Darkness ate up Sumire, covering her form and giving her nightmarish form. She had become darkness, a wraith like creature.
Her mind had been suppressed by the seal on her body even though she was a creation type, meaning her mental strength was very high and her control of chakra was exceptional.
With all her power, she was not even able to give a shiver of resistance to this dark force that took over. Her body had become a vessel to the dark force and it smiled creepily as it looked outside the window.
When the transformation took place, Naruto felt the dark aura for a second but it disappeared. It was unlikely for anything to block his sensing powers normally but they had realized that something was active on this world that could block his powers.
It was most likely Ishiki Otsutsuki that Kaguya worried about.
The clone locked on to the area to see what he was happening in the area. He used his senses and used the satellite's that were under his control.
He looked at the area around Sumire's house but found nothing as Sumire had mixed with the shadows.
'Konohamaru, lead a squad to check the area for any dark presence.' Naruto ordered while his clones took to the streets.
While the leader had been alarmed by the smallest thing, Sumire moved in the shadows while being completely invisible to the senses.
None could see her or feel her presence, and she went from shadow to shadow. Her presence corrupted anyone that she touched.
The dark force guiding her was a being of corruption and destruction, with intelligence as it seemed to have realized that a straight forward attempt would get it destroyed.
Its speed was immense and it covered up much of the normal population, causing them to go berserk. This gathered the attention of the police force and Naruto along with Konohamaru's squad.
Taking this opportunity, Sumire moved directly towards another direction without corrupting others on the way and came upon Metal.
Metal Lee, son of Rock Lee and Tenten, was a close combat expert and a creation type ninja who specialized in the creation of weapons.
He was a young man with good looks and style from his mother's side. He was wearing his sport wear, black pants and light green shirt along with a green and black jacket. He had silver earrings on his ear that were his support equipment and he had daggers behind his back.
He specialized in the usage of weapons but preferred daggers along with the psychic chains connected to his hands.
He was born in a loving family that anyone be proud of, as they built everything from the low point. Both of his parents were orphans and didn't come from any clans, they were the definition of hard work can achieve miracles and they had done the miracle of being part of the generation of miracles.
Metal looked up to his parents and followed their steps. He was talented and could already open up to five gates without any problem.
Without the gates it would be hard for him to compete the new generation of clan kids that weren't lazy like their parents.
The power of gates increased with the amount of base chakra a person had, but the difficulty also grew with the amount of chakra.
The Eight gates were the limiters of the body to avoid internal destruction from the chakra itself. When the gates opened, the chakra became less regulated and it surged wildly leading to an increase in power and internal damage to anyone whose physical body was weak.
In the current era everyone was physically strong, a lot stronger than the past as it had become mandatory to achieve certain level of physical strength to graduate and to get promotions.
Promotions were also much more attractive than the past, as the current world had everything that you could dream off.
With the increase in power of the people and the usage of Eight Gates, Metal was born without many advantages unlike his pears.
He had to work hard and focus on skills to compensate for their innate talent; fortunately unlike his parents he was given regeneration as his artificial bloodline to make efficient usage of his hard work.
He was a nice kid with many friends and admirers. He had the looks of a model, attractive girls everywhere.
But he had a problem, he was very shy around people and this negatively affected his abilities. He had been a confident child in the beginning that was very outgoing but as he understood more, he regretted his past more.
He had followed his father's way of doing things and that led to many moments where people laughed at him. He did fix those issues but it had broken his confidence and he was afraid to tell others about his problem.
It was unsightly. It was unthinkable for the son of Rock Lee and Tenten. He was born blessed with everything at his tip, so how could he act so weak.
It was a secret that he had hid from his family and friends, which wasn't hard since he could easily control his body without change in expression. It was a basic skill for any student, to confuse the enemy.
Every day he would go out without his friends and transform into someone else to act in a ridiculous manner to build up his confidence, and destroy the shyness.
Just like most days, Metal was wearing a ridiculous clown getup and dancing through the streets of south Konoha. People laughed at his antics as he played around with a large smile on his face.
Suddenly, Sumire struck and she entered his shadow. Unlike the civilians, who were stronger than before and had chakra to protect them at all times, Metal was too strong to be taken lightly and he could put up a resistance.
Metal's mind was weak because he was under the pressure from all the people around him, laughing with him and at him. He was a lot better than before, but he was stressed out.
He felt something strike his mental defenses and jumped away from the ground while looking for the enemy.
There was nothing around him.
'Where is it?' Metal thought and landed on the roof of a building.
'Did I imagine it?' Metal thought as he checked his mental shield, one of the basics taught to all students to fight against illusions and mind control. It was the work of the Yamanaka clan working with genjutsu specialist and now it had become a permanent technique deployed to avoid things happening like the old days.
