Chapter 5

Oración Seis gathered in the dimly lit cavern, torchlight flickering against jagged stone walls. The air was thick with damp earth and something heavier—anticipation laced with the sharp edge of unease.

Brain stood at the center, his arms crossed, his sharp gaze sweeping over his subordinates. Every plan he had formulated, every contingency he had considered, was now forced to shift.

"The orange leech..." he muttered, his voice low, calculated. "We've confirmed that his capabilities far exceed what we initially expected."

Hoteye opened one eye, his usual serene demeanor untouched. "Mmm... We have collected substantial data on him. The informants' reports were no exaggeration. Sensory awareness, stealth, raw power, speed, and his ability to drain magic—he is a menace."

Angel scoffed, arms folded as she leaned against the cavern wall. "And here I thought we had a solid strategy. The way he nullified Gemini's deception last time wasn't luck—it was a direct counter to our approach."

Brain nodded, his mind racing through the intelligence they had gathered. "Gemini's failed mimicry was a necessary setback. The mistake was expecting him to rely on visual cues. Instead, he reads magic itself, its fluctuations, its very essence. Deception is ineffective unless it is absolute."

Cobra let out a low chuckle, stretching lazily. "That's not the worst of it. He doesn't just see magic—he feels it. Every vibration, every shift in energy. Even the slightest ripple in the flow of his surroundings, he detects it. That makes him damn near impossible to ambush."

Racer tapped his foot impatiently. "So, what? We call it quits? You're making him sound untouchable."

Brain smirked, shaking his head. "No. We shift our strategy. Our advantage is information—deep, personal knowledge. And we already have the tool to extract exactly what we need."

His gaze flicked toward Angel specifically to one of her keys, Gemini of the 12 Zodiac Spirits. They had succeeded in making brief contact with the target—Naruto Uzumaki. Now, it was only a matter of time before they gained access to his memories, his past, his vulnerabilities.

"Not yet, it'll take a few hours for Gemini to regain their strength even if they're viable only for a few minutes..."

Brain's eyes gleamed darkly. "That's fine, we shall take this precious time to position, then we'll attack his heart."

Cobra's grin widened. "He's a protector. That much is obvious. But the question is, who matters most to him? Who is the one person he would sacrifice everything to save?"

"Gemini will decide that..." Angel replied holding the gemini's golden key firm.

Brain turned back to his subordinates. "Until the spirit is viable, we keep him occupied. We drown him in combat. We spread chaos among the allied guilds, forcing them into disarray. The more stretched their forces become, the easier it will be to isolate him when the time comes."

Racer cracked his knuckles. "A war of attrition. Overwhelm him with numbers. Drain him dry no- we will drown him before we even make our real move."

Brain nodded. "Correct. And when Gemini gathers enough power to function in the field, we will unleash our true strike. Once we have our answer, once we have the one person who will force his hand-" He firmly held an eerie dark lacrima, the Stygian.

Angel smirked. "And then, we break him."

The cavern fell into a tense silence, the weight of their plan settling over them. In the flickering darkness, Brain's smirk widened.

The orange leech had proven himself formidable.

But soon, he would learn what it meant to be truly vulnerable.

The atmosphere within the guild's vantage point was heavy with tension. Dim lanterns cast flickering shadows on the walls as Naruto, Wendy, Carla, and the rest of the alliance convened. Their ranks had suffered a blow—morale was shaken but not broken.

Naruto gently laid Ichiya on a nearby couch, where the Blue Pegasus Trimens—Hibiki, Ren, and Eve—gathered around their unconscious leader. The lingering scent of perfume suggested that his collapse was no mere exhaustion; it was a deliberate act.

"How bad is he?" Hibiki inquired, his usual composure tinged with concern.

Naruto glanced at Wendy, who knelt beside Ichiya, her hands emitting a soft blue glow as she assessed his condition.

"He's stable," Wendy murmured, uncertainty evident in her voice. "But something's off. This wasn't just an attack—it feels... different."

Ren crossed his arms. "So, we have an enemy capable of incapacitating us without leaving a trace. Wonderful."

Eve clenched his fists. "This is Oración Seis. We knew they'd play dirty."

Before anyone could respond, Jura stepped forward, his tone measured and filled with genuine respect. "Naruto, your ability to see through their disguise is impressive. Our gathered intel confirms it: your sensory precision uncovered details even that celestial spirit couldn't mask. Without your insight, we would have been completely blindsided."

A murmur of agreement passed among the Trimens, their eyes reflecting gratitude and renewed determination.

Naruto remained silent, his expression unreadable as his heightened senses detected faint, elusive traces of something foreign. He didn't like it.

"That settles it," Gray interjected, leaning casually against the wall. "We're dealing with someone who infiltrated us without setting off a single alarm. If they could do this to Ichiya, they could do it to any of us."

