Chapter 347: Something Even Ryū Finds Troublesome
Kurenai, looking down, felt her pupils contract sharply. Peering warily through the fissure at her feet, she could just make out something down at the bottom of the crack.
No — not "seemed to." Down there, beneath the earth, something genuinely existed!
There was no mistaking it, her instincts couldn't be wrong about this — this was no ordinary earthquake. Something was underneath Konoha itself!
But something capable of shaking the ground on this scale — what could it possibly be down there? A tailed beast like the Nine-Tails? Or could it be the Nine-Tails itself, right underneath them?
That had to be a joke. Impossible. How could something like that even happen?
Kurenai knew about the Nine-Tails incident, knew it had already been sealed away by the Hokage — by rights, whatever was underground couldn't possibly be the Nine-Tails.
Though she'd heard the tailed beasts weren't limited to just the Nine-Tails — supposedly there were quite a few of them. Exactly how many, Kurenai wasn't sure, but at least three or four, from what she understood.
Could it be one of the other tailed beasts, then?
Was that... actually plausible?
Seemed like a pretty long shot.
Kurenai was so shaken by the realization that, for a moment, she forgot to even warn Anko and Yūgao beside her.
Just then, Ryū's flat, unhurried voice reached her ears. "That's something even more troublesome than a tailed beast. Wasn't sure what it was a moment ago, but now that it's poked its head up, I recognize it. To that thing, the Nine-Tails probably registers as, what, a somewhat dangerous large guard dog? And I might need to tack an 's' onto the end of 'that thing,' too."
At first, Ryū had genuinely wondered whether some rule-breaking reincarnator had shown up in the Naruto world to cause trouble again, conveniently sending a batch of Points his way.
But the moment the thing poked its head up, his Observation Haki swept over it instantly, and he immediately recognized exactly what it was.
He'd seen its kind before — a few months back, if he had to guess — and had gone through a massive fight against them that had nearly flattened close to half a country.
And that was with Ryū actively working to contain and shrink the battle's scope — otherwise, all of Asia would likely have suffered for it, and the Alps themselves might have gotten leveled in the crossfire.
That's right — the fight he was thinking of was the group quest in Eriri's world. What they'd faced there hadn't been transmigrators, reincarnators, reborn ones, or some off-canon natural disaster.
It had been an entirely new kind of headache — the "Void Beasts," a tumor eating away at dimensions themselves. As far as Ryū was concerned, every last one of the Void Beasts counted as exactly that: a malignant growth.
Because last time, in the Saekano (Doujin) world, the quest had spelled it out clearly enough — the Void Beasts' entire goal had been to devour the Saekano world whole.
Something that set out to swallow an entire world — how was that not the very definition of a tumor?
And on top of that, the world it had tried to devour belonged to a chat group member. That made it all the more cancerous.
To Ryū, these things felt like beings entirely without order, without allegiance, without any faction to speak of — their whole existence amounted to devouring dimension after dimension the moment they got a chance, feeding on the power for themselves.
The kind of tumor that heroes and villains alike would want wiped out on sight, basically.
Whether that was actually accurate, Ryū couldn't say for sure — that was just his own read on it. Not that guessing wrong would embarrass him any, since he hadn't said any of it out loud.
Why would something like that show up here in Konoha, of all places? This is going to be a headache... Don't tell me there's a dimensional rift opened up underground, same as what happened in Eriri's world? But if there's a rift, why's the ground shaking instead of just caving in outright?
After running through it in his head, Ryū suddenly got the sense his luck was running a little thin today — barely back from the Dragon Ball world, one night's sleep, a few bites of dessert in, and already running headfirst into this mess.
He split off a bit of attention to the chat group and tapped his daily sign-in.
Rolling a measly 15 Points, Ryū suddenly understood — yep, his luck really was bad today. No wonder he'd run into something like this.
Though, come to think of it, framing it that way made it sound almost like the Void Beast showing up was somehow his fault.
While whatever was underground still hadn't fully worked its way into the Naruto world, Ryū's Observation Haki kept spreading downward — and quickly picked up on something off.
So there really is a dimensional rift here, same as Eriri's world? Things from outside can get in, but nothing from the Naruto world can get out? Ah, that explains it — no wonder there's been no actual ground collapse.
Just as thoughts raced through Ryū's mind, Kurenai's voice reached him, uncertain and shaken. "R-Ryū-oniisan, do you know what's down there?"
Ryū saw no reason to hide anything, giving a small nod. "Well... something like this is a real headache even for me. No idea yet if it's on the same level as the ones I've fought before — if it is, this'll be manageable."
"If it's stronger than what I've faced before, though — anywhere near my own level — that's going to get ugly. Even the whole Nine-Tails incident didn't manage to wreck my house. This time, my house is probably GG."
There was one more thing Ryū left unsaid — that the planet under their feet might end up GG too.
If the Void Beast that had shown up really was on his level, the fight that followed would wipe out human civilization outright — and there was a real chance the planet itself wouldn't survive it either.
"Hey, you three are Chūnin, right? Go tell Minato at the Hokage building to get ready for a fight. And make sure to pass this along — anyone below Kage-level strength should stay well out of it. No point throwing lives away."
With that said, Ryū paid the three of them no further mind, letting his awareness slip into the chat group — only to find no quest had been triggered.
Looked like Void Beasts didn't work the same way as rule-breaking reincarnators, illegal transmigrators, or illegal reborn ones — those three basically guaranteed a quest every time, but a Void Beast showing up apparently didn't always trigger one.
Kurenai, Anko, and Yūgao all wanted to ask why that was.
But the fear and pressure bearing down on them forced the question back down, swallowed before it ever left their lips.
Anko drew a deep breath, still staggering from the violent shaking of the ground.
Cold sweat beaded on her forehead from that inexplicable dread, but she nodded firmly all the same. "Understood, Ryū-oniisan. I'll head straight to the Fourth Hokage right now."
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