The defense level depended on the person who put the shield inside.
The shield inside his mental plane was done Metal as they were inside Konoha, meaning they should be protected at all times.
Checking the shield, he saw a crack and felt an attack come at him again.
'Enter the mental plane' Metal deployed the mental technique at the right moment and dragged the attacker into his mental plane.
He could finally see what was attacking him and it was not something he wanted to see. It was a monster of horrifying nature.
It had a cruel and twisted smile that was pure white sharp teeth the size of his arms, red large eyes, shadowy body with tentacles and large two hands floating above it. It was on all fours looking at him like he was just a prey.
'What is this?' Metal quickly sent a distress signal but the beast pounced without any resistance and covered up his mental plane.
He couldn't even provide any resistance as his mental strength weakened in its presence. It had been a wrong step to let it enter the mental plane.
'Mother!' Metal tried to scream for help but nothing came out and his world went dark.
On the outside, shadows covered up Metal and entered his body. His eyes went pitch black and his consciousness was trapped inside. His body started to move while Sumire left the scene as people involved should sense the change in Metal.
Sumire waited in the shadows and spread her darkness once again, as her power increased with each successful corruption.
Metal's body moved and it headed for strong chakra signals that he could sense nearby. There were several Jounins and chuunins around the place, but these were too strong and he would get subdued easily.
Looking around, he extended his search range and headed for the park where several genins and academy students could be seen chilling.
Running through the sky like it was the ground, Metal crashed into the middle of a gathering of friends. It was a mix of genins and academy students that were celebrating the graduation of one of them to the chunin rank.
"What the fuck?"
"Get ready for battle."
"Is this a training exercise?"
"Hey, isn't that Master Metal?"
"He looks weird."
"Maybe it is to give a proper experience of an enemy attack."
All of them managed to dodge the impact as they felt their seals warn them of danger and the strong among them dragged away the weaker ones.
Once they looked at the scene, they weren't alarmed as much as they assumed it was a training exercise. It would be unbelievable for an attack to happen in Konoha. It was literally the safest place in the world. The Hokage Uzumaki Naruto was one step away from all of them.
Taking that into account, all of them went with it being a play and took battle positions.
Metal didn't wait for them to prepare as armor covered up his body, it was silver and green. It looked like a skin tight suit and the head was that of a roaring lion.
With that he dashed forth and punched one then the other. The kids couldn't even put up a resistance to Metal as he was High Genin level with just the armor and without his Gates.
It took a single moment to take out all of them except the Chunin warrior. They went flying through the park like comets and crashed into several trees and stopped when they hit the wall, as it was too durable for their bodies to break. Every infrastructure in Konoha was reinforced to high levels, and not even Nuke would scratch them.
The chunin fighter stopped Metal's attack and felt his body shake from the force.
'Damn!'
The warrior understood that the battle was lost if Metal opened one of his gates so he deployed his Kote.
'Explosion'
Deploying the attack, the warrior also deployed body enhancement to the max and a chakra barrier while pushing back.
The explosion was strong enough to level a mountain with ease in the old days, these days it would be lucky if a landslide happened because of it.
Regardless, it was strong enough to blow away any warrior lower than chunin rank. Unfortunately, Metal had a shield that blocked the impact and absorbed the kinetic force to boost his attack.
He pushed against the ground, causing cracks and kicked the retreating warrior on the face.
'Shit!'
The warrior sped up his thought process with the Super Perception technique and saw the attack coming.
His hand made some signs as he brought them to the front to block the attack while releasing a concentrated fireball of epic proportions.
The kick passed through the flame ball with ease as it absorbed the heat to boost its power along with the previous energy absorbed and hit the arms of the chuunin, and sent him flying with broken arms.
Metal was about to follow through but shadows caught him from behind while Mitsuki caught the chuunin.
"Metal, what the hack are you doing?" Boruto asked in a cautious tone. He could feel that there was something off about his friend.
The team had just finished up their things and were about to scatter when they heard the commotion from the park.
Most of them were gone already leaving Boruto, Mitsuki and Shikadai.
"He is being controlled. There is stench of corruption on him." Mitsuki warned them as he approached them.
"Where are the police or the Hokage?" Boruto questioned and looked around, he couldn't see anyone else. The whole place had become isolated.
'Boruto, take care of your friend and extend the battle. We are working on finding the culprit, so fight and don't worry about your safety. Everything will be fine.'
All three of them heard Naruto's voice and understood the situation. Someone had managed to infiltrate Konoha and controlled Metal. Naruto needed time to track down the cause of this problem.
