[Konoha's Yellow Flash: Already? That fast?]
Watching Minato's message, Anthony — aboard the Styx Boat far away — mulled it over for a moment, then opened his group chat panel.
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Seems about right, honestly. If the Shinigami is really sealed inside that mask, doesn't that mean your resurrection condition is basically already met?]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Even if it's only something like a Summoning Jutsu effect, I should be able to work an angle — nudge the resurrection conditions along. Once that's done, I can pull you out with the Reanimation Jutsu.]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: That's kind of the key piece right now.]
[Konoha's Yellow Flash: Yeah... fair enough.]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Speaking of which — once you're resurrected, what's the plan?]
[Konoha's Yellow Flash: Haven't fully decided yet. But probably go after Obito. That loose end still needs to be dealt with.]
[Konoha's Yellow Flash: It's just... Uchiha Madara behind Obito, and Zetsu... those two are a bit of a headache.]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Forget those two for now. Once we've leveled up enough, we'll drag them out and beat them to death together. For now, just focus on handling Obito.]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: And actually — since the conditions are good enough right now, I'll go elbow the Shinigami into a coma, Reanimation Jutsu you out, and then we go dish out some serious pain to Obito.]
[Konoha's Yellow Flash: Yeah, sounds good.]
Looking at Minato's messages — already showing more than a hint of eager anticipation — Anthony couldn't help but smile.
He quickly ran through a mental checklist of what came next.
In short: everything still revolved around one thing — dealing with Obito.
Stuffing him in the toilet would be overkill for the crime, but stripping materials off him was absolutely on the table. As for Zetsu — who genuinely deserved the toilet — they probably couldn't take him on yet.
And Madara... honestly, given the current state of the group chat and Anthony's points balance, he suspected they could burn through everything they had and still not kill him.
The power ceiling of the Naruto world was still a bit too high for where the group chat currently stood. That said, with a bit of creative planning, Obito should be manageable.
First priority: the Reanimation Jutsu, via Minato.
Once Minato was back among the living, Obito's own resurrection became a real possibility too — and for that, Anthony needed to go pay the Shinigami a visit.
Honestly, he genuinely couldn't imagine a scenario where he lost that fight. Elbow the Shinigami, Reanimation Jutsu Minato back out, and then they could start scheming about Obito.
But before any of that — he should put those freshly acquired Hashirama cells to use.
With that thought, Anthony opened The Angler's ability tree, unlocked the crafting blueprint for the [Angler's Casting Net], and the flesh and blood that had been reeled in by the fishing rod — containing trace amounts of Hashirama cells — flew into his hands.
Then, Soul Flame ignited.
Sure, the Hashirama cells were pretty scarce, which meant the net would definitely come out ridiculously small... but that was fine for now. Get it working first!
Once he stripped enough Hashirama cells off Obito, he could just scale the net up later!
Twenty minutes passed. In Anthony's hands, the Soul Flame gradually died down. He opened the group chat and practically slammed the World Traversal button — and at the same time, switched to the chat screen to type to David:
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: @Let Night City Burn — sent you a little gift, make sure you check it.]
[Let Night City Burn: ?]
On the other end, David and Lucy were standing on the deck, gazing out over the Primordial River. By the time David processed Anthony's message, a fishing net — just over a meter wide — had already dropped from the sky straight into his hands.
"...What is this?" Lucy glanced at David, then at the net in his hands, and let out a baffled sound.
"This... I have no idea?"
David scratched his head after thinking about it for a long while, then realized something rather serious:
He didn't know how to use a fishing net.
In Night City, something like this would basically qualify as a museum artifact!
But just as he was about to go ask Anthony, he discovered that Anthony's soul had already completed another World Traversal — back to the Naruto world.
David could only let out a helpless sigh, then reopened the group chat.
[Let Night City Burn: Wait, how do you even use this thing?]
[World Traversal in progress.]
[Destination designated: The Mask — Dead Demon Consuming Seal]
When Anthony's soul opened its eyes again, a stream of group chat notifications popped up before him.
Then he saw David's embarrassing message.
"Haah... how am I supposed to pass on the angler's legacy to you at this rate?"
Anthony sighed with feeling. After giving David a quick rundown of how to use it, he watched David head off to try his hand at fishing in the chat.
He'd set the target trawling zone to Night City early on — now he'd just have to wait and see what David could haul up.
