fireflies behind glass. Neither of them had ever seen anything like it.

Naruto stood up, face expressionless. "Take her to Kurenai-sensei just to be sure."

Sasuke nodded and, without a word, flickered away.

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Author's Note:

1. Sakura Haruno – A New Path

Let's be honest. Canon Sakura is a complicated character. For some, she's frustrating. For others, she's misunderstood. For most... she's a wasted opportunity.

I know, I know—you've probably seen the "useless Sakura" jokes a thousand times. But I don't want to just meme her. I want to talk about her. Because I think she had so much potential.

One of my favorite canon moments was the Kazekage Rescue arc. That fight with Sasori? That scene where she saves Kankuro? That was peak Sakura. She was clever, powerful, and driven by compassion. That's the kind of healer I wanted to see more of. A kunoichi who didn't just stand behind others but carved her own path forward—using medicine, chakra, and will as her weapons.

So when I sat down to write this fic, I made a choice. I didn't want to bash Sakura. I didn't want to ignore her either. I wanted to redeem her, but not in a way that erased who she was. I wanted to develop her—mentally, emotionally, and in terms of raw narrative weight.

This Chapter was a major turning point for her. The burn scene? The genjutsu? The raw survival instinct blended with compassion? I'm proud of that. But I want to know what you thought.

Do you like the direction I'm taking Sakura in? How do you feel about the evolution of her character, and—most importantly—what do you think happens next now that liquid humanity flows through her body and chakra network?

Tell me your theories. I want to hear them.

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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!