Erza's eyes narrowed. "Which means we need to act now, before they strike again."

"But what's their goal?" Lucy pondered aloud. "They could've done much worse than just knocking someone out."

Carla, hovering protectively near Wendy, sighed. "This wasn't a random attack. It was calculated. They wanted something—information, perhaps."

Naruto exhaled slowly, crossing his arms as he pieced together the puzzle. His instincts screamed that something larger was at play. "They're observing us," he finally spoke. "Testing us. Identifying our weaknesses before making their real move."

A heavy silence enveloped the room, the weight of his words sinking in.

"Then we ensure they don't get the chance," Erza declared firmly. "We take the fight to them."

Naruto's fists clenched as he steeled himself. He had a bad feeling about this—but whatever Oración Seis was planning, he would be ready.

The Blue Pegasus Trimens nodded their appreciation for Naruto's keen perception, their quiet gratitude adding a new layer of resolve to the alliance.

After Wendy's healing magic restored Ichiya, he sprang to his feet with his characteristic flamboyance, seemingly unaffected by the earlier attack. With a dramatic flourish, he struck a pose and declared, "Men! I am revived, thanks to the exquisite ministrations of our dear Wendy!"

Turning to Naruto, Ichiya's eyes sparkled with gratitude. "Ah, Naruto! Your keen senses have once again proven invaluable. You possess the 'perfume' of a true ally!"

The Trimens—Hibiki, Ren, and Eve—nodded in agreement, their respect for Naruto evident.

"Now," Ichiya continued, his voice adopting a commanding tone, "it is time to embark on our noble steed, the Magic Bomber: Christina! She shall carry us to the location where Nirvana awaits."

With a grand gesture, he led the allied guild members toward the impressive airship, its design reminiscent of a majestic Pegasus, ready to soar into the skies.

As they boarded, the alliance felt a renewed sense of purpose, united in their mission to confront the looming threat of Nirvana.

As the alliance boarded the Magic Bomber: Christina, spirits were high. The airship, with its majestic Pegasus-inspired design, soared gracefully toward Worth Woodsea, where the ancient magic Nirvana was said to be sealed. The guild members prepared themselves for the impending confrontation with Oración Seis, unaware of the danger lurking ahead.

Suddenly, a deafening explosion rocked the vessel. The Christina shuddered violently as a projectile, devoid of any magical signature, tore through its hull. Alarms blared, and the once-stable airship began a rapid descent.

"Brace yourselves!" Ichiya shouted, his usual flamboyance replaced by urgent command.

The crew scrambled, attempting to stabilize the ship, but the damage was too severe. With a final, jarring impact, the Christina crash-landed near their intended destination. The forested expanse of Worth Woodsea loomed around them, its dense canopy casting eerie shadows.

Groaning, the guild members extricated themselves from the wreckage. Despite the rough landing, there were no serious injuries.

"Is everyone okay?" Erza called out, her eyes scanning the group.

"We're fine," Gray responded, helping Lucy to her feet. "But what hit us?"

Naruto's eyes narrowed, his senses extending outward. "It wasn't magic," he muttered. "Some kind of high-powered cannon."

Before they could ponder further, rustling noises surrounded them. From the shadows of the trees, multiple groups of wizards emerged, their dark guild insignias visible.

"Looks like Oración Seis has some friends," Ren observed, drawing his weapons.

"Small-time dark guilds," Hibiki added, his tone disdainful. "They must have been lying in wait."

Erza brandished her sword, her armor gleaming even in the dim light. "Prepare for battle!" she commanded.

The allied guild members formed a defensive circle, ready to face the oncoming threat. Despite the unexpected setback, their resolve remained unshaken. The path to Nirvana was fraught with peril, but together, they were determined to see their mission through.

The battle erupted into chaos.

The once-quiet expanse of Worth Woodsea was now a battlefield, echoing with the clash of magic and steel. The allied guilds fought fiercely against the swarm of dark wizards, their forces scattering across the dense forest as the enemy executed a calculated strategy.

It was a full-scale war.

Oración Seis' hidden allies—smaller dark guilds that had long lurked in the shadows—now revealed themselves in overwhelming numbers. They attacked in coordinated waves, forcing the alliance onto the defensive. Bit by bit, the guild members were pushed apart, drawn into individual skirmishes that threatened to divide and conquer them.

Naruto found himself at the center of one such ambush. Under normal circumstances, these numbers wouldn't have fazed him. His speed, strength, and sensory abilities could have easily overwhelmed their forces. But the enemy had come prepared.

Boom!