Granted, trying to fish with a net barely over a meter wide sounded absolutely hellish... but hey, let David give it a go first. It wasn't like Anthony was the one doing it.
Ahem, ahem — why did he keep feeling like his mentality had been sliding more and more lately? ...Whatever, it was definitely the group chat's fault. The group chat was a bad influence.
Anthony silently lamented this in his heart, then raised his head — and came face to face with the grinning, ghastly mask in front of him.
This was the key component of the Dead Demon Consuming Seal.
At this moment, with his Soul Strength at a full 14 points, Anthony took one look at the mask and immediately glimpsed the flow of energy moving within it. From that alone, he formed a rough understanding of what this thing truly was.
It was... like a conduit.
Like a medium for a Summoning Jutsu. Activating the Dead Demon Consuming Seal through this mask would use it as a medium to summon the Shinigami forth.
After that, the Shinigami would carry out the actual effect of the Dead Demon Consuming Seal — the sealing. The jutsu itself felt less like a technique and more like a contract... an agreement to consent to a "sacrifice" ritual of some kind.
Turning these thoughts over in his mind, Anthony used [Soul Attachment] to remove the Dead Demon Consuming Seal mask, then attempted to communicate with the jutsu inscribed within using his soul energy.
At the same time, he offered a warm and friendly greeting:
"Hey. You in there?"
The next instant, the sacrifice ritual activated.
An extraordinarily clear sensation rose in Anthony's heart — like someone whispering seductively right beside his ear:
"Offer your soul, and then seal the enemy before you..."
Offer your soul?
Anthony nearly burst out laughing.
"I agree. Can you come collect it as soon as possible?"
Anthony said this with full anticipation, and then — while no one was looking — manifested The Angler's fishing rod, and quietly hid the Origin Forge behind his back.
And then, with Anthony's consent given, the Shinigami finally deigned to make its grand appearance.
Amid billowing smoke, the Shinigami's shadow slowly materialized from the mask — and then, gradually, opened its eyes.
It had sensed it... a sincere, and exceedingly delicious, soul.
It had been a very long time since it had encountered a soul this powerful. It was confident — this one would be an extraordinary supplement.
So, the very instant it opened its eyes, the Shinigami looked up in eager anticipation. Even as it began attempting to claim the soul of the one who had activated the Dead Demon Consuming Seal, it spoke to Anthony:
"The contract is formed. Now then — the target to be sealed is...?"
The sentence wasn't even half finished before the Shinigami's words jammed.
And then — even though it had no such function — it couldn't help itself, and swallowed.
"What's the matter? Say your lines! Have you no professionalism?"
A long moment later, the utterly uncanny figure before the Shinigami opened its mouth — and urgently pressed:
"Everyone's waiting for the banquet, you know."
He said this with a smile on his face.
Oh HELL. RUN.
In that instant, the Shinigami's scalp prickled, and it made that decision without a moment's hesitation.
Because the moment it had begun to claim the soul of the person before it, it realized something was very, very wrong.
As the soul was being drawn out, the young man before it was also gradually changing — and by the time the claiming was nearly complete, it was as though a vision had flashed before the Shinigami's eyes.
In that vision, brilliantly colored river water surged and roared with violent force. Above it, like lightning and thunder, something raged — baring its claws and fangs at the Shinigami as if in fury.
And in that instant, even as the Shinigami — a death god — it had involuntarily felt something like a threat to its own existence.
As though if it dared touch that soul even one more time, it would be sucked into those endless rushing waters, and be utterly dissolved and washed away forever.
What the HELL? Why is this so terrifying?
The Shinigami was completely dumbfounded.
It could not begin to comprehend how it had run into a soul this bizarre.
Just what in the world was that place?! And just who — or what — was the person standing before it?!
Scalp still crawling, the Shinigami didn't even stop to worry about the unfinished contract — it instinctively tried to bolt. But then it heard Anthony's quiet voice:
"Don't go."
Anthony stared at the Shinigami, eyes wide, and shouted.
Are you kidding me?! I went through all that trouble running a honey trap to reel you in, and you're just going to walk out?!
"It's the holiday season — you've already come all this way. At least leave a red envelope before you go, yeah?"
Even a passing goose gets its feathers plucked!
Coming empty-handed and leaving empty-handed — wasn't that just a little bit rude?
