Zander
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Chapter 100
🕑 Added 2025-07-09 23:31:40 +0000 UTCChapter 100
Two years had passed.
Below the Hokage Tower, in the sanctum only he could enter, Hajime stood still, towering and silent. At eighteen years old, his body had grown far beyond human limits, 2.5 meters of steel-hard flesh and psychic-forged perfection. The last vestiges of mortality had been sculpted away. The final organ was ready.
The Black Carapace floated in the air before him, suspended by nothing but thought. It pulsed faintly, its semi-living mesh laced with psychic-responsive filaments, designed to bind to his nervous system and grow interface ports through his skin. It would be the final threshold, the bridge between body and armor.
He didn’t need machines. His mind was the machine.
With no sound but his breath, Hajime closed his eyes. A pulse of psychic energy flowed through his cerebral cortex, and like flipping switches in a complex system, he shut off pain. One by one, the receptors dulled, then vanished entirely. Sensation faded. Purpose remained.
The Black Carapace moved to him like a lover's hand. He spread his arms. With a simple thought, his skin split open across the chest and spine, layers parting without blood. His Larraman's Organ had long since rendered bleeding obsolete.
The Carapace settled in, folding into flesh like a puzzle made for this one moment. Filaments burrowed into his nerves. A dozen faint ports emerged from beneath the skin, small silver circles spaced with geometric symmetry. They glowed softly, signaling the final bond.
It was done.
He remained standing, bare-chested, silent. Not a drop of blood spilled. Not a tremble. No theatrics. Just completion.
He had refused the Omophagea, the organ meant to consume flesh for memories. It was unnecessary. He did not need to eat the dead to understand the living. As for the Betcher’s Gland, it too was discarded. Acidic venom was a crude tool. He had no use for animalistic weapons. His strength was cleaner. Sharper. Absolute.
Far above, the sky was clear over Konoha. The village had changed little, but the people within had.
The gates creaked open at dawn. Naruto Uzumaki, now older and broader in the shoulders, stepped in with a grin on his face and a confident gait. Jiraiya had not returned with him. Instead, the Sage had sent him on ahead, trusting the boy, no, the young man, to walk into his home as something new.
Naruto took a deep breath. “Still smells like miso and old wood. Same as always.”
The next sound he heard was fast, heavy footsteps. “NARUTO!”
Sakura Haruno rushed into view, her hair tied back in a medical knot, her posture more grounded, more balanced. She skidded to a stop in front of him, breathless. Her eyes scanned him, surprised and curious. He was different.
“You look... older.”
Naruto blinked, then laughed. “You too! And way scarier, I think.”
They didn’t get long to talk. A familiar voice interrupted, smooth and amused.
“Rematch?”
Kakashi stood leaning against a post, the same old book in hand, but a playful look in his visible eye. He didn’t wait for agreement. The three of them walked together to Training Ground Seven like it was destiny.
No words. Just movement.
The bell test began again.
This time, Naruto didn’t charge blindly. His clones formed layered traps, coordinated feints, smoke screens, and underground strikes. He was fast, much faster, and deliberate.
Sakura moved like a force of nature. She punched through earth like paper. Her movements were measured, elegant, precise. Not just Tsunade’s strength. Something more refined, more brutal. There was a rhythm to her chakra flow, controlled fury honed by more than one master.
Kakashi had to retreat more than once.
He noticed the change. Sakura moved with surgical grace, then struck with crushing power. Her chakra scalpels flickered in her hands as she cut clean through a clone with pinpoint accuracy.
She grabbed Naruto’s wrist mid-spin and slung him into the air toward Kakashi. Naruto twisted mid-flight, forming three clones in a triangle, boxing Kakashi in.
The bells vanished from his hip in a blink.
The test ended.
Kakashi lay on the ground, tied to a post again like the first time. But this time, he smiled without surprise.
“You’ve both grown a lot. Seriously, I didn’t even get to monologue.”
Naruto stared at Sakura, blinking. “What the hell, Sakura… since when were you this strong?”
She wiped dust from her gloves and smiled smugly. “Since I started training with Tsunade... and Hajime.”
Naruto’s jaw almost dropped. “He trained you? Really?”
Sakura gave a short laugh. “Yeah. You’re not the only one who got serious.”
Not far above, from the Hokage Tower balcony, Tsunade watched with folded arms and a soft smirk. The morning wind tugged lightly at her robe. Hajime stood beside her, still in his black robe, the top half open slightly. The faint shimmer of the newly embedded ports on his chest reflected the sunlight.
“They’ve really come into their own,” Tsunade said, her tone somewhere between pride and wonder.
“They had it in them already,” Hajime said. “They just need to grow up.”
Tsunade looked up at him and nudged his side. “You’ve been spending less and less time in that lab lately.”
He glanced down with the smallest trace of a smile. “I’ve built what I needed. I’d rather be where you are.”
She chuckled, then leaned into him slightly, her head against his arm. His height dwarfed her, but she fit beside him with practiced ease.
“Good,” she said, closing her eyes. “Now shut up and enjoy the view.”
He didn’t answer.
He didn’t need to.
The view was enough.
[End of Chapter 100]
(Zander: Bruh my laptop broke guys, so I'm only been using tablet, it's quite harder, don't worry maybe next week I'll get it fixed then)
Ps. I'll still be uploading, no worry :)