'You can count on us.'
"Team Boruto, fight!" Boruto announced with a smile. He felt happy that they could be of use and with that enthusiasm, he attacked his friend.
It wasn't anything new for them, they were used to sparring with each other especially since Metal was in the same department.
He wasn't worried about his health either because there was extreme trust in the power of Konoha, the power of his father.
Shikadai complied and increased the power of his hold, and darkness spread beneath him to cover up 10 meters around him.
It was the shadow field that reinforced the power of the shadow bind. All around Metal, dark tendrils caught his body and held him down.
" " Metal smiled like a maniac and uttered such words in a creepy tone as the darkness devoured. The psychic chains rattled around him and spun, stopping Boruto and Mitsuki from attacking.
Boruto kicked the air and went higher while locking onto Metal.
'Vanishing Rasengan' His hand extended, Boruto formed a basket ball size rasengan and shot it like a bullet.
It was one of his main attacks, and he had made it without help from his father.
Mitsuki's hands extended like snakes and were covered in electricity as they struck again, moving through the chain jungle.
Metal upped his game and released another gate, his fist charged up chakra and he punched forward. It took the shape of a roaring Lion and went towards Shikadai While he used the shield to block of the attacks from the other side.
The rasengan disappeared midway and crashed into shield but failed to break through it and the electricity was dampened by its materials.
Mitsuki's hands on the other hand crashed into the ground and came from beneath, and caught Metal's legs.
The lighting hands released all the charge and shock Metal but he quickly slashed down, and cut of the arms.
Mitsuki wasn't worried as his hand regenerated instantly while Shikadai used his analysis ability to see the weak side of the attack.
With that he controlled the shadows, causing multiple tendrils to rise and stab the attack at different points while easily side stepping it.
The attack was destroyed without a problem and locked on to Metal, and caused him to sink into his shadow.
Boruto used lightning charge and rushed towards Metal, aiming for his legs while Mitsuki sped ahead using wind and aimed for his head using wind scythe.
Metal saw them coming from his armors system and summoned his giant axe, without much adieu he spun it around while absorbing the power from the shadows to boost him.
The speed of his movement caused massive a flame storm and the winds to cut everything in their path.
The movement caused Boruto's attack to weaken but he went down at the last moment and did a sliding tackle While Mitsuki jumped the last moment to cover the distance.
The sliding tackle hit his leg and broke his balance, allowing for Mitsuki's attack to hit him full force on the face.
The attack sent him flying though he threw the axe at them to stop them.
Shikadai caught Boruto with his shadow tendrils and threw him at Metal while hitting away the axe.
Boruto covered himself in lightning completely and crashed into Metal after boosting his speed with the boosters in his shoes.
'Liger Bomb'
With the increased speed and the increase in charge from the extra electricity along with the boost from Mitsuki, Boruto crashed into Metal who concentrated his power on the leg and attacked him.
Metal used the ground as anchor and kicked Boruto with a golden kick, with boost from the force he had already absorbed in his armor.
The collision caused an explosion that sent both of them flying, though it also ended up breaking Metal's leg.
Metal in his berserk state didn't care about his leg at all, and using his chakra he kept it straight and workable.
Mitsuki took the chance from the weakness and dragged Metal into the ground, drowning him in the swamp of the underworld that was filled with highly toxic substances.
Shikadai took aim and released dragon flames from his mouth, setting the swamp on fire that was hot as the surface of the sun.
"Did we overdo it?" Boruto muttered as he used his scouter to trace the life force of his friend.
"Careful!" Boruto warned as Metal crashed through the flames, after entering his fifth gate. They could see green energy leaking from his armor and being fed into it.
It was Metal's chakra leaking from his body as more gates opened up, leading to low control and wild surge.
The armor helped out in this case by absorbing the leaked chakra. Now, he had entered total berserk state and his power was at maximum.
His speed hit mach 300 and he went for Boruto, who was the closest to him. With his super perception on, Boruto was able to quickly summon his armor and blocked the punch.
Boom
The impact was so strong that Boruto was unable to stop his flight and it sent crashing into the wall at the back.
The impact sent shockwaves that disturbed the other two but his movement was stopped by Boruto's drone attack.
The combined laser attack stopped his movements causing him to crash into the ground, face first.
Mitsuki unleashed a wave of genetically engineered snakes that drowned Metal while Shika utilized his wires this time.
Controlling them with his chakra, he covered up Metal the moment he was hit by the lasers.
'Hit him hard this time.' Shika commanded to Boruto and the man of the match came rushing back as Metal destroyed everything covering him with a burst of energy.
Seeing the danger coming from Boruto, he picked up his giant axe that flew back to his side on command and stood his ground while Boruto slashed at him with his giant blade.