And so, under the Shinigami's horrified gaze, the Origin Forge hiding behind Anthony surfaced — and roared to life.
"AAAGH!!"
In an instant, the scorching agony of being burned surged through it, enough to make even the Shinigami's vision go red.
But it dared not fight back.
Because the moment it followed the contract and attempted to claim Anthony's soul, that wretched river drew closer and closer!
And if it tried to run, the Origin Forge behind Anthony would burn it beyond all recognition!
Can't fight, can't flee — how could anything this diabolical even exist?!
Run! Run NOW! No matter what, just RUN!
It had thought this was just a routine contract. Who could have known something this monstrous would leap out of nowhere?!
Gritting its teeth, the Shinigami acted — its lower half of spiritual form dissipated into nothing, while its upper half immediately surged back into the mask. The mask shuddered for a moment, then went completely still.
All that remained was Anthony, staring with a peculiar expression as the lower half of the Shinigami's form leaped into the Origin Forge. He stood there for a good while before he finally processed what had happened, and murmured under his breath:
"So... it pulled a lizard-tail escape?"
Still, even if the Shinigami had fled, Anthony couldn't help but break into a brilliant grin as he watched that half-body smelting away inside the Origin Forge.
Ah, it was fine. Running was fine, actually.
After all, even when harvesting leeks, you had to think about sustainability. Don't drain the pond dry.
Come back once you've grown back, buddy. We'll harvest you again then.
As that half-body burned away inside the Origin Forge, Anthony watched the points in his account balloon at dizzying speed. By the time the half-body was fully consumed, his balance had grown by 60,000 points.
Subtract what he'd spent crafting the casting net, and he was left with 170,000 — not a small number at all.
Looking at those extra sixty thousand points, Anthony was already grinning ear to ear.
You know what, you really can't argue with results.
Burning souls really does print money.
Still...
Anthony stepped forward, using his soul perception to give the mask in front of him a quick scan — and couldn't help but click his tongue.
The Shinigami had done quite a thorough job running away. After diving back into the mask, it had even torn out the Summoning Jutsu connection pointing toward itself. Now, the mask retained only its function as a summoning medium — but it could no longer actually call the Shinigami.
All you could say was — what Anthony had just done probably left an indelible psychological scar on the Shinigami. It had run so fast it abandoned its own estate on the way out.
Facing the mask as it now stood, Anthony pondered for a moment. He felt the thing still had some residual value.
So, he tried using [Soul Splitting] to carve out a small fragment of his soul, and stuffed it inside the mask. Sure enough, just as he'd anticipated — his soul fragment became the new target of the Summoning Jutsu within.
Watching this play out, Anthony immediately set the mask back in its original position. A sly smile crept across his face.
Oh, this was good. This could be used to mess with people.
For instance — before a fight, slip this mask over to the enemy's side.
When the opponent was cornered and desperate enough to gamble on a contract with the Shinigami — the moment they activated the Dead Demon Consuming Seal, they'd find Anthony himself flying out of it.
The mental image was so beautiful that just thinking about it, Anthony barely held it together.
Consider it a little hidden trump card. Hopefully it'd come in handy someday.
With that, Anthony waved his hand, restored everything in the surroundings to its original state, and returned to the Styx Boat. And on the other end, the avatar known as Smith — having sensed what the main body had just done — opened the group chat.
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: @Konoha's Yellow Flash — the Shinigami bolted, but it pulled a lizard-tail escape. Check your status — how does it look?]
[Konoha's Yellow Flash: Let me see... the conditions aren't fully met. It seems like it'll need to be completely dealt with first. But the current display shows it's halfway complete.]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Looks like I'll have to chase it into the Pure Land and beat it to death later... but no big deal.]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Let's handle the Obito problem first. Get that loose end dealt with sooner rather than later — then settling your affairs won't feel so urgent anymore.]
[Konoha's Yellow Flash: No objections from me.]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Alright, I'm starting then — Reanimation Jutsu incoming.]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: But I do have one more thing to ask.]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Fighting Obito might get a little complicated. If it's just you alone, I'm not sure it's a guaranteed win, so...]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: @Everyone — anyone down to come beat up Uchiha Obito? I'll cover the Reanimation Jutsu costs.]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: If you're in, drop a 1.]
[AAA City Ghost: ?]
[AAA City Ghost: I have to fight too?]
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