A series of crystalline lacrima bombs exploded around him, releasing thick clouds of pure ether. Naruto's senses flared wildly as the concentrated Ethernano flooded the area. It wasn't an ordinary attack—these weren't just explosions, but precision weapons meant to overload his heightened perception.

His sensory abilities, which usually allowed him to track and react to opponents with pinpoint accuracy, were now drowning in an ocean of magical interference. The sheer density of Ethernano clouded his awareness, disorienting him and scrambling his ability to pinpoint enemy movements.

His body instinctively siphoned the ambient Ethernano, trying to stabilize itself, but the enemy had anticipated this. More ether bombs were hurled his way, their concentrated magic forcing him to expend more energy just to keep himself from being overwhelmed.

Naruto clenched his fists as he gritted his teeth against the onslaught. His natural ability to drain and regulate Ethernano was being turned against him—his body was forced into a cycle of constant absorption, preventing him from focusing on his attackers.

He caught a brief glimpse of Wendy and Carla through the haze, but another explosion erupted between them, cutting them off from his sight.

"Damn it…!" Naruto growled, bracing himself as another wave of pure ether bomb-laced lacrima detonated around him.

The enemy wasn't just fighting him—they were controlling the battlefield, isolating him from his allies, and forcing him into a war of attrition.

And for the first time in this battle, Naruto realized they weren't just aiming to defeat him.

They were trying to trap him.

The battlefield was a storm of chaos, but Naruto had no choice but to fight through the overwhelming interference. Even with his Sage Mode active, his sensory abilities were in complete disarray. The sheer amount of Ethernano saturating the air exceeded anything he had ever absorbed before. Months of passive draining had never brought him close to this level of forced intake, and his body was struggling to keep up.

More ether bombs detonated around him, further clouding not only his Ethernano-based senses but also his sight and hearing. Every breath he took was thick with unstable magic, feeding his body an overabundance of nourishment, and it was beginning to take its toll.

His modified tetragram seal, designed with two crucial points—one that hosts his chakra source and the other Ethernano, a substitute for Kurama's lost presence—was beginning to destabilize. The formula worked as Naruto syphons his surrounding with his pseudo permanent Sage Mode to amass Ethernano, a natural energy into one of the points inside the tetragram seal, however his battle with the smaller dark guild members have drown him with it that it overloaded him with Ethernano, fortunately his body adapted to it with the excess Ethernano converting into chakra, maintaining a delicate balance as the excess converted Ethernano began to be housed in the Chakra point. But the sheer excess of Ethernano being forcefully absorbed was throwing that balance into chaos. His body, adapting instinctively to the influx, started shifting its equilibrium, and his movements grew sluggish, as if every fiber of his being was weighed down by the very energy meant to sustain him.

He clenched his fists, forcing himself to keep moving.

The relentless barrage of ether bombs seemed endless, hammering him down, stripping away his usual precision. It was only after a grueling exchange—his body aching, his seal burning, and his movements hindered—that the enemy's resources finally ran dry.

As the storm of magic settled, Naruto steadied his breathing. His vision cleared slightly, but Wendy and Carla were gone. They had been taken. And he hadn't even realized when.

His grip tightened.

He had let it happen.

A wave of silent fury surged through him, and with one last burst of power, he pushed through his impairment. His movements were rough, unrefined, but unstoppable. One by one, he drained the remaining dark wizards of their strength, their bodies collapsing into unconsciousness as he siphoned them dry, rendering them incapable of resistance.

Then, as the last opponent fell, a voice cut through the fading echoes of battle.

"Naruto."

His entire body froze.

That voice—

It was impossible. It couldn't be.

Slowly, his gaze lifted, and there he stood.

Jiraiya.

His mentor, his father figure, the man who had shaped him. He looked exactly as Naruto remembered—white hair, confident grin, those sharp but kind eyes filled with wisdom and mischief.

Naruto's breath hitched. His chest tightened.

"P-pervy sage…"

This wasn't real. He knew it wasn't real. He had made peace with Jiraiya's death long ago.

First of all, how would they able to extract such vital information away from him?

The blonde's eyes met his late mentor's.

Confusion, Sadness, Nostalgia, Rage, ran in his guts.

And yet—

His eyes burned, his vision blurred. Tears spilled before he could stop them, unbidden and raw. His mouth curved into a trembling smile, caught between sorrow, joy, and rage.

Memories crashed over him like a tidal wave. The first time they met. The countless training sessions. The stupid jokes. The wisdom hidden beneath Jiraiya's carefree bravado. The pain of losing him.

But this wasn't his master.

As much as his heart longed to believe, his mind refused to accept it.

Then he saw it—the dark lacrima in the imposter's hand.

Naruto's eyes widened.

"No—"

Darkness swallowed him whole.

In an instant, his body was encased. He had no time to react, no time to break free.