The boosters from the back plus the booster in the blade and arms at the last moment, the speed of the strike was increased to the highest points.
To make it worse for Metal, Boruto had unleashed several Vanishing Rasengans from the sides using his drones. The side attacks disturbed his pace and weakened his guard, the attack from Boruto crushed Metal into the ground with utter ease.
Even without support, Boruto could have won without a problem and so could Mitsuki. Mitsuki was the strongest among the group since he already knew how to use Sage mode, putting him in the Jounin rank.
Shikadai shouldn't have problem usually as well but the unusual power fed on his powers, so he would have lost if others weren't present.
They could have easily finished the battle since it was three on one but Naruto had told them to take it slow.
They only reacted to how much power Metal used and now he had reached his limits, they needed to stop him before he started opening more gates. The higher gates would harm him and the eighth gate would leave him hospitalized for months.
The Gate of Death would usually kill the user but now even without Naruto, top ranking healers could save the person and technology had also reached the level to save the person.
Moving on, the final attack by Boruto crushed Metal into the ground. The rasengans did a number but the sword strike flattened him and broke most of his bones, damaging his internal organs.
"That's enough, you three can go back home now. We will take care of it. Also, thank you for your assistance. I am grateful for it and your skills were impressive." Naruto appeared in the battlefield and everything around them seemed to fluctuate for a moment before it returned to how it used to be. All the damage was gone, like a battle never took place.
It was the power of Lord Seventh and it put them utter awe, like always.
The trio relaxed as he appeared and stared at him.
"As you wish, my lord." Mitsuki bowed and looked at Boruto, who gave him a nod. With that he left like he had been planning to before the battle took place.
Like always, Mitsuki acted like an obedient follower as he had yet to change this point according to Boruto. He was just six year olds right now but he had been granted all of Orochimaru's battle knowledge and he had Otsutsuki DNA.
His DNA was from Orochimaru's current body, the Zetsu body, and Toneri. He looked like Toneri's child for that reason.
His young age and excess knowledge meant that he lacked real experience, so he was very robotic at the start but over time he adapted and started showing human features.
He had been friends with Boruto since the start, more like he had chosen Boruto as his sun. He had promised his loyalty to Boruto, though none could understand why.
It was just a feeling; a feeling that Boruto was the light of the new world just like Naruto was the light of the old.
"Thank you for your kind words, lord Seventh. We are honored by your praise. Is Metal fine?" Shikadai asked and looked for clues before he left. He was a curious person and if he left it like that than his day would be ruined.
"Metal will be fine. He is just sleeping now and you kids should be careful, if you feel anything attack your mental plane than teleport back home." Naruto replied with a calm expression while Konohamaru picked up Metal and deactivated the armor.
"We will." Shikadai muttered as he understood that the enemy was still out there and it attacked the mental plane. It made sense how Metal was taken out, since the guy wasn't exceptionally proficient in the mental side.
'Even then, his defense was very high. For the enemy to take him out without any resistance, they need to be around Chuunin rank to jounin rank. We really need to be careful. Though, what is the purpose of all this and how they get in? They should be in the same rank as lord Seventh if they are an outsider and Kage rank if they an insider.
What is going to happen now?' Shikadai took in the small details and came to many conclusions, and none of them seemed to be positive.
Naruto being so strong meant that the threat slipping through him would also be very strong, and anything that can slip through Naruto would be a world ending threat.
"Relax Shikadai, everything is under control. Your conclusions would be accurate but you are missing too many details, just understand that it isn't what you think. Just go back home and relax." Naruto smiled and patted his head.
Those words and expression lifted the unease from his heart, "Thank you, Uncle."
With that he left, leaving Boruto with his father.
"Can I help?"
"Keep a watch on your friends and report back, if you see or hear anything suspicious."
"Can't you already do that? Come on give me something real to do."
"I do have ways to watch but that doesn't mean I can always tell what is suspicious from afar. This is a test of your perceptiveness and judgment, so handle it. Other than this, what do you want to do?"
"Uhhhh, okay." Boruto couldn't think of anything that he could actually do in this situation so he accepted this task.
"Don't take it lightly, as your help might come in handy. Now go back home and I will see you in the hot spring." Naruto messed with his hair and sent him on his way. He complained about messing up his hair but there was a smile on his face.
He was happy to help out. He was happy to get praised for the help he gave out.
Before long he was running through the streets like an excited child, making Naruto chuckle. It reminded him of the old days.
They were so similar to each other sometimes that he saw himself in Boruto especially since their appearance was very similar.
"Konohamaru, call the council." Naruto commanded and disappeared from the park.