The last thing he saw before his vision was completely consumed was the false Jiraiya's triumphant smirk.

Gemini, the Zodiac Key, had played its hand.

And Naruto had fallen right into their trap.

The realization came too late.

Gemini's ability was powerful, but it was supposed to be limited to the magical prowess of its owner. However, Naruto's modified tetragram seal had betrayed him in the worst way possible. Because his seal siphoned Ethernano along with his chakra, he had been rendered and considered lower than Angel of Oración Seis in terms of magical hierarchy.

That was the vital information the celestial spirit had discovered on their own.

They had learned that Naruto, despite his overwhelming strength, could still be classified within the constraints of their magic system.

And now, bound within the darkness—

Naruto's mind was a storm, a maelstrom of tangled emotions, but his body was still—trapped, drowning within the suffocating abyss of the Stygian Lacrima.

The darkness wasn't just around him; it was inside him, coiling through his veins like a living thing, suffusing every inch of his existence. His chakra pulsed in resistance, his Sage Mode flaring instinctively, but the suffocating magic of the lacrima suppressed him, weighing him down like a leaden chain.

Memories and desires clashed violently in his subconscious.

The face of Jiraiya, the warmth of his presence—his father figure, his teacher, the man who had believed in him before anyone else.

The unbearable pain of his loss.

The yearning to see him again.

The rage at being tricked.

The fear that, deep down, a part of him wanted to believe in the illusion.

All of it churned within him, twisting, tearing, threatening to consume him entirely.

The fake Jiraiya—no, Gemini's copy, controlled by Angel of Oración Seis—watched as the sealed lacrima pulsed ominously, a faint flicker of life flashing within its blackened depths.

His smirk lingered as he turned away, carrying the Stygian Lacrima back to the heart of Oración Seis' operations.

Naruto, the orange leech was theirs now.

Bound. Suppressed. Drowning in the abyss.

And for the first time in years—

He had no way to fight back.

And now, with Naruto sealed within the Stygian Lacrima, Oración Seis finally had their leeway.

The greatest obstacle to their plans—the unpredictable Orange Leech of Cait Shelter that was Naruto Uzumaki—had been caged, his overwhelming presence removed from the battlefield. No longer would he be there to disrupt their forces, to tip the scales in the Allied Guilds' favor.

The dark guilds under their command surged forward, pressing the advantage, spreading further across Worth Woodsea.

And in the heart of the forest, untouched and waiting—

Nirvana lay hidden.

Now, nothing stood in their way.

Carla's heart pounded in her chest as she darted through the battlefield, her sharp feline eyes locked onto the faint distortions in the air—the only sign of something moving unseen amidst the chaos. Wendy had been taken.

And Carla refused to lose her.

She weaved through the debris of shattered spells, dodging the remnants of fierce magical clashes. The battlefield of Worth Woodsea was ablaze with conflict, but none of it mattered. Not the stray bolts of magic that scorched the air around her, not the falling trees set aflame by battle, not the screams of wizards locked in combat. Only Wendy mattered.

The invisible force had snatched her away in an instant. Carla had seen it—barely—a ripple in the air, a twisted mirage. But what was it? No enemy she had ever encountered moved like this, unseen and untouchable.

Who are they? What kind of magic is this?

Carla's wings burned as she pushed her speed to the limit, her small frame slicing through the air like an arrow. She followed the disturbance, her sharp senses straining to hold onto the fleeting trail. But it was erratic, twisting and vanishing like mist in the wind.

Then—

A massive shockwave erupted ahead. The battlefield cracked under the weight of colliding magic. The air roared with the force of an explosion as wizards clashed violently in the distance. Fire, ice, lightning—every element imaginable turned the forest into a maelstrom of destruction.

Carla flinched as a sudden burst of raw energy detonated nearby, sending chunks of earth flying. She narrowly dodged a blast of black lightning, spiraling through the air to avoid another magical collision. The sheer chaos made tracking the invisible entity even harder.

No, no, no—

Her eyes darted desperately across the battlefield. The trail was vanishing. Fading.

She pushed harder, her wings aching, her breath ragged. But no matter how much she struggled, the invisible force—the one that took Wendy—was gone.

Gone.

Her flight slowed, her body trembling.

Carla landed on the torn battlefield, her paws pressing against the ruined earth. Her head whipped left and right, her senses reaching out—straining—begging for even the faintest trace.

Nothing.

A sharp breath escaped her.

Then—her claws dug into the dirt. Her small body shook, her chest tightening painfully.

Her ears flattened.

Her vision blurred with helpless rage.

And then, for the first time in years—Carla screamed.

A raw, piercing cry of defeat. Of grief.

It echoed through the battlefield, lost amidst the war.

Wendy was gone.

Chapter End